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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:31 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:31 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13176-0.txt b/13176-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34b2b01 --- /dev/null +++ b/13176-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6702 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13176 *** + + THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + TOGETHER WITH PERSONAL MEMORIES OF + THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS + + 1830-1864 + + BY + JOHN F. HUME + + + + + G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + The Knickerbocker press + 1905 + + + + + +FOREWORD + +The opening chapter of this work was prepared during the recent +presidential campaign. It was the idea of the author that it should +appear in one of the leading newspapers or magazines before the +election, but maturer reflection brought about a change of purpose. He +realized that its publication at that time, might, not altogether +unreasonably, be looked upon as a political move having as its object +the election or defeat of a particular candidate for office, whereas +he had no desire to play the partisan. His sole aim was to vindicate +the character of a portion of the citizens of this country--some +living, some dead--whom he had always believed to be most deserving of +popular esteem, from what he considered the unmerited aspersions of a +man who has since come into a position so conspicuous and so +influential that his condemnation necessarily carries with it a +damaging effect. + +Having gone so far as the preparation of the initial chapter, he +concluded that proofs of his assumptions and assertions might at +certain points be thought desirable, if not necessary, and that he +should so prolong his work as to provide them. His first idea at this +point, as his years went back beyond the beginning of the Abolitionist +movement in this country, and as he had been from early boyhood +identified with this movement, was to contribute such information as +his recollection of events would supply. In other words, he decided to +write a narrative, the matter of which would be reminiscent, with here +and there a little history woven in among the strands of memory like a +woof in the warp. It has ended in history supplying the warp, and the +reminiscence indifferently supplying the woof. + +However, the value of the production is, doubtless, greatly enhanced +by the change. A string of pearls--dropping the former simile and +adopting another--is estimated according to the gems it contains, and +not because of the cord that holds it together. The personal +experiences and recollections that are here and there interwoven, by +themselves would be of little consequence; but they will be found to +carry upon them certain historical facts and inferences--some new in +themselves and in their connections--which, as the author hopes and +believes, are of profitable quality and abounding interest. + +In consequence of the change of plan just explained, the scope of the +work is materially affected. What was begun as a magazine article, and +continued as a brochure, ends in a volume. + +J.F.H. + +Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July, 1905. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I.--THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS 1 + + II.--THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE 15 + + III.--ONE OF THEIR TRAITS 26 + + IV.--PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE 30 + + V.--THE POLITICAL SITUATION 41 + + VI.--ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS 49 + + VII.--SALMON PORTLAND CHASE 59 + + VIII.--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 67 + + IX.--ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES 72 + + X.--WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 79 + + XI.--ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS 88 + + XII.--LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 94 + + XIII.--ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN 100 + + XIV.--MOBS 108 + + XV.--ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS 113 + + XVI.--THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 121 + + XVII.--COLONIZATION 128 + + XVIII.--LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION 136 + + XIX.--THE END OF ABOLITIONISM 150 + + XX.--MISSOURI 157 + + XXI.--MISSOURI _(Continued)_ 174 + + XXII.--SOME ABOLITION LEADERS 186 + + XXIII.--ROLLS OF HONOR 201 + + + APPENDIX + + + EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 211 + + BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE 213 + + "PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" 214 + + + INDEX 217 + + + + + +THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS + + +The following is an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's biography of +Thomas H. Benton in Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.'s American Statesmen +Series, published in 1887: + + "Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received an + immense amount of hysterical praise which they do not deserve, and + have been credited with deeds done by other men whom, in reality, + they hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 1840, the + professed Abolitionists formed a small and comparatively + unimportant portion of the forces that were working towards the + restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and much of what + they did was positively harmful to the cause for which they were + fighting. Those of their number who considered the Constitution as + a league with death and hell, and who, therefore, advocated a + dissolution of the Union, acted as rationally as would + anti-polygamists nowadays if, to show their disapproval of + Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should be allowed to + form a separate nation. The only hope of ultimately suppressing + slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, and every + Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for the dissolution + was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he complained of, as if + he had been a slaveholder. The Liberty party, in running Birney, + simply committed a political crime, evil in almost all its + consequences. They in no sense paved the way for the Republican + party, or helped forward the Anti-Slavery cause, or hurt the + existing organizations. Their effect on the Democracy was _nil_; + and all they were able to accomplish with the Whigs was to make + them put forward for the ensuing election a slaveholder from + Louisiana, with whom they were successful. Such were the remote + results of their conduct; the immediate evils they produced have + already been alluded to. They bore considerable + resemblance--except that after all they really did have a + principle to contend for--to the political Prohibitionists of the + present day, who go into the third party organization, and are, + not even excepting the saloon-keepers themselves, the most + efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can + count. + + "Anti-Slavery men like Giddings, who supported Clay, were doing a + thousandfold more effective work for the cause they had at heart + than all the voters who supported Birney; or, to speak more + accurately, they were doing all they could to advance the cause, + while the others were doing all they could to hold it back. + Lincoln in 1860 occupied more nearly the ground held by Clay than + that held by Birney; and the men who supported the latter in 1844 + were the prototypes of those who worked to oppose Lincoln in 1860, + and only worked less hard because they had less chance. The ultra + Abolitionists discarded expediency, and claimed to act for + abstract right on principle, no matter what the results might be; + in consequence they accomplished very little, and that as much + for harm as for good, until they ate their words, and went + counter to their previous course, thereby acknowledging it to be + bad, and supported in the Republican party the men and principles + they had so fiercely condemned. The Liberty party was not in any + sense the precursor of the Republican party, which was based as + much on expediency as on abstract right, and was, therefore, able + to accomplish good instead of harm. To say that extreme + Abolitionists triumphed in Republican success and were causes of + it, is as absurd as to call Prohibitionists successful if, after + countless efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and + after savage denunciations of those who try to regulate it, they + should then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant + portion of a victorious high-license party. The men who took a + great and effective part in the fight against slavery were the men + who remained with their respective parties." + +No word of praise or approval has Mr. Roosevelt for the men and +women--for representatives of both sexes were active sharers in the +work performed--who inaugurated, and for a long period carried +forward, the movement that led up to the overthrow of African slavery +in this country. He has no encomiums to bestow on those same men and +women for the protracted and exhausting labors they performed, the +dangers they encountered, the insults they endured, the sacrifices +they submitted to, the discouragements they confronted in many ways +and forms in prosecuting their arduous undertaking. On the contrary, +he has only bitter words of condemnation. In his estimation, and +according to his dogmatic utterance, they were criminals--political +criminals. His words make it very manifest that, if Mr. Roosevelt had +been a voter in 1840, he would not have been an Abolitionist. He would +not have been one of that devoted little band of political +philanthropists who went out, like David of old, to do battle with one +of the giant abuses of the time, and who found in the voter's ballot a +missile that they used with deadly effect. On the contrary, he would +have enrolled himself among their adversaries and assailants, becoming +a member--because it is impossible to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a +non-partisan--of one of the leading political parties of the day. +There were but two of them--the Whigs and the Democrats. In failing to +support one or the other of these parties, and giving their votes and +influence to a new one that was founded and constructed on +Anti-Slavery lines, the Abolitionists, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, +"committed a political crime." + +Now, for what did those parties stand in 1840? Who were their +presidential candidates in that year? Martin Van Buren was the +candidate of the Democrats. He had been for eight years in the offices +of Vice-President and President, and in that time, in the opinion of +the Anti-Slavery people of the country, had shown himself to be a +facile instrument in the hands of the slaveholders. He was what the +Abolitionists described as a "doughface"--a Northern man with Southern +principles. As presiding officer he gave the casting vote in the +Senate for the bill that excluded Anti-Slavery matter from the United +States mails, a bill justly regarded as one of the greatest outrages +ever perpetrated in a free country, and as holding a place by the +side of the Fugitive Slave Law. True, he afterwards--this was in +1848,--like Saul of Tarsus, saw a new light and announced himself as a +Free Soiler. Then the Abolitionists, with what must always be regarded +as an extraordinary concession to partisan policy, cast aside their +prejudices and gave him their support. Yet Mr. Roosevelt charges them +with being indifferent to the demands of political expediency. + +General William Henry Harrison, candidate of the Whigs, was a +Virginian by birth and training, and an inveterate pro-slavery man. +When Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he presided over a +convention that met for the purpose of favoring, notwithstanding the +prohibition in the Ordinance of '87, the introduction of slavery in +that Territory. + +These were the men between whom the old parties gave the Abolitionists +the privilege of pick and choice. Declining to support either of them, +they gave their votes to James G. Birney, candidate of the newly +formed Liberty party. He was a Southern man by birth and a slave-owner +by inheritance, but, becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he +freed his negroes, giving them homes of their own, and so frankly +avowed his Anti-Slavery convictions that he was driven from his native +State. His supporters did not expect to elect him, but they hoped to +begin a movement that would lead up to victory. They were planting +seed in what they believed to be receptive soil. + +After 1840, the old parties became more and more submissive to the +Slave Power. Conjointly, they enacted those measures that became +known as the compromises of 1850, the principal ones being the +Fugitive Slave Law and the act repealing the Missouri Compromise. Both +of them pronounced these acts to be "a finality," and both of them in +national convention declared there should be no further agitation of +the subject. They set out to muzzle all the Anti-Slavery voices of the +country. + +By this time it was perfectly manifest that there was not only nothing +the slaveholders might demand which the old parties would not concede, +but that there was, so far as the slavery issue was involved, +absolutely no difference between them. It is a notable fact that in +the eight years following 1840, of the four presidential candidates +put in nomination by the two parties, three were slaveholders, the +fourth being a Northern "doughface," and both of the two who were +elected held slaves. + +For the nomination and election of one of these men, whom he describes +as "a slaveholder from Louisiana" (General Taylor), Mr. Roosevelt is +disposed to hold the Abolitionists accountable. They forced the poor +Whigs into those proceedings, he intimates, probably by telling them +they ought to do nothing of the kind, that being what they actually +did tell them. But as the Abolitionists, four years earlier, in the +same way defeated the Whigs when they were supporting a slaveholder +from Kentucky (Clay), and a man who, in his time, did more for the +upbuilding of slavery than any other person in America, it would +appear that the score of responsibility on their part was fairly +evened up. + +In citing the action of Joshua R. Giddings as an anti-third-party +man, Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether fortunate. Subsequent to the +presidential campaign of 1844, the third-party Abolitionists held a +convention in Pittsburg, in which Giddings was a leading actor. As +chairman of the committee on platform, he submitted a resolution +declaring that both of the old parties were "hopelessly corrupt and +unworthy of confidence." + +The Abolitionists could not see that they were under obligation to +either of the old parties, believing they could do far better service +for the cause they championed by standing up and being counted as +candidates honestly representing their principles. They fought both of +the old parties, and finally beat them. They killed the Whig party out +and out, and so far crippled the Democrats that they have been limping +ever since. Their action, in the long run, as attested by the verdict +of results, proved itself to be not only the course of abstract right, +but of political expediency. + +In 1840, the vote of the third-party Abolitionists, then for the first +time in the political field, was 7000; in 1844 it was 60,000, and in +1848 it was nearly 300,000. From that time, with occasional backsets, +Mr. Roosevelt's "political criminals" went steadily forward until they +mastered the situation. From the first, they were a power in the land, +causing the older parties to quake, Belshazzar-like, at sight of their +writing on the wall. + +But according to Mr. Roosevelt, the men of the Liberty-Free-Soil party +had no share in fathering and nurturing the Republican party, to which +he assigns all the credit for crushing slavery. Says he, "The Liberty +party was not in any sense the precursor of the Republican party, +which was based as much on expediency as on abstract right." It is +very true that many Republicans, especially in the earlier days, were +neither Abolitionists nor Anti-Slavery people. A good many of them, +like Abraham Lincoln, were sentimentally adverse to slavery, but under +existing conditions did not want it disturbed. Many of them, having +broken loose from the old parties, had no other place of shelter and +cared nothing for slavery one way or the other, some being of the +opinion of one of the new party leaders whom the writer hereof heard +declare that "the niggers are just where they ought to be." All this, +however, does not prove that the third-party people were not the real +forerunners and founders of the Republican party. They certainly +helped to break up the old organizations, crushing them in whole or +part. They supplied a contingent of trained and desperately earnest +workers, their hearts being enlisted as well as their hands. And what +was of still greater consequence, they furnished an issue, and one +that was very much alive, around which the detached fragments of the +old parties could collect and unite. Their share in the composition +and development of the new party can be illustrated. Out in our great +midland valley two rivers--the Missouri and the Mississippi--meet and +mingle their waters. The Missouri, although the larger stream, after +the junction is heard of no more; but being charged with a greater +supply of sedimentary matter, gives its color to the combined flood of +the assimilated waters. Abolitionism was merged in Republicanism. It +was no longer spoken of as a separate element, but from the beginning +it gave color and character to the combination. The whole compound was +Abolitionized. + +It was not, indeed, the voting strength, although this was +considerable, that the Abolitionists brought to the Republican +organization, that made them the real progenitors of that party. It is +possible that the other constituents entering into it, which were +drawn from the Anti-Slavery Whigs, the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats, the +"Barnburner" Democrats of New York, the "Know-Nothings," etc., +numbered more in the aggregate than the Abolitionists it included; but +it was not so much the number of votes the Abolitionists contributed +that made them the chief creators of the Republican party, as it was +their working and fighting ability. They had undergone a thorough +training. For nearly twenty years they had been in the field in active +service. For the whole of that time they had been exposed to +pro-slavery mobbing and almost every kind of persecution. They had to +conquer every foot of ground they occupied. They had done an immense +amount of invaluable preparatory work. To deny to such people a +liberal share of the credit for results accomplished, would be as +reasonable as to say that men who clear the land, plough the ground, +and sow the seed, because others may help to gather the harvest, have +nothing to do with raising the crop. But for the pioneer work of the +Abolitionists there would have been no Republican party. + +There had been Anti-Slavery people in this country before the +Abolitionists--conscientious, zealous, intelligent--but somehow they +lacked the ability, in the language of the pugilists, to "put up a +winning fight." They had been brushed aside or trampled under foot. +Not so with the Abolitionists. They had learned all the tricks of the +enemy. They were not afraid of opposition. They knew how to give blows +as well as to take them. The result was that from the time they +organized for separate political action in 1840, they had made steady +progress, although this seemed for a period to be discouragingly slow. +It was only a question of time when, if there had been no Republican +party, they would have succeeded in abolishing slavery without its +assistance. + +Although, as before remarked, the Republican party was made up of a +good many elements besides the Abolitionists, there was among them but +little homogeneousness. They were indifferent, if not hostile, to each +other, and, if left to themselves, would never have so far coalesced +as to make a working party. They had no settled policy, no common +ground to stand on. They would have been simply a rope of sand. But +the Abolitionists supplied a bond of union. They had a principle that +operated like a loadstone in bringing the factions together. + +There was another inducement the Abolitionists had to offer. They had +an organization that was perfect in its way. It was weak but active. +It had made its way into Congress where it had such representatives as +John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase in the Senate, and several brilliant +men in the Lower House. It had a complete outfit of party machinery. +It had an efficient force of men and women engaged in canvassing as +lecturers and stump orators. It had well managed newspapers, and the +ablest pens in the country--not excepting Harriet Beecher +Stowe's--were in its service. All this, it is hardly necessary to say, +was attractive to people without political homes. The Abolitionists +offered them not only shelter but the prospect of meat and drink in +the future. In that way their organization became the nucleus of the +Republican party, which was in no sense a new organization, but a +reorganization of an old force with new material added. + +And here would seem to be the proper place for reference to the +historical fact that the Republican party, under that name, had but +four years of existence behind it when the great crisis came in the +election of Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War--Lincoln's +election being treated by the South as a _casus belli_. The Republican +party was established under that name in 1856 and Lincoln was elected +in 1860. + +Now, the work preparatory to Lincoln's election was not done in four +years. The most difficult part of it--the most arduous, the most +disagreeable, the most dangerous--had been done long before. Part of +it dated back to 1840. Indeed, the performance of the Republican party +in those four years was not remarkably brilliant. With the slogan of +"Free soil, free men, and Fremont" it made an ostentatious +demonstration in 1856--an attempted _coup de main_--which failed. It +would have failed quite as signally in 1860, but for the division of +the Democratic party into the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. That +division was pre-arranged by the slaveholders who disliked Douglas, +the regular Democratic nominee, much more than they did Lincoln, and +who hoped and plotted for Lincoln's election because it furnished them +a pretext for rebellion. + +The change of name from "Free Soil" or "Liberty" to "Republican" in +1856 had very little significance. It was a matter of partisan policy +and nothing more. "Liberty" and "Free Soil," as party cognomens, had a +meaning, and were supposed to antagonize certain prejudices. +"Republican," at that juncture, meant nothing whatever. Besides, it +was sonorous; it was euphonious; it was palatable to weak political +stomachs. The ready acceptance of the new name by the Abolitionists +goes very far to contradict Mr. Roosevelt's accusation against them of +being regardless of the claims of political expediency. + +The writer has shown, as he believes, that without the preparatory +work of the political Abolitionists there would have been no +Republican party. He will now go a step further. He believes that +without that preliminary service there would not only have been no +Republican party, but no Civil War in the interest of free soil, no +Emancipation Proclamation, no Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to +the Federal Constitution. There might have been and probably would +have been considerable discussion, ending in a protest, more or less +"ringing," when slavery was permitted to overstep the line marked out +by the Missouri Compromise. There might even have been another +"settlement." But no such adjustment would have seriously impeded the +northward march of the triumphant Slave Power. Indeed, in that event +it is more than probable that ere this the legal representatives of +the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia, would, if so inclined, have made +good his boast of calling the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker +Hill monument. + +So far we have dealt with Mr. Roosevelt's indictment of the +Abolitionists for abandoning the old pro-slavery political parties, +and undertaking to construct a new and better one. That, in his +judgment, was a political crime. But he charges them with another +manifestation of criminality which was much more serious. He accuses +them of hostility, to the Union, which was disloyalty and treason. The +evidence offered by him in support of his accusation was the +Anti-Unionist position taken by William Lloyd Garrison, who branded +the Union as a "league with hell," and some of his associates. But +Garrison was not a leader, or even a member, of the third or Liberty +party. He denounced it almost as bitterly as Mr. Roosevelt. + +Garrison was a Quaker, a non-resistant, and a non-voter. He relied on +moral suasion. He saw no salvation in politics. The formation of a new +Anti-Slavery party excited his fiery indignation. He declared that it +was "ludicrous in its folly, pernicious as a measure of policy, and +useless as a political contrivance." + +Far and away the most potential member and leader of the political +Abolitionists was Salmon P. Chase. Instead of denouncing the +Constitution as "a league with death and hell," he claimed that it +was an Anti-Slavery document and should be so construed. As for the +Union, by his services in successfully managing the finances of the +country in its great crisis, he did as much to sustain the Union as +any other man of that time. To accuse him of hostility and infidelity +to the Union, is something that no one can do with impunity. In fact, +so clear and so clean, as well as so bold and striking, is the record +of Chase and his associates, beginning in 1840 and continuing down +until the last shackle was stricken from the last bondsman's limbs, +that even the shadow of the White House cannot obscure it. + +Nor is Mr. Roosevelt happy in his illustration, when, in his +concluding arraignment of the Abolitionists, he seeks to discredit +them as an organization of impracticables by comparing them to the +political Prohibitionists of to-day. When the latter, if that time is +ever to be, shall become strong enough to rout one or both of the +existing main political parties, and, taking the control of the +Government in their hands, shall not only legally consign the liquor +traffic to its coffin, but nail it down with a constitutional +amendment, then Mr. Roosevelt's comparison will apply. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE + + +In selecting those who are to receive its remembrance and its honors, +the world has always given its preference to such as have battled for +freedom. It may have been with the sword; it may have been with the +pen; or it may have been with a tongue that was inflamed with holy +rage against tyranny and wrong; but whatever the instrumentality +employed; in whatever field the battle has been fought; and by +whatsoever race, or class, or kind of men; the champions of human +liberty have been hailed as the bravest of the brave and the most +worthy to receive the acclaims of their fellows. + +Now, if that estimate be not altogether inaccurate, what place in the +scale of renown must be assigned to those pioneers in the successful +movement against African slavery in this country who have commonly +been known as "Abolitionists"--a name first given in derision by their +enemies? It should, in the opinion of the writer hereof, be the very +highest. He is not afraid to challenge the whole record of human +achievements by great and good men (always save and except that which +is credited to the Saviour of mankind) for exhibitions of heroism +superior to theirs. Nay, when it is remembered that mainly through +their efforts and sacrifices was accomplished a revolution by which +four million human beings (but for the Abolitionists the number to-day +in bondage would be eight millions) were lifted from the condition in +which American slaves existed but a few years ago, to freedom and +political equality with their former masters; and, at the same time +when it is considered what qualities of heart and brain were needed +for such a task, he does not believe that history, from its earliest +chapters, furnishes examples of gods or men, except in very rare and +isolated cases, who have shown themselves to be their equals. + +In the matter of physical courage they were unsurpassed, +unsurpassable. A good many of them were Quakers and non-resistants, +and a good many of them were women, but they never shrank from danger +to life and limb, when employed in their humanitarian work. Some of +them achieved the martyr's crown. + +In the matter of conscience they were indomitable. Life to them was +worth less than principle. + +In the matter of money they were absolutely unselfish. Those of them +who were poor, as the most of them were, toiled on without the hope of +financial recompense. They did their work not only without the promise +or prospect of material reward of any kind, but with the certainty of +pains and penalties that included the ostracism and contempt of their +fellows, and even serious risks to property and life. + +All these sacrifices were in the cause of human liberty; but of +liberty for whom? That is the crucial point. In all ages there have +been plenty of men who have honorably striven for liberty for +themselves. Some there have been who have risen to higher planes. We +have an example in Lafayette. He fought to liberate a people who were +foreign in language and blood; but they were of his own color and the +peers of his compatriots. + +The Abolitionists, however, espoused the cause, and it was for that +that they endured so much, of creatures that were infinitely below +them; of beings who had ceased to be recognized as belonging to +humanity, and were classed with the cattle of the field and other +species of "property." So low were they that they could neither +appreciate nor return the services rendered in their behalf. For their +condition, the Abolitionists were in no sense responsible. They had no +necessary fellowship with the unfortunates. They were under no +especial obligation to them. They were not of the same family. It was +even doubted whether the races had a common origin. And yet, to the +end of securing release for these wretched victims of an intolerable +oppression, not a few of them dedicated all they possessed--life not +excepted. + +True it is that they had no monopoly of benevolence. Many noble men +and women have gone as missionaries to the poor and benighted, and +have sought through numerous hardships and perils to raise up those +who have been trodden in the dust. But, as a rule, their services have +been rendered pursuant to a secular employment that carried financial +compensation, and behind their devotion to the poor and oppressed has +been the expectation of personal reward in another world, if not in +this. But such motives barely, if at all, influenced the +Abolitionists. No element of professionalism entered into their work. +They were not particularly religious. They neither very greatly +reverenced nor feared the Church, whose leaders they often accused of +a hankering for the "flesh-pots" that induced them to lead their +followers into Egypt, rather than out of it. They were partly moved by +a hatred of slavery and its long train of abuses that was +irrepressible, and which to most persons was incomprehensible, and +partly by a love for their fellows in distress that was so insistent +as to make them forget themselves. Their impulses seemed to be largely +intuitive, if not instinctive, and if called upon for a philosophical +explanation they could not have given it. + +In such a struggle for freedom and natural human rights as was carried +on by the Abolitionists against tremendous odds and through a term +covering many long years, it does seem to the writer of this essay +that mortal heroism reached its height. + +Nor am I by any means alone in the opinion just expressed. As far back +as 1844, when the Abolitionists were few in number and the objects of +almost savage persecution in every part of our country, the Earl of +Carlisle, who, in his day was one of the most capable leaders of +British public opinion, declared that they were engaged "in fighting a +battle without a parallel in the history of ancient or modern +heroism." + +I am moved to write the story of the Abolitionists, partly because it +is full of romantic interest, and partly because justice demands it. +Those doughty file leaders in the Anti-Slavery fight do not to-day +have an adequate acknowledgment of the obligations that the country +and humanity should recognize as belonging to them, and they never +have had it. Much of the credit that is fairly theirs has been +mis-applied. Writers of history--so called, although much of it is +simple eulogy--have been more and more inclined to attribute the +overthrow of slavery to the efforts of a few men, and particularly one +man, who, after long opposition to, or neglect of, the freedom +movement, came to its help in the closing scenes of a great conflict, +while the earlier, and certainly equally meritorious, workers and +fighters have been quite left out of the account. The writer does not +object to laborers who entered the field at the eleventh hour, sharing +with those who bore the heat and burden of the day; but when there is +a disposition to give to them all the earnings he does feel like +protesting. + +The case of the Abolitionists is not overstated when it is said that, +but for their labors and struggles, this country, instead of being all +free, would to-day be all slaveholding. The relative importance of +their work in creating, by means of a persistent agitation, an +opposition to human slavery that was powerful enough to compel the +attention of the public and force the machine politicians, after long +opposition, to admit the question into practical politics, cannot well +be overestimated. + +They alone and single-handed fought the opening battles of a great +war, which, although overshadowed and obscured by later and more +dramatic events, were none the less gallantly waged and nobly won. It +is customary to speak of our Civil War as a four years' conflict. It +was really a thirty years' war, beginning when the pioneer +Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death +struggle. It was then that the hardest battles were fought. + +I write the more willingly because comparatively few now living +remember the mad excitement of the slavery controversy in ante-bellum +days. The majority--the living and the working masses of to-day--will, +doubtless, be gratified to have accurate pictures of scenes and events +of which they have heard their seniors speak, that distinguished the +most tempestuous period in our national history--the one in which the +wildest passions were aroused and indulged. Then it was that the +fiercest and bitterest agitation prevailed. The war that followed did +not increase this. It rather modified it--sobered it in view of the +crisis at hand--and served as a safety-valve for its escape. + +For the same reason, the general public has now but slight +comprehension of the trials endured by the Abolitionists for +principle's sake. In many ways were they persecuted. In society they +were tabooed; in business shunned. By the rabble they were hooted and +pelted. Clowns in the circus made them the subjects of their jokes. +Newspaper scribblers lampooned and libelled them. Politicians +denounced them. By the Church they were regarded as very black sheep, +and sometimes excluded from the fold. And this state of things lasted +for years, during which they kept up a steady agitation with the help +of platform lecturers, and regularly threw away their votes--so it +was charged--in a "third party" movement that seemed to be a hopeless +venture. + +Another inducement to the writer to take up the cause of the +Abolitionists is the fact that he has always been proud to class +himself as one of them. He came into the world before Abolitionism, by +that name, had been heard of; before the first Abolition Society was +organized; before William Lloyd Garrison founded his _Liberator_, and +before (not the least important circumstance) John Quincy Adams +entered Congress. He cannot remember when the slavery question was not +discussed. His sympathies at an early day went out to the slave. He +informed himself on the subject as well as a farmer boy might be +expected to do in a household that received the most of its knowledge +of current events from the columns of one weekly newspaper. He cast +his first vote for the ticket of the Abolitionists while they were yet +a "third party." + +The community in which he then lived, although in the free State of +Ohio, was strongly pro-slavery, being not far from the Southern +border. The population was principally from Virginia and Kentucky. +There were a few Abolitionists, and they occasionally tried to hold +public meetings, but the gatherings were always broken up by mobs. + +The writer very well remembers the satisfaction with which he, as a +schoolboy, was accustomed to hear that there was to be another +Abolition "turn-out." The occasion was certain to afford considerable +excitement that was dear to the heart of a boy, and it had another +recommendation. The only room in the village--"town" we called +it--for such affairs, except the churches, which were barred against +"fanatics," was the district schoolhouse, which, by common consent, +was open to all comers, and as the windows and doors, through which +missiles were hurled during Anti-Slavery gatherings, were always more +or less damaged, "we boys" usually got a holiday or two while the +building was undergoing necessary repairs. + +As might be surmised, the lessons I learned at school were not all +such as are usually acquired at such institutions. My companions were +like other children, full of spirit and mischief, and not without +their prejudices. They hated Abolitionists because they--the +Abolitionists--wanted to compel all white people to marry "niggers." +Although not naturally unkind, they did not always spare the feelings +of "the son of an old Abolitionist." We had our arguments. Some of +them were of the knock-down kind. In more than one shindy, growing out +of the discussion of the great question of the day, I suffered the +penalty of a bloody nose or a blackened eye for standing up for my +side. + +The feeling against the negroes' friends--the Abolitionists--was not +confined to children in years. It was present in all classes. It +entered State and Church alike, and dominated both of them. The +Congressional Representative from the district in which I lived in +those days was an able man and generally held in high esteem. He made +a speech in our village when a candidate for re-election. In +discussing the slavery question--everybody discussed it then--he spoke +of the negroes as being "on the same footing with other cattle." I +remember the expression very well because it shocked me, boy that I +was. It did not disturb the great majority of those present, however. +They cheered the sentiment and gave their votes for the speaker, who +was re-elected by a large majority. + +About the same time I happened to be present where a General Assembly +of one of our largest religious denominations was in session, and +listened to part of an address by a noted divine--the most +distinguished man in the body--which was intended to prove that +slavery was an institution existing by biblical authority. He spent +two days in a talk that was mostly made up of scriptural texts and his +commentaries upon them. This was in Ohio, and there was not a +slave-owner in the assembly, and yet a resolution commendatory of the +views that had just been declared by the learned doctor, was adopted +by an almost unanimous vote. + +In the neighborhood in which I lived was an old and much respected +clergyman who was called upon to preach a sermon on a day of some +national significance. He made it the occasion for a florid panegyric +upon American institutions, which, he declared, assured freedom to all +men. Here he paused, "When I spoke of all men enjoying freedom under +our flag," he resumed, "I did not, of course, include the Ethiopians +whom Providence has brought to our shores for their own good as well +as ours. They are slaves by a divine decree. As descendants of Ham, +they are under a curse that makes them the servants of their more +fortunate white brethren." Having thus put himself right on the +record, he proceeded with his sermon. No one seemed to take exception +to what he said. + +In the same neighborhood was a young preacher who had shortly before +come into it from somewhere farther North. In the course of one of his +regular services he offered up a prayer in which he expressed the hope +that the good Lord would find a way to break the bands of all who were +in bondage. That smacked of Abolitionism and at once there was a +commotion. The minister was asked to explain. This he declined to do, +saying that his petition was a matter between him and his God, and he +denied the right of others to question him. That only increased the +opposition, and in a short time the spunky young man was compelled to +resign his charge. + +About that time there appeared a lecturer on slavery--which meant +against slavery--who carried credentials showing that he was a +clergyman in good standing in one of the leading Protestant +denominations. In our village was a church of that persuasion, whose +pastor was not an Abolitionist. As in duty bound, the visiting brother +called on his local fellow-laborer, and informed him that on the +following day, which happened to be Sunday, he would be pleased to +attend service at his church. On the morrow he was on hand and +occupied a seat directly in front of the pulpit; but, notwithstanding +his conspicuousness, the home minister, who should, out of courtesy, +have invited him to a seat in the pulpit, if to no other part in the +services, never saw him. He looked completely over his head, keeping +his eyes, all through the exercises, fixed upon the back pews, which +happened, on that occasion, to be chiefly unoccupied. + +Such incidents, of themselves, were of no great importance. Their +significance was in the fact that they all occurred on the soil of a +free State. They showed the state of feeling that then and there +existed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ONE OF THEIR TRAITS + + +The writer has spoken of the courage of the Abolitionists. There is +another trait by which they were distinguished that, in his opinion, +should not be passed over. That was their extreme hopefulness--their +untiring confidence. No matter how adverse were the conditions, they +expected to win. They never counted the odds against them. They +trusted in the right which they were firmly persuaded would prevail +some time or another. For that time they were willing to wait, +meanwhile doing what they could to hasten its coming. + +Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker mechanic, who was undeniably the +Peter-the-Hermit of the Abolitionist movement, when setting out alone +and on foot, with his printing material on his back, to begin a +crusade against the strongest and most arrogant institution in the +country, remarked with admirable naïveté, "I do not know how soon I +shall succeed in my undertaking." + +William Lloyd Garrison, when the pioneer Anti-Slavery Society was +organized by only twelve men, and they people of no worldly +consequence, the meeting for lack of a better place being held in a +colored schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" in Boston, declared that in due +time they would meet to urge their principles in Faneuil Hall--a most +audacious declaration, but he was right. + +The writer, when a boy, was witness to an exhibition of the same +spirit. A kinsman of his was a zealous Abolitionist, although not +particularly gifted with controversial acumen. He and his minister, as +often happened, were discussing the slavery question. The minister, +like many of his cloth at that time, was a staunch supporter of "the +institution," which, according to his contention, firmly rested on +biblical authority. + +"How do you expect to destroy slavery, as it exists in Kentucky, by +talking and voting abolition up here in Ohio?" asked the clergyman. + +"We will crush it through Congress when we get control of the general +government," said my kinsman. + +"But Congress and the general government have, under the Constitution, +absolutely no power over slavery in the States. It is a State +institution," replied the clergyman. + +It is unnecessary to follow the discussion, but, one after another, +the quicker-witted and better-informed preacher successfully combated +all the propositions advanced by my relative in trying to give a +reason for the faith that was in him, until he was completely +cornered. "Well," said he at last, "the good Lord has not taken me +into His confidence, and I don't know what His plans for upsetting +slavery are, but He will be able to manage it somehow." + +My kinsman lived long enough to see the day when there was not a +slave on American soil, and the minister lived long enough to become a +roaring Abolitionist. + +It was doubtless their confidence in ultimate triumph, a result of +their absolute belief in the righteousness of their cause, that, as +much as anything else, armed and armored the Abolitionists against all +opposition. It was one main element of their strength in the midst of +their weakness. Without it they could not have persisted, as they did, +in their separate or "third party" political action, that cleared the +way and finally led up to a victorious organization. Year after year, +and for many years, they voted for candidates that had no chance of +election. Their first presidential ticket got only seven thousand +votes in the whole country. The great public, which could not see the +use of acting politically for principle alone, laughed at their +simplicity in "throwing away their votes." "Voting in the air" was the +way it was often spoken of, and those who were guilty of such +incomprehensible folly were characterized as "one idea people." They, +however, cared little for denunciation or ridicule, and kept on +regularly nominating their tickets, and as regularly giving them votes +that generally appeared in the election returns among the +"scattering." They were not abashed by the insignificance of their +party. + + "They were men who dared to be + the right with two or three," + +according to the poet Lowell. + +In the county in which I lived when a boy, there was one vote polled +for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket. The man who gave it +did not try to hide his responsibility--in fact, he seemed rather +proud of his aloneness--but he was mercilessly guyed on account of the +smallness of his party. His rejoinder was that he thought that he and +God, who was, he believed, with him, made a pretty good-sized and +respectable party. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE + + +The intensity--perhaps density would be a better word in this +connection--of the prejudice that confronted the Abolitionists when +they entered on their work is not describable by any expressions we +have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man +could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions +were not much better. Every man and woman--because the muster-roll of +the Abolition propagandists was recruited from both sexes--carried on +the work at the hazard of his or her life. Sneers, scowls, hootings, +curses, and rough handling were absolutely certain. One incident +throws light on the state of feeling at that time. + +When Pennsylvania Hall, which the Abolitionists of +Philadelphia--largely Quakers--had erected for a meeting place at a +cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department +of that city threw water on surrounding property, but not one drop +would it contribute to save the property of the Abolitionists. + +Why was it that this devotion to slavery and this hostility to its +opposers prevailed in the non-slaveholding States? They had not always +existed. Indeed, there was a time, not so many years before, when +slavery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and +Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public +opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of +universal emancipation, when suddenly--almost in the twinkling of an +eye--there was a change. If it had been a weather-cock--as to a +considerable extent it was, and is--public opinion could not have more +quickly veered about. + +Slavery became the popular idol in the North as well as in the South. +Opposition to it was not only offensive, but dangerous. It was +sacrilege. + +So far as the South was concerned the revolution is easily accounted +for. Slavery became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with +a wand of gold, and from being a languishing, struggling system, it +quickly developed into a money-maker. + +Whitney, the Connecticut mechanical genius, by the invention of the +cotton-gin, made the production of cotton a highly lucrative industry. +The price of negroes to work the cotton fields at once went up, and +yet the supply was inadequate. Northernly slave States could not +produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the +golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in +human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken of as "nigger +pens," in which the "hands" that were to make the cotton were +temporarily gathered, and long coffles--that is, processions of men +and women, each with a hand attached to a common rope or +chain--marched through their streets with faces turned southward. + +The slave-owners were numerically a lean minority even in the South, +but their mastery over their fellow-citizens was absolute. Nor was +there any mystery about it. As the owners of four million slaves, on +an average worth not far from five hundred dollars each, they formed +the greatest industrial combination--what at this time we would call a +trust--ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel +Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great +financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up +to the dimensions of that one association. It was not incorporated in +law, but its union was perfect. Bound together by a common interest +and a common feeling, its members--in the highest sense co-partners in +business and in politics, in peace and in war--were prepared to act +together as one man. + +But why, I again ask, were the Northern people so infatuated with +slavery? They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of +them, and especially their political leaders, carried their adulation +almost to idolatry. + +When Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot down like a dog, and William Lloyd +Garrison was dragged half naked and half lifeless through the streets +of Boston, and other outrages of like import were being perpetrated +all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were +not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"--of +merchants, manufacturers, and members of the professions. They claimed +the credit for such achievements. There were reasons for such a state +of things--some very solid, because financial. + +The North and the South were extensively interlaced by mutual +interests. With slave labor the Southern planters made cotton, and +with the proceeds of their cotton they bought Northern machinery and +merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They +came North themselves when their pockets were full, and freely spent +their money at Northern hotels, Northern theatres, Northern +race-tracks, and other Northern places of entertainment. + +Then there were other ties than those of business. The great political +parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their +Southern members. Every kind of trade and calling had its Southern +outlet. + +But social connections were the strongest of all, and probably had +most to do in making Northern sentiment. Southern gentlemen were +popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were +grandiose. They talked boastfully of the number of their "niggers," +and told how they were accustomed to "wallop" them. + +Then there were marriage ties between the sections. Many domestic +alliances strengthened the bond between slavery and the aristocracy of +the North. + +In the circles in which these things were going on, it was the fashion +to denounce the Abolitionists. Women were the most bitter. The +slightest suspicion of sympathy with the "fanatics" was fatal to +social ambition. Mrs. Henry Chapman, the wife of a wealthy Boston +shipping merchant who gave orders that no slaves should be carried on +his vessels, was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense +in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small +conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former +associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of +Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were +noted for their intelligence and culture, but when the heads of the +families came to be classified as Abolitionists the doors of all +fashionable mansions were at once shut against them. They in other +ways suffered for their opinions. The home of Lewis Tappan was invaded +by a mob, and furniture, books, and _bric-a-brac_ were carried to the +street and there burned to ashes. + +The masses of the Northern people were, however, led to favor slavery +by other arguments. One of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, +would at once rush to the North and overrun the free States. I have +heard that proposition warmly supported by fairly intelligent persons. + +Another argument that weighed with a surprisingly large number of +people, was that civil equality would be followed by social equality. +As soon as they were free, negro men, it was said, would marry white +wives. "Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was +regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of +course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a +negro woman for a slave, I do want her for a wife?" was one of the +quaint and pithy observations attributed to Mr. Lincoln. I heard +Prof. Hudson, of Oberlin College, express the same idea in about the +same words many years before. + +And yet there were plenty of Northern people to whom +"Amalgamation"--the word used to describe the apprehended union of the +races--was a veritable scarecrow. A young gentleman in a neighborhood +near where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for +matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had +been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," said +the old gentleman, "that you are an Abolitionist." The young man +admitted the justice of the charge. "Then, sir," fairly roared the old +man, "you can't have my daughter; go and marry a nigger." + +But what probably gave slavery its strongest hold upon the favor of +Northern people was the animosity toward the negro that prevailed +among them. Nowhere was he treated by them like a human being. The +"black laws," as those statutes in a number of free States that +regulated the treatment of the blacks were appropriately called, were +inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was +called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws +they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. +Any one employing negroes, not so bonded, was liable to a fine of one +hundred dollars. They could not vote, of course. They could not +testify in a case in which a white man was interested. They could not +send their children to schools which they helped to support. The only +thing they could do "like a white man" was to pay taxes. + +The prejudice against the poor creatures in Ohio was much stronger +than that they encountered on the other side of the Ohio River in the +slave State of Kentucky. Here--in Kentucky--they were property, and +they generally received the care and consideration that ownership +ordinarily establishes. The interest of the master was a factor in +their behalf. In many instances there was genuine affection between +owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had +good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes +would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. +There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the +blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in freedom. +What stronger testimony to the innate desire for liberty--what Byron +has described as "The eternal spirit of the chainless mind"--than the +fact that slaves who were the most indulgently treated, were +constantly escaping from the easy and careless life they led to the +hostilities and barbarities of the free States, and they never went +back except under compulsion. + + "O carry me back to old Virginy, + To old Virginy's shore," + +was the refrain of a song that was very popular in those days, and +which was much affected by what were called "negro minstrels." It was +assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when +they had time to realize what freedom meant in their cases, but I +never heard the words from the lips of a man who had lived in a state +of servitude. + +I have elsewhere referred to the fact that women were often the most +bitter in their denunciations of the Abolitionists. In the +neighborhood in which I passed my early days was a lady who was born +and raised in the North, and who probably had no decided sentiment, +one way or the other, on the slavery question; but who about this time +spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came +back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She +could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by +the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had nothing to do +except to take the world easy, and that, according to her account, +they did with great unanimity. The slaves, were, she declared, the +happiest people in the world, all care and responsibility being taken +from their shoulders by masters who were kind enough to look out for +their wants. + +But one day she unwittingly exposed a glimpse of the reverse side of +the picture. She told the story of a young slave girl who had been +accused of larceny. She had picked up some trifling article that +ordinarily no one would have cared anything about; but at this time it +was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the +poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a +ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that +purpose, and she was drawn up, with her face to the building, until +her toes barely touched the ground. Then, in the presence of all her +fellow-slaves, and with her clothing so detached as to expose her +naked shoulders, she was flogged until the blood trickled down her +back. + +"I felt almost as bad for her," said the narrator, "as if she had been +one of my own kind." + +"Thank God she was not one of your kind!" exclaimed a voice that +fairly sizzled with rage. + +The speaker who happened to be present was a relative of the author +and a red-hot Abolitionist. + +Then came a furious war of words, the two enraged women shouting +maledictions in each other's faces. As a boy, I enjoyed the +performance hugely until I began to see that there was danger of a +collision. As the only male present, it would be my duty to interfere +in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and +hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be +really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when the +two women, looking into each other's inflamed faces, suddenly realized +the ridiculousness of the situation and broke into hearty peals of +laughter. That, of course, ended the controversy, not a little to the +relief of the writer. + +If the influence of a great majority of the women of that day was +thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the +minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and +aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most +indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women--such as Mrs. +Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names +are here omitted, although they richly deserve to be mentioned. Of +all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a +little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish +crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I +never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes +were small and it appeared to me that they contracted, when she was +speaking, until they emitted sparks of fire. Although she went by her +maiden name, she was a married woman, being the wife of Stephen +Foster, a professional Abolitionist agitator and lecturer. Although +himself noted for the bitterness of his speech, when it came to +hard-hitting vituperation he could not begin to "hold a candle" to his +little wife. + +The two traveled together and spoke from the same platforms. They were +constantly getting into hot water through the hostility of mobs, which +they seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once +in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the +slightest fear. The only meeting addressed by them that I attended, +though held on the Sabbath, was ended by the throwing of stones and +sticks and addled eggs. + +But if the current of public opinion in the North suddenly turned, and +for a long time ran with overwhelming force in favor of slavery, it +changed about almost as suddenly and ran with equal force in the +opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that +furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential +ticket, became a Republican stronghold. It was in what had been a Whig +district, and when the Whig party went to pieces, the most of its +_débris_ drifted into the Republican lines. + +On the occasion of one of the pro-slavery mobs I elsewhere tell about, +when a supply of eggs with which to garnish the Abolitionists, was +wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the town +constable--the peace officer of the community--put his hand in his +pocket and supplied the funds. + +A few years thereafter, on my return to the village after a +considerable absence, I found that I had come just in time to attend a +Republican rally which was that day to be held in a near-by grove. +When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the +grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, +but by far the most excited individual was the Grand Marshal and +Master of Ceremonies. Seated on a high horse, he was riding up and +down the line shouting out his orders with tremendous unction. He was +the constable of the egg-buying episode. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE POLITICAL SITUATION + + +In several of his addresses before his election to the Presidency, Mr. +Lincoln gave utterance to the following language: "A house divided +against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot +permanently remain half slave and half free. I do not expect the house +to fall, but I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all +one thing or all the other thing." + +The same opinion had been enunciated several years before by John +Quincy Adams on the floor of Congress, when, with his accustomed +pungency, he declared, "The Union will fall before slavery or slavery +will fall before the Union." + +But before either Adams or Lincoln spoke on the subject--away back in +1838--the same idea they expressed had a more elaborate and forcible +presentation in the following words: + + "The conflict is becoming--has become--not alone of freedom for + the blacks, but of freedom for the whites. It has now become + absolutely necessary that slavery shall cease in order that + freedom may be preserved in any portion of our land. The + antagonistic principles of liberty and slavery have been roused + into action, and one or the other must be victorious. There will + be no cessation of the strife until slavery shall be exterminated + or liberty destroyed." + +The author of the words last above quoted was James Gillespie Birney, +who was the first Abolitionist, or "Liberty party," candidate for the +Presidency, and of whose career a brief sketch is elsewhere given. + +That the slaveholders reached the same conclusion that Birney and +Adams and Lincoln announced, viz., that the country was to be all one +thing or all the other thing, is as manifest as any fact in our +history. It is equally certain that they had firmly resolved to +capture the entire commonwealth for their "institution," and had laid +their plans to that end. They were unwilling to live in a divided +house, particularly with an occupant who was stronger in population +and wealth than they were. + +They saw the danger in such association. Northern sentiment toward +slavery was complacent enough, even servilely so, but it might change. +The South thought it had too much at stake to take the chances when +the opportunity for absolute safety and permanent rule was within its +reach. It resolved to make the whole country, not only pro-slavery, +but slaveholding. If, through any mischance, it failed in its +calculation, the next step would be to tear down the house and from +its ruins reconstruct so much of it as might be needed for its own +occupancy. That it would be able in time to possess itself of the +whole country, however, for and in behalf of its industrial policy, it +did not for an instant doubt. It was not empty braggadocio on the part +of the celebrated Robert Toombs, of Georgia, when he uttered his +famous boast.[1] He voiced the practically unanimous opinion of his +section. + +[1] See page 13. + +Nor was there anything seemingly very presumptuous in that +anticipation. So far, the South had been invariably victorious. In +what appeared to be a decisive battle in the test case of admitting +Missouri into the Union as a slave State, it had won. So pronounced +was its triumph that whatever Anti-Slavery sentiment survived the +conflict appeared to be stunned and helpless. All fight was knocked +out of it. Its spirit was broken. While the South was not only compact +and fully alive, but exultingly aggressive, the North was divided, +fully one half of its population being about as pro-slavery as the +slaveholders themselves, and the rest, with rare exceptions, being +hopelessly apathetic. The Northern leaders of both of the old +political parties--Whig and Democratic--were what the Abolitionists +called "dough-faces," being Northern men with Southern principles. The +Church was "a dumb dog," and the press simply drifted with the tide. +It was not at all strange that the slaveholders expected to go on from +conquest to conquest. + +There were two policies they could adopt. One was to attack the +enemy's citadel; or rather, the several citadels it possessed in its +individual States, and force them to open their doors to the master +and his human chattels. The other was to flank and cover, approaching +the main point of attack by way of the Territories. These, once in +possession of the slaveholders, could be converted into enough slave +States to give them the control of the general government, from which +coigne of advantage they could proceed in their own time and way to +possess themselves of such other free States as they might want. + +In the matter of the Territories they had a great advantage. The North +was up against a stone wall at the Canadian border. In that direction +it could not advance a step, while the South had practically an +unlimited field on its side from which to carve possessions as they +might be wanted, very much as you would cut a pie. + +In pursuance of its territorial policy--being the line of action it +first resolved upon--the first movement of the South was to annex +Texas--a victory. The next was to make war on Mexico, and (a joke of +the day) conquer a "piece" from it large enough to make half a dozen +States, all expected to be slaveholding--another victory. + +By a curious irony the filching of land for slavery's uses from a +neighbor, and on which the foot of a slave had never pressed, was +exultingly spoken of at the time by its supporters as "an extension of +the area of freedom." The act was justified on the ground that we +needed "land for the landless," which led Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio to +assert on the floor of the United States Senate, with as much truth as +wit, that it was not land for the landless that was wanted, but +"niggers for the niggerless." + +Then came the battle over Kansas. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill in Congress, although involving a breach of good faith on the +part of the South, was hailed as another victory for that section. It +was a costly victory. It was followed by defeat not only disastrous +but fatal. The result in Kansas was really the turning-point in the +great struggle. It broke the line of Southern victories. It +neutralized the effect of the whole territorial movement up to that +point. It completely spoiled the slaveholders' well-laid plans. We +will always give Grant and his men all praise for victories leading up +to Appomatox, but, in some respects, the most important victory of the +great conflict was won on the plains of Kansas by John Brown of +Ossawattomie and his Abolition associates. + +The most sagacious Southern leaders saw in that result conclusive +proof that the scale was turned. They realized that they were beaten +within the lines of the Union, and they began to arrange for going out +of it. They helped to elect a Republican President by dividing the +Democratic party in 1860 between two candidates--Douglas and +Breckenridge--in order that they might have a plausible pretext for +secession. + +But the slaveholders had not abandoned the other policy to which +reference has been made--that of carrying their institution, by main +force, as it were, into some, if not all, of the free States. To that +end they had, in sporting parlance, a card up their sleeves which they +proceeded to play. That card was the decision of the United States +Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, upon which they relied to give +them the legal power to take and hold their slaves in all parts of the +land. Up to the date of that decision, the current of judicial rulings +had been that slavery, being a municipal institution, was local, +while freedom was national. Hence, when a master took his slave into a +free State, at that instant he became a free man. The Dred Scott +decision was intended to reverse the rule. Practically it held that +slave ownership, wherever the Constitution prevailed, was both a legal +and a natural right. It, as Benton forcibly expressed it, "made +slavery the organic law of the land and freedom the exception"; or, as +it was jocularly expressed at the time, it left freedom nowhere. + +Although at the time of its promulgation, it was claimed by some of +the more conservative pro-slavery leaders that the Dred Scott dictum +applied only to the Territories, giving the masters the legal +authority to enter them with their slaves, that position was clearly +deceptive. The principle involved, as laid down by the Court, was +altogether too broad for that construction. In effect it put the +proprietorship of human beings upon the same footing with other +property rights, and claimed for it the same constitutional +protection. The bolder men of the South, like Toombs of Georgia, did +not hesitate to give that interpretation to the Court's pronouncement, +and to insist on it with brutal frankness. If they were wrong, the +Court was putty in their hands and they could easily have had a +supplemental ruling that would have gone to any extent. + +If the Dred Scott decision had been promulgated by our highest court, +and the slaveholders had insisted upon the license it was intended to +give them for taking their slave property into free territory, at the +time that Garrison was being dragged by a mob through Boston's +streets; when Birney's printing-press in Cincinnati was being tumbled +into the Ohio River; when Pennsylvania Hall, the Quaker Abolitionists' +forty-thousand-dollar construction, was ablaze in Philadelphia; when +Lovejoy, the Abolition martyr, was bleeding out his life in one of the +streets of Alton, Illinois--when, in fact, the whole land was swayed +by a frenzied hatred of the men and women who dared to question +slavery's right to supremacy, the writer believes the movement would +have been successful. Public opinion was so inclined in States like +Indiana and Illinois, and even in Ohio, that they might have been +easily toppled over to the South. Indeed, at that time it is a problem +how Massachusetts would have voted on a proposition to "slaveryize" +her soil. The surprising thing, as we look back to that period, is +that slavery did not get a foothold in some of the free States, if not +in all of them. + +But by the time the South was ready to play its trump card, it was too +late. The game was lost. Public opinion had become revolutionized +throughout the North. The leaven of Abolitionism had got in its work. +The men and women, few in number and weak in purse and worldly +position as they were, who had enlisted years before in the cause of +emancipation, and had fought for it in the face of almost every +conceivable discouragement, had at last won a great preliminary +victory. Slavery, through their exertions, had become impossible, both +in the Territories and in the free States of the North, the United +States Supreme Court and all the forces of the slave power to the +contrary notwithstanding. Then came to the South a not unanticipated, +and to many of her leaders a not unwelcome political Waterloo, in the +election of Lincoln. This gave the argument for secession that was +wanted. The South had then to yield--which she had no idea of +doing--or to go into rebellion. She went out of the Union very much as +she would have gone to a frolic. She had no thought that serious +fighting was to follow. She did not believe, as one of the Southern +leaders expressed it, that the Northern people would go to war for the +sake of the "niggers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS + + +The early Abolitionists were denounced as fanatics, or "fan-a-tics," +according to the pronunciation of some of their detractors. They were +treated as if partially insane. The writer when a boy attended the +trial of a cause between two neighbors in a court of low grade. It was +what was called a "cow case," and involved property worth, perhaps, as +much as twenty dollars. One of the witnesses on the stand was asked by +a lawyer, who wanted to embarrass or discredit him, if he were not an +Abolitionist. Objection came from the other side on the ground that +the inquiry was irrelevant; but the learned justice-of-the-peace who +presided held that, as it related to the witness's sanity, and that +would affect his credibility, the question was admissible. It is not, +perhaps, so very strange that in those days, in view of the +disreputableness of those whose cause they espoused, and the +apparently utter hopelessness of anything ever coming out of it, the +supporters of Anti-Slaveryism should be suspected of being "out of +their heads." + +Although Don Quixote, who, according to the veracious Cervantes, set +out with his unaided strong right arm to upset things, including +wind-mills and obnoxious dynasties, has long been looked upon as the +world's best specimen of a "fanatic," he would ordinarily be set down +as a very Solomon beside the man who would undertake single-handed to +overthrow such an institution as American slavery used to be. Such a +man there was, however. He really entered on the job of abolishing +that institution, and without a solitary assistant. Strange to say, he +was neither a giant nor a millionaire. + +According to Horace Greeley, "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high honor +of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distinctive Anti-Slaveryism in +America." + +He was slight in frame and below the medium height, and unassuming in +manner. He had, it is said, neither eloquence nor shining ability of +any sort. + +At nineteen years of age he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the +trade of a saddler. He learned more than that. Wheeling, as he tells +us, was then a great thoroughfare for the traffickers in human flesh. +Their coffles passed through the place frequently. "My heart," he +continues, "was grieved at the great abomination. I heard the wail of +the captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered into my +soul." + +But much as Lundy loathed the business of the slave-dealers and +slave-drivers, he then had no idea of attempting its abolishment. He +married and settled down to the prosecution of his trade, and had he +been like other people generally he would have been content. But he +could not shut the pictures of those street scenes in Wheeling out of +his mind and out of his heart. + +The first thing in the reformatory line he did was to organize a +local Anti-Slavery society in the village in which he was then living +in Ohio; at the first meeting of this society only five persons were +present. + +About this time Lundy made some important discoveries. He learned that +he could write what the newspapers would print, and give expression to +words that the people would listen to. He was quick to realize the +fact that the best way to reach the people of this country was through +the press. He started a very small paper with a very large name. It +was ambitiously nominated _The Genius of Universal Emancipation_. He +began with only six subscribers and without a press or other +publishing material. Moreover, he had no money. He was not then a +practical printer, though later he learned the art of type-setting. At +this time he had his newspaper printed twenty miles from his home, and +carried the edition for that distance on his back. + +But insignificant as Lundy's paper was, it had the high distinction of +being the only exclusively Anti-Slavery journal in the country, and +its editor and proprietor was the only professional Abolition lecturer +and agitator of that time. + +Afterwards, in speaking of his journalistic undertaking, Mr. Lundy +said: "I began this work without a dollar of funds, trusting to the +sacredness of the cause." Another saying of his was that he did not +stop to calculate "how soon his efforts would be crowned with +success." + +As Lundy spent the greater part of his time in traveling from place to +place, procuring subscriptions to his journal and lecturing on +slavery, he could not issue his paper regularly at any one point. In +some instances he carried the head-rules, column-rules, and +subscription-book of his journal with him, and when he came to a town +where he found a printing-press he would stop long enough to print and +mail a number of his periodical. He traveled for the most part on +foot, carrying a heavy pack. In ten years in that way he covered +twenty-five thousand miles, five thousand on foot. + +He decided to invade the enemy's country by going where slavery was. +He went to Tennessee, making the journey of eight hundred miles, one +half by water, and one half on foot. That was, of course, before the +day of railroads. + +He continued to issue his paper, although often threatened with +personal violence. Once two bullies locked him in a room and, with +revolvers in hand, tried to frighten him into a promise to discontinue +his work. He did not frighten to any extent. + +Seeking what seemed to be the most inviting field for his operations, +he decided to move his establishment to Baltimore, going most of the +way on foot and lecturing as he went whenever he could find an +audience. + +His residence in Baltimore came near proving fatal. A slave-trader, +whom he had offended, attacked and brutally beat him on the street. +The consolation he got from the court that tried the ruffian, who was +"honorably discharged," was that he (Lundy) had got "nothing more than +he deserved." Soon afterwards his printing material and other property +was burned by a mob. + +He went to Mexico to select a location for a projected colony of +colored people. He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the +strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of +saddlery and harness mending. In his journal he tells us that he often +slept in the open air, the country traversed being mostly new and +unsettled. He was in constant danger from panthers, alligators, and +rattlesnakes, while he was cruelly beset by gnats and mosquitoes. His +clothes in the morning, he tells us, would be as wet from heavy dews +as if he had fallen into the river. + +Intellectually, Lundy was not a great man, but his heart was beyond +measurement. The torch that he carried in the midst of the all but +universal darkness of that period emitted but a feeble ray, but he +kept it burning, and it possessed the almost invaluable property of +being able to transmit its flame to other torches. It kindled the +brand that was wielded by William Lloyd Garrison, and which possessed +a wonderful power of illumination. + +Garrison was beyond all question a remarkable man. In the qualities +that endow a successful leader in a desperate cause he has never been +surpassed. He had an iron will that was directed by an inflexible +conscience. "To him," says James Freeman Clarke, "right was right, and +wrong was wrong, and he saw no half lights or half shadows between +them." He was a natural orator. I never heard him talk, either on or +off the platform, but I have heard those who had listened to him, +speak of the singular gift he possessed in stating or combating a +proposition. One person who had heard him, often compared him, when +dealing with an adversary, to a butcher engaged in dissecting a +carcass, and who knew just where to strike every time,--a homely, but +expressive illustration. His addresses in England on a certain notable +occasion, which is dealt with somewhat at length elsewhere, were +declared by the first British orators to be models of perfect +eloquence. + +Lundy and Garrison met by accident. They were boarding at the same +house in Boston, and became acquainted. Lundy's mind was full of the +subject of slavery, and Garrison's proved to be receptive soil. They +decided to join forces, and we have the singular spectacle of two poor +mechanics--a journeyman saddler and a journeyman printer--conspiring +to revolutionize the domestic institutions of half of the country. + +They decided to continue the Baltimore newspaper. Garrison's +plain-spokenness, however, soon got him into trouble in that city. He +was prosecuted for libelling a shipmaster for transporting slaves, was +convicted and fined fifty dollars. The amount, so far as his ability +to pay was involved, might as well have been a million. He went to +prison, being incarcerated in a cell just vacated by a man who had +been hanged for murder, and there he remained for seven weeks. At the +end of that time Arthur Tappan, the big-hearted merchant of New York, +learning the facts of the case, advanced the money needed to set +Garrison free. + +Undeterred by his experience as a martyr, Garrison--who had returned +to Boston--resolved to establish a journal of his own in that city, +which was to be devoted to the cause of the slave. _The Liberator_ +appeared on the 1st of January, 1831. + +In entering upon this venture, Garrison had not a subscriber nor a +dollar of money. Being a printer, he set up the type and struck off +the first issue with his own hands. + +In the initial number the proprietor of the _Liberator_ outlined his +proposed policy in these words: "I will be as harsh as truth; as +uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will not excuse; I will +not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard." + +The first issue of the paper brought in a contribution of fifty +dollars from a colored man and twenty-five subscribers. It was not, +therefore, a failure, but its continuance involved a terrible strain. +Garrison and one co-worker occupied one room for work-shop, +dining-room, and bedroom. They cooked their own meals and slept upon +the floor. It was almost literally true, as pictured by Lowell, the +poet: + + "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, + Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man. + The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean, + Yet there the freedom of a race began." + +The effects produced by Garrison's unique production were simply +wonderful. In October of its first year the Vigilance Association of +South Carolina offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the +apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any white person who +might be detected in distributing or circulating the _Liberator_. +Georgia went farther than that. Less than a year after Garrison had +established his paper, the Legislature of that State passed an act +offering a reward of five thousand dollars to whomsoever should +arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute its publisher to conviction. The +_Liberator_ was excluded from the United States mails in all the slave +States, illegal as such a proceeding was. + +There was, however, opposition nearer home. The _Liberator_ +establishment was wrecked by a mob, and Garrison, after having been +stripped of nearly all his clothing, was dragged, bareheaded, by a +rope round his body through the streets of Boston until, to save his +life, the authorities thrust him into jail. + +No man in this country was so cordially hated by the slaveholders as +Garrison. Of the big men up North--the leaders of politics and +society--they had no apprehension. They knew how to manage them. It +was the little fellows like the editor of the _Liberator_ that gave +them trouble. These men had no money, but they could not be bought. +They had no fear of mobs. They cared nothing for the scoldings of the +church and the press. An adverse public sentiment never disturbed +their equanimity or caused them to turn a hair's breadth in their +course. + +It is true that Lundy and Garrison had very little to lose. They had +neither property nor social position. That, however, cannot be said of +another early Abolitionist, who, in some respects, is entitled to more +consideration than any of his co-workers. + +James Gillespie Birney was a Southerner by birth. He belonged to a +family of financial and social prominence. He was a gentleman of +education and culture, having graduated from a leading college and +being a lawyer of recognized ability. He was a slave-owner. For a time +he conducted a plantation with slave labor. He lived in Alabama, where +he filled several important official positions, and was talked of for +the governorship of the State. But having been led to think about the +moral, and other aspects of slaveholding, he decided that it was wrong +and he would wash his hands of it. He could not in Alabama legally +manumit his slaves. Moreover, his neighbors had risen up against him +and threatened his forcible expulsion. He removed to Kentucky, where +he thought a more liberal sentiment prevailed. There he freed his +slaves and made liberal provision for their comfortable sustenance. +But the slave power was on his track. He was warned to betake himself +out of the State. The infliction of personal violence was meditated, +and a party of his opposers came together for that purpose. They were +engaged in discussing ways and means when a young man of commanding +presence and strength, who happened to be present, announced that +while he lived Mr. Birney would not be molested. His opposition broke +up the plot. That young man became a leading clergyman and was +subsequently for a time Chaplain of the United States Senate. + +Birney went with his belongings to Ohio, thinking that upon the soil +of a free State he would be safe from molestation. He established a +newspaper in Cincinnati to advocate emancipation. A mob promptly +destroyed his press and other property, and it was with difficulty +that he escaped with his life. More sagacious, although not more +zealous, than Lundy and Garrison and a good many of their followers, +Birney early saw the necessity of political action in the interest of +freedom. He was the real founder of the old "Liberty" party, of which +he was the presidential candidate in 1840 and in 1844. + +Of course, there were other early laborers for emancipation that, in +this connection, ought to be mentioned and remembered. They were +pioneers in the truest sense. The writer would gladly make a record of +their services, and pay a tribute, especially, to the memories of such +as have gone to the spirit land, where the great majority are now +mustered, but space at this point forbids. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SALMON PORTLAND CHASE + + +If I were asked to name the man to whom the colored people of this +country, who were slaves, or were liable to become slaves, are under +the greatest obligation for their freedom, I would unhesitatingly say +Salmon Portland Chase. + +If I were asked to name the man who was the strongest and most useful +factor in the Government during the great final contest that ended in +the emancipation of the black man, I would say Salmon Portland Chase. + +In expressing the opinions above given, no reproach for Abraham +Lincoln, nor for any of the distinguished members of his Cabinet, is +intended or implied. Inferiority to Salmon P. Chase was not a +disgrace. Physically he rose above all his official associates, which +was no discredit to them, and in much the same way he towered +intellectually and administratively. His was the most trying, the most +difficult position, in the entire circle of public departments. It was +easy to get men to fight the battles of the Union if there was money +to pay them. It was easy to furnish ships and arms and supplies in +sufficient quantity, notwithstanding the terrible drain of the +greatest of civil wars, as long as the funds held out. Everything +depended on the treasury. Failure there meant irretrievable disaster. +It would not answer to have any serious mistakes in that quarter, and +in fact no fatal mistakes were there made. In all other departments +there were failures and blunders, but the financial department met +every emergency and every requisition. Chase's financial policy it was +that carried the country majestically through the war, and that +afterwards paid the nation's debts. + +There is a circumstance that has not been mentioned, as far as the +writer knows, by any of Mr. Chase's biographers, which seems to him to +be significant and worth referring to. During the Civil War, Walter +Bagehot was editor of the _Economist,_ the great English financial +journal. His opinion in financial matters was regarded as the highest +authority. It was accepted as infallible. He discussed the plans of +Mr. Chase with great elaborateness and great severity. He predicted +that they were all destined to failure, and proved this theoretically +to his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of many others. The +result showed that Mr. Chase was right all the time, and the great +English economist was wrong. + +The entrance of such a man into the Abolitionist movement marked an +era in its history. It was the thing most needed. He gave it a leader +who, of all men then living, was most competent for leadership. From +that time he was its Moses. + +The greatest service rendered to the Abolition cause by Salmon P. +Chase was in pushing it forward on political lines. There was a +contest for the mastery of the Government from the hour he took +command. The movement was to be slow, sometimes halting and apparently +falling back, in some respects insignificant, in all respects +desperate, but there was to be no permanent defeat and no compromise. + +The espousal of Abolitionism by Mr. Chase was a remarkable +circumstance. He was not an enthusiast like Garrison and Lundy and +many other Anti-Slavery pioneers, but precisely the opposite. He was +cold-blooded and cool-headed, a deliberate and conservative man. His +speeches were described as giving light but no heat. His sympathies +were seemingly weak, but his sense of justice was immense. Apparently, +he opposed slavery because it was wrong rather than because it was +cruel. He had a big body, a big head, and a big conscience, the +combination making a strong man and a good fighter. + +That he did, in fact, sympathize with the slaves was shown by his +professional work in their behalf, more particularly in pleading +without fee or other reward the cases of escaped fugitives in the +courts. So numerous were his engagements in this regard that his +antagonists spoke of him sneeringly as the "Attorney-General for +runaway niggers." Upon some of his Anti-Slavery cases he bestowed an +immense amount of work. His argument in the case of Van Zant--the +original of Van Tromp in Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_,--an old man +who was prosecuted and fined until he was financially ruined for +giving a "lift" in his farm wagon to a slave family on its way to +Canada, was said at the time to have been the most able so far made +in the Supreme Court of the United States. That and other similar +utterances by Mr. Chase were published for popular reading, and were +widely distributed by friends of the cause. + +It is possible that, in performing this arduous labor, Mr. Chase, who +was not without personal ambition, was able, with his great native +sagacity, to foresee, although it must have been but dimly, the +possibilities of political development and official promotion, but at +the same time, for the same reason, he could the more clearly realize +the wearisome, heart-breaking struggle that was before him. + +It was an enormous sacrifice that he made. Journeymen printers and +saddlers, like Garrison and Lundy, who had never had as much as one +hundred dollars at one time in their lives, and who had no social +position and no influential kinsfolks, had little to lose. But it was +very different with Chase. He had a profession that represented great +wealth. He had distinguished and aristocratic family connections. He +had a high place in society. All these he risked and largely lost. + +In speaking of his sacrifices at that time in a subsequent letter to a +friend, he wrote: + + "Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time + and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles + and building up the organization of the party of constitutional + freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed + insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demand + upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed + severely all my abilities." + +The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed something +of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way because of his +principles. While a law student in a country village he was sent down +to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the form of affidavits. +During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law office, introduced +himself, and was very pleasantly received. He noticed that there was a +notary public in the office. + +Among other instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of +a leading business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The +document was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before +whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew where +there was a notary in a near-by office. We proceeded to Mr. Chase's +chambers, and were about to enter when my companion noticed the name +on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck in the face. "The +---- Abolitionist," he exclaimed, "I wouldn't enter his place for a +hundred dollars!" We went elsewhere for our business, and on the way +my companion expressed himself about Mr. Chase. "What a pity it is," +he said, "that that young man is ruining himself. He is a bright man," +he went on, "and I employed him professionally until he went daft on +the subject of freeing the niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose +of serving the white people." + +Like pretty much all the early Abolitionists, Mr. Chase had a taste of +mob violence. He had one singular experience. When the mob destroyed +the printing establishment of James G. Birney in Cincinnati, Chase +mingled with the crowd. He discovered that personal violence to Mr. +Birney was contemplated and that his life was in danger. He made all +haste to Birney's residence and gave him warning of his peril. Then he +took his stand in the doorway of the building and calmly awaited the +coming of the rabble. Those who knew Chase will remember that in size +he was almost a giant, and his countenance had a stern, determined +look. The multitude, finding itself thus unexpectedly confronted, +paused and entered into a parley that gave the hunted man an +opportunity to reach a place of safety. + +Chase had an appointment to speak in the village in which the writer +lived, and the opposers of his cause arranged to give him a warm +reception. Something prevented his attendance, and a very mild and +amiable old clergyman from an adjoining town, who took his place, +received the shower-bath of uncooked eggs that had been intended for +the Cincinnati Abolitionist. + +Chase's great work for the Anti-Slavery cause was in projecting and +directing it on independent political lines. Up to that time most +Anti-Slavery people opposed separate party action. Garrison and his +_Liberator_ violently denounced such action. Moral suasion was urged +as the panacea. Chase himself had not been a "third party" man. In +1840, when there was an Abolition ticket in the field, headed by his +personal friend, James G. Birney, he had not supported it. But soon +afterwards, becoming firmly convinced that Anti-Slavery people had +nothing to hope for from either of the old parties, he set about the +work of building a new one. The undertaking was with no mental +reservation on his part. When he put his hand to that plow there was +no looking back, notwithstanding that a rougher or more stony field, +and one less promising of returns for the laborer than that before +him, would be difficult to imagine. + +In 1841 he headed a call for a convention at Columbus, the State +capital, to organize the Liberty party in the State of Ohio, and at +the same time nominate a State ticket. Less than a hundred +sympathizers responded to the call, and the ticket put in nomination +received less than one thousand votes. + +Among the attendants at the Columbus meeting was a near kinsman of the +author. On his return, in describing the proceedings, he said that +pretty much everything was directed by a Mr. Chase (Salamander Chase +was his name, he said), a young Cincinnati lawyer. That young man, he +declared, would yet make a mark in the world. + +From that time every important move was directed by Chase. He prepared +the calls for important meetings. He wrote their addresses and their +platforms. He made the leading speeches. He presided at the great +convention at Buffalo in 1848, which formulated the "Free-Soil" +party--successor to the Liberty party--and wrote the platform which it +adopted. + +In speaking of Chase's share in the independent organization of this +time, William M. Evarts says: "He must be awarded the full credit of +having understood, resolved upon, planned, organized, and executed +this political movement." + +The movement thus conducted by Mr. Chase was slow and tremendously +laborious, but it was effective. In the presidential elections of 1844 +and 1848 it held the balance of power and turned the scale to further +its purposes. In 1852 it shattered and destroyed one of the old +pro-slavery parties, and became the second party in the country +instead of the third. In eight years more it was the first. + +The charge has been made against Mr. Chase that, while a member of +Lincoln's Cabinet, he aspired to supersede his chief in the +Presidency. But did he not have a right to seek the higher office, +especially when the policy pursued by its incumbent did not meet his +full approval? He merely shared the sentiment that was then +entertained by nearly all the radical Anti-Slavery people of the +country. It is not unlikely that Chase felt somewhat envious of +Lincoln. After, as he stated in his letter of congratulation to Mr. +Lincoln on his first election, he had given nineteen years of +continuous and exhausting labor to the freedom movement, it would be +but natural that he should feel aggrieved when he saw that the chief +credit of that movement was likely to go to one who had, to his own +exclusion, come up slowly and reluctantly at a later day to its +support. If he were somewhat jealous, it would be hard not to +sympathize with him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + + +If I were asked to name the man who, next to Salmon P. Chase, most +effectually and meritoriously contributed to the liberation of the +black man in this country, I should unhesitatingly say John Quincy +Adams. + +By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as +having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a +very distinguished family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a +time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, +or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It +can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually +and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what +Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, +but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration. + +When Adams entered Congress opposition to slavery was at its lowest +ebb. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the +Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had +correspondingly depressed and cowed their adversaries. As a general +thing, the latter had given up all idea of making any further fight. +Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern +churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. +Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had +perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a +few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There +was one magnificent exception. + +It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and +began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen +years, literally lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried +helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen +when in the discharge of his duties. + +The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent +candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political +party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles in regulating his +course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who +was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that +fight. There was nothing in the eloquence of Demosthenes in Athens, of +Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in +England, that surpassed the force and grandeur of the philippics of +Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his +service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant assailants +like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the +in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished +and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists. He +was always "the old man eloquent." Says one of our leading historical +writers: + + "As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In + knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the House that could + be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He + was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible + to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the + House was something upon which he was always ready to enter." + +Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another +Congressman writes: + + "He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with + my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble + through every nerve and joint, when he arraigned before them their + political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any + conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic." + +At last his enemies in Congress decided that they would endure his +attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan +of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his +biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was +the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make +an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to +humiliate and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to +do." + +Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal +endorsement, asking for a dissolution of the Union. That furnished the +pretext his enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in +countenancing an assault upon the Union, although they were at the time +engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate +overthrow. The outcome of this undertaking was one of the most +thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that +matter, in any other deliberative assembly. + +Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The +galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of +pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry of the South were +there. They had come to witness the abasement of the great enemy of +their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the +nation's council chamber, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one +friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the +attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that +gave him their sympathies. + +The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead +the prosecution. One was the celebrated Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; +the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the +proceedings by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with +treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with +a speech of much ingenuity. Wise followed in a fiery diatribe. Both +speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions of a somewhat +scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their +careers of questionable propriety, to retaliation from a man who +thoroughly knew their records. At this point we have the testimony of +an eye-witness: + + "Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands + tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose + consecrated head the vials of tyrannic wrath had been outpoured. + Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, + but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his + infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but + be noted, trembling, not with fear, but with age." + +His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been +urged against him and triumphantly refuted it. He handled his +oratorical antagonists with merciless severity, depicting certain +events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers gazed +upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men +when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage +in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have +mercy on him." + +Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly admitted their +discomfiture and dropped the whole business. + +It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided +efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at +a time when it was almost moribund. He plowed the ground, cutting a +deep and broad furrow as he went his way, and in the upturned soil +such laborers as Birney and Garrison and Chase planted the seed that +rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful harvest. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES + + +The divergent characteristics of the East and the West were never more +clearly shown than in the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement. +Efforts were made to plant Abolition societies at various points +throughout the West, but they failed to take permanent root and soon +disappeared. The failure was not due to any lack of interest, but +rather to an excess of zeal on the part of the Western supporters of +the cause. Society organizations on the lines of moral suasion were +too slow and tame to suit them. They preferred the excitement of +politics. They believed in the superior efficacy of a political party, +and to its upbuilding they gave their energies and resources. In the +"long run" they were amply vindicated, but for all that, the favorite +Eastern method for organized effort had its advantages. + +The East, and especially New England, always believed in societies. If +anything of a public nature was to be promoted or prevented, a society +always appealed to the New Englander as the natural instrumentality. +There is a tradition that when Boston was ravaged by a loathsome +disease, a number of its leading citizens came together and promptly +organized an anti-smallpox society. + +When, therefore, it was decided that an Anti-Slavery movement should +be inaugurated in Boston, the proper thing to do, according to all the +standards of the place, was to organize a society. But the thing was +more easily resolved upon than done. It required the concurrence of +several parties of like-mindedness. Boston was a pretty large place, +but Anti-Slavery people were scarce. The number (doubtless selected +because it was Apostolic) assumed to be necessary was twelve. Fifteen +people of somewhat similar views were at last brought together. After +much discussion nine favored an organization and six opposed it. So +far the operation was a failure. But at last, after much canvassing, +twelve men were found who promised their co-operation--twelve and no +more. Although respectable people, they were not of Boston's "first +citizens" by any means. It is said that if they had been called upon +for a hundred dollars each, not over two of them could have responded +without bankruptcy. + +The twelve came together at night and in the basement of an African +Baptist Church, the room being used in the daytime to accommodate a +school for colored children. It was in an obscure quarter of Boston +known as "Nigger Hill." The conference was in the month of December, +and the night is thus described by Oliver Johnson, who was one of the +twelve: "A fierce northeast storm, combining rain, snow, and hail in +about equal proportions, was raging, and the streets were full of +slush. They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days was +very economical of light on Nigger Hill." + +Both nature and man seemed to be in league against those plucky +pioneers of an unpopular cause. They, however, were not dismayed nor +disheartened. It was as they were stepping out into the gloomy night, +that Mr. Garrison, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, was one of +the twelve, remarked to his associates: "We have met to-night in this +obscure schoolhouse; our numbers are few, and our influence limited, +but mark my prediction. Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo to the +principles we have set forth." + +What those principles were is shown by the declaration adopted by that +handful of confederates, and which, in view of the time and +circumstances of its formulation, was certainly a most remarkable +document. Its essential proposition was: "We, the undersigned, hold +that every person of full age and sound mind has a right to immediate +freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by +the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime." + +The Declaration of Independence, which was produced with no little +theatrical effect amid the pomp and circumstance of a national +conclave that had met in the finest hall in the country, was +unquestionably a remarkable and memorable pronouncement. It was for +the time and situation a radical utterance. It was the precursor of a +revolution that gave political freedom to several million people. + +But the platform of principles that was announced by the New England +Anti-Slavery Society (the name adopted) in that little grimy +schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" was, in at least some respects, a more +remarkable document. Its enunciation required an equal degree of +physical and moral courage. It was the precursor of a revolution that +gave both personal and political freedom to a larger number than were +benefited by the other declaration. But what chiefly distinguished it, +the time and the situation being considered, was its radical +utterance. It gave no countenance to any measure of compromise. It +offered no pabulum to the wrongdoer in the form of compensation for +stolen humanity. It demanded what was right, and demanded it at once. +And that fearless and unyielding platform became the basis for all the +Abolition societies that came after it. A goodly number of such +societies were organized. "The Anti-Slavery Society for the City of +New York" was formed by a few men who met and did their work while a +mob was pounding at the door, and who, having completed their task, +fled for their lives. + +It was at first intended that a national Anti-Slavery society should +be established with headquarters in the city of New York, but its +proposed organizers discovered that there was not a public hall or +church in that city in which they would be permitted to assemble. +Philadelphia, with its Quaker contingent, offered a more inviting +field, and to that city it was decided to go. But serious obstructions +here interposed. Representatives appeared from fourteen States, which +was highly encouraging, but no prominent Philadelphian could be found +to act as chairman of the meeting. A committee was appointed to secure +the services of such a man, but, after interviewing a number of +leading citizens, it was compelled to report that it was received by +all of them with "polite frigidity." + +Strange to say, the convention was permitted to meet for three days in +succession in a public assembly room without interference from a mob. +The police, however, warned the participants not to hold night +sessions, as they in that case would not promise protection. The good +behavior of Philadelphia on this occasion was noteworthy, but it was +too good to last. When another Anti-Slavery meeting, not long after, +was convened in that city, it was broken up by a mob, and the hall in +which it met was burned to the ground. + +Finally came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which, in view of its +limited financial resources, certainly did a wonderful work. Its +publications, in spite of careful watching of the mails and other +precautions adopted by the slaveholders, reached all parts of the +country, and its preachers, sent out and commissioned to proclaim the +new evangel of equal manhood, were absolutely ubiquitous. + +Those early Anti-Slavery lecturers were a peculiar set. Since the days +of the Apostles there have been no more earnest propagandists. They +were both male and female. That they were, as a rule, financially +poor, it is unnecessary to state. They lived largely on the country +traversed. Sympathizers with their views, having received and +entertained them--sometimes clandestinely--after a public talk or two, +would carry them on to the next stations on their routes, occasionally +contributing a few dollars to their purses. It made no particular +difference to them whether they spoke in halls, in churches, or in +the open air. Before beginning their addresses their usual course was +to challenge their opponents to debate, and to taunt them with lack of +courage or principle if they failed to respond. Of course, they were +in constant danger from mobs. They were stoned, clubbed, shot at, and +rotten-egged, and in a few extreme cases tarred and feathered; but +they were never frightened from their work. + +They were by no means policy-wise. That was one of their +peculiarities. Their idea seemed to be that they could drive people +easier than they could lead them. They used no buttered phrases. They +told the plainest truths in the plainest way. They gave their +audiences hard words, and often received hard knocks in return. They +called the slaveholders robbers and man-stealers. They branded +Northern politicians with Southern principles as "dough-faces." But +their hardest and sharpest expletives were reserved for those Northern +clergymen who were either pro-slavery or non-committal. They blistered +them all over with their lashings. In speaking of one of the most +noted among them, Lowell describes him as + + "A kind of maddened John the Baptist + To whom the hardest word came aptest." + +The lecturer of whom I saw the most in those early trying days was +Professor Hudson, of Oberlin College. While in that part of the field +he made headquarters at my father's house, radiating out and filling +appointments in different directions. He was exceedingly sharp-tongued +and very fearless. Nothing seemed to please him better than a +"scrimmage" with his opponents. Often he conquered mobs by resolutely +talking them down and making them ashamed of themselves. But on one +occasion, looking through the window from the outside to see what +awaited him in a room where he was to speak, he saw a pot of boiling +tar on the stove that heated the room and a pillow-case full of +feathers conveniently near, while a half-drunken crowd was in +possession of the place, and concluded to run. He, however, had been +seen and was pursued. There was a foot race, but as some of the +pursuers were better sprinters than Hudson, and he was about to be +captured, he dashed into the first house he came to and asked for +protection. The proprietor was a kinsman of mine. He was an old man, +but hearty and vigorous. He ordered his sons to take their guns and +guard the other entrances, while he took his stand in the front door +with an axe in his hand. When the mob came up and demanded the +Abolitionist, he gave warning that he would brain the first man that +attempted to enter his house without his consent. So evidently in +earnest was he that the rowdies, after a little bluster, concluded to +give up the hunt and left in disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY + + +The National Anti-Slavery Society--the society organized by +Garrison and his _confrères_, and which longest maintained its +organization--made one great mistake. It disbanded. It assumed that +its work was done when African slavery in this country was pronounced +defunct by law. It took it for granted that the enslavement of the +colored man--not necessarily the negro--was no longer possible under +the Stars and Stripes. Then and there it committed a grievous blunder. +Its paramount error was in assuming that a political party could for +all time be depended upon as a party of freedom. It trusted to the +assurances of politicians that they would protect the colored man in +all his natural and acquired rights, and in that belief voluntarily +gave up the ghost and cast its mantle to the winds. + +Now, the fact is that the National Anti-Slavery Society was never more +needed than it is to-day. There is a mighty work to be done that was +directly in the line of its operations. First and foremost, it will +not be denied that a citizen of our Republic who is deprived of the +elective franchise is robbed of one of his most valuable +privileges--one of his most essential rights. The ballot, under a +political system like ours, is both the sword and the shield of +liberty. Without it no man is really a freeman. He does not stand on +an equality with his fellows. + +Nor will it be denied that the negro, although our amended +Constitution promises him all the privileges of citizenship, is in +many parts of our country practically divested of his vote. By a +species of legerdemain in the communities in which he is most numerous +and most needs protection, he is to all intents and purposes +disfranchised. What will follow as the final outcome we do not know, +but that is the beginning of his attempted re-enslavement. It is +beyond any question that his return to involuntary servitude in some +condition or conditions, the disarming him of the ballot being the +initial step in the proceeding, is seriously contemplated, if not +deliberately planned. Indeed, under the name of "peonage" the work of +re-establishing a system of slaveholding that is barbarous in the +extreme is already begun. Men and women have been seized upon by +force, and upon the most flimsy pretexts have been subjected to a +bondage that in its inhumanities may easily equal even the slavery of +the olden time. The number of victims is undoubtedly much larger than +the general public has any idea of. + +Nor are there lacking signs of studied preparation for the extension +of the system. The present time is full of them. Efforts to create a +prejudice against the colored man are visible in all directions. He is +described as a failure in the role of freeman. The idleness and +shiftlessness of certain members of his race--undoubtedly altogether +too numerous--are dwelt upon as characteristic of the entire family. +Scant praise is given to those members who are doing well, and whose +number is encouragingly large. These are as far as possible ignored. +The race problem is spoken of as full of increasing difficulties, and +as imperatively demanding a change from present conditions. The people +of the North are being especially indoctrinated with such ideas. They +are told that they must leave their brethren of the former +slaveholding States, and in which the negroes principally dwell, to +deal with the issues arising between the whites and the blacks; that +they--the Southerners--understand the questions to be settled, and +that outsiders should withhold their hands and their sympathies. It is +none of their business, they are informed, while assurances are freely +given that the people who, because of their experience with them, +understand the negroes, will take considerate care of them. What kind +of care they are taking of them in certain quarters is shown by recent +incontestable revelations. + +And what has the political party which, in view of its manifold +professions, was supposed to have the interests of the negro in its +especial keeping, done about it? Nothing whatever. It has looked on +with the coolest indifference. The only concern it has shown in the +matter has related to the question of Congressional representation as +dependent upon the enumeration of electors, and, in so doing, has +plainly intimated that if, through the negro's political robbery, it +can secure an increase of partisan power, it is perfectly willing that +the cause of the injured black man should "slide." + +Indifference in regard to the rights of peoples of color is +unfortunately not the only nor even the greatest charge to be laid at +the door of the Republican party. It may be asserted that this party +has become an active aggressor in trampling down the liberties of +colored peoples. As the assignee of Spain in taking over (without +consulting those who were most concerned) the control of the territory +of the Philippine Islands, it has purchased (and has paid cash for) +the right to dominate from eight to ten millions of people. These +people may, under the existing conditions, be described as being in a +state of slavery. If a foreign people, say a people coming from the +other side of the globe, should treat Americans as we have treated the +Filipinos, should deny to us the right of self-government, should send +great armies to chastise us for disobedience (or for what they might +call "rebellion"), and should do this for no better reason than that +our skin was darker or lighter than their own, we Americans would +doubtless consider ourselves to be in a state of slavery. Why in any +sense is slavery in Luzon more defensible than slavery in South +Carolina or in Alabama? If it be wrong to keep in slavery the black +man in America (as in theory at least we are all now agreed it is +wrong), what is the justice in depriving of his freedom the +brown-skinned Tagal? Can a bill of sale from Spain give to us any such +privilege, if privilege it may be called? Can an agreement with Spain +bring to naught our responsibilities under our own Declaration of +Independence? + +Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, we have as yet but +little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this +new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the +things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached +us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm +or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of +pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of +butcheries called "battles" in which have been slaughtered hundreds of +almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up +for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would +not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and +that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have +equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres +which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, +women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with +operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the +taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. +As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her +properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We +do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial +government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite +than that of the "water cure." How many of the perpetrators of these +atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been +punished at all? + +It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of +these horrible affairs. Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, +beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has +been silent--at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not +one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer +heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, +being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The +greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by +the apprehension that, through somebody's lack of patriotism, our flag +may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used +to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows +it. + +In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, +but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body +of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the +difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of +revulsion toward it. + +One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity--the +practical sameness--of the arguments used to justify the Philippine +occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We +are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were +then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the +bludgeon. + +Of course, there are other arguments. Increase of trade and wealth, as +the result of our appropriation of other peoples' possessions, is +freely predicted. It has always been the robber's plea. That is what +it is to-day, even when employed by a professed Christian nation. Nor +is it improved by the fact that the grounds upon which it is +predicated and urged are largely fallacious. The spoliation of the +Philippines will never repay us for the blood--our own blood--and +treasure it has cost us, apart from any moral or humanitarian +consideration. There is not one aspect in this business that promises +to redound to our benefit. No, I won't say that; I would hardly be +justified in going that far. In one particular the Philippine +operation has profited a considerable part of our people. It has added +materially to our Army and our Navy. The opportunity for enlargement +in those quarters was, undoubtedly, the strongest inducement for our +entering upon a colonial policy. For a great many people, and +especially in official circles, we cannot have a standing army that is +too large, nor too many ships of war. The more powerful those +appendages of our authority the larger is the opening for the kinsmen +and retainers of those in high places, who may be seeking profitable +and agreeable employment, and the more liberal the contributions of +contractors and jobbers to the sinews of partisan warfare. Our Army +to-day is nearly three times what it was five years ago, although +outside of the Philippines we are at peace with all mankind. Nor is +that formidable advance at an end. The Far East is now certain to be +the world's great battle-ground for the near future, and since we have +entered that field as the master of the Philippines, like a knight of +the olden time who was ready to do battle with all comers, we must be +constantly increasing our preparation. We may not only have to fight +the Russians and the Japanese and the Chinese, one or all, but those +foolish Filipinos may again take it into their silly heads that they +can govern themselves as well or better than we can do it for them. +That means rebellion, and, of course, chastisement must follow. As +climatic conditions in that part of the world are such that it +requires the presence of three men in the army to supply the active +services of one, it is obvious that so long as we adhere to our +present Asiatic policy, we shall never have an army and a navy large +enough and strong enough to meet the requirements of our new +condition. + +On all questions affecting human liberty, no one can fail to observe +that the attitude of the two great political parties of to-day, is +practically that of the two principal parties at the time the +Abolitionists began their operations. One of them may pass perfunctory +resolutions against the Philippine crime, but dares to say nothing +about the treatment visited upon the negro. The other may say a few +compassionate, but meaningless, words for the negro, but cannot +denounce the oppression of the Filipinos. Both are fatally handicapped +by their connections and committals. Both are, in fact, pro-slavery, +although the one in power, because of its responsibility for existing +conditions, is the more criminal of the two. + +What this country now needs, in the opinion of the writer, is a +revival of Abolitionism, and to that end, as one of the +instrumentalities that would be serviceable, he holds that the old +National Anti-Slavery Society should be restored. The most of the men +and women that made that institution so useful and honorable, have +passed from the scenes of their labors, but a few of them are left, +and they and such as may feel like joining them, should meet and +unfurl the old standard once more. There may be new associations +looking to very much the same ends, but better the old guard under the +old name. It would carry a prestige that no newer organization could +command. It would create a measure of confidence that would be most +strongly felt. The principles and policies it should urge are few and +simple. + +First: Let it declare that the colored man in this country must be +permitted to enjoy all his rights under the Constitution as it is, +both political and personal. + +Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude, including the +denial of political self-government, under the flag, as well as under +the Constitution, must cease. + +And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated, in the +spirit and with the confidence of the old-time leaders. The Society +should be revived and re-established, not for a single campaign only, +or for the rectification of such oppressions as are now in sight, but +for all time. It ought to be made a permanent institution. It should +be so arranged that the sons would step into the ranks as the fathers +dropped out and that new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus +reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable watchman +on the walls of Freedom's stronghold. The exhortation to which it +should listen, is that of the poet Bryant when he says: + + "Oh not yet + Mayst thou unloose thy corslet, nor lay by + Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids + In slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS + + +George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says that "three speeches +have made the places where they were delivered illustrious in our +history--three, and there is no fourth." He refers to the speech of +Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia, of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and +the first address of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall. + +If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three notable +deliverances above mentioned as the best and foremost examples of +American oratory, the author cannot agree with him. In his opinion we +shall have but little difficulty in picking out the three entitled to +that distinction, provided we go to the discussion of the slavery +question to find them. That furnished the greatest occasion, being +with its ramifications and developments, by far the greatest issue +with which Americans have had to deal. + +The three speeches to which the writer refers were the more notable +because they were altogether impromptu. They were what we call "off +hand." They were delivered in the face of mobs or other bitterly +hostile audiences--a circumstance that probably contributed not a +little to their effectiveness. + +John Quincy Adams, who was unquestionably one of the greatest of +American orators, made several speeches in Congress that will always +command our highest admiration; but the one to which a somewhat +extended reference is made in another chapter, when an attempt was +made by the slaveholders to expel him from that body, easily ranks +among the first three exhibitions of American eloquence. + +I quite agree with Mr. Curtis in giving the Faneuil Hall speech of +Wendell Phillips a pre-eminent place. A meeting had been called to +denounce the murder of Lovejoy, the Abolitionist editor. The audience +was composed in large part of pro-slavery rowdies, who were bent on +capturing or breaking up the meeting. One of their leaders--a high +official of the State of Massachusetts, by the way--made a speech in +which he justified the murderous act. "That speech must be answered +here and now," exclaimed a young man in the audience. "Answer it +yourself," shouted those about him. "I will," was the reply, "if I can +reach the platform." To the platform he was assisted, and although an +attempt was made for a time to howl him down, he persisted, and before +long so interested and charmed his hearers that his triumph was +complete. + +It did not take the country long to realize that in that young man, +who was Wendell Phillips, a new oratorical luminary had arisen. He +took up the work of lecturing as a profession, treating on other +subjects as well as slavery; but when slavery was the subject no +charge was made for his services. Said Frederic Hudson, the noted New +York editor, in 1860: "It is probable that there is not another man +in the United States who is as much heard and read as Henry Ward +Beecher, unless the other man be Wendell Phillips." + +The mention of Henry Ward Beecher's name is suggestive of oratory of +the very highest order. It will not be denied by any competent and +unprejudiced person that his great speech in England--there were five +addresses, but the substance was the same--upon the American question +(which directly involved the slavery issue) during our Civil War was +far and away the finest exhibition of masterful eloquence that is to +be credited to any of our countrymen. The world has never beaten it. + +Mr. Beecher found himself in England by a fortunate accident at a most +critical period in our national affairs. A crisis had there been +reached. A powerful party, including a large majority of the public +men of Great Britain, favored intervention in behalf of the South. +Southern agents were at work all over the kingdom, and were remarkably +effective in propagating their views. It looked as if the Rebel +interest was on the point of winning, when Mr. Beecher appeared on the +scene. He had not gone to England to make public speeches. He was +there for health and recreation, but, realizing the situation with his +quick perceptiveness, he took up the gage of battle. It was a fearful +resolution on his part. The chances seemed to be all against him. It +was one man against thousands. His victory, however, was complete. His +five great speeches in the business centres of England and Scotland +were not only listened to by thousands, but they went all over the +country in the public prints. They completely changed the current of +public opinion. + +Mr. Beecher's first address was in Manchester, which, owing to the +interest of the leading business men of that city in the cotton trade +and the furnishing of ships and supplies for blockade running, was a +seething hot bed of Rebel sentiment. When he arrived in that place on +the day he was to speak, he was met at the depot by friends with +troubled faces, who informed him that hostile placards--significantly +printed in red colors--had been posted all over the city, and, if he +persisted in trying to speak, he would have a very uncomfortable +reception. + +He was asked how he felt about trying to go on. "I am going to be +heard," was his reply. + +The best description of the scene that ensued is supplied in Mr. +Beecher's own words: + + "The uproar would come in on this side, and then on that. They + would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, + and I would wait until the noise had subsided and then get in + about five minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down, and + then up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see things + that amused me, and I would laugh outright, and the crowd would + stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I would sail in with + another sentence or two. A good many times the crowd threw up + questions that I caught and threw back. I may as well at this + point mention a thing that amused me hugely. There were baize + doors that opened both ways into side alleys, and there was a huge + burly Englishman standing right in front of one of these doors and + roaring like a bull of Bashan. One of the policemen swung his + elbow round and hit him in the belly and knocked him through the + doorway, so that the last part of his bawl was out in the + alleyway. It struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must + have looked when he found himself 'hollering' outside, that I + could not refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately + stopped its uproar, wondering what I was laughing at. That gave me + another chance, and I caught on to it. So we kept it up for about + an hour and a half before the people became so far calmed down + that I could go on peaceably with my speech. My audience got to + like the pluck I showed. Englishmen like a man that can stand on + his feet and give and take, and so for the last hour I had pretty + much clear sailing. The next morning every great paper in England + had the whole speech down. + + "And when the vote came to be taken--for in England it is + customary for audiences to express their decision on the subject + under discussion--you would have thought it was a tropical + thunder-storm that swept through the hall as the Ayes were + thundered, while the Nays were an insignificant and contemptible + minority. It had all gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never + saw." + +It has been repeatedly stated, and to this day is generally +believed,--is so stated in several of Mr. Lincoln's biographies, I +believe,--that Mr. Beecher went to England at the President's request, +and for the purpose of making a speaking tour. The best answer is that +given by Mr. Beecher himself. + + "It has been asked," said he, "whether I was sent by the + government. The government took no stock in me at that time. I had + been pounding Lincoln in the earlier years of the war, and I don't + believe there was a man down there, unless it was Mr. Chase, who + would have trusted me with anything. At any rate, I went on my own + responsibility." + +But in referring to Abolition orators, and especially orators whose +experience it was to encounter mobs, the writer desires to pay a +tribute to one of them whose name he does not even know. + +A meeting that was called to organize an Anti-Slavery society in New +York City was broken up by a mob. All of those in attendance made +their escape except one negro. He was caught and his captors thought +it would be a capital joke to make him personify one of the big +Abolitionists. He was lifted to the platform and directed to imagine +himself an Anti-Slavery leader and make an Abolition speech. The +fellow proved to be equal to the occasion. He proceeded to assert the +right of his race to the privileges of human beings with force and +eloquence. His hearers listened with amazement, and possibly with +something like admiration, until, realizing that the joke was on them, +they pulled him from the platform and kicked him from the building. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS + + +In speaking of the orators and oratory that were evolved by the +Slavery issue, there are two names that cannot be omitted. These are +Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It was the good fortune of the +writer to be an eye and ear witness of the closing bout, at Alton, +Illinois, between those two political champions in their great debate +of 1858. The contrast between the men was remarkable. Lincoln was very +tall and spare, standing up, when speaking, straight and stiff. +Douglas was short and stumpy, a regular roly-poly man. Lincoln's face +was calm and meek, almost immobile. He referred to it in his address +as "my rather melancholy face." Although plain and somewhat rugged, I +never regarded Lincoln's face as homely. I saw him many times and +talked with him, after the occasion now referred to. It was a good +face, and had many winning lines. Douglas's countenance, on the other +hand, was leonine and full of expression. His was a handsome face. +When lighted up by the excitement of debate it could not fail to +impress an audience. + +Lincoln indulged in no gesticulation. If he had been addressing a +bench of judges he would not have been more impassive in his manner. +He was an animate, but not an animated, bean-pole. He poured out a +steady flow of words--three to Douglas's two--in a simple and +semi-conversational tone. He attempted no witticisms and indulged in +no oratorical claptrap. His address was pure argument. Douglas's +manner was one of excitement, and accompanied and emphasized by almost +continuous bodily movement. His hands and his feet, and especially +that pliable face of his, were all busy talking. He said sharp things, +evidently for their immediate effect on his audience, and showed that +he was not only master of all the arts of the practical stump orator, +but was ready to employ them. + +But the most noticeable difference was in the voices of the men. +Douglas spoke first, and for the first minute or two was utterly +unintelligible. His voice seemed to be all worn out by his speaking in +that long and principally open-air debate. He simply bellowed. But +gradually he got command of his organ, and pretty soon, in a somewhat +laborious and painful way, it is true, he succeeded in making himself +understood. + +Lincoln's voice, on the contrary, was without a quaver or a sign of +huskiness. He had been speaking in the open air exactly as much as +Douglas, but it was perfectly fresh, not a particle strained. It was a +perfect voice. + +Those who wanted to understand Douglas had to press up close to the +platform from which he was speaking, and there was collected a dense, +but not very deep, crowd. There was no crowding in front of Lincoln +when he was speaking. He could be heard without it. There was a line +of wagons and carriages on the outskirts of the audience, and I +noticed, when Lincoln was speaking, that they were filled with +comfortably seated people listening to his address. They did not need +to go any nearer to him. The most of the shouting was done by +Douglas's partisans, composing a clear majority of the crowd, but it +was very manifest that Lincoln commanded the attention of the greater +number of those who were interested in the arguments. He did not act +as if he cared for the applause of the multitude. He said nothing, +apparently, simply to tickle the ears of his hearers. + +Rather strange was it that the only points on which there did not +appear to be much, if any, difference between the two men were reached +when they came to the propositions they advocated. Douglas was +avowedly pro-slavery. He was talking in southern Illinois and on the +border of Missouri, to which many of his hearers belonged, and his +audience was mostly Southern in its feelings. He was plainly trying to +please that element. He not only approved of slavery where it was, but +metaphorically jumped on the negro and trampled all over him. He +denied that the negro was a "man" within the meaning of the +Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, however, as far as slavery in +the States was involved, met Douglas on his own ground, and "went him +one better." He said, "I have on all occasions declared as strongly as +Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing +institution of slavery." + +If a stranger who knew nothing of the speakers and their party +associations had heard the two men on that occasion, he would have +concluded that one was strongly in favor of slavery and the other was +not opposed to it. + +Their only disagreement was as to slavery in the Territories, and that +was more apparent than real. Lincoln contended for free soil through +the direct action of the general government. Douglas advocated a +roundabout way that led up to the same result. His proposition, which +he called "popular sovereignty," was to leave the decision to the +people of the Territories, saying he did not care whether they voted +slavery up or voted it down. That was a practical, although indirect +declaration in favor of free soil. The outcome of the contests in +Kansas and California showed that at that game the free States with +their superior resources were certain to win. The shrewder +slaveholders recognized that fact, and their antagonism to Douglas +grew accordingly. They deliberately defeated him for the Presidency in +1860, when he was the regular candidate of the Democratic party, by +running Breckenridge as an independent candidate. Otherwise Mr. +Douglas would have become President of the United States. Out of a +total of 4,680,193 votes, Mr. Lincoln had only 1,866,631. The rest +were divided between his three antagonists. + +As between Lincoln and Douglas, who together held the controlling +hand, the slaveholders preferred Lincoln, against whom they had no +personal feeling, while they knew that his policy was no more +dangerous to their interests than the other man's, if faithfully +adhered to and carried out. Besides that, by this time many of them +had reached that state of mind in which they wanted a pretext for +secession from the Union. Lincoln's election would give them that +pretext while Douglas's would not. + +On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the +writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a +prominent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who +expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather trust +the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative and +honest man like "Old Abe," than to those of "a political jumping-jack +like Douglas." The most of the other Southern men and slaveholders +present seemed to concur in his views. + +It is a fact that a good many of the Anti-Slavery leaders living +outside of Illinois, and a good many of those living within it, wanted +the Republicans of that State to let Douglas go back to the Senate +without a contest, believing that he would be far more useful to them +there than a Republican would be. It is not improbable that enough of +the Illinois Republicans took that view of the matter, and helped to +give Douglas the victory in what was a very close contest. + +A portion of Douglas's speech was a spirited defense of his "squatter +sovereignty" doctrine against the denunciations of members of his own +political party, in the course of which he gave President Buchanan a +savage overhauling. It showed him to be a master of invective. + +"Go it, husband; go it, bear," was Mr. Lincoln's comment on that part +of Douglas's address. I went to the debate with a very strong +prejudice against Douglas, looking upon him as one of the most +time-serving of those Northern men whom the Abolitionists called +"dough-faces." I confess that my views of the man were considerably +modified. I admired the pluck he showed in speaking when his voice was +in tatters. Still more did I like the resolution he displayed in +defying those leaders of his own party, including the President, who +wanted him to retreat from the ground he had taken, seeing that it had +become practically Anti-Slavery. + +At the same time I had an almost worshipful admiration for Lincoln, +whom I had not before seen or heard. I expected a great deal from him. +I thought his closing appeal in that great debate would contain some +ringing words for freedom. He had, as I supposed, a great opportunity +for telling eloquence. He stood almost on the ground that had drunk +the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact +ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was +altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It +was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died +in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I +was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with +any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression +was not afterwards wholly removed from my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN + + +My father was a subscriber to the _National Era_, the Anti-Slavery +weekly that was published in Washington City before the war by Dr. +Gamaliel Bailey. Being the youngest member of the family, I usually +went to the post-office for the paper on the day of its weekly +arrival. One day I brought it home and handed it to my father, who, as +the day was warm, was seated outside of the house. He was soon +apparently very much absorbed in his reading. A call for dinner was +sounded, but he paid no attention to it. The meal was delayed a little +while and then the call was repeated, but with the same result. At +last the meal proceeded without my father's presence, he coming in at +the close and swinging the paper in his hand. His explanation, by way +of apology, was that he had become very much interested in the opening +installment of a story that was begun in the _Era_, and which he +declared would make a sensation. "It will make a renovation," he +repeated several times. + +That story, it is almost needless to say, was _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, and +it is altogether needless to say that it fully accomplished my +father's prediction as to its sensational effects. Since the +appearance of the Bible in a form that brought it home to the common +people, there has been no work in the English language so extensively +read. The author's name became at once a cynosure the world over. When +Henry Ward Beecher, the writer's distinguished brother, delivered his +first lecture in England, he was introduced to the audience by the +chairman as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Stowe. + +The way in which the idea of writing the book came to the author was +significant of the will that produced it. A lady friend wrote Mrs. +Stowe a letter in which she said, "If I could use a pen as you can, I +would write something that would make the whole nation feel what an +accursed thing slavery is." When the letter reached its destination, +and Mrs. Stowe came to the passage above quoted, as the story is told +by a friend who was present, she sprang to her feet, crushed the +letter in her hand in the intensity of her feeling, and with an +expression on her face of the utmost determination, exclaimed, "If I +live, I will write something that will do that thing." + +The circumstances under which she executed her great task would +ordinarily be looked upon as altogether prohibitory. She was the wife +of a poor minister and school-teacher. To eke out the family income +she took boarders. She had five children of her own, who were too +young to be of any material assistance, and, in addition, she +occasionally harbored a waif that besought her protection when fleeing +from slavery. Necessarily the most of her time was spent in the +kitchen. There, surrounded by meats and vegetables and cooking +appliances, with just enough of the common deal table cleared away to +give space for her writing materials, she composed and made ready for +the publisher by far the most remarkable work of fiction this country +has produced. Slavery is dead, but Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece lives, and +is likely to live with growing luster as long as our free institutions +survive, which it is to be hoped will be forever. + +One of the most remarkable early workers in the Abolition cause was +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, a little Quaker woman of Pennsylvania. The writer +saw her for the last time shortly before her death. She was then +acting as presiding officer of an "Equal Rights"--meaning equal +suffrage--meeting. Sitting on one hand was Susan B. Anthony, and on +the other Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and next to one of them sat a +stately negro. + +She was then an aged woman, but her eye seemed to be as bright and her +movements as alert as they had ever been. Framed by her becoming +Quaker bonnet, which she retained in her official position, the face +of the handsome old lady would have been a splendid subject for an +artist. + +Mrs. Mott gave much of her time and all the means she could control to +the cause of the slave. She was an exceedingly spirited and eloquent +speaker. On one lecturing tour she traveled twenty-four hundred miles, +the most of the way in old-fashioned stage-coaches. By a number of +taverns she was denied entertainment. + +Like other pioneers in the same movement, Mrs. Mott was the victim of +numerous mobbings. One incident shows her courage and resourcefulness. +An Anti-Slavery meeting she was attending was broken up by rowdies, +and some of the ladies present were greatly frightened. Seeing this +Mrs. Mott asked the gentleman who was escorting her, to leave her and +assist some of the others who were more timid. "But who will take care +of you?" he asked. "This man," she answered, lightly laying her hand +on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob. The man, completely +surprised, responded by respectfully conducting her through the tumult +to a place of safety. + +But before Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Mott had taken up the work for the +bondman, two other remarkable women had become interested in his +cause. Their history has some features that the most accomplished +novel-writer could not improve upon. They were sisters, known as the +Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, the latter becoming the wife of +Theodore W. Weld, a noted Abolition lecturer. They were daughters of a +Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, their early home being +in Charleston. + +The family was of the highest pretension, being related to the Rhetts, +the Barnwells, the Pickenses, and other famous representatives of the +Palmetto aristocracy. It was wealthy, and of course had many slaves. +The girls had their colored attendants, whose only service was to wait +upon them and do their bidding. That circumstance finally led to +trouble. + +At that time there was a statute in South Carolina against teaching +slaves to read and write. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. +The Grimké girls, however, had little respect for or fear of that +law. The story of their offending is told by Sarah. + +Her attendant, when she was little more than a child, was a colored +girl of about the same age. She says, + + "I took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little + waiting maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in + combing and brushing my long hair. The light was put out, the + key-hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with + the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South + Carolina." + +South Carolina was long noted for its rebels, but it never had a more +interesting one than the author of the above narrative; nor a braver +one. + +As the sisters grew up, they more and more showed their dislike of +slavery and their disposition to aid such colored people as were +within their circle. Such conduct could not escape observation, and +the result was their banishment from their Southern home. They were +given the alternative of "behaving themselves" or going North to live. +They were not long in deciding, and they became residents of +Philadelphia. Here they joined the Quakers, because of their +coincidence of views on the slavery question. They had before been +Presbyterians, having been raised as such. They became industrious and +noted Anti-Slavery lecturers. To one of them is to be credited a +notable oratorical achievement. + +Being no longer able to ignore the growing Anti-Slavery sentiment of +its constituency, the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838 appointed a +committee to consider the part that that State had in the subject of +slavery, and especially in connection with slavery in the District of +Columbia. The committee asked an expression of their views from those +entertaining different sentiments on the subject. The Anti-Slavery +people invited Angelina Grimké to represent them. The sessions of the +committee were to be held in the great hall of the Legislature in the +State House, where, up to that time, no woman had ever spoken. The +chairman of the committee, however, consented that Miss Grimké should +be heard, and the fact that she was a woman probably helped to bring +out an immense audience. + +She spoke for two hours, and then, being asked to speak again, at the +next meeting, she spoke for two hours more. The impression she +produced may be inferred from the fact that the chairman of the +committee was in tears nearly the whole time she was speaking. The +effect upon all who heard her was admitted to be very great. + +The sincerity of these women was put to an unusual test. They had a +brother who remained in South Carolina, where he was a prominent +citizen and a large slave-owner. Like many sharing the privileges of +"the institution," he led a double life. He was married to a white +woman by whom he had children. He also had a family by a colored woman +who was one of his slaves. In his will he bequeathed his slave family +to a son by his lawful wife, with the stipulation that they should not +be sold or unkindly treated. + +Of these things the Grimké sisters knew nothing until after the war +which had freed their illegitimate relatives. Then all the facts came +to their knowledge. What should they do about it? was the question +that immediately confronted them. Should they--"Carolina's high-souled +daughters," as Whittier describes them, and not without some part in +the pride of the family to which they belonged--acknowledge such a +disreputable relationship? Not a day nor an hour did they hesitate. +They sent for their unfortunate kinspeople, accepted them as blood +connections, and took upon themselves the duty of promoting their +interests as far as it was in their power to do so. + +Although a quiet and retiring person, and, moreover, so much of an +invalid that the greater part of her time was necessarily passed in a +bed of sickness, a New England woman had much to do with publishing +the doctrines of Abolitionism, through the lips of the most eloquent +man in the country. She was the wife of Wendell Phillips, the noted +Anti-Slavery lecturer. + +"My wife made me an Abolitionist," said Phillips. How the work was +done is not without its romantic interest. + +It was several years before he made his meteoric appearance before the +public as a platform talker, and while yet a law student, that +Phillips met the lady in question. The interview, as described by one +of the parties, certainly had its comical aspect. "I talked +Abolitionism to him all the time we were together," said Mrs. +Phillips, as she afterwards related the affair. Phillips listened, and +that he was not surfeited nor disgusted appears from the fact that he +went again and again for that sort of entertainment. + +When Phillips asked for her hand, as the story goes, she asked him if +he was fully persuaded to be a friend of the slave, leaving him to +infer that their union was otherwise impossible. + +"My life shall attest the sincerity of my conversion," was his gallant +reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MOBS + + +In his _Recollections_, the Rev. Samuel T. May, who was one of the +most faithful and zealous of the Anti-Slavery pioneers, and belonged +to that band of devoted workers who were known as Abolition lecturers, +tells of his experience in delivering an Anti-Slavery address in the +sober New England city of Haverhill. + + "It was a Sabbath evening," he says. "I had spoken about fifteen + minutes when the most hideous outcries--yells and screeches--from + a crowd of men and boys, who had surrounded the house, startled + us, and then came heavy missiles against the doors and the blinds + of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping + the doors and blinds were strong enough to withstand the attack. + But presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, + scattered a pane of glass, and fell upon the head of a lady + sitting near the center of the hall. She uttered a shriek and fell + bleeding on the floor." + +There was a panic, of course, and the Abolition lecturer would have +been roughly handled by the mob if a young lady, a sister of the poet +Whittier, had not taken him by the arm, and walked with him through +the astonished crowd. They did not feel like attacking a woman. + +There was nothing unusual, except the part performed by the young +lady, in the affair described in the foregoing narrative. Mobs were of +constant occurrence in the period of which we are speaking. It was not +in the slave States that they were most frequent. Northern communities +that were regarded as absolutely peaceable and perfectly moral thought +nothing of an anti-Abolitionist riot now and then. They occurred "away +up North" and "away down East." Even sleepy old Nantucket, in its +sedentary repose by the sea, woke up long enough to mob a couple of +Abolition lecturers, a man and a woman. + +The community in which the writer resided when a boy, was fully up to +the pacific standard of most Northern neighborhoods. Yet it was the +scene of many turmoils growing out of Anti-Slavery meetings. The +district schoolhouse, which was the only public building in the +village that was open for such gatherings, called for frequent repairs +on account of damages done by mobs. Broken windows and doors were +often in evidence, and stains from mud-balls, decayed vegetables, and +antiquated eggs, which nobody took the trouble to remove, were nearly +always visible. + +On one occasion, at an evening meeting, the lecturer was a young +professor, who was "down" from Oberlin College, against which, as "an +Abolition hole," there was a very strong prejudice. He had not got +more than well started, when rocks, bricks, and other missiles began +to crash through the windows. The mob was resolved to punish that +young man, and had come prepared to give him a coating of unsavory +mixture. He was a preacher as well as a teacher, and his "store +clothes" were likely to betray him; but some thoughtful person had +brought an old drab overcoat and a rough workman's cap, and arrayed in +these garments he walked through the crowd without his identity being +suspected. + +But another party was not so fortunate. He was a respected citizen of +the village, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a strong +pro-slavery man. He dressed in black and his appearance was not unlike +that of the lecturer. By some hard luck he happened to be passing that +way when the crowd was looking for the Abolitionist, and was +discovered. "There he goes," was the cry that was raised, and a fire +of eggs and other things was opened upon him. He reached his home in +an awful plight, and it was charged that his conversation was not +unmixed with profanity. + +On another occasion the writer was present when the friends of the +lecturer undertook to convey him to a place of safety. They formed a +circle about him and moved away while the mob followed, hurling eggs +and clods and sticks and whatever else came handy. We kept quietly on +our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly +graveled, and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to +our use. Here we halted, and, with rocks in hand, formed a line of +battle. It took only one volley to put the enemy to rout, and we had +no further trouble. + +At last, after several men had been prevented from speaking in our +village, the services of a female lecturer were secured. The question +then was, whether the mob would be so ungallant as to disturb a woman. +The matter was settled by the rowdies on that occasion being more than +usually demonstrative. The lecturer showed great courage and presence +of mind. She closed the meeting in due form, and then walked calmly +through the noisy throng that gave her no personal molestation or +insult. Deliberately she proceeded to a place of safety--and then went +into hysterics. + +Finding that it was impossible to hold undisturbed public meetings, +the Abolitionists adopted a plan of operations that was altogether +successful. They met in their several homes, taking them in order, and +there the subject they were interested in was uninterruptedly +discussed. Intelligent opponents of their views were invited to +attend, and frequently did so. So warm were the discussions that arose +that the meetings sometimes lasted for entire days, and conversions +were not unusual. + +It was in one of these neighborhood gatherings that the writer first +became an active Anti-Slavery worker. He had memorized one of Daniel +O'Connell's philippics against American slavery, and, being given the +opportunity, declaimed it with much earnestness. After that he was +invited to all the meetings, and had on hand a stock of selections for +delivery, his favorite being Whittier's _Slave Mother's Lament over +the Loss of Her Daughters_: + + "Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + Where the slave whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings; + Where the fever demon strews + Poison with the falling dews; + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air. + Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia's hills and waters-- + Woe is me my stolen daughters!" + +It was marvelous how little damage all the mobs effected. Lovejoy of +Illinois was killed--a great loss--and occasionally an Abolitionist +lecturer got a bloody nose or a sore shin. Professor Hudson, of +Oberlin College, used to say that the injury he most feared was to his +clothes. He carried with him what he called "a storm suit," which he +wore at evening meetings. It showed many marks of battle. + +Among those who suffered real physical injury was Fred. Douglass, the +runaway slave. While in bondage he was often severely punished, but he +encountered rougher treatment in the North than in the South. He was +attacked by a mob while lecturing in the State of Indiana; was struck +to the earth and rendered senseless by blows on the head and body, and +for a time his life was supposed to be in danger. Although in the main +he recovered, his right hand was always crippled in consequence of +some of its bones having been broken. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS + + +If any one is desirous of estimating the extent of the sacrifice of +life, of treasure, of home and family comforts, and of innumerable +fair hopes that the institution of slavery, in its struggle, not +merely for existence, but for supremacy, cost this country, let him +visit a government cemetery in the neighborhood of one of the great +battle-fields of the Rebellion, and there, while looking down the long +avenues lined with memorial stones that a grateful country has set up, +make inquiry as to the number of those that are there bivouacked "in +fame's eternal camping ground." Some idea--a faint one it is +true--will then be had of the multitudes that gave up all they +possessed that liberty might live and rule in this fair land of ours. +They were martyrs in the very highest sense to Freedom's immeasurable +cause. The war was the product of slavery. It was the natural outcome +of the great moral conflict that had so long raged in this country. It +was simply the development of an agitation that had begun on other +lines. + +But there were martyrs to the cause of freedom before the war. +Everybody knows more or less of the story of John Brown, of +Ossawatomie, whose soul kept "marching on," although his body was +"a-mouldering in the grave." + +There was another case involving the surrender of life to that cause, +which has always struck me as having stronger claims to our sympathies +than that of John Brown and his comrades in self-sacrifice. + +I have already referred to Elijah P. Lovejoy who was a young +Congregational clergyman, who went from the State of Maine to St. +Louis, Missouri, in 1839. He became the editor of a religious journal +in which he expressed, in very moderate terms, an opinion that was not +favorable to slave-holding. The supporters of the institution were +aroused at once. They demanded a retraction. "I have sworn eternal +hostility to slavery, and by the blessing of God I will never go +back," was his reply. He also declared, "We have slaves here, but I am +not one of them." + +It was deemed advisable by Mr. Lovejoy and his friends to move his +printing establishment to Alton, opposite Missouri, in the free State +of Illinois. There, however, a pro-slavery antagonism immediately +developed. His press was seized and thrown into the Mississippi River. +The same fate awaited two others that were procured. But, undismayed, +Mr. Lovejoy and his friends once more decided that their rights and +liberties should not be surrendered without a further effort. Another +press was sent for. But in the meanwhile a violent public agitation +had arisen. At the instance of certain pro-slavery leaders in the +community a public meeting had been called to denounce the +Abolitionists. Mr. Lovejoy was invited to attend it and declare what +he would do. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "as long as I am an American citizen; as long as +American blood runs in my veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to +speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, +being amenable to the laws of my country for the same." + +The fourth press arrived. It was landed from a passing boat in the +small hours of the morning, and was safely conveyed to a warehouse +where Mr. Lovejoy and several of his friends assembled with a view to +its protection. What followed is thus described: + + "An hour or two afterwards there came from the grog-shops a crowd + of people who knocked at the door and demanded the press. One of + the owners of the warehouse informed them it would not be given + up. Presenting a pistol, the leader of the mob announced that they + were resolved to have the press at any cost. Stones were thrown, + windows broken, and shots were fired at the building. The cry of + 'burn them out' was raised. Ladders were procured, and some of the + rioters mounted to the roof of the building and set it on fire. + Mr. Lovejoy at this point stepped out of the building for the + purpose of having a talk with his enemies, when he was fired upon. + He received five balls, three in his breast. He was killed almost + instantly." + +The animosity of his enemies was such that they followed his remains +with scoffings and insults on its way to the grave. + +But the most cruel and brutal persecutions by the slave power were +not always those that involved the sacrifice of life. + +In Canterbury, in the State of Connecticut, lived a Quaker lady of the +name of Prudence Crandall. She conducted a school for young ladies. +Among those she admitted was a colored girl. The fact becoming known, +objection was raised by the citizens of the place. The position in +which Miss Crandall was placed was a most trying one. Having invested +all her means in the school building and its equipment, she was +confronted with the alternative of losing her business and her +property, or dismissing the colored student who had done no wrong. She +chose to stand by her principles. + +A public meeting was called, and a resolution to prevent the +maintenance of the school, if colored students were admitted, was +adopted by the citizens. Nevertheless, that brave Quakeress opened her +doors to several colored young women. That brought the issue to a +head, and then began a system of most remarkable persecutions. The +school building was bombarded with clubs and stones, the proprietress +found the stores of the village closed against her, and the young lady +students were grossly insulted when they appeared upon the streets. +Even the well from which drinking water was obtained was polluted. + +Finding that there was no law in Connecticut under which the +instruction of colored people could be prohibited and punished, the +enemies of Miss Crandall went to the Legislature of the State and +asked for such an enactment, and, to the eternal disgrace of that +body, their request was complied with. It was made a crime in +Connecticut to instruct colored people in the rudiments of an ordinary +education. + +Miss Crandall, as she made no change in her course of action, was +arrested, brought before a committing magistrate, and sent to jail. A +man had shortly before been confined in the same prison for the murder +of his wife, and therefrom had gone to execution. Miss Crandall was +confined in the cell this man had occupied. Other indignities were +heaped upon this devoted and courageous lady. Physicians refused to +attend the sick of her household, and the trustees of the church she +was accustomed to attend notified her that she and the members of her +family were denied admission to that sanctuary. + +Miss Crandall was finally convicted of the crime with which she was +charged, but the case, being carried to the highest court of the +State, was dismissed on a technicality. But, although the legal +prosecution of this poor woman reached an end, her enemies did not +cease their opposition. The mob made an attack upon her dwelling, +which was also her schoolhouse. Doors and windows were broken in, and +the building was so thoroughly wrecked as to be uninhabitable. Having +no money with which to make repairs, she was forced to abandon the +structure and her educational business at the same time. + +The Crandall family became noted for its martyrs. A brother of +Prudence Crandall was Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington City. He was +a man of high attainments, being a lecturer in a public scientific +institution. While engaged in his office he received some packages +that had been wrapped in newspapers, among which happened to be a copy +or two of Abolition journals. At the request of a gentleman who was +present at the unpacking he gave him one of the publications. Having +looked it over the gentleman dropped it, where it was picked up by +some one who was on the lookout for incendiary publications. No little +excitement followed its discovery. The community was aroused. Indeed, +so great was the agitation occasioned that Dr. Crandall, to whom the +inhibited paper had been traced, was in great physical danger from mob +violence. He was arrested, and, partly to save his life, was thrust +into jail, where he remained for eight months. He was tried and, +although acquitted, was really made the subject of capital punishment. +Tuberculosis developed as the result of his incarceration, and death +soon followed. + +Of many cases of the kind that might be cited, perhaps none is more +strikingly illustrative than that of Charles Turner Torrey, a New +England man. He was accused of helping a slave to escape from the city +of Baltimore, and being convicted on what was said to be perjured +testimony, was sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. The +confinement was fatal, a galloping consumption mercifully putting a +speedy end to his confinement. And then a remarkable incident +occurred. Torrey was a minister in good standing of the Congregational +denomination, and also a member of the Park Avenue Church of Boston. +Arrangements were made for funeral exercises in that church, but its +managers, taking alarm at the threats of certain pro-slavery men, +withdrew their permission and locked the sanctuary's doors. Slavery +punished the dead as well as the living. + +The case of Amos Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be +mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a +convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass +for a book called the _Cottage Bible_ which would not ordinarily be +supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. While +peaceably attending to his business he was accused of Anti-Slaveryism. +He did not deny the charge and was arrested, his trunk being broken +open and its contents searched and scattered. He was taken before a +vigilance committee and by it was condemned to receive twenty lashes +on his bare back, "well laid on," and then to be driven out of town. +The sentence was carried out, we are told, in the presence of +thousands of people of both sexes. + +Of the many somewhat similar instances that might here be referred to +the writer will make room for only one more. + +A seafaring man of the name of Jonathan Walker undertook to convey in +a sloop of which he was the owner seven colored fugitives to the +Bahama Islands, where they would be free. Owing to an accident to his +boat, he and his companions were captured. He was sentenced, among +other things, to have his hand branded with the letters S.S., +signifying "Slave Stealer." + +The incident just referred to inspired one of the finest productions +of Whittier's pen. Singing of that "bold plowman of the wave" he +proceeds: + + "Why, that hand is highest honor, + Than its traces never yet + Upon old memorial hatchments was + A prouder blazon set; + And the unborn generations, as they + Tread our rocky strand, + Shall tell with pride the story of + Their father's branded hand." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD + + +The prescribed penalties for assisting in the escape of fugitive +slaves were severe. By the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, as it was +called, any one convicted of that offense, besides a liability for one +thousand dollars damages recoverable in a civil action, was subject to +a five-hundred-dollars fine and imprisonment in a penitentiary for one +year. As the writer has not "done time" for participation in certain +transactions dating back to his earlier days, in which the legal +rights of slave-owners were indifferently respected, he thinks it +advisable to be somewhat reserved in his recital of personal +experiences when taking the public into his confidence. The Fugitive +Slave Law--and for that fact we should give "most hearty thanks"--is +about as dead as any statute can be, but as in the case of a snake +that has been killed, it may be the wiser course not to trifle with +its fangs. Therefore, instead of telling my own story in the first +person singular, I offer as a substitute the confession of one John +Smith, whose existence no one will presume to dispute. Here is his +statement: + + "There was an old barn on my father's farm. It was almost a ruin. + One end of the roof had fallen in, pretty much all the windows + were gone, and there was a general air of dilapidation about the + place. A dwelling-house, to which it was an appendage, had been + burned and not rebuilt, and the barn had been left to fight a + battle with the elements and other foes in pretty much its own + way. + + "Not that it was wholly abandoned. There was one mow that was kept + pretty well supplied with grass, and there were two or three horse + stalls that were in tolerable order, although but rarely used. + There were a number of excellent hiding-places about the old + rookery. In the basement all sorts of rubbish, including unused + vehicles and machinery, had been stored away, and so wedged and + packed was it that it would have taken hours to uncover man or + beast seeking concealment there. + + "One of the curious features of the situation was that the + building was in sight of none of the roads in the neighborhood, + while less than a hundred feet from it was a strip of woods in + which the removal of the larger trees had stimulated a sturdy and + densely matted undergrowth that was penetrable only by means of + paths that had been made by the cattle. It was what was called a + 'woods pasture.' With this cover for his movements any one could + approach or leave the old barn with little danger of discovery. + + "Naturally enough, such a ramshackle was in ill-repute. There were + tales about it in the neighborhood. Some children had gone there + to play on one occasion, and had been badly frightened by a + big--as big as a half-bushel, they asserted--black face that was + seen to be watching them. They fled from the premises in great + alarm, and for a time there was talk of an investigation by their + friends. The incident, however, was soon forgotten. + + "That old barn was a regular station on one of the underground + railroads that extended from the Ohio River to Canada. To but few + persons was its true character known, and they were very + close-mouthed about it. I was one of the few that were in the + secret. Being the youngest member of the family, it fell to my lot + to drive the horses and cows to and from the pasture in which the + old barrack was located, and while there it was an easy matter to + visit that establishment and ascertain if it sheltered any fresh + arrivals. + + "One day I had to report that two fugitives were in the barn, + being a mother and child. Then came the question--which in that + instance was a difficult one to answer--as to who should convey + them to the next station on the line, twenty miles away. A + brother, between five and six years older than I was, and who was + something of a dare-devil, did the most of the work of + transportation, but he was in bed with typhoid fever. A hired man, + who was employed partly because he was in hearty accord with the + humanitarian views of the household, and who on several occasions + had taken my brother's place, was absent. There was nobody but + myself who was ready to undertake the job, and I was only eleven + years old. There was no help for it, however. The slaves had to be + moved on, and I was greatly rejoiced in the prospect of adventure + that was opened up to me. The journey had to be made at night, but + for that I cared nothing, as I had repeatedly gone over the route + by daylight, and thought I knew the road perfectly. + + "Midnight found me on the highway, and on the driver's seat of one + of our farm wagons, to which was attached a span of horses moving + in the direction of the north star. That luminary was not on this + occasion visible. The sky was heavily overcast and the night was + very dark. A light rain was falling. With all the confidence I had + in my own ability, more than once would I have lost the way, but + for the sagacity of the horses, which had gone over that route a + number of times under similar circumstances. They acted as if + altogether familiar with it. Those horses proved themselves to be + excellent Abolitionists. + + "The inclemency of the night was in one respect a great advantage. + It kept at home those who might incline to be too inquisitive. The + few travelers we met passed on with a word of greeting, while I + whistled unconcernedly. + + "Over the bottom of the wagon was scattered some hay that might be + used either as feed for the horses or as a bed for weary + travelers. There was also an old-fashioned buffalo-robe, somewhat + dilapidated, that could serve for concealment or as shelter from + the elements. Two or three empty baskets suggested a return from + the market. There was another article that one would hardly have + looked for. This was a smoke-cured ham loosely wrapped in some old + sacking. It had gone over that route a number of times. Its odor + neutralized the smell by which the presence, immediate or recent, + of negroes might be detected. + + "My fellow-travelers, as my passengers might be called, were + interesting companions. Both, in one sense, were children, the + mother certainly not being over seventeen years old. She was a + comely half-breed mulatto. Her baby--a pretty boy of two + years--was one degree nearer white. + + "The girl was inclined to be confidential and talkative. She said + she was 'old mas'r's' daughter. Her mother had been one of 'old + mas'r's' people. She had grown up with the other slave children on + the place, being in no way favored because of her relationship to + her owner. The baby's father was 'young mas'r'--old master's son, + as it appeared--and who, consequently, was a half-brother of the + youthful mother. Slavery sometimes created singular relationships. + + "As the story ran, all the people, including the narrator and her + baby, when 'ole mas'r' died were 'leveled' on by the Sheriff's + man. She did not quite understand the meaning of it all, but it + was doubtless a case of bankruptcy. + + "'Young mas'r,' she said, 'tole' her she had to run away, taking + the baby of course. 'Oh, yes," she said very emphatically, 'I + never would have left Kentuck without Thomas Jefferson'--meaning + her little boy. 'Young mas'r,' according to her account, arranged + the whole proceeding, telling her what course to take by night, + where to stop and conceal herself by day, and what signal to give + when she reached the 'big river.' + + "When the Ohio had been crossed her young master met her, + evidently to the great delight of the poor creature. He gave her + some money, and told her that when she reached her destination he + would send her some 'mo.' After putting her in charge of some kind + people, evidently representatives of the underground line, they + had parted, according to her description of the incident, in an + affecting way. 'He kissed me and I cried,' was her simple + statement. Notwithstanding the boasted superiority of one race + over another, human nature seems to be very much the same, whether + we read it in a white face or in a black one. + + "The little girlish mother was very much alarmed for the safety of + her boy and herself when we began our journey, wanting to get out + and conceal herself whenever we heard any one on the road. After + several detentions from that cause, the weary creature stretched + herself upon the hay beside her sleeping infant and almost + immediately fell into a heavy slumber. She could stand the strain + no longer. I drew the buffalo-robe over the two sleepers, and + there they rested in blissful unconsciousness until the journey + was ended. + + "Half-way between the termini of my route was a village in which + lived a constable who was suspected of being in the employ of the + slave-owners. It was thought advisable that I should avoid that + village by taking a roundabout road. That I did, although it added + an extra half to my trip. The result was that the sun was just + peeping over the eastern hills, as I reached a set of bars showing + an entrance into a pasture lot on one side of the highway. + Removing the bars, I drove into the field, and passing over a + ridge that hid it from the road, I stopped in front of a log cabin + that had every appearance of being an abandoned and neglected + homestead. That was the station I was looking for. Arousing my + sleeping passengers, I saw them enter the old domicile, where I + bade them good-by, and received the tearful and repeated thanks of + the youthful slave mother, speaking for herself and her offspring. + I never saw them again, but in due time the news came back, over + what was jocularly called the 'grape-vine telegraph,' that they + had safely reached their destination. + + "At the home of the station agent I was enthusiastically received. + That a boy of eleven should accomplish what I had done was thought + to be quite wonderful. I was given an excellent breakfast, and + then shown to a room with a bed, where I had a good sleep. On my + awakening I set out on the return journey, this time taking the + most direct route, as I had then no fear of that hireling + constable. + + "Subsequently I passed through several experiences of a similar + kind, some of them involving greater risks and more exciting + incidents, but the recollection of none of them brings me greater + satisfaction than the memory of my first conductorship on the + Underground. + + "All of which is respectfully submitted by + + "JOHN SMITH." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +COLONIZATION + + +I have had a good deal to say about Anti-Slavery societies. There was +another society which was called into existence by the slavery +situation. Whether it was pro-slavery or anti-slavery was a question +that long puzzled a good many people. It was the Colonization Society. +A good many Anti-Slavery people believed in it for a time and gave it +their support. "I am opposed to slavery, but I am not an Abolitionist: +I am a Colonizationist," was a declaration that, when I was a boy, I +heard many and many times, and from the lips of well-intending people. + +It did not take the sharp-sighted leaders of the Abolition movement +very long to discover that one of the uses its managers expected to +make of the Colonization Society was as a shield for slavery. It kept +a number of excellent people from joining in an aggressive movement +against it, took their money, and made them believe that they were at +work for the freedom of the negro. + +Strangely as it might appear, the negroes, who were assumed to be the +beneficiaries of the colonization scheme, were opposed to it. Quicker +than the white people generally did, they saw through its false +pretense, and, besides, they could not understand why they should be +taken from the land of their nativity, and sent to the country from +which their progenitors had come, any more than the descendants of +Scotch, English, and German immigrants should be deported to the lands +of their ancestors. + +Equally strange was it that the Colonization Society, if really +friendly to the negro, should find its most zealous supporters among +slaveholders. Its first president, who was a nephew of George +Washington, upon learning that his slaves had got the idea that they +were to be set at liberty, sent over fifty of them to be sold from the +auction block at New Orleans. That was intended as a warning to the +rest. One of its presidents was said to be the owner of a thousand +slaves and had never manumitted one of them. The principal service +that the colonization movement was expected to do for the slave-owners +was to relieve them of the presence of free negroes. These were always +regarded as a menace by slave-masters. They disseminated ideas of +freedom and manhood among their unfortunate brethren. They were +object-lessons to those in bondage. The slave-owners were only too +glad to have them sent away. They looked to Liberia as a safety-valve. +It did not take long for intelligent people who were really +well-wishers of the black man to perceive these facts. + +The severest blow that the Colonization Society received in America +was from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, who, under the title of +_Thoughts on African Colonisation_, published a pamphlet that had +wide distribution. It completely unmasked the pretended friendship of +the Colonizationists for the negroes, free or slave. From that time +they lost all support from real Anti-Slavery people. There was, +however, to be a battle fought, in which the Colonization Society +figured as a party, that furnished one of the most interesting +episodes of the slavery conflict. + +England, at the time of which we are speaking, was full of +Anti-Slavery sentiment. Slavery, at the end of a long and bitter +contest, had been abolished in all her colonies. Her philanthropists +were rejoicing in their victory. The managers of the Colonization +Society resolved, if possible, to capture that sentiment, and with it +the pecuniary aid the British Abolitionists might render. It was +always a tremendous beggar. They, accordingly, selected a +fluent-tongued agent and sent him to England to advocate their cause. +He did not hesitate to represent that the Colonization Society was the +especial friend of the negro, working for his deliverance from +bondage, and, in addition, that it had the support of "the wealth, the +respectability, and the piety of the American people." + +When these facts came to the knowledge of the members of the newly +formed New England Anti-Slavery Society, they were naturally excited, +and resolved to meet the enemy in this new field of operations. This +they decided to do by sending a representative to England, who would +be able to meet the colonization agent in discussion, and otherwise +proclaim and champion their particular views. For this service the man +selected was William Lloyd Garrison, who was then but twenty-eight +years old. + +Remarkable it was that one who was not only so young, but imperfectly +educated, being a poor mechanic, daily toiling as a compositor at his +printer's case, should be chosen to meet the most polished people in +the British Empire, and hold himself ready to debate the most serious +question of the time. That such a person should be willing to enter +upon such an undertaking was almost as remarkable. But Garrison showed +no hesitation in accepting the task for which he was selected. + +On his arrival in England, Garrison sent a challenge to the +colonization agent for a public debate. This the Colonizationist +refused to receive. Two more challenges were sent and were treated in +the same way. Then Garrison, at a cost of thirty dollars, which he +could ill afford to pay, published the challenge in the London +_Times_, with a statement of the manner in which it had been so far +treated. Of course, public interest was aroused, and when Garrison +appeared upon the public platform, as he at once proceeded to do, he +was greeted with the attendance of multitudes of interested hearers. +Exeter Hall in London was crowded. The most distinguished men in +England sat upon the stage when he spoke, and applauded his addresses. +Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, paid them a most florid +compliment. They were, unquestionably, most remarkable samples of +effective eloquence--plain in statement, simple in style, but +exceedingly logical and forcible. They were widely published +throughout England at the time of their delivery. + +One of the results was that the leading emancipationists of Great +Britain signed and published a warning against the colonization +scheme, denouncing it as having its roots in "a cruel prejudice," and +declaring that it was calculated to "increase the spirit of caste so +unhappily predominant," and that it "exposed the colored people to +great practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate." + +As for the poor agent of the Colonizationists, seeing how the battle +was tending, he left England in a hurry, and was nevermore heard of in +that part of the world. + +Garrison's personal triumph was very striking, and it was splendidly +earned. He was made the recipient of many compliments and +testimonials. A curious incident resulted from this great popularity. +He was invited to breakfast by Sir Thomas Buxton, the noted English +philanthropist, with a view to making the acquaintance of a number of +distinguished persons who were to be present. When Mr. Garrison +presented himself, his entertainer, who had not before met or seen +him, looked at him in great astonishment. + +"Are you William Lloyd Garrison?" he inquired. + +"That is who I am," replied Mr. Garrison, "and I am here on your +invitation." + +"But you are a white man," said Buxton, "and from your zeal and labors +in behalf of the colored people, I assumed that you were one of them." + +Garrison left England in what, metaphorically, might be described as +"a blaze of glory." Hundreds attended him when he went to embark on +his homeward voyage, and he was followed by their cheers and +benedictions. Wonderfully different was the treatment he received on +his arrival in his own country. Not long afterwards he was dragged +through Boston streets by a hempen rope about his body, and was +assigned to a prison cell, as affording the most available protection +from the mob. + +Nevertheless, we have had some excellent people--not +slave-owners--who, out of compassion for the black man, or from +prejudice against his color, and, perhaps, from a little of both, have +favored a policy of colonization in this country. Mr. Lincoln was one +of them. "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what +to do with the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free +the slaves and send them to Liberia." So said Mr. Lincoln in one of +his debates with Douglas. + +"I cannot make it better known than it already is," said Mr. Lincoln +in a message to Congress, dated December 1, 1862, "that I strongly +favor colonization." + +At Lincoln's instance Congress appropriated several large sums of +money--then much needed in warlike operations--for colonizing +experiments. One of these has a curious and somewhat pathetic history. +A sharper by the name of Koch, having worked himself into the +confidence of the President and some other good people, got them to +buy from him an island in the West Indies, called Ile a'Vache, which +he represented to be a veritable earthly paradise. Strangely enough, +it was wholly uninhabited, and therefore ready for the uses of a +colony. Several hundred people--colored, of course--were collected, +put aboard a ship, and dumped upon this unknown land. It will +surprise no one to learn that pretty soon these people, poisoned by +malaria, stung by venomous insects and reptiles, and having scarcely +anything to eat, were dying like cattle with the murrain. In the end a +ship was sent to bring back the survivors. + +Nevertheless, the kind-hearted President did not give up the idea. At +his request a delegation of Washington negroes called upon him. He +made them quite a long speech, telling them that Congress had given +him money with which to found a colony of colored people, and that he +had found what seemed to be a suitable location in Central America. He +appealed to them to supply the colonists. The negroes, not anxious for +exile, diplomatically said they would think the matter over. In the +end it was discovered that Central America did not want the negroes, +and that the negroes did not want Central America. + +A story that is curiously illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's attachment to +the policy of removing the colored people is told by L.E. Chittenden +in his _Recollections of President Lincoln_. Mr. Chittenden was a +citizen of Vermont and Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, with +whom he was in intimate and confidential relations: + + "During one of his welcome visits to my office," says Mr. + Chittenden, "the President seemed to be buried in thought over + some subject of great interest. After long reflection he abruptly + exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a question. + + "'Do you know any energetic contractor?' he inquired; 'one who + would be willing to take a large contract attended with some + risk?' + + "'I know New England contractors," I replied, 'who would not be + frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element + of prospective profit is the only one that would interest them. If + there was a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to + contract to suppress the Rebellion in ninety days." + + "'There will be profit and reputation in the contract I may + propose,' said the President. 'It is to remove the whole colored + race of the slave States into Texas. If you have any acquaintance + who would take that contract, I would like to see him.' + + "'I know a man who would take that contract and perform it,' I + replied. 'I would be willing to put you into communication with + him, so that you might form your own opinion about him.' + + "By the President's direction I requested John Bradley, a + well-known Vermonter, to come to Washington. He was at my office + the morning after I sent the telegram to him. I declined to give + him any hint of the purpose of my invitation, but took him + directly to the President. When I presented him I said: 'Here, Mr. + President, is the contractor whom I named to you yesterday.' + + "I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to my + office overflowing with admiration for the President and + enthusiasm for his proposed work. 'The proposition is,' he said, + 'to remove the whole colored race into Texas, there to establish a + republic of their own. The subject has political bearings of which + I am no judge, and upon which the President has not yet made up + his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will + undertake to remove them all within a year.'" + +It is unnecessary to state that the Black Republic of Texas was a +dream that never materialized. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION + + +Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who were Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries +during the time he was President, and afterwards the authors of his +most elaborate biography, say: "The blessings of an enfranchised race +must forever hail him as their liberator." + +Says Francis Curtis in his _History of the Republican Party_, in +speaking of the President's Emancipation Proclamation: "On the 1st day +of January, 1863, the final proclamation of freedom was issued, and +every negro slave within the confines of the United States was at last +made free." + +Other writers of what is claimed to be history, almost without number, +speak of the President's pronouncement as if it caused the bulwarks of +slavery to fall down very much as the walls of Jericho are said to +have done, at one blast, overwhelming the whole institution and +setting every bondman free. Indeed, there are multitudes of fairly +intelligent people who believe that slaveholding in this country +ceased the very day and hour the proclamation appeared. In a recent +magazine article, so intelligent a man as Booker Washington speaks of +a Kentucky slave family as being emancipated by Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation, when, in fact, the proclamation never applied to +Kentucky at all. + +The emancipationists of Missouri were working hard to free their State +from slavery, and they would have been only too glad to have Mr. +Lincoln do the work for them. They appealed to him to extend his edict +to their State, but got no satisfaction. The emancipationists of +Maryland had much the same experience. Both Missouri and Maryland were +left out of the proclamation, as were Tennessee and Kentucky and +Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Louisiana and the Carolinas. (See +Appendix.) The explanation is that the proclamation was not intended +to cover all slaveholding territory. All of it that belonged to States +that had not been in rebellion, or had been subdued, was excluded. The +President's idea was to reach only such sections as were then in +revolt. If the proclamation had been immediately operative, and had +liberated every bondman in the jurisdiction to which it applied, it +would have left over a million slaves in actual thraldom. Indeed, Earl +Russell, the British premier, was quite correct when, in speaking of +the proclamation, he said: "It does not more than profess to +emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make +emancipation a reality, and emancipates no one where the decree can be +carried into effect." + +For the failure of the proclamation to cover all slaveholding +territory there was a plausible reason. Freedom under it was not +decreed as a boon, but as a penalty. It was not, in theory at least, +intended to help the slave, but to chastise the master. It was to be +in punishment of treason, and, of course, could not consistently be +made to apply to loyal communities, or to such as were under +government control. The proclamation, it will be recollected, was +issued in two parts separated by one hundred days. The first part gave +the Rebels warning that the second would follow if, in the meanwhile, +they did not give up their rebellion. All they had to do to save +slavery was to cease from their treasonable practices. Had the Rebels +been shrewd enough, within the hundred days, to take the President at +his word, he would have stood pledged to maintain their institution, +and his proclamation, instead of being a charter of freedom, would +have been a license for slaveholding. + +The proclamation did not, in fact, whatever it may have otherwise +accomplished at the time it was issued, liberate a single slave. What +is more, slavery as an institution was altogether too securely rooted +in our system to be abolished by proclamation. The talk of such a +thing greatly belittles the magnitude of the task that was performed. +Its removal required a long preliminary work, involving, as is made to +appear in previous chapters of this work, almost incalculable toil and +sacrifice, to be followed by an enormous expenditure of blood and +treasure. Its practical extinguishment was the work of the army, while +its legal extirpation was accomplished by Congress and the +Legislatures of the States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution, which forbids all slaveholding. That amendment +was a production of Congress and not of the Executive, whose official +approval was not even required to make it legally effective. + +The story of the proclamation, with not a few variations, has often +been told; but the writer fancies that the altogether correct account +has not always been given. It may be presumptuous on his part, but he +will submit his version. + +To understand the motive underlying the proclamation we must take into +account its author's feeling toward slavery. Notwithstanding various +unfriendly references of an academic sort to that institution, he was +not at the time the proclamation appeared, and never had been, an +Abolitionist. + +Not very long before the time referred to the writer heard Mr. +Lincoln, in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois, +declare--laying unusual emphasis on his words: "I have on all +occasions declared as strongly as Judge Douglas against the +disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery." + +Judge Douglas was what was then called a "dough-face" by the +Abolitionists--being a Northern man with Southern principles, or +"proclivities," as he called them. + +Only a little earlier, and several years after Mr. Lincoln had claimed +to be a Republican, and a leader of the Republicans, he had, in a +speech at Bloomington, Illinois, asserted that, "the conclusion of it +all is that we must restore the Missouri Compromise." + +Now the adoption of the Missouri Compromise was the hardest blow ever +inflicted on the cause of free soil in America. It did more to +encourage the supporters of slavery and to discourage its opponents +than anything else that ever happened. Its restoration would +undoubtedly have produced a similar effect. Although he is not to be +credited with any philanthropic motive, Stephen A. Douglas did an +effective work for freedom when he helped to overthrow that measure. +Leading Abolitionists have accorded him that meed of praise. + +But there was that proposition which Mr. Lincoln was so fond of +repeating, that the nation could not remain half free and half +slave--"a divided house"--but the remedy he had to propose was not +manumission at any proximate or certain time, but the adoption of a +policy that, to use his own words, would cause "the public mind to +rest in the belief that it [slavery] was in the course of ultimate +extinction." Practically that meant very little or nothing. What the +public mind then needed was not "rest," but properly directed +activity. + +But the declarations above quoted were all before Mr. Lincoln had +become President or had probably thought of such a thing. Did the +change of position lead to a change of opinion on his part? We are not +left in uncertainty on this point. His official views were declared in +what might be called a State paper. Soon after his inauguration, his +Secretary of State sent Minister Dayton, at Paris, a dispatch that he +might use with foreign officials, in which, in speaking of the +Rebellion, he said: "The condition of slavery in the several States +will remain just the same whether it succeeds or fails.... It is +hardly necessary to add to this incontrovertible statement the further +fact that the new President has always repudiated all designs, +whenever and wherever imputed to him, of disturbing the system of +slavery as it has existed under the Constitution and laws." + +About the same time Mr. Lincoln stated to a party of Southern +Congressmen, who called upon him, that he "recognized the rights of +property that had grown out of it [slavery] and would respect those +rights as fully as he would similar rights in any other property." + +No steps were taken by Mr. Lincoln to recall or repudiate the +foregoing announcements. On the contrary, he confirmed them in his +official action. He annulled the freedom proclamations of Frémont and +Hunter. He did not interfere when some of his military officers were +so busy returning fugitive slaves that they had no time to fight the +masters. He approved Hallock's order Number Three excluding fugitives +from the lines. He even permitted the poor old Hutchinsons to be sent +away from the army very much as if they had been colored people, when +trying to rouse "the boys" with their freedom songs. In many ways Mr. +Lincoln showed that in the beginning and throughout the earlier part +of his Administration he hoped to re-establish the Union without +disturbing slavery. In effect he so declared in his introduction to +his freedom proclamation. He gave the rebel slaveholders one hundred +days in which to abandon their rebellion and save their institution. +In view of such things it is no wonder that Henry Wilson, so long a +leading Republican Senator from Massachusetts, in his _Rise and Fall +of the Slave Power_, in speaking of emancipation, said "it was a +policy, indeed, which he [the President] did not personally favor +except in connection with his favorite idea of colonization." + +It is needless to say that the President's attitude was a great +surprise and a sore disappointment to the more radical Anti-Slavery +people of the country, who had supported him with much enthusiasm and +high hopes. They felt that they had been deceived. They said so very +plainly, for the Abolitionists were not the sort of people to keep +quiet under provocation. Horace Greeley published his signed attack +(see Appendix) entitled, _The Prayer of Twenty Millions_, which is, +without doubt, the most scathing denunciation in the English language. +Henry Ward Beecher "pounded" Mr. Lincoln, as he expressed it. Wendell +Phillips fairly thundered his denunciations. There was a general +under-swell of indignation. + +Now, Mr. Lincoln was not a man who was incapable of reading the signs +of the times. He saw that he was drifting towards an irreparable +breach with an element that had previously furnished his staunchest +supporters. As a politician of great native shrewdness, as well as the +head of the Government, he could not afford to let the quarrel go on +and widen. There was need of conciliation. Something had to be done. +We know what he did. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation. + +As far as freeing any slaves was concerned, he knew it amounted to +very little, if anything. He said so. Less than two weeks before the +preliminary section of the proclamation appeared, Mr. Lincoln was +waited on by a delegation of over one hundred Chicago clergymen, who +urged him to issue a proclamation of freedom for the slaves. "What +good would a proclamation from me do, especially as we are now +situated?" asked Mr. Lincoln by way of reply. "I do not want to issue +a document that the whole world would see must necessarily be +inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word +free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the +rebel States?" + +In contemplating a proclamation applicable to the rebel States, it is +hardly to be supposed that Mr. Lincoln did not understand the +situation two weeks earlier quite as well as when the document +appeared. + +If Mr. Lincoln had been told, when he entered on the Presidency, that +before his term of office would expire he would be hailed as "The +Great Emancipator," he would have treated the statement as equal to +one of his own best jokes. Slavery was a thing he did not then want to +have disturbed. He discountenanced all radical agitators of the +subject, and especially in the border slave States, where he was able +to hold them pretty well in check, except in Missouri. There they +stood up and fought him, and in the end beat him. One of the rather +curious results of this condition of things was that, when the States +came to action on the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, the one +absolutely abolishing slavery, the three border slave States of +Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, over which the President's influence +was practically supreme, gave an adverse vote of four to one, while +Missouri, with whose radical emancipationists he had continuously been +at loggerheads, ratified the amendment by a legislative vote of one +hundred and eleven ayes to forty nays. + +Nevertheless, notwithstanding the President, at the beginning of his +official term, opposed Anti-Slavery agitation and Anti-Slavery action +with all his might, he promptly faced about as soon as he discovered +that the subject was one that would not "down." No one ever worked +harder to find a solution of a difficult problem than he did of the +slavery question. He began to formulate plans to that end, the most +distinguishing feature, however, being the spirit of compromise by +which they were pervaded. All of them stopped before an ultimatum was +reached. Besides his proclamation, which, as we have seen, applied to +only a part of the slaves, he devised a measure that would have been +applicable to all of them. In his special message of December, 1863, +he proposed to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment +that would work universal liberation. There were conditions, however. +One was that the slaves should be paid for by the Government; another +that the masters might retain their uncompensated services until +January 1, 1900; that is, for a period of thirty-seven years, unless +they were sooner emancipated by the grave, as the most of them would +be. (See Appendix.) + +The President's somewhat fantastic proposition was not claimed by him +to be for the bondman's benefit. He urged it as a measure of public +economy, holding that, as slavery was the admitted cause of the +Rebellion, the quickest and surest way to remove that cause would be +by purchase of all the slaves, which, he insisted, "would shorten the +war, and thus lessen the expenditure of money and blood." + +The public did not take to the President's plan at all, especially the +Abolitionists did not. They no more favored the buying of men by the +Government than by anybody else. They held that if the master had no +right to the person of his bondman, he had no right to payment for +him. And as for an arrangement that might prolong slaveholding for +thirty-seven years, they saw in it not only a measure of injustice to +the men, women, and children then in servitude, the most of whom would +be doomed to bondage for the rest of their natural lives, but a +possible plan for side-tracking a genuine freedom movement. + +In the proposition just considered we have not only the core of the +President's policy during much of his official tenure, but an +explanation of his mental operations. He was sentimentally opposed to +slavery, but he was afraid of freedom. He dreaded its effect on both +races. He was opposed to slavery more because it was a public nuisance +than because of its injustice to the oppressed black man, whose +condition, he did not believe, would be greatly, if at all, benefited +by freedom. Hence he wanted manumission put off as long as possible. +It was "ultimate extinction" he wanted, to be attended with payment to +the master for his lost property. Another thing he favored--and which +he seems to have thought entirely practicable--as a condition to +liberation, was the black man's removal to a place or places out of +contact with our white population. + +But in entire fairness to Mr. Lincoln, it should be said that, +although his proclamation was inoperative for the immediate release of +any slaves, it was by no means wholly ineffectual. Its moral influence +was considerable. It helped to hasten a movement that had, however, by +that time become practically irresistible. Its political results were +far more marked and important. If it did not fully restore cordiality +between the President and the Abolition leaders, it prevented an open +rupture. It served as a bridge between them. Although they never took +Mr. Lincoln fully into their confidence again, the Abolitionists +interpreted his proclamation as a concession and an abandonment of his +previous policy, which it was much more in appearance than actually. +At all events, it was splendid politics. The somewhat theatrical +manner in which it was worked up and promulgated in installments, thus +arousing in advance a widespread interest and curiosity, showed no +little strategic ability. No more skillful move is recorded in the +history of our parties and partisans than this act of Mr. Lincoln, by +which he disarmed his Anti-Slavery critics without giving them any +material advantage or changing the actual situation. I am not now +speaking of the motive underlying the proclamation of the President, +but of its effect. Without it he could not have been renominated and +re-elected. + +Another observation, in order to be entirely just to Mr. Lincoln, +after what has been stated, would at this point seem to be called for. +There is no doubt that from the first he was at heart an Anti-Slavery +man, which is saying a good deal for one born in Kentucky, raised in +southern Indiana and southern Illinois, and who was naturally of a +conservative turn of mind. Nevertheless, he was never an Abolitionist. +He was opposed to immediate--what he called "sudden"--emancipation. He +recognized the "right"--his own word--of the slave-owner to his pound +of flesh, either in the person of his bondman or a cash equivalent. He +was strongly prejudiced against the negro. Of that fact we have the +evidence in his colonization ideas. He favored the banishment of our +American-born black people from their native land. It was a cruel +proposition. True, the President did move from his first position, +which, as we have seen, was far from that occupied by the +Abolitionists, but from first to last he was more of a follower than +leader in the procession. + +And here the author wishes to add, in justice to himself, that if, by +reason of anything he has said in this chapter, or elsewhere in this +work, in criticism of Mr. Lincoln's dealings with the slavery issue, +he should be accused of unfriendliness toward the great martyr +President, he enters a full and strong denial. He holds that, in view +of all the difficulties besetting him, Mr. Lincoln did well, although +he might have done better. Much allowance, must be made to one +situated as he was. He undoubtedly deserves the most of the encomiums +that have been lavished upon him. At the same time, the conclusion is +inevitable that his fame as a statesman will ultimately depend less +upon his treatment of the slavery issue than upon any other part of +his public administration. The fact will always appear that it was +the policy of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, +Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and other advocates of the radical +cure, with whom the President was in constant opposition, that +prevailed in the end, and with a decisiveness that proves it to have +been feasible and sound from the beginning. Mr. Lincoln's most ultra +prescription--his Emancipation Proclamation--was ineffective. If it +was intended to eradicate slavery altogether, it was too narrow; if to +free the slaves of Rebels only, it was too broad. So with his other +propositions. His thirty-seven-year-liberation scheme, his "tinkering +off" policy (as he called it) for Missouri, his reconstruction +proposals, and his colonization projects, all failed. Indeed, if we +take his official action from first to last, it is a question whether +the President, owing to his extreme conservatism, was not more of an +obstructionist than a promoter of the Anti-Slavery cause. + +Not that any change of opinion on the point just stated will +materially affect the general estimate in which Mr. Lincoln is held. +Although his popularity, due, in part at least, to the extravagance of +over-zealous admirers, has without much doubt already passed its +perihelion, it can never disappear or greatly diminish. His untiring +and exhaustive labors for the Union, the many lovable traits of his +unique personality, his unquestionable honesty, his courage, his +patriotism, and, above all, his tragic taking off, have unalterably +determined his place in the regard of his countrymen. Indeed, so +strong is the admiration in which he is held, that it would be vain to +attempt to disabuse many, by any amount of proof and argument, of the +opinion that African slavery in this country was actually and +exclusively killed by a presidential edict. So firmly fixed in the +popular belief is that historical myth that it will undoubtedly live +for many years, if not generations, although history in the end will +right it like all other misunderstandings. + +Mr. Lincoln had his weaknesses and limitations, like other men. All +must admit that his treatment of the slavery question was not without +its mistakes. It has always seemed to the writer that his most ardent +admirers seriously blunder in claiming superlativeness for him in that +regard, and more especially in giving him credit for results that were +due to the efforts of other men. His fame is secure without such +misappropriation. He would not ask it if living, and it will in due +time be condemned by history. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE END OF ABOLITIONISM + + +The original and distinctive Abolition movement that was directed +against slavery in all parts of the land without regard to State or +territorial lines, and because it was assumed to be wrong in principle +and practice, may be said, as far as the country at large was +concerned, to have culminated at the advent of the Republican party. +To a considerable extent it disappeared, but its disappearance was +that of one stream flowing into or uniting with another. The union of +the two currents extended, but did not intensify, the Anti-Slavery +sentiment of the country. It diluted it and really weakened +it. It brought about a crisis of great peril to the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism--in some respects the most critical through which it +was called upon to pass. Many of those attaching themselves to the +Republican party, as the new political organization was called, were +not in sympathy with Abolitionism. They were utterly opposed to +immediate emancipation; or, for that matter, to emancipation of any +kind. They wanted slavery to remain where it was, and were perfectly +willing that it should be undisturbed. They disliked the blacks, and +did not want to have them freed, fearing that if set at liberty they +would overrun what was then free soil. + +The writer recollects hearing a prominent man in the new party, who +about that time was making a public speech, declare with great +emphasis that, "as for the niggers, they are where they ought to be." +The speaker on that occasion was one of many who belonged to the +_débris_ of the broken-up Whig party, and who drifted into +Republicanism because there was no other more attractive harbor to go +to. One of these men was Abraham Lincoln, whom I heard declare in his +debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois: "I was with the old-line Whigs +from the origin to the end of their party." The Whigs were never an +Anti-Slavery party. The recruits to Republicanism from that quarter +were generally very tender on "the nigger question," and the most they +were prepared to admit was that they were opposed to slavery's +extension. These men largely dominated the new party. They generally +dictated its platforms, which, compared with earlier Abolition +utterances, were extremely timid, and they had much to do with making +party nominations. Their favorite candidates were not those whose +opinions on the slavery question were positive and well understood, +but those whose views were unsettled if not altogether unknown. When +General Frémont was nominated for the Presidency, not one in ten of +those supporting him knew what his opinions on that subject were, and +a good many of them did not care. Mr. Lincoln was accepted in much the +same way. + +It is true that, from certain expressions about the danger to our +national house from being "half free" and "half slave," and other +generalizations of a more or less academic sort, it was known that +Mr. Lincoln was antagonistic to slavery; but as to whether he favored +that institution's immediate or speedy extinguishment, and, if so, by +what measures, was altogether unknown. We now know, from what has been +set forth in another chapter, that at the time of his first nomination +and election, he had very few things in common with the Abolitionists. +He then evidently had no thought of being hailed as the "liberator of +a race." He preferred, for the time at least, that the race in +question should remain where it was, and as it was, unless it could be +bodily transported to some other country and be put under the +protection of some other flag. + +He did not break with the Abolitionists, although he kept on the edge +of a quarrel with them, and especially with what he called the +"Greeley faction," a good part of the time. He never liked them, but +he was a shrewd man--a born politician--and was too sagacious to +discard the principal round in the ladder by which he had climbed to +eminence. He managed to keep in touch with the Anti-Slavery movement +through all its steady advancement, but, as elsewhere stated, it was +as a follower rather than as a leader. + +While a resident of the slave State of Missouri, I twice voted for Mr. +Lincoln, which was some evidence of my personal feeling toward him. +Both times I did it somewhat reluctantly. On the first occasion there +were four candidates. Breckenridge and Bell were Southern men--both by +residence and principle--and had no claim on Anti-Slavery support. But +with Douglas the case was different. He had quarreled with the +pro-slavery leaders, although of his own party. He had defied +President Buchanan in denouncing border-ruffianism in Kansas. He had +refused to give up his "popular sovereignty" dogma, although it +clearly meant ultimate free soil. The slave-masters hated him far more +than they did Lincoln. I heard them freely discuss the matter. They +were more afraid of the vindictiveness of the fiery Douglas than of +the opposition of good-hearted, conservative Lincoln. In my opinion +there was good reason for that feeling. Douglas, as President, would +undoubtedly have pushed the war for the Union with superior energy, +and slavery would have suffered rougher treatment from his hands than +it did from Mr. Lincoln's. There was another reason why the +slaveholders preferred the election of Lincoln to that of Douglas. +Lincoln's election would furnish the better pretext for the rebellion +on which they were bent, and which they had already largely planned. +They were resolved to defeat Douglas at all hazards, and they +succeeded. + +Douglas had been very distasteful to the Abolitionists. They called +him a "dough-face." Nevertheless, quite a number of them where I lived +in Missouri voted for him. Missouri was the only State he carried, and +there he had less than five hundred majority. He got more than that +many free-soil votes. I was strongly tempted to give him mine. Chiefly +on account of political associations, I voted for Lincoln. + +When it came to the second election, I again voted for Mr. Lincoln +with reluctance. The principal reason for my hesitancy was his +treatment of the Anti-Slavery people of the border slave States, and +especially of Missouri. The grounds for my objection on that score +will appear in the next chapter, which deals with the Missouri +embroglio, as it was called. + +From what has just been stated, it will be seen that the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism had, at the formation of the Republican party, reached +a most perilous crisis. It was in danger of being submerged and +suffocated by unsympathetic, if not positively unfriendly, +associations. It ran the risk, after so many years of toil and +conflict, of being undone by those in whose support it was forced to +confide. Such would undoubtedly have been its fate if, owing to +circumstances over which no political party or other organization of +men had control, the current of Anti-Slavery sentiment had not risen +to a flood that swept all before it. + +It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis just alluded +to, the nearest approach to original Abolitionism that was to be +found, was in a slave State. In Missouri there was an organized +opposition to slavery that had been maintained for several years, and +which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed by this movement was +undoubtedly due in large measure to the inspiration of the man who was +its originator, if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton. +Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has been a +much-disputed question, but one thing is certain, and that is that the +men who sat at his feet, who were his closest disciples and imbibed +the most of his spirit--such as B. Gratz Brown, John How, the Blairs, +the Filleys, and other influential Missourians,--were Abolitionists. +Some of them weakened under the influence of the national +administration, but not a few of them maintained their integrity. Even +in the first days of the Civil War, when all was chaos there, an +organization was maintained, although at one time its only working and +visible representatives consisted of the members of a committee of +four men--a fifth having withdrawn--who were B. Gratz Brown, +afterwards a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards +Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of St. Louis, and the +writer of this narrative. They issued an appeal that was distributed +all over the State, asking those in sympathy with their views to hold +fast to their principles, and to keep up the contest for unconditional +freedom. To that appeal there was an encouraging number of favorable +responses. + +And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said to have been lost +by merger elsewhere, it remained in its independence and integrity in +slaveholding Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil, and +in four years so far made itself master of the situation that a +constitutional State convention, chosen by popular vote, adopted an +ordinance under which an emancipationist Governor issued his +proclamation, declaring that "hence and forever no person within the +jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of +liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, +or know any master but God." + +The writer entered on this work with no purpose of relating or +discussing the story of the Republican party, in whole or in any part. +His subject was Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but +for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which reference has just +been made. That manifestation, he thinks, is deserving of recognition, +both on its own account and as a continuation of the original +movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute to its discussion +because he was then a Missourian by residence, and had something to do +with its successful prosecution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MISSOURI + + +In his interesting, though rather melodramatic, romance, _The Crisis_, +Winston Churchill tells the imaginary story of a young lawyer who went +from New England to St. Louis, and settled there shortly before the +outbreak of the Civil War. Having an abundance of leisure, and being +an Abolitionist, he devoted a portion of the time that was not +absorbed by his profession to writing articles on slavery for the +_Missouri Democrat_, which, notwithstanding its name, was the organ of +the Missouri emancipationists, and lived in part on the money he +received as compensation for that work. That in part describes the +author's experience. He was at that time a young lawyer in St. Louis, +to which place he had come from the North, and those who have read the +earlier chapters of this work are aware that he was an Abolitionist. +Having a good deal of time that was not taken up by his professional +employments, he occupied a portion of it in writing Anti-Slavery +contributions to the _Democrat_, and, so far as he knows, he was the +only person who to any extent did so. A collection was made of a +portion of his articles, and with money contributed by friends of the +cause, they were published in pamphlet form under the title of _Hints +toward Emancipation in Missouri_, and distributed throughout the +State. + +There the parallelism of the cases ceases. The writer got no pecuniary +compensation for his labor. He asked for none and expected none. The +_Democrat_ was then in no condition to pay for volunteer services, +having a hard struggle for existence. He was able to do it a service +that, possibly, saved it from at least a temporary suspension. One of +its chief difficulties was in getting printing paper, the manufacturer +it had been patronizing declining to furnish it except for cash, while +the _Democrat_ needed partial credit. At that time Louis Snyder, of +Hamilton, Ohio, a large paper-maker, visited St. Louis on business +that called for legal assistance, and I was employed by him. When the +work in hand was finished, I remarked that there was something else he +might do in St. Louis that would pay him. I explained the situation of +the _Democrat_, and assured him that, in my opinion, he would be +perfectly safe in giving trust to its proprietors, who were honest +men. + +"Will you indorse their paper?" he asked. + +Mr. Snyder was a crafty as well as a thrifty German. + +I replied that, as I was not a wealthy man, the question did not seem +to be pertinent. + +"Will you indorse their paper for one thousand dollars?" was his next +question. + +Being by this time somewhat "spunked up," I replied that I would. + +"Then I shall be pleased to meet your friends," said Mr. Snyder. + +The result of the interview that followed was such that the +_Democrat_ was materially assisted in continuing its publication. + +It is hardly necessary to state that I never heard anything more of +the one-thousand-dollar indorsement, the sole purpose of which was, +doubtless, to test my sincerity. + +Soon afterwards I was offered the political editorship of the +_Democrat_, which I accepted on the one condition that there was to be +"no let-up on emancipation." I held the position until Missouri was a +free State. + +In a surprisingly short time after the question of Missouri's status +in reference to the Union was decided, the issue between +Pro-Slaveryism and Anti-Slaveryism came up. Political parties ranged +themselves upon it. Those who favored slavery's immediate or speedy +abolishment became known as Radicals, while those advocating its +prolongation were called Conservatives. Those descriptives, however, +were too mild for such a time, and they were quickly superseded by a +more expressive local nomenclature. The Radicals, because of their +alleged sympathy with the negro, were branded as "Charcoals," and +their opponents, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and +Semi-Unionists, because of the variegated complexion of the mixture, +were set down as "Claybanks." Mulattoes are Claybanks. + +The Claybanks, or Conservatives, at the outset enjoyed a decided +advantage in having the State government on their side. This was not +the regularly elected administration, which was driven out because of +its open support of secession, but its provisional successor. In +trying to take the State out of the Union with a show of legality, the +lawful Governor and his official associates made provision for a State +convention to be chosen by the people, which they expected to control, +but which, having a Unionist majority, played the boomerang on them by +sending them adrift and taking the affairs of the State into its own +hands. In this it had opposition. The most progressive men of the +State insisted that, after it had settled the question of Missouri's +relations to the Union, with reference to which it was specially +chosen, it was _functus officio_. They held that there should be a new +and up-to-date convention, especially as the old one, owing to the +desertion of many of its treasonably inclined members, including +General Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, who was its first +president, had become "a rump," and so there were old-conventionists +and new-conventionists. The old-convention men, however, were in the +saddle. They had the governmental machinery, and were resolved to hold +on to it. In that spirit the convention proceeded to fill the vacant +offices. It was in sentiment strongly pro-slavery, as was shown by the +fact that a proposal looking to the very gradual extinguishment of +slavery was rejected by it in an almost unanimous vote, a circumstance +that led the leading pro-slavery journal of the State to boast that +the convention had killed emancipation "at the first pop." Very +naturally such a body selected pro-slavery officials. Hamilton R. +Gamble, whom it made Governor, was a bigoted supporter of "the +institution." He had not long before been mixed up in the proceedings +that compelled Elijah P. Lovejoy to leave Missouri for Alton, +Illinois, where he was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Gamble was an +able and ambitious man. + +The Conservatives, likewise, had the backing of the Federal +Administration--a statement that to a good many people nowadays will +be surprising. There were reasons why such should be the case. Judge +Bates, of Missouri, who was Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, had +long been Gamble's law partner and most intimate friend. He never was +more than nominally a Republican. Another member of the Cabinet was +Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who had been a resident of Missouri, +and was a brother of General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. +General Blair had been the leader of the Missouri emancipationists, +but had turned against them. For his face-about there were, at least, +two intelligible reasons. One was that in the quarrel between him and +Frémont the most of his former followers had sided with Frémont. That +was enough to sour him against them. The other was a very natural +desire to be solid with the administration at Washington, which, as +elsewhere shown, was not then actively Anti-Slavery. It did not want +the question of slavery agitated, especially in the border slave +States. + +The Blairs were a clan as well as a family. The quarrel of one was the +quarrel of all, and the Missouri Radicals had no more effective +antagonist than the old Washington editor and politician, Francis P. +Blair, Sr., the family's head, who was so intimate with the President +that it was understood he could at any time enter the White House by +the kitchen door. + +The writer was once a member of a delegation of Missouri "Charcoals" +that went to Washington to see the President. An hour was set for the +interview, and we were promptly at the door of the President's +chamber, where we were kept waiting for a considerable time. At last +the door opened, but before we could enter, out stepped a little old +man who tripped away very lightly for one of his years. That little +old man was Francis P. Blair, Sr., and we knew that we had been +forestalled. The President received us politely and patiently listened +to what we had to say, but our mission was fruitless. + +The Radicals of Missouri sent deputation after deputation to the White +House, and got nothing they wanted. The Conservatives never sent a +deputation, and got all they wanted. They had advocates at the +President's elbows all the time. + +With both State and Federal administrations against them, the Missouri +Charcoals may be regarded as foolhardy in persisting in the fight they +made for the deliverance of their State from slavery. They did +persist, however, and with such success in propagating their views +that Governor Gamble and the other Conservative leaders decided that +heroic measures to hold them in check were necessary. He undertook to +cut the ground from under their feet. The old convention that had +killed emancipation "at the first pop," or as much of it as was in +existence, was called together by the Governor, who appealed to it to +take such action as would quiet agitation on the slavery question. +Accordingly, it proceeded to enact what was called an emancipation +ordinance. The trouble with it was that it emancipated nobody. It +provided for the liberation of part of the slaves at a distant future +day, allowing the rest to remain as they were. The Radicals simply +laughed at the measure. They pronounced it a snare and a fraud, and +went right on with their work for unconditional freedom, and the +slave-owners continued to hold their human property the same as +before. + +The Conservatives, however, had not exhausted their resources. They +sought to secure the military as well as the civil control. On the +assurance that he could maintain peace and order, Governor Gamble was +given authority by the President to recruit an army of State troops, +which, although equipped and paid out of the national treasury, he was +to officer and direct. The organization was entrusted to General John +M. Scofield, a resident of Missouri, and one of the Governor's +friends. + +The political advantage to the Conservatives of exercising military +control at such a time is obvious enough. But at first there was an +obstruction in the person of General Samuel R. Curtis, the Federal +commander of the district, who was not a man to waive his superior +prerogative at a time when martial law prevailed, and who was, +besides, openly in sympathy with the Radicals. They got not only +protection from him, but about all the patronage he had to give. +Pretty soon it was discovered that active efforts for the removal of +Curtis were in progress. Charges of irregularities--afterwards shown +to be without any foundation--were circulated against him. Indignant +because of such injustice to their friend, the Radicals were further +incensed when they learned that the scheme was to make Scofield his +successor. + +Against General Scofield, as a gentleman and soldier, they had nothing +to say; but his affiliation with their opponents made him obnoxious to +them, and they sent a vigorous protest against his appointment to the +President. The proposed change, however, was made, and the inevitable +disagreement between the new commander and the Radicals quickly +developed. + +Scofield's administration was not successful. The principal cause of +failure was the adoption of Governor Gamble's policy of trying to run +the State without the help of Federal troops. They were pretty much +all sent away, and an elaborate plan for substituting an "enrolled +militia" was put in operation. Here was an opportunity of which the +Rebels were quick to take advantage. They had a wholesome regard for +United States soldiers, particularly under Curtis, who at Pea Ridge +had given them the worst drubbing they ever received west of the +Mississippi, but they cared little for "Gamble's militia," into which +a good many of their friends were mustered, and when the pressure of +Curtis's strong hand was removed they at once aroused to pernicious +activity. + +At this time it can be safely said that nowhere, outside of hell, was +there such a horrible condition as prevailed in Missouri. Singly and +in squads a good many of Price's men returned from the South, and +with local sympathizers forming guerrilla bands under such leaders as +"Bill" Anderson, Poindexter, Jackson, and Quantrell, soon had +practical possession of the greater part of the State. The Radicals +were the principal sufferers. Conservatives, except by the occasional +loss of property, were rarely molested. Between them and the Rebels +there was often an agreement for mutual protection--in fact, it was +not always easy to draw the line between them,--but the Charcoals, +especially if they were "Dutchmen," could look for no compassion. They +were shot down in their fields. They were called to their doors at +night and there dispatched. Their houses were burned and their stock +stolen. Many families of comparative wealth and refinement, including +women and children, because of the insecurity of their homes, slept in +the woods for weeks and months. The Radicals were not always fortunate +enough to escape bodily torture. Having captured one of the best known +among them, an old man and a civilian, some of "Bill" Anderson's men +set him up against the wall of his house as a target for pistol +practice. Their play consisted in seeing how near they could put their +shots without hitting, and this amusement they kept up while his wife +was running about in an effort to raise the amount of money that was +demanded for his ransom. + +So successful were the Rebel bands at this time that Missouri was not +large enough to hold them. One of them, led by Quantrell, crossed the +Kansas line, captured the city of Lawrence, and butchered two hundred +of its peaceable inhabitants, while the border towns and cities of +Iowa and Illinois were greatly alarmed for their safety. + +So intolerable did the situation become, that the Radicals from all +parts of the State met in conference and decided to send a delegation +to ask Mr. Lincoln to change the department commander, in the hope +that it would bring a change of policy. + +It is to be presumed that no President was ever confronted with such a +motley crowd of visitors as the members of that delegation--between +seventy and eighty in number--as they formed in line around three +sides of the East Room in the White House. Their garments were a +sight! Some of the men were in full military dress and some in +civilian clothes, but the costumes of a majority were a mixture of +both kinds, just as accident had arranged it, and pretty much all +showed evidences of hard usage. One of the most forward of the +delegates had neither cuffs nor collar, and his shirt had manifestly +not been near a laundry for a long time. He apologized to the +President for his appearance, saying that he had been sleeping in the +woods where toilet accommodations were very indifferent. Two or three +of the men bore marks of battle with the guerrillas, in patched-up +faces, and one of them carried an arm that had been disabled by a gun +shot in a red handkerchief sling. In speaking of these visitors, the +President afterwards jocularly referred to them as "those crackerjacks +from Missouri." + +A formal address was presented, the principal point being that, as the +Missouri Unionists had furnished many thousand recruits to the Federal +Army, they had a right to look to the Government for soldiers to +assist in protecting their families and their property. And here it +will do no harm to state that, notwithstanding the heavy drain made by +the Confederacy, Missouri, during the war, furnished 109,000 men to +the national army. + +After their formal address had been presented to the President, the +members of the delegation tackled him, one after the other, as the +spirit moved them, and it can truthfully be said that in some of the +bouts that ensued he did not come out "first best." He admitted as +much when, afterwards referring to this meeting, he spoke of the +Missouri Radicals as "the unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with +in a discussion." + +The conclusion of the interview was attended with an unexpected +incident. The recognized leading spokesman of the Missourians was the +Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, who was made Chief Justice of the +Court of Claims at Washington by Grant, when he became President. He +was a very forcible speaker. As Mr. Lincoln indicated by rising from +his seat that the conference was at an end, Mr. Drake stepped forward +and in well-chosen words thanked him for the lengthy and courteous +hearing he had given his visitors, and in their names bade him +good-by. Then he started for the door, but something seemed to arrest +him. Turning sharply to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Mr. President, we are +about to return to our homes. Many of these men before you live where +rebel sentiments prevail and where they are surrounded by deadly +enemies. They return at the risk of their lives, and let me tell you +that if any of their lives are sacrificed by reason of the military +administration you maintain in Missouri, their blood will be upon your +garments and not upon ours." + +The President, evidently greatly surprised, made no oral reply. +Instead of speaking he raised his handkerchief to his eyes. Seeing +that he was weeping, the delegates quietly and quickly filed out, +leaving Mr. Lincoln with his face still concealed. + +The President denied the delegation's request, although his formal +decision was not announced for several days, and its members returned +to their homes, when fortunate enough to have them, sorely +disappointed. + +It is here well enough to state that two or three months later the +President relieved Scofield from his Missouri command and sent him to +the front in the South, much to the betterment of his military +reputation, and doubtless to his own personal gratification. Rosecrans +was made his successor. Among the earliest things he did was the +bringing into the State of a considerable force of Federal troops +under Generals Pleasanton and A.J. Smith. These were sent through the +State. The effect was almost magical. Some of the guerrilla bands went +South to join Price, but the most of them dissolved and disappeared. +Their members, doubtless, went back to their former occupations, and +that was the last of them. Missouri was pacified. + +But were the Missouri Radicals so far disheartened by their rebuffs +from the President that they gave up the fight? Not a bit of it. There +was a tribunal in some respects higher than the President, and to that +they resolved to go. The National Republican Convention to nominate a +successor to Mr. Lincoln was approaching, and they decided to appeal +to it in a way that would compel a decision between them and the +President. They appointed a delegation to the convention, which they +instructed for General Grant. The Claybanks also appointed a +delegation, which they instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and thus the issue +was made. The convention, although nominating Mr. Lincoln by a vote +that, outside of Missouri's, was unanimous, admitted the Charcoals and +excluded the Claybanks by the remarkable vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +While of no special consequence, some rather humorous experiences in +connection with the events just spoken of may not be lacking in +interest or altogether out of place in a work like this. + +Before leaving Missouri for the National Republican Convention, which +was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864, the Radical delegates, including +the writer, decided to go by way of Washington and call upon the +President, thinking that, as there was a contest ahead with his +professed Missouri supporters, a better understanding with him might +be of advantage. As they were pledged to vote for another man, such a +proceeding on their part was certainly somewhat audacious; +nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln received us graciously and listened +patiently to what we had to say. + +"Mr. President," said one of the delegates, "if you were to go out to +Missouri you would find your best friends as well as practically all +the good Republicans of the State on our side of the dividing line." + +"Well," remarked the President very deliberately, "in speaking of +dividing lines, the situation in Missouri recalls the story of the old +man who had an unruly sow and pigs. One day, when they escaped from +their enclosure and disappeared, he called his boys and started out to +hunt the runaways. Up one side of the creek they went; but while they +discovered plenty of tracks and rootings, they found no hogs. 'Now let +us go over to the other side of the creek,' said the old gentleman; +but the result was the same--many signs but no pigs. 'Confound those +swine!' exclaimed the old man, 'they root and root on both sides, but +it's mighty hard to find them on either.'" + +We, of course, were left to make the application to ourselves, and +that was all the satisfaction we got. + +Being greatly elated over our victory in the convention, and thinking +it settled some, if not all, disputed points, we decided to return by +way of Washington and again call on the President. We wanted to come +to some sort of understanding with him. As we had just voted against +his nomination such a step may have been more audacious than our +previous action. But, for all that, a pretty late hour on the night of +the convention found us at the door of the President's room, seeking +an interview that had been promised us in answer to a telegram. + +Now, we had in our delegation a gentleman who was accustomed to imbibe +somewhat freely on occasions like that. He had pushed himself to the +front, and, when the door opened for us, in he rushed shouting: "Mr. +President! Mr. President! Mr. President! we have found that old sow +and pigs for you!" + +The President, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, +looked somewhat startled at first; but as he evidently recalled the +illustration he had given to us, and which was being returned to him, +a broad grin went over his face, although nothing further was said +about the swine. But the incident was disastrous to our business. We +were relying on a prominent St. Louis lawyer, who was with us, to +present our case in a calm and impressive way; but he, taking offense +at being so unceremoniously forestalled, kept his intended speech to +himself. His dignity was hurt, and he had nothing to say. In fact, he +walked away and left us. The result was that our claims were rather +lamely presented, except by the first speaker, and we left the +official presence not a little chagrined and with no favorable +assurance having been obtained. + +By all recognized party rules, when the nominating convention had +given the Missouri Radicals the stamp of regularity, the President was +bound to prefer them in the bestowal of patronage. He did nothing of +the kind. At his death, practically all of the offices in Missouri +that were under his control were held by Claybanks. These men became +enthusiastic supporters of Andrew Johnson, and, at the end of his +term, to a man went over to the Democratic party, of which their +leader, General Blair, was soon made, on the ticket with Horatio +Seymour, the Vice-Presidential candidate. At Lincoln's death, the +Claybanks, as an organization, went out of business. + +Very different was the treatment the Charcoals received at the hands +of General Grant when he became President. He made the leader of the +anti-Scofield delegation to Washington Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims. He made two or three other leading Missouri Radicals foreign +ministers and officially remembered many of the rest of them. He had +been a Missourian, and it was well known that he was in sympathy with +the Radicals in their fight with Lincoln. + +Although the Missouri Radicals did not favor Mr. Lincoln's +candidature, with the exception of a few supporters of Frémont, they +gave him their loyal support at the polls, and through this a large +majority in the State. They acted towards him much more cordially than +he ever acted toward them. + +That Mr. Lincoln, in antagonizing the Missouri Free Soilers, acted +otherwise than from the most conscientious impulses the writer does +not for a moment believe. He opposed them because he disapproved of +their views and policy. He said so most distinctly on one occasion. +Certain German societies of St. Louis, having adopted a set of +resolutions, entrusted them to James Taussig, a leading lawyer of that +city, to present to the President in person. Mr. Taussig's report of +the results of a two hours' interview can be found in several of Mr. +Lincoln's biographies. One passage from the report is here given +because it clearly shows Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the Missouri +problem. + + "The President," says Mr. Taussig, "said that the Union men in + Missouri who are in favor of gradual emancipation, represented + his views better than those who are in favor of immediate + emancipation. In explanation of his views on this subject the + President said that in his speeches he had frequently used as an + illustration the case of a man who had an excrescence on the back + of his neck, the removal of which in one operation would result in + the death of the patient, while tinkering it off by degrees would + preserve life." + + "Although sorely tempted," continues Mr. Taussig, "I did not reply + with the illustration of the dog whose tail was amputated by + inches, but confined myself to arguments. The President announced + clearly that, so far as he was at present advised, the Radicals in + Missouri had no right to consider themselves the representatives + of his views on the subject of emancipation in that State." + +The foregoing interview, it is well enough to state, was long after +the issuance of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. + +In addition to carrying the State for Mr. Lincoln, the Missouri +Radicals carried it for themselves. They elected a constitutional +convention that promptly passed an unconditional freedom ordinance. +And thus terminated what is certainly one of the most notable contests +in our political history, bringing about, as it did, the triumph of a +reform of unquestionable value to civilization and humanity, which was +accomplished by men working without patronage or other outside help, +with no pecuniary interest at stake, and no incentive beyond the +principle involved. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MISSOURI--_Continued_ + + +Here follows an extract from the published proceedings of the National +Republican Convention of 1864, in which Mr. Lincoln was renominated. + + "When that State [Missouri] was called, Mr. J.F. Hume addressed + the convention as follows: + + "'It is a matter of great regret that we differ from the majority + of the convention that has been so kind to the Radicals of + Missouri, but we came here instructed. We represent those who are + behind us at home, and we recognize the right of instruction and + intend to obey our instruction; but, in doing so, we declare + emphatically that we are with the Union party of the nation, and + we intend to fight the battle through to the end with it, and + assist in carrying it to victory. We will support your nominees be + they whom they may. I will read the resolution adopted by the + convention that sent us here.'" + + [Here resolution of instruction was read.] + + "'Mr. President, in the spirit of that resolution I cast the + twenty-two votes of Missouri for them an who stands at the head of + the fighting Radicals of the nation--General U.S. Grant.'" + +The contention between the Missouri Radical and Conservative +delegations was thrashed out before the committee on delegates, at an +evening session. Judge Samuel M. Breckenridge, of St. Louis, sustained +the cause of the Conservatives in a very ingenious argument, while the +writer spoke for the Radicals. The result was very satisfactory to the +latter, being, with the exception of one vote for compromise, a +unanimous decision in their favor. That decision was sustained by the +convention in its next day's session by a vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +Anticipating that the subject would be discussed on the floor of the +convention,--which was not the case, however,--I asked a very eloquent +St. Louis lawyer to take my place as chairman of the Radical +delegation and conduct the debate on the Radical side. He declined. I +then went to three or four Congressmen who were members of the Radical +delegation and made the same appeal to each one of them. All declined. +I suspected at the time that apprehension that a vote for anybody else +would be hissed by Lincoln's friends, had something to do with their +reticence. I had no such apprehension. I did not believe there was +anybody in that convention who would dare to hiss the name of Grant. +If Grant had been a candidate before the convention he would have been +nominated. + +When, as chairman of my delegation, I pronounced his name as +Missouri's choice I remained on my feet for fully a minute while a +dead silence prevailed. Meanwhile all eyes were turned upon me. Then +came a clap from a single pair of hands, being the expression of a +Missouri delegate. Others followed, both inside and outside of the +delegation, increasing until there was quite a demonstration. When +the clamor had subsided I made the next move according to the +programme agreed upon, and the incident was closed. + +And here it can do no harm to state that General Grant knew that he +was to receive the vote of the Missouri Radicals if they were admitted +to the convention--the newspapers having generally published the +fact--and did not decline the intended compliment. Grant lived in +Missouri for a considerable period, married there, and was on most +friendly terms with the Radical leaders, many of whom he generously +remembered when he got to be President. For their action in voting for +Grant, the Missouri Radical delegates were sharply criticised at the +time, on the alleged ground that they secured admission to the +convention from Lincoln's supporters by concealing the fact--or at +least not revealing it--that they intended to vote for somebody else. +The fact, however, is that there was not a person in the convention +who did not from the first understand where they stood, and exactly +what they intended to do. Their Conservative contestants had +distributed a leaflet, intended as an appeal to the Lincoln men, +setting forth the instructions to both delegations. Instead of the +openly avowed opposition of the Radicals to Mr. Lincoln's nomination +being an impediment in their way, it strengthened them with the +convention, which, notwithstanding its seeming harmony in his support, +contained many delegates who would very much have preferred nominating +somebody else; but who, for lack of organized opposition, were +compelled to vote for him. A sufficient evidence of that fact was the +presence in the convention of a large number of Congressmen whose +antagonism to the President was notorious. An incident that strikingly +illustrated Congressional sentiment toward the President at that time, +is given in the _Life of Lincoln_, by Isaac N. Arnold, then a member +of Congress from Illinois. A Pennsylvanian asked Thaddeus Stevens, the +Republican Congressional leader, to introduce him to "a member of +Congress who was friendly to Mr. Lincoln's renomination." Thereupon +Stevens took him to Arnold, saying: "Here is a man who wants to find a +Lincoln member of Congress, and as you are the only one I know of I +bring him to you." + +The same feeling largely prevailed among leading Republicans outside +of Congress. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York _Times_, in his _Life +of Lincoln_, says that at that time "nearly all the original +Abolitionists and many of the more decidedly Anti-Slavery members of +the Republican party were dissatisfied with the President." More +explicit testimony is the statement, in his _Political Recollections_, +of George W. Julian, for many years a leading member of Congress from +Indiana. He says: + + "The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was nearly unanimous, only the + State of Missouri opposing him, but of the more earnest and + thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not + more than one in ten really favored it. It was not only very + distasteful to a large majority of Congress, but to many of the + more prominent men of the party throughout the country." + +The writer had an opportunity of witnessing a peculiar manifestation +of the feeling that has just been spoken of. He attended a conference +of radical Anti-Slavery people that was held in a parlor of one of the +old Pennsylvania Avenue hotels in Washington, a few months before the +nominating convention. A number of well-known politicians were +present, but probably the most prominent was Horace Greeley. The +writer had never before seen the great editor, and was considerably +amused by his unconventional independence on that occasion. He +occupied an easy chair with a high back. Having given his views at +considerable length, he laid his head back on its support and +peacefully went to sleep; but the half-hour lost in slumber did not +prevent him from joining vigorously in the discussion that was going +on as soon as he awoke. + +There seemed to be but one sentiment on that occasion. All entertained +the opinion that, owing to Mr. Lincoln's peculiar views on +reconstruction, and especially his manifest inclination to postpone +actual freedom for the negro to remote periods, and other "unhappy +idiosyncrasies," as one of the speakers expressed it, his re-election +involved the danger of a compromise that would leave the root of +slavery in the soil, and hence his nomination by the Republicans +should be opposed. Chase was clearly the choice of those present, but +no one had a plan to propose, and, while some committees were +appointed, I never heard anything more of the matter. Two or three of +those present on that occasion were in the nominating convention and +quietly voted with the majority for Mr. Lincoln. The writer was the +only one in both gatherings that maintained his consistency. + +All this, it is well enough to remember, was long after the +President's Emancipation Proclamation had appeared. + +There was, however, another manifestation of the antagonism spoken of +which the public, for some reason, never seemed to "get on to," that +at one time threatened very serious consequences, and which, if it had +gone a little farther, might have materially changed the history of +the country. That was a movement, after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to +compel him to retire from the ticket, or to confront him with a strong +independent Republican candidate. According to Messrs. Nicolay and +Hay, Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries and his biographers, the +movement started in New York City and had its ramifications in many +parts of the country. One meeting was held at the residence of David +Dudley Field, and was attended by such men as George William Curtis, +Noyes, Wilkes, Opdyke, Horace Greeley, and some twenty-five others. In +the movement were such prominent people as Charles Sumner, of +Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. One of the men favorable +to the proposition was Governor Andrew of Massachusetts. "He," says +his biographer, Peleg W. Chandler, "was very busy in the movement in +1864 to displace the President." "The secrecy," he adds, "with which +this branch of the Republican politics of that year has been ever +since enveloped is something marvelous; there were so many concerned +in it. When it all comes out, if it ever does, it will make a curious +page in the history of the time." The signal for the abandonment of +the movement, according to Mr. Chandler, was given by Mr. Chase. + +Almost at the beginning of the movement the _Missouri Democrat_, +doubtless because of its supposed opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was +approached on the subject. If the statements made to it were anywhere +near correct, the conspiracy, as it might be called, had the +countenance of a surprisingly great number of weighty Republicans. The +_Democrat_ declined to become a party to the proposed insurrection. It +held that after what had occurred in the Baltimore convention, it +could not consistently and honorably do so. + +There was another reason why it stood aloof. Before the nomination it +was, naturally enough, looking out for some one who might be urged as +a suitable competitor for Mr. Lincoln's place. Andrew Johnson, of +Tennessee, was then quite popular with a good many people of radical +views. The writer prepared an article discussing his availability as +presidential timber and suggested him as a good man for the +nomination. The article appeared as a leader in the _Democrat_, and +was followed by others in the same vein. The suggestion attracted +attention and led to a good deal of newspaper discussion. Herein we +have, according to the writer's opinion, the leading cause of +Johnson's nomination for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, he was on +the ticket with Lincoln, and the _Democrat_ could not very well go +back on its own man. + +The new departure, as the proposition for another Republican +candidate in case Mr. Lincoln resolved to stick might be called, that +appeared so formidable at one time, faded away without the public +knowing anything of its existence. The reason was that it had no +candidate. It had relied on Chase, knowing the unfriendliness there +was between him and the President, but Chase said "No," and that was +the end of it. + +The nomination of Mr. Chase for the Chief Justiceship has always been +regarded as an act of great magnanimity on Mr. Lincoln's part, as well +as a clear perception of merit. It was doubtless all that, but the +actions of the two men at this time certainly make out a case of +striking coincidence. Such things rarely come by accident. + +From what has been stated, it will be seen that the Missouri Radicals +were by no means alone in their opposition to the President's +nomination, for which they are so sharply taken to task by some of his +biographers and eulogists. They had plenty of company, the only +difference being that they stood out in the open while the others +acted covertly. + +The Missouri Germans, who mostly approved the candidature of Frémont, +and some of whom refused to vote for Lincoln, have been particularly +assailed. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, in their Lincoln biography, even go +so far as to attack them on the ground of their religious, or rather +anti-religious, beliefs, calling them "materialist Missourians," +"Missouri agnostics," etc., etc. + +Now, after having lived among the Missouri Germans at the time of our +civil troubles, the writer is impelled to say a few words in their +behalf. He does not hesitate to say that, in his opinion, there was +no body of men of equal numerical strength in this country to whom, at +that crisis, the Government and country had cause to feel under +greater obligation, and justice would require its acknowledgment at +this time. But for them the enemies of the Union would have captured +the city of St. Louis with its great Government arsenal, and with the +arms and ammunition thus secured would have overrun both the States of +Missouri and Kansas. A large preponderance of the American-born +citizens of St. Louis were Rebels. The Union people of that city who +saved the day, were principally the "Dutch," as they were called. + +A large army was needed at that point to protect the Government's +interests, when it had practically no available forces. There was no +law under which it could be organized on the spot. No man could be +made to serve. No pay for service was assured, or even promised. The +army, however, was created by the voluntary and patriotic action of +its members. Nearly a dozen full regiments were organized and +equipped. Nine tenths of their members were Germans. They did not wait +for hostilities to begin. Foreseeing the emergency near at hand, they +organized into companies and regiments, and put themselves on a war +footing before a blow had been struck or a shot had been fired. They +met by night to drill in factory lofts, in recreation halls, and in +whatever other places were most available, the words of command being +generally delivered in German. The writer has a lively recollection of +the difficulties involved in trying to learn military evolutions from +instructors speaking a language he did not understand. + +Many of the Germans of Missouri had seen service in the Old World. +They had served under Sigel in the struggle of 1848. They found +themselves under Sigel again. It was with the step and bearing of +veterans that they marched (the writer was an eye-witness) in May of +1861, only a few days after Sumter had been fired on, to open the +military ball in the West at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. + +The same people went with Lyon to the State capital, from which the +Rebel officials were driven, never to return. They were with Lyon at +Wilson's Creek, and with him many of them laid down their lives on +that bloody field. They were wherever hard fighting was to be done in +that part of the country. The writer believes he is correct in saying +they furnished more men to the Government's service than any other +numerically equal body of citizens. So large was their representation +in the Union's forces in that region, that the Rebels were accustomed +to speak of the Union soldiers as "the Dutch." + +The fact that the Germans were fighting for an adopted government +makes their loyalty more conspicuous. What they did was not from a +love of war, but because they were Abolitionists. They were opposed to +slavery. They owned no slaves. They wanted the Government sustained, +because they believed that meant the end of slaveholding. They +supported Frémont largely because of his freedom proclamation. + +And here the writer, before closing his work, wants to say something +about Frémont. He believes no man in this country was made the victim +of greater injustice than he was. + +It has always been the opinion of the writer that, if Frémont had been +permitted to take his own way in his Western command a little longer, +he would have achieved a brilliant military success. He was a weak man +in some respects, being over fond of dress parade. The financial +management of his department was bad, or, rather, very careless. Of +these shortcomings, which were considerably misrepresented and +exaggerated, Frémont's enemies took advantage, and succeeded in +effecting his overthrow in the Western Department. But, +notwithstanding his admitted failings, he gave evidence of military +ability. He showed that he possessed both physical and moral courage, +and he knew how to plan a campaign. He undoubtedly formulated the +movement that resulted in the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry in +Tennessee, taking the initial steps, but of which Halleck got the +credit. He was removed from command when in the field, and almost on +the eve of battle. He had an enthusiastic army and the prospect of a +decisive victory. His recall gave up nearly the whole of Missouri to +the enemy, and was one of the causes of complaint that the Missouri +Unionists had against the National Administration. + +Not long afterwards, with no more than even chances, Frémont defeated +Stonewall Jackson in Virginia--at Cross Keys--which was more than any +of the other Union generals then in that department could do. His +prompt removal made it sure that he should not do it again. + +It was the misfortune of Frémont that his independence caused him to +clash with selfish interests, and he was sacrificed. He was selected +for the Trans-Mississippi command by the Blairs, evidently with the +expectation that he would bend to their wishes. He soon showed that he +was his own master, and the trouble began. The Union people of his +department were mostly with him, but the Blairs had control of the +administration in Washington. + +As for his freedom proclamation, it was, to a certain extent, an act +of insubordination, but it was right in principle and sound in policy. +Its adoption by the General Government would have saved four years of +contention and turmoil in Missouri, spent in upholding a tottering +institution that was doomed from the first shot of the Rebellion. The +President, however, for reasons elsewhere explained, did not at that +time want slavery interfered with. + +The story of Frémont's fall is best told by Whittier in four lines: + + "Thy error, Frémont, simply was to act + A brave man's part without the statesman's tact, + And, taking counsel but of common-sense, + To strike at cause as well as consequence." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SOME ABOLITION LEADERS + + +The references that have been made to General Frank P. Blair of +Missouri have not been complimentary to that individual. They would +indicate on the part of the writer no very exalted admiration for or +estimate of the man. In that particular they are not altogether just. +The stormy period of the Rebellion brought out few more picturesque +figures than his, or in some respects more admirable characters. There +is no question that, but for the efforts of Blair, the Rebels would +have effected the capture of St. Louis at the beginning of the war, to +be followed by the at least temporary control of the entire State of +Missouri, and possibly of Kansas as well. To that end preparations had +been carefully and skillfully made. The leader in the movement was +none other than Missouri's Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who was +justly looked upon as one of the most consummate and accomplished +schemers of the time. He was a Rebel from head to foot. He had taken +office with the deliberate purpose of swinging his State into the +Confederate column, and without regard to the wishes of the majority +of the people whom he officially represented. He was supported by a +sympathetic corps of official assistants, including a majority of the +Legislature of his State, who gave him whatever legislation he wanted. +Every advantage seemed to be on his side. He would undoubtedly have +succeeded but for the opposition of Blair. In him he encountered an +equal in cunning, and more than a match in courage and energy. + +When the Governor and his helpers were busy raising an army pursuant +to the conditions of a law that had been enacted for the purpose, and +which hampered their operations, Blair went ahead in raising and +equipping an army on the other side without the slightest regard to +law. The presence or absence of a statute did not trouble him in the +least. He called on the Unionists to organize and arm, and when a +sufficient force, composed in greater part of loyal Germans, had +responded he struck the first blow. In a legal aspect the whole +proceeding was irregular, but it was none the less effective. + +When the Governor's army was quietly encamped on the outskirts of St. +Louis, for the capture and occupancy of which it was getting ready, it +found itself unexpectedly surrounded by a superior force, and its +surrender was demanded in a way that admitted of no denial. The writer +was present on the occasion. From a convenient eminence he witnessed +the whole proceeding. When Jackson's men--the rendezvous had in honor +of his Excellency the Governor been named Camp Jackson--were enjoying +themselves on a pleasant summer's day, sleeping on the grass, playing +cards, or escorting their lady friends and other visitors about the +grounds, suddenly they realized that their position was commanded by +hostile guns. Pointing downward from higher ground not far off were +nearly a score of frowning cannons, behind which stood men with +burning fuses. I had watched the Union forces as they approached. At +the foot of the hill that hid them from the camp they paused for a few +moments, and then up the hill went the horses that were dragging the +cannons at a run. They were wheeled when the summit was reached, and +the guns thrown into position. Everything was ready for action. At the +same time large bodies of armed men, their arms glittering in the +sunlight, were seen approaching from all sides on the double quick. +The Rebels were completely entrapped, and their immediate capitulation +was a thing of course. The credit for the manoeuvres of the day was +given to Captain--afterwards General--Nathaniel Lyon, who was in +immediate command of the Unionists, but everybody understood that the +real leader, as well as instigator, of the movement was Blair. + +Blair had been the admitted leader of the Missouri Abolitionists. He +was as radical as any man among them. One day he stopped me on the +street for the purpose of thanking me for a paper I had contributed to +the _Missouri Democrat_, in which I had favored what was practically +immediate emancipation in Missouri. He said that was the right kind of +talk, and what we had to come to. I felt greatly flattered, because +there was nothing in the article that disclosed its authorship, and +Mr. Blair had taken the trouble to inquire about it. + +Blair turned against the Missouri Abolitionists when a decided +majority of them turned against him in his quarrel with Frémont. They +indorsed Frémont's emancipation proclamation, which the President, at +Blair's instigation, it was charged at the time, revoked. + +Blair was a man not only of strong ambition but of arbitrary +temperament. He could not tolerate the idea of a newcomer pre-empting +what he had considered his premises. If he could not rule he was ready +to ruin. That disposition accorded with both his mental and physical +make-up. Bodily he was a bundle of bones and nerves without a particle +of surplus flesh. His hair was red, his complexion was sandy, and his +eyes, when he was excited and angry, had a baleful expression that led +some one in my presence on a certain occasion to speak of them as +"brush-heaps afire." + +He was not an eloquent man, although a ready and frequent public +speaker. His voice was not musical. His strong forte was invective. He +was nearly always denouncing somebody. Apparently, he was never so +happy as when making another miserable. Sometimes his personal +allusions were very broad. He was accustomed in his speeches to refer +to one of Missouri's United States Senators as "that lop-eared +vulgarian." That he was not almost all the time in personal +difficulties was due to the fact that he was known to be a man of +exceptional courage. He was a born fighter. Physically I think he was +the bravest man I ever knew. I witnessed several manifestations of his +fearlessness, but one particularly impressed me. + +I have spoken of the Camp Jackson affair. Although the people in the +Rebel encampment surrendered without a blow, the incident was +attended with considerable bloodshed. A mob of Rebel sympathizers, +consisting largely of half-grown boys--I was in the midst of the +throng at the time--with their pistols opened fire on a German Union +regiment and killed several of its men. The troops, in return, poured +a volley into the crowd of spectators from which the shots had come, +killing or wounding over forty persons, the most of them, as is usual +in such cases, being inoffensive onlookers. A man standing beside me +and, like myself, a spectator, had the top of one ear clipped off by a +Minié ball as cleanly as if it had been done with a knife. I found +when, soon afterwards, I reached the business center of the city, +where the Rebel element then largely predominated, that the story of +the tragedy had swelled the number of the victims to one thousand. +Intense excitement and the most furious indignation prevailed. +Hundreds of men, with flaming faces, were swearing the most dreadful +oaths that they would shoot Frank Blair, whom they seemed to regard as +wholly responsible, on sight. Many of them were flourishing pistols in +confirmation of their bloody purpose. Just then the attention of the +crowd was drawn to an unusual spectacle. Down Fourth Street, which was +then the leading business avenue of St. Louis, and at that time +densely packed with the excited people, came the Union soldiers with +the prisoners from Camp Jackson on their way to the United States +Arsenal grounds. At the head of the procession marched the men of the +First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for +immediate service, and at their head--the only mounted man in the +regiment, according to my recollection--rode their Colonel, who was +Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more +conspicuous. No better target could have been offered. I watched the +audacious man, expecting to hear a shot at any moment from the +sidewalk, or from a window of one of the high buildings lining the +street, and to see him topple from his saddle. He understood very well +the danger he was braving. He knew that in that throng, where +everybody was armed, there were hundreds toying with the triggers of +their guns, and trying to muster sufficient courage to shoot him down. +Slowly, and as calmly as if on ordinary dress parade, he led the way +until he passed out of sight. I thought then, and still think, it was +the pluckiest thing I ever witnessed. + +The effect of the breaking up and capture of Camp Jackson was +something wonderful. Up to that time, the Rebels of St. Louis and +their sympathizers had been very demonstrative. In portions of the +city the Rebel cockade, which was a red rosette pinned to the side of +the hat, was conspicuous, and any one not displaying that decoration +was in danger of having his hat smashed upon his head. After Camp +Jackson's surrender, I never saw a Rebel cockade openly worn in St. +Louis. + +At the same time there was an extensive shifting of positions. A good +many men of prominence and wealth, who had been leaning over towards +the South, suddenly straightened up, and not a few of them showed a +strong inclination the other way. Some of the evolutions they executed +were amusing. One of the first to discuss with the writer the Union +defeat at Bull Run was a former United States Government official. He +was tremendously excited and correspondingly exultant. After +describing how the Southerners had vanquished the Government's men, +and particularly how the South Carolina "black horse" had ridden them +down in deadly slaughter, he cried out, "That's the way we will give +it to you fellows all the time." + +Not very long afterwards General Grant, having entered Tennessee, and +captured Fort Donelson, and many prisoners, was about to visit St. +Louis, and the leading Unionists there decided to give him a grand +reception and an elaborate dinner. Money had to be raised, and among +those I met who were soliciting it was my ex-Government-official +friend. He was fully as happy as he had been before, when the Fort +Donelson affair was alluded to. "Didn't we give it to those fellows +down there?" he exclaimed. + +Out in western Missouri was a young lawyer of great ambition and +considerable promise. He was afterwards a member of Congress. Like a +good many others he was at first puzzled to know what course to take. +In his dilemma he concluded to consult an old politician in that +section who was much famed for his sagacity, and who bore the military +title of General. + +"If you contemplate remaining in Missouri," said the older man to the +junior, "you should take the Southern side. Missouri is a slave State +and a Southern State, and she will naturally go with her section." + +The young man availed himself of an opportunity to make a public +address, in which he aligned himself in the strongest terms with those +who had gone into rebellion. But scarcely had this been done when +Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and among those nominated to +command them was the old Missouri General. It was announced that he +had accepted the appointment. The younger man was amazed. He went in +hot haste for an explanation. + +"It's all true," said the General. "The fact is, when I talked with +you before, I did not think the Northern people would fight for the +Union, but I now see that I was mistaken; and when the Northern +people, being the stronger and richer, do decide to go to war, they +are almost certain to win. You had better take the Northern side." + +"But it is too late," said the youngster. "I have committed myself in +that speech I made." + +"Oh! as for that matter," was the reply, "it's of very little +consequence if you have committed yourself. It's easy to make a speech +on the other side and take the first one back. Nobody looks for +consistency in times like these." + +Many Missourians, as well as many citizens of other border slave +States, at the beginning of the trouble advocated a policy of +neutrality. They saw no necessity for taking sides. I was at a meeting +out in the interior of Missouri, where many citizens had come together +to consult as to the policy they had better pursue. Among them was an +old gentleman who seemed to be looked upon by his neighbors as a +regular Nestor. He was called upon for his views. "Gentlemen," said +he, "we have got to take sides and maintain our neutrality." + +In that section of the country was another distinguished and unique +personage who conspicuously figured in the events that are here being +dealt with. + +I knew him intimately. I now refer to James H. Lane, who was better +known as "Jim Lane," of Kansas. Like Blair, Lane was a born leader of +men, and a leader under exceptional conditions. He was generally +credited with being a fighter--a dare-devil, in fact--and a desperado; +but in the writer's opinion he was by no means Blair's equal in +personal courage. He had a great deal to do in raising troops and +organizing military movements, but he did not go to the front. His +fighting was chiefly in "private scraps," in one of which he killed +his adversary. + +His paramount ability was as a talker rather than as a fighter. He was +an orator, and his oratory was of a kind that was exactly suited to +his surroundings. No man could more readily adapt himself to the humor +of his hearers. He knew precisely how to put himself on their level. I +have seen him face an audience that was distinctly unfriendly, that +would scarcely give him a hearing; and in less than half an hour every +man in the crowd would be shouting his approval. He could go to his +hearers if he could not bring them to him. I witnessed one of his +performances in that line. + +He was a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. There +was one rival that he particularly feared. The man was the late +General Thomas Ewing, then a resident of Kansas. At that particular +time he was in the Army and the commandant of the St. Louis District +in Missouri. Lane came to St. Louis and had a talk with the writer, +freely admitting his dread of Ewing and asking for the _Missouri +Democrat's_ support. Having a considerable admiration for Lane as well +as a liking for the man, I promised him such assistance as I could +reasonably give. It happened to be at the time when General Sterling +Price, in making his last raid into Missouri, was threatening St. +Louis with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, and there was no +adequate opposing force at hand. Ewing, with barely a tenth as many +troops, went to the front and heroically engaged the enemy. With no +protection but the walls of a little mud fort he succeeded in +repelling the attack of his powerful adversary. That timely action +probably saved St. Louis. + +At this particular time it was arranged that there should be a meeting +of the Republicans of St. Louis--it was in the midst of an exciting +presidential campaign--at which Lane was to be the principal speaker. +The meeting was held and Lane was addressing a large audience with +great acceptance when the news of Ewing's achievement was received. + +It was then customary, when war intelligence arrived in the course of +any political gathering, and sometimes of religious gatherings, to +suspend all other proceedings until it had been announced and the +audience had time enough to manifest its feeling on the subject. + +Lane was in the midst of an eloquent passage when he was interrupted +by the arrival of the news referred to. He stepped back, and the +news-bearer, taking his place, proceeded to give a graphic +description of Ewing's performance, concluding with a glowing eulogy +on that personage, and which was received with tremendous cheering. +Understanding Lane's feelings towards Ewing, I watched his face while +these events were passing. It plainly showed his vexation. It was +almost livid with suppressed emotion. But the time for him to resume +his address had come. What would he do was the question I asked +myself. He answered it very promptly. Jauntily stepping forward with +his countenance fairly wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed, "Ladies and +gentlemen, that is glo-o-orious news for us, but it 's ter-r-r-ible +for the other fellows." + +Lane's enemies were confident they had him beaten as a candidate for +the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular +with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it +necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. +Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the +choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then +he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast +horses--it was before the days of railroads in Kansas--he began a tour +that would bring him practically face to face with every voter in the +State. He traveled and spoke both by day and by night. Sometimes he +addressed as many as a dozen audiences in twenty-four hours. The +excitement attending his progress was great. Men came many miles to +hear him, sometimes bringing their families with them. He succeeded in +completely revolutionizing public opinion. It was too late for his +adversaries to attempt a counter-movement, and the result was that +Lane was re-elected by an almost unanimous vote. + +There was no doubt about Lane's attitude on the slavery question. He +was not only a radical Abolitionist, but the acknowledged leader of +the Free-State men of Kansas. He recognized no right of property in +man, as many Missouri slaveholders learned to their sorrow. I was +present when he congratulated a Kansas regiment that had just returned +from a raid into Missouri, bringing many black people with it. "Fellow +soldiers," he shouted, "you entered Missouri a white body, but you +have returned surrounded by a great black cloud. It is the work of the +Lord." + +There was another man whose name, the author thinks, properly belongs +under the heading of this chapter, and to whom, on account of pleasant +personal recollections, he would like to refer. He was not a fighter +like Blair and Lane, with whom his life was in striking contrast. He +was essentially a man of peace. He was a Quaker. Although born in +Kentucky he was an Abolitionist. I now refer to Levi Coffin of +Cincinnati, who was credited with successfully assisting over three +thousand runaway slaves on their way to freedom, and, in consequence, +became distinguished among both friends and foes as the "President of +'The Underground Railroad.'" The most remarkable thing in his case was +his immunity from legal punishment. The slaveholders knew very well +what he was doing, but so expert was he in hiding his tracks that they +could never get their clutches upon him. + +I had rather an amusing experience with Coffin. Having when a boy +heard so much about him, I was anxious to see him and make his +acquaintance. On the occasion of a visit to Cincinnati, with a letter +of introduction from an acquaintance of Coffin, I went to his office, +but not without trepidation. I found the great man engaged in a +conversation with some one, his back being toward me, as I took my +stand just inside of his door. How he became aware of my presence I +don't know--I certainly made no noise to attract him--but he certainly +knew I was there. Suspending the conversation in which he was +engaged--he was seated in a revolving chair--he suddenly turned so as +to confront me, and silently looked me over. At last he arose, and, +stepping up to me, lifted my hat with one hand, and laid the other +upon my head. I understood very well what his movements meant. He was +looking for outward evidences of negro blood. So far as my complexion +went a suspicion of African taint might very well have been +entertained. I had been assisting my father in harvesting his wheat +crop, and my face and hands had a heavy coating of tan, but my hair +was straight and stiff. I could see that the old gentleman was +puzzled. Not a word, so far, had been spoken on either side. + +"Where is thee from?" was the question that broke the silence. + +I answered that I was from Clark County, meaning Clark County, Ohio. + +Coffin, however, evidently thought I referred to Clark County, +Kentucky, from which there had been many fugitives, and that settled +the matter in his mind. "But, my boy, thee seems to have had a good +home," continued the old gentleman as he looked over my clothes and +general appearance. "Why is thee running away?" + +Then came the explanation and the solemn Quaker indulged in a hearty +laugh. He remarked that he knew my family very well by reputation, and +that he had met my father in Abolitionist conventions--meetings he +called them. + +Then he invited me to go to his home and break bread with him. I +vainly tried to decline. The old man would accept no excuse. + +"Thy father would not refuse my hospitality." + +That settled the matter, and I accompanied my entertainer to his +domicile. I was glad that I did so, as it gave me the opportunity to +see and greet Coffin's wife, who was a charming elderly Quaker lady. +She had gained a reputation as a helper of the slave almost equal to +that of her husband. + +When runaways set out on their venturesome journeys, they were +generally very indifferently equipped. Ordinarily they had only the +working garments they wore on the plantations, and these furnished but +slight relief for a condition very near to nudity. Mrs. Coffin set +apart a working room in her house, and there sympathizers of both +races joined her in garment-making, the result being that very few +fugitives left Cincinnati without being decently clothed. + +At the Coffin table were several guests beside myself. One was a +colored man. He had been a slave, I learned, but his freedom had been +purchased, largely through the Coffins' efforts. + +After I left the Coffin mansion, I remembered my unused letter of +introduction, which I had altogether forgotten. It was no longer +called for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ROLLS OF HONOR + + +The first honors of Abolitionism unquestionably belong to the +organizers of the first societies formed for its promotion. The first +of these in the order of time was the New England Anti-Slavery +Society, which came into being on the first day of January, 1832. +William Lloyd Garrison was chief promoter and master spirit. It +consisted at the outset of twelve men, and that was not the only +evidence of its apostolic mission. It was to be the forerunner in an +ever-memorable revolution. The names of the twelve subscribers to its +declaration of views and aims will always have a place in American +history. They were William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, William J. +Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thatcher, Stillman E. Newcomb, Arnold +Buffum, John B. Hall, Joshua Coffin, Isaac Knapp, Henry K. Stockton, +and Benjamin C. Bacon. + +As a suggestion from, if not an offshoot of, the New England +organization, came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which was +organized in Philadelphia in 1834. It was intended that the meeting of +its promoters should be held in New York, but so intense was the +feeling against the Abolitionists in that city that no suitable room +could there be found, and the "conspirators," as they were called by +their enemies, were compelled to seek for accommodation and protection +among the Philadelphia Quakers. + +In that circumstance there was considerable significance. Two great +declarations of independence have issued from Philadelphia. One was +for political freedom; the other was for personal freedom. One was for +the benefit of its authors as well as of others. The other one was +wholly unselfish. Which had the loftier motive? + +Ten States were represented in the Philadelphia meeting, which, +considering the difficulties incident to travel at that time, was a +very creditable showing. One man rode six hundred miles on horseback +to attend it. + +The following is the list of those in attendance, who became +subscribers to the declaration that was promulgated: + + +_Maine_ + +David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James F. Otis, Isaac +Winslow. + + +_New Hampshire_ + +David Campbell. + + +_Massachusetts_ + +Daniel Southmayd, Effingham C. Capron, Amos Phelps, John G. Whittier, +Horace P. Wakefield, James Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. +Jewitt, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William +Lloyd Garrison. + + +_Rhode Island_ + +John Prentice, George W. Benson. + + +_Connecticut_ + +Samuel J. May, Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon Joselyn, +Robert B. Hall. + + +_New York_ + +Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., Abram T. +Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., Charles W. Denison, John +Frost. + + +_New Jersey_ + +Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkly Gillinghamm, John McCullough, James White. + + +_Pennsylvania_ + +Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Altee, Robert Purviss, James McCrummill, Thomas +Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mace, John McKim, +Anson Vickers, Joseph Loughead, Edward P. Altee, Thomas Whitson, John +R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott. + + +_Ohio_ + +Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff, John M. Sterling. + + * * * * * + +The writer finds it quite impossible to carry out the idea with which +this chapter was begun, which was to furnish a catalogue embracing all +active Anti-Slavery workers who were Abolitionists. Space does not +permit. He will therefore condense by giving a portion of the list, +the selections being dictated partly by claims of superior merit, and +partly by accident. + +As representative men and women of the East--chiefly of New England +and New York--he gives the following: + +David Lee Child, of Boston, for some time editor of the _National +Anti-Slavery Advocate_. He was the husband of Lydia Maria Child, who +wrote the first bound volume published in this country in condemnation +of the enslavement of "those people called Africans"; Samuel E. +Sewell, another Bostonian and a lawyer who volunteered his services in +cases of fugitive slaves; Ellis Gray Lowell, another Boston lawyer of +eminence; Amos Augustus Phelps, a preacher and lecturer, for whose +arrest the slaveholders of New Orleans offered a reward of ten +thousand dollars; Parker Pillsbury, another preacher and lecturer, who +at twenty years of age was the driver of an express wagon, and with no +literary education, but who, in order that he might better plead the +cause of the slave, went to school and became a noted orator; Theodore +Weld, who married Angelina Grimke, the South Carolina Abolitionist, +and who as an Anti-Slavery advocate was excelled, if he was excelled, +only by Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips; Henry Brewster +Stanton, a very vigorous Anti-Slavery editor and the husband of +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the champion of women's rights; Theodore +Parker, the great Boston divine; O.B. Frothingham, another famous +preacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer; Samuel Johnson, +C.L. Redmond, James Monroe, A.T. Foss, William Wells Brown, Henry C. +Wright, G.D. Hudson, Sallie Holley, Anna E. Dickinson, Aaron M. +Powell, George Brodburn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel W. +Whitney, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. Stebbins, Thomas T. +Stone, George M. Putnam, Joseph A. Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frances +E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin Ballou, W.H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A.J. +Conover, James N. Buffum, Charles C. Burleigh, William Goodell, Joshua +Leavitt, Charles M. Denison, Isaac Hopper, Abraham L. Cox. + +To the above should be added the names of Alvin Stewart of New York, +who issued the call for the convention that projected the Liberty +party, and of John Kendrick, who executed the first will including a +bequest in aid of the Abolition cause. + +And here must not be omitted the name of John P. Hale, of New +Hampshire, who was a candidate for the Presidency on the Liberty party +ticket, and also a conspicuous member of the U.S. Senate. + +Going westward, we come to Ohio, which became, early in the movement, +the dominating center of Abolitionist influence. Salmon P. Chase was +there. James G. Birney, after being forced out of Kentucky, was there. +Ex-United States Senator Thomas Morris, a candidate for the +Vice-Presidency on the Liberty party ticket, was there. Leicester King +and Samuel Lewis, Abolition candidates for the governorship of the +State, were there. Joshua R. Giddings and United States Senator Ben. +Wade were there. + +One great advantage the Ohio Abolitionists enjoyed was that they were +harmonious and united. In the East that was not the case. There was a +bitter feud between the Garrisonians, who relied on moral suasion, and +the advocates of political action. All Ohio Abolitionists were ready +and eager to employ the ballot. + +There is another name, in speaking of Ohio, that must not be omitted. +Dr. Townsend was the man who made Salmon P. Chase a United States +Senator, and at a time when the Abolition voting strength in +Ohio was a meager fraction in comparison with that of the old +parties--numbering not over one in twenty. It happened to be a time +when the old parties--the Whigs and the Democrats--had so nearly an +equal representation in the State Legislature that Townsend, who was a +State Senator, and two co-operating members, held a balance of power. +Both parties were exceedingly anxious to control the Legislature, as +that body, under the State constitution then in force, had the +distribution of a great deal of patronage. The consideration for the +deciding vote demanded by Townsend and his associates was the election +of Chase to the Senate. They and the Democrats made the deal. +Naturally enough, the Whigs expressed great indignation until it was +shown that they had offered to enter into very much the same +arrangement. + +Some years before the events just spoken of, Townsend had been a +medical student in Cincinnati. One day he stepped into the courthouse, +where a fugitive-slave case was being tried. There he listened to an +argument from Salmon P. Chase, the negro's defender, that made an +Abolitionist of him. The senatorial incident naturally followed. + +There was another Ohioan--not an individual this time, but an +institution--that will always hold a high place in the annals of +Abolitionism. Oberlin College was a power in the land. It had a corps +of very able professors who were, without exception, active +Anti-Slavery workers. They regarded themselves as public instructors +as well as private teachers. There was scarcely a township in Ohio +that they did not visit, either personally or through their disciples. +They were as ready to talk in country schoolhouses as in their own +college halls. Of course, they were violently opposed. Mobs broke up +their meetings very frequently, but that only made them more +persistent. Their teachings were viciously misrepresented. They were +accused of favoring the intermarriage of the races, and parents were +warned, if they sent their children to Oberlin, to look out for +colored sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. For such slanders, however, +the men and women of Oberlin--for both sexes were admitted to faculty +and classes--seemed to care no more than they did for pro-slavery +mobs. + +There is another name which, although it belongs exclusively neither +to the East nor to the West, to the North nor to the South, should not +be omitted from a record like this. Doctor Gamaliel Bailey resided in +the District of Columbia, and issued the _National Era_ from +Washington city. + +Although a journal of small folio measurement and issued but once a +week, it was for a considerable time the most influential organ of the +Abolitionists. Its circulation was large and its management very +able. Of course, it took no little courage and judgment to conduct +such a publication in the very center of slaveholding influence, and +more than once it barely escaped destruction by mobs. + +If there was nothing else to his credit there was one thing +accomplished by the _Era's_ owner that entitles him to lasting +remembrance. He was the introducer, if not the real producer, of +_Uncle Tom's Cabin._ It first appeared in the _Era_ in serial numbers. +It is perfectly safe to say that no other newspaper in the country, of +any standing, would have touched it. Without Dr. Bailey's +encouragement the work would not have been written. This was admitted +by Mrs. Stowe. + +Up to this point the people whose names have been mentioned in these +pages have, to a certain extent, been public characters and leaders. +They were generals, and colonels, and captains, and orderly sergeants, +in the army of emancipation. There were, also, privates in the ranks +whose services richly deserve to be commemorated, showing, as they do, +the character of the works they performed. The writer cannot resist +the temptation to refer to two of them in particular, although, +doubtless, there were many others of equal merit. A reason for the +preference he shows in this case, that will not be misunderstood, is +the fact that one of the men was his uncle and the other his father. + +James Kedzie and John Hume were plain country farmers residing in +southwestern Ohio, neither very rich nor very poor. They were natives +of Scotland, and stating that fact is almost equivalent to saying +they were Abolitionists. None of the Scotch of the writer's personal +knowledge, at the period referred to, were otherwise than strongly +Anti-Slavery. There are said to be exceptions to all rules, and there +was one in this instance. He was a kinsman of the author, and a "braw" +young Scotchman who came over to this country with the expectation of +picking up a fortune in short order. Finding the North too slow, he +went South. There he met a lady who owned a valuable plantation well +stocked with healthy negroes. He married the woman, and became +something of a local nabob, with the reputation of great severity as a +master. One day, with his own hand, he inflicted a cruel flogging on a +slave who had the name of a "bad nigger." That night, when the master +was playing chess with a neighbor by candlelight on the ground floor +of his dwelling, all the windows being open, the negro crept up with a +loaded gun and shot him dead. + +The sad affair was regretfully commented on by the dead man's +relatives, who, I remember, referred to his untimely ending as "his +judgment," and as a punishment he had brought upon "himself." + +My uncle and father did not conceal their unpopular views. They openly +voted the Abolition ticket. In eight years, beginning with their two +ballots, they raised the third party vote in their immediate vicinity +to eight, and they boasted of the progress they had made. + +They did not make public addresses, but they faithfully listened to +those made by others in support of the cause. They attended all +Abolition meetings that were within reach. They took the _National +Era_. Not only that, but they got up clubs for it. The first club I +recollect my father's securing consisted of half a dozen subscribers, +for one half of which he paid. The next year's was double in size, and +so was my father's contribution. There was no fund for the promotion +of the Abolitionist cause, for which they were called upon, to which +they did not cheerfully pay according to their means. + +All Abolition lecturers and colporteurs were gratuitously entertained, +although their presence was sometimes a cause of abuse, and even of +danger. There were other travelers who sometimes applied for help. +Their faces were of dusky hue, and their great whitish eyes were like +those of hunted beasts of the forest. They went on their way +strengthened and rejoicing--always in the direction of the North Star. + +The men are dead, but Slavery is dead also, partly through their +labors and sacrifices. Their unpretentious, patient, earnest lives +were not in vain. They contributed to the final triumph of Freedom's +holy cause. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + + +January 1, 1863.--Whereas, on the 22d day of September, 1862, a +proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, +containing, among other things, the following, to wit: + +That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves +within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof +shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, +thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the +United States, including the naval and military authority thereof, +will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do +no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any efforts +they may make for their actual freedom. + +That the Executive will on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections, +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States. +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on +this first day of January, 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so +to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days +from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States +and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this +day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: + +Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Ann, and Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are +for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not +issued. + +And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free, and +that the Executive government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of such persons. + +And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend +to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages. + +And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + +And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty +God. + +IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, 1863, and of +the independence of the United States the Eighty-seventh. + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE + + +Amendment to the National Constitution recommended by President +Lincoln in his Message to Congress of December I, 1862. + +_Resolved_ by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled: that the following articles +be proposed to the Legislatures (or conventions) of the several States +as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of +which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said +Legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as parts of the said +Constitution, namely: + +Article.--Every State wherein Slavery now exists, which shall abolish +the same therein, at any time or times before the 1st day of January +in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive +compensation from the United States as follows, to wit: + +(Then follows a provision to issue bonds of the United States +Government, which shall be delivered to the States in amounts +sufficient to compensate the owners of slaves within their +jurisdictions for the loss of their slave property.) + +Article.--All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the +chances of the war, at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall +be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been +disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is +provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way +that no slave shall be twice accounted for. + +Article.--Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for +colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place +or places without the United States. + + + + +"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" + + +On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley, under the above heading, +addressed a letter to the President, which appeared over his signature +in the New York _Tribune_ of that date. The conclusion of Mr. +Greeley's epistle was as follows: + +"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one +disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who +does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the +same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile--that +the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a +year if Slavery were left in full vigor--that army officers who +remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but halfway loyal +to the Union--and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour +of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of +your embassadors in Europe. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the +seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, +slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of +statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer." + + + + +INDEX + +Abolitionism, and Republicanism, 8, 9; + end of, 150-156. + +Abolitionist movement, v. + +Abolitionists, hysterical praise of, 1; + and dissolution of the Union, 1, 2; + effect, 2; + struggles, 3; + and political expediency, 5; + convention at Pittsburgh, 7; + third-party, 7; + vote of, 7; + founders of Republican party, 8; + pro-slavery mobbing, 9; + voting strength, 9; + organization, 10; + lecturers, 11; + stump orators, 11; + newspapers, 11; + preparatory work, 12; + hostility to Union, 13; + disloyalty, 13; + treason, 13; + place in history, 15; + Quakers, 16; + physical courage, 16; + unselfishness of, 16; + motives, 18; + persecution of, 20; + feelings against, 22; + hopefulness of, 26; + first presidential ticket, 28; + prejudice against, 30; + abuse by "gentlemen," 32; + women, 38; + preliminary victory of, 47; + denunciation of early, 49; + leaders, 186-198. + +Adams, John Quincy, 21, 41; + attempted expulsion of, from Congress, 69-71; + speech in his own defense in Congress, 89. + +Altee, Edward P., 203. + +Altee, Edwin A., 203. + +"Amalgamation," 35. + +Anderson "Bill," 165. + +Andrew, Governor, of Massachusetts, Peleg's _Life of_, 179. + +Anthony, Susan B., 102, 205. + +Anti-Slavery, causes, 2; + matter excluded from United States mails, 4; + formation of party, 13; + pioneers, 49-58; + lecturers, 76-78; + orators, 88-93; + women, 100-107; + mobs, 108-112; + in Haverhill, 108; + in Nantucket, 109; + martyrs, 113-120; + sentiment, in England, 130. + +Anti-Slavery societies, organization, 26; + in New England, 72, 74, 75, 130, 201; + National, 76, 79, 87, 201. + +Anti-Unionist, 13. + + * * * * * + +Bacon, Benjamin C., 201. + +Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, 100, 207. + +Ballou, Adin, 205. + +Barbadoes, James, 202. + +Bates, Judge, 161. + +Beecher, Henry Ward, 90, 142, 148; + speech in England, 90-93; + and Lincoln, 92. + +Bell, 152. + +Benson, George W., 203. + +Benton, Thomas H., 154. + +Birney, Jas. G., 2, 5, 42, 56-58, 205. + +"Black laws" 35; + in Ohio, 35. + +Black Republic of Texas, 135. + +Blair, Gen. Prank P., 158, 186-191; + and Missouri emancipationists, 161; + and Missouri Abolitionists, 188; + appearance of, 189; + fearlessness, 189; + quarrel with Frémont, 189; + and capture of Camp Jackson, 189-191; + threats against, 190. + +Blair, Montgomery, 158, 161. + +Bonner, Hon. Benjamin R., 155. + +Border-ruffianism, 153. + +Border Slave-State message, text of, 213-214. + +Boyle, James, 205. + +Bradley, John, 135. + +Breckenridge, 152; + factions, 11. + +Breckenridge, Judge Samuel M., 175. + +Brodburn, George, 205. + +Brown, B. Gratz, 155. + +Brown, John, 45, 113. + +Brown, William Wells, 205. + +Buchanan, James 153. + +Buffum, Arnold, 201, 203. + +Buffum, James N., 205. + +Bull Run, 192. + +Burleigh, Charles C., 205. + +Buxton, Sir Thomas, 132. + + * * * * * + +Camp Jackson (St. Louis), 183; + "affair" at, 186-188; + effect of capture, 191-194. + +Campbell, David, 202. + +Campbell, John R., 202. + +Capron, Effingham C., 202. + +Carlisle, Earl of, 18. + +Chapman, Mrs. Henry, 33. + +"Charcoals," Missouri, 159; + delegation to President, 162, 166; + fight for "Free Missouri," 162; + appeal to President for protection, 166-168. + +Chase, Salmon P., 10, 13, 14, 59-61, 148, 205; + financial policy, 60; + espousal of Abolitionism, 61; + and "third party," 64; + election to United States Senate, 206. + +Child, David Lee, 204. + +Child, Lydia Maria, 204. + +Chittenden, L.E., 134. + +Churchill's _Crisis_, 157. + +Civil War, 11; + due to Abolitionists, 12. + +Clay, Henry, 2, 6. + +"Claybanks," 159; + exclusion from National Convention, 169. + +Coffin, Joshua, 201. + +Coffin, Levi, 197-198; + "President of 'The Underground Railroad,'" 197. + +Colonization, 128-135; + Society, 128; + and England, 130-132; + Lincoln's opinion, 133; + experiments, 133-134. + +Colonizationists, pretended friendship for negroes, 130. + +Compromise of 1850, 6. + +Conover, A.J., 205. + +Cotton-gin, invention of, 31. + +Cox, Abram L., 203, 205. + +Crandall, Prudence, persecution of, 116-117. + +Crandall, Dr. Reuben, 117-118. + +_Crisis, The_, 157. + +Cross Keys, battle of, 184. + +Curtis, Geo. William, 88, 179. + +Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 163. + + * * * * * + +Democratic party, division of, 11. + +Democrats, 4, 7; + Anti-Nebraska, 9; + of New York, 9. + +Denison, Charles M., 203, 205. + +Dickinson, Anna E., 205. + +Dissolution of Union, petition for, 2. + +"Doughface," 4. + +Douglas, Stephen A., 12; + dislike of, by slaveholders' factions, 11; + defeated for President, 94-99; + and Abolitionists, 153; + hated by slave-owners, 153. + +Douglass, Fred., 112. + +Drake, Hon. Charles D., 167. + +Dred Scott decision, 45-46; + too late for South's purpose, 47. + +Dresser, Amos, whipped, 119. + + * * * * * + +Emancipation proclamation, 137-138; + due to Abolitionists, 12; + story of, 139; + moral influence of, 146; + Lincoln's reasons for, 146; + ineffective, 148; + text of, 211-213. + +Ewing, Gen. Thomas, 194; + repulsion of General Price, 195. + + * * * * * + +Field, David Dudley, 179. + +Fish, W.H., 205. + +Fletcher, Thomas C., 155. + +Fort Donelson, capture of, 184, 192. + +Fort Henry, capture of, 184. + +Foss, A.T., 205. + +Foster, Daniel, 205. + +Foster, Stephen, 39. + +"Free-Soil" party, 65. + +Frémont, General, 151; + and western command, 184-185; + financial bad management, 184; + defeats Stonewall Jackson, 184; + removal, 185; + freedom proclamation, 185. + +Frost, John, 203. + +Frothingham, O.B., 204. + +Fugitive Slave Law, 5, 121. + +Fuller, John E., 201. + +Fussell, Bartholomew, 203. + + * * * * * + +Gamble, Hamilton R., 160; + and emancipation ordinance of, 163; + and military control of Missouri, 163. + +Garrison, William Lloyd, 13, 21, 26, 201, 202; + Dragged through streets of Boston, 32; + imprisonment for libel, 54; + reception in England, 131-132; + speech at Exeter Hall, 131. + +_Genius of Universal Emancipation, The,_ 51. + +Giddings, Joshua R., 2, 6, 205. + +Gillinghamm, Chalkly, 203. + +Goodell, William, 203, 205. + +Grant, General, 44; + And "Charcoals," 172; + Nomination by Missouri Radicals, 174-176; + capture of Fort Donelson, 192. + +Greeley, Horace, 142, 148, 178, 179. + +Green, Beriah, 203. + +Green, William, Jr., 203. + +Grimké sisters, 38, 103-106, 204. + + * * * * * + +Hale, John P., 10, 205. + +Hall, John B., 201. + +Hall, Robert B., 203. + +Hallock's Order Number Three, 141. + +Harrison, Wm. Henry, 5. + +Hay, John, 136. + +Henry, Patrick, Williamsburg speech, 88. + +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 204. + +_Hints toward Emancipation in Missouri_, 158. + +Hollie, Sally, 205. + +Hopper, Isaac, 205. + +How, John, 155. + +Howland, Joseph A., 205. + +Hudson, Professor, 35, 112, 205. + +Hudson, Frederic, 89. + +Hume, John, 208-210. + +Hutchinsons, the, 141. + + * * * * * + +Ile a'Vache, 133. + +Indiana, introduction of slavery into, 5. + + * * * * * + +Jackson, Claiborne F., 186; + attempt to make Missouri secede, 186-188; + outwitted by Nathaniel Lyon, 188. + +Jackson, Stonewall, defeat of, 184. + +Jewitt, Daniel E., 202. + +Johnson, Andrew, 171, 180. + +Johnson, Oliver, 73, 201. + +Johnson, Samuel, 205. + +Jones, David, 203. + +Joselyn, Simeon, 203. + +Julian, Geo. W., _Political Recollections_, 177. + + * * * * * + +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 44. + +Kedzie, James, 208-210. + +Kelly, Abby, 38-39. + +Kendrick, John, 205. + +Kentucky, 21. + +Kimball, David T., Jr., 202. + +King, Leicester, 205. + +Kingsley, Alpheus, 203. + +Knapp, Isaac, 201. + +"Know-Nothings," 9. + + * * * * * + +Lafayette, 17. + +Lane, James H., 194-197; + canvas for U.S. Senator, 196-197; + attitude on slavery, 197. + +Lawrence, city of, capture by Quantrell, 165; + butchery of inhabitants, 165. + +Leavitt, Joshua, 205. + +Lewis, Evan, 203. + +Lewis, Samuel, 205. + +Liberal party, 2, 3, 7, 8, 65. + +_Liberator_, 21; + first issue, 55; + South Carolina and Georgia offers reward for its circulation, 55-56; + excluded from U.S. mails, 56; + office wrecked by mob, 56; + opposed to separate party action, 64. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 2, 8, 11, 41; + election of, 11, 48; + Gettysburg speech, 88; + and Douglas, 94-99; + debate of 1858, 94; + and slavery, 96, 97; + preferred by slaveholders, 98; + _Recollections of_, 134-135; + and emancipation, 136-149; + and Missouri Compromise, 139; + message to Minister Dayton of Paris, 140; + proposed constitutional amendment, 144; + special message to Congress, December, 1863, 144; + emancipation policy, 145; + and Abolitionists, 147; + and Free-Soilers, 172; + Congressional sentiment toward, 177; + antagonism to, 177-180; + _Life of_, by I.N. Arnold, 177. + +Lincoln, Sumner, 205. + +Longhead, Joseph, 203. + +Lovejoy, Elijah P., shooting of, 32, 89, 114-115, 161. + +Lowell, Ellis Gray, 204. + +Lundy, Benjamin, 27, 50-54; + meeting with Garrison, 54. + +Lyon, Nathaniel, 188. + + * * * * * + +McCrummil, James, 203. + +McCullough, John, 203. + +McKim, John, 203. + +Mace, Enoch, 203. + +Manumittal, arguments against, 34-35. + +Marshall, "Tom," 70. + +Massachusetts Legislature and slavery, 105. + +May, Samuel J., 203. + +May, Rev. S.T., _Recollections_, 108. + +Mexican War, 44. + +Missouri, 157-185; + Compromise, 6, 12, 139-140; + admission to Union as slave State, 43; + slavery contest, 67; + and the Union, 159-160; + Radicals, 159; + Conservatives, 159; + "Charcoals," 159; + "Claybanks," 159; + military control of, 163-166; + guerrilla bands, 165; + pacification of, 168; + Radicals, opposition to Lincoln, in National Convention, 168-169; + delegation to Lincoln, 169-171; + Germans, attacks on, 181-182; + loyalty of, 182-183. _Missouri Democrat, The_, 157-158; + and Louis Snyder, 158-159; + opposition to Lincoln, 180; + support of Johnson, 180. + +Monroe, James, 205. + +Moody, Loring, 205. + +Morris, Senator, 205. + +Mott, Mrs. Lucretia, 38, 102-103. + +Mott, James, 203. + + * * * * * + +_National Anti-Slavery Advocate_, 204. + +_National Era, The_, 100, 207-208. + +Negroes, prejudice against, + in North, 35; + in Ohio, 36; + stronger in North than in South, 36; + suffrage, 80; + failure as freemen, 80-81. + +Newcomb, Stillman E., 201. + +Nicolay, J.C., 136. + +"Nigger Hill," 26, 73. + +"Nigger-pens," 31. + +Noyes, 179. + + * * * * * + +Oberlin College, 207. + +O'Connell, Daniel, 131. + +Ohio, pro-slavery, 21; + Abolitionists of, 21. + +Opdyke, 179. + +Ordinance of '87, 5. + +Otis, James F., 202. + + * * * * * + +Parker, Theodore, 204. + +Parkhurst, Jonathan, 203. + +Pennsylvania Hall, firing of, 30. + +"Peonage," 80. + +Phelps, Amos, 202, 204. + +Philippine Islands, 82-87; + slavery in, 82; + massacres in, 83; + abuses in, 82-84; + spoliation of, 85. + +Phillips, Wendell, 142; + speech in Faneuil Hall, 88-89. + +Phillips, Mrs., 106-107. + +Pillsbury, Parker, 204. + +Pleasanton, General, 168. + +Pointdexter, 165. + +"Popular sovereignty," 153. + +Powell, Aaron M., 205. + +_Prayer of Twenty Millions, The_, 142; text of, 214-215. + +Prentice, John, 203. + +Presidential campaign of 1844, 7. + +Price, General Sterling, 160, 195. + +Prohibitionists, 2, 3, 14. + +Purviss, Robert, 203. + +Putnam, George M., 203. + + * * * * * + +Quantrell, 165. + + * * * * * + +Rankin, John, 203. + +Raymond, Henry J., _Life of Lincoln,_ 177. + +Redmond, C.L., 205. + +Republican party, 2, 3, 7, 8; + elements of, 10; + lack of policy, 10; + and election of Lincoln, 11; + existence due to Abolitionists, 12; + and negro rights, 81; + and Philippine Islands, 82; + and Abolitionism, 150-151. + +_Republican Party, History of the_, Curtis, 136. + +_Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, 142. + +Roosevelt, Theodore, and Abolitionists, 1-14. + +Rosecrans, General, 168. + +Russell, Earl 137. + + * * * * * + +Schofield, Gen. John M., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 164; + relieved from command, 168. + +Secession, pretext for, 48. + +Sewell, Samuel E., 204. + +Sharp, John, Jr., 203. + +Shipley, Thomas, 203. + +Sigel, General, 183. + +Slave-owners, mastery of, 32. + +Slave power, submission to, 5; + northward march, 13. + +Slave production in Northern States, 31. + +Slavery, destruction of, 1; + overthrow of, 3; + in ante-bellum days, 20; + and Biblical authority, 22; + a State institution, 27; + condemned by Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, 31; + Northern support, 33-35, 68; + spread of, 42; + introduction into Territories, 43-44; + practical extirpation, 138. + +Sleeper, John R., 203. + +Smith, Gen. A.J., 168. + +Snelling, William J., 201. + +Southard, Nathaniel, 202. + +South Carolina "black horse," 192. + +Southmayd, Daniel, 202. + +Southwick, Joseph, 202. + +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 102, 204. + +Stanton, Henry Brewster, 204. + +Stebbins, Giles B., 205. + +Sterling, John M., 203. + +Stevens, Thaddeus, 148, 177. + +Stewart, Alvin, 205. + +Stillman, Edwin A., 203. + +Stockton, Henry K., 201 + +Stone, Lucy, 205. + +Stone, Thomas T., 205. + +Stowe, Harriet Beecher 11, 101, 102. + +Sumner, Charles, 148, 179. + +Sutliff, Levi, 203 + +Sutliff, Milton, 203. + + * * * * * + +Tappan, Arthur, 34. + +Tappan, Lewis, 34, 203. + +Taussig, James, 172. + +Taylor, Gen. Z., 6. + +Texas, annexation of, 44. + +Thatcher, Moses, 201. + +Thirteenth Amendment, 138; + vote on, 143-144. + +Thompson, Edwin, 205. + +_Thoughts on African Colonization_, 129. + +Thurston, David, 202. + +Toombs, Robert, 13. + +Torrey, Charles Turner, 118-119. + +Townsend, Dr., 205. + +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 100, 208. + +Underground railroad, 121-127; + confession of John Smith, 121-127. + +United States in Far East, 85; + Army increase of, 85; + Navy increase of, 85. + +Van Buren, Martin, 4; a + "doughface," 4; + Free Soiler, 5. + +Van Zant case, 61. + +Vickers, Anson, 203. + +Virginia, 21. + + * * * * * + +Wade, Benjamin F., 44, 179, 205. + +Wakefield, Horace P., 202. + +Walker, Jonathan, branded, 119. + +Washington, Booker, 136. + +Watkins, Frances E., 205. + +Weld, Theodore W., 103, 204. + +Wheeling, Va., slavery traffic in, 50. + +Whigs, 2, 5-7, 9. + +White, James, 203. + +Whitney, Eli, 31. + +Whitney, Nathaniel, 205. + +Whitson, Thomas, 203. + +Whittier, John G., 202. + +Wilkes, 179. + +Winslow, Isaac, 202. + +Winslow, Nathan, 202. + +Wise, Henry A., 70. + +Wright, Elizur, Jr., 203. + +Wright, Henry C., 205. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. Hume + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13176 *** diff --git a/13176-h/13176-h.htm b/13176-h/13176-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29cfe0e --- /dev/null +++ b/13176-h/13176-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6734 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Abolitionist, by John F. Hume. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + ol { list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + ul { list-style-type: none; + } + span.in1 { margin-left: 1em;} + span.in2 { margin-left: 2em;} + span.in3 { margin-left: 3em;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13176 ***</div> + +<h1>THE ABOLITIONISTS</h1> +<br /><br /> + +<h2>TOGETHER WITH PERSONAL MEMORIES OF<br /><br /> +THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS<br /> +<br /><br /> +1830-1864<br /> +<br /><br /> +BY<br /> +JOHN F. HUME<br /></h2> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<h3>G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +The Knickerbocker press<br /> +</h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Page iii --><a name="Page_iii"></a> +<a name="FOREWORD"></a><h2>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>The opening chapter of this work was prepared during the recent +presidential campaign. It was the idea of the author that it should +appear in one of the leading newspapers or magazines before the +election, but maturer reflection brought about a change of purpose. He +realized that its publication at that time, might, not altogether +unreasonably, be looked upon as a political move having as its object +the election or defeat of a particular candidate for office, whereas +he had no desire to play the partisan. His sole aim was to vindicate +the character of a portion of the citizens of this country—some +living, some dead—whom he had always believed to be most deserving of +popular esteem, from what he considered the unmerited aspersions of a +man who has since come into a position so conspicuous and so +influential that his condemnation necessarily carries with it a +damaging effect.</p> + +<p>Having gone so far as the preparation of the initial chapter, he +concluded that proofs of his assumptions and assertions might at +certain points be thought desirable, if not necessary, and that he +should so prolong his work as to provide them. His first idea at this +point, as his years went back beyond the beginning of the Abolitionist +movement in this country, and as he had been from early boyhood +<a name="Page_v"></a> +identified with this movement, was to contribute such information as +his recollection of events would supply. In other words, he decided to +write a narrative, the matter of which would be reminiscent, with here +and there a little history woven in among the strands of memory like a +woof in the warp. It has ended in history supplying the warp, and the +reminiscence indifferently supplying the woof.</p> + +<p>However, the value of the production is, doubtless, greatly enhanced +by the change. A string of pearls—dropping the former simile and +adopting another—is estimated according to the gems it contains, and +not because of the cord that holds it together. The personal +experiences and recollections that are here and there interwoven, by +themselves would be of little consequence; but they will be found to +carry upon them certain historical facts and inferences—some new in +themselves and in their connections—which, as the author hopes and +believes, are of profitable quality and abounding interest.</p> + +<p>In consequence of the change of plan just explained, the scope of the +work is materially affected. What was begun as a magazine article, and +continued as a brochure, ends in a volume.</p> + +<p>J.F.H.</p> + +<p>Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July, 1905. </p> + + + +<br /> +<br /> +<h3> CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<b>FOREWORD</b> <a href="#FOREWORD">iii.</a><br /> +<ol> + <li>THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS <a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></li> + <li>THE ABOLITIONISTS—WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE <a href="#CHAPTER_II">15</a></li> + <li>ONE OF THEIR TRAITS <a href="#CHAPTER_III">26</a></li> + <li>PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">30</a></li> + <li>THE POLITICAL SITUATION <a href="#CHAPTER_V">41</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">49</a></li> + <li>SALMON PORTLAND CHASE <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">59</a></li> + <li>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">67</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">72</a></li> + <li>WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY <a href="#CHAPTER_X">79</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">88</a></li> + <li>LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">94</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">100</a></li> + <li>MOBS <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">108</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">113</a></li> + <li>THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">121</a></li> + <li>COLONIZATION <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">128</a></li> + <li>LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">136</a></li> + <li>THE END OF ABOLITIONISM <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">150</a></li> + <li>MISSOURI <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">157</a></li> + <li>MISSOURI <i>(Continued) </i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">174</a></li> + <li>SOME ABOLITION LEADERS <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">186</a></li> + <li>ROLLS OF HONOR <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">201</a></li> +</ol> + +<p><b>APPENDIX</b></p> +<ul> + <li>EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION <a href="#EMANCIPATION_PROCLAMATION">211</a></li> + <li>BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE <a href="#BORDER_SLAVE-STATE_MESSAGE">213</a></li> + <li>"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" <a href="#PRAYER_OF_TWENTY_MILLIONS">214</a></li> +</ul> +<b>INDEX</b> <a href="#INDEX">217</a><br /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<br /><br /> +<h1>THE ABOLITIONISTS </h1> +<br /><br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Page 1 --><a name="Page_1"></a> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The following is an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's biography of +Thomas H. Benton in Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.'s American Statesmen +Series, published in 1887:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received an + immense amount of hysterical praise which they do not deserve, and + have been credited with deeds done by other men whom, in reality, + they hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 1840, the + professed Abolitionists formed a small and comparatively + unimportant portion of the forces that were working towards the + restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and much of what + they did was positively harmful to the cause for which they were + fighting. Those of their number who considered the Constitution as + a league with death and hell, and who, therefore, advocated a + dissolution of the Union, acted as rationally as would + anti-polygamists nowadays if, to show their disapproval of + Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should be allowed to + form a separate nation. The only hope of <!-- Page 2 --><a name="Page_2"></a>ultimately suppressing + slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, and every + Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for the dissolution + was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he complained of, as if + he had been a slaveholder. The Liberty party, in running Birney, + simply committed a political crime, evil in almost all its + consequences. They in no sense paved the way for the Republican + party, or helped forward the Anti-Slavery cause, or hurt the + existing organizations. Their effect on the Democracy was <i>nil</i>; + and all they were able to accomplish with the Whigs was to make + them put forward for the ensuing election a slaveholder from + Louisiana, with whom they were successful. Such were the remote + results of their conduct; the immediate evils they produced have + already been alluded to. They bore considerable + resemblance—except that after all they really did have a + principle to contend for—to the political Prohibitionists of the + present day, who go into the third party organization, and are, + not even excepting the saloon-keepers themselves, the most + efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can + count.</p> + +<p> "Anti-Slavery men like Giddings, who supported Clay, were doing a + thousandfold more effective work for the cause they had at heart + than all the voters who supported Birney; or, to speak more + accurately, they were doing all they could to advance the cause, + while the others were doing all they could to hold it back. + Lincoln in 1860 occupied more nearly the ground held by Clay than + that held by Birney; and the men who supported the latter in 1844 + were the prototypes of those who worked to oppose Lincoln in 1860, + and only worked less hard because they had less chance. The ultra + Abolitionists discarded expediency, and claimed to act for + abstract right on principle, no matter what the results might be; + in consequence they accomplished very little, and that as much + <!-- Page 3 --><a name="Page_3"></a>for harm as for good, until they ate their words, and went + counter to their previous course, thereby acknowledging it to be + bad, and supported in the Republican party the men and principles + they had so fiercely condemned. The Liberty party was not in any + sense the precursor of the Republican party, which was based as + much on expediency as on abstract right, and was, therefore, able + to accomplish good instead of harm. To say that extreme + Abolitionists triumphed in Republican success and were causes of + it, is as absurd as to call Prohibitionists successful if, after + countless efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and + after savage denunciations of those who try to regulate it, they + should then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant + portion of a victorious high-license party. The men who took a + great and effective part in the fight against slavery were the men + who remained with their respective parties."</p></div> + +<p>No word of praise or approval has Mr. Roosevelt for the men and +women—for representatives of both sexes were active sharers in the +work performed—who inaugurated, and for a long period carried +forward, the movement that led up to the overthrow of African slavery +in this country. He has no encomiums to bestow on those same men and +women for the protracted and exhausting labors they performed, the +dangers they encountered, the insults they endured, the sacrifices +they submitted to, the discouragements they confronted in many ways +and forms in prosecuting their arduous undertaking. On the contrary, +he has only bitter words of condemnation. In his estimation, and +according to his dogmatic utterance, they were criminals—political +<!-- Page 4 --><a name="Page_4"></a> +criminals. His words make it very manifest that, if Mr. Roosevelt had +been a voter in 1840, he would not have been an Abolitionist. He would +not have been one of that devoted little band of political +philanthropists who went out, like David of old, to do battle with one +of the giant abuses of the time, and who found in the voter's ballot a +missile that they used with deadly effect. On the contrary, he would +have enrolled himself among their adversaries and assailants, becoming +a member—because it is impossible to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a +non-partisan—of one of the leading political parties of the day. +There were but two of them—the Whigs and the Democrats. In failing to +support one or the other of these parties, and giving their votes and +influence to a new one that was founded and constructed on +Anti-Slavery lines, the Abolitionists, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, +"committed a political crime."</p> + +<p>Now, for what did those parties stand in 1840? Who were their +presidential candidates in that year? Martin Van Buren was the +candidate of the Democrats. He had been for eight years in the offices +of Vice-President and President, and in that time, in the opinion of +the Anti-Slavery people of the country, had shown himself to be a +facile instrument in the hands of the slaveholders. He was what the +Abolitionists described as a "doughface"—a Northern man with Southern +principles. As presiding officer he gave the casting vote in the +Senate for the bill that excluded Anti-Slavery matter from the United +States mails, a bill justly regarded as one of the greatest outrages +<!-- Page 5 --><a name="Page_5"></a> +ever perpetrated in a free country, and as holding a place by the +side of the Fugitive Slave Law. True, he afterwards—this was in +1848,—like Saul of Tarsus, saw a new light and announced himself as a +Free Soiler. Then the Abolitionists, with what must always be regarded +as an extraordinary concession to partisan policy, cast aside their +prejudices and gave him their support. Yet Mr. Roosevelt charges them +with being indifferent to the demands of political expediency.</p> + +<p>General William Henry Harrison, candidate of the Whigs, was a +Virginian by birth and training, and an inveterate pro-slavery man. +When Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he presided over a +convention that met for the purpose of favoring, notwithstanding the +prohibition in the Ordinance of '87, the introduction of slavery in +that Territory.</p> + +<p>These were the men between whom the old parties gave the Abolitionists +the privilege of pick and choice. Declining to support either of them, +they gave their votes to James G. Birney, candidate of the newly +formed Liberty party. He was a Southern man by birth and a slave-owner +by inheritance, but, becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he +freed his negroes, giving them homes of their own, and so frankly +avowed his Anti-Slavery convictions that he was driven from his native +State. His supporters did not expect to elect him, but they hoped to +begin a movement that would lead up to victory. They were planting +seed in what they believed to be receptive soil.</p> + +<p>After 1840, the old parties became more and more submissive to the +Slave Power. Conjointly, <!-- Page 6 --><a name="Page_6"></a>they enacted those measures that became +known as the compromises of 1850, the principal ones being the +Fugitive Slave Law and the act repealing the Missouri Compromise. Both +of them pronounced these acts to be "a finality," and both of them in +national convention declared there should be no further agitation of +the subject. They set out to muzzle all the Anti-Slavery voices of the +country.</p> + +<p>By this time it was perfectly manifest that there was not only nothing +the slaveholders might demand which the old parties would not concede, +but that there was, so far as the slavery issue was involved, +absolutely no difference between them. It is a notable fact that in +the eight years following 1840, of the four presidential candidates +put in nomination by the two parties, three were slaveholders, the +fourth being a Northern "doughface," and both of the two who were +elected held slaves.</p> + +<p>For the nomination and election of one of these men, whom he describes +as "a slaveholder from Louisiana" (General Taylor), Mr. Roosevelt is +disposed to hold the Abolitionists accountable. They forced the poor +Whigs into those proceedings, he intimates, probably by telling them +they ought to do nothing of the kind, that being what they actually +did tell them. But as the Abolitionists, four years earlier, in the +same way defeated the Whigs when they were supporting a slaveholder +from Kentucky (Clay), and a man who, in his time, did more for the +upbuilding of slavery than any other person in America, it would +appear that the score of responsibility on their part was fairly +evened up.</p> + +<p>In citing the action of Joshua R. Giddings as an <!-- Page 7 --><a name="Page_7"></a>anti-third-party +man, Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether fortunate. Subsequent to the +presidential campaign of 1844, the third-party Abolitionists held a +convention in Pittsburg, in which Giddings was a leading actor. As +chairman of the committee on platform, he submitted a resolution +declaring that both of the old parties were "hopelessly corrupt and +unworthy of confidence."</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists could not see that they were under obligation to +either of the old parties, believing they could do far better service +for the cause they championed by standing up and being counted as +candidates honestly representing their principles. They fought both of +the old parties, and finally beat them. They killed the Whig party out +and out, and so far crippled the Democrats that they have been limping +ever since. Their action, in the long run, as attested by the verdict +of results, proved itself to be not only the course of abstract right, +but of political expediency.</p> + +<p>In 1840, the vote of the third-party Abolitionists, then for the first +time in the political field, was 7000; in 1844 it was 60,000, and in +1848 it was nearly 300,000. From that time, with occasional backsets, +Mr. Roosevelt's "political criminals" went steadily forward until they +mastered the situation. From the first, they were a power in the land, +causing the older parties to quake, Belshazzar-like, at sight of their +writing on the wall.</p> + +<p>But according to Mr. Roosevelt, the men of the Liberty-Free-Soil party +had no share in fathering and nurturing the Republican party, to which +he assigns all the credit for crushing slavery. Says he, "<!-- Page 8 --><a name="Page_8"></a>The Liberty +party was not in any sense the precursor of the Republican party, +which was based as much on expediency as on abstract right." It is +very true that many Republicans, especially in the earlier days, were +neither Abolitionists nor Anti-Slavery people. A good many of them, +like Abraham Lincoln, were sentimentally adverse to slavery, but under +existing conditions did not want it disturbed. Many of them, having +broken loose from the old parties, had no other place of shelter and +cared nothing for slavery one way or the other, some being of the +opinion of one of the new party leaders whom the writer hereof heard +declare that "the niggers are just where they ought to be." All this, +however, does not prove that the third-party people were not the real +forerunners and founders of the Republican party. They certainly +helped to break up the old organizations, crushing them in whole or +part. They supplied a contingent of trained and desperately earnest +workers, their hearts being enlisted as well as their hands. And what +was of still greater consequence, they furnished an issue, and one +that was very much alive, around which the detached fragments of the +old parties could collect and unite. Their share in the composition +and development of the new party can be illustrated. Out in our great +midland valley two rivers—the Missouri and the Mississippi—meet and +mingle their waters. The Missouri, although the larger stream, after +the junction is heard of no more; but being charged with a greater +supply of sedimentary matter, gives its color to the combined flood of +the assimilated waters. Abolitionism was merged <!-- Page 9 --><a name="Page_9"></a>in Republicanism. It +was no longer spoken of as a separate element, but from the beginning +it gave color and character to the combination. The whole compound was +Abolitionized.</p> + +<p>It was not, indeed, the voting strength, although this was +considerable, that the Abolitionists brought to the Republican +organization, that made them the real progenitors of that party. It is +possible that the other constituents entering into it, which were +drawn from the Anti-Slavery Whigs, the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats, the +"Barnburner" Democrats of New York, the "Know-Nothings," etc., +numbered more in the aggregate than the Abolitionists it included; but +it was not so much the number of votes the Abolitionists contributed +that made them the chief creators of the Republican party, as it was +their working and fighting ability. They had undergone a thorough +training. For nearly twenty years they had been in the field in active +service. For the whole of that time they had been exposed to +pro-slavery mobbing and almost every kind of persecution. They had to +conquer every foot of ground they occupied. They had done an immense +amount of invaluable preparatory work. To deny to such people a +liberal share of the credit for results accomplished, would be as +reasonable as to say that men who clear the land, plough the ground, +and sow the seed, because others may help to gather the harvest, have +nothing to do with raising the crop. But for the pioneer work of the +Abolitionists there would have been no Republican party.</p> + +<p>There had been Anti-Slavery people in this country <!-- Page 10 --><a name="Page_10"></a>before the +Abolitionists—conscientious, zealous, intelligent—but somehow they +lacked the ability, in the language of the pugilists, to "put up a +winning fight." They had been brushed aside or trampled under foot. +Not so with the Abolitionists. They had learned all the tricks of the +enemy. They were not afraid of opposition. They knew how to give blows +as well as to take them. The result was that from the time they +organized for separate political action in 1840, they had made steady +progress, although this seemed for a period to be discouragingly slow. +It was only a question of time when, if there had been no Republican +party, they would have succeeded in abolishing slavery without its +assistance.</p> + +<p>Although, as before remarked, the Republican party was made up of a +good many elements besides the Abolitionists, there was among them but +little homogeneousness. They were indifferent, if not hostile, to each +other, and, if left to themselves, would never have so far coalesced +as to make a working party. They had no settled policy, no common +ground to stand on. They would have been simply a rope of sand. But +the Abolitionists supplied a bond of union. They had a principle that +operated like a loadstone in bringing the factions together.</p> + +<p>There was another inducement the Abolitionists had to offer. They had +an organization that was perfect in its way. It was weak but active. +It had made its way into Congress where it had such representatives as +John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase in the Senate, and several brilliant +men in the Lower House. It had a complete outfit of party machinery. +It had an efficient force of men and women engaged <!-- Page 11 --><a name="Page_11"></a>in canvassing as +lecturers and stump orators. It had well managed newspapers, and the +ablest pens in the country—not excepting Harriet Beecher +Stowe's—were in its service. All this, it is hardly necessary to say, +was attractive to people without political homes. The Abolitionists +offered them not only shelter but the prospect of meat and drink in +the future. In that way their organization became the nucleus of the +Republican party, which was in no sense a new organization, but a +reorganization of an old force with new material added.</p> + +<p>And here would seem to be the proper place for reference to the +historical fact that the Republican party, under that name, had but +four years of existence behind it when the great crisis came in the +election of Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War—Lincoln's +election being treated by the South as a <i>casus belli</i>. The Republican +party was established under that name in 1856 and Lincoln was elected +in 1860.</p> + +<p>Now, the work preparatory to Lincoln's election was not done in four +years. The most difficult part of it—the most arduous, the most +disagreeable, the most dangerous—had been done long before. Part of +it dated back to 1840. Indeed, the performance of the Republican party +in those four years was not remarkably brilliant. With the slogan of +"Free soil, free men, and Fremont" it made an ostentatious +demonstration in 1856—an attempted <i>coup de main</i>—which failed. It +would have failed quite as signally in 1860, but for the division of +the Democratic party into the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. That +division was pre-arranged by the <!-- Page 12 --><a name="Page_12"></a>slaveholders who disliked Douglas, +the regular Democratic nominee, much more than they did Lincoln, and +who hoped and plotted for Lincoln's election because it furnished them +a pretext for rebellion.</p> + +<p>The change of name from "Free Soil" or "Liberty" to "Republican" in +1856 had very little significance. It was a matter of partisan policy +and nothing more. "Liberty" and "Free Soil," as party cognomens, had a +meaning, and were supposed to antagonize certain prejudices. +"Republican," at that juncture, meant nothing whatever. Besides, it +was sonorous; it was euphonious; it was palatable to weak political +stomachs. The ready acceptance of the new name by the Abolitionists +goes very far to contradict Mr. Roosevelt's accusation against them of +being regardless of the claims of political expediency.</p> + +<p>The writer has shown, as he believes, that without the preparatory +work of the political Abolitionists there would have been no +Republican party. He will now go a step further. He believes that +without that preliminary service there would not only have been no +Republican party, but no Civil War in the interest of free soil, no +Emancipation Proclamation, no Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to +the Federal Constitution. There might have been and probably would +have been considerable discussion, ending in a protest, more or less +"ringing," when slavery was permitted to overstep the line marked out +by the Missouri Compromise. There might even have been another +"settlement." But no such adjustment would <!-- Page 13 --><a name="Page_13"></a>have seriously impeded the +northward march of the triumphant Slave Power. Indeed, in that event +it is more than probable that ere this the legal representatives of +the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia, would, if so inclined, have made +good his boast of calling the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker +Hill monument.</p> + +<p>So far we have dealt with Mr. Roosevelt's indictment of the +Abolitionists for abandoning the old pro-slavery political parties, +and undertaking to construct a new and better one. That, in his +judgment, was a political crime. But he charges them with another +manifestation of criminality which was much more serious. He accuses +them of hostility, to the Union, which was disloyalty and treason. The +evidence offered by him in support of his accusation was the +Anti-Unionist position taken by William Lloyd Garrison, who branded +the Union as a "league with hell," and some of his associates. But +Garrison was not a leader, or even a member, of the third or Liberty +party. He denounced it almost as bitterly as Mr. Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>Garrison was a Quaker, a non-resistant, and a non-voter. He relied on +moral suasion. He saw no salvation in politics. The formation of a new +Anti-Slavery party excited his fiery indignation. He declared that it +was "ludicrous in its folly, pernicious as a measure of policy, and +useless as a political contrivance."</p> + +<p>Far and away the most potential member and leader of the political +Abolitionists was Salmon P. Chase. Instead of denouncing the +Constitution as "a league with death and hell," he claimed that it +<!-- Page 14 --><a name="Page_14"></a>was an Anti-Slavery document and should be so construed. As for the +Union, by his services in successfully managing the finances of the +country in its great crisis, he did as much to sustain the Union as +any other man of that time. To accuse him of hostility and infidelity +to the Union, is something that no one can do with impunity. In fact, +so clear and so clean, as well as so bold and striking, is the record +of Chase and his associates, beginning in 1840 and continuing down +until the last shackle was stricken from the last bondsman's limbs, +that even the shadow of the White House cannot obscure it.</p> + +<p>Nor is Mr. Roosevelt happy in his illustration, when, in his +concluding arraignment of the Abolitionists, he seeks to discredit +them as an organization of impracticables by comparing them to the +political Prohibitionists of to-day. When the latter, if that time is +ever to be, shall become strong enough to rout one or both of the +existing main political parties, and, taking the control of the +Government in their hands, shall not only legally consign the liquor +traffic to its coffin, but nail it down with a constitutional +amendment, then Mr. Roosevelt's comparison will apply. </p><!-- Page 15 --><a name="Page_15"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE ABOLITIONISTS—WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In selecting those who are to receive its remembrance and its honors, +the world has always given its preference to such as have battled for +freedom. It may have been with the sword; it may have been with the +pen; or it may have been with a tongue that was inflamed with holy +rage against tyranny and wrong; but whatever the instrumentality +employed; in whatever field the battle has been fought; and by +whatsoever race, or class, or kind of men; the champions of human +liberty have been hailed as the bravest of the brave and the most +worthy to receive the acclaims of their fellows.</p> + +<p>Now, if that estimate be not altogether inaccurate, what place in the +scale of renown must be assigned to those pioneers in the successful +movement against African slavery in this country who have commonly +been known as "Abolitionists"—a name first given in derision by their +enemies? It should, in the opinion of the writer hereof, be the very +highest. He is not afraid to challenge the whole record of human +achievements by great and good men (always save and except that which +is credited to the Saviour of mankind) for exhibitions of heroism +superior to theirs. Nay, when it is remembered that mainly <!-- Page 16 --><a name="Page_16"></a>through +their efforts and sacrifices was accomplished a revolution by which +four million human beings (but for the Abolitionists the number to-day +in bondage would be eight millions) were lifted from the condition in +which American slaves existed but a few years ago, to freedom and +political equality with their former masters; and, at the same time +when it is considered what qualities of heart and brain were needed +for such a task, he does not believe that history, from its earliest +chapters, furnishes examples of gods or men, except in very rare and +isolated cases, who have shown themselves to be their equals.</p> + +<p>In the matter of physical courage they were unsurpassed, +unsurpassable. A good many of them were Quakers and non-resistants, +and a good many of them were women, but they never shrank from danger +to life and limb, when employed in their humanitarian work. Some of +them achieved the martyr's crown.</p> + +<p>In the matter of conscience they were indomitable. Life to them was +worth less than principle.</p> + +<p>In the matter of money they were absolutely unselfish. Those of them +who were poor, as the most of them were, toiled on without the hope of +financial recompense. They did their work not only without the promise +or prospect of material reward of any kind, but with the certainty of +pains and penalties that included the ostracism and contempt of their +fellows, and even serious risks to property and life.</p> + +<p>All these sacrifices were in the cause of human liberty; but of +liberty for whom? That is the crucial point. In all ages there have +been plenty of m<!-- Page 17 --><a name="Page_17"></a>en who have honorably striven for liberty for +themselves. Some there have been who have risen to higher planes. We +have an example in Lafayette. He fought to liberate a people who were +foreign in language and blood; but they were of his own color and the +peers of his compatriots.</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists, however, espoused the cause, and it was for that +that they endured so much, of creatures that were infinitely below +them; of beings who had ceased to be recognized as belonging to +humanity, and were classed with the cattle of the field and other +species of "property." So low were they that they could neither +appreciate nor return the services rendered in their behalf. For their +condition, the Abolitionists were in no sense responsible. They had no +necessary fellowship with the unfortunates. They were under no +especial obligation to them. They were not of the same family. It was +even doubted whether the races had a common origin. And yet, to the +end of securing release for these wretched victims of an intolerable +oppression, not a few of them dedicated all they possessed—life not +excepted.</p> + +<p>True it is that they had no monopoly of benevolence. Many noble men +and women have gone as missionaries to the poor and benighted, and +have sought through numerous hardships and perils to raise up those +who have been trodden in the dust. But, as a rule, their services have +been rendered pursuant to a secular employment that carried financial +compensation, and behind their devotion to the poor and oppressed has +been the expectation of personal reward in another world, if not in +this. <!-- Page 18 --><a name="Page_18"></a>But such motives barely, if at all, influenced the +Abolitionists. No element of professionalism entered into their work. +They were not particularly religious. They neither very greatly +reverenced nor feared the Church, whose leaders they often accused of +a hankering for the "flesh-pots" that induced them to lead their +followers into Egypt, rather than out of it. They were partly moved by +a hatred of slavery and its long train of abuses that was +irrepressible, and which to most persons was incomprehensible, and +partly by a love for their fellows in distress that was so insistent +as to make them forget themselves. Their impulses seemed to be largely +intuitive, if not instinctive, and if called upon for a philosophical +explanation they could not have given it.</p> + +<p>In such a struggle for freedom and natural human rights as was carried +on by the Abolitionists against tremendous odds and through a term +covering many long years, it does seem to the writer of this essay +that mortal heroism reached its height.</p> + +<p>Nor am I by any means alone in the opinion just expressed. As far back +as 1844, when the Abolitionists were few in number and the objects of +almost savage persecution in every part of our country, the Earl of +Carlisle, who, in his day was one of the most capable leaders of +British public opinion, declared that they were engaged "in fighting a +battle without a parallel in the history of ancient or modern +heroism."</p> + +<p>I am moved to write the story of the Abolitionists, partly because it +is full of romantic interest, and partly because justice demands it. +Those doughty <!-- Page 19 --><a name="Page_19"></a>file leaders in the Anti-Slavery fight do not to-day +have an adequate acknowledgment of the obligations that the country +and humanity should recognize as belonging to them, and they never +have had it. Much of the credit that is fairly theirs has been +mis-applied. Writers of history—so called, although much of it is +simple eulogy—have been more and more inclined to attribute the +overthrow of slavery to the efforts of a few men, and particularly one +man, who, after long opposition to, or neglect of, the freedom +movement, came to its help in the closing scenes of a great conflict, +while the earlier, and certainly equally meritorious, workers and +fighters have been quite left out of the account. The writer does not +object to laborers who entered the field at the eleventh hour, sharing +with those who bore the heat and burden of the day; but when there is +a disposition to give to them all the earnings he does feel like +protesting.</p> + +<p>The case of the Abolitionists is not overstated when it is said that, +but for their labors and struggles, this country, instead of being all +free, would to-day be all slaveholding. The relative importance of +their work in creating, by means of a persistent agitation, an +opposition to human slavery that was powerful enough to compel the +attention of the public and force the machine politicians, after long +opposition, to admit the question into practical politics, cannot well +be overestimated.</p> + +<p>They alone and single-handed fought the opening battles of a great +war, which, although overshadowed and obscured by later and more +dramatic events, were none the less gallantly waged and nobly won. <!-- Page 20 --><a name="Page_20"></a>It +is customary to speak of our Civil War as a four years' conflict. It +was really a thirty years' war, beginning when the pioneer +Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death +struggle. It was then that the hardest battles were fought.</p> + +<p>I write the more willingly because comparatively few now living +remember the mad excitement of the slavery controversy in ante-bellum +days. The majority—the living and the working masses of to-day—will, +doubtless, be gratified to have accurate pictures of scenes and events +of which they have heard their seniors speak, that distinguished the +most tempestuous period in our national history—the one in which the +wildest passions were aroused and indulged. Then it was that the +fiercest and bitterest agitation prevailed. The war that followed did +not increase this. It rather modified it—sobered it in view of the +crisis at hand—and served as a safety-valve for its escape.</p> + +<p>For the same reason, the general public has now but slight +comprehension of the trials endured by the Abolitionists for +principle's sake. In many ways were they persecuted. In society they +were tabooed; in business shunned. By the rabble they were hooted and +pelted. Clowns in the circus made them the subjects of their jokes. +Newspaper scribblers lampooned and libelled them. Politicians +denounced them. By the Church they were regarded as very black sheep, +and sometimes excluded from the fold. And this state of things lasted +for years, during which they kept up a steady agitation with the help +of platform lecturers, and regularly threw <!-- Page 21 --><a name="Page_21"></a>away their votes—so it +was charged—in a "third party" movement that seemed to be a hopeless +venture.</p> + +<p>Another inducement to the writer to take up the cause of the +Abolitionists is the fact that he has always been proud to class +himself as one of them. He came into the world before Abolitionism, by +that name, had been heard of; before the first Abolition Society was +organized; before William Lloyd Garrison founded his <i>Liberator</i>, and +before (not the least important circumstance) John Quincy Adams +entered Congress. He cannot remember when the slavery question was not +discussed. His sympathies at an early day went out to the slave. He +informed himself on the subject as well as a farmer boy might be +expected to do in a household that received the most of its knowledge +of current events from the columns of one weekly newspaper. He cast +his first vote for the ticket of the Abolitionists while they were yet +a "third party."</p> + +<p>The community in which he then lived, although in the free State of +Ohio, was strongly pro-slavery, being not far from the Southern +border. The population was principally from Virginia and Kentucky. +There were a few Abolitionists, and they occasionally tried to hold +public meetings, but the gatherings were always broken up by mobs.</p> + +<p>The writer very well remembers the satisfaction with which he, as a +schoolboy, was accustomed to hear that there was to be another +Abolition "turn-out." The occasion was certain to afford considerable +excitement that was dear to the heart of a boy, and it had another +recommendation. The only <!-- Page 22 --><a name="Page_22"></a>room in the village—"town" we called +it—for such affairs, except the churches, which were barred against +"fanatics," was the district schoolhouse, which, by common consent, +was open to all comers, and as the windows and doors, through which +missiles were hurled during Anti-Slavery gatherings, were always more +or less damaged, "we boys" usually got a holiday or two while the +building was undergoing necessary repairs.</p> + +<p>As might be surmised, the lessons I learned at school were not all +such as are usually acquired at such institutions. My companions were +like other children, full of spirit and mischief, and not without +their prejudices. They hated Abolitionists because they—the +Abolitionists—wanted to compel all white people to marry "niggers." +Although not naturally unkind, they did not always spare the feelings +of "the son of an old Abolitionist." We had our arguments. Some of +them were of the knock-down kind. In more than one shindy, growing out +of the discussion of the great question of the day, I suffered the +penalty of a bloody nose or a blackened eye for standing up for my +side.</p> + +<p>The feeling against the negroes' friends—the Abolitionists—was not +confined to children in years. It was present in all classes. It +entered State and Church alike, and dominated both of them. The +Congressional Representative from the district in which I lived in +those days was an able man and generally held in high esteem. He made +a speech in our village when a candidate for re-election. In +discussing the slavery question—everybody discussed it then—he spoke +of the negroes as being "on <!-- Page 23 --><a name="Page_23"></a>the same footing with other cattle." I +remember the expression very well because it shocked me, boy that I +was. It did not disturb the great majority of those present, however. +They cheered the sentiment and gave their votes for the speaker, who +was re-elected by a large majority.</p> + +<p>About the same time I happened to be present where a General Assembly +of one of our largest religious denominations was in session, and +listened to part of an address by a noted divine—the most +distinguished man in the body—which was intended to prove that +slavery was an institution existing by biblical authority. He spent +two days in a talk that was mostly made up of scriptural texts and his +commentaries upon them. This was in Ohio, and there was not a +slave-owner in the assembly, and yet a resolution commendatory of the +views that had just been declared by the learned doctor, was adopted +by an almost unanimous vote.</p> + +<p>In the neighborhood in which I lived was an old and much respected +clergyman who was called upon to preach a sermon on a day of some +national significance. He made it the occasion for a florid panegyric +upon American institutions, which, he declared, assured freedom to all +men. Here he paused, "When I spoke of all men enjoying freedom under +our flag," he resumed, "I did not, of course, include the Ethiopians +whom Providence has brought to our shores for their own good as well +as ours. They are slaves by a divine decree. As descendants of Ham, +they are under a curse that makes them the servants of their more +fortunate white brethren." Having thus put himself right on the +record, he <!-- Page 24 --><a name="Page_24"></a>proceeded with his sermon. No one seemed to take exception +to what he said.</p> + +<p>In the same neighborhood was a young preacher who had shortly before +come into it from somewhere farther North. In the course of one of his +regular services he offered up a prayer in which he expressed the hope +that the good Lord would find a way to break the bands of all who were +in bondage. That smacked of Abolitionism and at once there was a +commotion. The minister was asked to explain. This he declined to do, +saying that his petition was a matter between him and his God, and he +denied the right of others to question him. That only increased the +opposition, and in a short time the spunky young man was compelled to +resign his charge.</p> + +<p>About that time there appeared a lecturer on slavery—which meant +against slavery—who carried credentials showing that he was a +clergyman in good standing in one of the leading Protestant +denominations. In our village was a church of that persuasion, whose +pastor was not an Abolitionist. As in duty bound, the visiting brother +called on his local fellow-laborer, and informed him that on the +following day, which happened to be Sunday, he would be pleased to +attend service at his church. On the morrow he was on hand and +occupied a seat directly in front of the pulpit; but, notwithstanding +his conspicuousness, the home minister, who should, out of courtesy, +have invited him to a seat in the pulpit, if to no other part in the +services, never saw him. He looked completely over his head, keeping +his eyes, all through the exercises, fixed upon the back pews, <!-- Page 25 --><a name="Page_25"></a>which +happened, on that occasion, to be chiefly unoccupied.</p> + +<p>Such incidents, of themselves, were of no great importance. Their +significance was in the fact that they all occurred on the soil of a +free State. They showed the state of feeling that then and there +existed. </p><!-- Page 26 --><a name="Page_26"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>ONE OF THEIR TRAITS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The writer has spoken of the courage of the Abolitionists. There is +another trait by which they were distinguished that, in his opinion, +should not be passed over. That was their extreme hopefulness—their +untiring confidence. No matter how adverse were the conditions, they +expected to win. They never counted the odds against them. They +trusted in the right which they were firmly persuaded would prevail +some time or another. For that time they were willing to wait, +meanwhile doing what they could to hasten its coming.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker mechanic, who was undeniably the +Peter-the-Hermit of the Abolitionist movement, when setting out alone +and on foot, with his printing material on his back, to begin a +crusade against the strongest and most arrogant institution in the +country, remarked with admirable naïveté, "I do not know how soon I +shall succeed in my undertaking."</p> + +<p>William Lloyd Garrison, when the pioneer Anti-Slavery Society was +organized by only twelve men, and they people of no worldly +consequence, the meeting for lack of a better place being held in a +colored schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" in Boston, <!-- Page 27 --><a name="Page_27"></a>declared that in due +time they would meet to urge their principles in Faneuil Hall—a most +audacious declaration, but he was right.</p> + +<p>The writer, when a boy, was witness to an exhibition of the same +spirit. A kinsman of his was a zealous Abolitionist, although not +particularly gifted with controversial acumen. He and his minister, as +often happened, were discussing the slavery question. The minister, +like many of his cloth at that time, was a staunch supporter of "the +institution," which, according to his contention, firmly rested on +biblical authority.</p> + +<p>"How do you expect to destroy slavery, as it exists in Kentucky, by +talking and voting abolition up here in Ohio?" asked the clergyman.</p> + +<p>"We will crush it through Congress when we get control of the general +government," said my kinsman.</p> + +<p>"But Congress and the general government have, under the Constitution, +absolutely no power over slavery in the States. It is a State +institution," replied the clergyman.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to follow the discussion, but, one after another, +the quicker-witted and better-informed preacher successfully combated +all the propositions advanced by my relative in trying to give a +reason for the faith that was in him, until he was completely +cornered. "Well," said he at last, "the good Lord has not taken me +into His confidence, and I don't know what His plans for upsetting +slavery are, but He will be able to manage it somehow."</p> + +<p>My kinsman lived long enough to see the day <!-- Page 28 --><a name="Page_28"></a>when there was not a +slave on American soil, and the minister lived long enough to become a +roaring Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>It was doubtless their confidence in ultimate triumph, a result of +their absolute belief in the righteousness of their cause, that, as +much as anything else, armed and armored the Abolitionists against all +opposition. It was one main element of their strength in the midst of +their weakness. Without it they could not have persisted, as they did, +in their separate or "third party " political action, that cleared the +way and finally led up to a victorious organization. Year after year, +and for many years, they voted for candidates that had no chance of +election. Their first presidential ticket got only seven thousand +votes in the whole country. The great public, which could not see the +use of acting politically for principle alone, laughed at their +simplicity in "throwing away their votes." "Voting in the air" was the +way it was often spoken of, and those who were guilty of such +incomprehensible folly were characterized as "one idea people." They, +however, cared little for denunciation or ridicule, and kept on +regularly nominating their tickets, and as regularly giving them votes +that generally appeared in the election returns among the +"scattering." They were not abashed by the insignificance of their +party.</p> + +<p class="poem">"They were men who dared to be <br /> +the right with two or three,"</p> + +<p>according to the poet Lowell.</p> + +<p>In the county in which I lived when a boy, there <!-- Page 29 --><a name="Page_29"></a>was one vote polled +for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket. The man who gave it +did not try to hide his responsibility—in fact, he seemed rather +proud of his aloneness—but he was mercilessly guyed on account of the +smallness of his party. His rejoinder was that he thought that he and +God, who was, he believed, with him, made a pretty good-sized and +respectable party. </p><!-- Page 30 --><a name="Page_30"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The intensity—perhaps density would be a better word in this +connection—of the prejudice that confronted the Abolitionists when +they entered on their work is not describable by any expressions we +have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man +could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions +were not much better. Every man and woman—because the muster-roll of +the Abolition propagandists was recruited from both sexes—carried on +the work at the hazard of his or her life. Sneers, scowls, hootings, +curses, and rough handling were absolutely certain. One incident +throws light on the state of feeling at that time.</p> + +<p>When Pennsylvania Hall, which the Abolitionists of +Philadelphia—largely Quakers—had erected for a meeting place at a +cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department +of that city threw water on surrounding property, but not one drop +would it contribute to save the property of the Abolitionists.</p> + +<p>Why was it that this devotion to slavery and this hostility to its +opposers prevailed in the non-slaveholding States? They had not always +existed. Indeed, <!-- Page 31 --><a name="Page_31"></a>there was a time, not so many years before, when +slavery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and +Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public +opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of +universal emancipation, when suddenly—almost in the twinkling of an +eye—there was a change. If it had been a weather-cock—as to a +considerable extent it was, and is—public opinion could not have more +quickly veered about.</p> + +<p>Slavery became the popular idol in the North as well as in the South. +Opposition to it was not only offensive, but dangerous. It was +sacrilege.</p> + +<p>So far as the South was concerned the revolution is easily accounted +for. Slavery became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with +a wand of gold, and from being a languishing, struggling system, it +quickly developed into a money-maker.</p> + +<p>Whitney, the Connecticut mechanical genius, by the invention of the +cotton-gin, made the production of cotton a highly lucrative industry. +The price of negroes to work the cotton fields at once went up, and +yet the supply was inadequate. Northernly slave States could not +produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the +golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in +human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken of as "nigger +pens," in which the "hands" that were to make the cotton were +temporarily gathered, and long coffles—that is, processions of men +and women, each with a hand attached to a common rope or +<!-- Page 32 --><a name="Page_32"></a>chain—marched through their streets with faces turned southward.</p> + +<p>The slave-owners were numerically a lean minority even in the South, +but their mastery over their fellow-citizens was absolute. Nor was +there any mystery about it. As the owners of four million slaves, on +an average worth not far from five hundred dollars each, they formed +the greatest industrial combination—what at this time we would call a +trust—ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel +Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great +financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up +to the dimensions of that one association. It was not incorporated in +law, but its union was perfect. Bound together by a common interest +and a common feeling, its members—in the highest sense co-partners in +business and in politics, in peace and in war—were prepared to act +together as one man.</p> + +<p>But why, I again ask, were the Northern people so infatuated with +slavery? They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of +them, and especially their political leaders, carried their adulation +almost to idolatry.</p> + +<p>When Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot down like a dog, and William Lloyd +Garrison was dragged half naked and half lifeless through the streets +of Boston, and other outrages of like import were being perpetrated +all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were +not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"—of +merchants, manufacturers, and members of the professions. They claimed +the credit for such achievements. <!-- Page 33 --><a name="Page_33"></a>There were reasons for such a state +of things—some very solid, because financial.</p> + +<p>The North and the South were extensively interlaced by mutual +interests. With slave labor the Southern planters made cotton, and +with the proceeds of their cotton they bought Northern machinery and +merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They +came North themselves when their pockets were full, and freely spent +their money at Northern hotels, Northern theatres, Northern +race-tracks, and other Northern places of entertainment.</p> + +<p>Then there were other ties than those of business. The great political +parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their +Southern members. Every kind of trade and calling had its Southern +outlet.</p> + +<p>But social connections were the strongest of all, and probably had +most to do in making Northern sentiment. Southern gentlemen were +popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were +grandiose. They talked boastfully of the number of their "niggers," +and told how they were accustomed to "wallop" them.</p> + +<p>Then there were marriage ties between the sections. Many domestic +alliances strengthened the bond between slavery and the aristocracy of +the North.</p> + +<p>In the circles in which these things were going on, it was the fashion +to denounce the Abolitionists. Women were the most bitter. The +slightest suspicion of sympathy with the "fanatics" was fatal to +social ambition. Mrs. Henry Chapman, the wife of <!-- Page 34 --><a name="Page_34"></a>a wealthy Boston +shipping merchant who gave orders that no slaves should be carried on +his vessels, was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense +in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small +conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former +associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of +Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were +noted for their intelligence and culture, but when the heads of the +families came to be classified as Abolitionists the doors of all +fashionable mansions were at once shut against them. They in other +ways suffered for their opinions. The home of Lewis Tappan was invaded +by a mob, and furniture, books, and <i>bric-a-brac</i> were carried to the +street and there burned to ashes.</p> + +<p>The masses of the Northern people were, however, led to favor slavery +by other arguments. One of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, +would at once rush to the North and overrun the free States. I have +heard that proposition warmly supported by fairly intelligent persons.</p> + +<p>Another argument that weighed with a surprisingly large number of +people, was that civil equality would be followed by social equality. +As soon as they were free, negro men, it was said, would marry white +wives. "Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was +regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of +course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a +negro woman for a slave, I do want her for a wife?" was one of the +quaint and pithy observations attributed to Mr. Lincoln. I <!-- Page 35 --><a name="Page_35"></a>heard +Prof. Hudson, of Oberlin College, express the same idea in about the +same words many years before.</p> + +<p>And yet there were plenty of Northern people to whom +"Amalgamation"—the word used to describe the apprehended union of the +races—was a veritable scarecrow. A young gentleman in a neighborhood +near where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for +matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had +been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," said +the old gentleman, "that you are an Abolitionist." The young man +admitted the justice of the charge. "Then, sir," fairly roared the old +man, "you can't have my daughter; go and marry a nigger."</p> + +<p>But what probably gave slavery its strongest hold upon the favor of +Northern people was the animosity toward the negro that prevailed +among them. Nowhere was he treated by them like a human being. The +"black laws," as those statutes in a number of free States that +regulated the treatment of the blacks were appropriately called, were +inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was +called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws +they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. +Any one employing negroes, not so bonded, was liable to a fine of one +hundred dollars. They could not vote, of course. They could not +testify in a case in which a white man was interested. They could not +send their children to schools which they helped to support. The only +thing they could do "like a white man" was to pay taxes.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 36 --><a name="Page_36"></a>The prejudice against the poor creatures in Ohio was much stronger +than that they encountered on the other side of the Ohio River in the +slave State of Kentucky. Here—in Kentucky—they were property, and +they generally received the care and consideration that ownership +ordinarily establishes. The interest of the master was a factor in +their behalf. In many instances there was genuine affection between +owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had +good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes +would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. +There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the +blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in freedom. +What stronger testimony to the innate desire for liberty—what Byron +has described as "The eternal spirit of the chainless mind"—than the +fact that slaves who were the most indulgently treated, were +constantly escaping from the easy and careless life they led to the +hostilities and barbarities of the free States, and they never went +back except under compulsion.</p> + +<p class="poem">"O carry me back to old Virginy,<br /> +To old Virginy's shore,"</p> + +<p>was the refrain of a song that was very popular in those days, and +which was much affected by what were called "negro minstrels." It was +assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when +they had time to realize what freedom meant in their cases, but I +never heard the words <!-- Page 37 --><a name="Page_37"></a>from the lips of a man who had lived in a state +of servitude.</p> + +<p>I have elsewhere referred to the fact that women were often the most +bitter in their denunciations of the Abolitionists. In the +neighborhood in which I passed my early days was a lady who was born +and raised in the North, and who probably had no decided sentiment, +one way or the other, on the slavery question; but who about this time +spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came +back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She +could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by +the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had nothing to do +except to take the world easy, and that, according to her account, +they did with great unanimity. The slaves, were, she declared, the +happiest people in the world, all care and responsibility being taken +from their shoulders by masters who were kind enough to look out for +their wants.</p> + +<p>But one day she unwittingly exposed a glimpse of the reverse side of +the picture. She told the story of a young slave girl who had been +accused of larceny. She had picked up some trifling article that +ordinarily no one would have cared anything about; but at this time it +was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the +poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a +ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that +purpose, and she was drawn up, with her face to the building, until +her toes barely touched the ground. Then, in the <!-- Page 38 --><a name="Page_38"></a>presence of all her +fellow-slaves, and with her clothing so detached as to expose her +naked shoulders, she was flogged until the blood trickled down her +back.</p> + +<p>"I felt almost as bad for her," said the narrator, "as if she had been +one of my own kind."</p> + +<p>"Thank God she was not one of your kind!" exclaimed a voice that +fairly sizzled with rage.</p> + +<p>The speaker who happened to be present was a relative of the author +and a red-hot Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Then came a furious war of words, the two enraged women shouting +maledictions in each other's faces. As a boy, I enjoyed the +performance hugely until I began to see that there was danger of a +collision. As the only male present, it would be my duty to interfere +in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and +hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be +really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when the +two women, looking into each other's inflamed faces, suddenly realized +the ridiculousness of the situation and broke into hearty peals of +laughter. That, of course, ended the controversy, not a little to the +relief of the writer.</p> + +<p>If the influence of a great majority of the women of that day was +thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the +minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and +aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most +indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women—such as Mrs. +Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names +are here omitted, although they richly deserve <!-- Page 39 --><a name="Page_39"></a>to be mentioned. Of +all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a +little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish +crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I +never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes +were small and it appeared to me that they contracted, when she was +speaking, until they emitted sparks of fire. Although she went by her +maiden name, she was a married woman, being the wife of Stephen +Foster, a professional Abolitionist agitator and lecturer. Although +himself noted for the bitterness of his speech, when it came to +hard-hitting vituperation he could not begin to "hold a candle" to his +little wife.</p> + +<p>The two traveled together and spoke from the same platforms. They were +constantly getting into hot water through the hostility of mobs, which +they seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once +in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the +slightest fear. The only meeting addressed by them that I attended, +though held on the Sabbath, was ended by the throwing of stones and +sticks and addled eggs.</p> + +<p>But if the current of public opinion in the North suddenly turned, and +for a long time ran with overwhelming force in favor of slavery, it +changed about almost as suddenly and ran with equal force in the +opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that +furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential +ticket, became a Republican stronghold. It was in what had been a Whig +district, and when the Whig party went to <!-- Page 40 --><a name="Page_40"></a>pieces, the most of its +<i>débris</i> drifted into the Republican lines.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of one of the pro-slavery mobs I elsewhere tell about, +when a supply of eggs with which to garnish the Abolitionists, was +wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the town +constable—the peace officer of the community—put his hand in his +pocket and supplied the funds.</p> + +<p>A few years thereafter, on my return to the village after a +considerable absence, I found that I had come just in time to attend a +Republican rally which was that day to be held in a near-by grove. +When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the +grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, +but by far the most excited individual was the Grand Marshal and +Master of Ceremonies. Seated on a high horse, he was riding up and +down the line shouting out his orders with tremendous unction. He was +the constable of the egg-buying episode. </p><!-- Page 41 --><a name="Page_41"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE POLITICAL SITUATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In several of his addresses before his election to the Presidency, Mr. +Lincoln gave utterance to the following language: "A house divided +against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot +permanently remain half slave and half free. I do not expect the house +to fall, but I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all +one thing or all the other thing."</p> + +<p>The same opinion had been enunciated several years before by John +Quincy Adams on the floor of Congress, when, with his accustomed +pungency, he declared, "The Union will fall before slavery or slavery +will fall before the Union."</p> + +<p>But before either Adams or Lincoln spoke on the subject—away back in +1838—the same idea they expressed had a more elaborate and forcible +presentation in the following words:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The conflict is becoming—has become—not alone of freedom for + the blacks, but of freedom for the whites. It has now become + absolutely necessary that slavery shall cease in order that + freedom may be preserved in any portion of our land. The + antagonistic principles of liberty and slavery have been roused + into action, and one or the other must be victorious. There will + be no <!-- Page 42 --><a name="Page_42"></a>cessation of the strife until slavery shall be exterminated + or liberty destroyed."</p></div> + +<p>The author of the words last above quoted was James Gillespie Birney, +who was the first Abolitionist, or "Liberty party," candidate for the +Presidency, and of whose career a brief sketch is elsewhere given.</p> + +<p>That the slaveholders reached the same conclusion that Birney and +Adams and Lincoln announced, viz., that the country was to be all one +thing or all the other thing, is as manifest as any fact in our +history. It is equally certain that they had firmly resolved to +capture the entire commonwealth for their "institution," and had laid +their plans to that end. They were unwilling to live in a divided +house, particularly with an occupant who was stronger in population +and wealth than they were.</p> + +<p>They saw the danger in such association. Northern sentiment toward +slavery was complacent enough, even servilely so, but it might change. +The South thought it had too much at stake to take the chances when +the opportunity for absolute safety and permanent rule was within its +reach. It resolved to make the whole country, not only pro-slavery, +but slaveholding. If, through any mischance, it failed in its +calculation, the next step would be to tear down the house and from +its ruins reconstruct so much of it as might be needed for its own +occupancy. That it would be able in time to possess itself of the +whole country, however, for and in behalf of its industrial policy, it +did not for an instant doubt. It was not empty braggadocio on the part +<!-- Page 43 --><a name="Page_43"></a>of the celebrated Robert Toombs, of Georgia, when he uttered his +famous boast.<a name="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> He voiced the practically unanimous opinion of his +section.</p> + +<p class="note"><a name="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> See page <a href="#Page_13">13.</a></p> + +<p>Nor was there anything seemingly very presumptuous in that +anticipation. So far, the South had been invariably victorious. In +what appeared to be a decisive battle in the test case of admitting +Missouri into the Union as a slave State, it had won. So pronounced +was its triumph that whatever Anti-Slavery sentiment survived the +conflict appeared to be stunned and helpless. All fight was knocked +out of it. Its spirit was broken. While the South was not only compact +and fully alive, but exultingly aggressive, the North was divided, +fully one half of its population being about as pro-slavery as the +slaveholders themselves, and the rest, with rare exceptions, being +hopelessly apathetic. The Northern leaders of both of the old +political parties—Whig and Democratic—were what the Abolitionists +called "dough-faces," being Northern men with Southern principles. The +Church was "a dumb dog," and the press simply drifted with the tide. +It was not at all strange that the slaveholders expected to go on from +conquest to conquest.</p> + +<p>There were two policies they could adopt. One was to attack the +enemy's citadel; or rather, the several citadels it possessed in its +individual States, and force them to open their doors to the master +and his human chattels. The other was to flank and cover, approaching +the main point of attack by way of the Territories. These, once in +possession of the slaveholders, could be converted into enough <!-- Page 44 --><a name="Page_44"></a>slave +States to give them the control of the general government, from which +coigne of advantage they could proceed in their own time and way to +possess themselves of such other free States as they might want.</p> + +<p>In the matter of the Territories they had a great advantage. The North +was up against a stone wall at the Canadian border. In that direction +it could not advance a step, while the South had practically an +unlimited field on its side from which to carve possessions as they +might be wanted, very much as you would cut a pie.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of its territorial policy—being the line of action it +first resolved upon—the first movement of the South was to annex +Texas—a victory. The next was to make war on Mexico, and (a joke of +the day) conquer a "piece" from it large enough to make half a dozen +States, all expected to be slaveholding—another victory.</p> + +<p>By a curious irony the filching of land for slavery's uses from a +neighbor, and on which the foot of a slave had never pressed, was +exultingly spoken of at the time by its supporters as "an extension of +the area of freedom." The act was justified on the ground that we +needed "land for the landless," which led Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio to +assert on the floor of the United States Senate, with as much truth as +wit, that it was not land for the landless that was wanted, but +"niggers for the niggerless."</p> + +<p>Then came the battle over Kansas. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill in Congress, although involving a breach of good faith on the +part of the South, was hailed as another victory for that section. <!-- Page 45 --><a name="Page_45"></a>It +was a costly victory. It was followed by defeat not only disastrous +but fatal. The result in Kansas was really the turning-point in the +great struggle. It broke the line of Southern victories. It +neutralized the effect of the whole territorial movement up to that +point. It completely spoiled the slaveholders' well-laid plans. We +will always give Grant and his men all praise for victories leading up +to Appomatox, but, in some respects, the most important victory of the +great conflict was won on the plains of Kansas by John Brown of +Ossawattomie and his Abolition associates.</p> + +<p>The most sagacious Southern leaders saw in that result conclusive +proof that the scale was turned. They realized that they were beaten +within the lines of the Union, and they began to arrange for going out +of it. They helped to elect a Republican President by dividing the +Democratic party in 1860 between two candidates—Douglas and +Breckenridge—in order that they might have a plausible pretext for +secession.</p> + +<p>But the slaveholders had not abandoned the other policy to which +reference has been made—that of carrying their institution, by main +force, as it were, into some, if not all, of the free States. To that +end they had, in sporting parlance, a card up their sleeves which they +proceeded to play. That card was the decision of the United States +Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, upon which they relied to give +them the legal power to take and hold their slaves in all parts of the +land. Up to the date of that decision, the current of judicial rulings +had been that slavery, being a municipal institution, <!-- Page 46 --><a name="Page_46"></a>was local, +while freedom was national. Hence, when a master took his slave into a +free State, at that instant he became a free man. The Dred Scott +decision was intended to reverse the rule. Practically it held that +slave ownership, wherever the Constitution prevailed, was both a legal +and a natural right. It, as Benton forcibly expressed it, "made +slavery the organic law of the land and freedom the exception"; or, as +it was jocularly expressed at the time, it left freedom nowhere.</p> + +<p>Although at the time of its promulgation, it was claimed by some of +the more conservative pro-slavery leaders that the Dred Scott dictum +applied only to the Territories, giving the masters the legal +authority to enter them with their slaves, that position was clearly +deceptive. The principle involved, as laid down by the Court, was +altogether too broad for that construction. In effect it put the +proprietorship of human beings upon the same footing with other +property rights, and claimed for it the same constitutional +protection. The bolder men of the South, like Toombs of Georgia, did +not hesitate to give that interpretation to the Court's pronouncement, +and to insist on it with brutal frankness. If they were wrong, the +Court was putty in their hands and they could easily have had a +supplemental ruling that would have gone to any extent.</p> + +<p>If the Dred Scott decision had been promulgated by our highest court, +and the slaveholders had insisted upon the license it was intended to +give them for taking their slave property into free territory, at the +time that Garrison was being dragged by a mob through Boston's +streets; when Birney's printing-press <!-- Page 47 --><a name="Page_47"></a>in Cincinnati was being tumbled +into the Ohio River; when Pennsylvania Hall, the Quaker Abolitionists' +forty-thousand-dollar construction, was ablaze in Philadelphia; when +Lovejoy, the Abolition martyr, was bleeding out his life in one of the +streets of Alton, Illinois—when, in fact, the whole land was swayed +by a frenzied hatred of the men and women who dared to question +slavery's right to supremacy, the writer believes the movement would +have been successful. Public opinion was so inclined in States like +Indiana and Illinois, and even in Ohio, that they might have been +easily toppled over to the South. Indeed, at that time it is a problem +how Massachusetts would have voted on a proposition to "slaveryize" +her soil. The surprising thing, as we look back to that period, is +that slavery did not get a foothold in some of the free States, if not +in all of them.</p> + +<p>But by the time the South was ready to play its trump card, it was too +late. The game was lost. Public opinion had become revolutionized +throughout the North. The leaven of Abolitionism had got in its work. +The men and women, few in number and weak in purse and worldly +position as they were, who had enlisted years before in the cause of +emancipation, and had fought for it in the face of almost every +conceivable discouragement, had at last won a great preliminary +victory. Slavery, through their exertions, had become impossible, both +in the Territories and in the free States of the North, the United +States Supreme Court and all the forces of the slave power to the +contrary notwithstanding. <!-- Page 48 --><a name="Page_48"></a>Then came to the South a not unanticipated, +and to many of her leaders a not unwelcome political Waterloo, in the +election of Lincoln. This gave the argument for secession that was +wanted. The South had then to yield—which she had no idea of +doing—or to go into rebellion. She went out of the Union very much as +she would have gone to a frolic. She had no thought that serious +fighting was to follow. She did not believe, as one of the Southern +leaders expressed it, that the Northern people would go to war for the +sake of the "niggers."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2><!-- Page 49 --><a name="Page_49"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The early Abolitionists were denounced as fanatics, or "fan-a-tics," +according to the pronunciation of some of their detractors. They were +treated as if partially insane. The writer when a boy attended the +trial of a cause between two neighbors in a court of low grade. It was +what was called a "cow case," and involved property worth, perhaps, as +much as twenty dollars. One of the witnesses on the stand was asked by +a lawyer, who wanted to embarrass or discredit him, if he were not an +Abolitionist. Objection came from the other side on the ground that +the inquiry was irrelevant; but the learned justice-of-the-peace who +presided held that, as it related to the witness's sanity, and that +would affect his credibility, the question was admissible. It is not, +perhaps, so very strange that in those days, in view of the +disreputableness of those whose cause they espoused, and the +apparently utter hopelessness of anything ever coming out of it, the +supporters of Anti-Slaveryism should be suspected of being "out of +their heads."</p> + +<p>Although Don Quixote, who, according to the veracious Cervantes, set +out with his unaided strong right arm to upset things, including +wind-mills and <!-- Page 50 --><a name="Page_50"></a>obnoxious dynasties, has long been looked upon as the +world's best specimen of a "fanatic," he would ordinarily be set down +as a very Solomon beside the man who would undertake single-handed to +overthrow such an institution as American slavery used to be. Such a +man there was, however. He really entered on the job of abolishing +that institution, and without a solitary assistant. Strange to say, he +was neither a giant nor a millionaire.</p> + +<p>According to Horace Greeley, "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high honor +of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distinctive Anti-Slaveryism in +America."</p> + +<p>He was slight in frame and below the medium height, and unassuming in +manner. He had, it is said, neither eloquence nor shining ability of +any sort.</p> + +<p>At nineteen years of age he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the +trade of a saddler. He learned more than that. Wheeling, as he tells +us, was then a great thoroughfare for the traffickers in human flesh. +Their coffles passed through the place frequently. "My heart," he +continues, "was grieved at the great abomination. I heard the wail of +the captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered into my +soul."</p> + +<p>But much as Lundy loathed the business of the slave-dealers and +slave-drivers, he then had no idea of attempting its abolishment. He +married and settled down to the prosecution of his trade, and had he +been like other people generally he would have been content. But he +could not shut the pictures of those street scenes in Wheeling out of +his mind and out of his heart.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 51 --><a name="Page_51"></a>The first thing in the reformatory line he did was to organize a +local Anti-Slavery society in the village in which he was then living +in Ohio; at the first meeting of this society only five persons were +present.</p> + +<p>About this time Lundy made some important discoveries. He learned that +he could write what the newspapers would print, and give expression to +words that the people would listen to. He was quick to realize the +fact that the best way to reach the people of this country was through +the press. He started a very small paper with a very large name. It +was ambitiously nominated <i>The Genius of Universal Emancipation</i>. He +began with only six subscribers and without a press or other +publishing material. Moreover, he had no money. He was not then a +practical printer, though later he learned the art of type-setting. At +this time he had his newspaper printed twenty miles from his home, and +carried the edition for that distance on his back.</p> + +<p>But insignificant as Lundy's paper was, it had the high distinction of +being the only exclusively Anti-Slavery journal in the country, and +its editor and proprietor was the only professional Abolition lecturer +and agitator of that time.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, in speaking of his journalistic undertaking, Mr. Lundy +said: "I began this work without a dollar of funds, trusting to the +sacredness of the cause." Another saying of his was that he did not +stop to calculate "how soon his efforts would be crowned with +success."</p> + +<p>As Lundy spent the greater part of his time in traveling from place to +place, procuring subscriptions <!-- Page 52 --><a name="Page_52"></a>to his journal and lecturing on +slavery, he could not issue his paper regularly at any one point. In +some instances he carried the head-rules, column-rules, and +subscription-book of his journal with him, and when he came to a town +where he found a printing-press he would stop long enough to print and +mail a number of his periodical. He traveled for the most part on +foot, carrying a heavy pack. In ten years in that way he covered +twenty-five thousand miles, five thousand on foot.</p> + +<p>He decided to invade the enemy's country by going where slavery was. +He went to Tennessee, making the journey of eight hundred miles, one +half by water, and one half on foot. That was, of course, before the +day of railroads.</p> + +<p>He continued to issue his paper, although often threatened with +personal violence. Once two bullies locked him in a room and, with +revolvers in hand, tried to frighten him into a promise to discontinue +his work. He did not frighten to any extent.</p> + +<p>Seeking what seemed to be the most inviting field for his operations, +he decided to move his establishment to Baltimore, going most of the +way on foot and lecturing as he went whenever he could find an +audience.</p> + +<p>His residence in Baltimore came near proving fatal. A slave-trader, +whom he had offended, attacked and brutally beat him on the street. +The consolation he got from the court that tried the ruffian, who was +"honorably discharged," was that he (Lundy) had got "nothing more than +he deserved." Soon afterwards his printing material and other property +was burned by a mob.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 53 --><a name="Page_53"></a>He went to Mexico to select a location for a projected colony of +colored people. He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the +strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of +saddlery and harness mending. In his journal he tells us that he often +slept in the open air, the country traversed being mostly new and +unsettled. He was in constant danger from panthers, alligators, and +rattlesnakes, while he was cruelly beset by gnats and mosquitoes. His +clothes in the morning, he tells us, would be as wet from heavy dews +as if he had fallen into the river.</p> + +<p>Intellectually, Lundy was not a great man, but his heart was beyond +measurement. The torch that he carried in the midst of the all but +universal darkness of that period emitted but a feeble ray, but he +kept it burning, and it possessed the almost invaluable property of +being able to transmit its flame to other torches. It kindled the +brand that was wielded by William Lloyd Garrison, and which possessed +a wonderful power of illumination.</p> + +<p>Garrison was beyond all question a remarkable man. In the qualities +that endow a successful leader in a desperate cause he has never been +surpassed. He had an iron will that was directed by an inflexible +conscience. "To him," says James Freeman Clarke, "right was right, and +wrong was wrong, and he saw no half lights or half shadows between +them." He was a natural orator. I never heard him talk, either on or +off the platform, but I have heard those who had listened to him, +speak of the singular gift he possessed in stating or combating a +proposition. One person who had heard him, <!-- Page 54 --><a name="Page_54"></a>often compared him, when +dealing with an adversary, to a butcher engaged in dissecting a +carcass, and who knew just where to strike every time,—a homely, but +expressive illustration. His addresses in England on a certain notable +occasion, which is dealt with somewhat at length elsewhere, were +declared by the first British orators to be models of perfect +eloquence.</p> + +<p>Lundy and Garrison met by accident. They were boarding at the same +house in Boston, and became acquainted. Lundy's mind was full of the +subject of slavery, and Garrison's proved to be receptive soil. They +decided to join forces, and we have the singular spectacle of two poor +mechanics—a journeyman saddler and a journeyman printer—conspiring +to revolutionize the domestic institutions of half of the country.</p> + +<p>They decided to continue the Baltimore newspaper. Garrison's +plain-spokenness, however, soon got him into trouble in that city. He +was prosecuted for libelling a shipmaster for transporting slaves, was +convicted and fined fifty dollars. The amount, so far as his ability +to pay was involved, might as well have been a million. He went to +prison, being incarcerated in a cell just vacated by a man who had +been hanged for murder, and there he remained for seven weeks. At the +end of that time Arthur Tappan, the big-hearted merchant of New York, +learning the facts of the case, advanced the money needed to set +Garrison free.</p> + +<p>Undeterred by his experience as a martyr, Garrison—who had returned +to Boston—resolved to establish a journal of his own in that city, +which <!-- Page 55 --><a name="Page_55"></a>was to be devoted to the cause of the slave. <i>The Liberator</i> +appeared on the 1st of January, 1831.</p> + +<p>In entering upon this venture, Garrison had not a subscriber nor a +dollar of money. Being a printer, he set up the type and struck off +the first issue with his own hands.</p> + +<p>In the initial number the proprietor of the <i>Liberator</i> outlined his +proposed policy in these words: "I will be as harsh as truth; as +uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will not excuse; I will +not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard."</p> + +<p>The first issue of the paper brought in a contribution of fifty +dollars from a colored man and twenty-five subscribers. It was not, +therefore, a failure, but its continuance involved a terrible strain. +Garrison and one co-worker occupied one room for work-shop, +dining-room, and bedroom. They cooked their own meals and slept upon +the floor. It was almost literally true, as pictured by Lowell, the +poet:</p> + +<p class="poem">"In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,<br /> +<span class="i2">Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man.</span> +The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean,<br /> +<span class="i2">Yet there the freedom of a race began."</span></p> + +<p>The effects produced by Garrison's unique production were simply +wonderful. In October of its first year the Vigilance Association of +South Carolina offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the +apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any white person who +might be detected in distributing or circulating the <i>Liberator</i>. +Georgia went farther than that. Less than a year after <!-- Page 56 --><a name="Page_56"></a>Garrison had +established his paper, the Legislature of that State passed an act +offering a reward of five thousand dollars to whomsoever should +arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute its publisher to conviction. The +<i>Liberator</i> was excluded from the United States mails in all the slave +States, illegal as such a proceeding was.</p> + +<p>There was, however, opposition nearer home. The <i>Liberator</i> +establishment was wrecked by a mob, and Garrison, after having been +stripped of nearly all his clothing, was dragged, bareheaded, by a +rope round his body through the streets of Boston until, to save his +life, the authorities thrust him into jail.</p> + +<p>No man in this country was so cordially hated by the slaveholders as +Garrison. Of the big men up North—the leaders of politics and +society—they had no apprehension. They knew how to manage them. It +was the little fellows like the editor of the <i>Liberator</i> that gave +them trouble. These men had no money, but they could not be bought. +They had no fear of mobs. They cared nothing for the scoldings of the +church and the press. An adverse public sentiment never disturbed +their equanimity or caused them to turn a hair's breadth in their +course.</p> + +<p>It is true that Lundy and Garrison had very little to lose. They had +neither property nor social position. That, however, cannot be said of +another early Abolitionist, who, in some respects, is entitled to more +consideration than any of his co-workers.</p> + +<p>James Gillespie Birney was a Southerner by birth. He belonged to a +family of financial and social prominence. He was a gentleman of +education and <!-- Page 57 --><a name="Page_57"></a>culture, having graduated from a leading college and +being a lawyer of recognized ability. He was a slave-owner. For a time +he conducted a plantation with slave labor. He lived in Alabama, where +he filled several important official positions, and was talked of for +the governorship of the State. But having been led to think about the +moral, and other aspects of slaveholding, he decided that it was wrong +and he would wash his hands of it. He could not in Alabama legally +manumit his slaves. Moreover, his neighbors had risen up against him +and threatened his forcible expulsion. He removed to Kentucky, where +he thought a more liberal sentiment prevailed. There he freed his +slaves and made liberal provision for their comfortable sustenance. +But the slave power was on his track. He was warned to betake himself +out of the State. The infliction of personal violence was meditated, +and a party of his opposers came together for that purpose. They were +engaged in discussing ways and means when a young man of commanding +presence and strength, who happened to be present, announced that +while he lived Mr. Birney would not be molested. His opposition broke +up the plot. That young man became a leading clergyman and was +subsequently for a time Chaplain of the United States Senate.</p> + +<p>Birney went with his belongings to Ohio, thinking that upon the soil +of a free State he would be safe from molestation. He established a +newspaper in Cincinnati to advocate emancipation. A mob promptly +destroyed his press and other property, and it was with difficulty +that he escaped with his life. <!-- Page 58 --><a name="Page_58"></a>More sagacious, although not more +zealous, than Lundy and Garrison and a good many of their followers, +Birney early saw the necessity of political action in the interest of +freedom. He was the real founder of the old "Liberty" party, of which +he was the presidential candidate in 1840 and in 1844.</p> + +<p>Of course, there were other early laborers for emancipation that, in +this connection, ought to be mentioned and remembered. They were +pioneers in the truest sense. The writer would gladly make a record of +their services, and pay a tribute, especially, to the memories of such +as have gone to the spirit land, where the great majority are now +mustered, but space at this point forbids.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2><!-- Page 59 --><a name="Page_59"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>SALMON PORTLAND CHASE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man to whom the colored people of this +country, who were slaves, or were liable to become slaves, are under +the greatest obligation for their freedom, I would unhesitatingly say +Salmon Portland Chase.</p> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man who was the strongest and most useful +factor in the Government during the great final contest that ended in +the emancipation of the black man, I would say Salmon Portland Chase.</p> + +<p>In expressing the opinions above given, no reproach for Abraham +Lincoln, nor for any of the distinguished members of his Cabinet, is +intended or implied. Inferiority to Salmon P. Chase was not a +disgrace. Physically he rose above all his official associates, which +was no discredit to them, and in much the same way he towered +intellectually and administratively. His was the most trying, the most +difficult position, in the entire circle of public departments. It was +easy to get men to fight the battles of the Union if there was money +to pay them. It was easy to furnish ships and arms and supplies in +sufficient quantity, notwithstanding the terrible drain of the +greatest of civil wars, as long as the <!-- Page 60 --><a name="Page_60"></a>funds held out. Everything +depended on the treasury. Failure there meant irretrievable disaster. +It would not answer to have any serious mistakes in that quarter, and +in fact no fatal mistakes were there made. In all other departments +there were failures and blunders, but the financial department met +every emergency and every requisition. Chase's financial policy it was +that carried the country majestically through the war, and that +afterwards paid the nation's debts.</p> + +<p>There is a circumstance that has not been mentioned, as far as the +writer knows, by any of Mr. Chase's biographers, which seems to him to +be significant and worth referring to. During the Civil War, Walter +Bagehot was editor of the <i>Economist,</i> the great English financial +journal. His opinion in financial matters was regarded as the highest +authority. It was accepted as infallible. He discussed the plans of +Mr. Chase with great elaborateness and great severity. He predicted +that they were all destined to failure, and proved this theoretically +to his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of many others. The +result showed that Mr. Chase was right all the time, and the great +English economist was wrong.</p> + +<p>The entrance of such a man into the Abolitionist movement marked an +era in its history. It was the thing most needed. He gave it a leader +who, of all men then living, was most competent for leadership. From +that time he was its Moses.</p> + +<p>The greatest service rendered to the Abolition cause by Salmon P. +Chase was in pushing it forward on political lines. There was a +contest for the mastery <!-- Page 61 --><a name="Page_61"></a>of the Government from the hour he took +command. The movement was to be slow, sometimes halting and apparently +falling back, in some respects insignificant, in all respects +desperate, but there was to be no permanent defeat and no compromise.</p> + +<p>The espousal of Abolitionism by Mr. Chase was a remarkable +circumstance. He was not an enthusiast like Garrison and Lundy and +many other Anti-Slavery pioneers, but precisely the opposite. He was +cold-blooded and cool-headed, a deliberate and conservative man. His +speeches were described as giving light but no heat. His sympathies +were seemingly weak, but his sense of justice was immense. Apparently, +he opposed slavery because it was wrong rather than because it was +cruel. He had a big body, a big head, and a big conscience, the +combination making a strong man and a good fighter.</p> + +<p>That he did, in fact, sympathize with the slaves was shown by his +professional work in their behalf, more particularly in pleading +without fee or other reward the cases of escaped fugitives in the +courts. So numerous were his engagements in this regard that his +antagonists spoke of him sneeringly as the "Attorney-General for +runaway niggers." Upon some of his Anti-Slavery cases he bestowed an +immense amount of work. His argument in the case of Van Zant—the +original of Van Tromp in Mrs. Stowe's <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>,—an old man +who was prosecuted and fined until he was financially ruined for +giving a "lift" in his farm wagon to a slave family on its way to +Canada, was said at the time to <!-- Page 62 --><a name="Page_62"></a>have been the most able so far made +in the Supreme Court of the United States. That and other similar +utterances by Mr. Chase were published for popular reading, and were +widely distributed by friends of the cause.</p> + +<p>It is possible that, in performing this arduous labor, Mr. Chase, who +was not without personal ambition, was able, with his great native +sagacity, to foresee, although it must have been but dimly, the +possibilities of political development and official promotion, but at +the same time, for the same reason, he could the more clearly realize +the wearisome, heart-breaking struggle that was before him.</p> + +<p>It was an enormous sacrifice that he made. Journeymen printers and +saddlers, like Garrison and Lundy, who had never had as much as one +hundred dollars at one time in their lives, and who had no social +position and no influential kinsfolks, had little to lose. But it was +very different with Chase. He had a profession that represented great +wealth. He had distinguished and aristocratic family connections. He +had a high place in society. All these he risked and largely lost.</p> + +<p>In speaking of his sacrifices at that time in a subsequent letter to a +friend, he wrote:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time + and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles + and building up the organization of the party of constitutional + freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed + insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demand + upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed + severely all my abilities."</p></div> + +<p><!-- Page 63 --><a name="Page_63"></a>The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed something +of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way because of his +principles. While a law student in a country village he was sent down +to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the form of affidavits. +During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law office, introduced +himself, and was very pleasantly received. He noticed that there was a +notary public in the office.</p> + +<p>Among other instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of +a leading business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The +document was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before +whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew where +there was a notary in a near-by office. We proceeded to Mr. Chase's +chambers, and were about to enter when my companion noticed the name +on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck in the face. "The +---- Abolitionist," he exclaimed, "I wouldn't enter his place for a +hundred dollars!" We went elsewhere for our business, and on the way +my companion expressed himself about Mr. Chase. "What a pity it is," +he said, "that that young man is ruining himself. He is a bright man," +he went on, "and I employed him professionally until he went daft on +the subject of freeing the niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose +of serving the white people."</p> + +<p>Like pretty much all the early Abolitionists, Mr. Chase had a taste of +mob violence. He had one singular experience. When the mob destroyed +the printing establishment of James G. Birney in Cincinnati, Chase +mingled with the crowd. He <!-- Page 64 --><a name="Page_64"></a>discovered that personal violence to Mr. +Birney was contemplated and that his life was in danger. He made all +haste to Birney's residence and gave him warning of his peril. Then he +took his stand in the doorway of the building and calmly awaited the +coming of the rabble. Those who knew Chase will remember that in size +he was almost a giant, and his countenance had a stern, determined +look. The multitude, finding itself thus unexpectedly confronted, +paused and entered into a parley that gave the hunted man an +opportunity to reach a place of safety.</p> + +<p>Chase had an appointment to speak in the village in which the writer +lived, and the opposers of his cause arranged to give him a warm +reception. Something prevented his attendance, and a very mild and +amiable old clergyman from an adjoining town, who took his place, +received the shower-bath of uncooked eggs that had been intended for +the Cincinnati Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Chase's great work for the Anti-Slavery cause was in projecting and +directing it on independent political lines. Up to that time most +Anti-Slavery people opposed separate party action. Garrison and his +<i>Liberator</i> violently denounced such action. Moral suasion was urged +as the panacea. Chase himself had not been a "third party" man. In +1840, when there was an Abolition ticket in the field, headed by his +personal friend, James G. Birney, he had not supported it. But soon +afterwards, becoming firmly convinced that Anti-Slavery people had +nothing to hope for from either of the old parties, he set about the +work of building a new one. The undertaking <!-- Page 65 --><a name="Page_65"></a>was with no mental +reservation on his part. When he put his hand to that plow there was +no looking back, notwithstanding that a rougher or more stony field, +and one less promising of returns for the laborer than that before +him, would be difficult to imagine.</p> + +<p>In 1841 he headed a call for a convention at Columbus, the State +capital, to organize the Liberty party in the State of Ohio, and at +the same time nominate a State ticket. Less than a hundred +sympathizers responded to the call, and the ticket put in nomination +received less than one thousand votes.</p> + +<p>Among the attendants at the Columbus meeting was a near kinsman of the +author. On his return, in describing the proceedings, he said that +pretty much everything was directed by a Mr. Chase (Salamander Chase +was his name, he said), a young Cincinnati lawyer. That young man, he +declared, would yet make a mark in the world.</p> + +<p>From that time every important move was directed by Chase. He prepared +the calls for important meetings. He wrote their addresses and their +platforms. He made the leading speeches. He presided at the great +convention at Buffalo in 1848, which formulated the "Free-Soil" +party—successor to the Liberty party—and wrote the platform which it +adopted.</p> + +<p>In speaking of Chase's share in the independent organization of this +time, William M. Evarts says: "He must be awarded the full credit of +having understood, resolved upon, planned, organized, and executed +this political movement."</p> + +<p>The movement thus conducted by Mr. Chase was <!-- Page 66 --><a name="Page_66"></a>slow and tremendously +laborious, but it was effective. In the presidential elections of 1844 +and 1848 it held the balance of power and turned the scale to further +its purposes. In 1852 it shattered and destroyed one of the old +pro-slavery parties, and became the second party in the country +instead of the third. In eight years more it was the first.</p> + +<p>The charge has been made against Mr. Chase that, while a member of +Lincoln's Cabinet, he aspired to supersede his chief in the +Presidency. But did he not have a right to seek the higher office, +especially when the policy pursued by its incumbent did not meet his +full approval? He merely shared the sentiment that was then +entertained by nearly all the radical Anti-Slavery people of the +country. It is not unlikely that Chase felt somewhat envious of +Lincoln. After, as he stated in his letter of congratulation to Mr. +Lincoln on his first election, he had given nineteen years of +continuous and exhausting labor to the freedom movement, it would be +but natural that he should feel aggrieved when he saw that the chief +credit of that movement was likely to go to one who had, to his own +exclusion, come up slowly and reluctantly at a later day to its +support. If he were somewhat jealous, it would be hard not to +sympathize with him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man who, next to Salmon P. Chase, most +effectually and meritoriously contributed to the liberation of the +black man in this country, I should unhesitatingly say John Quincy +Adams.</p> + +<p>By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as +having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a +very distinguished family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a +time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, +or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It +can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually +and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what +Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, +but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration.</p> + +<p>When Adams entered Congress opposition to slavery was at its lowest +ebb. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the +Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had +correspondingly depressed and cowed their adversaries. As a general +thing, the latter had given <!-- Page 68 --><a name="Page_68"></a>up all idea of making any further fight. +Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern +churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. +Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had +perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a +few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There +was one magnificent exception.</p> + +<p>It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and +began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen +years, literally lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried +helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen +when in the discharge of his duties.</p> + +<p>The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent +candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political +party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles in regulating his +course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who +was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that +fight. There was nothing in the eloquence of Demosthenes in Athens, of +Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in +England, that surpassed the force and grandeur of the philippics of +Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his +service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant assailants +like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the +in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished +and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists. He +was always "the <!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69"></a>old man eloquent." Says one of our leading historical +writers:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In + knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the House that could + be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He + was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible + to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the + House was something upon which he was always ready to enter."</p></div> + +<p>Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another +Congressman writes:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with + my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble + through every nerve and joint, when he arraigned before them their + political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any + conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic."</p></div> + +<p>At last his enemies in Congress decided that they would endure his +attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan +of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his +biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was +the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make +an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to +humiliate and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to +do."</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal +endorsement, asking for a dissolution of the Union. That furnished the +pretext his <!-- Page 70 --><a name="Page_70"></a>enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in +countenancing an assault upon the Union, although they were at the time +engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate +overthrow. The outcome of this undertaking was one of the most +thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that +matter, in any other deliberative assembly.</p> + +<p>Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The +galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of +pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry of the South were +there. They had come to witness the abasement of the great enemy of +their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the +nation's council chamber, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one +friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the +attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that +gave him their sympathies.</p> + +<p>The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead +the prosecution. One was the celebrated Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; +the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the +proceedings by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with +treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with +a speech of much ingenuity. Wise followed in a fiery diatribe. Both +speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions of a somewhat +scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their +careers of questionable propriety, to retaliation from a man who +thoroughly knew their records. <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71"></a>At this point we have the testimony of +an eye-witness:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands + tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose + consecrated head the vials of tyrannic wrath had been outpoured. + Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, + but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his + infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but + be noted, trembling, not with fear, but with age."</p></div> + +<p>His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been +urged against him and triumphantly refuted it. He handled his +oratorical antagonists with merciless severity, depicting certain +events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers gazed +upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men +when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage +in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have +mercy on him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly admitted their +discomfiture and dropped the whole business.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided +efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at +a time when it was almost moribund. He plowed the ground, cutting a +deep and broad furrow as he went his way, and in the upturned soil +such laborers as Birney and Garrison and Chase planted the seed that +rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful harvest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2><!-- Page 72 --><a name="Page_72"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The divergent characteristics of the East and the West were never more +clearly shown than in the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement. +Efforts were made to plant Abolition societies at various points +throughout the West, but they failed to take permanent root and soon +disappeared. The failure was not due to any lack of interest, but +rather to an excess of zeal on the part of the Western supporters of +the cause. Society organizations on the lines of moral suasion were +too slow and tame to suit them. They preferred the excitement of +politics. They believed in the superior efficacy of a political party, +and to its upbuilding they gave their energies and resources. In the +"long run" they were amply vindicated, but for all that, the favorite +Eastern method for organized effort had its advantages.</p> + +<p>The East, and especially New England, always believed in societies. If +anything of a public nature was to be promoted or prevented, a society +always appealed to the New Englander as the natural instrumentality. +There is a tradition that when Boston was ravaged by a loathsome +disease, a number of its leading citizens came together and promptly +organized an anti-smallpox society.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73"></a>When, therefore, it was decided that an Anti-Slavery movement should +be inaugurated in Boston, the proper thing to do, according to all the +standards of the place, was to organize a society. But the thing was +more easily resolved upon than done. It required the concurrence of +several parties of like-mindedness. Boston was a pretty large place, +but Anti-Slavery people were scarce. The number (doubtless selected +because it was Apostolic) assumed to be necessary was twelve. Fifteen +people of somewhat similar views were at last brought together. After +much discussion nine favored an organization and six opposed it. So +far the operation was a failure. But at last, after much canvassing, +twelve men were found who promised their co-operation—twelve and no +more. Although respectable people, they were not of Boston's "first +citizens" by any means. It is said that if they had been called upon +for a hundred dollars each, not over two of them could have responded +without bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>The twelve came together at night and in the basement of an African +Baptist Church, the room being used in the daytime to accommodate a +school for colored children. It was in an obscure quarter of Boston +known as "Nigger Hill." The conference was in the month of December, +and the night is thus described by Oliver Johnson, who was one of the +twelve: "A fierce northeast storm, combining rain, snow, and hail in +about equal proportions, was raging, and the streets were full of +slush. They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days was +very economical of light on Nigger Hill."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 74 --><a name="Page_74"></a>Both nature and man seemed to be in league against those plucky +pioneers of an unpopular cause. They, however, were not dismayed nor +disheartened. It was as they were stepping out into the gloomy night, +that Mr. Garrison, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, was one of +the twelve, remarked to his associates: "We have met to-night in this +obscure schoolhouse; our numbers are few, and our influence limited, +but mark my prediction. Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo to the +principles we have set forth."</p> + +<p>What those principles were is shown by the declaration adopted by that +handful of confederates, and which, in view of the time and +circumstances of its formulation, was certainly a most remarkable +document. Its essential proposition was: "We, the undersigned, hold +that every person of full age and sound mind has a right to immediate +freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by +the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime."</p> + +<p>The Declaration of Independence, which was produced with no little +theatrical effect amid the pomp and circumstance of a national +conclave that had met in the finest hall in the country, was +unquestionably a remarkable and memorable pronouncement. It was for +the time and situation a radical utterance. It was the precursor of a +revolution that gave political freedom to several million people.</p> + +<p>But the platform of principles that was announced by the New England +Anti-Slavery Society (the name adopted) in that little grimy +schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" was, in at least some respects, a more +remarkable <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75"></a>document. Its enunciation required an equal degree of +physical and moral courage. It was the precursor of a revolution that +gave both personal and political freedom to a larger number than were +benefited by the other declaration. But what chiefly distinguished it, +the time and the situation being considered, was its radical +utterance. It gave no countenance to any measure of compromise. It +offered no pabulum to the wrongdoer in the form of compensation for +stolen humanity. It demanded what was right, and demanded it at once. +And that fearless and unyielding platform became the basis for all the +Abolition societies that came after it. A goodly number of such +societies were organized. "The Anti-Slavery Society for the City of +New York" was formed by a few men who met and did their work while a +mob was pounding at the door, and who, having completed their task, +fled for their lives.</p> + +<p>It was at first intended that a national Anti-Slavery society should +be established with headquarters in the city of New York, but its +proposed organizers discovered that there was not a public hall or +church in that city in which they would be permitted to assemble. +Philadelphia, with its Quaker contingent, offered a more inviting +field, and to that city it was decided to go. But serious obstructions +here interposed. Representatives appeared from fourteen States, which +was highly encouraging, but no prominent Philadelphian could be found +to act as chairman of the meeting. A committee was appointed to secure +the services of such a man, but, after interviewing a number of +<!-- Page 76 --><a name="Page_76"></a>leading citizens, it was compelled to report that it was received by +all of them with "polite frigidity."</p> + +<p>Strange to say, the convention was permitted to meet for three days in +succession in a public assembly room without interference from a mob. +The police, however, warned the participants not to hold night +sessions, as they in that case would not promise protection. The good +behavior of Philadelphia on this occasion was noteworthy, but it was +too good to last. When another Anti-Slavery meeting, not long after, +was convened in that city, it was broken up by a mob, and the hall in +which it met was burned to the ground.</p> + +<p>Finally came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which, in view of its +limited financial resources, certainly did a wonderful work. Its +publications, in spite of careful watching of the mails and other +precautions adopted by the slaveholders, reached all parts of the +country, and its preachers, sent out and commissioned to proclaim the +new evangel of equal manhood, were absolutely ubiquitous.</p> + +<p>Those early Anti-Slavery lecturers were a peculiar set. Since the days +of the Apostles there have been no more earnest propagandists. They +were both male and female. That they were, as a rule, financially +poor, it is unnecessary to state. They lived largely on the country +traversed. Sympathizers with their views, having received and +entertained them—sometimes clandestinely—after a public talk or two, +would carry them on to the next stations on their routes, occasionally +contributing a few dollars to their purses. It made no particular +difference to them whether they spoke in halls, in <!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77"></a>churches, or in +the open air. Before beginning their addresses their usual course was +to challenge their opponents to debate, and to taunt them with lack of +courage or principle if they failed to respond. Of course, they were +in constant danger from mobs. They were stoned, clubbed, shot at, and +rotten-egged, and in a few extreme cases tarred and feathered; but +they were never frightened from their work.</p> + +<p>They were by no means policy-wise. That was one of their +peculiarities. Their idea seemed to be that they could drive people +easier than they could lead them. They used no buttered phrases. They +told the plainest truths in the plainest way. They gave their +audiences hard words, and often received hard knocks in return. They +called the slaveholders robbers and man-stealers. They branded +Northern politicians with Southern principles as "dough-faces." But +their hardest and sharpest expletives were reserved for those Northern +clergymen who were either pro-slavery or non-committal. They blistered +them all over with their lashings. In speaking of one of the most +noted among them, Lowell describes him as</p> + +<p class="poem">"A kind of maddened John the Baptist<br /> +To whom the hardest word came aptest."</p> + +<p>The lecturer of whom I saw the most in those early trying days was +Professor Hudson, of Oberlin College. While in that part of the field +he made headquarters at my father's house, radiating out and filling +appointments in different directions. He was exceedingly sharp-tongued +and very fearless. <!-- Page 78 --><a name="Page_78"></a>Nothing seemed to please him better than a +"scrimmage" with his opponents. Often he conquered mobs by resolutely +talking them down and making them ashamed of themselves. But on one +occasion, looking through the window from the outside to see what +awaited him in a room where he was to speak, he saw a pot of boiling +tar on the stove that heated the room and a pillow-case full of +feathers conveniently near, while a half-drunken crowd was in +possession of the place, and concluded to run. He, however, had been +seen and was pursued. There was a foot race, but as some of the +pursuers were better sprinters than Hudson, and he was about to be +captured, he dashed into the first house he came to and asked for +protection. The proprietor was a kinsman of mine. He was an old man, +but hearty and vigorous. He ordered his sons to take their guns and +guard the other entrances, while he took his stand in the front door +with an axe in his hand. When the mob came up and demanded the +Abolitionist, he gave warning that he would brain the first man that +attempted to enter his house without his consent. So evidently in +earnest was he that the rowdies, after a little bluster, concluded to +give up the hunt and left in disgust.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2><!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The National Anti-Slavery Society—the society organized by Garrison +and his <i>confrères</i>, and which longest maintained its +organization—made one great mistake. It disbanded. It assumed that +its work was done when African slavery in this country was pronounced +defunct by law. It took it for granted that the enslavement of the +colored man—not necessarily the negro—was no longer possible under +the Stars and Stripes. Then and there it committed a grievous blunder. +Its paramount error was in assuming that a political party could for +all time be depended upon as a party of freedom. It trusted to the +assurances of politicians that they would protect the colored man in +all his natural and acquired rights, and in that belief voluntarily +gave up the ghost and cast its mantle to the winds.</p> + +<p>Now, the fact is that the National Anti-Slavery Society was never more +needed than it is to-day. There is a mighty work to be done that was +directly in the line of its operations. First and foremost, it will +not be denied that a citizen of our Republic who is deprived of the +elective franchise is robbed of one of his most valuable +privileges—one of his most <!-- Page 80 --><a name="Page_80"></a>essential rights. The ballot, under a +political system like ours, is both the sword and the shield of +liberty. Without it no man is really a freeman. He does not stand on +an equality with his fellows.</p> + +<p>Nor will it be denied that the negro, although our amended +Constitution promises him all the privileges of citizenship, is in +many parts of our country practically divested of his vote. By a +species of legerdemain in the communities in which he is most numerous +and most needs protection, he is to all intents and purposes +disfranchised. What will follow as the final outcome we do not know, +but that is the beginning of his attempted re-enslavement. It is +beyond any question that his return to involuntary servitude in some +condition or conditions, the disarming him of the ballot being the +initial step in the proceeding, is seriously contemplated, if not +deliberately planned. Indeed, under the name of "peonage" the work of +re-establishing a system of slaveholding that is barbarous in the +extreme is already begun. Men and women have been seized upon by +force, and upon the most flimsy pretexts have been subjected to a +bondage that in its inhumanities may easily equal even the slavery of +the olden time. The number of victims is undoubtedly much larger than +the general public has any idea of.</p> + +<p>Nor are there lacking signs of studied preparation for the extension +of the system. The present time is full of them. Efforts to create a +prejudice against the colored man are visible in all directions. He is +described as a failure in the role of freeman. The idleness and +shiftlessness of certain members of his race—undoubtedly altogether +too numerous—are <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81"></a>dwelt upon as characteristic of the entire family. +Scant praise is given to those members who are doing well, and whose +number is encouragingly large. These are as far as possible ignored. +The race problem is spoken of as full of increasing difficulties, and +as imperatively demanding a change from present conditions. The people +of the North are being especially indoctrinated with such ideas. They +are told that they must leave their brethren of the former +slaveholding States, and in which the negroes principally dwell, to +deal with the issues arising between the whites and the blacks; that +they—the Southerners—understand the questions to be settled, and +that outsiders should withhold their hands and their sympathies. It is +none of their business, they are informed, while assurances are freely +given that the people who, because of their experience with them, +understand the negroes, will take considerate care of them. What kind +of care they are taking of them in certain quarters is shown by recent +incontestable revelations.</p> + +<p>And what has the political party which, in view of its manifold +professions, was supposed to have the interests of the negro in its +especial keeping, done about it? Nothing whatever. It has looked on +with the coolest indifference. The only concern it has shown in the +matter has related to the question of Congressional representation as +dependent upon the enumeration of electors, and, in so doing, has +plainly intimated that if, through the negro's political robbery, it +can secure an increase of partisan power, it is perfectly willing that +the cause of the injured black man should "slide."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 82 --><a name="Page_82"></a>Indifference in regard to the rights of peoples of color is +unfortunately not the only nor even the greatest charge to be laid at +the door of the Republican party. It may be asserted that this party +has become an active aggressor in trampling down the liberties of +colored peoples. As the assignee of Spain in taking over (without +consulting those who were most concerned) the control of the territory +of the Philippine Islands, it has purchased (and has paid cash for) +the right to dominate from eight to ten millions of people. These +people may, under the existing conditions, be described as being in a +state of slavery. If a foreign people, say a people coming from the +other side of the globe, should treat Americans as we have treated the +Filipinos, should deny to us the right of self-government, should send +great armies to chastise us for disobedience (or for what they might +call "rebellion"), and should do this for no better reason than that +our skin was darker or lighter than their own, we Americans would +doubtless consider ourselves to be in a state of slavery. Why in any +sense is slavery in Luzon more defensible than slavery in South +Carolina or in Alabama? If it be wrong to keep in slavery the black +man in America (as in theory at least we are all now agreed it is +wrong), what is the justice in depriving of his freedom the +brown-skinned Tagal? Can a bill of sale from Spain give to us any such +privilege, if privilege it may be called? Can an agreement with Spain +bring to naught our responsibilities under our own Declaration of +Independence?</p> + +<p>Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83"></a>we have as yet but +little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this +new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the +things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached +us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm +or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of +pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of +butcheries called "battles" in which have been slaughtered hundreds of +almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up +for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would +not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and +that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have +equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres +which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, +women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with +operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the +taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. +As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her +properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We +do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial +government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite +than that of the "water cure." How many of the perpetrators of these +atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been +punished at all?</p> + +<p>It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of +these horrible affairs. <!-- Page 84 --><a name="Page_84"></a>Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, +beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has +been silent—at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not +one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer +heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, +being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The +greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by +the apprehension that, through somebody's lack of patriotism, our flag +may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used +to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows +it.</p> + +<p>In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, +but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body +of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the +difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of +revulsion toward it.</p> + +<p>One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity—the +practical sameness—of the arguments used to justify the Philippine +occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We +are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were +then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the +bludgeon.</p> + +<p>Of course, there are other arguments. Increase of trade and wealth, as +the result of our appropriation of other peoples' possessions, is +freely predicted. It has always been the robber's plea. That is what +it is to-day, even when employed by a professed Christian nation. Nor +is it improved by the fact <!-- Page 85 --><a name="Page_85"></a>that the grounds upon which it is +predicated and urged are largely fallacious. The spoliation of the +Philippines will never repay us for the blood—our own blood—and +treasure it has cost us, apart from any moral or humanitarian +consideration. There is not one aspect in this business that promises +to redound to our benefit. No, I won't say that; I would hardly be +justified in going that far. In one particular the Philippine +operation has profited a considerable part of our people. It has added +materially to our Army and our Navy. The opportunity for enlargement +in those quarters was, undoubtedly, the strongest inducement for our +entering upon a colonial policy. For a great many people, and +especially in official circles, we cannot have a standing army that is +too large, nor too many ships of war. The more powerful those +appendages of our authority the larger is the opening for the kinsmen +and retainers of those in high places, who may be seeking profitable +and agreeable employment, and the more liberal the contributions of +contractors and jobbers to the sinews of partisan warfare. Our Army +to-day is nearly three times what it was five years ago, although +outside of the Philippines we are at peace with all mankind. Nor is +that formidable advance at an end. The Far East is now certain to be +the world's great battle-ground for the near future, and since we have +entered that field as the master of the Philippines, like a knight of +the olden time who was ready to do battle with all comers, we must be +constantly increasing our preparation. We may not only have to fight +the Russians and the Japanese and the Chinese, one or all, but those +<!-- Page 86 --><a name="Page_86"></a>foolish Filipinos may again take it into their silly heads that they +can govern themselves as well or better than we can do it for them. +That means rebellion, and, of course, chastisement must follow. As +climatic conditions in that part of the world are such that it +requires the presence of three men in the army to supply the active +services of one, it is obvious that so long as we adhere to our +present Asiatic policy, we shall never have an army and a navy large +enough and strong enough to meet the requirements of our new +condition.</p> + +<p>On all questions affecting human liberty, no one can fail to observe +that the attitude of the two great political parties of to-day, is +practically that of the two principal parties at the time the +Abolitionists began their operations. One of them may pass perfunctory +resolutions against the Philippine crime, but dares to say nothing +about the treatment visited upon the negro. The other may say a few +compassionate, but meaningless, words for the negro, but cannot +denounce the oppression of the Filipinos. Both are fatally handicapped +by their connections and committals. Both are, in fact, pro-slavery, +although the one in power, because of its responsibility for existing +conditions, is the more criminal of the two.</p> + +<p>What this country now needs, in the opinion of the writer, is a +revival of Abolitionism, and to that end, as one of the +instrumentalities that would be serviceable, he holds that the old +National Anti-Slavery Society should be restored. The most of the men +and women that made that institution so useful and honorable, have +passed from the scenes of their labors, but a few of them are left, +and they <!-- Page 87 --><a name="Page_87"></a>and such as may feel like joining them, should meet and +unfurl the old standard once more. There may be new associations +looking to very much the same ends, but better the old guard under the +old name. It would carry a prestige that no newer organization could +command. It would create a measure of confidence that would be most +strongly felt. The principles and policies it should urge are few and +simple.</p> + +<p>First: Let it declare that the colored man in this country must be +permitted to enjoy all his rights under the Constitution as it is, +both political and personal.</p> + +<p>Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude, including the +denial of political self-government, under the flag, as well as under +the Constitution, must cease.</p> + +<p>And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated, in the +spirit and with the confidence of the old-time leaders. The Society +should be revived and re-established, not for a single campaign only, +or for the rectification of such oppressions as are now in sight, but +for all time. It ought to be made a permanent institution. It should +be so arranged that the sons would step into the ranks as the fathers +dropped out and that new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus +reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable watchman +on the walls of Freedom's stronghold. The exhortation to which it +should listen, is that of the poet Bryant when he says:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="i8">"Oh not yet</span> +Mayst thou unloose thy corslet, nor lay by<br /> +Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids<br /> +In slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h2><!-- Page 88 --><a name="Page_88"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says that "three speeches +have made the places where they were delivered illustrious in our +history—three, and there is no fourth." He refers to the speech of +Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia, of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and +the first address of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall.</p> + +<p>If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three notable +deliverances above mentioned as the best and foremost examples of +American oratory, the author cannot agree with him. In his opinion we +shall have but little difficulty in picking out the three entitled to +that distinction, provided we go to the discussion of the slavery +question to find them. That furnished the greatest occasion, being +with its ramifications and developments, by far the greatest issue +with which Americans have had to deal.</p> + +<p>The three speeches to which the writer refers were the more notable +because they were altogether impromptu. They were what we call "off +hand." They were delivered in the face of mobs or other bitterly +hostile audiences—a circumstance that probably contributed not a +little to their effectiveness.</p> + +<p>John Quincy Adams, who was unquestionably <!-- Page 89 --><a name="Page_89"></a>one of the greatest of +American orators, made several speeches in Congress that will always +command our highest admiration; but the one to which a somewhat +extended reference is made in another chapter, when an attempt was +made by the slaveholders to expel him from that body, easily ranks +among the first three exhibitions of American eloquence.</p> + +<p>I quite agree with Mr. Curtis in giving the Faneuil Hall speech of +Wendell Phillips a pre-eminent place. A meeting had been called to +denounce the murder of Lovejoy, the Abolitionist editor. The audience +was composed in large part of pro-slavery rowdies, who were bent on +capturing or breaking up the meeting. One of their leaders—a high +official of the State of Massachusetts, by the way—made a speech in +which he justified the murderous act. "That speech must be answered +here and now," exclaimed a young man in the audience. "Answer it +yourself," shouted those about him. "I will," was the reply, "if I can +reach the platform." To the platform he was assisted, and although an +attempt was made for a time to howl him down, he persisted, and before +long so interested and charmed his hearers that his triumph was +complete.</p> + +<p>It did not take the country long to realize that in that young man, +who was Wendell Phillips, a new oratorical luminary had arisen. He +took up the work of lecturing as a profession, treating on other +subjects as well as slavery; but when slavery was the subject no +charge was made for his services. Said Frederic Hudson, the noted New +York editor, in 1860: "It is probable that there is not another <!-- Page 90 --><a name="Page_90"></a>man +in the United States who is as much heard and read as Henry Ward +Beecher, unless the other man be Wendell Phillips."</p> + +<p>The mention of Henry Ward Beecher's name is suggestive of oratory of +the very highest order. It will not be denied by any competent and +unprejudiced person that his great speech in England—there were five +addresses, but the substance was the same—upon the American question +(which directly involved the slavery issue) during our Civil War was +far and away the finest exhibition of masterful eloquence that is to +be credited to any of our countrymen. The world has never beaten it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher found himself in England by a fortunate accident at a most +critical period in our national affairs. A crisis had there been +reached. A powerful party, including a large majority of the public +men of Great Britain, favored intervention in behalf of the South. +Southern agents were at work all over the kingdom, and were remarkably +effective in propagating their views. It looked as if the Rebel +interest was on the point of winning, when Mr. Beecher appeared on the +scene. He had not gone to England to make public speeches. He was +there for health and recreation, but, realizing the situation with his +quick perceptiveness, he took up the gage of battle. It was a fearful +resolution on his part. The chances seemed to be all against him. It +was one man against thousands. His victory, however, was complete. His +five great speeches in the business centres of England and Scotland +were not only listened to by thousands, but they went all over the +country in the public prints. <!-- Page 91 --><a name="Page_91"></a>They completely changed the current of +public opinion.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher's first address was in Manchester, which, owing to the +interest of the leading business men of that city in the cotton trade +and the furnishing of ships and supplies for blockade running, was a +seething hot bed of Rebel sentiment. When he arrived in that place on +the day he was to speak, he was met at the depot by friends with +troubled faces, who informed him that hostile placards—significantly +printed in red colors—had been posted all over the city, and, if he +persisted in trying to speak, he would have a very uncomfortable +reception.</p> + +<p>He was asked how he felt about trying to go on. "I am going to be +heard," was his reply.</p> + +<p>The best description of the scene that ensued is supplied in Mr. +Beecher's own words:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The uproar would come in on this side, and then on that. They + would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, + and I would wait until the noise had subsided and then get in + about five minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down, and + then up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see things + that amused me, and I would laugh outright, and the crowd would + stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I would sail in with + another sentence or two. A good many times the crowd threw up + questions that I caught and threw back. I may as well at this + point mention a thing that amused me hugely. There were baize + doors that opened both ways into side alleys, and there was a huge + burly Englishman standing right in front of one of these doors and + roaring like a bull of Bashan. One of the policemen swung his + elbow round and hit him in the <!-- Page 92 --><a name="Page_92"></a>belly and knocked him through the + doorway, so that the last part of his bawl was out in the + alleyway. It struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must + have looked when he found himself 'hollering' outside, that I + could not refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately + stopped its uproar, wondering what I was laughing at. That gave me + another chance, and I caught on to it. So we kept it up for about + an hour and a half before the people became so far calmed down + that I could go on peaceably with my speech. My audience got to + like the pluck I showed. Englishmen like a man that can stand on + his feet and give and take, and so for the last hour I had pretty + much clear sailing. The next morning every great paper in England + had the whole speech down.</p> + +<p> "And when the vote came to be taken—for in England it is + customary for audiences to express their decision on the subject + under discussion—you would have thought it was a tropical + thunder-storm that swept through the hall as the Ayes were + thundered, while the Nays were an insignificant and contemptible + minority. It had all gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never + saw."</p></div> + +<p>It has been repeatedly stated, and to this day is generally +believed,—is so stated in several of Mr. Lincoln's biographies, I +believe,—that Mr. Beecher went to England at the President's request, +and for the purpose of making a speaking tour. The best answer is that +given by Mr. Beecher himself.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"It has been asked," said he, "whether I was sent by the + government. The government took no stock in me at that time. I had + been pounding Lincoln in the earlier years of the war, and I don't + believe there was <!-- Page 93 --><a name="Page_93"></a>a man down there, unless it was Mr. Chase, who + would have trusted me with anything. At any rate, I went on my own + responsibility."</p></div> + +<p>But in referring to Abolition orators, and especially orators whose +experience it was to encounter mobs, the writer desires to pay a +tribute to one of them whose name he does not even know.</p> + +<p>A meeting that was called to organize an Anti-Slavery society in New +York City was broken up by a mob. All of those in attendance made +their escape except one negro. He was caught and his captors thought +it would be a capital joke to make him personify one of the big +Abolitionists. He was lifted to the platform and directed to imagine +himself an Anti-Slavery leader and make an Abolition speech. The +fellow proved to be equal to the occasion. He proceeded to assert the +right of his race to the privileges of human beings with force and +eloquence. His hearers listened with amazement, and possibly with +something like admiration, until, realizing that the joke was on them, +they pulled him from the platform and kicked him from the building.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h2><!-- Page 94 --><a name="Page_94"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In speaking of the orators and oratory that were evolved by the +Slavery issue, there are two names that cannot be omitted. These are +Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It was the good fortune of the +writer to be an eye and ear witness of the closing bout, at Alton, +Illinois, between those two political champions in their great debate +of 1858. The contrast between the men was remarkable. Lincoln was very +tall and spare, standing up, when speaking, straight and stiff. +Douglas was short and stumpy, a regular roly-poly man. Lincoln's face +was calm and meek, almost immobile. He referred to it in his address +as "my rather melancholy face." Although plain and somewhat rugged, I +never regarded Lincoln's face as homely. I saw him many times and +talked with him, after the occasion now referred to. It was a good +face, and had many winning lines. Douglas's countenance, on the other +hand, was leonine and full of expression. His was a handsome face. +When lighted up by the excitement of debate it could not fail to +impress an audience.</p> + +<p>Lincoln indulged in no gesticulation. If he had been addressing a +bench of judges he would not <!-- Page 95 --><a name="Page_95"></a>have been more impassive in his manner. +He was an animate, but not an animated, bean-pole. He poured out a +steady flow of words—three to Douglas's two—in a simple and +semi-conversational tone. He attempted no witticisms and indulged in +no oratorical claptrap. His address was pure argument. Douglas's +manner was one of excitement, and accompanied and emphasized by almost +continuous bodily movement. His hands and his feet, and especially +that pliable face of his, were all busy talking. He said sharp things, +evidently for their immediate effect on his audience, and showed that +he was not only master of all the arts of the practical stump orator, +but was ready to employ them.</p> + +<p>But the most noticeable difference was in the voices of the men. +Douglas spoke first, and for the first minute or two was utterly +unintelligible. His voice seemed to be all worn out by his speaking in +that long and principally open-air debate. He simply bellowed. But +gradually he got command of his organ, and pretty soon, in a somewhat +laborious and painful way, it is true, he succeeded in making himself +understood.</p> + +<p>Lincoln's voice, on the contrary, was without a quaver or a sign of +huskiness. He had been speaking in the open air exactly as much as +Douglas, but it was perfectly fresh, not a particle strained. It was a +perfect voice.</p> + +<p>Those who wanted to understand Douglas had to press up close to the +platform from which he was speaking, and there was collected a dense, +but not very deep, crowd. There was no crowding in front of Lincoln +when he was speaking. He could be <!-- Page 96 --><a name="Page_96"></a>heard without it. There was a line +of wagons and carriages on the outskirts of the audience, and I +noticed, when Lincoln was speaking, that they were filled with +comfortably seated people listening to his address. They did not need +to go any nearer to him. The most of the shouting was done by +Douglas's partisans, composing a clear majority of the crowd, but it +was very manifest that Lincoln commanded the attention of the greater +number of those who were interested in the arguments. He did not act +as if he cared for the applause of the multitude. He said nothing, +apparently, simply to tickle the ears of his hearers.</p> + +<p>Rather strange was it that the only points on which there did not +appear to be much, if any, difference between the two men were reached +when they came to the propositions they advocated. Douglas was +avowedly pro-slavery. He was talking in southern Illinois and on the +border of Missouri, to which many of his hearers belonged, and his +audience was mostly Southern in its feelings. He was plainly trying to +please that element. He not only approved of slavery where it was, but +metaphorically jumped on the negro and trampled all over him. He +denied that the negro was a "man" within the meaning of the +Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, however, as far as slavery in +the States was involved, met Douglas on his own ground, and "went him +one better." He said, "I have on all occasions declared as strongly as +Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing +institution of slavery."</p> + +<p>If a stranger who knew nothing of the speakers <!-- Page 97 --><a name="Page_97"></a>and their party +associations had heard the two men on that occasion, he would have +concluded that one was strongly in favor of slavery and the other was +not opposed to it.</p> + +<p>Their only disagreement was as to slavery in the Territories, and that +was more apparent than real. Lincoln contended for free soil through +the direct action of the general government. Douglas advocated a +roundabout way that led up to the same result. His proposition, which +he called "popular sovereignty," was to leave the decision to the +people of the Territories, saying he did not care whether they voted +slavery up or voted it down. That was a practical, although indirect +declaration in favor of free soil. The outcome of the contests in +Kansas and California showed that at that game the free States with +their superior resources were certain to win. The shrewder +slaveholders recognized that fact, and their antagonism to Douglas +grew accordingly. They deliberately defeated him for the Presidency in +1860, when he was the regular candidate of the Democratic party, by +running Breckenridge as an independent candidate. Otherwise Mr. +Douglas would have become President of the United States. Out of a +total of 4,680,193 votes, Mr. Lincoln had only 1,866,631. The rest +were divided between his three antagonists.</p> + +<p>As between Lincoln and Douglas, who together held the controlling +hand, the slaveholders preferred Lincoln, against whom they had no +personal feeling, while they knew that his policy was no more +dangerous to their interests than the other man's, if faithfully +adhered to and carried out. Besides <!-- Page 98 --><a name="Page_98"></a>that, by this time many of them +had reached that state of mind in which they wanted a pretext for +secession from the Union. Lincoln's election would give them that +pretext while Douglas's would not.</p> + +<p>On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the +writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a +prominent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who +expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather trust +the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative and +honest man like "Old Abe," than to those of "a political jumping-jack +like Douglas." The most of the other Southern men and slaveholders +present seemed to concur in his views.</p> + +<p>It is a fact that a good many of the Anti-Slavery leaders living +outside of Illinois, and a good many of those living within it, wanted +the Republicans of that State to let Douglas go back to the Senate +without a contest, believing that he would be far more useful to them +there than a Republican would be. It is not improbable that enough of +the Illinois Republicans took that view of the matter, and helped to +give Douglas the victory in what was a very close contest.</p> + +<p>A portion of Douglas's speech was a spirited defense of his "squatter +sovereignty" doctrine against the denunciations of members of his own +political party, in the course of which he gave President Buchanan a +savage overhauling. It showed him to be a master of invective.</p> + +<p>"Go it, husband; go it, bear," was Mr. Lincoln's comment on that part +of Douglas's address. <!-- Page 99 --><a name="Page_99"></a>I went to the debate with a very strong +prejudice against Douglas, looking upon him as one of the most +time-serving of those Northern men whom the Abolitionists called +"dough-faces." I confess that my views of the man were considerably +modified. I admired the pluck he showed in speaking when his voice was +in tatters. Still more did I like the resolution he displayed in +defying those leaders of his own party, including the President, who +wanted him to retreat from the ground he had taken, seeing that it had +become practically Anti-Slavery.</p> + +<p>At the same time I had an almost worshipful admiration for Lincoln, +whom I had not before seen or heard. I expected a great deal from him. +I thought his closing appeal in that great debate would contain some +ringing words for freedom. He had, as I supposed, a great opportunity +for telling eloquence. He stood almost on the ground that had drunk +the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact +ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was +altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It +was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died +in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I +was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with +any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression +was not afterwards wholly removed from my mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 100 --><a name="Page_100"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN</h3> +<br /> + +<p>My father was a subscriber to the <i>National Era</i>, the Anti-Slavery +weekly that was published in Washington City before the war by Dr. +Gamaliel Bailey. Being the youngest member of the family, I usually +went to the post-office for the paper on the day of its weekly +arrival. One day I brought it home and handed it to my father, who, as +the day was warm, was seated outside of the house. He was soon +apparently very much absorbed in his reading. A call for dinner was +sounded, but he paid no attention to it. The meal was delayed a little +while and then the call was repeated, but with the same result. At +last the meal proceeded without my father's presence, he coming in at +the close and swinging the paper in his hand. His explanation, by way +of apology, was that he had become very much interested in the opening +installment of a story that was begun in the <i>Era</i>, and which he +declared would make a sensation. "It will make a renovation," he +repeated several times.</p> + +<p>That story, it is almost needless to say, was <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, and +it is altogether needless to say that it fully accomplished my +father's prediction as to its sensational effects. Since the +appearance of <!-- Page 101 --><a name="Page_101"></a>the Bible in a form that brought it home to the common +people, there has been no work in the English language so extensively +read. The author's name became at once a cynosure the world over. When +Henry Ward Beecher, the writer's distinguished brother, delivered his +first lecture in England, he was introduced to the audience by the +chairman as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Stowe.</p> + +<p>The way in which the idea of writing the book came to the author was +significant of the will that produced it. A lady friend wrote Mrs. +Stowe a letter in which she said, "If I could use a pen as you can, I +would write something that would make the whole nation feel what an +accursed thing slavery is." When the letter reached its destination, +and Mrs. Stowe came to the passage above quoted, as the story is told +by a friend who was present, she sprang to her feet, crushed the +letter in her hand in the intensity of her feeling, and with an +expression on her face of the utmost determination, exclaimed, "If I +live, I will write something that will do that thing."</p> + +<p>The circumstances under which she executed her great task would +ordinarily be looked upon as altogether prohibitory. She was the wife +of a poor minister and school-teacher. To eke out the family income +she took boarders. She had five children of her own, who were too +young to be of any material assistance, and, in addition, she +occasionally harbored a waif that besought her protection when fleeing +from slavery. Necessarily the most of her time was spent in the +kitchen. There, surrounded <!-- Page 102 --><a name="Page_102"></a>by meats and vegetables and cooking +appliances, with just enough of the common deal table cleared away to +give space for her writing materials, she composed and made ready for +the publisher by far the most remarkable work of fiction this country +has produced. Slavery is dead, but Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece lives, and +is likely to live with growing luster as long as our free institutions +survive, which it is to be hoped will be forever.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable early workers in the Abolition cause was +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, a little Quaker woman of Pennsylvania. The writer +saw her for the last time shortly before her death. She was then +acting as presiding officer of an "Equal Rights"—meaning equal +suffrage—meeting. Sitting on one hand was Susan B. Anthony, and on +the other Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and next to one of them sat a +stately negro.</p> + +<p>She was then an aged woman, but her eye seemed to be as bright and her +movements as alert as they had ever been. Framed by her becoming +Quaker bonnet, which she retained in her official position, the face +of the handsome old lady would have been a splendid subject for an +artist.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mott gave much of her time and all the means she could control to +the cause of the slave. She was an exceedingly spirited and eloquent +speaker. On one lecturing tour she traveled twenty-four hundred miles, +the most of the way in old-fashioned stage-coaches. By a number of +taverns she was denied entertainment.</p> + +<p>Like other pioneers in the same movement, Mrs. Mott was the victim of +numerous mobbings. One <!-- Page 103 --><a name="Page_103"></a>incident shows her courage and +resourcefulness. An Anti-Slavery meeting she was attending was broken +up by rowdies, and some of the ladies present were greatly frightened. +Seeing this Mrs. Mott asked the gentleman who was escorting her, to +leave her and assist some of the others who were more timid. "But who +will take care of you?" he asked. "This man," she answered, lightly +laying her hand on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob. The man, +completely surprised, responded by respectfully conducting her through +the tumult to a place of safety.</p> + +<p>But before Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Mott had taken up the work for the +bondman, two other remarkable women had become interested in his +cause. Their history has some features that the most accomplished +novel-writer could not improve upon. They were sisters, known as the +Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, the latter becoming the wife of +Theodore W. Weld, a noted Abolition lecturer. They were daughters of a +Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, their early home being +in Charleston.</p> + +<p>The family was of the highest pretension, being related to the Rhetts, +the Barnwells, the Pickenses, and other famous representatives of the +Palmetto aristocracy. It was wealthy, and of course had many slaves. +The girls had their colored attendants, whose only service was to wait +upon them and do their bidding. That circumstance finally led to +trouble.</p> + +<p>At that time there was a statute in South Carolina against teaching +slaves to read and write. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. +The Grimké <!-- Page 104 --><a name="Page_104"></a>girls, however, had little respect for or fear of that +law. The story of their offending is told by Sarah.</p> + +<p>Her attendant, when she was little more than a child, was a colored +girl of about the same age. She says,</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"I took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little + waiting maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in + combing and brushing my long hair. The light was put out, the + key-hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with + the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South + Carolina."</p></div> + +<p>South Carolina was long noted for its rebels, but it never had a more +interesting one than the author of the above narrative; nor a braver +one.</p> + +<p>As the sisters grew up, they more and more showed their dislike of +slavery and their disposition to aid such colored people as were +within their circle. Such conduct could not escape observation, and +the result was their banishment from their Southern home. They were +given the alternative of "behaving themselves" or going North to live. +They were not long in deciding, and they became residents of +Philadelphia. Here they joined the Quakers, because of their +coincidence of views on the slavery question. They had before been +Presbyterians, having been raised as such. They became industrious and +noted Anti-Slavery lecturers. To one of them is to be credited a +notable oratorical achievement.</p> + +<p>Being no longer able to ignore the growing Anti-Slavery sentiment of +its constituency, the Massachusetts <!-- Page 105 --><a name="Page_105"></a>Legislature in 1838 appointed a +committee to consider the part that that State had in the subject of +slavery, and especially in connection with slavery in the District of +Columbia. The committee asked an expression of their views from those +entertaining different sentiments on the subject. The Anti-Slavery +people invited Angelina Grimké to represent them. The sessions of the +committee were to be held in the great hall of the Legislature in the +State House, where, up to that time, no woman had ever spoken. The +chairman of the committee, however, consented that Miss Grimké should +be heard, and the fact that she was a woman probably helped to bring +out an immense audience.</p> + +<p>She spoke for two hours, and then, being asked to speak again, at the +next meeting, she spoke for two hours more. The impression she +produced may be inferred from the fact that the chairman of the +committee was in tears nearly the whole time she was speaking. The +effect upon all who heard her was admitted to be very great.</p> + +<p>The sincerity of these women was put to an unusual test. They had a +brother who remained in South Carolina, where he was a prominent +citizen and a large slave-owner. Like many sharing the privileges of +"the institution," he led a double life. He was married to a white +woman by whom he had children. He also had a family by a colored woman +who was one of his slaves. In his will he bequeathed his slave family +to a son by his lawful wife, with the stipulation that they should not +be sold or unkindly treated.</p> + +<p>Of these things the Grimké sisters knew nothing <!-- Page 106 --><a name="Page_106"></a>until after the war +which had freed their illegitimate relatives. Then all the facts came +to their knowledge. What should they do about it? was the question +that immediately confronted them. Should they—"Carolina's high-souled +daughters," as Whittier describes them, and not without some part in +the pride of the family to which they belonged—acknowledge such a +disreputable relationship? Not a day nor an hour did they hesitate. +They sent for their unfortunate kinspeople, accepted them as blood +connections, and took upon themselves the duty of promoting their +interests as far as it was in their power to do so.</p> + +<p>Although a quiet and retiring person, and, moreover, so much of an +invalid that the greater part of her time was necessarily passed in a +bed of sickness, a New England woman had much to do with publishing +the doctrines of Abolitionism, through the lips of the most eloquent +man in the country. She was the wife of Wendell Phillips, the noted +Anti-Slavery lecturer.</p> + +<p>"My wife made me an Abolitionist," said Phillips. How the work was +done is not without its romantic interest.</p> + +<p>It was several years before he made his meteoric appearance before the +public as a platform talker, and while yet a law student, that +Phillips met the lady in question. The interview, as described by one +of the parties, certainly had its comical aspect. "I talked +Abolitionism to him all the time we were together," said Mrs. +Phillips, as she afterwards related the affair. Phillips listened, and +that he was not surfeited nor disgusted appears from the fact <!-- Page 107 --><a name="Page_107"></a>that he +went again and again for that sort of entertainment.</p> + +<p>When Phillips asked for her hand, as the story goes, she asked him if +he was fully persuaded to be a friend of the slave, leaving him to +infer that their union was otherwise impossible.</p> + +<p>"My life shall attest the sincerity of my conversion," was his gallant +reply.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h2><!-- Page 108 --><a name="Page_108"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>MOBS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In his <i>Recollections</i>, the Rev. Samuel T. May, who was one of the +most faithful and zealous of the Anti-Slavery pioneers, and belonged +to that band of devoted workers who were known as Abolition lecturers, +tells of his experience in delivering an Anti-Slavery address in the +sober New England city of Haverhill.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"It was a Sabbath evening," he says. "I had spoken about fifteen + minutes when the most hideous outcries—yells and screeches—from + a crowd of men and boys, who had surrounded the house, startled + us, and then came heavy missiles against the doors and the blinds + of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping + the doors and blinds were strong enough to withstand the attack. + But presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, + scattered a pane of glass, and fell upon the head of a lady + sitting near the center of the hall. She uttered a shriek and fell + bleeding on the floor."</p></div> + +<p>There was a panic, of course, and the Abolition lecturer would have +been roughly handled by the mob if a young lady, a sister of the poet +Whittier, had not taken him by the arm, and walked with him <!-- Page 109 --><a name="Page_109"></a>through +the astonished crowd. They did not feel like attacking a woman.</p> + +<p>There was nothing unusual, except the part performed by the young +lady, in the affair described in the foregoing narrative. Mobs were of +constant occurrence in the period of which we are speaking. It was not +in the slave States that they were most frequent. Northern communities +that were regarded as absolutely peaceable and perfectly moral thought +nothing of an anti-Abolitionist riot now and then. They occurred "away +up North" and "away down East." Even sleepy old Nantucket, in its +sedentary repose by the sea, woke up long enough to mob a couple of +Abolition lecturers, a man and a woman.</p> + +<p>The community in which the writer resided when a boy, was fully up to +the pacific standard of most Northern neighborhoods. Yet it was the +scene of many turmoils growing out of Anti-Slavery meetings. The +district schoolhouse, which was the only public building in the +village that was open for such gatherings, called for frequent repairs +on account of damages done by mobs. Broken windows and doors were +often in evidence, and stains from mud-balls, decayed vegetables, and +antiquated eggs, which nobody took the trouble to remove, were nearly +always visible.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, at an evening meeting, the lecturer was a young +professor, who was "down" from Oberlin College, against which, as "an +Abolition hole," there was a very strong prejudice. He had not got +more than well started, when rocks, bricks, and other missiles began +to crash through the windows. The mob was resolved to punish that +young <!-- Page 110 --><a name="Page_110"></a>man, and had come prepared to give him a coating of unsavory +mixture. He was a preacher as well as a teacher, and his "store +clothes" were likely to betray him; but some thoughtful person had +brought an old drab overcoat and a rough workman's cap, and arrayed in +these garments he walked through the crowd without his identity being +suspected.</p> + +<p>But another party was not so fortunate. He was a respected citizen of +the village, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a strong +pro-slavery man. He dressed in black and his appearance was not unlike +that of the lecturer. By some hard luck he happened to be passing that +way when the crowd was looking for the Abolitionist, and was +discovered. "There he goes," was the cry that was raised, and a fire +of eggs and other things was opened upon him. He reached his home in +an awful plight, and it was charged that his conversation was not +unmixed with profanity.</p> + +<p>On another occasion the writer was present when the friends of the +lecturer undertook to convey him to a place of safety. They formed a +circle about him and moved away while the mob followed, hurling eggs +and clods and sticks and whatever else came handy. We kept quietly on +our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly +graveled, and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to +our use. Here we halted, and, with rocks in hand, formed a line of +battle. It took only one volley to put the enemy to rout, and we had +no further trouble.</p> + +<p>At last, after several men had been prevented from speaking in our +village, the services of a female <!-- Page 111 --><a name="Page_111"></a>lecturer were secured. The question +then was, whether the mob would be so ungallant as to disturb a woman. +The matter was settled by the rowdies on that occasion being more than +usually demonstrative. The lecturer showed great courage and presence +of mind. She closed the meeting in due form, and then walked calmly +through the noisy throng that gave her no personal molestation or +insult. Deliberately she proceeded to a place of safety—and then went +into hysterics.</p> + +<p>Finding that it was impossible to hold undisturbed public meetings, +the Abolitionists adopted a plan of operations that was altogether +successful. They met in their several homes, taking them in order, and +there the subject they were interested in was uninterruptedly +discussed. Intelligent opponents of their views were invited to +attend, and frequently did so. So warm were the discussions that arose +that the meetings sometimes lasted for entire days, and conversions +were not unusual.</p> + +<p>It was in one of these neighborhood gatherings that the writer first +became an active Anti-Slavery worker. He had memorized one of Daniel +O'Connell's philippics against American slavery, and, being given the +opportunity, declaimed it with much earnestness. After that he was +invited to all the meetings, and had on hand a stock of selections for +delivery, his favorite being Whittier's <i>Slave Mother's Lament over +the Loss of Her Daughters</i>:</p> + +<p class="Poem"><span class="i4">"Gone, gone—sold and gone</span> +<span class="i4">To the rice swamp dank and lone,</span> +Where the slave whip ceaseless swings,<br /> +Where the noisome insect stings;<br /> +Where the fever demon strews<br /><!-- Page 112 --><a name="Page_112"></a> +Poison with the falling dews;<br /> +Where the sickly sunbeams glare<br /> +Through the hot and misty air.<br /> +<span class="i4">Gone, gone—sold and gone</span> +<span class="i4">To the rice swamp dank and lone,</span> +<span class="i4">From Virginia's hills and waters—</span> +<span class="i4">Woe is me my stolen daughters!"</span></p> + +<p>It was marvelous how little damage all the mobs effected. Lovejoy of +Illinois was killed—a great loss—and occasionally an Abolitionist +lecturer got a bloody nose or a sore shin. Professor Hudson, of +Oberlin College, used to say that the injury he most feared was to his +clothes. He carried with him what he called "a storm suit," which he +wore at evening meetings. It showed many marks of battle.</p> + +<p>Among those who suffered real physical injury was Fred. Douglass, the +runaway slave. While in bondage he was often severely punished, but he +encountered rougher treatment in the North than in the South. He was +attacked by a mob while lecturing in the State of Indiana; was struck +to the earth and rendered senseless by blows on the head and body, and +for a time his life was supposed to be in danger. Although in the main +he recovered, his right hand was always crippled in consequence of +some of its bones having been broken.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h2><!-- Page 113 --><a name="Page_113"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If any one is desirous of estimating the extent of the sacrifice of +life, of treasure, of home and family comforts, and of innumerable +fair hopes that the institution of slavery, in its struggle, not +merely for existence, but for supremacy, cost this country, let him +visit a government cemetery in the neighborhood of one of the great +battle-fields of the Rebellion, and there, while looking down the long +avenues lined with memorial stones that a grateful country has set up, +make inquiry as to the number of those that are there bivouacked "in +fame's eternal camping ground." Some idea—a faint one it is +true—will then be had of the multitudes that gave up all they +possessed that liberty might live and rule in this fair land of ours. +They were martyrs in the very highest sense to Freedom's immeasurable +cause. The war was the product of slavery. It was the natural outcome +of the great moral conflict that had so long raged in this country. It +was simply the development of an agitation that had begun on other +lines.</p> + +<p>But there were martyrs to the cause of freedom before the war. +Everybody knows more or less of the story of John Brown, of +Ossawatomie, whose <!-- Page 114 --><a name="Page_114"></a>soul kept "marching on," although his body was +"a-mouldering in the grave."</p> + +<p>There was another case involving the surrender of life to that cause, +which has always struck me as having stronger claims to our sympathies +than that of John Brown and his comrades in self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p>I have already referred to Elijah P. Lovejoy who was a young +Congregational clergyman, who went from the State of Maine to St. +Louis, Missouri, in 1839. He became the editor of a religious journal +in which he expressed, in very moderate terms, an opinion that was not +favorable to slave-holding. The supporters of the institution were +aroused at once. They demanded a retraction. "I have sworn eternal +hostility to slavery, and by the blessing of God I will never go +back," was his reply. He also declared, "We have slaves here, but I am +not one of them."</p> + +<p>It was deemed advisable by Mr. Lovejoy and his friends to move his +printing establishment to Alton, opposite Missouri, in the free State +of Illinois. There, however, a pro-slavery antagonism immediately +developed. His press was seized and thrown into the Mississippi River. +The same fate awaited two others that were procured. But, undismayed, +Mr. Lovejoy and his friends once more decided that their rights and +liberties should not be surrendered without a further effort. Another +press was sent for. But in the meanwhile a violent public agitation +had arisen. At the instance of certain pro-slavery leaders in the +community a public meeting had been called to denounce the +Abolitionists. Mr. <!-- Page 115 --><a name="Page_115"></a>Lovejoy was invited to attend it and declare what +he would do.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "as long as I am an American citizen; as long as +American blood runs in my veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to +speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, +being amenable to the laws of my country for the same."</p> + +<p>The fourth press arrived. It was landed from a passing boat in the +small hours of the morning, and was safely conveyed to a warehouse +where Mr. Lovejoy and several of his friends assembled with a view to +its protection. What followed is thus described:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"An hour or two afterwards there came from the grog-shops a crowd + of people who knocked at the door and demanded the press. One of + the owners of the warehouse informed them it would not be given + up. Presenting a pistol, the leader of the mob announced that they + were resolved to have the press at any cost. Stones were thrown, + windows broken, and shots were fired at the building. The cry of + 'burn them out' was raised. Ladders were procured, and some of the + rioters mounted to the roof of the building and set it on fire. + Mr. Lovejoy at this point stepped out of the building for the + purpose of having a talk with his enemies, when he was fired upon. + He received five balls, three in his breast. He was killed almost + instantly."</p></div> + +<p>The animosity of his enemies was such that they followed his remains +with scoffings and insults on its way to the grave.</p> + +<p>But the most cruel and brutal persecutions by the <!-- Page 116 --><a name="Page_116"></a>slave power were +not always those that involved the sacrifice of life.</p> + +<p>In Canterbury, in the State of Connecticut, lived a Quaker lady of the +name of Prudence Crandall. She conducted a school for young ladies. +Among those she admitted was a colored girl. The fact becoming known, +objection was raised by the citizens of the place. The position in +which Miss Crandall was placed was a most trying one. Having invested +all her means in the school building and its equipment, she was +confronted with the alternative of losing her business and her +property, or dismissing the colored student who had done no wrong. She +chose to stand by her principles.</p> + +<p>A public meeting was called, and a resolution to prevent the +maintenance of the school, if colored students were admitted, was +adopted by the citizens. Nevertheless, that brave Quakeress opened her +doors to several colored young women. That brought the issue to a +head, and then began a system of most remarkable persecutions. The +school building was bombarded with clubs and stones, the proprietress +found the stores of the village closed against her, and the young lady +students were grossly insulted when they appeared upon the streets. +Even the well from which drinking water was obtained was polluted.</p> + +<p>Finding that there was no law in Connecticut under which the +instruction of colored people could be prohibited and punished, the +enemies of Miss Crandall went to the Legislature of the State and +asked for such an enactment, and, to the eternal disgrace of that +body, their request was complied <!-- Page 117 --><a name="Page_117"></a>with. It was made a crime in +Connecticut to instruct colored people in the rudiments of an ordinary +education.</p> + +<p>Miss Crandall, as she made no change in her course of action, was +arrested, brought before a committing magistrate, and sent to jail. A +man had shortly before been confined in the same prison for the murder +of his wife, and therefrom had gone to execution. Miss Crandall was +confined in the cell this man had occupied. Other indignities were +heaped upon this devoted and courageous lady. Physicians refused to +attend the sick of her household, and the trustees of the church she +was accustomed to attend notified her that she and the members of her +family were denied admission to that sanctuary.</p> + +<p>Miss Crandall was finally convicted of the crime with which she was +charged, but the case, being carried to the highest court of the +State, was dismissed on a technicality. But, although the legal +prosecution of this poor woman reached an end, her enemies did not +cease their opposition. The mob made an attack upon her dwelling, +which was also her schoolhouse. Doors and windows were broken in, and +the building was so thoroughly wrecked as to be uninhabitable. Having +no money with which to make repairs, she was forced to abandon the +structure and her educational business at the same time.</p> + +<p>The Crandall family became noted for its martyrs. A brother of +Prudence Crandall was Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington City. He was +a man of high attainments, being a lecturer in a public scientific +<!-- Page 118 --><a name="Page_118"></a>institution. While engaged in his office he received some packages +that had been wrapped in newspapers, among which happened to be a copy +or two of Abolition journals. At the request of a gentleman who was +present at the unpacking he gave him one of the publications. Having +looked it over the gentleman dropped it, where it was picked up by +some one who was on the lookout for incendiary publications. No little +excitement followed its discovery. The community was aroused. Indeed, +so great was the agitation occasioned that Dr. Crandall, to whom the +inhibited paper had been traced, was in great physical danger from mob +violence. He was arrested, and, partly to save his life, was thrust +into jail, where he remained for eight months. He was tried and, +although acquitted, was really made the subject of capital punishment. +Tuberculosis developed as the result of his incarceration, and death +soon followed.</p> + +<p>Of many cases of the kind that might be cited, perhaps none is more +strikingly illustrative than that of Charles Turner Torrey, a New +England man. He was accused of helping a slave to escape from the city +of Baltimore, and being convicted on what was said to be perjured +testimony, was sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. The +confinement was fatal, a galloping consumption mercifully putting a +speedy end to his confinement. And then a remarkable incident +occurred. Torrey was a minister in good standing of the Congregational +denomination, and also a member of the Park Avenue Church of Boston. +Arrangements were made for funeral exercises in that church, but its +<!-- Page 119 --><a name="Page_119"></a>managers, taking alarm at the threats of certain pro-slavery men, +withdrew their permission and locked the sanctuary's doors. Slavery +punished the dead as well as the living.</p> + +<p>The case of Amos Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be +mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a +convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass +for a book called the <i>Cottage Bible</i> which would not ordinarily be +supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. While +peaceably attending to his business he was accused of Anti-Slaveryism. +He did not deny the charge and was arrested, his trunk being broken +open and its contents searched and scattered. He was taken before a +vigilance committee and by it was condemned to receive twenty lashes +on his bare back, "well laid on," and then to be driven out of town. +The sentence was carried out, we are told, in the presence of +thousands of people of both sexes.</p> + +<p>Of the many somewhat similar instances that might here be referred to +the writer will make room for only one more.</p> + +<p>A seafaring man of the name of Jonathan Walker undertook to convey in +a sloop of which he was the owner seven colored fugitives to the +Bahama Islands, where they would be free. Owing to an accident to his +boat, he and his companions were captured. He was sentenced, among +other things, to have his hand branded with the letters S.S., +signifying "Slave Stealer."</p> + +<p>The incident just referred to inspired one of the <!-- Page 120 --><a name="Page_120"></a>finest productions +of Whittier's pen. Singing of that "bold plowman of the wave" he +proceeds:</p> + +<p class="poem">"Why, that hand is highest honor,<br /> +<span class="i2">Than its traces never yet</span> +Upon old memorial hatchments was<br /> +<span class="i2">A prouder blazon set;</span> +And the unborn generations, as they<br /> +<span class="i2">Tread our rocky strand,</span> +Shall tell with pride the story of<br /> +<span class="i2">Their father's branded hand."</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h2><!-- Page 121 --><a name="Page_121"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The prescribed penalties for assisting in the escape of fugitive +slaves were severe. By the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, as it was +called, any one convicted of that offense, besides a liability for one +thousand dollars damages recoverable in a civil action, was subject to +a five-hundred-dollars fine and imprisonment in a penitentiary for one +year. As the writer has not "done time" for participation in certain +transactions dating back to his earlier days, in which the legal +rights of slave-owners were indifferently respected, he thinks it +advisable to be somewhat reserved in his recital of personal +experiences when taking the public into his confidence. The Fugitive +Slave Law—and for that fact we should give "most hearty thanks"—is +about as dead as any statute can be, but as in the case of a snake +that has been killed, it may be the wiser course not to trifle with +its fangs. Therefore, instead of telling my own story in the first +person singular, I offer as a substitute the confession of one John +Smith, whose existence no one will presume to dispute. Here is his +statement:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"There was an old barn on my father's farm. It was almost a ruin. + One end of the roof had fallen <!-- Page 122 --><a name="Page_122"></a>in, pretty much all the windows + were gone, and there was a general air of dilapidation about the + place. A dwelling-house, to which it was an appendage, had been + burned and not rebuilt, and the barn had been left to fight a + battle with the elements and other foes in pretty much its own + way.</p> + +<p> "Not that it was wholly abandoned. There was one mow that was kept + pretty well supplied with grass, and there were two or three horse + stalls that were in tolerable order, although but rarely used. + There were a number of excellent hiding-places about the old + rookery. In the basement all sorts of rubbish, including unused + vehicles and machinery, had been stored away, and so wedged and + packed was it that it would have taken hours to uncover man or + beast seeking concealment there.</p> + +<p> "One of the curious features of the situation was that the + building was in sight of none of the roads in the neighborhood, + while less than a hundred feet from it was a strip of woods in + which the removal of the larger trees had stimulated a sturdy and + densely matted undergrowth that was penetrable only by means of + paths that had been made by the cattle. It was what was called a + 'woods pasture.' With this cover for his movements any one could + approach or leave the old barn with little danger of discovery.</p> + +<p> "Naturally enough, such a ramshackle was in ill-repute. There were + tales about it in the neighborhood. Some children had gone there + to play on one occasion, and had been badly frightened by a + big—as big as a half-bushel, they asserted—black face that was + seen to be watching them. They fled <!-- Page 123 --><a name="Page_123"></a>from the premises in great + alarm, and for a time there was talk of an investigation by their + friends. The incident, however, was soon forgotten.</p> + +<p> "That old barn was a regular station on one of the underground + railroads that extended from the Ohio River to Canada. To but few + persons was its true character known, and they were very + close-mouthed about it. I was one of the few that were in the + secret. Being the youngest member of the family, it fell to my lot + to drive the horses and cows to and from the pasture in which the + old barrack was located, and while there it was an easy matter to + visit that establishment and ascertain if it sheltered any fresh + arrivals.</p> + +<p> "One day I had to report that two fugitives were in the barn, + being a mother and child. Then came the question—which in that + instance was a difficult one to answer—as to who should convey + them to the next station on the line, twenty miles away. A + brother, between five and six years older than I was, and who was + something of a dare-devil, did the most of the work of + transportation, but he was in bed with typhoid fever. A hired man, + who was employed partly because he was in hearty accord with the + humanitarian views of the household, and who on several occasions + had taken my brother's place, was absent. There was nobody but + myself who was ready to undertake the job, and I was only eleven + years old. There was no help for it, however. The slaves had to be + moved on, and I was greatly rejoiced in the prospect of adventure + that was opened up to me. The journey had to be made at night, but + for that I cared nothing, as I <!-- Page 124 --><a name="Page_124"></a>had repeatedly gone over the route + by daylight, and thought I knew the road perfectly.</p> + +<p> "Midnight found me on the highway, and on the driver's seat of one + of our farm wagons, to which was attached a span of horses moving + in the direction of the north star. That luminary was not on this + occasion visible. The sky was heavily overcast and the night was + very dark. A light rain was falling. With all the confidence I had + in my own ability, more than once would I have lost the way, but + for the sagacity of the horses, which had gone over that route a + number of times under similar circumstances. They acted as if + altogether familiar with it. Those horses proved themselves to be + excellent Abolitionists.</p> + +<p> "The inclemency of the night was in one respect a great advantage. + It kept at home those who might incline to be too inquisitive. The + few travelers we met passed on with a word of greeting, while I + whistled unconcernedly.</p> + +<p> "Over the bottom of the wagon was scattered some hay that might be + used either as feed for the horses or as a bed for weary + travelers. There was also an old-fashioned buffalo-robe, somewhat + dilapidated, that could serve for concealment or as shelter from + the elements. Two or three empty baskets suggested a return from + the market. There was another article that one would hardly have + looked for. This was a smoke-cured ham loosely wrapped in some old + sacking. It had gone over that route a number of times. Its odor + neutralized the smell by which the presence, immediate or recent, + of negroes might be detected.</p> + +<p> "<!-- Page 125 --><a name="Page_125"></a>My fellow-travelers, as my passengers might be called, were + interesting companions. Both, in one sense, were children, the + mother certainly not being over seventeen years old. She was a + comely half-breed mulatto. Her baby—a pretty boy of two + years—was one degree nearer white.</p> + +<p> "The girl was inclined to be confidential and talkative. She said + she was 'old mas'r's' daughter. Her mother had been one of 'old + mas'r's' people. She had grown up with the other slave children on + the place, being in no way favored because of her relationship to + her owner. The baby's father was 'young mas'r'—old master's son, + as it appeared—and who, consequently, was a half-brother of the + youthful mother. Slavery sometimes created singular relationships.</p> + +<p> "As the story ran, all the people, including the narrator and her + baby, when 'ole mas'r' died were 'leveled' on by the Sheriff's + man. She did not quite understand the meaning of it all, but it + was doubtless a case of bankruptcy.</p> + +<p> "'Young mas'r,' she said, 'tole' her she had to run away, taking + the baby of course. 'Oh, yes," she said very emphatically, 'I + never would have left Kentuck without Thomas Jefferson'—meaning + her little boy. 'Young mas'r,' according to her account, arranged + the whole proceeding, telling her what course to take by night, + where to stop and conceal herself by day, and what signal to give + when she reached the 'big river.'</p> + +<p> "When the Ohio had been crossed her young master met her, + evidently to the great delight of the poor creature. He gave her + some money, and <!-- Page 126 --><a name="Page_126"></a>told her that when she reached her destination he + would send her some 'mo.' After putting her in charge of some kind + people, evidently representatives of the underground line, they + had parted, according to her description of the incident, in an + affecting way. 'He kissed me and I cried,' was her simple + statement. Notwithstanding the boasted superiority of one race + over another, human nature seems to be very much the same, whether + we read it in a white face or in a black one.</p> + +<p> "The little girlish mother was very much alarmed for the safety of + her boy and herself when we began our journey, wanting to get out + and conceal herself whenever we heard any one on the road. After + several detentions from that cause, the weary creature stretched + herself upon the hay beside her sleeping infant and almost + immediately fell into a heavy slumber. She could stand the strain + no longer. I drew the buffalo-robe over the two sleepers, and + there they rested in blissful unconsciousness until the journey + was ended.</p> + +<p> "Half-way between the termini of my route was a village in which + lived a constable who was suspected of being in the employ of the + slave-owners. It was thought advisable that I should avoid that + village by taking a roundabout road. That I did, although it added + an extra half to my trip. The result was that the sun was just + peeping over the eastern hills, as I reached a set of bars showing + an entrance into a pasture lot on one side of the highway. + Removing the bars, I drove into the field, and passing over a + ridge that hid it from the road, I stopped in front of a log cabin + that had every <!-- Page 127 --><a name="Page_127"></a>appearance of being an abandoned and neglected + homestead. That was the station I was looking for. Arousing my + sleeping passengers, I saw them enter the old domicile, where I + bade them good-by, and received the tearful and repeated thanks of + the youthful slave mother, speaking for herself and her offspring. + I never saw them again, but in due time the news came back, over + what was jocularly called the 'grape-vine telegraph,' that they + had safely reached their destination.</p> + +<p> "At the home of the station agent I was enthusiastically received. + That a boy of eleven should accomplish what I had done was thought + to be quite wonderful. I was given an excellent breakfast, and + then shown to a room with a bed, where I had a good sleep. On my + awakening I set out on the return journey, this time taking the + most direct route, as I had then no fear of that hireling + constable.</p> + +<p> "Subsequently I passed through several experiences of a similar + kind, some of them involving greater risks and more exciting + incidents, but the recollection of none of them brings me greater + satisfaction than the memory of my first conductorship on the + Underground.</p> + +<p> "All of which is respectfully submitted by</p> + +<p> "JOHN SMITH."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h2><!-- Page 128 --><a name="Page_128"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>COLONIZATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>I have had a good deal to say about Anti-Slavery societies. There was +another society which was called into existence by the slavery +situation. Whether it was pro-slavery or anti-slavery was a question +that long puzzled a good many people. It was the Colonization Society. +A good many Anti-Slavery people believed in it for a time and gave it +their support. "I am opposed to slavery, but I am not an Abolitionist: +I am a Colonizationist," was a declaration that, when I was a boy, I +heard many and many times, and from the lips of well-intending people.</p> + +<p>It did not take the sharp-sighted leaders of the Abolition movement +very long to discover that one of the uses its managers expected to +make of the Colonization Society was as a shield for slavery. It kept +a number of excellent people from joining in an aggressive movement +against it, took their money, and made them believe that they were at +work for the freedom of the negro.</p> + +<p>Strangely as it might appear, the negroes, who were assumed to be the +beneficiaries of the colonization scheme, were opposed to it. Quicker +than the white people generally did, they saw through its <!-- Page 129 --><a name="Page_129"></a>false +pretense, and, besides, they could not understand why they should be +taken from the land of their nativity, and sent to the country from +which their progenitors had come, any more than the descendants of +Scotch, English, and German immigrants should be deported to the lands +of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>Equally strange was it that the Colonization Society, if really +friendly to the negro, should find its most zealous supporters among +slaveholders. Its first president, who was a nephew of George +Washington, upon learning that his slaves had got the idea that they +were to be set at liberty, sent over fifty of them to be sold from the +auction block at New Orleans. That was intended as a warning to the +rest. One of its presidents was said to be the owner of a thousand +slaves and had never manumitted one of them. The principal service +that the colonization movement was expected to do for the slave-owners +was to relieve them of the presence of free negroes. These were always +regarded as a menace by slave-masters. They disseminated ideas of +freedom and manhood among their unfortunate brethren. They were +object-lessons to those in bondage. The slave-owners were only too +glad to have them sent away. They looked to Liberia as a safety-valve. +It did not take long for intelligent people who were really +well-wishers of the black man to perceive these facts.</p> + +<p>The severest blow that the Colonization Society received in America +was from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, who, under the title of +<i>Thoughts on African Colonisation</i>, published a pamphlet that had +<!-- Page 130 --><a name="Page_130"></a>wide distribution. It completely unmasked the pretended friendship of +the Colonizationists for the negroes, free or slave. From that time +they lost all support from real Anti-Slavery people. There was, +however, to be a battle fought, in which the Colonization Society +figured as a party, that furnished one of the most interesting +episodes of the slavery conflict.</p> + +<p>England, at the time of which we are speaking, was full of +Anti-Slavery sentiment. Slavery, at the end of a long and bitter +contest, had been abolished in all her colonies. Her philanthropists +were rejoicing in their victory. The managers of the Colonization +Society resolved, if possible, to capture that sentiment, and with it +the pecuniary aid the British Abolitionists might render. It was +always a tremendous beggar. They, accordingly, selected a +fluent-tongued agent and sent him to England to advocate their cause. +He did not hesitate to represent that the Colonization Society was the +especial friend of the negro, working for his deliverance from +bondage, and, in addition, that it had the support of "the wealth, the +respectability, and the piety of the American people."</p> + +<p>When these facts came to the knowledge of the members of the newly +formed New England Anti-Slavery Society, they were naturally excited, +and resolved to meet the enemy in this new field of operations. This +they decided to do by sending a representative to England, who would +be able to meet the colonization agent in discussion, and otherwise +proclaim and champion their particular views. For this service the man +selected was William <!-- Page 131 --><a name="Page_131"></a>Lloyd Garrison, who was then but twenty-eight +years old.</p> + +<p>Remarkable it was that one who was not only so young, but imperfectly +educated, being a poor mechanic, daily toiling as a compositor at his +printer's case, should be chosen to meet the most polished people in +the British Empire, and hold himself ready to debate the most serious +question of the time. That such a person should be willing to enter +upon such an undertaking was almost as remarkable. But Garrison showed +no hesitation in accepting the task for which he was selected.</p> + +<p>On his arrival in England, Garrison sent a challenge to the +colonization agent for a public debate. This the Colonizationist +refused to receive. Two more challenges were sent and were treated in +the same way. Then Garrison, at a cost of thirty dollars, which he +could ill afford to pay, published the challenge in the London +<i>Times</i>, with a statement of the manner in which it had been so far +treated. Of course, public interest was aroused, and when Garrison +appeared upon the public platform, as he at once proceeded to do, he +was greeted with the attendance of multitudes of interested hearers. +Exeter Hall in London was crowded. The most distinguished men in +England sat upon the stage when he spoke, and applauded his addresses. +Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, paid them a most florid +compliment. They were, unquestionably, most remarkable samples of +effective eloquence—plain in statement, simple in style, but +exceedingly logical and forcible. They were widely published +throughout England at the time of their delivery.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 132 --><a name="Page_132"></a>One of the results was that the leading emancipationists of Great +Britain signed and published a warning against the colonization +scheme, denouncing it as having its roots in "a cruel prejudice," and +declaring that it was calculated to "increase the spirit of caste so +unhappily predominant," and that it "exposed the colored people to +great practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate."</p> + +<p>As for the poor agent of the Colonizationists, seeing how the battle +was tending, he left England in a hurry, and was nevermore heard of in +that part of the world.</p> + +<p>Garrison's personal triumph was very striking, and it was splendidly +earned. He was made the recipient of many compliments and +testimonials. A curious incident resulted from this great popularity. +He was invited to breakfast by Sir Thomas Buxton, the noted English +philanthropist, with a view to making the acquaintance of a number of +distinguished persons who were to be present. When Mr. Garrison +presented himself, his entertainer, who had not before met or seen +him, looked at him in great astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Are you William Lloyd Garrison?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"That is who I am," replied Mr. Garrison, "and I am here on your +invitation."</p> + +<p>"But you are a white man," said Buxton, "and from your zeal and labors +in behalf of the colored people, I assumed that you were one of them."</p> + +<p>Garrison left England in what, metaphorically, might be described as +"a blaze of glory." Hundreds attended him when he went to embark on +his homeward voyage, and he was followed by their <!-- Page 133 --><a name="Page_133"></a>cheers and +benedictions. Wonderfully different was the treatment he received on +his arrival in his own country. Not long afterwards he was dragged +through Boston streets by a hempen rope about his body, and was +assigned to a prison cell, as affording the most available protection +from the mob.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we have had some excellent people—not +slave-owners—who, out of compassion for the black man, or from +prejudice against his color, and, perhaps, from a little of both, have +favored a policy of colonization in this country. Mr. Lincoln was one +of them. "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what +to do with the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free +the slaves and send them to Liberia." So said Mr. Lincoln in one of +his debates with Douglas.</p> + +<p>"I cannot make it better known than it already is," said Mr. Lincoln +in a message to Congress, dated December 1, 1862, "that I strongly +favor colonization."</p> + +<p>At Lincoln's instance Congress appropriated several large sums of +money—then much needed in warlike operations—for colonizing +experiments. One of these has a curious and somewhat pathetic history. +A sharper by the name of Koch, having worked himself into the +confidence of the President and some other good people, got them to +buy from him an island in the West Indies, called Ile a'Vache, which +he represented to be a veritable earthly paradise. Strangely enough, +it was wholly uninhabited, and therefore ready for the uses of a +colony. Several hundred people—colored, of course—were collected, +put aboard a ship, and dumped upon this unknown <!-- Page 134 --><a name="Page_134"></a>land. It will +surprise no one to learn that pretty soon these people, poisoned by +malaria, stung by venomous insects and reptiles, and having scarcely +anything to eat, were dying like cattle with the murrain. In the end a +ship was sent to bring back the survivors.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the kind-hearted President did not give up the idea. At +his request a delegation of Washington negroes called upon him. He +made them quite a long speech, telling them that Congress had given +him money with which to found a colony of colored people, and that he +had found what seemed to be a suitable location in Central America. He +appealed to them to supply the colonists. The negroes, not anxious for +exile, diplomatically said they would think the matter over. In the +end it was discovered that Central America did not want the negroes, +and that the negroes did not want Central America.</p> + +<p>A story that is curiously illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's attachment to +the policy of removing the colored people is told by L.E. Chittenden +in his <i>Recollections of President Lincoln</i>. Mr. Chittenden was a +citizen of Vermont and Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, with +whom he was in intimate and confidential relations:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"During one of his welcome visits to my office," says Mr. + Chittenden, "the President seemed to be buried in thought over + some subject of great interest. After long reflection he abruptly + exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a question.</p> + +<p> "'Do you know any energetic contractor?' he inquired; 'one who + would be willing to take a large contract attended with some + risk?'</p> + +<p> "<!-- Page 135 --><a name="Page_135"></a>'I know New England contractors," I replied, 'who would not be + frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element + of prospective profit is the only one that would interest them. If + there was a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to + contract to suppress the Rebellion in ninety days."</p> + +<p> "'There will be profit and reputation in the contract I may + propose,' said the President. 'It is to remove the whole colored + race of the slave States into Texas. If you have any acquaintance + who would take that contract, I would like to see him.'</p> + +<p> "'I know a man who would take that contract and perform it,' I + replied. 'I would be willing to put you into communication with + him, so that you might form your own opinion about him.'</p> + +<p> "By the President's direction I requested John Bradley, a + well-known Vermonter, to come to Washington. He was at my office + the morning after I sent the telegram to him. I declined to give + him any hint of the purpose of my invitation, but took him + directly to the President. When I presented him I said: 'Here, Mr. + President, is the contractor whom I named to you yesterday.'</p> + +<p> "I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to my + office overflowing with admiration for the President and + enthusiasm for his proposed work. 'The proposition is,' he said, + 'to remove the whole colored race into Texas, there to establish a + republic of their own. The subject has political bearings of which + I am no judge, and upon which the President has not yet made up + his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will + undertake to remove them all within a year.'"</p></div> + +<p>It is unnecessary to state that the Black Republic of Texas was a +dream that never materialized.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 136 --><a name="Page_136"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who were Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries +during the time he was President, and afterwards the authors of his +most elaborate biography, say: "The blessings of an enfranchised race +must forever hail him as their liberator."</p> + +<p>Says Francis Curtis in his <i>History of the Republican Party</i>, in +speaking of the President's Emancipation Proclamation: "On the 1st day +of January, 1863, the final proclamation of freedom was issued, and +every negro slave within the confines of the United States was at last +made free."</p> + +<p>Other writers of what is claimed to be history, almost without number, +speak of the President's pronouncement as if it caused the bulwarks of +slavery to fall down very much as the walls of Jericho are said to +have done, at one blast, overwhelming the whole institution and +setting every bondman free. Indeed, there are multitudes of fairly +intelligent people who believe that slaveholding in this country +ceased the very day and hour the proclamation appeared. In a recent +magazine article, so intelligent a man as Booker Washington speaks of +a Kentucky slave family as being emancipated <!-- Page 137 --><a name="Page_137"></a>by Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation, when, in fact, the proclamation never applied to +Kentucky at all.</p> + +<p>The emancipationists of Missouri were working hard to free their State +from slavery, and they would have been only too glad to have Mr. +Lincoln do the work for them. They appealed to him to extend his edict +to their State, but got no satisfaction. The emancipationists of +Maryland had much the same experience. Both Missouri and Maryland were +left out of the proclamation, as were Tennessee and Kentucky and +Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Louisiana and the Carolinas. (See +Appendix.) The explanation is that the proclamation was not intended +to cover all slaveholding territory. All of it that belonged to States +that had not been in rebellion, or had been subdued, was excluded. The +President's idea was to reach only such sections as were then in +revolt. If the proclamation had been immediately operative, and had +liberated every bondman in the jurisdiction to which it applied, it +would have left over a million slaves in actual thraldom. Indeed, Earl +Russell, the British premier, was quite correct when, in speaking of +the proclamation, he said: "It does not more than profess to +emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make +emancipation a reality, and emancipates no one where the decree can be +carried into effect."</p> + +<p>For the failure of the proclamation to cover all slaveholding +territory there was a plausible reason. Freedom under it was not +decreed as a boon, but as a penalty. It was not, in theory at least, +intended to help the slave, but to chastise the master. It <!-- Page 138 --><a name="Page_138"></a>was to be +in punishment of treason, and, of course, could not consistently be +made to apply to loyal communities, or to such as were under +government control. The proclamation, it will be recollected, was +issued in two parts separated by one hundred days. The first part gave +the Rebels warning that the second would follow if, in the meanwhile, +they did not give up their rebellion. All they had to do to save +slavery was to cease from their treasonable practices. Had the Rebels +been shrewd enough, within the hundred days, to take the President at +his word, he would have stood pledged to maintain their institution, +and his proclamation, instead of being a charter of freedom, would +have been a license for slaveholding.</p> + +<p>The proclamation did not, in fact, whatever it may have otherwise +accomplished at the time it was issued, liberate a single slave. What +is more, slavery as an institution was altogether too securely rooted +in our system to be abolished by proclamation. The talk of such a +thing greatly belittles the magnitude of the task that was performed. +Its removal required a long preliminary work, involving, as is made to +appear in previous chapters of this work, almost incalculable toil and +sacrifice, to be followed by an enormous expenditure of blood and +treasure. Its practical extinguishment was the work of the army, while +its legal extirpation was accomplished by Congress and the +Legislatures of the States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution, which forbids all slaveholding. That amendment +was a production of Congress and not of the Executive, whose official +<!-- Page 139 --><a name="Page_139"></a>approval was not even required to make it legally effective.</p> + +<p>The story of the proclamation, with not a few variations, has often +been told; but the writer fancies that the altogether correct account +has not always been given. It may be presumptuous on his part, but he +will submit his version.</p> + +<p>To understand the motive underlying the proclamation we must take into +account its author's feeling toward slavery. Notwithstanding various +unfriendly references of an academic sort to that institution, he was +not at the time the proclamation appeared, and never had been, an +Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Not very long before the time referred to the writer heard Mr. +Lincoln, in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois, +declare—laying unusual emphasis on his words: "I have on all +occasions declared as strongly as Judge Douglas against the +disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery."</p> + +<p>Judge Douglas was what was then called a "dough-face" by the +Abolitionists—being a Northern man with Southern principles, or +"proclivities," as he called them.</p> + +<p>Only a little earlier, and several years after Mr. Lincoln had claimed +to be a Republican, and a leader of the Republicans, he had, in a +speech at Bloomington, Illinois, asserted that, "the conclusion of it +all is that we must restore the Missouri Compromise."</p> + +<p>Now the adoption of the Missouri Compromise was the hardest blow ever +inflicted on the cause of free soil in America. It did more to +encourage the <!-- Page 140 --><a name="Page_140"></a>supporters of slavery and to discourage its opponents +than anything else that ever happened. Its restoration would +undoubtedly have produced a similar effect. Although he is not to be +credited with any philanthropic motive, Stephen A. Douglas did an +effective work for freedom when he helped to overthrow that measure. +Leading Abolitionists have accorded him that meed of praise.</p> + +<p>But there was that proposition which Mr. Lincoln was so fond of +repeating, that the nation could not remain half free and half +slave—"a divided house"—but the remedy he had to propose was not +manumission at any proximate or certain time, but the adoption of a +policy that, to use his own words, would cause "the public mind to +rest in the belief that it [slavery] was in the course of ultimate +extinction." Practically that meant very little or nothing. What the +public mind then needed was not "rest," but properly directed +activity.</p> + +<p>But the declarations above quoted were all before Mr. Lincoln had +become President or had probably thought of such a thing. Did the +change of position lead to a change of opinion on his part? We are not +left in uncertainty on this point. His official views were declared in +what might be called a State paper. Soon after his inauguration, his +Secretary of State sent Minister Dayton, at Paris, a dispatch that he +might use with foreign officials, in which, in speaking of the +Rebellion, he said: "The condition of slavery in the several States +will remain just the same whether it succeeds or fails.... It is +hardly necessary to add to this incontrovertible statement the further +fact that the new President <!-- Page 141 --><a name="Page_141"></a>has always repudiated all designs, +whenever and wherever imputed to him, of disturbing the system of +slavery as it has existed under the Constitution and laws."</p> + +<p>About the same time Mr. Lincoln stated to a party of Southern +Congressmen, who called upon him, that he "recognized the rights of +property that had grown out of it [slavery] and would respect those +rights as fully as he would similar rights in any other property."</p> + +<p>No steps were taken by Mr. Lincoln to recall or repudiate the +foregoing announcements. On the contrary, he confirmed them in his +official action. He annulled the freedom proclamations of Frémont and +Hunter. He did not interfere when some of his military officers were +so busy returning fugitive slaves that they had no time to fight the +masters. He approved Hallock's order Number Three excluding fugitives +from the lines. He even permitted the poor old Hutchinsons to be sent +away from the army very much as if they had been colored people, when +trying to rouse "the boys" with their freedom songs. In many ways Mr. +Lincoln showed that in the beginning and throughout the earlier part +of his Administration he hoped to re-establish the Union without +disturbing slavery. In effect he so declared in his introduction to +his freedom proclamation. He gave the rebel slaveholders one hundred +days in which to abandon their rebellion and save their institution. +In view of such things it is no wonder that Henry Wilson, so long a +leading Republican Senator from Massachusetts, in his <i>Rise and Fall +of the Slave Power</i>, in speaking of emancipation, <!-- Page 142 --><a name="Page_142"></a>said "it was a +policy, indeed, which he [the President] did not personally favor +except in connection with his favorite idea of colonization."</p> + +<p>It is needless to say that the President's attitude was a great +surprise and a sore disappointment to the more radical Anti-Slavery +people of the country, who had supported him with much enthusiasm and +high hopes. They felt that they had been deceived. They said so very +plainly, for the Abolitionists were not the sort of people to keep +quiet under provocation. Horace Greeley published his signed attack +(see Appendix) entitled, <i>The Prayer of Twenty Millions</i>, which is, +without doubt, the most scathing denunciation in the English language. +Henry Ward Beecher "pounded" Mr. Lincoln, as he expressed it. Wendell +Phillips fairly thundered his denunciations. There was a general +under-swell of indignation.</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Lincoln was not a man who was incapable of reading the signs +of the times. He saw that he was drifting towards an irreparable +breach with an element that had previously furnished his staunchest +supporters. As a politician of great native shrewdness, as well as the +head of the Government, he could not afford to let the quarrel go on +and widen. There was need of conciliation. Something had to be done. +We know what he did. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation.</p> + +<p>As far as freeing any slaves was concerned, he knew it amounted to +very little, if anything. He said so. Less than two weeks before the +preliminary section of the proclamation appeared, Mr. Lincoln was +waited on by a delegation of over one hundred <!-- Page 143 --><a name="Page_143"></a>Chicago clergymen, who +urged him to issue a proclamation of freedom for the slaves. "What +good would a proclamation from me do, especially as we are now +situated?" asked Mr. Lincoln by way of reply. "I do not want to issue +a document that the whole world would see must necessarily be +inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word +free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the +rebel States?"</p> + +<p>In contemplating a proclamation applicable to the rebel States, it is +hardly to be supposed that Mr. Lincoln did not understand the +situation two weeks earlier quite as well as when the document +appeared.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Lincoln had been told, when he entered on the Presidency, that +before his term of office would expire he would be hailed as "The +Great Emancipator," he would have treated the statement as equal to +one of his own best jokes. Slavery was a thing he did not then want to +have disturbed. He discountenanced all radical agitators of the +subject, and especially in the border slave States, where he was able +to hold them pretty well in check, except in Missouri. There they +stood up and fought him, and in the end beat him. One of the rather +curious results of this condition of things was that, when the States +came to action on the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, the one +absolutely abolishing slavery, the three border slave States of +Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, over which the President's influence +was practically supreme, gave an adverse vote of four to one, while +Missouri, with whose radical emancipationists he had continuously been +at loggerheads, ratified the amendment by a <!-- Page 144 --><a name="Page_144"></a>legislative vote of one +hundred and eleven ayes to forty nays.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, notwithstanding the President, at the beginning of his +official term, opposed Anti-Slavery agitation and Anti-Slavery action +with all his might, he promptly faced about as soon as he discovered +that the subject was one that would not "down." No one ever worked +harder to find a solution of a difficult problem than he did of the +slavery question. He began to formulate plans to that end, the most +distinguishing feature, however, being the spirit of compromise by +which they were pervaded. All of them stopped before an ultimatum was +reached. Besides his proclamation, which, as we have seen, applied to +only a part of the slaves, he devised a measure that would have been +applicable to all of them. In his special message of December, 1863, +he proposed to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment +that would work universal liberation. There were conditions, however. +One was that the slaves should be paid for by the Government; another +that the masters might retain their uncompensated services until +January 1, 1900; that is, for a period of thirty-seven years, unless +they were sooner emancipated by the grave, as the most of them would +be. (See Appendix.)</p> + +<p>The President's somewhat fantastic proposition was not claimed by him +to be for the bondman's benefit. He urged it as a measure of public +economy, holding that, as slavery was the admitted cause of the +Rebellion, the quickest and surest way to remove that cause would be +by purchase of all <!-- Page 145 --><a name="Page_145"></a>the slaves, which, he insisted, "would shorten the +war, and thus lessen the expenditure of money and blood."</p> + +<p>The public did not take to the President's plan at all, especially the +Abolitionists did not. They no more favored the buying of men by the +Government than by anybody else. They held that if the master had no +right to the person of his bondman, he had no right to payment for +him. And as for an arrangement that might prolong slaveholding for +thirty-seven years, they saw in it not only a measure of injustice to +the men, women, and children then in servitude, the most of whom would +be doomed to bondage for the rest of their natural lives, but a +possible plan for side-tracking a genuine freedom movement.</p> + +<p>In the proposition just considered we have not only the core of the +President's policy during much of his official tenure, but an +explanation of his mental operations. He was sentimentally opposed to +slavery, but he was afraid of freedom. He dreaded its effect on both +races. He was opposed to slavery more because it was a public nuisance +than because of its injustice to the oppressed black man, whose +condition, he did not believe, would be greatly, if at all, benefited +by freedom. Hence he wanted manumission put off as long as possible. +It was "ultimate extinction" he wanted, to be attended with payment to +the master for his lost property. Another thing he favored—and which +he seems to have thought entirely practicable—as a condition to +liberation, was the black man's removal to a place or places out of +contact with our white population.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 146 --><a name="Page_146"></a>But in entire fairness to Mr. Lincoln, it should be said that, +although his proclamation was inoperative for the immediate release of +any slaves, it was by no means wholly ineffectual. Its moral influence +was considerable. It helped to hasten a movement that had, however, by +that time become practically irresistible. Its political results were +far more marked and important. If it did not fully restore cordiality +between the President and the Abolition leaders, it prevented an open +rupture. It served as a bridge between them. Although they never took +Mr. Lincoln fully into their confidence again, the Abolitionists +interpreted his proclamation as a concession and an abandonment of his +previous policy, which it was much more in appearance than actually. +At all events, it was splendid politics. The somewhat theatrical +manner in which it was worked up and promulgated in installments, thus +arousing in advance a widespread interest and curiosity, showed no +little strategic ability. No more skillful move is recorded in the +history of our parties and partisans than this act of Mr. Lincoln, by +which he disarmed his Anti-Slavery critics without giving them any +material advantage or changing the actual situation. I am not now +speaking of the motive underlying the proclamation of the President, +but of its effect. Without it he could not have been renominated and +re-elected.</p> + +<p>Another observation, in order to be entirely just to Mr. Lincoln, +after what has been stated, would at this point seem to be called for. +There is no doubt that from the first he was at heart an Anti-Slavery +man, which is saying a good deal for one <!-- Page 147 --><a name="Page_147"></a>born in Kentucky, raised in +southern Indiana and southern Illinois, and who was naturally of a +conservative turn of mind. Nevertheless, he was never an Abolitionist. +He was opposed to immediate—what he called "sudden"—emancipation. He +recognized the "right"—his own word—of the slave-owner to his pound +of flesh, either in the person of his bondman or a cash equivalent. He +was strongly prejudiced against the negro. Of that fact we have the +evidence in his colonization ideas. He favored the banishment of our +American-born black people from their native land. It was a cruel +proposition. True, the President did move from his first position, +which, as we have seen, was far from that occupied by the +Abolitionists, but from first to last he was more of a follower than +leader in the procession.</p> + +<p>And here the author wishes to add, in justice to himself, that if, by +reason of anything he has said in this chapter, or elsewhere in this +work, in criticism of Mr. Lincoln's dealings with the slavery issue, +he should be accused of unfriendliness toward the great martyr +President, he enters a full and strong denial. He holds that, in view +of all the difficulties besetting him, Mr. Lincoln did well, although +he might have done better. Much allowance, must be made to one +situated as he was. He undoubtedly deserves the most of the encomiums +that have been lavished upon him. At the same time, the conclusion is +inevitable that his fame as a statesman will ultimately depend less +upon his treatment of the slavery issue than upon any other part of +his public administration. The fact will <!-- Page 148 --><a name="Page_148"></a>always appear that it was +the policy of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, +Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and other advocates of the radical +cure, with whom the President was in constant opposition, that +prevailed in the end, and with a decisiveness that proves it to have +been feasible and sound from the beginning. Mr. Lincoln's most ultra +prescription—his Emancipation Proclamation—was ineffective. If it +was intended to eradicate slavery altogether, it was too narrow; if to +free the slaves of Rebels only, it was too broad. So with his other +propositions. His thirty-seven-year-liberation scheme, his "tinkering +off" policy (as he called it) for Missouri, his reconstruction +proposals, and his colonization projects, all failed. Indeed, if we +take his official action from first to last, it is a question whether +the President, owing to his extreme conservatism, was not more of an +obstructionist than a promoter of the Anti-Slavery cause.</p> + +<p>Not that any change of opinion on the point just stated will +materially affect the general estimate in which Mr. Lincoln is held. +Although his popularity, due, in part at least, to the extravagance of +over-zealous admirers, has without much doubt already passed its +perihelion, it can never disappear or greatly diminish. His untiring +and exhaustive labors for the Union, the many lovable traits of his +unique personality, his unquestionable honesty, his courage, his +patriotism, and, above all, his tragic taking off, have unalterably +determined his place in the regard of his countrymen. Indeed, so +strong is the admiration in which he is held, that it would be vain to +attempt to disabuse many, by any amount <!-- Page 149 --><a name="Page_149"></a>of proof and argument, of the +opinion that African slavery in this country was actually and +exclusively killed by a presidential edict. So firmly fixed in the +popular belief is that historical myth that it will undoubtedly live +for many years, if not generations, although history in the end will +right it like all other misunderstandings.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln had his weaknesses and limitations, like other men. All +must admit that his treatment of the slavery question was not without +its mistakes. It has always seemed to the writer that his most ardent +admirers seriously blunder in claiming superlativeness for him in that +regard, and more especially in giving him credit for results that were +due to the efforts of other men. His fame is secure without such +misappropriation. He would not ask it if living, and it will in due +time be condemned by history.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h2><!-- Page 150 --><a name="Page_150"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE END OF ABOLITIONISM</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The original and distinctive Abolition movement that was directed +against slavery in all parts of the land without regard to State or +territorial lines, and because it was assumed to be wrong in principle +and practice, may be said, as far as the country at large was +concerned, to have culminated at the advent of the Republican party. +To a considerable extent it disappeared, but its disappearance was +that of one stream flowing into or uniting with another. The union of +the two currents extended, but did not intensify, the Anti-Slavery +sentiment of the country. It diluted it and really weakened it. It +brought about a crisis of great peril to the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism—in some respects the most critical through which it +was called upon to pass. Many of those attaching themselves to the +Republican party, as the new political organization was called, were +not in sympathy with Abolitionism. They were utterly opposed to +immediate emancipation; or, for that matter, to emancipation of any +kind. They wanted slavery to remain where it was, and were perfectly +willing that it should be undisturbed. They disliked the blacks, and +did not want to have them freed, fearing that if set at liberty they +would overrun what was then free soil.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 151 --><a name="Page_151"></a>The writer recollects hearing a prominent man in the new party, who +about that time was making a public speech, declare with great +emphasis that, "as for the niggers, they are where they ought to be." +The speaker on that occasion was one of many who belonged to the +<i>débris</i> of the broken-up Whig party, and who drifted into +Republicanism because there was no other more attractive harbor to go +to. One of these men was Abraham Lincoln, whom I heard declare in his +debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois: "I was with the old-line Whigs +from the origin to the end of their party." The Whigs were never an +Anti-Slavery party. The recruits to Republicanism from that quarter +were generally very tender on "the nigger question," and the most they +were prepared to admit was that they were opposed to slavery's +extension. These men largely dominated the new party. They generally +dictated its platforms, which, compared with earlier Abolition +utterances, were extremely timid, and they had much to do with making +party nominations. Their favorite candidates were not those whose +opinions on the slavery question were positive and well understood, +but those whose views were unsettled if not altogether unknown. When +General Frémont was nominated for the Presidency, not one in ten of +those supporting him knew what his opinions on that subject were, and +a good many of them did not care. Mr. Lincoln was accepted in much the +same way.</p> + +<p>It is true that, from certain expressions about the danger to our +national house from being "half free" and "half slave," and other +generalizations <!-- Page 152 --><a name="Page_152"></a>of a more or less academic sort, it was known that +Mr. Lincoln was antagonistic to slavery; but as to whether he favored +that institution's immediate or speedy extinguishment, and, if so, by +what measures, was altogether unknown. We now know, from what has been +set forth in another chapter, that at the time of his first nomination +and election, he had very few things in common with the Abolitionists. +He then evidently had no thought of being hailed as the "liberator of +a race." He preferred, for the time at least, that the race in +question should remain where it was, and as it was, unless it could be +bodily transported to some other country and be put under the +protection of some other flag.</p> + +<p>He did not break with the Abolitionists, although he kept on the edge +of a quarrel with them, and especially with what he called the +"Greeley faction," a good part of the time. He never liked them, but +he was a shrewd man—a born politician—and was too sagacious to +discard the principal round in the ladder by which he had climbed to +eminence. He managed to keep in touch with the Anti-Slavery movement +through all its steady advancement, but, as elsewhere stated, it was +as a follower rather than as a leader.</p> + +<p>While a resident of the slave State of Missouri, I twice voted for Mr. +Lincoln, which was some evidence of my personal feeling toward him. +Both times I did it somewhat reluctantly. On the first occasion there +were four candidates. Breckenridge and Bell were Southern men—both by +residence and principle—and had no claim on Anti-Slavery support. But +with Douglas the case was different. <!-- Page 153 --><a name="Page_153"></a>He had quarreled with the +pro-slavery leaders, although of his own party. He had defied +President Buchanan in denouncing border-ruffianism in Kansas. He had +refused to give up his "popular sovereignty" dogma, although it +clearly meant ultimate free soil. The slave-masters hated him far more +than they did Lincoln. I heard them freely discuss the matter. They +were more afraid of the vindictiveness of the fiery Douglas than of +the opposition of good-hearted, conservative Lincoln. In my opinion +there was good reason for that feeling. Douglas, as President, would +undoubtedly have pushed the war for the Union with superior energy, +and slavery would have suffered rougher treatment from his hands than +it did from Mr. Lincoln's. There was another reason why the +slaveholders preferred the election of Lincoln to that of Douglas. +Lincoln's election would furnish the better pretext for the rebellion +on which they were bent, and which they had already largely planned. +They were resolved to defeat Douglas at all hazards, and they +succeeded.</p> + +<p>Douglas had been very distasteful to the Abolitionists. They called +him a "dough-face." Nevertheless, quite a number of them where I lived +in Missouri voted for him. Missouri was the only State he carried, and +there he had less than five hundred majority. He got more than that +many free-soil votes. I was strongly tempted to give him mine. Chiefly +on account of political associations, I voted for Lincoln.</p> + +<p>When it came to the second election, I again voted for Mr. Lincoln +with reluctance. The principal <!-- Page 154 --><a name="Page_154"></a>reason for my hesitancy was his +treatment of the Anti-Slavery people of the border slave States, and +especially of Missouri. The grounds for my objection on that score +will appear in the next chapter, which deals with the Missouri +embroglio, as it was called.</p> + +<p>From what has just been stated, it will be seen that the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism had, at the formation of the Republican party, reached +a most perilous crisis. It was in danger of being submerged and +suffocated by unsympathetic, if not positively unfriendly, +associations. It ran the risk, after so many years of toil and +conflict, of being undone by those in whose support it was forced to +confide. Such would undoubtedly have been its fate if, owing to +circumstances over which no political party or other organization of +men had control, the current of Anti-Slavery sentiment had not risen +to a flood that swept all before it.</p> + +<p>It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis just alluded +to, the nearest approach to original Abolitionism that was to be +found, was in a slave State. In Missouri there was an organized +opposition to slavery that had been maintained for several years, and +which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed by this movement was +undoubtedly due in large measure to the inspiration of the man who was +its originator, if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton. +Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has been a +much-disputed question, but one thing is certain, and that is that the +men who sat at his feet, who were his closest disciples and imbibed +the most of his spirit—such as <!-- Page 155 --><a name="Page_155"></a>B. Gratz Brown, John How, the Blairs, +the Filleys, and other influential Missourians,—were Abolitionists. +Some of them weakened under the influence of the national +administration, but not a few of them maintained their integrity. Even +in the first days of the Civil War, when all was chaos there, an +organization was maintained, although at one time its only working and +visible representatives consisted of the members of a committee of +four men—a fifth having withdrawn—who were B. Gratz Brown, +afterwards a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards +Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of St. Louis, and the +writer of this narrative. They issued an appeal that was distributed +all over the State, asking those in sympathy with their views to hold +fast to their principles, and to keep up the contest for unconditional +freedom. To that appeal there was an encouraging number of favorable +responses.</p> + +<p>And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said to have been lost +by merger elsewhere, it remained in its independence and integrity in +slaveholding Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil, and +in four years so far made itself master of the situation that a +constitutional State convention, chosen by popular vote, adopted an +ordinance under which an emancipationist Governor issued his +proclamation, declaring that "hence and forever no person within the +jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of +liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, +or know any master but God."</p> + +<p>The writer entered on this work with no purpose <!-- Page 156 --><a name="Page_156"></a>of relating or +discussing the story of the Republican party, in whole or in any part. +His subject was Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but +for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which reference has just +been made. That manifestation, he thinks, is deserving of recognition, +both on its own account and as a continuation of the original +movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute to its discussion +because he was then a Missourian by residence, and had something to do +with its successful prosecution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h2><!-- Page 157 --><a name="Page_157"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>MISSOURI</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In his interesting, though rather melodramatic, romance, <i>The Crisis</i>, +Winston Churchill tells the imaginary story of a young lawyer who went +from New England to St. Louis, and settled there shortly before the +outbreak of the Civil War. Having an abundance of leisure, and being +an Abolitionist, he devoted a portion of the time that was not +absorbed by his profession to writing articles on slavery for the +<i>Missouri Democrat</i>, which, notwithstanding its name, was the organ of +the Missouri emancipationists, and lived in part on the money he +received as compensation for that work. That in part describes the +author's experience. He was at that time a young lawyer in St. Louis, +to which place he had come from the North, and those who have read the +earlier chapters of this work are aware that he was an Abolitionist. +Having a good deal of time that was not taken up by his professional +employments, he occupied a portion of it in writing Anti-Slavery +contributions to the <i>Democrat</i>, and, so far as he knows, he was the +only person who to any extent did so. A collection was made of a +portion of his articles, and with money contributed by friends of the +cause, they were published in <!-- Page 158 --><a name="Page_158"></a>pamphlet form under the title of <i>Hints +toward Emancipation in Missouri</i>, and distributed throughout the +State.</p> + +<p>There the parallelism of the cases ceases. The writer got no pecuniary +compensation for his labor. He asked for none and expected none. The +<i>Democrat</i> was then in no condition to pay for volunteer services, +having a hard struggle for existence. He was able to do it a service +that, possibly, saved it from at least a temporary suspension. One of +its chief difficulties was in getting printing paper, the manufacturer +it had been patronizing declining to furnish it except for cash, while +the <i>Democrat</i> needed partial credit. At that time Louis Snyder, of +Hamilton, Ohio, a large paper-maker, visited St. Louis on business +that called for legal assistance, and I was employed by him. When the +work in hand was finished, I remarked that there was something else he +might do in St. Louis that would pay him. I explained the situation of +the <i>Democrat</i>, and assured him that, in my opinion, he would be +perfectly safe in giving trust to its proprietors, who were honest +men.</p> + +<p>"Will you indorse their paper?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Mr. Snyder was a crafty as well as a thrifty German.</p> + +<p>I replied that, as I was not a wealthy man, the question did not seem +to be pertinent.</p> + +<p>"Will you indorse their paper for one thousand dollars?" was his next +question.</p> + +<p>Being by this time somewhat "spunked up," I replied that I would.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall be pleased to meet your friends," said Mr. Snyder.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 159 --><a name="Page_159"></a>The result of the interview that followed was such that the +<i>Democrat</i> was materially assisted in continuing its publication.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to state that I never heard anything more of +the one-thousand-dollar indorsement, the sole purpose of which was, +doubtless, to test my sincerity.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards I was offered the political editorship of the +<i>Democrat</i>, which I accepted on the one condition that there was to be +"no let-up on emancipation." I held the position until Missouri was a +free State.</p> + +<p>In a surprisingly short time after the question of Missouri's status +in reference to the Union was decided, the issue between +Pro-Slaveryism and Anti-Slaveryism came up. Political parties ranged +themselves upon it. Those who favored slavery's immediate or speedy +abolishment became known as Radicals, while those advocating its +prolongation were called Conservatives. Those descriptives, however, +were too mild for such a time, and they were quickly superseded by a +more expressive local nomenclature. The Radicals, because of their +alleged sympathy with the negro, were branded as "Charcoals," and +their opponents, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and +Semi-Unionists, because of the variegated complexion of the mixture, +were set down as "Claybanks." Mulattoes are Claybanks.</p> + +<p>The Claybanks, or Conservatives, at the outset enjoyed a decided +advantage in having the State government on their side. This was not +the regularly elected administration, which was driven out <!-- Page 160 --><a name="Page_160"></a>because of +its open support of secession, but its provisional successor. In +trying to take the State out of the Union with a show of legality, the +lawful Governor and his official associates made provision for a State +convention to be chosen by the people, which they expected to control, +but which, having a Unionist majority, played the boomerang on them by +sending them adrift and taking the affairs of the State into its own +hands. In this it had opposition. The most progressive men of the +State insisted that, after it had settled the question of Missouri's +relations to the Union, with reference to which it was specially +chosen, it was <i>functus officio</i>. They held that there should be a new +and up-to-date convention, especially as the old one, owing to the +desertion of many of its treasonably inclined members, including +General Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, who was its first +president, had become "a rump," and so there were old-conventionists +and new-conventionists. The old-convention men, however, were in the +saddle. They had the governmental machinery, and were resolved to hold +on to it. In that spirit the convention proceeded to fill the vacant +offices. It was in sentiment strongly pro-slavery, as was shown by the +fact that a proposal looking to the very gradual extinguishment of +slavery was rejected by it in an almost unanimous vote, a circumstance +that led the leading pro-slavery journal of the State to boast that +the convention had killed emancipation "at the first pop." Very +naturally such a body selected pro-slavery officials. Hamilton R. +Gamble, whom it made Governor, was a bigoted supporter of "the +<!-- Page 161 --><a name="Page_161"></a>institution." He had not long before been mixed up in the proceedings +that compelled Elijah P. Lovejoy to leave Missouri for Alton, +Illinois, where he was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Gamble was an +able and ambitious man.</p> + +<p>The Conservatives, likewise, had the backing of the Federal +Administration—a statement that to a good many people nowadays will +be surprising. There were reasons why such should be the case. Judge +Bates, of Missouri, who was Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, had +long been Gamble's law partner and most intimate friend. He never was +more than nominally a Republican. Another member of the Cabinet was +Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who had been a resident of Missouri, +and was a brother of General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. +General Blair had been the leader of the Missouri emancipationists, +but had turned against them. For his face-about there were, at least, +two intelligible reasons. One was that in the quarrel between him and +Frémont the most of his former followers had sided with Frémont. That +was enough to sour him against them. The other was a very natural +desire to be solid with the administration at Washington, which, as +elsewhere shown, was not then actively Anti-Slavery. It did not want +the question of slavery agitated, especially in the border slave +States.</p> + +<p>The Blairs were a clan as well as a family. The quarrel of one was the +quarrel of all, and the Missouri Radicals had no more effective +antagonist than the old Washington editor and politician, Francis P. +Blair, Sr., the family's head, who was so intimate <!-- Page 162 --><a name="Page_162"></a>with the President +that it was understood he could at any time enter the White House by +the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>The writer was once a member of a delegation of Missouri "Charcoals" +that went to Washington to see the President. An hour was set for the +interview, and we were promptly at the door of the President's +chamber, where we were kept waiting for a considerable time. At last +the door opened, but before we could enter, out stepped a little old +man who tripped away very lightly for one of his years. That little +old man was Francis P. Blair, Sr., and we knew that we had been +forestalled. The President received us politely and patiently listened +to what we had to say, but our mission was fruitless.</p> + +<p>The Radicals of Missouri sent deputation after deputation to the White +House, and got nothing they wanted. The Conservatives never sent a +deputation, and got all they wanted. They had advocates at the +President's elbows all the time.</p> + +<p>With both State and Federal administrations against them, the Missouri +Charcoals may be regarded as foolhardy in persisting in the fight they +made for the deliverance of their State from slavery. They did +persist, however, and with such success in propagating their views +that Governor Gamble and the other Conservative leaders decided that +heroic measures to hold them in check were necessary. He undertook to +cut the ground from under their feet. The old convention that had +killed emancipation "at the first pop," or as much of it as was in +existence, was called together by the Governor, who appealed to it to +take such action as would <!-- Page 163 --><a name="Page_163"></a>quiet agitation on the slavery question. +Accordingly, it proceeded to enact what was called an emancipation +ordinance. The trouble with it was that it emancipated nobody. It +provided for the liberation of part of the slaves at a distant future +day, allowing the rest to remain as they were. The Radicals simply +laughed at the measure. They pronounced it a snare and a fraud, and +went right on with their work for unconditional freedom, and the +slave-owners continued to hold their human property the same as +before.</p> + +<p>The Conservatives, however, had not exhausted their resources. They +sought to secure the military as well as the civil control. On the +assurance that he could maintain peace and order, Governor Gamble was +given authority by the President to recruit an army of State troops, +which, although equipped and paid out of the national treasury, he was +to officer and direct. The organization was entrusted to General John +M. Scofield, a resident of Missouri, and one of the Governor's +friends.</p> + +<p>The political advantage to the Conservatives of exercising military +control at such a time is obvious enough. But at first there was an +obstruction in the person of General Samuel R. Curtis, the Federal +commander of the district, who was not a man to waive his superior +prerogative at a time when martial law prevailed, and who was, +besides, openly in sympathy with the Radicals. They got not only +protection from him, but about all the patronage he had to give. +Pretty soon it was discovered that active efforts for the removal of +Curtis were in progress. Charges of irregularities—afterwards shown +<!-- Page 164 --><a name="Page_164"></a>to be without any foundation—were circulated against him. Indignant +because of such injustice to their friend, the Radicals were further +incensed when they learned that the scheme was to make Scofield his +successor.</p> + +<p>Against General Scofield, as a gentleman and soldier, they had nothing +to say; but his affiliation with their opponents made him obnoxious to +them, and they sent a vigorous protest against his appointment to the +President. The proposed change, however, was made, and the inevitable +disagreement between the new commander and the Radicals quickly +developed.</p> + +<p>Scofield's administration was not successful. The principal cause of +failure was the adoption of Governor Gamble's policy of trying to run +the State without the help of Federal troops. They were pretty much +all sent away, and an elaborate plan for substituting an "enrolled +militia" was put in operation. Here was an opportunity of which the +Rebels were quick to take advantage. They had a wholesome regard for +United States soldiers, particularly under Curtis, who at Pea Ridge +had given them the worst drubbing they ever received west of the +Mississippi, but they cared little for "Gamble's militia," into which +a good many of their friends were mustered, and when the pressure of +Curtis's strong hand was removed they at once aroused to pernicious +activity.</p> + +<p>At this time it can be safely said that nowhere, outside of hell, was +there such a horrible condition as prevailed in Missouri. Singly and +in squads a good many of Price's men returned from the South, and +<!-- Page 165 --><a name="Page_165"></a>with local sympathizers forming guerrilla bands under such leaders as +"Bill" Anderson, Poindexter, Jackson, and Quantrell, soon had +practical possession of the greater part of the State. The Radicals +were the principal sufferers. Conservatives, except by the occasional +loss of property, were rarely molested. Between them and the Rebels +there was often an agreement for mutual protection—in fact, it was +not always easy to draw the line between them,—but the Charcoals, +especially if they were "Dutchmen," could look for no compassion. They +were shot down in their fields. They were called to their doors at +night and there dispatched. Their houses were burned and their stock +stolen. Many families of comparative wealth and refinement, including +women and children, because of the insecurity of their homes, slept in +the woods for weeks and months. The Radicals were not always fortunate +enough to escape bodily torture. Having captured one of the best known +among them, an old man and a civilian, some of "Bill" Anderson's men +set him up against the wall of his house as a target for pistol +practice. Their play consisted in seeing how near they could put their +shots without hitting, and this amusement they kept up while his wife +was running about in an effort to raise the amount of money that was +demanded for his ransom.</p> + +<p>So successful were the Rebel bands at this time that Missouri was not +large enough to hold them. One of them, led by Quantrell, crossed the +Kansas line, captured the city of Lawrence, and butchered two hundred +of its peaceable inhabitants, while the <!-- Page 166 --><a name="Page_166"></a>border towns and cities of +Iowa and Illinois were greatly alarmed for their safety.</p> + +<p>So intolerable did the situation become, that the Radicals from all +parts of the State met in conference and decided to send a delegation +to ask Mr. Lincoln to change the department commander, in the hope +that it would bring a change of policy.</p> + +<p>It is to be presumed that no President was ever confronted with such a +motley crowd of visitors as the members of that delegation—between +seventy and eighty in number—as they formed in line around three +sides of the East Room in the White House. Their garments were a +sight! Some of the men were in full military dress and some in +civilian clothes, but the costumes of a majority were a mixture of +both kinds, just as accident had arranged it, and pretty much all +showed evidences of hard usage. One of the most forward of the +delegates had neither cuffs nor collar, and his shirt had manifestly +not been near a laundry for a long time. He apologized to the +President for his appearance, saying that he had been sleeping in the +woods where toilet accommodations were very indifferent. Two or three +of the men bore marks of battle with the guerrillas, in patched-up +faces, and one of them carried an arm that had been disabled by a gun +shot in a red handkerchief sling. In speaking of these visitors, the +President afterwards jocularly referred to them as "those crackerjacks +from Missouri."</p> + +<p>A formal address was presented, the principal point being that, as the +Missouri Unionists had furnished many thousand recruits to the Federal +Army, they had a right to look to the Government for <!-- Page 167 --><a name="Page_167"></a>soldiers to +assist in protecting their families and their property. And here it +will do no harm to state that, notwithstanding the heavy drain made by +the Confederacy, Missouri, during the war, furnished 109,000 men to +the national army.</p> + +<p>After their formal address had been presented to the President, the +members of the delegation tackled him, one after the other, as the +spirit moved them, and it can truthfully be said that in some of the +bouts that ensued he did not come out "first best." He admitted as +much when, afterwards referring to this meeting, he spoke of the +Missouri Radicals as "the unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with +in a discussion."</p> + +<p>The conclusion of the interview was attended with an unexpected +incident. The recognized leading spokesman of the Missourians was the +Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, who was made Chief Justice of the +Court of Claims at Washington by Grant, when he became President. He +was a very forcible speaker. As Mr. Lincoln indicated by rising from +his seat that the conference was at an end, Mr. Drake stepped forward +and in well-chosen words thanked him for the lengthy and courteous +hearing he had given his visitors, and in their names bade him +good-by. Then he started for the door, but something seemed to arrest +him. Turning sharply to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Mr. President, we are +about to return to our homes. Many of these men before you live where +rebel sentiments prevail and where they are surrounded by deadly +enemies. They return at the risk of their lives, and let me tell you +that if any of their lives are sacrificed by reason of <!-- Page 168 --><a name="Page_168"></a>the military +administration you maintain in Missouri, their blood will be upon your +garments and not upon ours."</p> + +<p>The President, evidently greatly surprised, made no oral reply. +Instead of speaking he raised his handkerchief to his eyes. Seeing +that he was weeping, the delegates quietly and quickly filed out, +leaving Mr. Lincoln with his face still concealed.</p> + +<p>The President denied the delegation's request, although his formal +decision was not announced for several days, and its members returned +to their homes, when fortunate enough to have them, sorely +disappointed.</p> + +<p>It is here well enough to state that two or three months later the +President relieved Scofield from his Missouri command and sent him to +the front in the South, much to the betterment of his military +reputation, and doubtless to his own personal gratification. Rosecrans +was made his successor. Among the earliest things he did was the +bringing into the State of a considerable force of Federal troops +under Generals Pleasanton and A.J. Smith. These were sent through the +State. The effect was almost magical. Some of the guerrilla bands went +South to join Price, but the most of them dissolved and disappeared. +Their members, doubtless, went back to their former occupations, and +that was the last of them. Missouri was pacified.</p> + +<p>But were the Missouri Radicals so far disheartened by their rebuffs +from the President that they gave up the fight? Not a bit of it. There +was a tribunal in some respects higher than the President, and to that +they resolved to go. The National Republican <!-- Page 169 --><a name="Page_169"></a>Convention to nominate a +successor to Mr. Lincoln was approaching, and they decided to appeal +to it in a way that would compel a decision between them and the +President. They appointed a delegation to the convention, which they +instructed for General Grant. The Claybanks also appointed a +delegation, which they instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and thus the issue +was made. The convention, although nominating Mr. Lincoln by a vote +that, outside of Missouri's, was unanimous, admitted the Charcoals and +excluded the Claybanks by the remarkable vote of four hundred and +forty to four.</p> + +<p>While of no special consequence, some rather humorous experiences in +connection with the events just spoken of may not be lacking in +interest or altogether out of place in a work like this.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Missouri for the National Republican Convention, which +was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864, the Radical delegates, including +the writer, decided to go by way of Washington and call upon the +President, thinking that, as there was a contest ahead with his +professed Missouri supporters, a better understanding with him might +be of advantage. As they were pledged to vote for another man, such a +proceeding on their part was certainly somewhat audacious; +nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln received us graciously and listened +patiently to what we had to say.</p> + +<p>"Mr. President," said one of the delegates, "if you were to go out to +Missouri you would find your best friends as well as practically all +the good Republicans of the State on our side of the dividing line."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 170 --><a name="Page_170"></a>Well," remarked the President very deliberately, "in speaking of +dividing lines, the situation in Missouri recalls the story of the old +man who had an unruly sow and pigs. One day, when they escaped from +their enclosure and disappeared, he called his boys and started out to +hunt the runaways. Up one side of the creek they went; but while they +discovered plenty of tracks and rootings, they found no hogs. 'Now let +us go over to the other side of the creek,' said the old gentleman; +but the result was the same—many signs but no pigs. 'Confound those +swine!' exclaimed the old man, 'they root and root on both sides, but +it's mighty hard to find them on either.'"</p> + +<p>We, of course, were left to make the application to ourselves, and +that was all the satisfaction we got.</p> + +<p>Being greatly elated over our victory in the convention, and thinking +it settled some, if not all, disputed points, we decided to return by +way of Washington and again call on the President. We wanted to come +to some sort of understanding with him. As we had just voted against +his nomination such a step may have been more audacious than our +previous action. But, for all that, a pretty late hour on the night of +the convention found us at the door of the President's room, seeking +an interview that had been promised us in answer to a telegram.</p> + +<p>Now, we had in our delegation a gentleman who was accustomed to imbibe +somewhat freely on occasions like that. He had pushed himself to the +front, and, when the door opened for us, in he rushed shouting: "Mr. +President! Mr. President! <!-- Page 171 --><a name="Page_171"></a>Mr. President! we have found that old sow +and pigs for you!"</p> + +<p>The President, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, +looked somewhat startled at first; but as he evidently recalled the +illustration he had given to us, and which was being returned to him, +a broad grin went over his face, although nothing further was said +about the swine. But the incident was disastrous to our business. We +were relying on a prominent St. Louis lawyer, who was with us, to +present our case in a calm and impressive way; but he, taking offense +at being so unceremoniously forestalled, kept his intended speech to +himself. His dignity was hurt, and he had nothing to say. In fact, he +walked away and left us. The result was that our claims were rather +lamely presented, except by the first speaker, and we left the +official presence not a little chagrined and with no favorable +assurance having been obtained.</p> + +<p>By all recognized party rules, when the nominating convention had +given the Missouri Radicals the stamp of regularity, the President was +bound to prefer them in the bestowal of patronage. He did nothing of +the kind. At his death, practically all of the offices in Missouri +that were under his control were held by Claybanks. These men became +enthusiastic supporters of Andrew Johnson, and, at the end of his +term, to a man went over to the Democratic party, of which their +leader, General Blair, was soon made, on the ticket with Horatio +Seymour, the Vice-Presidential candidate. At Lincoln's death, the +Claybanks, as an organization, went out of business.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 172 --><a name="Page_172"></a>Very different was the treatment the Charcoals received at the hands +of General Grant when he became President. He made the leader of the +anti-Scofield delegation to Washington Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims. He made two or three other leading Missouri Radicals foreign +ministers and officially remembered many of the rest of them. He had +been a Missourian, and it was well known that he was in sympathy with +the Radicals in their fight with Lincoln.</p> + +<p>Although the Missouri Radicals did not favor Mr. Lincoln's +candidature, with the exception of a few supporters of Frémont, they +gave him their loyal support at the polls, and through this a large +majority in the State. They acted towards him much more cordially than +he ever acted toward them.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Lincoln, in antagonizing the Missouri Free Soilers, acted +otherwise than from the most conscientious impulses the writer does +not for a moment believe. He opposed them because he disapproved of +their views and policy. He said so most distinctly on one occasion. +Certain German societies of St. Louis, having adopted a set of +resolutions, entrusted them to James Taussig, a leading lawyer of that +city, to present to the President in person. Mr. Taussig's report of +the results of a two hours' interview can be found in several of Mr. +Lincoln's biographies. One passage from the report is here given +because it clearly shows Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the Missouri +problem.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The President," says Mr. Taussig, "said that the Union men in + Missouri who are in favor of gradual <!-- Page 173 --><a name="Page_173"></a>emancipation, represented + his views better than those who are in favor of immediate + emancipation. In explanation of his views on this subject the + President said that in his speeches he had frequently used as an + illustration the case of a man who had an excrescence on the back + of his neck, the removal of which in one operation would result in + the death of the patient, while tinkering it off by degrees would + preserve life."</p> + +<p> "Although sorely tempted," continues Mr. Taussig, "I did not reply + with the illustration of the dog whose tail was amputated by + inches, but confined myself to arguments. The President announced + clearly that, so far as he was at present advised, the Radicals in + Missouri had no right to consider themselves the representatives + of his views on the subject of emancipation in that State."</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing interview, it is well enough to state, was long after +the issuance of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.</p> + +<p>In addition to carrying the State for Mr. Lincoln, the Missouri +Radicals carried it for themselves. They elected a constitutional +convention that promptly passed an unconditional freedom ordinance. +And thus terminated what is certainly one of the most notable contests +in our political history, bringing about, as it did, the triumph of a +reform of unquestionable value to civilization and humanity, which was +accomplished by men working without patronage or other outside help, +with no pecuniary interest at stake, and no incentive beyond the +principle involved.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h2><!-- Page 174 --><a name="Page_174"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>MISSOURI—<i>Continued</i></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Here follows an extract from the published proceedings of the National +Republican Convention of 1864, in which Mr. Lincoln was renominated.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"When that State [Missouri] was called, Mr. J.F. Hume addressed + the convention as follows:</p> + +<p> "'It is a matter of great regret that we differ from the majority + of the convention that has been so kind to the Radicals of + Missouri, but we came here instructed. We represent those who are + behind us at home, and we recognize the right of instruction and + intend to obey our instruction; but, in doing so, we declare + emphatically that we are with the Union party of the nation, and + we intend to fight the battle through to the end with it, and + assist in carrying it to victory. We will support your nominees be + they whom they may. I will read the resolution adopted by the + convention that sent us here.'"</p> + +<p> [Here resolution of instruction was read.]</p> + +<p> "'Mr. President, in the spirit of that resolution I cast the + twenty-two votes of Missouri for them an who stands at the head of + the fighting Radicals of the nation—General U.S. Grant.'"</p></div> + +<p>The contention between the Missouri Radical and Conservative +delegations was thrashed out before <!-- Page 175 --><a name="Page_175"></a>the committee on delegates, at an +evening session. Judge Samuel M. Breckenridge, of St. Louis, sustained +the cause of the Conservatives in a very ingenious argument, while the +writer spoke for the Radicals. The result was very satisfactory to the +latter, being, with the exception of one vote for compromise, a +unanimous decision in their favor. That decision was sustained by the +convention in its next day's session by a vote of four hundred and +forty to four.</p> + +<p>Anticipating that the subject would be discussed on the floor of the +convention,—which was not the case, however,—I asked a very eloquent +St. Louis lawyer to take my place as chairman of the Radical +delegation and conduct the debate on the Radical side. He declined. I +then went to three or four Congressmen who were members of the Radical +delegation and made the same appeal to each one of them. All declined. +I suspected at the time that apprehension that a vote for anybody else +would be hissed by Lincoln's friends, had something to do with their +reticence. I had no such apprehension. I did not believe there was +anybody in that convention who would dare to hiss the name of Grant. +If Grant had been a candidate before the convention he would have been +nominated.</p> + +<p>When, as chairman of my delegation, I pronounced his name as +Missouri's choice I remained on my feet for fully a minute while a +dead silence prevailed. Meanwhile all eyes were turned upon me. Then +came a clap from a single pair of hands, being the expression of a +Missouri delegate. Others followed, both inside and outside of the +delegation, <!-- Page 176 --><a name="Page_176"></a>increasing until there was quite a demonstration. When +the clamor had subsided I made the next move according to the +programme agreed upon, and the incident was closed.</p> + +<p>And here it can do no harm to state that General Grant knew that he +was to receive the vote of the Missouri Radicals if they were admitted +to the convention—the newspapers having generally published the +fact—and did not decline the intended compliment. Grant lived in +Missouri for a considerable period, married there, and was on most +friendly terms with the Radical leaders, many of whom he generously +remembered when he got to be President. For their action in voting for +Grant, the Missouri Radical delegates were sharply criticised at the +time, on the alleged ground that they secured admission to the +convention from Lincoln's supporters by concealing the fact—or at +least not revealing it—that they intended to vote for somebody else. +The fact, however, is that there was not a person in the convention +who did not from the first understand where they stood, and exactly +what they intended to do. Their Conservative contestants had +distributed a leaflet, intended as an appeal to the Lincoln men, +setting forth the instructions to both delegations. Instead of the +openly avowed opposition of the Radicals to Mr. Lincoln's nomination +being an impediment in their way, it strengthened them with the +convention, which, notwithstanding its seeming harmony in his support, +contained many delegates who would very much have preferred nominating +somebody else; but who, for lack of organized opposition, were +compelled to vote for him. A sufficient <!-- Page 177 --><a name="Page_177"></a>evidence of that fact was the +presence in the convention of a large number of Congressmen whose +antagonism to the President was notorious. An incident that strikingly +illustrated Congressional sentiment toward the President at that time, +is given in the <i>Life of Lincoln</i>, by Isaac N. Arnold, then a member +of Congress from Illinois. A Pennsylvanian asked Thaddeus Stevens, the +Republican Congressional leader, to introduce him to "a member of +Congress who was friendly to Mr. Lincoln's renomination." Thereupon +Stevens took him to Arnold, saying: "Here is a man who wants to find a +Lincoln member of Congress, and as you are the only one I know of I +bring him to you."</p> + +<p>The same feeling largely prevailed among leading Republicans outside +of Congress. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York <i>Times</i>, in his <i>Life +of Lincoln</i>, says that at that time "nearly all the original +Abolitionists and many of the more decidedly Anti-Slavery members of +the Republican party were dissatisfied with the President." More +explicit testimony is the statement, in his <i>Political Recollections</i>, +of George W. Julian, for many years a leading member of Congress from +Indiana. He says:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was nearly unanimous, only the + State of Missouri opposing him, but of the more earnest and + thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not + more than one in ten really favored it. It was not only very + distasteful to a large majority of Congress, but to many of the + more prominent men of the party throughout the country."</p></div> + +<p>The writer had an opportunity of witnessing a <!-- Page 178 --><a name="Page_178"></a>peculiar manifestation +of the feeling that has just been spoken of. He attended a conference +of radical Anti-Slavery people that was held in a parlor of one of the +old Pennsylvania Avenue hotels in Washington, a few months before the +nominating convention. A number of well-known politicians were +present, but probably the most prominent was Horace Greeley. The +writer had never before seen the great editor, and was considerably +amused by his unconventional independence on that occasion. He +occupied an easy chair with a high back. Having given his views at +considerable length, he laid his head back on its support and +peacefully went to sleep; but the half-hour lost in slumber did not +prevent him from joining vigorously in the discussion that was going +on as soon as he awoke.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be but one sentiment on that occasion. All entertained +the opinion that, owing to Mr. Lincoln's peculiar views on +reconstruction, and especially his manifest inclination to postpone +actual freedom for the negro to remote periods, and other "unhappy +idiosyncrasies," as one of the speakers expressed it, his re-election +involved the danger of a compromise that would leave the root of +slavery in the soil, and hence his nomination by the Republicans +should be opposed. Chase was clearly the choice of those present, but +no one had a plan to propose, and, while some committees were +appointed, I never heard anything more of the matter. Two or three of +those present on that occasion were in the nominating convention and +quietly voted with the majority for Mr. Lincoln. The writer was <!-- Page 179 --><a name="Page_179"></a>the +only one in both gatherings that maintained his consistency.</p> + +<p>All this, it is well enough to remember, was long after the +President's Emancipation Proclamation had appeared.</p> + +<p>There was, however, another manifestation of the antagonism spoken of +which the public, for some reason, never seemed to "get on to," that +at one time threatened very serious consequences, and which, if it had +gone a little farther, might have materially changed the history of +the country. That was a movement, after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to +compel him to retire from the ticket, or to confront him with a strong +independent Republican candidate. According to Messrs. Nicolay and +Hay, Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries and his biographers, the +movement started in New York City and had its ramifications in many +parts of the country. One meeting was held at the residence of David +Dudley Field, and was attended by such men as George William Curtis, +Noyes, Wilkes, Opdyke, Horace Greeley, and some twenty-five others. In +the movement were such prominent people as Charles Sumner, of +Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. One of the men favorable +to the proposition was Governor Andrew of Massachusetts. "He," says +his biographer, Peleg W. Chandler, "was very busy in the movement in +1864 to displace the President." "The secrecy," he adds, "with which +this branch of the Republican politics of that year has been ever +since enveloped is something marvelous; there were so many concerned +in it. When it all comes out, if it ever does, <!-- Page 180 --><a name="Page_180"></a>it will make a curious +page in the history of the time." The signal for the abandonment of +the movement, according to Mr. Chandler, was given by Mr. Chase.</p> + +<p>Almost at the beginning of the movement the <i>Missouri Democrat</i>, +doubtless because of its supposed opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was +approached on the subject. If the statements made to it were anywhere +near correct, the conspiracy, as it might be called, had the +countenance of a surprisingly great number of weighty Republicans. The +<i>Democrat</i> declined to become a party to the proposed insurrection. It +held that after what had occurred in the Baltimore convention, it +could not consistently and honorably do so.</p> + +<p>There was another reason why it stood aloof. Before the nomination it +was, naturally enough, looking out for some one who might be urged as +a suitable competitor for Mr. Lincoln's place. Andrew Johnson, of +Tennessee, was then quite popular with a good many people of radical +views. The writer prepared an article discussing his availability as +presidential timber and suggested him as a good man for the +nomination. The article appeared as a leader in the <i>Democrat</i>, and +was followed by others in the same vein. The suggestion attracted +attention and led to a good deal of newspaper discussion. Herein we +have, according to the writer's opinion, the leading cause of +Johnson's nomination for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, he was on +the ticket with Lincoln, and the <i>Democrat</i> could not very well go +back on its own man.</p> + +<p>The new departure, as the proposition for another <!-- Page 181 --><a name="Page_181"></a>Republican +candidate in case Mr. Lincoln resolved to stick might be called, that +appeared so formidable at one time, faded away without the public +knowing anything of its existence. The reason was that it had no +candidate. It had relied on Chase, knowing the unfriendliness there +was between him and the President, but Chase said "No," and that was +the end of it.</p> + +<p>The nomination of Mr. Chase for the Chief Justiceship has always been +regarded as an act of great magnanimity on Mr. Lincoln's part, as well +as a clear perception of merit. It was doubtless all that, but the +actions of the two men at this time certainly make out a case of +striking coincidence. Such things rarely come by accident.</p> + +<p>From what has been stated, it will be seen that the Missouri Radicals +were by no means alone in their opposition to the President's +nomination, for which they are so sharply taken to task by some of his +biographers and eulogists. They had plenty of company, the only +difference being that they stood out in the open while the others +acted covertly.</p> + +<p>The Missouri Germans, who mostly approved the candidature of Frémont, +and some of whom refused to vote for Lincoln, have been particularly +assailed. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, in their Lincoln biography, even go +so far as to attack them on the ground of their religious, or rather +anti-religious, beliefs, calling them "materialist Missourians," +"Missouri agnostics," etc., etc.</p> + +<p>Now, after having lived among the Missouri Germans at the time of our +civil troubles, the writer is impelled to say a few words in their +behalf. He <!-- Page 182 --><a name="Page_182"></a>does not hesitate to say that, in his opinion, there was +no body of men of equal numerical strength in this country to whom, at +that crisis, the Government and country had cause to feel under +greater obligation, and justice would require its acknowledgment at +this time. But for them the enemies of the Union would have captured +the city of St. Louis with its great Government arsenal, and with the +arms and ammunition thus secured would have overrun both the States of +Missouri and Kansas. A large preponderance of the American-born +citizens of St. Louis were Rebels. The Union people of that city who +saved the day, were principally the "Dutch," as they were called.</p> + +<p>A large army was needed at that point to protect the Government's +interests, when it had practically no available forces. There was no +law under which it could be organized on the spot. No man could be +made to serve. No pay for service was assured, or even promised. The +army, however, was created by the voluntary and patriotic action of +its members. Nearly a dozen full regiments were organized and +equipped. Nine tenths of their members were Germans. They did not wait +for hostilities to begin. Foreseeing the emergency near at hand, they +organized into companies and regiments, and put themselves on a war +footing before a blow had been struck or a shot had been fired. They +met by night to drill in factory lofts, in recreation halls, and in +whatever other places were most available, the words of command being +generally delivered in German. The writer has a lively recollection of +the difficulties involved in trying to learn military evolutions <!-- Page 183 --><a name="Page_183"></a>from +instructors speaking a language he did not understand.</p> + +<p>Many of the Germans of Missouri had seen service in the Old World. +They had served under Sigel in the struggle of 1848. They found +themselves under Sigel again. It was with the step and bearing of +veterans that they marched (the writer was an eye-witness) in May of +1861, only a few days after Sumter had been fired on, to open the +military ball in the West at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis.</p> + +<p>The same people went with Lyon to the State capital, from which the +Rebel officials were driven, never to return. They were with Lyon at +Wilson's Creek, and with him many of them laid down their lives on +that bloody field. They were wherever hard fighting was to be done in +that part of the country. The writer believes he is correct in saying +they furnished more men to the Government's service than any other +numerically equal body of citizens. So large was their representation +in the Union's forces in that region, that the Rebels were accustomed +to speak of the Union soldiers as "the Dutch."</p> + +<p>The fact that the Germans were fighting for an adopted government +makes their loyalty more conspicuous. What they did was not from a +love of war, but because they were Abolitionists. They were opposed to +slavery. They owned no slaves. They wanted the Government sustained, +because they believed that meant the end of slaveholding. They +supported Frémont largely because of his freedom proclamation.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 184 --><a name="Page_184"></a>And here the writer, before closing his work, wants to say something +about Frémont. He believes no man in this country was made the victim +of greater injustice than he was.</p> + +<p>It has always been the opinion of the writer that, if Frémont had been +permitted to take his own way in his Western command a little longer, +he would have achieved a brilliant military success. He was a weak man +in some respects, being over fond of dress parade. The financial +management of his department was bad, or, rather, very careless. Of +these shortcomings, which were considerably misrepresented and +exaggerated, Frémont's enemies took advantage, and succeeded in +effecting his overthrow in the Western Department. But, +notwithstanding his admitted failings, he gave evidence of military +ability. He showed that he possessed both physical and moral courage, +and he knew how to plan a campaign. He undoubtedly formulated the +movement that resulted in the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry in +Tennessee, taking the initial steps, but of which Halleck got the +credit. He was removed from command when in the field, and almost on +the eve of battle. He had an enthusiastic army and the prospect of a +decisive victory. His recall gave up nearly the whole of Missouri to +the enemy, and was one of the causes of complaint that the Missouri +Unionists had against the National Administration.</p> + +<p>Not long afterwards, with no more than even chances, Frémont defeated +Stonewall Jackson in Virginia—at Cross Keys—which was more than any +of the other Union generals then in that department <!-- Page 185 --><a name="Page_185"></a>could do. His +prompt removal made it sure that he should not do it again.</p> + +<p>It was the misfortune of Frémont that his independence caused him to +clash with selfish interests, and he was sacrificed. He was selected +for the Trans-Mississippi command by the Blairs, evidently with the +expectation that he would bend to their wishes. He soon showed that he +was his own master, and the trouble began. The Union people of his +department were mostly with him, but the Blairs had control of the +administration in Washington.</p> + +<p>As for his freedom proclamation, it was, to a certain extent, an act +of insubordination, but it was right in principle and sound in policy. +Its adoption by the General Government would have saved four years of +contention and turmoil in Missouri, spent in upholding a tottering +institution that was doomed from the first shot of the Rebellion. The +President, however, for reasons elsewhere explained, did not at that +time want slavery interfered with.</p> + +<p>The story of Frémont's fall is best told by Whittier in four lines:</p> + +<p class="poem">"Thy error, Frémont, simply was to act<br /> +A brave man's part without the statesman's tact,<br /> +And, taking counsel but of common-sense,<br /> +To strike at cause as well as consequence."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h2><!-- Page 186 --><a name="Page_186"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>SOME ABOLITION LEADERS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The references that have been made to General Frank P. Blair of +Missouri have not been complimentary to that individual. They would +indicate on the part of the writer no very exalted admiration for or +estimate of the man. In that particular they are not altogether just. +The stormy period of the Rebellion brought out few more picturesque +figures than his, or in some respects more admirable characters. There +is no question that, but for the efforts of Blair, the Rebels would +have effected the capture of St. Louis at the beginning of the war, to +be followed by the at least temporary control of the entire State of +Missouri, and possibly of Kansas as well. To that end preparations had +been carefully and skillfully made. The leader in the movement was +none other than Missouri's Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who was +justly looked upon as one of the most consummate and accomplished +schemers of the time. He was a Rebel from head to foot. He had taken +office with the deliberate purpose of swinging his State into the +Confederate column, and without regard to the wishes of the majority +of the people whom he officially represented. He was supported by a +sympathetic corps <!-- Page 187 --><a name="Page_187"></a>of official assistants, including a majority of the +Legislature of his State, who gave him whatever legislation he wanted. +Every advantage seemed to be on his side. He would undoubtedly have +succeeded but for the opposition of Blair. In him he encountered an +equal in cunning, and more than a match in courage and energy.</p> + +<p>When the Governor and his helpers were busy raising an army pursuant +to the conditions of a law that had been enacted for the purpose, and +which hampered their operations, Blair went ahead in raising and +equipping an army on the other side without the slightest regard to +law. The presence or absence of a statute did not trouble him in the +least. He called on the Unionists to organize and arm, and when a +sufficient force, composed in greater part of loyal Germans, had +responded he struck the first blow. In a legal aspect the whole +proceeding was irregular, but it was none the less effective.</p> + +<p>When the Governor's army was quietly encamped on the outskirts of St. +Louis, for the capture and occupancy of which it was getting ready, it +found itself unexpectedly surrounded by a superior force, and its +surrender was demanded in a way that admitted of no denial. The writer +was present on the occasion. From a convenient eminence he witnessed +the whole proceeding. When Jackson's men—the rendezvous had in honor +of his Excellency the Governor been named Camp Jackson—were enjoying +themselves on a pleasant summer's day, sleeping on the grass, playing +cards, or escorting their lady friends and other visitors about the +grounds, suddenly they realized that their position was <!-- Page 188 --><a name="Page_188"></a>commanded by +hostile guns. Pointing downward from higher ground not far off were +nearly a score of frowning cannons, behind which stood men with +burning fuses. I had watched the Union forces as they approached. At +the foot of the hill that hid them from the camp they paused for a few +moments, and then up the hill went the horses that were dragging the +cannons at a run. They were wheeled when the summit was reached, and +the guns thrown into position. Everything was ready for action. At the +same time large bodies of armed men, their arms glittering in the +sunlight, were seen approaching from all sides on the double quick. +The Rebels were completely entrapped, and their immediate capitulation +was a thing of course. The credit for the manoeuvres of the day was +given to Captain—afterwards General—Nathaniel Lyon, who was in +immediate command of the Unionists, but everybody understood that the +real leader, as well as instigator, of the movement was Blair.</p> + +<p>Blair had been the admitted leader of the Missouri Abolitionists. He +was as radical as any man among them. One day he stopped me on the +street for the purpose of thanking me for a paper I had contributed to +the <i>Missouri Democrat</i>, in which I had favored what was practically +immediate emancipation in Missouri. He said that was the right kind of +talk, and what we had to come to. I felt greatly flattered, because +there was nothing in the article that disclosed its authorship, and +Mr. Blair had taken the trouble to inquire about it.</p> + +<p>Blair turned against the Missouri Abolitionists when a decided +majority of them turned against <!-- Page 189 --><a name="Page_189"></a>him in his quarrel with Frémont. They +indorsed Frémont's emancipation proclamation, which the President, at +Blair's instigation, it was charged at the time, revoked.</p> + +<p>Blair was a man not only of strong ambition but of arbitrary +temperament. He could not tolerate the idea of a newcomer pre-empting +what he had considered his premises. If he could not rule he was ready +to ruin. That disposition accorded with both his mental and physical +make-up. Bodily he was a bundle of bones and nerves without a particle +of surplus flesh. His hair was red, his complexion was sandy, and his +eyes, when he was excited and angry, had a baleful expression that led +some one in my presence on a certain occasion to speak of them as +"brush-heaps afire."</p> + +<p>He was not an eloquent man, although a ready and frequent public +speaker. His voice was not musical. His strong forte was invective. He +was nearly always denouncing somebody. Apparently, he was never so +happy as when making another miserable. Sometimes his personal +allusions were very broad. He was accustomed in his speeches to refer +to one of Missouri's United States Senators as "that lop-eared +vulgarian." That he was not almost all the time in personal +difficulties was due to the fact that he was known to be a man of +exceptional courage. He was a born fighter. Physically I think he was +the bravest man I ever knew. I witnessed several manifestations of his +fearlessness, but one particularly impressed me.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of the Camp Jackson affair. Although the people in the +Rebel encampment surrendered <!-- Page 190 --><a name="Page_190"></a>without a blow, the incident was +attended with considerable bloodshed. A mob of Rebel sympathizers, +consisting largely of half-grown boys—I was in the midst of the +throng at the time—with their pistols opened fire on a German Union +regiment and killed several of its men. The troops, in return, poured +a volley into the crowd of spectators from which the shots had come, +killing or wounding over forty persons, the most of them, as is usual +in such cases, being inoffensive onlookers. A man standing beside me +and, like myself, a spectator, had the top of one ear clipped off by a +Minié ball as cleanly as if it had been done with a knife. I found +when, soon afterwards, I reached the business center of the city, +where the Rebel element then largely predominated, that the story of +the tragedy had swelled the number of the victims to one thousand. +Intense excitement and the most furious indignation prevailed. +Hundreds of men, with flaming faces, were swearing the most dreadful +oaths that they would shoot Frank Blair, whom they seemed to regard as +wholly responsible, on sight. Many of them were flourishing pistols in +confirmation of their bloody purpose. Just then the attention of the +crowd was drawn to an unusual spectacle. Down Fourth Street, which was +then the leading business avenue of St. Louis, and at that time +densely packed with the excited people, came the Union soldiers with +the prisoners from Camp Jackson on their way to the United States +Arsenal grounds. At the head of the procession marched the men of the +First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for +immediate service, and at their head—the <!-- Page 191 --><a name="Page_191"></a>only mounted man in the +regiment, according to my recollection—rode their Colonel, who was +Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more +conspicuous. No better target could have been offered. I watched the +audacious man, expecting to hear a shot at any moment from the +sidewalk, or from a window of one of the high buildings lining the +street, and to see him topple from his saddle. He understood very well +the danger he was braving. He knew that in that throng, where +everybody was armed, there were hundreds toying with the triggers of +their guns, and trying to muster sufficient courage to shoot him down. +Slowly, and as calmly as if on ordinary dress parade, he led the way +until he passed out of sight. I thought then, and still think, it was +the pluckiest thing I ever witnessed.</p> + +<p>The effect of the breaking up and capture of Camp Jackson was +something wonderful. Up to that time, the Rebels of St. Louis and +their sympathizers had been very demonstrative. In portions of the +city the Rebel cockade, which was a red rosette pinned to the side of +the hat, was conspicuous, and any one not displaying that decoration +was in danger of having his hat smashed upon his head. After Camp +Jackson's surrender, I never saw a Rebel cockade openly worn in St. +Louis.</p> + +<p>At the same time there was an extensive shifting of positions. A good +many men of prominence and wealth, who had been leaning over towards +the South, suddenly straightened up, and not a few of them showed a +strong inclination the other way. Some of the evolutions they executed +were amusing. <!-- Page 192 --><a name="Page_192"></a>One of the first to discuss with the writer the Union +defeat at Bull Run was a former United States Government official. He +was tremendously excited and correspondingly exultant. After +describing how the Southerners had vanquished the Government's men, +and particularly how the South Carolina "black horse" had ridden them +down in deadly slaughter, he cried out, "That's the way we will give +it to you fellows all the time."</p> + +<p>Not very long afterwards General Grant, having entered Tennessee, and +captured Fort Donelson, and many prisoners, was about to visit St. +Louis, and the leading Unionists there decided to give him a grand +reception and an elaborate dinner. Money had to be raised, and among +those I met who were soliciting it was my ex-Government-official +friend. He was fully as happy as he had been before, when the Fort +Donelson affair was alluded to. "Didn't we give it to those fellows +down there?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Out in western Missouri was a young lawyer of great ambition and +considerable promise. He was afterwards a member of Congress. Like a +good many others he was at first puzzled to know what course to take. +In his dilemma he concluded to consult an old politician in that +section who was much famed for his sagacity, and who bore the military +title of General.</p> + +<p>"If you contemplate remaining in Missouri," said the older man to the +junior, "you should take the Southern side. Missouri is a slave State +and a Southern State, and she will naturally go with her section."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 193 --><a name="Page_193"></a>The young man availed himself of an opportunity to make a public +address, in which he aligned himself in the strongest terms with those +who had gone into rebellion. But scarcely had this been done when +Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and among those nominated to +command them was the old Missouri General. It was announced that he +had accepted the appointment. The younger man was amazed. He went in +hot haste for an explanation.</p> + +<p>"It's all true," said the General. "The fact is, when I talked with +you before, I did not think the Northern people would fight for the +Union, but I now see that I was mistaken; and when the Northern +people, being the stronger and richer, do decide to go to war, they +are almost certain to win. You had better take the Northern side."</p> + +<p>"But it is too late," said the youngster. "I have committed myself in +that speech I made."</p> + +<p>"Oh! as for that matter," was the reply, "it's of very little +consequence if you have committed yourself. It's easy to make a speech +on the other side and take the first one back. Nobody looks for +consistency in times like these."</p> + +<p>Many Missourians, as well as many citizens of other border slave +States, at the beginning of the trouble advocated a policy of +neutrality. They saw no necessity for taking sides. I was at a meeting +out in the interior of Missouri, where many citizens had come together +to consult as to the policy they had better pursue. Among them was an +old gentleman who seemed to be looked upon by his neighbors as a +regular Nestor. He was called upon for his <!-- Page 194 --><a name="Page_194"></a>views. "Gentlemen," said +he, "we have got to take sides and maintain our neutrality."</p> + +<p>In that section of the country was another distinguished and unique +personage who conspicuously figured in the events that are here being +dealt with.</p> + +<p>I knew him intimately. I now refer to James H. Lane, who was better +known as "Jim Lane," of Kansas. Like Blair, Lane was a born leader of +men, and a leader under exceptional conditions. He was generally +credited with being a fighter—a dare-devil, in fact—and a desperado; +but in the writer's opinion he was by no means Blair's equal in +personal courage. He had a great deal to do in raising troops and +organizing military movements, but he did not go to the front. His +fighting was chiefly in "private scraps," in one of which he killed +his adversary.</p> + +<p>His paramount ability was as a talker rather than as a fighter. He was +an orator, and his oratory was of a kind that was exactly suited to +his surroundings. No man could more readily adapt himself to the humor +of his hearers. He knew precisely how to put himself on their level. I +have seen him face an audience that was distinctly unfriendly, that +would scarcely give him a hearing; and in less than half an hour every +man in the crowd would be shouting his approval. He could go to his +hearers if he could not bring them to him. I witnessed one of his +performances in that line.</p> + +<p>He was a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. There +was one rival that he particularly feared. The man was the late +General Thomas Ewing, then a resident of Kansas. At that particular +<!-- Page 195 --><a name="Page_195"></a>time he was in the Army and the commandant of the St. Louis District +in Missouri. Lane came to St. Louis and had a talk with the writer, +freely admitting his dread of Ewing and asking for the <i>Missouri +Democrat's</i> support. Having a considerable admiration for Lane as well +as a liking for the man, I promised him such assistance as I could +reasonably give. It happened to be at the time when General Sterling +Price, in making his last raid into Missouri, was threatening St. +Louis with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, and there was no +adequate opposing force at hand. Ewing, with barely a tenth as many +troops, went to the front and heroically engaged the enemy. With no +protection but the walls of a little mud fort he succeeded in +repelling the attack of his powerful adversary. That timely action +probably saved St. Louis.</p> + +<p>At this particular time it was arranged that there should be a meeting +of the Republicans of St. Louis—it was in the midst of an exciting +presidential campaign—at which Lane was to be the principal speaker. +The meeting was held and Lane was addressing a large audience with +great acceptance when the news of Ewing's achievement was received.</p> + +<p>It was then customary, when war intelligence arrived in the course of +any political gathering, and sometimes of religious gatherings, to +suspend all other proceedings until it had been announced and the +audience had time enough to manifest its feeling on the subject.</p> + +<p>Lane was in the midst of an eloquent passage when he was interrupted +by the arrival of the news referred to. He stepped back, and the +news-bearer, <!-- Page 196 --><a name="Page_196"></a>taking his place, proceeded to give a graphic +description of Ewing's performance, concluding with a glowing eulogy +on that personage, and which was received with tremendous cheering. +Understanding Lane's feelings towards Ewing, I watched his face while +these events were passing. It plainly showed his vexation. It was +almost livid with suppressed emotion. But the time for him to resume +his address had come. What would he do was the question I asked +myself. He answered it very promptly. Jauntily stepping forward with +his countenance fairly wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed, "Ladies and +gentlemen, that is glo-o-orious news for us, but it 's ter-r-r-ible +for the other fellows."</p> + +<p>Lane's enemies were confident they had him beaten as a candidate for +the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular +with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it +necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. +Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the +choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then +he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast +horses—it was before the days of railroads in Kansas—he began a tour +that would bring him practically face to face with every voter in the +State. He traveled and spoke both by day and by night. Sometimes he +addressed as many as a dozen audiences in twenty-four hours. The +excitement attending his progress was great. Men came many miles to +hear him, sometimes bringing their families with them. He succeeded in +completely revolutionizing public opinion. It was <!-- Page 197 --><a name="Page_197"></a>too late for his +adversaries to attempt a counter-movement, and the result was that +Lane was re-elected by an almost unanimous vote.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt about Lane's attitude on the slavery question. He +was not only a radical Abolitionist, but the acknowledged leader of +the Free-State men of Kansas. He recognized no right of property in +man, as many Missouri slaveholders learned to their sorrow. I was +present when he congratulated a Kansas regiment that had just returned +from a raid into Missouri, bringing many black people with it. "Fellow +soldiers," he shouted, "you entered Missouri a white body, but you +have returned surrounded by a great black cloud. It is the work of the +Lord."</p> + +<p>There was another man whose name, the author thinks, properly belongs +under the heading of this chapter, and to whom, on account of pleasant +personal recollections, he would like to refer. He was not a fighter +like Blair and Lane, with whom his life was in striking contrast. He +was essentially a man of peace. He was a Quaker. Although born in +Kentucky he was an Abolitionist. I now refer to Levi Coffin of +Cincinnati, who was credited with successfully assisting over three +thousand runaway slaves on their way to freedom, and, in consequence, +became distinguished among both friends and foes as the "President of +'The Underground Railroad.'" The most remarkable thing in his case was +his immunity from legal punishment. The slaveholders knew very well +what he was doing, but so expert was he in hiding his tracks that they +could never get their clutches upon him.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 198 --><a name="Page_198"></a>I had rather an amusing experience with Coffin. Having when a boy +heard so much about him, I was anxious to see him and make his +acquaintance. On the occasion of a visit to Cincinnati, with a letter +of introduction from an acquaintance of Coffin, I went to his office, +but not without trepidation. I found the great man engaged in a +conversation with some one, his back being toward me, as I took my +stand just inside of his door. How he became aware of my presence I +don't know—I certainly made no noise to attract him—but he certainly +knew I was there. Suspending the conversation in which he was +engaged—he was seated in a revolving chair—he suddenly turned so as +to confront me, and silently looked me over. At last he arose, and, +stepping up to me, lifted my hat with one hand, and laid the other +upon my head. I understood very well what his movements meant. He was +looking for outward evidences of negro blood. So far as my complexion +went a suspicion of African taint might very well have been +entertained. I had been assisting my father in harvesting his wheat +crop, and my face and hands had a heavy coating of tan, but my hair +was straight and stiff. I could see that the old gentleman was +puzzled. Not a word, so far, had been spoken on either side.</p> + +<p>"Where is thee from?" was the question that broke the silence.</p> + +<p>I answered that I was from Clark County, meaning Clark County, Ohio.</p> + +<p>Coffin, however, evidently thought I referred to Clark County, +Kentucky, from which there had been many fugitives, and that settled +the matter in his mind. "<!-- Page 199 --><a name="Page_199"></a>But, my boy, thee seems to have had a good +home," continued the old gentleman as he looked over my clothes and +general appearance. "Why is thee running away?"</p> + +<p>Then came the explanation and the solemn Quaker indulged in a hearty +laugh. He remarked that he knew my family very well by reputation, and +that he had met my father in Abolitionist conventions—meetings he +called them.</p> + +<p>Then he invited me to go to his home and break bread with him. I +vainly tried to decline. The old man would accept no excuse.</p> + +<p>"Thy father would not refuse my hospitality."</p> + +<p>That settled the matter, and I accompanied my entertainer to his +domicile. I was glad that I did so, as it gave me the opportunity to +see and greet Coffin's wife, who was a charming elderly Quaker lady. +She had gained a reputation as a helper of the slave almost equal to +that of her husband.</p> + +<p>When runaways set out on their venturesome journeys, they were +generally very indifferently equipped. Ordinarily they had only the +working garments they wore on the plantations, and these furnished but +slight relief for a condition very near to nudity. Mrs. Coffin set +apart a working room in her house, and there sympathizers of both +races joined her in garment-making, the result being that very few +fugitives left Cincinnati without being decently clothed.</p> + +<p>At the Coffin table were several guests beside myself. One was a +colored man. He had been a slave, I learned, but his freedom had been +purchased, largely through the Coffins' efforts.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 200 --><a name="Page_200"></a>After I left the Coffin mansion, I remembered my unused letter of +introduction, which I had altogether forgotten. It was no longer +called for.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 201 --><a name="Page_201"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>ROLLS OF HONOR</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The first honors of Abolitionism unquestionably belong to the +organizers of the first societies formed for its promotion. The first +of these in the order of time was the New England Anti-Slavery +Society, which came into being on the first day of January, 1832. +William Lloyd Garrison was chief promoter and master spirit. It +consisted at the outset of twelve men, and that was not the only +evidence of its apostolic mission. It was to be the forerunner in an +ever-memorable revolution. The names of the twelve subscribers to its +declaration of views and aims will always have a place in American +history. They were William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, William J. +Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thatcher, Stillman E. Newcomb, Arnold +Buffum, John B. Hall, Joshua Coffin, Isaac Knapp, Henry K. Stockton, +and Benjamin C. Bacon.</p> + +<p>As a suggestion from, if not an offshoot of, the New England +organization, came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which was +organized in Philadelphia in 1834. It was intended that the meeting of +its promoters should be held in New York, but so intense was the +feeling against the Abolitionists in that city that no suitable room +could there be <!-- Page 202 --><a name="Page_202"></a>found, and the "conspirators," as they were called by +their enemies, were compelled to seek for accommodation and protection +among the Philadelphia Quakers.</p> + +<p>In that circumstance there was considerable significance. Two great +declarations of independence have issued from Philadelphia. One was +for political freedom; the other was for personal freedom. One was for +the benefit of its authors as well as of others. The other one was +wholly unselfish. Which had the loftier motive?</p> + +<p>Ten States were represented in the Philadelphia meeting, which, +considering the difficulties incident to travel at that time, was a +very creditable showing. One man rode six hundred miles on horseback +to attend it.</p> + +<p>The following is the list of those in attendance, who became +subscribers to the declaration that was promulgated:</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Maine</i></p> + +<p>David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James F. Otis, Isaac +Winslow.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New Hampshire</i></p> + +<p>David Campbell.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Massachusetts</i></p> + +<p>Daniel Southmayd, Effingham C. Capron, Amos Phelps, John G. Whittier, +Horace P. Wakefield, James Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. +Jewitt, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William +Lloyd Garrison.</p> +<br /> + +<p><!-- Page 203 --><a name="Page_203"></a><i>Rhode Island</i></p> + +<p>John Prentice, George W. Benson.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Connecticut</i></p> + +<p>Samuel J. May, Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon Joselyn, +Robert B. Hall.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New York</i></p> + +<p>Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., Abram T. +Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., Charles W. Denison, John +Frost.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New Jersey</i></p> + +<p>Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkly Gillinghamm, John McCullough, James White.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Pennsylvania</i></p> + +<p>Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Altee, Robert Purviss, James McCrummill, Thomas +Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mace, John McKim, +Anson Vickers, Joseph Loughead, Edward P. Altee, Thomas Whitson, John +R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Ohio</i></p> + +<p>Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff, John M. Sterling.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The writer finds it quite impossible to carry out the idea with which +this chapter was begun, which was to furnish a catalogue embracing all +active Anti-Slavery workers who were Abolitionists. Space <!-- Page 204 --><a name="Page_204"></a>does not +permit. He will therefore condense by giving a portion of the list, +the selections being dictated partly by claims of superior merit, and +partly by accident.</p> + +<p>As representative men and women of the East—chiefly of New England +and New York—he gives the following:</p> + +<p>David Lee Child, of Boston, for some time editor of the <i>National +Anti-Slavery Advocate</i>. He was the husband of Lydia Maria Child, who +wrote the first bound volume published in this country in condemnation +of the enslavement of "those people called Africans"; Samuel E. +Sewell, another Bostonian and a lawyer who volunteered his services in +cases of fugitive slaves; Ellis Gray Lowell, another Boston lawyer of +eminence; Amos Augustus Phelps, a preacher and lecturer, for whose +arrest the slaveholders of New Orleans offered a reward of ten +thousand dollars; Parker Pillsbury, another preacher and lecturer, who +at twenty years of age was the driver of an express wagon, and with no +literary education, but who, in order that he might better plead the +cause of the slave, went to school and became a noted orator; Theodore +Weld, who married Angelina Grimke, the South Carolina Abolitionist, +and who as an Anti-Slavery advocate was excelled, if he was excelled, +only by Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips; Henry Brewster +Stanton, a very vigorous Anti-Slavery editor and the husband of +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the champion of women's rights; Theodore +Parker, the great Boston divine; O.B. Frothingham, another famous +preacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer; Samuel <!-- Page 205 --><a name="Page_205"></a>Johnson, +C.L. Redmond, James Monroe, A.T. Foss, William Wells Brown, Henry C. +Wright, G.D. Hudson, Sallie Holley, Anna E. Dickinson, Aaron M. +Powell, George Brodburn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel W. +Whitney, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. Stebbins, Thomas T. +Stone, George M. Putnam, Joseph A. Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frances +E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin Ballou, W.H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A.J. +Conover, James N. Buffum, Charles C. Burleigh, William Goodell, Joshua +Leavitt, Charles M. Denison, Isaac Hopper, Abraham L. Cox.</p> + +<p>To the above should be added the names of Alvin Stewart of New York, +who issued the call for the convention that projected the Liberty +party, and of John Kendrick, who executed the first will including a +bequest in aid of the Abolition cause.</p> + +<p>And here must not be omitted the name of John P. Hale, of New +Hampshire, who was a candidate for the Presidency on the Liberty party +ticket, and also a conspicuous member of the U.S. Senate.</p> + +<p>Going westward, we come to Ohio, which became, early in the movement, +the dominating center of Abolitionist influence. Salmon P. Chase was +there. James G. Birney, after being forced out of Kentucky, was there. +Ex-United States Senator Thomas Morris, a candidate for the +Vice-Presidency on the Liberty party ticket, was there. Leicester King +and Samuel Lewis, Abolition candidates for the governorship of the +State, were there. Joshua R. Giddings and United States Senator Ben. +Wade were there.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 206 --><a name="Page_206"></a>One great advantage the Ohio Abolitionists enjoyed was that they were +harmonious and united. In the East that was not the case. There was a +bitter feud between the Garrisonians, who relied on moral suasion, and +the advocates of political action. All Ohio Abolitionists were ready +and eager to employ the ballot.</p> + +<p>There is another name, in speaking of Ohio, that must not be omitted. +Dr. Townsend was the man who made Salmon P. Chase a United States +Senator, and at a time when the Abolition voting strength in Ohio was +a meager fraction in comparison with that of the old +parties—numbering not over one in twenty. It happened to be a time +when the old parties—the Whigs and the Democrats—had so nearly an +equal representation in the State Legislature that Townsend, who was a +State Senator, and two co-operating members, held a balance of power. +Both parties were exceedingly anxious to control the Legislature, as +that body, under the State constitution then in force, had the +distribution of a great deal of patronage. The consideration for the +deciding vote demanded by Townsend and his associates was the election +of Chase to the Senate. They and the Democrats made the deal. +Naturally enough, the Whigs expressed great indignation until it was +shown that they had offered to enter into very much the same +arrangement.</p> + +<p>Some years before the events just spoken of, Townsend had been a +medical student in Cincinnati. One day he stepped into the courthouse, +where a fugitive-slave case was being tried. There he listened to an +argument from Salmon P. Chase, the <!-- Page 207 --><a name="Page_207"></a>negro's defender, that made an +Abolitionist of him. The senatorial incident naturally followed.</p> + +<p>There was another Ohioan—not an individual this time, but an +institution—that will always hold a high place in the annals of +Abolitionism. Oberlin College was a power in the land. It had a corps +of very able professors who were, without exception, active +Anti-Slavery workers. They regarded themselves as public instructors +as well as private teachers. There was scarcely a township in Ohio +that they did not visit, either personally or through their disciples. +They were as ready to talk in country schoolhouses as in their own +college halls. Of course, they were violently opposed. Mobs broke up +their meetings very frequently, but that only made them more +persistent. Their teachings were viciously misrepresented. They were +accused of favoring the intermarriage of the races, and parents were +warned, if they sent their children to Oberlin, to look out for +colored sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. For such slanders, however, +the men and women of Oberlin—for both sexes were admitted to faculty +and classes—seemed to care no more than they did for pro-slavery +mobs.</p> + +<p>There is another name which, although it belongs exclusively neither +to the East nor to the West, to the North nor to the South, should not +be omitted from a record like this. Doctor Gamaliel Bailey resided in +the District of Columbia, and issued the <i>National Era</i> from +Washington city.</p> + +<p>Although a journal of small folio measurement and issued but once a +week, it was for a considerable time the most influential organ of the +Abolitionists. <!-- Page 208 --><a name="Page_208"></a>Its circulation was large and its management very +able. Of course, it took no little courage and judgment to conduct +such a publication in the very center of slaveholding influence, and +more than once it barely escaped destruction by mobs.</p> + +<p>If there was nothing else to his credit there was one thing +accomplished by the <i>Era's</i> owner that entitles him to lasting +remembrance. He was the introducer, if not the real producer, of +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin.</i> It first appeared in the <i>Era</i> in serial numbers. +It is perfectly safe to say that no other newspaper in the country, of +any standing, would have touched it. Without Dr. Bailey's +encouragement the work would not have been written. This was admitted +by Mrs. Stowe.</p> + +<p>Up to this point the people whose names have been mentioned in these +pages have, to a certain extent, been public characters and leaders. +They were generals, and colonels, and captains, and orderly sergeants, +in the army of emancipation. There were, also, privates in the ranks +whose services richly deserve to be commemorated, showing, as they do, +the character of the works they performed. The writer cannot resist +the temptation to refer to two of them in particular, although, +doubtless, there were many others of equal merit. A reason for the +preference he shows in this case, that will not be misunderstood, is +the fact that one of the men was his uncle and the other his father.</p> + +<p>James Kedzie and John Hume were plain country farmers residing in +southwestern Ohio, neither very rich nor very poor. They were natives +of Scotland, and stating that fact is almost equivalent <!-- Page 209 --><a name="Page_209"></a>to saying +they were Abolitionists. None of the Scotch of the writer's personal +knowledge, at the period referred to, were otherwise than strongly +Anti-Slavery. There are said to be exceptions to all rules, and there +was one in this instance. He was a kinsman of the author, and a "braw" +young Scotchman who came over to this country with the expectation of +picking up a fortune in short order. Finding the North too slow, he +went South. There he met a lady who owned a valuable plantation well +stocked with healthy negroes. He married the woman, and became +something of a local nabob, with the reputation of great severity as a +master. One day, with his own hand, he inflicted a cruel flogging on a +slave who had the name of a "bad nigger." That night, when the master +was playing chess with a neighbor by candlelight on the ground floor +of his dwelling, all the windows being open, the negro crept up with a +loaded gun and shot him dead.</p> + +<p>The sad affair was regretfully commented on by the dead man's +relatives, who, I remember, referred to his untimely ending as "his +judgment," and as a punishment he had brought upon "himself."</p> + +<p>My uncle and father did not conceal their unpopular views. They openly +voted the Abolition ticket. In eight years, beginning with their two +ballots, they raised the third party vote in their immediate vicinity +to eight, and they boasted of the progress they had made.</p> + +<p>They did not make public addresses, but they faithfully listened to +those made by others in support of the cause. They attended all +Abolition meetings that were within reach. They took the <!-- Page 210 --><a name="Page_210"></a><i>National +Era</i>. Not only that, but they got up clubs for it. The first club I +recollect my father's securing consisted of half a dozen subscribers, +for one half of which he paid. The next year's was double in size, and +so was my father's contribution. There was no fund for the promotion +of the Abolitionist cause, for which they were called upon, to which +they did not cheerfully pay according to their means.</p> + +<p>All Abolition lecturers and colporteurs were gratuitously entertained, +although their presence was sometimes a cause of abuse, and even of +danger. There were other travelers who sometimes applied for help. +Their faces were of dusky hue, and their great whitish eyes were like +those of hunted beasts of the forest. They went on their way +strengthened and rejoicing—always in the direction of the North Star.</p> + +<p>The men are dead, but Slavery is dead also, partly through their +labors and sacrifices. Their unpretentious, patient, earnest lives +were not in vain. They contributed to the final triumph of Freedom's +holy cause.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><!-- Page 211 --><a name="Page_211"></a>APPENDIX</h2> + +<a name="EMANCIPATION_PROCLAMATION"></a><h3>EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>January 1, 1863.—Whereas, on the 22d day of September, 1862, a +proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, +containing, among other things, the following, to wit:</p> + +<p>That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves +within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof +shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, +thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the +United States, including the naval and military authority thereof, +will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do +no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any efforts +they may make for their actual freedom.</p> + +<p>That the Executive will on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections, +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States. +<!-- Page 212 --><a name="Page_212"></a>Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on +this first day of January, 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so +to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days +from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States +and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this +day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:</p> + +<p>Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Ann, and Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are +for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not +issued.</p> + +<p>And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free, and +that the Executive government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of such persons.</p> + +<p>And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend +to them that, in all <!-- Page 213 --><a name="Page_213"></a>cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages.</p> + +<p>And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service.</p> + +<p>And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty +God.</p> + +<p>IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.</p> + +<p>Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, 1863, and of +the independence of the United States the Eighty-seventh.</p> + +<span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</span><br /> +<br /> +By the President:<br /> +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.<br /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="BORDER_SLAVE-STATE_MESSAGE"></a><h3>BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Amendment to the National Constitution recommended by President +Lincoln in his Message to Congress of December I, 1862.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i> by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled: that the following articles +be proposed to the Legislatures (or conventions) of the several States +as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of +which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said +Legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as parts of the said +Constitution, namely:</p> + +<p>Article.—Every State wherein Slavery now exists, <!-- Page 214 --><a name="Page_214"></a>which shall abolish +the same therein, at any time or times before the 1st day of January +in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive +compensation from the United States as follows, to wit:</p> + +<p>(Then follows a provision to issue bonds of the United States +Government, which shall be delivered to the States in amounts +sufficient to compensate the owners of slaves within their +jurisdictions for the loss of their slave property.)</p> + +<p>Article.—All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the +chances of the war, at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall +be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been +disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is +provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way +that no slave shall be twice accounted for.</p> + +<p>Article.—Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for +colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place +or places without the United States.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PRAYER_OF_TWENTY_MILLIONS"></a><h3>"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS"</h3> +<br /> + +<p>On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley, under the above heading, +addressed a letter to the President, which appeared over his signature +in the New York <i>Tribune</i> of that date. The conclusion of Mr. +Greeley's epistle was as follows:</p> + +<p>"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one +disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who +does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the +same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile—that +the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a +year if Slavery were left in full vigor—that army <!-- Page 215 --><a name="Page_215"></a>officers who +remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but halfway loyal +to the Union—and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour +of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of +your embassadors in Europe. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the +seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, +slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of +statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="INDEX"></a><h2><!-- Page 217 --><a name="Page_217"></a><!-- Page 216 --><a name="Page_216"></a>INDEX</h2> + +Abolitionism, and Republicanism, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">end of, <a href="#Page_150">150-156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Abolitionist movement, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abolitionists, hysterical praise of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and dissolution of the Union, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">effect, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">struggles, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and political expediency, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">convention at Pittsburgh, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">third-party, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">vote of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">founders of Republican party, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pro-slavery mobbing, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">voting strength, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">organization, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">lecturers, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">stump orators, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">newspapers, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preparatory work, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hostility to Union, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">disloyalty, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">treason, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">place in history, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Quakers, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">physical courage, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">unselfishness of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">motives, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">persecution of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">feelings against, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hopefulness of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">first presidential ticket, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">prejudice against, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">abuse by "gentlemen", <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">women, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preliminary victory of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">denunciation of early, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">leaders, <a href="#Page_186">186-198</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Adams, John Quincy, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">attempted expulsion of, from Congress, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">speech in his own defense in Congress, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Altee, Edward P., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Altee, Edwin A., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Amalgamation", <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anderson "Bill", <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Andrew, Governor, of Massachusetts, Peleg's <i>Life of</i>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anthony, Susan B., <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anti-Slavery, causes, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">matter excluded from United States mails, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">formation of party, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pioneers, <a href="#Page_49">49-58</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">lecturers, <a href="#Page_76">76-78</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">orators, <a href="#Page_88">88-93</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">women, <a href="#Page_100">100-107</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">mobs, <a href="#Page_108">108-112</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Haverhill, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Nantucket, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">martyrs, <a href="#Page_113">113-120</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">sentiment, in England, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anti-Slavery societies, organization, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">in New England, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">National, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anti-Unionist, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Bacon, Benjamin C., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ballou, Adin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barbadoes, James, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bates, Judge, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">speech in England, <a href="#Page_90">90-93</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Lincoln, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bell, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benson, George W., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benton, Thomas H., <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Birney, Jas. G., <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-58</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Blacklaws" <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">in Ohio, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Black Republic of Texas, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Blair, Gen. Prank P., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186-191</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri emancipationists, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">appearance of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">fearlessness, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">quarrel with Frémont, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and capture of Camp Jackson, <a href="#Page_189">189-191</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">threats against, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Blair, Montgomery, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bonner, Hon. Benjamin R., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Border-ruffianism, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Border Slave-State message, text of, <a href="#Page_213">213-214</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boyle, James, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bradley, John, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Breckenridge, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">factions, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.,</span><br /> +<br /> +Breckenridge, Judge Samuel M., <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brodburn, George, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, B. Gratz, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, John, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, William Wells, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buchanan, James<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buffum, Arnold, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buffum, James N., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bull Run, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burleigh, Charles C., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buxton, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Camp Jackson (St. Louis), <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">"affair" at, <a href="#Page_186">186-188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">effect of capture, <a href="#Page_191">191-194</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Campbell, David, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Campbell, John R., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Capron, Effingham C., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carlisle, Earl of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chapman, Mrs. Henry, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Charcoals", Missouri, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">delegation to President, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">fight for "Free Missouri", <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">appeal to President for protection, <a href="#Page_166">166-168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Chase, Salmon P., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59-61</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">financial policy, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">espousal of Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and "third party,"<a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">election to United States Senate, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Child, David Lee, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Child, Lydia Maria, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chittenden, L.E., <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Churchill's <i>Crisis</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Civil War, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Clay, Henry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Claybanks", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">exclusion from National Convention, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Coffin, Joshua, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coffin, Levi, <a href="#Page_197">197-198</a>; <br /> +<span class="in1">"President of 'The Underground Railroad'", <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Colonization, <a href="#Page_128">128-135</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Society, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and England, <a href="#Page_130">130-132</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Lincoln's opinion, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">experiments, <a href="#Page_133">133-134</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Colonizationists, pretended friendship for negroes, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Conover, A.J., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton-gin, invention of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cox, Abram L., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crandall, Prudence, persecution of, <a href="#Page_116">116-117</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crandall, Dr. Reuben, <a href="#Page_117">117-118</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Crisis, The</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cross Keys, battle of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Curtis, Geo. William, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">charges against, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Democratic party, division of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Democrats, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Anti-Nebraska, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">of New York, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Denison, Charles M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dickinson, Anna E., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dissolution of Union, petition for, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Doughface", <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglas, Stephen A., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">dislike of, by slaveholders' factions, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">defeated for President, <a href="#Page_94">94-99</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hated by slave-owners, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Douglass, Fred., <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Drake, Hon. Charles D., <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dred Scott decision, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">too late for South's purpose, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dresser, Amos, whipped, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Emancipation proclamation, <a href="#Page_137">137-138</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">story of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">moral influence of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Lincoln's reasons for, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">ineffective, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">text of, <a href="#Page_211">211-213</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ewing, Gen. Thomas, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">repulsion of General Price, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Field, David Dudley, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fish, W.H., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fletcher, Thomas C., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Donelson, capture of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Henry, capture of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foss, A.T., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foster, Daniel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foster, Stephen, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Free-Soil" party, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frémont, General, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and western command, <a href="#Page_184">184-185</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">financial bad management, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">defeats Stonewall Jackson, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">removal, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">freedom proclamation, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Frost, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frothingham, O.B., <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fugitive Slave Law, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fuller, John E., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fussell, Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Gamble, Hamilton R., <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and emancipation ordinance of, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Dragged through streets of Boston, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">imprisonment for libel, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">reception in England, <a href="#Page_131">131-132</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">speech at Exeter Hall, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Genius of Universal Emancipation, The,</i><a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gillinghamm, Chalkly, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goodell, William, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grant, General, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">And "Charcoals", <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Nomination by Missouri Radicals, <a href="#Page_174">174-176</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">capture of Fort Donelson, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Greeley, Horace, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, Beriah, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, William, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grimké sisters, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103-106</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Hale, John P., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, John B., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, Robert B., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hallock's Order Number Three, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harrison, Wm. Henry, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hay, John, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henry, Patrick, Williamsburg speech, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hints toward Emancipation in Missouri</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hollie, Sally, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hopper, Isaac, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +How, John, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Howland, Joseph A., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, Professor, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, Frederic, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hume, John, <a href="#Page_208">208-210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hutchinsons, the, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Ile a'Vache, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Indiana, introduction of slavery into, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Claiborne F., <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">attempt to make Missouri secede, <a href="#Page_186">186-188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">outwitted by Nathaniel Lyon, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Stonewall, defeat of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jewitt, Daniel E., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Andrew, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Oliver, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jones, David, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Joselyn, Simeon, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Julian, Geo. W., <i>Political Recollections</i>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kedzie, James, <a href="#Page_208">208-210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kelly, Abby, <a href="#Page_38">38-39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kendrick, John, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kentucky, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kimball, David T., Jr., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +King, Leicester, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kingsley, Alpheus, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Knapp, Isaac, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Know-Nothings", <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Lafayette, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lane, James H., <a href="#Page_194">194-197</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">canvas for U.S. Senator, <a href="#Page_196">196-197</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">attitude on slavery, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lawrence, city of, capture by Quantrell, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">butchery of inhabitants, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Leavitt, Joshua, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Evan, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Samuel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Liberal party, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liberator</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">first issue, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">South Carolina and Georgia offers reward for its circulation, <a href="#Page_55">55-56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">excluded from U.S. mails, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">office wrecked by mob, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">opposed to separate party action, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">election of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Gettysburg speech, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Douglas, <a href="#Page_94">94-99</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">debate of 1858, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and slavery, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preferred by slaveholders, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1"><i>Recollections of</i>, <a href="#Page_134">134-135</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and emancipation, <a href="#Page_136">136-149</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">message to Minister Dayton of Paris, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">proposed constitutional amendment, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">special message to Congress, December, 1863, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">emancipation policy, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Free-Soilers, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Congressional sentiment toward, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">antagonism to, <a href="#Page_177">177-180</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1"><i>Life of</i>, by I.N. Arnold, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, Sumner, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Longhead, Joseph, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lovejoy, Elijah P., shooting of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114-115</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lowell, Ellis Gray, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lundy, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50-54</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">meeting with Garrison, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lyon, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +McCrummil, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McCullough, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McKim, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mace, Enoch, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Manumittal, arguments against, <a href="#Page_34">34-35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marshall, "Tom", <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Massachusetts Legislature and slavery, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +May, Samuel J., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +May, Rev. S.T., <i>Recollections</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mexican War, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Missouri, <a href="#Page_157">157-185</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Compromise, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">admission to Union as slave State, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">slavery contest, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and the Union, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Radicals, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Conservatives, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">"Charcoals", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">"Claybanks", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">military control of, <a href="#Page_163">163-166</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">guerrilla bands, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pacification of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Radicals, opposition to Lincoln, in National Convention, <a href="#Page_168">168-169</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">delegation to Lincoln, <a href="#Page_169">169-171</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Germans, attacks on, <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">loyalty of, <a href="#Page_182">182-183</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Missouri Democrat, The</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and Louis Snyder, <a href="#Page_158">158-159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">opposition to Lincoln, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">support of Johnson, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Monroe, James, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moody, Loring, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morris, Senator, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mott, Mrs. Lucretia, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mott, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +<i>National Anti-Slavery Advocate</i>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>National Era, The</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207-208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Negroes, prejudice against,<br /> +<span class="in1">in North, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Ohio, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">stronger in North than in South, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">suffrage, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">failure as freemen, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Newcomb, Stillman E., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nicolay, J.C., <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Nigger Hill", <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Nigger-pens", <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Noyes, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Oberlin College, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +O'Connell, Daniel, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ohio, pro-slavery, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Abolitionists of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Opdyke, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ordinance of '87, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Otis, James F., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Parker, Theodore, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Parkhurst, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pennsylvania Hall, firing of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Peonage", <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phelps, Amos, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Philippine Islands, <a href="#Page_82">82-87</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">slavery in, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">massacres in, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">abuses in, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">spoliation of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">speech in Faneuil Hall, <a href="#Page_88">88-89</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Mrs., <a href="#Page_106">106-107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pillsbury, Parker, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pleasanton, General, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pointdexter, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Popular sovereignty,"<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Powell, Aaron M., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Prayer of Twenty Millions, The</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">text of, <a href="#Page_214">214-215</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Prentice, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Presidential campaign of 1844, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Price, General Sterling, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Prohibitionists, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Purviss, Robert, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Putnam, George M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Quantrell, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Rankin, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Raymond, Henry J., <i>Life of Lincoln,</i><a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Redmond, C.L., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Republican party, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">elements of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; </span><br /> +<span class="in1">lack of policy, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and election of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">existence due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and negro rights, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Philippine Islands, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_150">150-151</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Republican Party, History of the</i>, Curtis, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Rise and Fall of the Slave Power</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Roosevelt, Theodore, and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_1">1-14</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rosecrans, General, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Russell, Earl, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Schofield, Gen. John M., and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">charges against, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">relieved from command, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Secession, pretext for, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sewell, Samuel E., <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sharp, John, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shipley, Thomas, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sigel, General, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slave-owners, mastery of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slave power, submission to, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">northward march, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Slave production in Northern States, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slavery, destruction of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">overthrow of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in ante-bellum days, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Biblical authority, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">a State institution, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">condemned by Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Northern support, <a href="#Page_33">33-35</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">spread of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">introduction into Territories, <a href="#Page_43">43-44</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">practical extirpation, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sleeper, John R., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Smith, Gen. A.J., <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Snelling, William J., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southard, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +South Carolina "black horse", <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southmayd, Daniel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southwick, Joseph, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stanton, Henry Brewster, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stebbins, Giles B., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sterling, John M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stevens, Thaddeus, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stewart, Alvin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stillman, Edwin A., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stockton, Henry K., <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Lucy, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stone, Thomas T., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sutliff, Levi, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sutliff, Milton, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Tappan, Arthur, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tappan, Lewis, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taussig, James, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taylor, Gen. Z., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Texas, annexation of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thatcher, Moses, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thirteenth Amendment, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">vote on, <a href="#Page_143">143-144</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Thompson, Edwin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Thoughts on African Colonization</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thurston, David, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Toombs, Robert, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Torrey, Charles Turner, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Townsend, Dr., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Underground railroad, <a href="#Page_121">121-127</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">confession of John Smith, <a href="#Page_121">121-127</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +United States in Far East, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Army increase of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Navy increase of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Van Buren, Martin, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">"doughface", <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Free Soiler, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Van Zant case, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vickers, Anson, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Virginia, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Wade, Benjamin F., <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wakefield, Horace P., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Walker, Jonathan, branded, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Washington, Booker, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Watkins, Frances E., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weld, Theodore W., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wheeling, Va., slavery traffic in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whigs, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5-7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Eli, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whittier, John G., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilkes, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winslow, Isaac, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winslow, Nathan, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wise, Henry A., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Elizur, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Henry C., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13176 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + + + + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dd31b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13176 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13176) diff --git a/old/13176-8.txt b/old/13176-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01ea5a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13176-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7091 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. Hume + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Abolitionists + Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights + +Author: John F. Hume + +Release Date: August 13, 2004 [EBook #13176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITIONISTS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Victoria Woosley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + TOGETHER WITH PERSONAL MEMORIES OF + THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS + + 1830-1864 + + BY + JOHN F. HUME + + + + + G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + The Knickerbocker press + 1905 + + + + + +FOREWORD + +The opening chapter of this work was prepared during the recent +presidential campaign. It was the idea of the author that it should +appear in one of the leading newspapers or magazines before the +election, but maturer reflection brought about a change of purpose. He +realized that its publication at that time, might, not altogether +unreasonably, be looked upon as a political move having as its object +the election or defeat of a particular candidate for office, whereas +he had no desire to play the partisan. His sole aim was to vindicate +the character of a portion of the citizens of this country--some +living, some dead--whom he had always believed to be most deserving of +popular esteem, from what he considered the unmerited aspersions of a +man who has since come into a position so conspicuous and so +influential that his condemnation necessarily carries with it a +damaging effect. + +Having gone so far as the preparation of the initial chapter, he +concluded that proofs of his assumptions and assertions might at +certain points be thought desirable, if not necessary, and that he +should so prolong his work as to provide them. His first idea at this +point, as his years went back beyond the beginning of the Abolitionist +movement in this country, and as he had been from early boyhood +identified with this movement, was to contribute such information as +his recollection of events would supply. In other words, he decided to +write a narrative, the matter of which would be reminiscent, with here +and there a little history woven in among the strands of memory like a +woof in the warp. It has ended in history supplying the warp, and the +reminiscence indifferently supplying the woof. + +However, the value of the production is, doubtless, greatly enhanced +by the change. A string of pearls--dropping the former simile and +adopting another--is estimated according to the gems it contains, and +not because of the cord that holds it together. The personal +experiences and recollections that are here and there interwoven, by +themselves would be of little consequence; but they will be found to +carry upon them certain historical facts and inferences--some new in +themselves and in their connections--which, as the author hopes and +believes, are of profitable quality and abounding interest. + +In consequence of the change of plan just explained, the scope of the +work is materially affected. What was begun as a magazine article, and +continued as a brochure, ends in a volume. + +J.F.H. + +Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July, 1905. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I.--THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS 1 + + II.--THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE 15 + + III.--ONE OF THEIR TRAITS 26 + + IV.--PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE 30 + + V.--THE POLITICAL SITUATION 41 + + VI.--ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS 49 + + VII.--SALMON PORTLAND CHASE 59 + + VIII.--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 67 + + IX.--ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES 72 + + X.--WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 79 + + XI.--ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS 88 + + XII.--LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 94 + + XIII.--ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN 100 + + XIV.--MOBS 108 + + XV.--ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS 113 + + XVI.--THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 121 + + XVII.--COLONIZATION 128 + + XVIII.--LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION 136 + + XIX.--THE END OF ABOLITIONISM 150 + + XX.--MISSOURI 157 + + XXI.--MISSOURI _(Continued)_ 174 + + XXII.--SOME ABOLITION LEADERS 186 + + XXIII.--ROLLS OF HONOR 201 + + + APPENDIX + + + EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 211 + + BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE 213 + + "PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" 214 + + + INDEX 217 + + + + + +THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS + + +The following is an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's biography of +Thomas H. Benton in Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.'s American Statesmen +Series, published in 1887: + + "Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received an + immense amount of hysterical praise which they do not deserve, and + have been credited with deeds done by other men whom, in reality, + they hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 1840, the + professed Abolitionists formed a small and comparatively + unimportant portion of the forces that were working towards the + restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and much of what + they did was positively harmful to the cause for which they were + fighting. Those of their number who considered the Constitution as + a league with death and hell, and who, therefore, advocated a + dissolution of the Union, acted as rationally as would + anti-polygamists nowadays if, to show their disapproval of + Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should be allowed to + form a separate nation. The only hope of ultimately suppressing + slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, and every + Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for the dissolution + was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he complained of, as if + he had been a slaveholder. The Liberty party, in running Birney, + simply committed a political crime, evil in almost all its + consequences. They in no sense paved the way for the Republican + party, or helped forward the Anti-Slavery cause, or hurt the + existing organizations. Their effect on the Democracy was _nil_; + and all they were able to accomplish with the Whigs was to make + them put forward for the ensuing election a slaveholder from + Louisiana, with whom they were successful. Such were the remote + results of their conduct; the immediate evils they produced have + already been alluded to. They bore considerable + resemblance--except that after all they really did have a + principle to contend for--to the political Prohibitionists of the + present day, who go into the third party organization, and are, + not even excepting the saloon-keepers themselves, the most + efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can + count. + + "Anti-Slavery men like Giddings, who supported Clay, were doing a + thousandfold more effective work for the cause they had at heart + than all the voters who supported Birney; or, to speak more + accurately, they were doing all they could to advance the cause, + while the others were doing all they could to hold it back. + Lincoln in 1860 occupied more nearly the ground held by Clay than + that held by Birney; and the men who supported the latter in 1844 + were the prototypes of those who worked to oppose Lincoln in 1860, + and only worked less hard because they had less chance. The ultra + Abolitionists discarded expediency, and claimed to act for + abstract right on principle, no matter what the results might be; + in consequence they accomplished very little, and that as much + for harm as for good, until they ate their words, and went + counter to their previous course, thereby acknowledging it to be + bad, and supported in the Republican party the men and principles + they had so fiercely condemned. The Liberty party was not in any + sense the precursor of the Republican party, which was based as + much on expediency as on abstract right, and was, therefore, able + to accomplish good instead of harm. To say that extreme + Abolitionists triumphed in Republican success and were causes of + it, is as absurd as to call Prohibitionists successful if, after + countless efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and + after savage denunciations of those who try to regulate it, they + should then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant + portion of a victorious high-license party. The men who took a + great and effective part in the fight against slavery were the men + who remained with their respective parties." + +No word of praise or approval has Mr. Roosevelt for the men and +women--for representatives of both sexes were active sharers in the +work performed--who inaugurated, and for a long period carried +forward, the movement that led up to the overthrow of African slavery +in this country. He has no encomiums to bestow on those same men and +women for the protracted and exhausting labors they performed, the +dangers they encountered, the insults they endured, the sacrifices +they submitted to, the discouragements they confronted in many ways +and forms in prosecuting their arduous undertaking. On the contrary, +he has only bitter words of condemnation. In his estimation, and +according to his dogmatic utterance, they were criminals--political +criminals. His words make it very manifest that, if Mr. Roosevelt had +been a voter in 1840, he would not have been an Abolitionist. He would +not have been one of that devoted little band of political +philanthropists who went out, like David of old, to do battle with one +of the giant abuses of the time, and who found in the voter's ballot a +missile that they used with deadly effect. On the contrary, he would +have enrolled himself among their adversaries and assailants, becoming +a member--because it is impossible to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a +non-partisan--of one of the leading political parties of the day. +There were but two of them--the Whigs and the Democrats. In failing to +support one or the other of these parties, and giving their votes and +influence to a new one that was founded and constructed on +Anti-Slavery lines, the Abolitionists, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, +"committed a political crime." + +Now, for what did those parties stand in 1840? Who were their +presidential candidates in that year? Martin Van Buren was the +candidate of the Democrats. He had been for eight years in the offices +of Vice-President and President, and in that time, in the opinion of +the Anti-Slavery people of the country, had shown himself to be a +facile instrument in the hands of the slaveholders. He was what the +Abolitionists described as a "doughface"--a Northern man with Southern +principles. As presiding officer he gave the casting vote in the +Senate for the bill that excluded Anti-Slavery matter from the United +States mails, a bill justly regarded as one of the greatest outrages +ever perpetrated in a free country, and as holding a place by the +side of the Fugitive Slave Law. True, he afterwards--this was in +1848,--like Saul of Tarsus, saw a new light and announced himself as a +Free Soiler. Then the Abolitionists, with what must always be regarded +as an extraordinary concession to partisan policy, cast aside their +prejudices and gave him their support. Yet Mr. Roosevelt charges them +with being indifferent to the demands of political expediency. + +General William Henry Harrison, candidate of the Whigs, was a +Virginian by birth and training, and an inveterate pro-slavery man. +When Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he presided over a +convention that met for the purpose of favoring, notwithstanding the +prohibition in the Ordinance of '87, the introduction of slavery in +that Territory. + +These were the men between whom the old parties gave the Abolitionists +the privilege of pick and choice. Declining to support either of them, +they gave their votes to James G. Birney, candidate of the newly +formed Liberty party. He was a Southern man by birth and a slave-owner +by inheritance, but, becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he +freed his negroes, giving them homes of their own, and so frankly +avowed his Anti-Slavery convictions that he was driven from his native +State. His supporters did not expect to elect him, but they hoped to +begin a movement that would lead up to victory. They were planting +seed in what they believed to be receptive soil. + +After 1840, the old parties became more and more submissive to the +Slave Power. Conjointly, they enacted those measures that became +known as the compromises of 1850, the principal ones being the +Fugitive Slave Law and the act repealing the Missouri Compromise. Both +of them pronounced these acts to be "a finality," and both of them in +national convention declared there should be no further agitation of +the subject. They set out to muzzle all the Anti-Slavery voices of the +country. + +By this time it was perfectly manifest that there was not only nothing +the slaveholders might demand which the old parties would not concede, +but that there was, so far as the slavery issue was involved, +absolutely no difference between them. It is a notable fact that in +the eight years following 1840, of the four presidential candidates +put in nomination by the two parties, three were slaveholders, the +fourth being a Northern "doughface," and both of the two who were +elected held slaves. + +For the nomination and election of one of these men, whom he describes +as "a slaveholder from Louisiana" (General Taylor), Mr. Roosevelt is +disposed to hold the Abolitionists accountable. They forced the poor +Whigs into those proceedings, he intimates, probably by telling them +they ought to do nothing of the kind, that being what they actually +did tell them. But as the Abolitionists, four years earlier, in the +same way defeated the Whigs when they were supporting a slaveholder +from Kentucky (Clay), and a man who, in his time, did more for the +upbuilding of slavery than any other person in America, it would +appear that the score of responsibility on their part was fairly +evened up. + +In citing the action of Joshua R. Giddings as an anti-third-party +man, Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether fortunate. Subsequent to the +presidential campaign of 1844, the third-party Abolitionists held a +convention in Pittsburg, in which Giddings was a leading actor. As +chairman of the committee on platform, he submitted a resolution +declaring that both of the old parties were "hopelessly corrupt and +unworthy of confidence." + +The Abolitionists could not see that they were under obligation to +either of the old parties, believing they could do far better service +for the cause they championed by standing up and being counted as +candidates honestly representing their principles. They fought both of +the old parties, and finally beat them. They killed the Whig party out +and out, and so far crippled the Democrats that they have been limping +ever since. Their action, in the long run, as attested by the verdict +of results, proved itself to be not only the course of abstract right, +but of political expediency. + +In 1840, the vote of the third-party Abolitionists, then for the first +time in the political field, was 7000; in 1844 it was 60,000, and in +1848 it was nearly 300,000. From that time, with occasional backsets, +Mr. Roosevelt's "political criminals" went steadily forward until they +mastered the situation. From the first, they were a power in the land, +causing the older parties to quake, Belshazzar-like, at sight of their +writing on the wall. + +But according to Mr. Roosevelt, the men of the Liberty-Free-Soil party +had no share in fathering and nurturing the Republican party, to which +he assigns all the credit for crushing slavery. Says he, "The Liberty +party was not in any sense the precursor of the Republican party, +which was based as much on expediency as on abstract right." It is +very true that many Republicans, especially in the earlier days, were +neither Abolitionists nor Anti-Slavery people. A good many of them, +like Abraham Lincoln, were sentimentally adverse to slavery, but under +existing conditions did not want it disturbed. Many of them, having +broken loose from the old parties, had no other place of shelter and +cared nothing for slavery one way or the other, some being of the +opinion of one of the new party leaders whom the writer hereof heard +declare that "the niggers are just where they ought to be." All this, +however, does not prove that the third-party people were not the real +forerunners and founders of the Republican party. They certainly +helped to break up the old organizations, crushing them in whole or +part. They supplied a contingent of trained and desperately earnest +workers, their hearts being enlisted as well as their hands. And what +was of still greater consequence, they furnished an issue, and one +that was very much alive, around which the detached fragments of the +old parties could collect and unite. Their share in the composition +and development of the new party can be illustrated. Out in our great +midland valley two rivers--the Missouri and the Mississippi--meet and +mingle their waters. The Missouri, although the larger stream, after +the junction is heard of no more; but being charged with a greater +supply of sedimentary matter, gives its color to the combined flood of +the assimilated waters. Abolitionism was merged in Republicanism. It +was no longer spoken of as a separate element, but from the beginning +it gave color and character to the combination. The whole compound was +Abolitionized. + +It was not, indeed, the voting strength, although this was +considerable, that the Abolitionists brought to the Republican +organization, that made them the real progenitors of that party. It is +possible that the other constituents entering into it, which were +drawn from the Anti-Slavery Whigs, the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats, the +"Barnburner" Democrats of New York, the "Know-Nothings," etc., +numbered more in the aggregate than the Abolitionists it included; but +it was not so much the number of votes the Abolitionists contributed +that made them the chief creators of the Republican party, as it was +their working and fighting ability. They had undergone a thorough +training. For nearly twenty years they had been in the field in active +service. For the whole of that time they had been exposed to +pro-slavery mobbing and almost every kind of persecution. They had to +conquer every foot of ground they occupied. They had done an immense +amount of invaluable preparatory work. To deny to such people a +liberal share of the credit for results accomplished, would be as +reasonable as to say that men who clear the land, plough the ground, +and sow the seed, because others may help to gather the harvest, have +nothing to do with raising the crop. But for the pioneer work of the +Abolitionists there would have been no Republican party. + +There had been Anti-Slavery people in this country before the +Abolitionists--conscientious, zealous, intelligent--but somehow they +lacked the ability, in the language of the pugilists, to "put up a +winning fight." They had been brushed aside or trampled under foot. +Not so with the Abolitionists. They had learned all the tricks of the +enemy. They were not afraid of opposition. They knew how to give blows +as well as to take them. The result was that from the time they +organized for separate political action in 1840, they had made steady +progress, although this seemed for a period to be discouragingly slow. +It was only a question of time when, if there had been no Republican +party, they would have succeeded in abolishing slavery without its +assistance. + +Although, as before remarked, the Republican party was made up of a +good many elements besides the Abolitionists, there was among them but +little homogeneousness. They were indifferent, if not hostile, to each +other, and, if left to themselves, would never have so far coalesced +as to make a working party. They had no settled policy, no common +ground to stand on. They would have been simply a rope of sand. But +the Abolitionists supplied a bond of union. They had a principle that +operated like a loadstone in bringing the factions together. + +There was another inducement the Abolitionists had to offer. They had +an organization that was perfect in its way. It was weak but active. +It had made its way into Congress where it had such representatives as +John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase in the Senate, and several brilliant +men in the Lower House. It had a complete outfit of party machinery. +It had an efficient force of men and women engaged in canvassing as +lecturers and stump orators. It had well managed newspapers, and the +ablest pens in the country--not excepting Harriet Beecher +Stowe's--were in its service. All this, it is hardly necessary to say, +was attractive to people without political homes. The Abolitionists +offered them not only shelter but the prospect of meat and drink in +the future. In that way their organization became the nucleus of the +Republican party, which was in no sense a new organization, but a +reorganization of an old force with new material added. + +And here would seem to be the proper place for reference to the +historical fact that the Republican party, under that name, had but +four years of existence behind it when the great crisis came in the +election of Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War--Lincoln's +election being treated by the South as a _casus belli_. The Republican +party was established under that name in 1856 and Lincoln was elected +in 1860. + +Now, the work preparatory to Lincoln's election was not done in four +years. The most difficult part of it--the most arduous, the most +disagreeable, the most dangerous--had been done long before. Part of +it dated back to 1840. Indeed, the performance of the Republican party +in those four years was not remarkably brilliant. With the slogan of +"Free soil, free men, and Fremont" it made an ostentatious +demonstration in 1856--an attempted _coup de main_--which failed. It +would have failed quite as signally in 1860, but for the division of +the Democratic party into the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. That +division was pre-arranged by the slaveholders who disliked Douglas, +the regular Democratic nominee, much more than they did Lincoln, and +who hoped and plotted for Lincoln's election because it furnished them +a pretext for rebellion. + +The change of name from "Free Soil" or "Liberty" to "Republican" in +1856 had very little significance. It was a matter of partisan policy +and nothing more. "Liberty" and "Free Soil," as party cognomens, had a +meaning, and were supposed to antagonize certain prejudices. +"Republican," at that juncture, meant nothing whatever. Besides, it +was sonorous; it was euphonious; it was palatable to weak political +stomachs. The ready acceptance of the new name by the Abolitionists +goes very far to contradict Mr. Roosevelt's accusation against them of +being regardless of the claims of political expediency. + +The writer has shown, as he believes, that without the preparatory +work of the political Abolitionists there would have been no +Republican party. He will now go a step further. He believes that +without that preliminary service there would not only have been no +Republican party, but no Civil War in the interest of free soil, no +Emancipation Proclamation, no Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to +the Federal Constitution. There might have been and probably would +have been considerable discussion, ending in a protest, more or less +"ringing," when slavery was permitted to overstep the line marked out +by the Missouri Compromise. There might even have been another +"settlement." But no such adjustment would have seriously impeded the +northward march of the triumphant Slave Power. Indeed, in that event +it is more than probable that ere this the legal representatives of +the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia, would, if so inclined, have made +good his boast of calling the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker +Hill monument. + +So far we have dealt with Mr. Roosevelt's indictment of the +Abolitionists for abandoning the old pro-slavery political parties, +and undertaking to construct a new and better one. That, in his +judgment, was a political crime. But he charges them with another +manifestation of criminality which was much more serious. He accuses +them of hostility, to the Union, which was disloyalty and treason. The +evidence offered by him in support of his accusation was the +Anti-Unionist position taken by William Lloyd Garrison, who branded +the Union as a "league with hell," and some of his associates. But +Garrison was not a leader, or even a member, of the third or Liberty +party. He denounced it almost as bitterly as Mr. Roosevelt. + +Garrison was a Quaker, a non-resistant, and a non-voter. He relied on +moral suasion. He saw no salvation in politics. The formation of a new +Anti-Slavery party excited his fiery indignation. He declared that it +was "ludicrous in its folly, pernicious as a measure of policy, and +useless as a political contrivance." + +Far and away the most potential member and leader of the political +Abolitionists was Salmon P. Chase. Instead of denouncing the +Constitution as "a league with death and hell," he claimed that it +was an Anti-Slavery document and should be so construed. As for the +Union, by his services in successfully managing the finances of the +country in its great crisis, he did as much to sustain the Union as +any other man of that time. To accuse him of hostility and infidelity +to the Union, is something that no one can do with impunity. In fact, +so clear and so clean, as well as so bold and striking, is the record +of Chase and his associates, beginning in 1840 and continuing down +until the last shackle was stricken from the last bondsman's limbs, +that even the shadow of the White House cannot obscure it. + +Nor is Mr. Roosevelt happy in his illustration, when, in his +concluding arraignment of the Abolitionists, he seeks to discredit +them as an organization of impracticables by comparing them to the +political Prohibitionists of to-day. When the latter, if that time is +ever to be, shall become strong enough to rout one or both of the +existing main political parties, and, taking the control of the +Government in their hands, shall not only legally consign the liquor +traffic to its coffin, but nail it down with a constitutional +amendment, then Mr. Roosevelt's comparison will apply. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE + + +In selecting those who are to receive its remembrance and its honors, +the world has always given its preference to such as have battled for +freedom. It may have been with the sword; it may have been with the +pen; or it may have been with a tongue that was inflamed with holy +rage against tyranny and wrong; but whatever the instrumentality +employed; in whatever field the battle has been fought; and by +whatsoever race, or class, or kind of men; the champions of human +liberty have been hailed as the bravest of the brave and the most +worthy to receive the acclaims of their fellows. + +Now, if that estimate be not altogether inaccurate, what place in the +scale of renown must be assigned to those pioneers in the successful +movement against African slavery in this country who have commonly +been known as "Abolitionists"--a name first given in derision by their +enemies? It should, in the opinion of the writer hereof, be the very +highest. He is not afraid to challenge the whole record of human +achievements by great and good men (always save and except that which +is credited to the Saviour of mankind) for exhibitions of heroism +superior to theirs. Nay, when it is remembered that mainly through +their efforts and sacrifices was accomplished a revolution by which +four million human beings (but for the Abolitionists the number to-day +in bondage would be eight millions) were lifted from the condition in +which American slaves existed but a few years ago, to freedom and +political equality with their former masters; and, at the same time +when it is considered what qualities of heart and brain were needed +for such a task, he does not believe that history, from its earliest +chapters, furnishes examples of gods or men, except in very rare and +isolated cases, who have shown themselves to be their equals. + +In the matter of physical courage they were unsurpassed, +unsurpassable. A good many of them were Quakers and non-resistants, +and a good many of them were women, but they never shrank from danger +to life and limb, when employed in their humanitarian work. Some of +them achieved the martyr's crown. + +In the matter of conscience they were indomitable. Life to them was +worth less than principle. + +In the matter of money they were absolutely unselfish. Those of them +who were poor, as the most of them were, toiled on without the hope of +financial recompense. They did their work not only without the promise +or prospect of material reward of any kind, but with the certainty of +pains and penalties that included the ostracism and contempt of their +fellows, and even serious risks to property and life. + +All these sacrifices were in the cause of human liberty; but of +liberty for whom? That is the crucial point. In all ages there have +been plenty of men who have honorably striven for liberty for +themselves. Some there have been who have risen to higher planes. We +have an example in Lafayette. He fought to liberate a people who were +foreign in language and blood; but they were of his own color and the +peers of his compatriots. + +The Abolitionists, however, espoused the cause, and it was for that +that they endured so much, of creatures that were infinitely below +them; of beings who had ceased to be recognized as belonging to +humanity, and were classed with the cattle of the field and other +species of "property." So low were they that they could neither +appreciate nor return the services rendered in their behalf. For their +condition, the Abolitionists were in no sense responsible. They had no +necessary fellowship with the unfortunates. They were under no +especial obligation to them. They were not of the same family. It was +even doubted whether the races had a common origin. And yet, to the +end of securing release for these wretched victims of an intolerable +oppression, not a few of them dedicated all they possessed--life not +excepted. + +True it is that they had no monopoly of benevolence. Many noble men +and women have gone as missionaries to the poor and benighted, and +have sought through numerous hardships and perils to raise up those +who have been trodden in the dust. But, as a rule, their services have +been rendered pursuant to a secular employment that carried financial +compensation, and behind their devotion to the poor and oppressed has +been the expectation of personal reward in another world, if not in +this. But such motives barely, if at all, influenced the +Abolitionists. No element of professionalism entered into their work. +They were not particularly religious. They neither very greatly +reverenced nor feared the Church, whose leaders they often accused of +a hankering for the "flesh-pots" that induced them to lead their +followers into Egypt, rather than out of it. They were partly moved by +a hatred of slavery and its long train of abuses that was +irrepressible, and which to most persons was incomprehensible, and +partly by a love for their fellows in distress that was so insistent +as to make them forget themselves. Their impulses seemed to be largely +intuitive, if not instinctive, and if called upon for a philosophical +explanation they could not have given it. + +In such a struggle for freedom and natural human rights as was carried +on by the Abolitionists against tremendous odds and through a term +covering many long years, it does seem to the writer of this essay +that mortal heroism reached its height. + +Nor am I by any means alone in the opinion just expressed. As far back +as 1844, when the Abolitionists were few in number and the objects of +almost savage persecution in every part of our country, the Earl of +Carlisle, who, in his day was one of the most capable leaders of +British public opinion, declared that they were engaged "in fighting a +battle without a parallel in the history of ancient or modern +heroism." + +I am moved to write the story of the Abolitionists, partly because it +is full of romantic interest, and partly because justice demands it. +Those doughty file leaders in the Anti-Slavery fight do not to-day +have an adequate acknowledgment of the obligations that the country +and humanity should recognize as belonging to them, and they never +have had it. Much of the credit that is fairly theirs has been +mis-applied. Writers of history--so called, although much of it is +simple eulogy--have been more and more inclined to attribute the +overthrow of slavery to the efforts of a few men, and particularly one +man, who, after long opposition to, or neglect of, the freedom +movement, came to its help in the closing scenes of a great conflict, +while the earlier, and certainly equally meritorious, workers and +fighters have been quite left out of the account. The writer does not +object to laborers who entered the field at the eleventh hour, sharing +with those who bore the heat and burden of the day; but when there is +a disposition to give to them all the earnings he does feel like +protesting. + +The case of the Abolitionists is not overstated when it is said that, +but for their labors and struggles, this country, instead of being all +free, would to-day be all slaveholding. The relative importance of +their work in creating, by means of a persistent agitation, an +opposition to human slavery that was powerful enough to compel the +attention of the public and force the machine politicians, after long +opposition, to admit the question into practical politics, cannot well +be overestimated. + +They alone and single-handed fought the opening battles of a great +war, which, although overshadowed and obscured by later and more +dramatic events, were none the less gallantly waged and nobly won. It +is customary to speak of our Civil War as a four years' conflict. It +was really a thirty years' war, beginning when the pioneer +Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death +struggle. It was then that the hardest battles were fought. + +I write the more willingly because comparatively few now living +remember the mad excitement of the slavery controversy in ante-bellum +days. The majority--the living and the working masses of to-day--will, +doubtless, be gratified to have accurate pictures of scenes and events +of which they have heard their seniors speak, that distinguished the +most tempestuous period in our national history--the one in which the +wildest passions were aroused and indulged. Then it was that the +fiercest and bitterest agitation prevailed. The war that followed did +not increase this. It rather modified it--sobered it in view of the +crisis at hand--and served as a safety-valve for its escape. + +For the same reason, the general public has now but slight +comprehension of the trials endured by the Abolitionists for +principle's sake. In many ways were they persecuted. In society they +were tabooed; in business shunned. By the rabble they were hooted and +pelted. Clowns in the circus made them the subjects of their jokes. +Newspaper scribblers lampooned and libelled them. Politicians +denounced them. By the Church they were regarded as very black sheep, +and sometimes excluded from the fold. And this state of things lasted +for years, during which they kept up a steady agitation with the help +of platform lecturers, and regularly threw away their votes--so it +was charged--in a "third party" movement that seemed to be a hopeless +venture. + +Another inducement to the writer to take up the cause of the +Abolitionists is the fact that he has always been proud to class +himself as one of them. He came into the world before Abolitionism, by +that name, had been heard of; before the first Abolition Society was +organized; before William Lloyd Garrison founded his _Liberator_, and +before (not the least important circumstance) John Quincy Adams +entered Congress. He cannot remember when the slavery question was not +discussed. His sympathies at an early day went out to the slave. He +informed himself on the subject as well as a farmer boy might be +expected to do in a household that received the most of its knowledge +of current events from the columns of one weekly newspaper. He cast +his first vote for the ticket of the Abolitionists while they were yet +a "third party." + +The community in which he then lived, although in the free State of +Ohio, was strongly pro-slavery, being not far from the Southern +border. The population was principally from Virginia and Kentucky. +There were a few Abolitionists, and they occasionally tried to hold +public meetings, but the gatherings were always broken up by mobs. + +The writer very well remembers the satisfaction with which he, as a +schoolboy, was accustomed to hear that there was to be another +Abolition "turn-out." The occasion was certain to afford considerable +excitement that was dear to the heart of a boy, and it had another +recommendation. The only room in the village--"town" we called +it--for such affairs, except the churches, which were barred against +"fanatics," was the district schoolhouse, which, by common consent, +was open to all comers, and as the windows and doors, through which +missiles were hurled during Anti-Slavery gatherings, were always more +or less damaged, "we boys" usually got a holiday or two while the +building was undergoing necessary repairs. + +As might be surmised, the lessons I learned at school were not all +such as are usually acquired at such institutions. My companions were +like other children, full of spirit and mischief, and not without +their prejudices. They hated Abolitionists because they--the +Abolitionists--wanted to compel all white people to marry "niggers." +Although not naturally unkind, they did not always spare the feelings +of "the son of an old Abolitionist." We had our arguments. Some of +them were of the knock-down kind. In more than one shindy, growing out +of the discussion of the great question of the day, I suffered the +penalty of a bloody nose or a blackened eye for standing up for my +side. + +The feeling against the negroes' friends--the Abolitionists--was not +confined to children in years. It was present in all classes. It +entered State and Church alike, and dominated both of them. The +Congressional Representative from the district in which I lived in +those days was an able man and generally held in high esteem. He made +a speech in our village when a candidate for re-election. In +discussing the slavery question--everybody discussed it then--he spoke +of the negroes as being "on the same footing with other cattle." I +remember the expression very well because it shocked me, boy that I +was. It did not disturb the great majority of those present, however. +They cheered the sentiment and gave their votes for the speaker, who +was re-elected by a large majority. + +About the same time I happened to be present where a General Assembly +of one of our largest religious denominations was in session, and +listened to part of an address by a noted divine--the most +distinguished man in the body--which was intended to prove that +slavery was an institution existing by biblical authority. He spent +two days in a talk that was mostly made up of scriptural texts and his +commentaries upon them. This was in Ohio, and there was not a +slave-owner in the assembly, and yet a resolution commendatory of the +views that had just been declared by the learned doctor, was adopted +by an almost unanimous vote. + +In the neighborhood in which I lived was an old and much respected +clergyman who was called upon to preach a sermon on a day of some +national significance. He made it the occasion for a florid panegyric +upon American institutions, which, he declared, assured freedom to all +men. Here he paused, "When I spoke of all men enjoying freedom under +our flag," he resumed, "I did not, of course, include the Ethiopians +whom Providence has brought to our shores for their own good as well +as ours. They are slaves by a divine decree. As descendants of Ham, +they are under a curse that makes them the servants of their more +fortunate white brethren." Having thus put himself right on the +record, he proceeded with his sermon. No one seemed to take exception +to what he said. + +In the same neighborhood was a young preacher who had shortly before +come into it from somewhere farther North. In the course of one of his +regular services he offered up a prayer in which he expressed the hope +that the good Lord would find a way to break the bands of all who were +in bondage. That smacked of Abolitionism and at once there was a +commotion. The minister was asked to explain. This he declined to do, +saying that his petition was a matter between him and his God, and he +denied the right of others to question him. That only increased the +opposition, and in a short time the spunky young man was compelled to +resign his charge. + +About that time there appeared a lecturer on slavery--which meant +against slavery--who carried credentials showing that he was a +clergyman in good standing in one of the leading Protestant +denominations. In our village was a church of that persuasion, whose +pastor was not an Abolitionist. As in duty bound, the visiting brother +called on his local fellow-laborer, and informed him that on the +following day, which happened to be Sunday, he would be pleased to +attend service at his church. On the morrow he was on hand and +occupied a seat directly in front of the pulpit; but, notwithstanding +his conspicuousness, the home minister, who should, out of courtesy, +have invited him to a seat in the pulpit, if to no other part in the +services, never saw him. He looked completely over his head, keeping +his eyes, all through the exercises, fixed upon the back pews, which +happened, on that occasion, to be chiefly unoccupied. + +Such incidents, of themselves, were of no great importance. Their +significance was in the fact that they all occurred on the soil of a +free State. They showed the state of feeling that then and there +existed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ONE OF THEIR TRAITS + + +The writer has spoken of the courage of the Abolitionists. There is +another trait by which they were distinguished that, in his opinion, +should not be passed over. That was their extreme hopefulness--their +untiring confidence. No matter how adverse were the conditions, they +expected to win. They never counted the odds against them. They +trusted in the right which they were firmly persuaded would prevail +some time or another. For that time they were willing to wait, +meanwhile doing what they could to hasten its coming. + +Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker mechanic, who was undeniably the +Peter-the-Hermit of the Abolitionist movement, when setting out alone +and on foot, with his printing material on his back, to begin a +crusade against the strongest and most arrogant institution in the +country, remarked with admirable naïveté, "I do not know how soon I +shall succeed in my undertaking." + +William Lloyd Garrison, when the pioneer Anti-Slavery Society was +organized by only twelve men, and they people of no worldly +consequence, the meeting for lack of a better place being held in a +colored schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" in Boston, declared that in due +time they would meet to urge their principles in Faneuil Hall--a most +audacious declaration, but he was right. + +The writer, when a boy, was witness to an exhibition of the same +spirit. A kinsman of his was a zealous Abolitionist, although not +particularly gifted with controversial acumen. He and his minister, as +often happened, were discussing the slavery question. The minister, +like many of his cloth at that time, was a staunch supporter of "the +institution," which, according to his contention, firmly rested on +biblical authority. + +"How do you expect to destroy slavery, as it exists in Kentucky, by +talking and voting abolition up here in Ohio?" asked the clergyman. + +"We will crush it through Congress when we get control of the general +government," said my kinsman. + +"But Congress and the general government have, under the Constitution, +absolutely no power over slavery in the States. It is a State +institution," replied the clergyman. + +It is unnecessary to follow the discussion, but, one after another, +the quicker-witted and better-informed preacher successfully combated +all the propositions advanced by my relative in trying to give a +reason for the faith that was in him, until he was completely +cornered. "Well," said he at last, "the good Lord has not taken me +into His confidence, and I don't know what His plans for upsetting +slavery are, but He will be able to manage it somehow." + +My kinsman lived long enough to see the day when there was not a +slave on American soil, and the minister lived long enough to become a +roaring Abolitionist. + +It was doubtless their confidence in ultimate triumph, a result of +their absolute belief in the righteousness of their cause, that, as +much as anything else, armed and armored the Abolitionists against all +opposition. It was one main element of their strength in the midst of +their weakness. Without it they could not have persisted, as they did, +in their separate or "third party" political action, that cleared the +way and finally led up to a victorious organization. Year after year, +and for many years, they voted for candidates that had no chance of +election. Their first presidential ticket got only seven thousand +votes in the whole country. The great public, which could not see the +use of acting politically for principle alone, laughed at their +simplicity in "throwing away their votes." "Voting in the air" was the +way it was often spoken of, and those who were guilty of such +incomprehensible folly were characterized as "one idea people." They, +however, cared little for denunciation or ridicule, and kept on +regularly nominating their tickets, and as regularly giving them votes +that generally appeared in the election returns among the +"scattering." They were not abashed by the insignificance of their +party. + + "They were men who dared to be + the right with two or three," + +according to the poet Lowell. + +In the county in which I lived when a boy, there was one vote polled +for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket. The man who gave it +did not try to hide his responsibility--in fact, he seemed rather +proud of his aloneness--but he was mercilessly guyed on account of the +smallness of his party. His rejoinder was that he thought that he and +God, who was, he believed, with him, made a pretty good-sized and +respectable party. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE + + +The intensity--perhaps density would be a better word in this +connection--of the prejudice that confronted the Abolitionists when +they entered on their work is not describable by any expressions we +have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man +could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions +were not much better. Every man and woman--because the muster-roll of +the Abolition propagandists was recruited from both sexes--carried on +the work at the hazard of his or her life. Sneers, scowls, hootings, +curses, and rough handling were absolutely certain. One incident +throws light on the state of feeling at that time. + +When Pennsylvania Hall, which the Abolitionists of +Philadelphia--largely Quakers--had erected for a meeting place at a +cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department +of that city threw water on surrounding property, but not one drop +would it contribute to save the property of the Abolitionists. + +Why was it that this devotion to slavery and this hostility to its +opposers prevailed in the non-slaveholding States? They had not always +existed. Indeed, there was a time, not so many years before, when +slavery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and +Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public +opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of +universal emancipation, when suddenly--almost in the twinkling of an +eye--there was a change. If it had been a weather-cock--as to a +considerable extent it was, and is--public opinion could not have more +quickly veered about. + +Slavery became the popular idol in the North as well as in the South. +Opposition to it was not only offensive, but dangerous. It was +sacrilege. + +So far as the South was concerned the revolution is easily accounted +for. Slavery became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with +a wand of gold, and from being a languishing, struggling system, it +quickly developed into a money-maker. + +Whitney, the Connecticut mechanical genius, by the invention of the +cotton-gin, made the production of cotton a highly lucrative industry. +The price of negroes to work the cotton fields at once went up, and +yet the supply was inadequate. Northernly slave States could not +produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the +golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in +human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken of as "nigger +pens," in which the "hands" that were to make the cotton were +temporarily gathered, and long coffles--that is, processions of men +and women, each with a hand attached to a common rope or +chain--marched through their streets with faces turned southward. + +The slave-owners were numerically a lean minority even in the South, +but their mastery over their fellow-citizens was absolute. Nor was +there any mystery about it. As the owners of four million slaves, on +an average worth not far from five hundred dollars each, they formed +the greatest industrial combination--what at this time we would call a +trust--ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel +Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great +financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up +to the dimensions of that one association. It was not incorporated in +law, but its union was perfect. Bound together by a common interest +and a common feeling, its members--in the highest sense co-partners in +business and in politics, in peace and in war--were prepared to act +together as one man. + +But why, I again ask, were the Northern people so infatuated with +slavery? They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of +them, and especially their political leaders, carried their adulation +almost to idolatry. + +When Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot down like a dog, and William Lloyd +Garrison was dragged half naked and half lifeless through the streets +of Boston, and other outrages of like import were being perpetrated +all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were +not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"--of +merchants, manufacturers, and members of the professions. They claimed +the credit for such achievements. There were reasons for such a state +of things--some very solid, because financial. + +The North and the South were extensively interlaced by mutual +interests. With slave labor the Southern planters made cotton, and +with the proceeds of their cotton they bought Northern machinery and +merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They +came North themselves when their pockets were full, and freely spent +their money at Northern hotels, Northern theatres, Northern +race-tracks, and other Northern places of entertainment. + +Then there were other ties than those of business. The great political +parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their +Southern members. Every kind of trade and calling had its Southern +outlet. + +But social connections were the strongest of all, and probably had +most to do in making Northern sentiment. Southern gentlemen were +popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were +grandiose. They talked boastfully of the number of their "niggers," +and told how they were accustomed to "wallop" them. + +Then there were marriage ties between the sections. Many domestic +alliances strengthened the bond between slavery and the aristocracy of +the North. + +In the circles in which these things were going on, it was the fashion +to denounce the Abolitionists. Women were the most bitter. The +slightest suspicion of sympathy with the "fanatics" was fatal to +social ambition. Mrs. Henry Chapman, the wife of a wealthy Boston +shipping merchant who gave orders that no slaves should be carried on +his vessels, was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense +in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small +conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former +associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of +Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were +noted for their intelligence and culture, but when the heads of the +families came to be classified as Abolitionists the doors of all +fashionable mansions were at once shut against them. They in other +ways suffered for their opinions. The home of Lewis Tappan was invaded +by a mob, and furniture, books, and _bric-a-brac_ were carried to the +street and there burned to ashes. + +The masses of the Northern people were, however, led to favor slavery +by other arguments. One of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, +would at once rush to the North and overrun the free States. I have +heard that proposition warmly supported by fairly intelligent persons. + +Another argument that weighed with a surprisingly large number of +people, was that civil equality would be followed by social equality. +As soon as they were free, negro men, it was said, would marry white +wives. "Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was +regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of +course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a +negro woman for a slave, I do want her for a wife?" was one of the +quaint and pithy observations attributed to Mr. Lincoln. I heard +Prof. Hudson, of Oberlin College, express the same idea in about the +same words many years before. + +And yet there were plenty of Northern people to whom +"Amalgamation"--the word used to describe the apprehended union of the +races--was a veritable scarecrow. A young gentleman in a neighborhood +near where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for +matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had +been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," said +the old gentleman, "that you are an Abolitionist." The young man +admitted the justice of the charge. "Then, sir," fairly roared the old +man, "you can't have my daughter; go and marry a nigger." + +But what probably gave slavery its strongest hold upon the favor of +Northern people was the animosity toward the negro that prevailed +among them. Nowhere was he treated by them like a human being. The +"black laws," as those statutes in a number of free States that +regulated the treatment of the blacks were appropriately called, were +inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was +called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws +they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. +Any one employing negroes, not so bonded, was liable to a fine of one +hundred dollars. They could not vote, of course. They could not +testify in a case in which a white man was interested. They could not +send their children to schools which they helped to support. The only +thing they could do "like a white man" was to pay taxes. + +The prejudice against the poor creatures in Ohio was much stronger +than that they encountered on the other side of the Ohio River in the +slave State of Kentucky. Here--in Kentucky--they were property, and +they generally received the care and consideration that ownership +ordinarily establishes. The interest of the master was a factor in +their behalf. In many instances there was genuine affection between +owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had +good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes +would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. +There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the +blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in freedom. +What stronger testimony to the innate desire for liberty--what Byron +has described as "The eternal spirit of the chainless mind"--than the +fact that slaves who were the most indulgently treated, were +constantly escaping from the easy and careless life they led to the +hostilities and barbarities of the free States, and they never went +back except under compulsion. + + "O carry me back to old Virginy, + To old Virginy's shore," + +was the refrain of a song that was very popular in those days, and +which was much affected by what were called "negro minstrels." It was +assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when +they had time to realize what freedom meant in their cases, but I +never heard the words from the lips of a man who had lived in a state +of servitude. + +I have elsewhere referred to the fact that women were often the most +bitter in their denunciations of the Abolitionists. In the +neighborhood in which I passed my early days was a lady who was born +and raised in the North, and who probably had no decided sentiment, +one way or the other, on the slavery question; but who about this time +spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came +back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She +could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by +the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had nothing to do +except to take the world easy, and that, according to her account, +they did with great unanimity. The slaves, were, she declared, the +happiest people in the world, all care and responsibility being taken +from their shoulders by masters who were kind enough to look out for +their wants. + +But one day she unwittingly exposed a glimpse of the reverse side of +the picture. She told the story of a young slave girl who had been +accused of larceny. She had picked up some trifling article that +ordinarily no one would have cared anything about; but at this time it +was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the +poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a +ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that +purpose, and she was drawn up, with her face to the building, until +her toes barely touched the ground. Then, in the presence of all her +fellow-slaves, and with her clothing so detached as to expose her +naked shoulders, she was flogged until the blood trickled down her +back. + +"I felt almost as bad for her," said the narrator, "as if she had been +one of my own kind." + +"Thank God she was not one of your kind!" exclaimed a voice that +fairly sizzled with rage. + +The speaker who happened to be present was a relative of the author +and a red-hot Abolitionist. + +Then came a furious war of words, the two enraged women shouting +maledictions in each other's faces. As a boy, I enjoyed the +performance hugely until I began to see that there was danger of a +collision. As the only male present, it would be my duty to interfere +in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and +hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be +really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when the +two women, looking into each other's inflamed faces, suddenly realized +the ridiculousness of the situation and broke into hearty peals of +laughter. That, of course, ended the controversy, not a little to the +relief of the writer. + +If the influence of a great majority of the women of that day was +thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the +minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and +aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most +indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women--such as Mrs. +Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names +are here omitted, although they richly deserve to be mentioned. Of +all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a +little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish +crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I +never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes +were small and it appeared to me that they contracted, when she was +speaking, until they emitted sparks of fire. Although she went by her +maiden name, she was a married woman, being the wife of Stephen +Foster, a professional Abolitionist agitator and lecturer. Although +himself noted for the bitterness of his speech, when it came to +hard-hitting vituperation he could not begin to "hold a candle" to his +little wife. + +The two traveled together and spoke from the same platforms. They were +constantly getting into hot water through the hostility of mobs, which +they seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once +in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the +slightest fear. The only meeting addressed by them that I attended, +though held on the Sabbath, was ended by the throwing of stones and +sticks and addled eggs. + +But if the current of public opinion in the North suddenly turned, and +for a long time ran with overwhelming force in favor of slavery, it +changed about almost as suddenly and ran with equal force in the +opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that +furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential +ticket, became a Republican stronghold. It was in what had been a Whig +district, and when the Whig party went to pieces, the most of its +_débris_ drifted into the Republican lines. + +On the occasion of one of the pro-slavery mobs I elsewhere tell about, +when a supply of eggs with which to garnish the Abolitionists, was +wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the town +constable--the peace officer of the community--put his hand in his +pocket and supplied the funds. + +A few years thereafter, on my return to the village after a +considerable absence, I found that I had come just in time to attend a +Republican rally which was that day to be held in a near-by grove. +When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the +grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, +but by far the most excited individual was the Grand Marshal and +Master of Ceremonies. Seated on a high horse, he was riding up and +down the line shouting out his orders with tremendous unction. He was +the constable of the egg-buying episode. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE POLITICAL SITUATION + + +In several of his addresses before his election to the Presidency, Mr. +Lincoln gave utterance to the following language: "A house divided +against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot +permanently remain half slave and half free. I do not expect the house +to fall, but I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all +one thing or all the other thing." + +The same opinion had been enunciated several years before by John +Quincy Adams on the floor of Congress, when, with his accustomed +pungency, he declared, "The Union will fall before slavery or slavery +will fall before the Union." + +But before either Adams or Lincoln spoke on the subject--away back in +1838--the same idea they expressed had a more elaborate and forcible +presentation in the following words: + + "The conflict is becoming--has become--not alone of freedom for + the blacks, but of freedom for the whites. It has now become + absolutely necessary that slavery shall cease in order that + freedom may be preserved in any portion of our land. The + antagonistic principles of liberty and slavery have been roused + into action, and one or the other must be victorious. There will + be no cessation of the strife until slavery shall be exterminated + or liberty destroyed." + +The author of the words last above quoted was James Gillespie Birney, +who was the first Abolitionist, or "Liberty party," candidate for the +Presidency, and of whose career a brief sketch is elsewhere given. + +That the slaveholders reached the same conclusion that Birney and +Adams and Lincoln announced, viz., that the country was to be all one +thing or all the other thing, is as manifest as any fact in our +history. It is equally certain that they had firmly resolved to +capture the entire commonwealth for their "institution," and had laid +their plans to that end. They were unwilling to live in a divided +house, particularly with an occupant who was stronger in population +and wealth than they were. + +They saw the danger in such association. Northern sentiment toward +slavery was complacent enough, even servilely so, but it might change. +The South thought it had too much at stake to take the chances when +the opportunity for absolute safety and permanent rule was within its +reach. It resolved to make the whole country, not only pro-slavery, +but slaveholding. If, through any mischance, it failed in its +calculation, the next step would be to tear down the house and from +its ruins reconstruct so much of it as might be needed for its own +occupancy. That it would be able in time to possess itself of the +whole country, however, for and in behalf of its industrial policy, it +did not for an instant doubt. It was not empty braggadocio on the part +of the celebrated Robert Toombs, of Georgia, when he uttered his +famous boast.[1] He voiced the practically unanimous opinion of his +section. + +[1] See page 13. + +Nor was there anything seemingly very presumptuous in that +anticipation. So far, the South had been invariably victorious. In +what appeared to be a decisive battle in the test case of admitting +Missouri into the Union as a slave State, it had won. So pronounced +was its triumph that whatever Anti-Slavery sentiment survived the +conflict appeared to be stunned and helpless. All fight was knocked +out of it. Its spirit was broken. While the South was not only compact +and fully alive, but exultingly aggressive, the North was divided, +fully one half of its population being about as pro-slavery as the +slaveholders themselves, and the rest, with rare exceptions, being +hopelessly apathetic. The Northern leaders of both of the old +political parties--Whig and Democratic--were what the Abolitionists +called "dough-faces," being Northern men with Southern principles. The +Church was "a dumb dog," and the press simply drifted with the tide. +It was not at all strange that the slaveholders expected to go on from +conquest to conquest. + +There were two policies they could adopt. One was to attack the +enemy's citadel; or rather, the several citadels it possessed in its +individual States, and force them to open their doors to the master +and his human chattels. The other was to flank and cover, approaching +the main point of attack by way of the Territories. These, once in +possession of the slaveholders, could be converted into enough slave +States to give them the control of the general government, from which +coigne of advantage they could proceed in their own time and way to +possess themselves of such other free States as they might want. + +In the matter of the Territories they had a great advantage. The North +was up against a stone wall at the Canadian border. In that direction +it could not advance a step, while the South had practically an +unlimited field on its side from which to carve possessions as they +might be wanted, very much as you would cut a pie. + +In pursuance of its territorial policy--being the line of action it +first resolved upon--the first movement of the South was to annex +Texas--a victory. The next was to make war on Mexico, and (a joke of +the day) conquer a "piece" from it large enough to make half a dozen +States, all expected to be slaveholding--another victory. + +By a curious irony the filching of land for slavery's uses from a +neighbor, and on which the foot of a slave had never pressed, was +exultingly spoken of at the time by its supporters as "an extension of +the area of freedom." The act was justified on the ground that we +needed "land for the landless," which led Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio to +assert on the floor of the United States Senate, with as much truth as +wit, that it was not land for the landless that was wanted, but +"niggers for the niggerless." + +Then came the battle over Kansas. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill in Congress, although involving a breach of good faith on the +part of the South, was hailed as another victory for that section. It +was a costly victory. It was followed by defeat not only disastrous +but fatal. The result in Kansas was really the turning-point in the +great struggle. It broke the line of Southern victories. It +neutralized the effect of the whole territorial movement up to that +point. It completely spoiled the slaveholders' well-laid plans. We +will always give Grant and his men all praise for victories leading up +to Appomatox, but, in some respects, the most important victory of the +great conflict was won on the plains of Kansas by John Brown of +Ossawattomie and his Abolition associates. + +The most sagacious Southern leaders saw in that result conclusive +proof that the scale was turned. They realized that they were beaten +within the lines of the Union, and they began to arrange for going out +of it. They helped to elect a Republican President by dividing the +Democratic party in 1860 between two candidates--Douglas and +Breckenridge--in order that they might have a plausible pretext for +secession. + +But the slaveholders had not abandoned the other policy to which +reference has been made--that of carrying their institution, by main +force, as it were, into some, if not all, of the free States. To that +end they had, in sporting parlance, a card up their sleeves which they +proceeded to play. That card was the decision of the United States +Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, upon which they relied to give +them the legal power to take and hold their slaves in all parts of the +land. Up to the date of that decision, the current of judicial rulings +had been that slavery, being a municipal institution, was local, +while freedom was national. Hence, when a master took his slave into a +free State, at that instant he became a free man. The Dred Scott +decision was intended to reverse the rule. Practically it held that +slave ownership, wherever the Constitution prevailed, was both a legal +and a natural right. It, as Benton forcibly expressed it, "made +slavery the organic law of the land and freedom the exception"; or, as +it was jocularly expressed at the time, it left freedom nowhere. + +Although at the time of its promulgation, it was claimed by some of +the more conservative pro-slavery leaders that the Dred Scott dictum +applied only to the Territories, giving the masters the legal +authority to enter them with their slaves, that position was clearly +deceptive. The principle involved, as laid down by the Court, was +altogether too broad for that construction. In effect it put the +proprietorship of human beings upon the same footing with other +property rights, and claimed for it the same constitutional +protection. The bolder men of the South, like Toombs of Georgia, did +not hesitate to give that interpretation to the Court's pronouncement, +and to insist on it with brutal frankness. If they were wrong, the +Court was putty in their hands and they could easily have had a +supplemental ruling that would have gone to any extent. + +If the Dred Scott decision had been promulgated by our highest court, +and the slaveholders had insisted upon the license it was intended to +give them for taking their slave property into free territory, at the +time that Garrison was being dragged by a mob through Boston's +streets; when Birney's printing-press in Cincinnati was being tumbled +into the Ohio River; when Pennsylvania Hall, the Quaker Abolitionists' +forty-thousand-dollar construction, was ablaze in Philadelphia; when +Lovejoy, the Abolition martyr, was bleeding out his life in one of the +streets of Alton, Illinois--when, in fact, the whole land was swayed +by a frenzied hatred of the men and women who dared to question +slavery's right to supremacy, the writer believes the movement would +have been successful. Public opinion was so inclined in States like +Indiana and Illinois, and even in Ohio, that they might have been +easily toppled over to the South. Indeed, at that time it is a problem +how Massachusetts would have voted on a proposition to "slaveryize" +her soil. The surprising thing, as we look back to that period, is +that slavery did not get a foothold in some of the free States, if not +in all of them. + +But by the time the South was ready to play its trump card, it was too +late. The game was lost. Public opinion had become revolutionized +throughout the North. The leaven of Abolitionism had got in its work. +The men and women, few in number and weak in purse and worldly +position as they were, who had enlisted years before in the cause of +emancipation, and had fought for it in the face of almost every +conceivable discouragement, had at last won a great preliminary +victory. Slavery, through their exertions, had become impossible, both +in the Territories and in the free States of the North, the United +States Supreme Court and all the forces of the slave power to the +contrary notwithstanding. Then came to the South a not unanticipated, +and to many of her leaders a not unwelcome political Waterloo, in the +election of Lincoln. This gave the argument for secession that was +wanted. The South had then to yield--which she had no idea of +doing--or to go into rebellion. She went out of the Union very much as +she would have gone to a frolic. She had no thought that serious +fighting was to follow. She did not believe, as one of the Southern +leaders expressed it, that the Northern people would go to war for the +sake of the "niggers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS + + +The early Abolitionists were denounced as fanatics, or "fan-a-tics," +according to the pronunciation of some of their detractors. They were +treated as if partially insane. The writer when a boy attended the +trial of a cause between two neighbors in a court of low grade. It was +what was called a "cow case," and involved property worth, perhaps, as +much as twenty dollars. One of the witnesses on the stand was asked by +a lawyer, who wanted to embarrass or discredit him, if he were not an +Abolitionist. Objection came from the other side on the ground that +the inquiry was irrelevant; but the learned justice-of-the-peace who +presided held that, as it related to the witness's sanity, and that +would affect his credibility, the question was admissible. It is not, +perhaps, so very strange that in those days, in view of the +disreputableness of those whose cause they espoused, and the +apparently utter hopelessness of anything ever coming out of it, the +supporters of Anti-Slaveryism should be suspected of being "out of +their heads." + +Although Don Quixote, who, according to the veracious Cervantes, set +out with his unaided strong right arm to upset things, including +wind-mills and obnoxious dynasties, has long been looked upon as the +world's best specimen of a "fanatic," he would ordinarily be set down +as a very Solomon beside the man who would undertake single-handed to +overthrow such an institution as American slavery used to be. Such a +man there was, however. He really entered on the job of abolishing +that institution, and without a solitary assistant. Strange to say, he +was neither a giant nor a millionaire. + +According to Horace Greeley, "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high honor +of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distinctive Anti-Slaveryism in +America." + +He was slight in frame and below the medium height, and unassuming in +manner. He had, it is said, neither eloquence nor shining ability of +any sort. + +At nineteen years of age he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the +trade of a saddler. He learned more than that. Wheeling, as he tells +us, was then a great thoroughfare for the traffickers in human flesh. +Their coffles passed through the place frequently. "My heart," he +continues, "was grieved at the great abomination. I heard the wail of +the captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered into my +soul." + +But much as Lundy loathed the business of the slave-dealers and +slave-drivers, he then had no idea of attempting its abolishment. He +married and settled down to the prosecution of his trade, and had he +been like other people generally he would have been content. But he +could not shut the pictures of those street scenes in Wheeling out of +his mind and out of his heart. + +The first thing in the reformatory line he did was to organize a +local Anti-Slavery society in the village in which he was then living +in Ohio; at the first meeting of this society only five persons were +present. + +About this time Lundy made some important discoveries. He learned that +he could write what the newspapers would print, and give expression to +words that the people would listen to. He was quick to realize the +fact that the best way to reach the people of this country was through +the press. He started a very small paper with a very large name. It +was ambitiously nominated _The Genius of Universal Emancipation_. He +began with only six subscribers and without a press or other +publishing material. Moreover, he had no money. He was not then a +practical printer, though later he learned the art of type-setting. At +this time he had his newspaper printed twenty miles from his home, and +carried the edition for that distance on his back. + +But insignificant as Lundy's paper was, it had the high distinction of +being the only exclusively Anti-Slavery journal in the country, and +its editor and proprietor was the only professional Abolition lecturer +and agitator of that time. + +Afterwards, in speaking of his journalistic undertaking, Mr. Lundy +said: "I began this work without a dollar of funds, trusting to the +sacredness of the cause." Another saying of his was that he did not +stop to calculate "how soon his efforts would be crowned with +success." + +As Lundy spent the greater part of his time in traveling from place to +place, procuring subscriptions to his journal and lecturing on +slavery, he could not issue his paper regularly at any one point. In +some instances he carried the head-rules, column-rules, and +subscription-book of his journal with him, and when he came to a town +where he found a printing-press he would stop long enough to print and +mail a number of his periodical. He traveled for the most part on +foot, carrying a heavy pack. In ten years in that way he covered +twenty-five thousand miles, five thousand on foot. + +He decided to invade the enemy's country by going where slavery was. +He went to Tennessee, making the journey of eight hundred miles, one +half by water, and one half on foot. That was, of course, before the +day of railroads. + +He continued to issue his paper, although often threatened with +personal violence. Once two bullies locked him in a room and, with +revolvers in hand, tried to frighten him into a promise to discontinue +his work. He did not frighten to any extent. + +Seeking what seemed to be the most inviting field for his operations, +he decided to move his establishment to Baltimore, going most of the +way on foot and lecturing as he went whenever he could find an +audience. + +His residence in Baltimore came near proving fatal. A slave-trader, +whom he had offended, attacked and brutally beat him on the street. +The consolation he got from the court that tried the ruffian, who was +"honorably discharged," was that he (Lundy) had got "nothing more than +he deserved." Soon afterwards his printing material and other property +was burned by a mob. + +He went to Mexico to select a location for a projected colony of +colored people. He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the +strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of +saddlery and harness mending. In his journal he tells us that he often +slept in the open air, the country traversed being mostly new and +unsettled. He was in constant danger from panthers, alligators, and +rattlesnakes, while he was cruelly beset by gnats and mosquitoes. His +clothes in the morning, he tells us, would be as wet from heavy dews +as if he had fallen into the river. + +Intellectually, Lundy was not a great man, but his heart was beyond +measurement. The torch that he carried in the midst of the all but +universal darkness of that period emitted but a feeble ray, but he +kept it burning, and it possessed the almost invaluable property of +being able to transmit its flame to other torches. It kindled the +brand that was wielded by William Lloyd Garrison, and which possessed +a wonderful power of illumination. + +Garrison was beyond all question a remarkable man. In the qualities +that endow a successful leader in a desperate cause he has never been +surpassed. He had an iron will that was directed by an inflexible +conscience. "To him," says James Freeman Clarke, "right was right, and +wrong was wrong, and he saw no half lights or half shadows between +them." He was a natural orator. I never heard him talk, either on or +off the platform, but I have heard those who had listened to him, +speak of the singular gift he possessed in stating or combating a +proposition. One person who had heard him, often compared him, when +dealing with an adversary, to a butcher engaged in dissecting a +carcass, and who knew just where to strike every time,--a homely, but +expressive illustration. His addresses in England on a certain notable +occasion, which is dealt with somewhat at length elsewhere, were +declared by the first British orators to be models of perfect +eloquence. + +Lundy and Garrison met by accident. They were boarding at the same +house in Boston, and became acquainted. Lundy's mind was full of the +subject of slavery, and Garrison's proved to be receptive soil. They +decided to join forces, and we have the singular spectacle of two poor +mechanics--a journeyman saddler and a journeyman printer--conspiring +to revolutionize the domestic institutions of half of the country. + +They decided to continue the Baltimore newspaper. Garrison's +plain-spokenness, however, soon got him into trouble in that city. He +was prosecuted for libelling a shipmaster for transporting slaves, was +convicted and fined fifty dollars. The amount, so far as his ability +to pay was involved, might as well have been a million. He went to +prison, being incarcerated in a cell just vacated by a man who had +been hanged for murder, and there he remained for seven weeks. At the +end of that time Arthur Tappan, the big-hearted merchant of New York, +learning the facts of the case, advanced the money needed to set +Garrison free. + +Undeterred by his experience as a martyr, Garrison--who had returned +to Boston--resolved to establish a journal of his own in that city, +which was to be devoted to the cause of the slave. _The Liberator_ +appeared on the 1st of January, 1831. + +In entering upon this venture, Garrison had not a subscriber nor a +dollar of money. Being a printer, he set up the type and struck off +the first issue with his own hands. + +In the initial number the proprietor of the _Liberator_ outlined his +proposed policy in these words: "I will be as harsh as truth; as +uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will not excuse; I will +not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard." + +The first issue of the paper brought in a contribution of fifty +dollars from a colored man and twenty-five subscribers. It was not, +therefore, a failure, but its continuance involved a terrible strain. +Garrison and one co-worker occupied one room for work-shop, +dining-room, and bedroom. They cooked their own meals and slept upon +the floor. It was almost literally true, as pictured by Lowell, the +poet: + + "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, + Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man. + The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean, + Yet there the freedom of a race began." + +The effects produced by Garrison's unique production were simply +wonderful. In October of its first year the Vigilance Association of +South Carolina offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the +apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any white person who +might be detected in distributing or circulating the _Liberator_. +Georgia went farther than that. Less than a year after Garrison had +established his paper, the Legislature of that State passed an act +offering a reward of five thousand dollars to whomsoever should +arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute its publisher to conviction. The +_Liberator_ was excluded from the United States mails in all the slave +States, illegal as such a proceeding was. + +There was, however, opposition nearer home. The _Liberator_ +establishment was wrecked by a mob, and Garrison, after having been +stripped of nearly all his clothing, was dragged, bareheaded, by a +rope round his body through the streets of Boston until, to save his +life, the authorities thrust him into jail. + +No man in this country was so cordially hated by the slaveholders as +Garrison. Of the big men up North--the leaders of politics and +society--they had no apprehension. They knew how to manage them. It +was the little fellows like the editor of the _Liberator_ that gave +them trouble. These men had no money, but they could not be bought. +They had no fear of mobs. They cared nothing for the scoldings of the +church and the press. An adverse public sentiment never disturbed +their equanimity or caused them to turn a hair's breadth in their +course. + +It is true that Lundy and Garrison had very little to lose. They had +neither property nor social position. That, however, cannot be said of +another early Abolitionist, who, in some respects, is entitled to more +consideration than any of his co-workers. + +James Gillespie Birney was a Southerner by birth. He belonged to a +family of financial and social prominence. He was a gentleman of +education and culture, having graduated from a leading college and +being a lawyer of recognized ability. He was a slave-owner. For a time +he conducted a plantation with slave labor. He lived in Alabama, where +he filled several important official positions, and was talked of for +the governorship of the State. But having been led to think about the +moral, and other aspects of slaveholding, he decided that it was wrong +and he would wash his hands of it. He could not in Alabama legally +manumit his slaves. Moreover, his neighbors had risen up against him +and threatened his forcible expulsion. He removed to Kentucky, where +he thought a more liberal sentiment prevailed. There he freed his +slaves and made liberal provision for their comfortable sustenance. +But the slave power was on his track. He was warned to betake himself +out of the State. The infliction of personal violence was meditated, +and a party of his opposers came together for that purpose. They were +engaged in discussing ways and means when a young man of commanding +presence and strength, who happened to be present, announced that +while he lived Mr. Birney would not be molested. His opposition broke +up the plot. That young man became a leading clergyman and was +subsequently for a time Chaplain of the United States Senate. + +Birney went with his belongings to Ohio, thinking that upon the soil +of a free State he would be safe from molestation. He established a +newspaper in Cincinnati to advocate emancipation. A mob promptly +destroyed his press and other property, and it was with difficulty +that he escaped with his life. More sagacious, although not more +zealous, than Lundy and Garrison and a good many of their followers, +Birney early saw the necessity of political action in the interest of +freedom. He was the real founder of the old "Liberty" party, of which +he was the presidential candidate in 1840 and in 1844. + +Of course, there were other early laborers for emancipation that, in +this connection, ought to be mentioned and remembered. They were +pioneers in the truest sense. The writer would gladly make a record of +their services, and pay a tribute, especially, to the memories of such +as have gone to the spirit land, where the great majority are now +mustered, but space at this point forbids. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SALMON PORTLAND CHASE + + +If I were asked to name the man to whom the colored people of this +country, who were slaves, or were liable to become slaves, are under +the greatest obligation for their freedom, I would unhesitatingly say +Salmon Portland Chase. + +If I were asked to name the man who was the strongest and most useful +factor in the Government during the great final contest that ended in +the emancipation of the black man, I would say Salmon Portland Chase. + +In expressing the opinions above given, no reproach for Abraham +Lincoln, nor for any of the distinguished members of his Cabinet, is +intended or implied. Inferiority to Salmon P. Chase was not a +disgrace. Physically he rose above all his official associates, which +was no discredit to them, and in much the same way he towered +intellectually and administratively. His was the most trying, the most +difficult position, in the entire circle of public departments. It was +easy to get men to fight the battles of the Union if there was money +to pay them. It was easy to furnish ships and arms and supplies in +sufficient quantity, notwithstanding the terrible drain of the +greatest of civil wars, as long as the funds held out. Everything +depended on the treasury. Failure there meant irretrievable disaster. +It would not answer to have any serious mistakes in that quarter, and +in fact no fatal mistakes were there made. In all other departments +there were failures and blunders, but the financial department met +every emergency and every requisition. Chase's financial policy it was +that carried the country majestically through the war, and that +afterwards paid the nation's debts. + +There is a circumstance that has not been mentioned, as far as the +writer knows, by any of Mr. Chase's biographers, which seems to him to +be significant and worth referring to. During the Civil War, Walter +Bagehot was editor of the _Economist,_ the great English financial +journal. His opinion in financial matters was regarded as the highest +authority. It was accepted as infallible. He discussed the plans of +Mr. Chase with great elaborateness and great severity. He predicted +that they were all destined to failure, and proved this theoretically +to his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of many others. The +result showed that Mr. Chase was right all the time, and the great +English economist was wrong. + +The entrance of such a man into the Abolitionist movement marked an +era in its history. It was the thing most needed. He gave it a leader +who, of all men then living, was most competent for leadership. From +that time he was its Moses. + +The greatest service rendered to the Abolition cause by Salmon P. +Chase was in pushing it forward on political lines. There was a +contest for the mastery of the Government from the hour he took +command. The movement was to be slow, sometimes halting and apparently +falling back, in some respects insignificant, in all respects +desperate, but there was to be no permanent defeat and no compromise. + +The espousal of Abolitionism by Mr. Chase was a remarkable +circumstance. He was not an enthusiast like Garrison and Lundy and +many other Anti-Slavery pioneers, but precisely the opposite. He was +cold-blooded and cool-headed, a deliberate and conservative man. His +speeches were described as giving light but no heat. His sympathies +were seemingly weak, but his sense of justice was immense. Apparently, +he opposed slavery because it was wrong rather than because it was +cruel. He had a big body, a big head, and a big conscience, the +combination making a strong man and a good fighter. + +That he did, in fact, sympathize with the slaves was shown by his +professional work in their behalf, more particularly in pleading +without fee or other reward the cases of escaped fugitives in the +courts. So numerous were his engagements in this regard that his +antagonists spoke of him sneeringly as the "Attorney-General for +runaway niggers." Upon some of his Anti-Slavery cases he bestowed an +immense amount of work. His argument in the case of Van Zant--the +original of Van Tromp in Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_,--an old man +who was prosecuted and fined until he was financially ruined for +giving a "lift" in his farm wagon to a slave family on its way to +Canada, was said at the time to have been the most able so far made +in the Supreme Court of the United States. That and other similar +utterances by Mr. Chase were published for popular reading, and were +widely distributed by friends of the cause. + +It is possible that, in performing this arduous labor, Mr. Chase, who +was not without personal ambition, was able, with his great native +sagacity, to foresee, although it must have been but dimly, the +possibilities of political development and official promotion, but at +the same time, for the same reason, he could the more clearly realize +the wearisome, heart-breaking struggle that was before him. + +It was an enormous sacrifice that he made. Journeymen printers and +saddlers, like Garrison and Lundy, who had never had as much as one +hundred dollars at one time in their lives, and who had no social +position and no influential kinsfolks, had little to lose. But it was +very different with Chase. He had a profession that represented great +wealth. He had distinguished and aristocratic family connections. He +had a high place in society. All these he risked and largely lost. + +In speaking of his sacrifices at that time in a subsequent letter to a +friend, he wrote: + + "Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time + and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles + and building up the organization of the party of constitutional + freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed + insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demand + upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed + severely all my abilities." + +The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed something +of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way because of his +principles. While a law student in a country village he was sent down +to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the form of affidavits. +During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law office, introduced +himself, and was very pleasantly received. He noticed that there was a +notary public in the office. + +Among other instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of +a leading business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The +document was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before +whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew where +there was a notary in a near-by office. We proceeded to Mr. Chase's +chambers, and were about to enter when my companion noticed the name +on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck in the face. "The +---- Abolitionist," he exclaimed, "I wouldn't enter his place for a +hundred dollars!" We went elsewhere for our business, and on the way +my companion expressed himself about Mr. Chase. "What a pity it is," +he said, "that that young man is ruining himself. He is a bright man," +he went on, "and I employed him professionally until he went daft on +the subject of freeing the niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose +of serving the white people." + +Like pretty much all the early Abolitionists, Mr. Chase had a taste of +mob violence. He had one singular experience. When the mob destroyed +the printing establishment of James G. Birney in Cincinnati, Chase +mingled with the crowd. He discovered that personal violence to Mr. +Birney was contemplated and that his life was in danger. He made all +haste to Birney's residence and gave him warning of his peril. Then he +took his stand in the doorway of the building and calmly awaited the +coming of the rabble. Those who knew Chase will remember that in size +he was almost a giant, and his countenance had a stern, determined +look. The multitude, finding itself thus unexpectedly confronted, +paused and entered into a parley that gave the hunted man an +opportunity to reach a place of safety. + +Chase had an appointment to speak in the village in which the writer +lived, and the opposers of his cause arranged to give him a warm +reception. Something prevented his attendance, and a very mild and +amiable old clergyman from an adjoining town, who took his place, +received the shower-bath of uncooked eggs that had been intended for +the Cincinnati Abolitionist. + +Chase's great work for the Anti-Slavery cause was in projecting and +directing it on independent political lines. Up to that time most +Anti-Slavery people opposed separate party action. Garrison and his +_Liberator_ violently denounced such action. Moral suasion was urged +as the panacea. Chase himself had not been a "third party" man. In +1840, when there was an Abolition ticket in the field, headed by his +personal friend, James G. Birney, he had not supported it. But soon +afterwards, becoming firmly convinced that Anti-Slavery people had +nothing to hope for from either of the old parties, he set about the +work of building a new one. The undertaking was with no mental +reservation on his part. When he put his hand to that plow there was +no looking back, notwithstanding that a rougher or more stony field, +and one less promising of returns for the laborer than that before +him, would be difficult to imagine. + +In 1841 he headed a call for a convention at Columbus, the State +capital, to organize the Liberty party in the State of Ohio, and at +the same time nominate a State ticket. Less than a hundred +sympathizers responded to the call, and the ticket put in nomination +received less than one thousand votes. + +Among the attendants at the Columbus meeting was a near kinsman of the +author. On his return, in describing the proceedings, he said that +pretty much everything was directed by a Mr. Chase (Salamander Chase +was his name, he said), a young Cincinnati lawyer. That young man, he +declared, would yet make a mark in the world. + +From that time every important move was directed by Chase. He prepared +the calls for important meetings. He wrote their addresses and their +platforms. He made the leading speeches. He presided at the great +convention at Buffalo in 1848, which formulated the "Free-Soil" +party--successor to the Liberty party--and wrote the platform which it +adopted. + +In speaking of Chase's share in the independent organization of this +time, William M. Evarts says: "He must be awarded the full credit of +having understood, resolved upon, planned, organized, and executed +this political movement." + +The movement thus conducted by Mr. Chase was slow and tremendously +laborious, but it was effective. In the presidential elections of 1844 +and 1848 it held the balance of power and turned the scale to further +its purposes. In 1852 it shattered and destroyed one of the old +pro-slavery parties, and became the second party in the country +instead of the third. In eight years more it was the first. + +The charge has been made against Mr. Chase that, while a member of +Lincoln's Cabinet, he aspired to supersede his chief in the +Presidency. But did he not have a right to seek the higher office, +especially when the policy pursued by its incumbent did not meet his +full approval? He merely shared the sentiment that was then +entertained by nearly all the radical Anti-Slavery people of the +country. It is not unlikely that Chase felt somewhat envious of +Lincoln. After, as he stated in his letter of congratulation to Mr. +Lincoln on his first election, he had given nineteen years of +continuous and exhausting labor to the freedom movement, it would be +but natural that he should feel aggrieved when he saw that the chief +credit of that movement was likely to go to one who had, to his own +exclusion, come up slowly and reluctantly at a later day to its +support. If he were somewhat jealous, it would be hard not to +sympathize with him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + + +If I were asked to name the man who, next to Salmon P. Chase, most +effectually and meritoriously contributed to the liberation of the +black man in this country, I should unhesitatingly say John Quincy +Adams. + +By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as +having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a +very distinguished family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a +time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, +or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It +can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually +and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what +Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, +but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration. + +When Adams entered Congress opposition to slavery was at its lowest +ebb. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the +Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had +correspondingly depressed and cowed their adversaries. As a general +thing, the latter had given up all idea of making any further fight. +Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern +churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. +Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had +perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a +few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There +was one magnificent exception. + +It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and +began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen +years, literally lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried +helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen +when in the discharge of his duties. + +The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent +candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political +party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles in regulating his +course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who +was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that +fight. There was nothing in the eloquence of Demosthenes in Athens, of +Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in +England, that surpassed the force and grandeur of the philippics of +Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his +service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant assailants +like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the +in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished +and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists. He +was always "the old man eloquent." Says one of our leading historical +writers: + + "As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In + knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the House that could + be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He + was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible + to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the + House was something upon which he was always ready to enter." + +Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another +Congressman writes: + + "He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with + my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble + through every nerve and joint, when he arraigned before them their + political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any + conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic." + +At last his enemies in Congress decided that they would endure his +attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan +of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his +biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was +the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make +an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to +humiliate and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to +do." + +Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal +endorsement, asking for a dissolution of the Union. That furnished the +pretext his enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in +countenancing an assault upon the Union, although they were at the time +engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate +overthrow. The outcome of this undertaking was one of the most +thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that +matter, in any other deliberative assembly. + +Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The +galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of +pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry of the South were +there. They had come to witness the abasement of the great enemy of +their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the +nation's council chamber, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one +friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the +attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that +gave him their sympathies. + +The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead +the prosecution. One was the celebrated Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; +the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the +proceedings by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with +treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with +a speech of much ingenuity. Wise followed in a fiery diatribe. Both +speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions of a somewhat +scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their +careers of questionable propriety, to retaliation from a man who +thoroughly knew their records. At this point we have the testimony of +an eye-witness: + + "Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands + tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose + consecrated head the vials of tyrannic wrath had been outpoured. + Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, + but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his + infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but + be noted, trembling, not with fear, but with age." + +His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been +urged against him and triumphantly refuted it. He handled his +oratorical antagonists with merciless severity, depicting certain +events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers gazed +upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men +when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage +in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have +mercy on him." + +Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly admitted their +discomfiture and dropped the whole business. + +It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided +efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at +a time when it was almost moribund. He plowed the ground, cutting a +deep and broad furrow as he went his way, and in the upturned soil +such laborers as Birney and Garrison and Chase planted the seed that +rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful harvest. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES + + +The divergent characteristics of the East and the West were never more +clearly shown than in the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement. +Efforts were made to plant Abolition societies at various points +throughout the West, but they failed to take permanent root and soon +disappeared. The failure was not due to any lack of interest, but +rather to an excess of zeal on the part of the Western supporters of +the cause. Society organizations on the lines of moral suasion were +too slow and tame to suit them. They preferred the excitement of +politics. They believed in the superior efficacy of a political party, +and to its upbuilding they gave their energies and resources. In the +"long run" they were amply vindicated, but for all that, the favorite +Eastern method for organized effort had its advantages. + +The East, and especially New England, always believed in societies. If +anything of a public nature was to be promoted or prevented, a society +always appealed to the New Englander as the natural instrumentality. +There is a tradition that when Boston was ravaged by a loathsome +disease, a number of its leading citizens came together and promptly +organized an anti-smallpox society. + +When, therefore, it was decided that an Anti-Slavery movement should +be inaugurated in Boston, the proper thing to do, according to all the +standards of the place, was to organize a society. But the thing was +more easily resolved upon than done. It required the concurrence of +several parties of like-mindedness. Boston was a pretty large place, +but Anti-Slavery people were scarce. The number (doubtless selected +because it was Apostolic) assumed to be necessary was twelve. Fifteen +people of somewhat similar views were at last brought together. After +much discussion nine favored an organization and six opposed it. So +far the operation was a failure. But at last, after much canvassing, +twelve men were found who promised their co-operation--twelve and no +more. Although respectable people, they were not of Boston's "first +citizens" by any means. It is said that if they had been called upon +for a hundred dollars each, not over two of them could have responded +without bankruptcy. + +The twelve came together at night and in the basement of an African +Baptist Church, the room being used in the daytime to accommodate a +school for colored children. It was in an obscure quarter of Boston +known as "Nigger Hill." The conference was in the month of December, +and the night is thus described by Oliver Johnson, who was one of the +twelve: "A fierce northeast storm, combining rain, snow, and hail in +about equal proportions, was raging, and the streets were full of +slush. They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days was +very economical of light on Nigger Hill." + +Both nature and man seemed to be in league against those plucky +pioneers of an unpopular cause. They, however, were not dismayed nor +disheartened. It was as they were stepping out into the gloomy night, +that Mr. Garrison, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, was one of +the twelve, remarked to his associates: "We have met to-night in this +obscure schoolhouse; our numbers are few, and our influence limited, +but mark my prediction. Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo to the +principles we have set forth." + +What those principles were is shown by the declaration adopted by that +handful of confederates, and which, in view of the time and +circumstances of its formulation, was certainly a most remarkable +document. Its essential proposition was: "We, the undersigned, hold +that every person of full age and sound mind has a right to immediate +freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by +the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime." + +The Declaration of Independence, which was produced with no little +theatrical effect amid the pomp and circumstance of a national +conclave that had met in the finest hall in the country, was +unquestionably a remarkable and memorable pronouncement. It was for +the time and situation a radical utterance. It was the precursor of a +revolution that gave political freedom to several million people. + +But the platform of principles that was announced by the New England +Anti-Slavery Society (the name adopted) in that little grimy +schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" was, in at least some respects, a more +remarkable document. Its enunciation required an equal degree of +physical and moral courage. It was the precursor of a revolution that +gave both personal and political freedom to a larger number than were +benefited by the other declaration. But what chiefly distinguished it, +the time and the situation being considered, was its radical +utterance. It gave no countenance to any measure of compromise. It +offered no pabulum to the wrongdoer in the form of compensation for +stolen humanity. It demanded what was right, and demanded it at once. +And that fearless and unyielding platform became the basis for all the +Abolition societies that came after it. A goodly number of such +societies were organized. "The Anti-Slavery Society for the City of +New York" was formed by a few men who met and did their work while a +mob was pounding at the door, and who, having completed their task, +fled for their lives. + +It was at first intended that a national Anti-Slavery society should +be established with headquarters in the city of New York, but its +proposed organizers discovered that there was not a public hall or +church in that city in which they would be permitted to assemble. +Philadelphia, with its Quaker contingent, offered a more inviting +field, and to that city it was decided to go. But serious obstructions +here interposed. Representatives appeared from fourteen States, which +was highly encouraging, but no prominent Philadelphian could be found +to act as chairman of the meeting. A committee was appointed to secure +the services of such a man, but, after interviewing a number of +leading citizens, it was compelled to report that it was received by +all of them with "polite frigidity." + +Strange to say, the convention was permitted to meet for three days in +succession in a public assembly room without interference from a mob. +The police, however, warned the participants not to hold night +sessions, as they in that case would not promise protection. The good +behavior of Philadelphia on this occasion was noteworthy, but it was +too good to last. When another Anti-Slavery meeting, not long after, +was convened in that city, it was broken up by a mob, and the hall in +which it met was burned to the ground. + +Finally came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which, in view of its +limited financial resources, certainly did a wonderful work. Its +publications, in spite of careful watching of the mails and other +precautions adopted by the slaveholders, reached all parts of the +country, and its preachers, sent out and commissioned to proclaim the +new evangel of equal manhood, were absolutely ubiquitous. + +Those early Anti-Slavery lecturers were a peculiar set. Since the days +of the Apostles there have been no more earnest propagandists. They +were both male and female. That they were, as a rule, financially +poor, it is unnecessary to state. They lived largely on the country +traversed. Sympathizers with their views, having received and +entertained them--sometimes clandestinely--after a public talk or two, +would carry them on to the next stations on their routes, occasionally +contributing a few dollars to their purses. It made no particular +difference to them whether they spoke in halls, in churches, or in +the open air. Before beginning their addresses their usual course was +to challenge their opponents to debate, and to taunt them with lack of +courage or principle if they failed to respond. Of course, they were +in constant danger from mobs. They were stoned, clubbed, shot at, and +rotten-egged, and in a few extreme cases tarred and feathered; but +they were never frightened from their work. + +They were by no means policy-wise. That was one of their +peculiarities. Their idea seemed to be that they could drive people +easier than they could lead them. They used no buttered phrases. They +told the plainest truths in the plainest way. They gave their +audiences hard words, and often received hard knocks in return. They +called the slaveholders robbers and man-stealers. They branded +Northern politicians with Southern principles as "dough-faces." But +their hardest and sharpest expletives were reserved for those Northern +clergymen who were either pro-slavery or non-committal. They blistered +them all over with their lashings. In speaking of one of the most +noted among them, Lowell describes him as + + "A kind of maddened John the Baptist + To whom the hardest word came aptest." + +The lecturer of whom I saw the most in those early trying days was +Professor Hudson, of Oberlin College. While in that part of the field +he made headquarters at my father's house, radiating out and filling +appointments in different directions. He was exceedingly sharp-tongued +and very fearless. Nothing seemed to please him better than a +"scrimmage" with his opponents. Often he conquered mobs by resolutely +talking them down and making them ashamed of themselves. But on one +occasion, looking through the window from the outside to see what +awaited him in a room where he was to speak, he saw a pot of boiling +tar on the stove that heated the room and a pillow-case full of +feathers conveniently near, while a half-drunken crowd was in +possession of the place, and concluded to run. He, however, had been +seen and was pursued. There was a foot race, but as some of the +pursuers were better sprinters than Hudson, and he was about to be +captured, he dashed into the first house he came to and asked for +protection. The proprietor was a kinsman of mine. He was an old man, +but hearty and vigorous. He ordered his sons to take their guns and +guard the other entrances, while he took his stand in the front door +with an axe in his hand. When the mob came up and demanded the +Abolitionist, he gave warning that he would brain the first man that +attempted to enter his house without his consent. So evidently in +earnest was he that the rowdies, after a little bluster, concluded to +give up the hunt and left in disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY + + +The National Anti-Slavery Society--the society organized by +Garrison and his _confrères_, and which longest maintained its +organization--made one great mistake. It disbanded. It assumed that +its work was done when African slavery in this country was pronounced +defunct by law. It took it for granted that the enslavement of the +colored man--not necessarily the negro--was no longer possible under +the Stars and Stripes. Then and there it committed a grievous blunder. +Its paramount error was in assuming that a political party could for +all time be depended upon as a party of freedom. It trusted to the +assurances of politicians that they would protect the colored man in +all his natural and acquired rights, and in that belief voluntarily +gave up the ghost and cast its mantle to the winds. + +Now, the fact is that the National Anti-Slavery Society was never more +needed than it is to-day. There is a mighty work to be done that was +directly in the line of its operations. First and foremost, it will +not be denied that a citizen of our Republic who is deprived of the +elective franchise is robbed of one of his most valuable +privileges--one of his most essential rights. The ballot, under a +political system like ours, is both the sword and the shield of +liberty. Without it no man is really a freeman. He does not stand on +an equality with his fellows. + +Nor will it be denied that the negro, although our amended +Constitution promises him all the privileges of citizenship, is in +many parts of our country practically divested of his vote. By a +species of legerdemain in the communities in which he is most numerous +and most needs protection, he is to all intents and purposes +disfranchised. What will follow as the final outcome we do not know, +but that is the beginning of his attempted re-enslavement. It is +beyond any question that his return to involuntary servitude in some +condition or conditions, the disarming him of the ballot being the +initial step in the proceeding, is seriously contemplated, if not +deliberately planned. Indeed, under the name of "peonage" the work of +re-establishing a system of slaveholding that is barbarous in the +extreme is already begun. Men and women have been seized upon by +force, and upon the most flimsy pretexts have been subjected to a +bondage that in its inhumanities may easily equal even the slavery of +the olden time. The number of victims is undoubtedly much larger than +the general public has any idea of. + +Nor are there lacking signs of studied preparation for the extension +of the system. The present time is full of them. Efforts to create a +prejudice against the colored man are visible in all directions. He is +described as a failure in the role of freeman. The idleness and +shiftlessness of certain members of his race--undoubtedly altogether +too numerous--are dwelt upon as characteristic of the entire family. +Scant praise is given to those members who are doing well, and whose +number is encouragingly large. These are as far as possible ignored. +The race problem is spoken of as full of increasing difficulties, and +as imperatively demanding a change from present conditions. The people +of the North are being especially indoctrinated with such ideas. They +are told that they must leave their brethren of the former +slaveholding States, and in which the negroes principally dwell, to +deal with the issues arising between the whites and the blacks; that +they--the Southerners--understand the questions to be settled, and +that outsiders should withhold their hands and their sympathies. It is +none of their business, they are informed, while assurances are freely +given that the people who, because of their experience with them, +understand the negroes, will take considerate care of them. What kind +of care they are taking of them in certain quarters is shown by recent +incontestable revelations. + +And what has the political party which, in view of its manifold +professions, was supposed to have the interests of the negro in its +especial keeping, done about it? Nothing whatever. It has looked on +with the coolest indifference. The only concern it has shown in the +matter has related to the question of Congressional representation as +dependent upon the enumeration of electors, and, in so doing, has +plainly intimated that if, through the negro's political robbery, it +can secure an increase of partisan power, it is perfectly willing that +the cause of the injured black man should "slide." + +Indifference in regard to the rights of peoples of color is +unfortunately not the only nor even the greatest charge to be laid at +the door of the Republican party. It may be asserted that this party +has become an active aggressor in trampling down the liberties of +colored peoples. As the assignee of Spain in taking over (without +consulting those who were most concerned) the control of the territory +of the Philippine Islands, it has purchased (and has paid cash for) +the right to dominate from eight to ten millions of people. These +people may, under the existing conditions, be described as being in a +state of slavery. If a foreign people, say a people coming from the +other side of the globe, should treat Americans as we have treated the +Filipinos, should deny to us the right of self-government, should send +great armies to chastise us for disobedience (or for what they might +call "rebellion"), and should do this for no better reason than that +our skin was darker or lighter than their own, we Americans would +doubtless consider ourselves to be in a state of slavery. Why in any +sense is slavery in Luzon more defensible than slavery in South +Carolina or in Alabama? If it be wrong to keep in slavery the black +man in America (as in theory at least we are all now agreed it is +wrong), what is the justice in depriving of his freedom the +brown-skinned Tagal? Can a bill of sale from Spain give to us any such +privilege, if privilege it may be called? Can an agreement with Spain +bring to naught our responsibilities under our own Declaration of +Independence? + +Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, we have as yet but +little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this +new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the +things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached +us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm +or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of +pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of +butcheries called "battles" in which have been slaughtered hundreds of +almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up +for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would +not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and +that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have +equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres +which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, +women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with +operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the +taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. +As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her +properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We +do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial +government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite +than that of the "water cure." How many of the perpetrators of these +atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been +punished at all? + +It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of +these horrible affairs. Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, +beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has +been silent--at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not +one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer +heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, +being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The +greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by +the apprehension that, through somebody's lack of patriotism, our flag +may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used +to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows +it. + +In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, +but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body +of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the +difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of +revulsion toward it. + +One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity--the +practical sameness--of the arguments used to justify the Philippine +occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We +are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were +then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the +bludgeon. + +Of course, there are other arguments. Increase of trade and wealth, as +the result of our appropriation of other peoples' possessions, is +freely predicted. It has always been the robber's plea. That is what +it is to-day, even when employed by a professed Christian nation. Nor +is it improved by the fact that the grounds upon which it is +predicated and urged are largely fallacious. The spoliation of the +Philippines will never repay us for the blood--our own blood--and +treasure it has cost us, apart from any moral or humanitarian +consideration. There is not one aspect in this business that promises +to redound to our benefit. No, I won't say that; I would hardly be +justified in going that far. In one particular the Philippine +operation has profited a considerable part of our people. It has added +materially to our Army and our Navy. The opportunity for enlargement +in those quarters was, undoubtedly, the strongest inducement for our +entering upon a colonial policy. For a great many people, and +especially in official circles, we cannot have a standing army that is +too large, nor too many ships of war. The more powerful those +appendages of our authority the larger is the opening for the kinsmen +and retainers of those in high places, who may be seeking profitable +and agreeable employment, and the more liberal the contributions of +contractors and jobbers to the sinews of partisan warfare. Our Army +to-day is nearly three times what it was five years ago, although +outside of the Philippines we are at peace with all mankind. Nor is +that formidable advance at an end. The Far East is now certain to be +the world's great battle-ground for the near future, and since we have +entered that field as the master of the Philippines, like a knight of +the olden time who was ready to do battle with all comers, we must be +constantly increasing our preparation. We may not only have to fight +the Russians and the Japanese and the Chinese, one or all, but those +foolish Filipinos may again take it into their silly heads that they +can govern themselves as well or better than we can do it for them. +That means rebellion, and, of course, chastisement must follow. As +climatic conditions in that part of the world are such that it +requires the presence of three men in the army to supply the active +services of one, it is obvious that so long as we adhere to our +present Asiatic policy, we shall never have an army and a navy large +enough and strong enough to meet the requirements of our new +condition. + +On all questions affecting human liberty, no one can fail to observe +that the attitude of the two great political parties of to-day, is +practically that of the two principal parties at the time the +Abolitionists began their operations. One of them may pass perfunctory +resolutions against the Philippine crime, but dares to say nothing +about the treatment visited upon the negro. The other may say a few +compassionate, but meaningless, words for the negro, but cannot +denounce the oppression of the Filipinos. Both are fatally handicapped +by their connections and committals. Both are, in fact, pro-slavery, +although the one in power, because of its responsibility for existing +conditions, is the more criminal of the two. + +What this country now needs, in the opinion of the writer, is a +revival of Abolitionism, and to that end, as one of the +instrumentalities that would be serviceable, he holds that the old +National Anti-Slavery Society should be restored. The most of the men +and women that made that institution so useful and honorable, have +passed from the scenes of their labors, but a few of them are left, +and they and such as may feel like joining them, should meet and +unfurl the old standard once more. There may be new associations +looking to very much the same ends, but better the old guard under the +old name. It would carry a prestige that no newer organization could +command. It would create a measure of confidence that would be most +strongly felt. The principles and policies it should urge are few and +simple. + +First: Let it declare that the colored man in this country must be +permitted to enjoy all his rights under the Constitution as it is, +both political and personal. + +Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude, including the +denial of political self-government, under the flag, as well as under +the Constitution, must cease. + +And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated, in the +spirit and with the confidence of the old-time leaders. The Society +should be revived and re-established, not for a single campaign only, +or for the rectification of such oppressions as are now in sight, but +for all time. It ought to be made a permanent institution. It should +be so arranged that the sons would step into the ranks as the fathers +dropped out and that new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus +reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable watchman +on the walls of Freedom's stronghold. The exhortation to which it +should listen, is that of the poet Bryant when he says: + + "Oh not yet + Mayst thou unloose thy corslet, nor lay by + Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids + In slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS + + +George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says that "three speeches +have made the places where they were delivered illustrious in our +history--three, and there is no fourth." He refers to the speech of +Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia, of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and +the first address of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall. + +If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three notable +deliverances above mentioned as the best and foremost examples of +American oratory, the author cannot agree with him. In his opinion we +shall have but little difficulty in picking out the three entitled to +that distinction, provided we go to the discussion of the slavery +question to find them. That furnished the greatest occasion, being +with its ramifications and developments, by far the greatest issue +with which Americans have had to deal. + +The three speeches to which the writer refers were the more notable +because they were altogether impromptu. They were what we call "off +hand." They were delivered in the face of mobs or other bitterly +hostile audiences--a circumstance that probably contributed not a +little to their effectiveness. + +John Quincy Adams, who was unquestionably one of the greatest of +American orators, made several speeches in Congress that will always +command our highest admiration; but the one to which a somewhat +extended reference is made in another chapter, when an attempt was +made by the slaveholders to expel him from that body, easily ranks +among the first three exhibitions of American eloquence. + +I quite agree with Mr. Curtis in giving the Faneuil Hall speech of +Wendell Phillips a pre-eminent place. A meeting had been called to +denounce the murder of Lovejoy, the Abolitionist editor. The audience +was composed in large part of pro-slavery rowdies, who were bent on +capturing or breaking up the meeting. One of their leaders--a high +official of the State of Massachusetts, by the way--made a speech in +which he justified the murderous act. "That speech must be answered +here and now," exclaimed a young man in the audience. "Answer it +yourself," shouted those about him. "I will," was the reply, "if I can +reach the platform." To the platform he was assisted, and although an +attempt was made for a time to howl him down, he persisted, and before +long so interested and charmed his hearers that his triumph was +complete. + +It did not take the country long to realize that in that young man, +who was Wendell Phillips, a new oratorical luminary had arisen. He +took up the work of lecturing as a profession, treating on other +subjects as well as slavery; but when slavery was the subject no +charge was made for his services. Said Frederic Hudson, the noted New +York editor, in 1860: "It is probable that there is not another man +in the United States who is as much heard and read as Henry Ward +Beecher, unless the other man be Wendell Phillips." + +The mention of Henry Ward Beecher's name is suggestive of oratory of +the very highest order. It will not be denied by any competent and +unprejudiced person that his great speech in England--there were five +addresses, but the substance was the same--upon the American question +(which directly involved the slavery issue) during our Civil War was +far and away the finest exhibition of masterful eloquence that is to +be credited to any of our countrymen. The world has never beaten it. + +Mr. Beecher found himself in England by a fortunate accident at a most +critical period in our national affairs. A crisis had there been +reached. A powerful party, including a large majority of the public +men of Great Britain, favored intervention in behalf of the South. +Southern agents were at work all over the kingdom, and were remarkably +effective in propagating their views. It looked as if the Rebel +interest was on the point of winning, when Mr. Beecher appeared on the +scene. He had not gone to England to make public speeches. He was +there for health and recreation, but, realizing the situation with his +quick perceptiveness, he took up the gage of battle. It was a fearful +resolution on his part. The chances seemed to be all against him. It +was one man against thousands. His victory, however, was complete. His +five great speeches in the business centres of England and Scotland +were not only listened to by thousands, but they went all over the +country in the public prints. They completely changed the current of +public opinion. + +Mr. Beecher's first address was in Manchester, which, owing to the +interest of the leading business men of that city in the cotton trade +and the furnishing of ships and supplies for blockade running, was a +seething hot bed of Rebel sentiment. When he arrived in that place on +the day he was to speak, he was met at the depot by friends with +troubled faces, who informed him that hostile placards--significantly +printed in red colors--had been posted all over the city, and, if he +persisted in trying to speak, he would have a very uncomfortable +reception. + +He was asked how he felt about trying to go on. "I am going to be +heard," was his reply. + +The best description of the scene that ensued is supplied in Mr. +Beecher's own words: + + "The uproar would come in on this side, and then on that. They + would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, + and I would wait until the noise had subsided and then get in + about five minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down, and + then up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see things + that amused me, and I would laugh outright, and the crowd would + stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I would sail in with + another sentence or two. A good many times the crowd threw up + questions that I caught and threw back. I may as well at this + point mention a thing that amused me hugely. There were baize + doors that opened both ways into side alleys, and there was a huge + burly Englishman standing right in front of one of these doors and + roaring like a bull of Bashan. One of the policemen swung his + elbow round and hit him in the belly and knocked him through the + doorway, so that the last part of his bawl was out in the + alleyway. It struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must + have looked when he found himself 'hollering' outside, that I + could not refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately + stopped its uproar, wondering what I was laughing at. That gave me + another chance, and I caught on to it. So we kept it up for about + an hour and a half before the people became so far calmed down + that I could go on peaceably with my speech. My audience got to + like the pluck I showed. Englishmen like a man that can stand on + his feet and give and take, and so for the last hour I had pretty + much clear sailing. The next morning every great paper in England + had the whole speech down. + + "And when the vote came to be taken--for in England it is + customary for audiences to express their decision on the subject + under discussion--you would have thought it was a tropical + thunder-storm that swept through the hall as the Ayes were + thundered, while the Nays were an insignificant and contemptible + minority. It had all gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never + saw." + +It has been repeatedly stated, and to this day is generally +believed,--is so stated in several of Mr. Lincoln's biographies, I +believe,--that Mr. Beecher went to England at the President's request, +and for the purpose of making a speaking tour. The best answer is that +given by Mr. Beecher himself. + + "It has been asked," said he, "whether I was sent by the + government. The government took no stock in me at that time. I had + been pounding Lincoln in the earlier years of the war, and I don't + believe there was a man down there, unless it was Mr. Chase, who + would have trusted me with anything. At any rate, I went on my own + responsibility." + +But in referring to Abolition orators, and especially orators whose +experience it was to encounter mobs, the writer desires to pay a +tribute to one of them whose name he does not even know. + +A meeting that was called to organize an Anti-Slavery society in New +York City was broken up by a mob. All of those in attendance made +their escape except one negro. He was caught and his captors thought +it would be a capital joke to make him personify one of the big +Abolitionists. He was lifted to the platform and directed to imagine +himself an Anti-Slavery leader and make an Abolition speech. The +fellow proved to be equal to the occasion. He proceeded to assert the +right of his race to the privileges of human beings with force and +eloquence. His hearers listened with amazement, and possibly with +something like admiration, until, realizing that the joke was on them, +they pulled him from the platform and kicked him from the building. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS + + +In speaking of the orators and oratory that were evolved by the +Slavery issue, there are two names that cannot be omitted. These are +Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It was the good fortune of the +writer to be an eye and ear witness of the closing bout, at Alton, +Illinois, between those two political champions in their great debate +of 1858. The contrast between the men was remarkable. Lincoln was very +tall and spare, standing up, when speaking, straight and stiff. +Douglas was short and stumpy, a regular roly-poly man. Lincoln's face +was calm and meek, almost immobile. He referred to it in his address +as "my rather melancholy face." Although plain and somewhat rugged, I +never regarded Lincoln's face as homely. I saw him many times and +talked with him, after the occasion now referred to. It was a good +face, and had many winning lines. Douglas's countenance, on the other +hand, was leonine and full of expression. His was a handsome face. +When lighted up by the excitement of debate it could not fail to +impress an audience. + +Lincoln indulged in no gesticulation. If he had been addressing a +bench of judges he would not have been more impassive in his manner. +He was an animate, but not an animated, bean-pole. He poured out a +steady flow of words--three to Douglas's two--in a simple and +semi-conversational tone. He attempted no witticisms and indulged in +no oratorical claptrap. His address was pure argument. Douglas's +manner was one of excitement, and accompanied and emphasized by almost +continuous bodily movement. His hands and his feet, and especially +that pliable face of his, were all busy talking. He said sharp things, +evidently for their immediate effect on his audience, and showed that +he was not only master of all the arts of the practical stump orator, +but was ready to employ them. + +But the most noticeable difference was in the voices of the men. +Douglas spoke first, and for the first minute or two was utterly +unintelligible. His voice seemed to be all worn out by his speaking in +that long and principally open-air debate. He simply bellowed. But +gradually he got command of his organ, and pretty soon, in a somewhat +laborious and painful way, it is true, he succeeded in making himself +understood. + +Lincoln's voice, on the contrary, was without a quaver or a sign of +huskiness. He had been speaking in the open air exactly as much as +Douglas, but it was perfectly fresh, not a particle strained. It was a +perfect voice. + +Those who wanted to understand Douglas had to press up close to the +platform from which he was speaking, and there was collected a dense, +but not very deep, crowd. There was no crowding in front of Lincoln +when he was speaking. He could be heard without it. There was a line +of wagons and carriages on the outskirts of the audience, and I +noticed, when Lincoln was speaking, that they were filled with +comfortably seated people listening to his address. They did not need +to go any nearer to him. The most of the shouting was done by +Douglas's partisans, composing a clear majority of the crowd, but it +was very manifest that Lincoln commanded the attention of the greater +number of those who were interested in the arguments. He did not act +as if he cared for the applause of the multitude. He said nothing, +apparently, simply to tickle the ears of his hearers. + +Rather strange was it that the only points on which there did not +appear to be much, if any, difference between the two men were reached +when they came to the propositions they advocated. Douglas was +avowedly pro-slavery. He was talking in southern Illinois and on the +border of Missouri, to which many of his hearers belonged, and his +audience was mostly Southern in its feelings. He was plainly trying to +please that element. He not only approved of slavery where it was, but +metaphorically jumped on the negro and trampled all over him. He +denied that the negro was a "man" within the meaning of the +Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, however, as far as slavery in +the States was involved, met Douglas on his own ground, and "went him +one better." He said, "I have on all occasions declared as strongly as +Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing +institution of slavery." + +If a stranger who knew nothing of the speakers and their party +associations had heard the two men on that occasion, he would have +concluded that one was strongly in favor of slavery and the other was +not opposed to it. + +Their only disagreement was as to slavery in the Territories, and that +was more apparent than real. Lincoln contended for free soil through +the direct action of the general government. Douglas advocated a +roundabout way that led up to the same result. His proposition, which +he called "popular sovereignty," was to leave the decision to the +people of the Territories, saying he did not care whether they voted +slavery up or voted it down. That was a practical, although indirect +declaration in favor of free soil. The outcome of the contests in +Kansas and California showed that at that game the free States with +their superior resources were certain to win. The shrewder +slaveholders recognized that fact, and their antagonism to Douglas +grew accordingly. They deliberately defeated him for the Presidency in +1860, when he was the regular candidate of the Democratic party, by +running Breckenridge as an independent candidate. Otherwise Mr. +Douglas would have become President of the United States. Out of a +total of 4,680,193 votes, Mr. Lincoln had only 1,866,631. The rest +were divided between his three antagonists. + +As between Lincoln and Douglas, who together held the controlling +hand, the slaveholders preferred Lincoln, against whom they had no +personal feeling, while they knew that his policy was no more +dangerous to their interests than the other man's, if faithfully +adhered to and carried out. Besides that, by this time many of them +had reached that state of mind in which they wanted a pretext for +secession from the Union. Lincoln's election would give them that +pretext while Douglas's would not. + +On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the +writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a +prominent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who +expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather trust +the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative and +honest man like "Old Abe," than to those of "a political jumping-jack +like Douglas." The most of the other Southern men and slaveholders +present seemed to concur in his views. + +It is a fact that a good many of the Anti-Slavery leaders living +outside of Illinois, and a good many of those living within it, wanted +the Republicans of that State to let Douglas go back to the Senate +without a contest, believing that he would be far more useful to them +there than a Republican would be. It is not improbable that enough of +the Illinois Republicans took that view of the matter, and helped to +give Douglas the victory in what was a very close contest. + +A portion of Douglas's speech was a spirited defense of his "squatter +sovereignty" doctrine against the denunciations of members of his own +political party, in the course of which he gave President Buchanan a +savage overhauling. It showed him to be a master of invective. + +"Go it, husband; go it, bear," was Mr. Lincoln's comment on that part +of Douglas's address. I went to the debate with a very strong +prejudice against Douglas, looking upon him as one of the most +time-serving of those Northern men whom the Abolitionists called +"dough-faces." I confess that my views of the man were considerably +modified. I admired the pluck he showed in speaking when his voice was +in tatters. Still more did I like the resolution he displayed in +defying those leaders of his own party, including the President, who +wanted him to retreat from the ground he had taken, seeing that it had +become practically Anti-Slavery. + +At the same time I had an almost worshipful admiration for Lincoln, +whom I had not before seen or heard. I expected a great deal from him. +I thought his closing appeal in that great debate would contain some +ringing words for freedom. He had, as I supposed, a great opportunity +for telling eloquence. He stood almost on the ground that had drunk +the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact +ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was +altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It +was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died +in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I +was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with +any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression +was not afterwards wholly removed from my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN + + +My father was a subscriber to the _National Era_, the Anti-Slavery +weekly that was published in Washington City before the war by Dr. +Gamaliel Bailey. Being the youngest member of the family, I usually +went to the post-office for the paper on the day of its weekly +arrival. One day I brought it home and handed it to my father, who, as +the day was warm, was seated outside of the house. He was soon +apparently very much absorbed in his reading. A call for dinner was +sounded, but he paid no attention to it. The meal was delayed a little +while and then the call was repeated, but with the same result. At +last the meal proceeded without my father's presence, he coming in at +the close and swinging the paper in his hand. His explanation, by way +of apology, was that he had become very much interested in the opening +installment of a story that was begun in the _Era_, and which he +declared would make a sensation. "It will make a renovation," he +repeated several times. + +That story, it is almost needless to say, was _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, and +it is altogether needless to say that it fully accomplished my +father's prediction as to its sensational effects. Since the +appearance of the Bible in a form that brought it home to the common +people, there has been no work in the English language so extensively +read. The author's name became at once a cynosure the world over. When +Henry Ward Beecher, the writer's distinguished brother, delivered his +first lecture in England, he was introduced to the audience by the +chairman as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Stowe. + +The way in which the idea of writing the book came to the author was +significant of the will that produced it. A lady friend wrote Mrs. +Stowe a letter in which she said, "If I could use a pen as you can, I +would write something that would make the whole nation feel what an +accursed thing slavery is." When the letter reached its destination, +and Mrs. Stowe came to the passage above quoted, as the story is told +by a friend who was present, she sprang to her feet, crushed the +letter in her hand in the intensity of her feeling, and with an +expression on her face of the utmost determination, exclaimed, "If I +live, I will write something that will do that thing." + +The circumstances under which she executed her great task would +ordinarily be looked upon as altogether prohibitory. She was the wife +of a poor minister and school-teacher. To eke out the family income +she took boarders. She had five children of her own, who were too +young to be of any material assistance, and, in addition, she +occasionally harbored a waif that besought her protection when fleeing +from slavery. Necessarily the most of her time was spent in the +kitchen. There, surrounded by meats and vegetables and cooking +appliances, with just enough of the common deal table cleared away to +give space for her writing materials, she composed and made ready for +the publisher by far the most remarkable work of fiction this country +has produced. Slavery is dead, but Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece lives, and +is likely to live with growing luster as long as our free institutions +survive, which it is to be hoped will be forever. + +One of the most remarkable early workers in the Abolition cause was +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, a little Quaker woman of Pennsylvania. The writer +saw her for the last time shortly before her death. She was then +acting as presiding officer of an "Equal Rights"--meaning equal +suffrage--meeting. Sitting on one hand was Susan B. Anthony, and on +the other Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and next to one of them sat a +stately negro. + +She was then an aged woman, but her eye seemed to be as bright and her +movements as alert as they had ever been. Framed by her becoming +Quaker bonnet, which she retained in her official position, the face +of the handsome old lady would have been a splendid subject for an +artist. + +Mrs. Mott gave much of her time and all the means she could control to +the cause of the slave. She was an exceedingly spirited and eloquent +speaker. On one lecturing tour she traveled twenty-four hundred miles, +the most of the way in old-fashioned stage-coaches. By a number of +taverns she was denied entertainment. + +Like other pioneers in the same movement, Mrs. Mott was the victim of +numerous mobbings. One incident shows her courage and resourcefulness. +An Anti-Slavery meeting she was attending was broken up by rowdies, +and some of the ladies present were greatly frightened. Seeing this +Mrs. Mott asked the gentleman who was escorting her, to leave her and +assist some of the others who were more timid. "But who will take care +of you?" he asked. "This man," she answered, lightly laying her hand +on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob. The man, completely +surprised, responded by respectfully conducting her through the tumult +to a place of safety. + +But before Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Mott had taken up the work for the +bondman, two other remarkable women had become interested in his +cause. Their history has some features that the most accomplished +novel-writer could not improve upon. They were sisters, known as the +Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, the latter becoming the wife of +Theodore W. Weld, a noted Abolition lecturer. They were daughters of a +Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, their early home being +in Charleston. + +The family was of the highest pretension, being related to the Rhetts, +the Barnwells, the Pickenses, and other famous representatives of the +Palmetto aristocracy. It was wealthy, and of course had many slaves. +The girls had their colored attendants, whose only service was to wait +upon them and do their bidding. That circumstance finally led to +trouble. + +At that time there was a statute in South Carolina against teaching +slaves to read and write. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. +The Grimké girls, however, had little respect for or fear of that +law. The story of their offending is told by Sarah. + +Her attendant, when she was little more than a child, was a colored +girl of about the same age. She says, + + "I took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little + waiting maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in + combing and brushing my long hair. The light was put out, the + key-hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with + the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South + Carolina." + +South Carolina was long noted for its rebels, but it never had a more +interesting one than the author of the above narrative; nor a braver +one. + +As the sisters grew up, they more and more showed their dislike of +slavery and their disposition to aid such colored people as were +within their circle. Such conduct could not escape observation, and +the result was their banishment from their Southern home. They were +given the alternative of "behaving themselves" or going North to live. +They were not long in deciding, and they became residents of +Philadelphia. Here they joined the Quakers, because of their +coincidence of views on the slavery question. They had before been +Presbyterians, having been raised as such. They became industrious and +noted Anti-Slavery lecturers. To one of them is to be credited a +notable oratorical achievement. + +Being no longer able to ignore the growing Anti-Slavery sentiment of +its constituency, the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838 appointed a +committee to consider the part that that State had in the subject of +slavery, and especially in connection with slavery in the District of +Columbia. The committee asked an expression of their views from those +entertaining different sentiments on the subject. The Anti-Slavery +people invited Angelina Grimké to represent them. The sessions of the +committee were to be held in the great hall of the Legislature in the +State House, where, up to that time, no woman had ever spoken. The +chairman of the committee, however, consented that Miss Grimké should +be heard, and the fact that she was a woman probably helped to bring +out an immense audience. + +She spoke for two hours, and then, being asked to speak again, at the +next meeting, she spoke for two hours more. The impression she +produced may be inferred from the fact that the chairman of the +committee was in tears nearly the whole time she was speaking. The +effect upon all who heard her was admitted to be very great. + +The sincerity of these women was put to an unusual test. They had a +brother who remained in South Carolina, where he was a prominent +citizen and a large slave-owner. Like many sharing the privileges of +"the institution," he led a double life. He was married to a white +woman by whom he had children. He also had a family by a colored woman +who was one of his slaves. In his will he bequeathed his slave family +to a son by his lawful wife, with the stipulation that they should not +be sold or unkindly treated. + +Of these things the Grimké sisters knew nothing until after the war +which had freed their illegitimate relatives. Then all the facts came +to their knowledge. What should they do about it? was the question +that immediately confronted them. Should they--"Carolina's high-souled +daughters," as Whittier describes them, and not without some part in +the pride of the family to which they belonged--acknowledge such a +disreputable relationship? Not a day nor an hour did they hesitate. +They sent for their unfortunate kinspeople, accepted them as blood +connections, and took upon themselves the duty of promoting their +interests as far as it was in their power to do so. + +Although a quiet and retiring person, and, moreover, so much of an +invalid that the greater part of her time was necessarily passed in a +bed of sickness, a New England woman had much to do with publishing +the doctrines of Abolitionism, through the lips of the most eloquent +man in the country. She was the wife of Wendell Phillips, the noted +Anti-Slavery lecturer. + +"My wife made me an Abolitionist," said Phillips. How the work was +done is not without its romantic interest. + +It was several years before he made his meteoric appearance before the +public as a platform talker, and while yet a law student, that +Phillips met the lady in question. The interview, as described by one +of the parties, certainly had its comical aspect. "I talked +Abolitionism to him all the time we were together," said Mrs. +Phillips, as she afterwards related the affair. Phillips listened, and +that he was not surfeited nor disgusted appears from the fact that he +went again and again for that sort of entertainment. + +When Phillips asked for her hand, as the story goes, she asked him if +he was fully persuaded to be a friend of the slave, leaving him to +infer that their union was otherwise impossible. + +"My life shall attest the sincerity of my conversion," was his gallant +reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MOBS + + +In his _Recollections_, the Rev. Samuel T. May, who was one of the +most faithful and zealous of the Anti-Slavery pioneers, and belonged +to that band of devoted workers who were known as Abolition lecturers, +tells of his experience in delivering an Anti-Slavery address in the +sober New England city of Haverhill. + + "It was a Sabbath evening," he says. "I had spoken about fifteen + minutes when the most hideous outcries--yells and screeches--from + a crowd of men and boys, who had surrounded the house, startled + us, and then came heavy missiles against the doors and the blinds + of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping + the doors and blinds were strong enough to withstand the attack. + But presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, + scattered a pane of glass, and fell upon the head of a lady + sitting near the center of the hall. She uttered a shriek and fell + bleeding on the floor." + +There was a panic, of course, and the Abolition lecturer would have +been roughly handled by the mob if a young lady, a sister of the poet +Whittier, had not taken him by the arm, and walked with him through +the astonished crowd. They did not feel like attacking a woman. + +There was nothing unusual, except the part performed by the young +lady, in the affair described in the foregoing narrative. Mobs were of +constant occurrence in the period of which we are speaking. It was not +in the slave States that they were most frequent. Northern communities +that were regarded as absolutely peaceable and perfectly moral thought +nothing of an anti-Abolitionist riot now and then. They occurred "away +up North" and "away down East." Even sleepy old Nantucket, in its +sedentary repose by the sea, woke up long enough to mob a couple of +Abolition lecturers, a man and a woman. + +The community in which the writer resided when a boy, was fully up to +the pacific standard of most Northern neighborhoods. Yet it was the +scene of many turmoils growing out of Anti-Slavery meetings. The +district schoolhouse, which was the only public building in the +village that was open for such gatherings, called for frequent repairs +on account of damages done by mobs. Broken windows and doors were +often in evidence, and stains from mud-balls, decayed vegetables, and +antiquated eggs, which nobody took the trouble to remove, were nearly +always visible. + +On one occasion, at an evening meeting, the lecturer was a young +professor, who was "down" from Oberlin College, against which, as "an +Abolition hole," there was a very strong prejudice. He had not got +more than well started, when rocks, bricks, and other missiles began +to crash through the windows. The mob was resolved to punish that +young man, and had come prepared to give him a coating of unsavory +mixture. He was a preacher as well as a teacher, and his "store +clothes" were likely to betray him; but some thoughtful person had +brought an old drab overcoat and a rough workman's cap, and arrayed in +these garments he walked through the crowd without his identity being +suspected. + +But another party was not so fortunate. He was a respected citizen of +the village, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a strong +pro-slavery man. He dressed in black and his appearance was not unlike +that of the lecturer. By some hard luck he happened to be passing that +way when the crowd was looking for the Abolitionist, and was +discovered. "There he goes," was the cry that was raised, and a fire +of eggs and other things was opened upon him. He reached his home in +an awful plight, and it was charged that his conversation was not +unmixed with profanity. + +On another occasion the writer was present when the friends of the +lecturer undertook to convey him to a place of safety. They formed a +circle about him and moved away while the mob followed, hurling eggs +and clods and sticks and whatever else came handy. We kept quietly on +our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly +graveled, and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to +our use. Here we halted, and, with rocks in hand, formed a line of +battle. It took only one volley to put the enemy to rout, and we had +no further trouble. + +At last, after several men had been prevented from speaking in our +village, the services of a female lecturer were secured. The question +then was, whether the mob would be so ungallant as to disturb a woman. +The matter was settled by the rowdies on that occasion being more than +usually demonstrative. The lecturer showed great courage and presence +of mind. She closed the meeting in due form, and then walked calmly +through the noisy throng that gave her no personal molestation or +insult. Deliberately she proceeded to a place of safety--and then went +into hysterics. + +Finding that it was impossible to hold undisturbed public meetings, +the Abolitionists adopted a plan of operations that was altogether +successful. They met in their several homes, taking them in order, and +there the subject they were interested in was uninterruptedly +discussed. Intelligent opponents of their views were invited to +attend, and frequently did so. So warm were the discussions that arose +that the meetings sometimes lasted for entire days, and conversions +were not unusual. + +It was in one of these neighborhood gatherings that the writer first +became an active Anti-Slavery worker. He had memorized one of Daniel +O'Connell's philippics against American slavery, and, being given the +opportunity, declaimed it with much earnestness. After that he was +invited to all the meetings, and had on hand a stock of selections for +delivery, his favorite being Whittier's _Slave Mother's Lament over +the Loss of Her Daughters_: + + "Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + Where the slave whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings; + Where the fever demon strews + Poison with the falling dews; + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air. + Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia's hills and waters-- + Woe is me my stolen daughters!" + +It was marvelous how little damage all the mobs effected. Lovejoy of +Illinois was killed--a great loss--and occasionally an Abolitionist +lecturer got a bloody nose or a sore shin. Professor Hudson, of +Oberlin College, used to say that the injury he most feared was to his +clothes. He carried with him what he called "a storm suit," which he +wore at evening meetings. It showed many marks of battle. + +Among those who suffered real physical injury was Fred. Douglass, the +runaway slave. While in bondage he was often severely punished, but he +encountered rougher treatment in the North than in the South. He was +attacked by a mob while lecturing in the State of Indiana; was struck +to the earth and rendered senseless by blows on the head and body, and +for a time his life was supposed to be in danger. Although in the main +he recovered, his right hand was always crippled in consequence of +some of its bones having been broken. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS + + +If any one is desirous of estimating the extent of the sacrifice of +life, of treasure, of home and family comforts, and of innumerable +fair hopes that the institution of slavery, in its struggle, not +merely for existence, but for supremacy, cost this country, let him +visit a government cemetery in the neighborhood of one of the great +battle-fields of the Rebellion, and there, while looking down the long +avenues lined with memorial stones that a grateful country has set up, +make inquiry as to the number of those that are there bivouacked "in +fame's eternal camping ground." Some idea--a faint one it is +true--will then be had of the multitudes that gave up all they +possessed that liberty might live and rule in this fair land of ours. +They were martyrs in the very highest sense to Freedom's immeasurable +cause. The war was the product of slavery. It was the natural outcome +of the great moral conflict that had so long raged in this country. It +was simply the development of an agitation that had begun on other +lines. + +But there were martyrs to the cause of freedom before the war. +Everybody knows more or less of the story of John Brown, of +Ossawatomie, whose soul kept "marching on," although his body was +"a-mouldering in the grave." + +There was another case involving the surrender of life to that cause, +which has always struck me as having stronger claims to our sympathies +than that of John Brown and his comrades in self-sacrifice. + +I have already referred to Elijah P. Lovejoy who was a young +Congregational clergyman, who went from the State of Maine to St. +Louis, Missouri, in 1839. He became the editor of a religious journal +in which he expressed, in very moderate terms, an opinion that was not +favorable to slave-holding. The supporters of the institution were +aroused at once. They demanded a retraction. "I have sworn eternal +hostility to slavery, and by the blessing of God I will never go +back," was his reply. He also declared, "We have slaves here, but I am +not one of them." + +It was deemed advisable by Mr. Lovejoy and his friends to move his +printing establishment to Alton, opposite Missouri, in the free State +of Illinois. There, however, a pro-slavery antagonism immediately +developed. His press was seized and thrown into the Mississippi River. +The same fate awaited two others that were procured. But, undismayed, +Mr. Lovejoy and his friends once more decided that their rights and +liberties should not be surrendered without a further effort. Another +press was sent for. But in the meanwhile a violent public agitation +had arisen. At the instance of certain pro-slavery leaders in the +community a public meeting had been called to denounce the +Abolitionists. Mr. Lovejoy was invited to attend it and declare what +he would do. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "as long as I am an American citizen; as long as +American blood runs in my veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to +speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, +being amenable to the laws of my country for the same." + +The fourth press arrived. It was landed from a passing boat in the +small hours of the morning, and was safely conveyed to a warehouse +where Mr. Lovejoy and several of his friends assembled with a view to +its protection. What followed is thus described: + + "An hour or two afterwards there came from the grog-shops a crowd + of people who knocked at the door and demanded the press. One of + the owners of the warehouse informed them it would not be given + up. Presenting a pistol, the leader of the mob announced that they + were resolved to have the press at any cost. Stones were thrown, + windows broken, and shots were fired at the building. The cry of + 'burn them out' was raised. Ladders were procured, and some of the + rioters mounted to the roof of the building and set it on fire. + Mr. Lovejoy at this point stepped out of the building for the + purpose of having a talk with his enemies, when he was fired upon. + He received five balls, three in his breast. He was killed almost + instantly." + +The animosity of his enemies was such that they followed his remains +with scoffings and insults on its way to the grave. + +But the most cruel and brutal persecutions by the slave power were +not always those that involved the sacrifice of life. + +In Canterbury, in the State of Connecticut, lived a Quaker lady of the +name of Prudence Crandall. She conducted a school for young ladies. +Among those she admitted was a colored girl. The fact becoming known, +objection was raised by the citizens of the place. The position in +which Miss Crandall was placed was a most trying one. Having invested +all her means in the school building and its equipment, she was +confronted with the alternative of losing her business and her +property, or dismissing the colored student who had done no wrong. She +chose to stand by her principles. + +A public meeting was called, and a resolution to prevent the +maintenance of the school, if colored students were admitted, was +adopted by the citizens. Nevertheless, that brave Quakeress opened her +doors to several colored young women. That brought the issue to a +head, and then began a system of most remarkable persecutions. The +school building was bombarded with clubs and stones, the proprietress +found the stores of the village closed against her, and the young lady +students were grossly insulted when they appeared upon the streets. +Even the well from which drinking water was obtained was polluted. + +Finding that there was no law in Connecticut under which the +instruction of colored people could be prohibited and punished, the +enemies of Miss Crandall went to the Legislature of the State and +asked for such an enactment, and, to the eternal disgrace of that +body, their request was complied with. It was made a crime in +Connecticut to instruct colored people in the rudiments of an ordinary +education. + +Miss Crandall, as she made no change in her course of action, was +arrested, brought before a committing magistrate, and sent to jail. A +man had shortly before been confined in the same prison for the murder +of his wife, and therefrom had gone to execution. Miss Crandall was +confined in the cell this man had occupied. Other indignities were +heaped upon this devoted and courageous lady. Physicians refused to +attend the sick of her household, and the trustees of the church she +was accustomed to attend notified her that she and the members of her +family were denied admission to that sanctuary. + +Miss Crandall was finally convicted of the crime with which she was +charged, but the case, being carried to the highest court of the +State, was dismissed on a technicality. But, although the legal +prosecution of this poor woman reached an end, her enemies did not +cease their opposition. The mob made an attack upon her dwelling, +which was also her schoolhouse. Doors and windows were broken in, and +the building was so thoroughly wrecked as to be uninhabitable. Having +no money with which to make repairs, she was forced to abandon the +structure and her educational business at the same time. + +The Crandall family became noted for its martyrs. A brother of +Prudence Crandall was Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington City. He was +a man of high attainments, being a lecturer in a public scientific +institution. While engaged in his office he received some packages +that had been wrapped in newspapers, among which happened to be a copy +or two of Abolition journals. At the request of a gentleman who was +present at the unpacking he gave him one of the publications. Having +looked it over the gentleman dropped it, where it was picked up by +some one who was on the lookout for incendiary publications. No little +excitement followed its discovery. The community was aroused. Indeed, +so great was the agitation occasioned that Dr. Crandall, to whom the +inhibited paper had been traced, was in great physical danger from mob +violence. He was arrested, and, partly to save his life, was thrust +into jail, where he remained for eight months. He was tried and, +although acquitted, was really made the subject of capital punishment. +Tuberculosis developed as the result of his incarceration, and death +soon followed. + +Of many cases of the kind that might be cited, perhaps none is more +strikingly illustrative than that of Charles Turner Torrey, a New +England man. He was accused of helping a slave to escape from the city +of Baltimore, and being convicted on what was said to be perjured +testimony, was sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. The +confinement was fatal, a galloping consumption mercifully putting a +speedy end to his confinement. And then a remarkable incident +occurred. Torrey was a minister in good standing of the Congregational +denomination, and also a member of the Park Avenue Church of Boston. +Arrangements were made for funeral exercises in that church, but its +managers, taking alarm at the threats of certain pro-slavery men, +withdrew their permission and locked the sanctuary's doors. Slavery +punished the dead as well as the living. + +The case of Amos Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be +mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a +convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass +for a book called the _Cottage Bible_ which would not ordinarily be +supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. While +peaceably attending to his business he was accused of Anti-Slaveryism. +He did not deny the charge and was arrested, his trunk being broken +open and its contents searched and scattered. He was taken before a +vigilance committee and by it was condemned to receive twenty lashes +on his bare back, "well laid on," and then to be driven out of town. +The sentence was carried out, we are told, in the presence of +thousands of people of both sexes. + +Of the many somewhat similar instances that might here be referred to +the writer will make room for only one more. + +A seafaring man of the name of Jonathan Walker undertook to convey in +a sloop of which he was the owner seven colored fugitives to the +Bahama Islands, where they would be free. Owing to an accident to his +boat, he and his companions were captured. He was sentenced, among +other things, to have his hand branded with the letters S.S., +signifying "Slave Stealer." + +The incident just referred to inspired one of the finest productions +of Whittier's pen. Singing of that "bold plowman of the wave" he +proceeds: + + "Why, that hand is highest honor, + Than its traces never yet + Upon old memorial hatchments was + A prouder blazon set; + And the unborn generations, as they + Tread our rocky strand, + Shall tell with pride the story of + Their father's branded hand." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD + + +The prescribed penalties for assisting in the escape of fugitive +slaves were severe. By the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, as it was +called, any one convicted of that offense, besides a liability for one +thousand dollars damages recoverable in a civil action, was subject to +a five-hundred-dollars fine and imprisonment in a penitentiary for one +year. As the writer has not "done time" for participation in certain +transactions dating back to his earlier days, in which the legal +rights of slave-owners were indifferently respected, he thinks it +advisable to be somewhat reserved in his recital of personal +experiences when taking the public into his confidence. The Fugitive +Slave Law--and for that fact we should give "most hearty thanks"--is +about as dead as any statute can be, but as in the case of a snake +that has been killed, it may be the wiser course not to trifle with +its fangs. Therefore, instead of telling my own story in the first +person singular, I offer as a substitute the confession of one John +Smith, whose existence no one will presume to dispute. Here is his +statement: + + "There was an old barn on my father's farm. It was almost a ruin. + One end of the roof had fallen in, pretty much all the windows + were gone, and there was a general air of dilapidation about the + place. A dwelling-house, to which it was an appendage, had been + burned and not rebuilt, and the barn had been left to fight a + battle with the elements and other foes in pretty much its own + way. + + "Not that it was wholly abandoned. There was one mow that was kept + pretty well supplied with grass, and there were two or three horse + stalls that were in tolerable order, although but rarely used. + There were a number of excellent hiding-places about the old + rookery. In the basement all sorts of rubbish, including unused + vehicles and machinery, had been stored away, and so wedged and + packed was it that it would have taken hours to uncover man or + beast seeking concealment there. + + "One of the curious features of the situation was that the + building was in sight of none of the roads in the neighborhood, + while less than a hundred feet from it was a strip of woods in + which the removal of the larger trees had stimulated a sturdy and + densely matted undergrowth that was penetrable only by means of + paths that had been made by the cattle. It was what was called a + 'woods pasture.' With this cover for his movements any one could + approach or leave the old barn with little danger of discovery. + + "Naturally enough, such a ramshackle was in ill-repute. There were + tales about it in the neighborhood. Some children had gone there + to play on one occasion, and had been badly frightened by a + big--as big as a half-bushel, they asserted--black face that was + seen to be watching them. They fled from the premises in great + alarm, and for a time there was talk of an investigation by their + friends. The incident, however, was soon forgotten. + + "That old barn was a regular station on one of the underground + railroads that extended from the Ohio River to Canada. To but few + persons was its true character known, and they were very + close-mouthed about it. I was one of the few that were in the + secret. Being the youngest member of the family, it fell to my lot + to drive the horses and cows to and from the pasture in which the + old barrack was located, and while there it was an easy matter to + visit that establishment and ascertain if it sheltered any fresh + arrivals. + + "One day I had to report that two fugitives were in the barn, + being a mother and child. Then came the question--which in that + instance was a difficult one to answer--as to who should convey + them to the next station on the line, twenty miles away. A + brother, between five and six years older than I was, and who was + something of a dare-devil, did the most of the work of + transportation, but he was in bed with typhoid fever. A hired man, + who was employed partly because he was in hearty accord with the + humanitarian views of the household, and who on several occasions + had taken my brother's place, was absent. There was nobody but + myself who was ready to undertake the job, and I was only eleven + years old. There was no help for it, however. The slaves had to be + moved on, and I was greatly rejoiced in the prospect of adventure + that was opened up to me. The journey had to be made at night, but + for that I cared nothing, as I had repeatedly gone over the route + by daylight, and thought I knew the road perfectly. + + "Midnight found me on the highway, and on the driver's seat of one + of our farm wagons, to which was attached a span of horses moving + in the direction of the north star. That luminary was not on this + occasion visible. The sky was heavily overcast and the night was + very dark. A light rain was falling. With all the confidence I had + in my own ability, more than once would I have lost the way, but + for the sagacity of the horses, which had gone over that route a + number of times under similar circumstances. They acted as if + altogether familiar with it. Those horses proved themselves to be + excellent Abolitionists. + + "The inclemency of the night was in one respect a great advantage. + It kept at home those who might incline to be too inquisitive. The + few travelers we met passed on with a word of greeting, while I + whistled unconcernedly. + + "Over the bottom of the wagon was scattered some hay that might be + used either as feed for the horses or as a bed for weary + travelers. There was also an old-fashioned buffalo-robe, somewhat + dilapidated, that could serve for concealment or as shelter from + the elements. Two or three empty baskets suggested a return from + the market. There was another article that one would hardly have + looked for. This was a smoke-cured ham loosely wrapped in some old + sacking. It had gone over that route a number of times. Its odor + neutralized the smell by which the presence, immediate or recent, + of negroes might be detected. + + "My fellow-travelers, as my passengers might be called, were + interesting companions. Both, in one sense, were children, the + mother certainly not being over seventeen years old. She was a + comely half-breed mulatto. Her baby--a pretty boy of two + years--was one degree nearer white. + + "The girl was inclined to be confidential and talkative. She said + she was 'old mas'r's' daughter. Her mother had been one of 'old + mas'r's' people. She had grown up with the other slave children on + the place, being in no way favored because of her relationship to + her owner. The baby's father was 'young mas'r'--old master's son, + as it appeared--and who, consequently, was a half-brother of the + youthful mother. Slavery sometimes created singular relationships. + + "As the story ran, all the people, including the narrator and her + baby, when 'ole mas'r' died were 'leveled' on by the Sheriff's + man. She did not quite understand the meaning of it all, but it + was doubtless a case of bankruptcy. + + "'Young mas'r,' she said, 'tole' her she had to run away, taking + the baby of course. 'Oh, yes," she said very emphatically, 'I + never would have left Kentuck without Thomas Jefferson'--meaning + her little boy. 'Young mas'r,' according to her account, arranged + the whole proceeding, telling her what course to take by night, + where to stop and conceal herself by day, and what signal to give + when she reached the 'big river.' + + "When the Ohio had been crossed her young master met her, + evidently to the great delight of the poor creature. He gave her + some money, and told her that when she reached her destination he + would send her some 'mo.' After putting her in charge of some kind + people, evidently representatives of the underground line, they + had parted, according to her description of the incident, in an + affecting way. 'He kissed me and I cried,' was her simple + statement. Notwithstanding the boasted superiority of one race + over another, human nature seems to be very much the same, whether + we read it in a white face or in a black one. + + "The little girlish mother was very much alarmed for the safety of + her boy and herself when we began our journey, wanting to get out + and conceal herself whenever we heard any one on the road. After + several detentions from that cause, the weary creature stretched + herself upon the hay beside her sleeping infant and almost + immediately fell into a heavy slumber. She could stand the strain + no longer. I drew the buffalo-robe over the two sleepers, and + there they rested in blissful unconsciousness until the journey + was ended. + + "Half-way between the termini of my route was a village in which + lived a constable who was suspected of being in the employ of the + slave-owners. It was thought advisable that I should avoid that + village by taking a roundabout road. That I did, although it added + an extra half to my trip. The result was that the sun was just + peeping over the eastern hills, as I reached a set of bars showing + an entrance into a pasture lot on one side of the highway. + Removing the bars, I drove into the field, and passing over a + ridge that hid it from the road, I stopped in front of a log cabin + that had every appearance of being an abandoned and neglected + homestead. That was the station I was looking for. Arousing my + sleeping passengers, I saw them enter the old domicile, where I + bade them good-by, and received the tearful and repeated thanks of + the youthful slave mother, speaking for herself and her offspring. + I never saw them again, but in due time the news came back, over + what was jocularly called the 'grape-vine telegraph,' that they + had safely reached their destination. + + "At the home of the station agent I was enthusiastically received. + That a boy of eleven should accomplish what I had done was thought + to be quite wonderful. I was given an excellent breakfast, and + then shown to a room with a bed, where I had a good sleep. On my + awakening I set out on the return journey, this time taking the + most direct route, as I had then no fear of that hireling + constable. + + "Subsequently I passed through several experiences of a similar + kind, some of them involving greater risks and more exciting + incidents, but the recollection of none of them brings me greater + satisfaction than the memory of my first conductorship on the + Underground. + + "All of which is respectfully submitted by + + "JOHN SMITH." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +COLONIZATION + + +I have had a good deal to say about Anti-Slavery societies. There was +another society which was called into existence by the slavery +situation. Whether it was pro-slavery or anti-slavery was a question +that long puzzled a good many people. It was the Colonization Society. +A good many Anti-Slavery people believed in it for a time and gave it +their support. "I am opposed to slavery, but I am not an Abolitionist: +I am a Colonizationist," was a declaration that, when I was a boy, I +heard many and many times, and from the lips of well-intending people. + +It did not take the sharp-sighted leaders of the Abolition movement +very long to discover that one of the uses its managers expected to +make of the Colonization Society was as a shield for slavery. It kept +a number of excellent people from joining in an aggressive movement +against it, took their money, and made them believe that they were at +work for the freedom of the negro. + +Strangely as it might appear, the negroes, who were assumed to be the +beneficiaries of the colonization scheme, were opposed to it. Quicker +than the white people generally did, they saw through its false +pretense, and, besides, they could not understand why they should be +taken from the land of their nativity, and sent to the country from +which their progenitors had come, any more than the descendants of +Scotch, English, and German immigrants should be deported to the lands +of their ancestors. + +Equally strange was it that the Colonization Society, if really +friendly to the negro, should find its most zealous supporters among +slaveholders. Its first president, who was a nephew of George +Washington, upon learning that his slaves had got the idea that they +were to be set at liberty, sent over fifty of them to be sold from the +auction block at New Orleans. That was intended as a warning to the +rest. One of its presidents was said to be the owner of a thousand +slaves and had never manumitted one of them. The principal service +that the colonization movement was expected to do for the slave-owners +was to relieve them of the presence of free negroes. These were always +regarded as a menace by slave-masters. They disseminated ideas of +freedom and manhood among their unfortunate brethren. They were +object-lessons to those in bondage. The slave-owners were only too +glad to have them sent away. They looked to Liberia as a safety-valve. +It did not take long for intelligent people who were really +well-wishers of the black man to perceive these facts. + +The severest blow that the Colonization Society received in America +was from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, who, under the title of +_Thoughts on African Colonisation_, published a pamphlet that had +wide distribution. It completely unmasked the pretended friendship of +the Colonizationists for the negroes, free or slave. From that time +they lost all support from real Anti-Slavery people. There was, +however, to be a battle fought, in which the Colonization Society +figured as a party, that furnished one of the most interesting +episodes of the slavery conflict. + +England, at the time of which we are speaking, was full of +Anti-Slavery sentiment. Slavery, at the end of a long and bitter +contest, had been abolished in all her colonies. Her philanthropists +were rejoicing in their victory. The managers of the Colonization +Society resolved, if possible, to capture that sentiment, and with it +the pecuniary aid the British Abolitionists might render. It was +always a tremendous beggar. They, accordingly, selected a +fluent-tongued agent and sent him to England to advocate their cause. +He did not hesitate to represent that the Colonization Society was the +especial friend of the negro, working for his deliverance from +bondage, and, in addition, that it had the support of "the wealth, the +respectability, and the piety of the American people." + +When these facts came to the knowledge of the members of the newly +formed New England Anti-Slavery Society, they were naturally excited, +and resolved to meet the enemy in this new field of operations. This +they decided to do by sending a representative to England, who would +be able to meet the colonization agent in discussion, and otherwise +proclaim and champion their particular views. For this service the man +selected was William Lloyd Garrison, who was then but twenty-eight +years old. + +Remarkable it was that one who was not only so young, but imperfectly +educated, being a poor mechanic, daily toiling as a compositor at his +printer's case, should be chosen to meet the most polished people in +the British Empire, and hold himself ready to debate the most serious +question of the time. That such a person should be willing to enter +upon such an undertaking was almost as remarkable. But Garrison showed +no hesitation in accepting the task for which he was selected. + +On his arrival in England, Garrison sent a challenge to the +colonization agent for a public debate. This the Colonizationist +refused to receive. Two more challenges were sent and were treated in +the same way. Then Garrison, at a cost of thirty dollars, which he +could ill afford to pay, published the challenge in the London +_Times_, with a statement of the manner in which it had been so far +treated. Of course, public interest was aroused, and when Garrison +appeared upon the public platform, as he at once proceeded to do, he +was greeted with the attendance of multitudes of interested hearers. +Exeter Hall in London was crowded. The most distinguished men in +England sat upon the stage when he spoke, and applauded his addresses. +Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, paid them a most florid +compliment. They were, unquestionably, most remarkable samples of +effective eloquence--plain in statement, simple in style, but +exceedingly logical and forcible. They were widely published +throughout England at the time of their delivery. + +One of the results was that the leading emancipationists of Great +Britain signed and published a warning against the colonization +scheme, denouncing it as having its roots in "a cruel prejudice," and +declaring that it was calculated to "increase the spirit of caste so +unhappily predominant," and that it "exposed the colored people to +great practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate." + +As for the poor agent of the Colonizationists, seeing how the battle +was tending, he left England in a hurry, and was nevermore heard of in +that part of the world. + +Garrison's personal triumph was very striking, and it was splendidly +earned. He was made the recipient of many compliments and +testimonials. A curious incident resulted from this great popularity. +He was invited to breakfast by Sir Thomas Buxton, the noted English +philanthropist, with a view to making the acquaintance of a number of +distinguished persons who were to be present. When Mr. Garrison +presented himself, his entertainer, who had not before met or seen +him, looked at him in great astonishment. + +"Are you William Lloyd Garrison?" he inquired. + +"That is who I am," replied Mr. Garrison, "and I am here on your +invitation." + +"But you are a white man," said Buxton, "and from your zeal and labors +in behalf of the colored people, I assumed that you were one of them." + +Garrison left England in what, metaphorically, might be described as +"a blaze of glory." Hundreds attended him when he went to embark on +his homeward voyage, and he was followed by their cheers and +benedictions. Wonderfully different was the treatment he received on +his arrival in his own country. Not long afterwards he was dragged +through Boston streets by a hempen rope about his body, and was +assigned to a prison cell, as affording the most available protection +from the mob. + +Nevertheless, we have had some excellent people--not +slave-owners--who, out of compassion for the black man, or from +prejudice against his color, and, perhaps, from a little of both, have +favored a policy of colonization in this country. Mr. Lincoln was one +of them. "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what +to do with the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free +the slaves and send them to Liberia." So said Mr. Lincoln in one of +his debates with Douglas. + +"I cannot make it better known than it already is," said Mr. Lincoln +in a message to Congress, dated December 1, 1862, "that I strongly +favor colonization." + +At Lincoln's instance Congress appropriated several large sums of +money--then much needed in warlike operations--for colonizing +experiments. One of these has a curious and somewhat pathetic history. +A sharper by the name of Koch, having worked himself into the +confidence of the President and some other good people, got them to +buy from him an island in the West Indies, called Ile a'Vache, which +he represented to be a veritable earthly paradise. Strangely enough, +it was wholly uninhabited, and therefore ready for the uses of a +colony. Several hundred people--colored, of course--were collected, +put aboard a ship, and dumped upon this unknown land. It will +surprise no one to learn that pretty soon these people, poisoned by +malaria, stung by venomous insects and reptiles, and having scarcely +anything to eat, were dying like cattle with the murrain. In the end a +ship was sent to bring back the survivors. + +Nevertheless, the kind-hearted President did not give up the idea. At +his request a delegation of Washington negroes called upon him. He +made them quite a long speech, telling them that Congress had given +him money with which to found a colony of colored people, and that he +had found what seemed to be a suitable location in Central America. He +appealed to them to supply the colonists. The negroes, not anxious for +exile, diplomatically said they would think the matter over. In the +end it was discovered that Central America did not want the negroes, +and that the negroes did not want Central America. + +A story that is curiously illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's attachment to +the policy of removing the colored people is told by L.E. Chittenden +in his _Recollections of President Lincoln_. Mr. Chittenden was a +citizen of Vermont and Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, with +whom he was in intimate and confidential relations: + + "During one of his welcome visits to my office," says Mr. + Chittenden, "the President seemed to be buried in thought over + some subject of great interest. After long reflection he abruptly + exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a question. + + "'Do you know any energetic contractor?' he inquired; 'one who + would be willing to take a large contract attended with some + risk?' + + "'I know New England contractors," I replied, 'who would not be + frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element + of prospective profit is the only one that would interest them. If + there was a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to + contract to suppress the Rebellion in ninety days." + + "'There will be profit and reputation in the contract I may + propose,' said the President. 'It is to remove the whole colored + race of the slave States into Texas. If you have any acquaintance + who would take that contract, I would like to see him.' + + "'I know a man who would take that contract and perform it,' I + replied. 'I would be willing to put you into communication with + him, so that you might form your own opinion about him.' + + "By the President's direction I requested John Bradley, a + well-known Vermonter, to come to Washington. He was at my office + the morning after I sent the telegram to him. I declined to give + him any hint of the purpose of my invitation, but took him + directly to the President. When I presented him I said: 'Here, Mr. + President, is the contractor whom I named to you yesterday.' + + "I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to my + office overflowing with admiration for the President and + enthusiasm for his proposed work. 'The proposition is,' he said, + 'to remove the whole colored race into Texas, there to establish a + republic of their own. The subject has political bearings of which + I am no judge, and upon which the President has not yet made up + his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will + undertake to remove them all within a year.'" + +It is unnecessary to state that the Black Republic of Texas was a +dream that never materialized. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION + + +Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who were Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries +during the time he was President, and afterwards the authors of his +most elaborate biography, say: "The blessings of an enfranchised race +must forever hail him as their liberator." + +Says Francis Curtis in his _History of the Republican Party_, in +speaking of the President's Emancipation Proclamation: "On the 1st day +of January, 1863, the final proclamation of freedom was issued, and +every negro slave within the confines of the United States was at last +made free." + +Other writers of what is claimed to be history, almost without number, +speak of the President's pronouncement as if it caused the bulwarks of +slavery to fall down very much as the walls of Jericho are said to +have done, at one blast, overwhelming the whole institution and +setting every bondman free. Indeed, there are multitudes of fairly +intelligent people who believe that slaveholding in this country +ceased the very day and hour the proclamation appeared. In a recent +magazine article, so intelligent a man as Booker Washington speaks of +a Kentucky slave family as being emancipated by Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation, when, in fact, the proclamation never applied to +Kentucky at all. + +The emancipationists of Missouri were working hard to free their State +from slavery, and they would have been only too glad to have Mr. +Lincoln do the work for them. They appealed to him to extend his edict +to their State, but got no satisfaction. The emancipationists of +Maryland had much the same experience. Both Missouri and Maryland were +left out of the proclamation, as were Tennessee and Kentucky and +Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Louisiana and the Carolinas. (See +Appendix.) The explanation is that the proclamation was not intended +to cover all slaveholding territory. All of it that belonged to States +that had not been in rebellion, or had been subdued, was excluded. The +President's idea was to reach only such sections as were then in +revolt. If the proclamation had been immediately operative, and had +liberated every bondman in the jurisdiction to which it applied, it +would have left over a million slaves in actual thraldom. Indeed, Earl +Russell, the British premier, was quite correct when, in speaking of +the proclamation, he said: "It does not more than profess to +emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make +emancipation a reality, and emancipates no one where the decree can be +carried into effect." + +For the failure of the proclamation to cover all slaveholding +territory there was a plausible reason. Freedom under it was not +decreed as a boon, but as a penalty. It was not, in theory at least, +intended to help the slave, but to chastise the master. It was to be +in punishment of treason, and, of course, could not consistently be +made to apply to loyal communities, or to such as were under +government control. The proclamation, it will be recollected, was +issued in two parts separated by one hundred days. The first part gave +the Rebels warning that the second would follow if, in the meanwhile, +they did not give up their rebellion. All they had to do to save +slavery was to cease from their treasonable practices. Had the Rebels +been shrewd enough, within the hundred days, to take the President at +his word, he would have stood pledged to maintain their institution, +and his proclamation, instead of being a charter of freedom, would +have been a license for slaveholding. + +The proclamation did not, in fact, whatever it may have otherwise +accomplished at the time it was issued, liberate a single slave. What +is more, slavery as an institution was altogether too securely rooted +in our system to be abolished by proclamation. The talk of such a +thing greatly belittles the magnitude of the task that was performed. +Its removal required a long preliminary work, involving, as is made to +appear in previous chapters of this work, almost incalculable toil and +sacrifice, to be followed by an enormous expenditure of blood and +treasure. Its practical extinguishment was the work of the army, while +its legal extirpation was accomplished by Congress and the +Legislatures of the States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution, which forbids all slaveholding. That amendment +was a production of Congress and not of the Executive, whose official +approval was not even required to make it legally effective. + +The story of the proclamation, with not a few variations, has often +been told; but the writer fancies that the altogether correct account +has not always been given. It may be presumptuous on his part, but he +will submit his version. + +To understand the motive underlying the proclamation we must take into +account its author's feeling toward slavery. Notwithstanding various +unfriendly references of an academic sort to that institution, he was +not at the time the proclamation appeared, and never had been, an +Abolitionist. + +Not very long before the time referred to the writer heard Mr. +Lincoln, in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois, +declare--laying unusual emphasis on his words: "I have on all +occasions declared as strongly as Judge Douglas against the +disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery." + +Judge Douglas was what was then called a "dough-face" by the +Abolitionists--being a Northern man with Southern principles, or +"proclivities," as he called them. + +Only a little earlier, and several years after Mr. Lincoln had claimed +to be a Republican, and a leader of the Republicans, he had, in a +speech at Bloomington, Illinois, asserted that, "the conclusion of it +all is that we must restore the Missouri Compromise." + +Now the adoption of the Missouri Compromise was the hardest blow ever +inflicted on the cause of free soil in America. It did more to +encourage the supporters of slavery and to discourage its opponents +than anything else that ever happened. Its restoration would +undoubtedly have produced a similar effect. Although he is not to be +credited with any philanthropic motive, Stephen A. Douglas did an +effective work for freedom when he helped to overthrow that measure. +Leading Abolitionists have accorded him that meed of praise. + +But there was that proposition which Mr. Lincoln was so fond of +repeating, that the nation could not remain half free and half +slave--"a divided house"--but the remedy he had to propose was not +manumission at any proximate or certain time, but the adoption of a +policy that, to use his own words, would cause "the public mind to +rest in the belief that it [slavery] was in the course of ultimate +extinction." Practically that meant very little or nothing. What the +public mind then needed was not "rest," but properly directed +activity. + +But the declarations above quoted were all before Mr. Lincoln had +become President or had probably thought of such a thing. Did the +change of position lead to a change of opinion on his part? We are not +left in uncertainty on this point. His official views were declared in +what might be called a State paper. Soon after his inauguration, his +Secretary of State sent Minister Dayton, at Paris, a dispatch that he +might use with foreign officials, in which, in speaking of the +Rebellion, he said: "The condition of slavery in the several States +will remain just the same whether it succeeds or fails.... It is +hardly necessary to add to this incontrovertible statement the further +fact that the new President has always repudiated all designs, +whenever and wherever imputed to him, of disturbing the system of +slavery as it has existed under the Constitution and laws." + +About the same time Mr. Lincoln stated to a party of Southern +Congressmen, who called upon him, that he "recognized the rights of +property that had grown out of it [slavery] and would respect those +rights as fully as he would similar rights in any other property." + +No steps were taken by Mr. Lincoln to recall or repudiate the +foregoing announcements. On the contrary, he confirmed them in his +official action. He annulled the freedom proclamations of Frémont and +Hunter. He did not interfere when some of his military officers were +so busy returning fugitive slaves that they had no time to fight the +masters. He approved Hallock's order Number Three excluding fugitives +from the lines. He even permitted the poor old Hutchinsons to be sent +away from the army very much as if they had been colored people, when +trying to rouse "the boys" with their freedom songs. In many ways Mr. +Lincoln showed that in the beginning and throughout the earlier part +of his Administration he hoped to re-establish the Union without +disturbing slavery. In effect he so declared in his introduction to +his freedom proclamation. He gave the rebel slaveholders one hundred +days in which to abandon their rebellion and save their institution. +In view of such things it is no wonder that Henry Wilson, so long a +leading Republican Senator from Massachusetts, in his _Rise and Fall +of the Slave Power_, in speaking of emancipation, said "it was a +policy, indeed, which he [the President] did not personally favor +except in connection with his favorite idea of colonization." + +It is needless to say that the President's attitude was a great +surprise and a sore disappointment to the more radical Anti-Slavery +people of the country, who had supported him with much enthusiasm and +high hopes. They felt that they had been deceived. They said so very +plainly, for the Abolitionists were not the sort of people to keep +quiet under provocation. Horace Greeley published his signed attack +(see Appendix) entitled, _The Prayer of Twenty Millions_, which is, +without doubt, the most scathing denunciation in the English language. +Henry Ward Beecher "pounded" Mr. Lincoln, as he expressed it. Wendell +Phillips fairly thundered his denunciations. There was a general +under-swell of indignation. + +Now, Mr. Lincoln was not a man who was incapable of reading the signs +of the times. He saw that he was drifting towards an irreparable +breach with an element that had previously furnished his staunchest +supporters. As a politician of great native shrewdness, as well as the +head of the Government, he could not afford to let the quarrel go on +and widen. There was need of conciliation. Something had to be done. +We know what he did. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation. + +As far as freeing any slaves was concerned, he knew it amounted to +very little, if anything. He said so. Less than two weeks before the +preliminary section of the proclamation appeared, Mr. Lincoln was +waited on by a delegation of over one hundred Chicago clergymen, who +urged him to issue a proclamation of freedom for the slaves. "What +good would a proclamation from me do, especially as we are now +situated?" asked Mr. Lincoln by way of reply. "I do not want to issue +a document that the whole world would see must necessarily be +inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word +free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the +rebel States?" + +In contemplating a proclamation applicable to the rebel States, it is +hardly to be supposed that Mr. Lincoln did not understand the +situation two weeks earlier quite as well as when the document +appeared. + +If Mr. Lincoln had been told, when he entered on the Presidency, that +before his term of office would expire he would be hailed as "The +Great Emancipator," he would have treated the statement as equal to +one of his own best jokes. Slavery was a thing he did not then want to +have disturbed. He discountenanced all radical agitators of the +subject, and especially in the border slave States, where he was able +to hold them pretty well in check, except in Missouri. There they +stood up and fought him, and in the end beat him. One of the rather +curious results of this condition of things was that, when the States +came to action on the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, the one +absolutely abolishing slavery, the three border slave States of +Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, over which the President's influence +was practically supreme, gave an adverse vote of four to one, while +Missouri, with whose radical emancipationists he had continuously been +at loggerheads, ratified the amendment by a legislative vote of one +hundred and eleven ayes to forty nays. + +Nevertheless, notwithstanding the President, at the beginning of his +official term, opposed Anti-Slavery agitation and Anti-Slavery action +with all his might, he promptly faced about as soon as he discovered +that the subject was one that would not "down." No one ever worked +harder to find a solution of a difficult problem than he did of the +slavery question. He began to formulate plans to that end, the most +distinguishing feature, however, being the spirit of compromise by +which they were pervaded. All of them stopped before an ultimatum was +reached. Besides his proclamation, which, as we have seen, applied to +only a part of the slaves, he devised a measure that would have been +applicable to all of them. In his special message of December, 1863, +he proposed to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment +that would work universal liberation. There were conditions, however. +One was that the slaves should be paid for by the Government; another +that the masters might retain their uncompensated services until +January 1, 1900; that is, for a period of thirty-seven years, unless +they were sooner emancipated by the grave, as the most of them would +be. (See Appendix.) + +The President's somewhat fantastic proposition was not claimed by him +to be for the bondman's benefit. He urged it as a measure of public +economy, holding that, as slavery was the admitted cause of the +Rebellion, the quickest and surest way to remove that cause would be +by purchase of all the slaves, which, he insisted, "would shorten the +war, and thus lessen the expenditure of money and blood." + +The public did not take to the President's plan at all, especially the +Abolitionists did not. They no more favored the buying of men by the +Government than by anybody else. They held that if the master had no +right to the person of his bondman, he had no right to payment for +him. And as for an arrangement that might prolong slaveholding for +thirty-seven years, they saw in it not only a measure of injustice to +the men, women, and children then in servitude, the most of whom would +be doomed to bondage for the rest of their natural lives, but a +possible plan for side-tracking a genuine freedom movement. + +In the proposition just considered we have not only the core of the +President's policy during much of his official tenure, but an +explanation of his mental operations. He was sentimentally opposed to +slavery, but he was afraid of freedom. He dreaded its effect on both +races. He was opposed to slavery more because it was a public nuisance +than because of its injustice to the oppressed black man, whose +condition, he did not believe, would be greatly, if at all, benefited +by freedom. Hence he wanted manumission put off as long as possible. +It was "ultimate extinction" he wanted, to be attended with payment to +the master for his lost property. Another thing he favored--and which +he seems to have thought entirely practicable--as a condition to +liberation, was the black man's removal to a place or places out of +contact with our white population. + +But in entire fairness to Mr. Lincoln, it should be said that, +although his proclamation was inoperative for the immediate release of +any slaves, it was by no means wholly ineffectual. Its moral influence +was considerable. It helped to hasten a movement that had, however, by +that time become practically irresistible. Its political results were +far more marked and important. If it did not fully restore cordiality +between the President and the Abolition leaders, it prevented an open +rupture. It served as a bridge between them. Although they never took +Mr. Lincoln fully into their confidence again, the Abolitionists +interpreted his proclamation as a concession and an abandonment of his +previous policy, which it was much more in appearance than actually. +At all events, it was splendid politics. The somewhat theatrical +manner in which it was worked up and promulgated in installments, thus +arousing in advance a widespread interest and curiosity, showed no +little strategic ability. No more skillful move is recorded in the +history of our parties and partisans than this act of Mr. Lincoln, by +which he disarmed his Anti-Slavery critics without giving them any +material advantage or changing the actual situation. I am not now +speaking of the motive underlying the proclamation of the President, +but of its effect. Without it he could not have been renominated and +re-elected. + +Another observation, in order to be entirely just to Mr. Lincoln, +after what has been stated, would at this point seem to be called for. +There is no doubt that from the first he was at heart an Anti-Slavery +man, which is saying a good deal for one born in Kentucky, raised in +southern Indiana and southern Illinois, and who was naturally of a +conservative turn of mind. Nevertheless, he was never an Abolitionist. +He was opposed to immediate--what he called "sudden"--emancipation. He +recognized the "right"--his own word--of the slave-owner to his pound +of flesh, either in the person of his bondman or a cash equivalent. He +was strongly prejudiced against the negro. Of that fact we have the +evidence in his colonization ideas. He favored the banishment of our +American-born black people from their native land. It was a cruel +proposition. True, the President did move from his first position, +which, as we have seen, was far from that occupied by the +Abolitionists, but from first to last he was more of a follower than +leader in the procession. + +And here the author wishes to add, in justice to himself, that if, by +reason of anything he has said in this chapter, or elsewhere in this +work, in criticism of Mr. Lincoln's dealings with the slavery issue, +he should be accused of unfriendliness toward the great martyr +President, he enters a full and strong denial. He holds that, in view +of all the difficulties besetting him, Mr. Lincoln did well, although +he might have done better. Much allowance, must be made to one +situated as he was. He undoubtedly deserves the most of the encomiums +that have been lavished upon him. At the same time, the conclusion is +inevitable that his fame as a statesman will ultimately depend less +upon his treatment of the slavery issue than upon any other part of +his public administration. The fact will always appear that it was +the policy of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, +Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and other advocates of the radical +cure, with whom the President was in constant opposition, that +prevailed in the end, and with a decisiveness that proves it to have +been feasible and sound from the beginning. Mr. Lincoln's most ultra +prescription--his Emancipation Proclamation--was ineffective. If it +was intended to eradicate slavery altogether, it was too narrow; if to +free the slaves of Rebels only, it was too broad. So with his other +propositions. His thirty-seven-year-liberation scheme, his "tinkering +off" policy (as he called it) for Missouri, his reconstruction +proposals, and his colonization projects, all failed. Indeed, if we +take his official action from first to last, it is a question whether +the President, owing to his extreme conservatism, was not more of an +obstructionist than a promoter of the Anti-Slavery cause. + +Not that any change of opinion on the point just stated will +materially affect the general estimate in which Mr. Lincoln is held. +Although his popularity, due, in part at least, to the extravagance of +over-zealous admirers, has without much doubt already passed its +perihelion, it can never disappear or greatly diminish. His untiring +and exhaustive labors for the Union, the many lovable traits of his +unique personality, his unquestionable honesty, his courage, his +patriotism, and, above all, his tragic taking off, have unalterably +determined his place in the regard of his countrymen. Indeed, so +strong is the admiration in which he is held, that it would be vain to +attempt to disabuse many, by any amount of proof and argument, of the +opinion that African slavery in this country was actually and +exclusively killed by a presidential edict. So firmly fixed in the +popular belief is that historical myth that it will undoubtedly live +for many years, if not generations, although history in the end will +right it like all other misunderstandings. + +Mr. Lincoln had his weaknesses and limitations, like other men. All +must admit that his treatment of the slavery question was not without +its mistakes. It has always seemed to the writer that his most ardent +admirers seriously blunder in claiming superlativeness for him in that +regard, and more especially in giving him credit for results that were +due to the efforts of other men. His fame is secure without such +misappropriation. He would not ask it if living, and it will in due +time be condemned by history. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE END OF ABOLITIONISM + + +The original and distinctive Abolition movement that was directed +against slavery in all parts of the land without regard to State or +territorial lines, and because it was assumed to be wrong in principle +and practice, may be said, as far as the country at large was +concerned, to have culminated at the advent of the Republican party. +To a considerable extent it disappeared, but its disappearance was +that of one stream flowing into or uniting with another. The union of +the two currents extended, but did not intensify, the Anti-Slavery +sentiment of the country. It diluted it and really weakened +it. It brought about a crisis of great peril to the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism--in some respects the most critical through which it +was called upon to pass. Many of those attaching themselves to the +Republican party, as the new political organization was called, were +not in sympathy with Abolitionism. They were utterly opposed to +immediate emancipation; or, for that matter, to emancipation of any +kind. They wanted slavery to remain where it was, and were perfectly +willing that it should be undisturbed. They disliked the blacks, and +did not want to have them freed, fearing that if set at liberty they +would overrun what was then free soil. + +The writer recollects hearing a prominent man in the new party, who +about that time was making a public speech, declare with great +emphasis that, "as for the niggers, they are where they ought to be." +The speaker on that occasion was one of many who belonged to the +_débris_ of the broken-up Whig party, and who drifted into +Republicanism because there was no other more attractive harbor to go +to. One of these men was Abraham Lincoln, whom I heard declare in his +debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois: "I was with the old-line Whigs +from the origin to the end of their party." The Whigs were never an +Anti-Slavery party. The recruits to Republicanism from that quarter +were generally very tender on "the nigger question," and the most they +were prepared to admit was that they were opposed to slavery's +extension. These men largely dominated the new party. They generally +dictated its platforms, which, compared with earlier Abolition +utterances, were extremely timid, and they had much to do with making +party nominations. Their favorite candidates were not those whose +opinions on the slavery question were positive and well understood, +but those whose views were unsettled if not altogether unknown. When +General Frémont was nominated for the Presidency, not one in ten of +those supporting him knew what his opinions on that subject were, and +a good many of them did not care. Mr. Lincoln was accepted in much the +same way. + +It is true that, from certain expressions about the danger to our +national house from being "half free" and "half slave," and other +generalizations of a more or less academic sort, it was known that +Mr. Lincoln was antagonistic to slavery; but as to whether he favored +that institution's immediate or speedy extinguishment, and, if so, by +what measures, was altogether unknown. We now know, from what has been +set forth in another chapter, that at the time of his first nomination +and election, he had very few things in common with the Abolitionists. +He then evidently had no thought of being hailed as the "liberator of +a race." He preferred, for the time at least, that the race in +question should remain where it was, and as it was, unless it could be +bodily transported to some other country and be put under the +protection of some other flag. + +He did not break with the Abolitionists, although he kept on the edge +of a quarrel with them, and especially with what he called the +"Greeley faction," a good part of the time. He never liked them, but +he was a shrewd man--a born politician--and was too sagacious to +discard the principal round in the ladder by which he had climbed to +eminence. He managed to keep in touch with the Anti-Slavery movement +through all its steady advancement, but, as elsewhere stated, it was +as a follower rather than as a leader. + +While a resident of the slave State of Missouri, I twice voted for Mr. +Lincoln, which was some evidence of my personal feeling toward him. +Both times I did it somewhat reluctantly. On the first occasion there +were four candidates. Breckenridge and Bell were Southern men--both by +residence and principle--and had no claim on Anti-Slavery support. But +with Douglas the case was different. He had quarreled with the +pro-slavery leaders, although of his own party. He had defied +President Buchanan in denouncing border-ruffianism in Kansas. He had +refused to give up his "popular sovereignty" dogma, although it +clearly meant ultimate free soil. The slave-masters hated him far more +than they did Lincoln. I heard them freely discuss the matter. They +were more afraid of the vindictiveness of the fiery Douglas than of +the opposition of good-hearted, conservative Lincoln. In my opinion +there was good reason for that feeling. Douglas, as President, would +undoubtedly have pushed the war for the Union with superior energy, +and slavery would have suffered rougher treatment from his hands than +it did from Mr. Lincoln's. There was another reason why the +slaveholders preferred the election of Lincoln to that of Douglas. +Lincoln's election would furnish the better pretext for the rebellion +on which they were bent, and which they had already largely planned. +They were resolved to defeat Douglas at all hazards, and they +succeeded. + +Douglas had been very distasteful to the Abolitionists. They called +him a "dough-face." Nevertheless, quite a number of them where I lived +in Missouri voted for him. Missouri was the only State he carried, and +there he had less than five hundred majority. He got more than that +many free-soil votes. I was strongly tempted to give him mine. Chiefly +on account of political associations, I voted for Lincoln. + +When it came to the second election, I again voted for Mr. Lincoln +with reluctance. The principal reason for my hesitancy was his +treatment of the Anti-Slavery people of the border slave States, and +especially of Missouri. The grounds for my objection on that score +will appear in the next chapter, which deals with the Missouri +embroglio, as it was called. + +From what has just been stated, it will be seen that the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism had, at the formation of the Republican party, reached +a most perilous crisis. It was in danger of being submerged and +suffocated by unsympathetic, if not positively unfriendly, +associations. It ran the risk, after so many years of toil and +conflict, of being undone by those in whose support it was forced to +confide. Such would undoubtedly have been its fate if, owing to +circumstances over which no political party or other organization of +men had control, the current of Anti-Slavery sentiment had not risen +to a flood that swept all before it. + +It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis just alluded +to, the nearest approach to original Abolitionism that was to be +found, was in a slave State. In Missouri there was an organized +opposition to slavery that had been maintained for several years, and +which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed by this movement was +undoubtedly due in large measure to the inspiration of the man who was +its originator, if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton. +Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has been a +much-disputed question, but one thing is certain, and that is that the +men who sat at his feet, who were his closest disciples and imbibed +the most of his spirit--such as B. Gratz Brown, John How, the Blairs, +the Filleys, and other influential Missourians,--were Abolitionists. +Some of them weakened under the influence of the national +administration, but not a few of them maintained their integrity. Even +in the first days of the Civil War, when all was chaos there, an +organization was maintained, although at one time its only working and +visible representatives consisted of the members of a committee of +four men--a fifth having withdrawn--who were B. Gratz Brown, +afterwards a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards +Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of St. Louis, and the +writer of this narrative. They issued an appeal that was distributed +all over the State, asking those in sympathy with their views to hold +fast to their principles, and to keep up the contest for unconditional +freedom. To that appeal there was an encouraging number of favorable +responses. + +And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said to have been lost +by merger elsewhere, it remained in its independence and integrity in +slaveholding Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil, and +in four years so far made itself master of the situation that a +constitutional State convention, chosen by popular vote, adopted an +ordinance under which an emancipationist Governor issued his +proclamation, declaring that "hence and forever no person within the +jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of +liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, +or know any master but God." + +The writer entered on this work with no purpose of relating or +discussing the story of the Republican party, in whole or in any part. +His subject was Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but +for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which reference has just +been made. That manifestation, he thinks, is deserving of recognition, +both on its own account and as a continuation of the original +movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute to its discussion +because he was then a Missourian by residence, and had something to do +with its successful prosecution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MISSOURI + + +In his interesting, though rather melodramatic, romance, _The Crisis_, +Winston Churchill tells the imaginary story of a young lawyer who went +from New England to St. Louis, and settled there shortly before the +outbreak of the Civil War. Having an abundance of leisure, and being +an Abolitionist, he devoted a portion of the time that was not +absorbed by his profession to writing articles on slavery for the +_Missouri Democrat_, which, notwithstanding its name, was the organ of +the Missouri emancipationists, and lived in part on the money he +received as compensation for that work. That in part describes the +author's experience. He was at that time a young lawyer in St. Louis, +to which place he had come from the North, and those who have read the +earlier chapters of this work are aware that he was an Abolitionist. +Having a good deal of time that was not taken up by his professional +employments, he occupied a portion of it in writing Anti-Slavery +contributions to the _Democrat_, and, so far as he knows, he was the +only person who to any extent did so. A collection was made of a +portion of his articles, and with money contributed by friends of the +cause, they were published in pamphlet form under the title of _Hints +toward Emancipation in Missouri_, and distributed throughout the +State. + +There the parallelism of the cases ceases. The writer got no pecuniary +compensation for his labor. He asked for none and expected none. The +_Democrat_ was then in no condition to pay for volunteer services, +having a hard struggle for existence. He was able to do it a service +that, possibly, saved it from at least a temporary suspension. One of +its chief difficulties was in getting printing paper, the manufacturer +it had been patronizing declining to furnish it except for cash, while +the _Democrat_ needed partial credit. At that time Louis Snyder, of +Hamilton, Ohio, a large paper-maker, visited St. Louis on business +that called for legal assistance, and I was employed by him. When the +work in hand was finished, I remarked that there was something else he +might do in St. Louis that would pay him. I explained the situation of +the _Democrat_, and assured him that, in my opinion, he would be +perfectly safe in giving trust to its proprietors, who were honest +men. + +"Will you indorse their paper?" he asked. + +Mr. Snyder was a crafty as well as a thrifty German. + +I replied that, as I was not a wealthy man, the question did not seem +to be pertinent. + +"Will you indorse their paper for one thousand dollars?" was his next +question. + +Being by this time somewhat "spunked up," I replied that I would. + +"Then I shall be pleased to meet your friends," said Mr. Snyder. + +The result of the interview that followed was such that the +_Democrat_ was materially assisted in continuing its publication. + +It is hardly necessary to state that I never heard anything more of +the one-thousand-dollar indorsement, the sole purpose of which was, +doubtless, to test my sincerity. + +Soon afterwards I was offered the political editorship of the +_Democrat_, which I accepted on the one condition that there was to be +"no let-up on emancipation." I held the position until Missouri was a +free State. + +In a surprisingly short time after the question of Missouri's status +in reference to the Union was decided, the issue between +Pro-Slaveryism and Anti-Slaveryism came up. Political parties ranged +themselves upon it. Those who favored slavery's immediate or speedy +abolishment became known as Radicals, while those advocating its +prolongation were called Conservatives. Those descriptives, however, +were too mild for such a time, and they were quickly superseded by a +more expressive local nomenclature. The Radicals, because of their +alleged sympathy with the negro, were branded as "Charcoals," and +their opponents, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and +Semi-Unionists, because of the variegated complexion of the mixture, +were set down as "Claybanks." Mulattoes are Claybanks. + +The Claybanks, or Conservatives, at the outset enjoyed a decided +advantage in having the State government on their side. This was not +the regularly elected administration, which was driven out because of +its open support of secession, but its provisional successor. In +trying to take the State out of the Union with a show of legality, the +lawful Governor and his official associates made provision for a State +convention to be chosen by the people, which they expected to control, +but which, having a Unionist majority, played the boomerang on them by +sending them adrift and taking the affairs of the State into its own +hands. In this it had opposition. The most progressive men of the +State insisted that, after it had settled the question of Missouri's +relations to the Union, with reference to which it was specially +chosen, it was _functus officio_. They held that there should be a new +and up-to-date convention, especially as the old one, owing to the +desertion of many of its treasonably inclined members, including +General Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, who was its first +president, had become "a rump," and so there were old-conventionists +and new-conventionists. The old-convention men, however, were in the +saddle. They had the governmental machinery, and were resolved to hold +on to it. In that spirit the convention proceeded to fill the vacant +offices. It was in sentiment strongly pro-slavery, as was shown by the +fact that a proposal looking to the very gradual extinguishment of +slavery was rejected by it in an almost unanimous vote, a circumstance +that led the leading pro-slavery journal of the State to boast that +the convention had killed emancipation "at the first pop." Very +naturally such a body selected pro-slavery officials. Hamilton R. +Gamble, whom it made Governor, was a bigoted supporter of "the +institution." He had not long before been mixed up in the proceedings +that compelled Elijah P. Lovejoy to leave Missouri for Alton, +Illinois, where he was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Gamble was an +able and ambitious man. + +The Conservatives, likewise, had the backing of the Federal +Administration--a statement that to a good many people nowadays will +be surprising. There were reasons why such should be the case. Judge +Bates, of Missouri, who was Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, had +long been Gamble's law partner and most intimate friend. He never was +more than nominally a Republican. Another member of the Cabinet was +Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who had been a resident of Missouri, +and was a brother of General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. +General Blair had been the leader of the Missouri emancipationists, +but had turned against them. For his face-about there were, at least, +two intelligible reasons. One was that in the quarrel between him and +Frémont the most of his former followers had sided with Frémont. That +was enough to sour him against them. The other was a very natural +desire to be solid with the administration at Washington, which, as +elsewhere shown, was not then actively Anti-Slavery. It did not want +the question of slavery agitated, especially in the border slave +States. + +The Blairs were a clan as well as a family. The quarrel of one was the +quarrel of all, and the Missouri Radicals had no more effective +antagonist than the old Washington editor and politician, Francis P. +Blair, Sr., the family's head, who was so intimate with the President +that it was understood he could at any time enter the White House by +the kitchen door. + +The writer was once a member of a delegation of Missouri "Charcoals" +that went to Washington to see the President. An hour was set for the +interview, and we were promptly at the door of the President's +chamber, where we were kept waiting for a considerable time. At last +the door opened, but before we could enter, out stepped a little old +man who tripped away very lightly for one of his years. That little +old man was Francis P. Blair, Sr., and we knew that we had been +forestalled. The President received us politely and patiently listened +to what we had to say, but our mission was fruitless. + +The Radicals of Missouri sent deputation after deputation to the White +House, and got nothing they wanted. The Conservatives never sent a +deputation, and got all they wanted. They had advocates at the +President's elbows all the time. + +With both State and Federal administrations against them, the Missouri +Charcoals may be regarded as foolhardy in persisting in the fight they +made for the deliverance of their State from slavery. They did +persist, however, and with such success in propagating their views +that Governor Gamble and the other Conservative leaders decided that +heroic measures to hold them in check were necessary. He undertook to +cut the ground from under their feet. The old convention that had +killed emancipation "at the first pop," or as much of it as was in +existence, was called together by the Governor, who appealed to it to +take such action as would quiet agitation on the slavery question. +Accordingly, it proceeded to enact what was called an emancipation +ordinance. The trouble with it was that it emancipated nobody. It +provided for the liberation of part of the slaves at a distant future +day, allowing the rest to remain as they were. The Radicals simply +laughed at the measure. They pronounced it a snare and a fraud, and +went right on with their work for unconditional freedom, and the +slave-owners continued to hold their human property the same as +before. + +The Conservatives, however, had not exhausted their resources. They +sought to secure the military as well as the civil control. On the +assurance that he could maintain peace and order, Governor Gamble was +given authority by the President to recruit an army of State troops, +which, although equipped and paid out of the national treasury, he was +to officer and direct. The organization was entrusted to General John +M. Scofield, a resident of Missouri, and one of the Governor's +friends. + +The political advantage to the Conservatives of exercising military +control at such a time is obvious enough. But at first there was an +obstruction in the person of General Samuel R. Curtis, the Federal +commander of the district, who was not a man to waive his superior +prerogative at a time when martial law prevailed, and who was, +besides, openly in sympathy with the Radicals. They got not only +protection from him, but about all the patronage he had to give. +Pretty soon it was discovered that active efforts for the removal of +Curtis were in progress. Charges of irregularities--afterwards shown +to be without any foundation--were circulated against him. Indignant +because of such injustice to their friend, the Radicals were further +incensed when they learned that the scheme was to make Scofield his +successor. + +Against General Scofield, as a gentleman and soldier, they had nothing +to say; but his affiliation with their opponents made him obnoxious to +them, and they sent a vigorous protest against his appointment to the +President. The proposed change, however, was made, and the inevitable +disagreement between the new commander and the Radicals quickly +developed. + +Scofield's administration was not successful. The principal cause of +failure was the adoption of Governor Gamble's policy of trying to run +the State without the help of Federal troops. They were pretty much +all sent away, and an elaborate plan for substituting an "enrolled +militia" was put in operation. Here was an opportunity of which the +Rebels were quick to take advantage. They had a wholesome regard for +United States soldiers, particularly under Curtis, who at Pea Ridge +had given them the worst drubbing they ever received west of the +Mississippi, but they cared little for "Gamble's militia," into which +a good many of their friends were mustered, and when the pressure of +Curtis's strong hand was removed they at once aroused to pernicious +activity. + +At this time it can be safely said that nowhere, outside of hell, was +there such a horrible condition as prevailed in Missouri. Singly and +in squads a good many of Price's men returned from the South, and +with local sympathizers forming guerrilla bands under such leaders as +"Bill" Anderson, Poindexter, Jackson, and Quantrell, soon had +practical possession of the greater part of the State. The Radicals +were the principal sufferers. Conservatives, except by the occasional +loss of property, were rarely molested. Between them and the Rebels +there was often an agreement for mutual protection--in fact, it was +not always easy to draw the line between them,--but the Charcoals, +especially if they were "Dutchmen," could look for no compassion. They +were shot down in their fields. They were called to their doors at +night and there dispatched. Their houses were burned and their stock +stolen. Many families of comparative wealth and refinement, including +women and children, because of the insecurity of their homes, slept in +the woods for weeks and months. The Radicals were not always fortunate +enough to escape bodily torture. Having captured one of the best known +among them, an old man and a civilian, some of "Bill" Anderson's men +set him up against the wall of his house as a target for pistol +practice. Their play consisted in seeing how near they could put their +shots without hitting, and this amusement they kept up while his wife +was running about in an effort to raise the amount of money that was +demanded for his ransom. + +So successful were the Rebel bands at this time that Missouri was not +large enough to hold them. One of them, led by Quantrell, crossed the +Kansas line, captured the city of Lawrence, and butchered two hundred +of its peaceable inhabitants, while the border towns and cities of +Iowa and Illinois were greatly alarmed for their safety. + +So intolerable did the situation become, that the Radicals from all +parts of the State met in conference and decided to send a delegation +to ask Mr. Lincoln to change the department commander, in the hope +that it would bring a change of policy. + +It is to be presumed that no President was ever confronted with such a +motley crowd of visitors as the members of that delegation--between +seventy and eighty in number--as they formed in line around three +sides of the East Room in the White House. Their garments were a +sight! Some of the men were in full military dress and some in +civilian clothes, but the costumes of a majority were a mixture of +both kinds, just as accident had arranged it, and pretty much all +showed evidences of hard usage. One of the most forward of the +delegates had neither cuffs nor collar, and his shirt had manifestly +not been near a laundry for a long time. He apologized to the +President for his appearance, saying that he had been sleeping in the +woods where toilet accommodations were very indifferent. Two or three +of the men bore marks of battle with the guerrillas, in patched-up +faces, and one of them carried an arm that had been disabled by a gun +shot in a red handkerchief sling. In speaking of these visitors, the +President afterwards jocularly referred to them as "those crackerjacks +from Missouri." + +A formal address was presented, the principal point being that, as the +Missouri Unionists had furnished many thousand recruits to the Federal +Army, they had a right to look to the Government for soldiers to +assist in protecting their families and their property. And here it +will do no harm to state that, notwithstanding the heavy drain made by +the Confederacy, Missouri, during the war, furnished 109,000 men to +the national army. + +After their formal address had been presented to the President, the +members of the delegation tackled him, one after the other, as the +spirit moved them, and it can truthfully be said that in some of the +bouts that ensued he did not come out "first best." He admitted as +much when, afterwards referring to this meeting, he spoke of the +Missouri Radicals as "the unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with +in a discussion." + +The conclusion of the interview was attended with an unexpected +incident. The recognized leading spokesman of the Missourians was the +Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, who was made Chief Justice of the +Court of Claims at Washington by Grant, when he became President. He +was a very forcible speaker. As Mr. Lincoln indicated by rising from +his seat that the conference was at an end, Mr. Drake stepped forward +and in well-chosen words thanked him for the lengthy and courteous +hearing he had given his visitors, and in their names bade him +good-by. Then he started for the door, but something seemed to arrest +him. Turning sharply to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Mr. President, we are +about to return to our homes. Many of these men before you live where +rebel sentiments prevail and where they are surrounded by deadly +enemies. They return at the risk of their lives, and let me tell you +that if any of their lives are sacrificed by reason of the military +administration you maintain in Missouri, their blood will be upon your +garments and not upon ours." + +The President, evidently greatly surprised, made no oral reply. +Instead of speaking he raised his handkerchief to his eyes. Seeing +that he was weeping, the delegates quietly and quickly filed out, +leaving Mr. Lincoln with his face still concealed. + +The President denied the delegation's request, although his formal +decision was not announced for several days, and its members returned +to their homes, when fortunate enough to have them, sorely +disappointed. + +It is here well enough to state that two or three months later the +President relieved Scofield from his Missouri command and sent him to +the front in the South, much to the betterment of his military +reputation, and doubtless to his own personal gratification. Rosecrans +was made his successor. Among the earliest things he did was the +bringing into the State of a considerable force of Federal troops +under Generals Pleasanton and A.J. Smith. These were sent through the +State. The effect was almost magical. Some of the guerrilla bands went +South to join Price, but the most of them dissolved and disappeared. +Their members, doubtless, went back to their former occupations, and +that was the last of them. Missouri was pacified. + +But were the Missouri Radicals so far disheartened by their rebuffs +from the President that they gave up the fight? Not a bit of it. There +was a tribunal in some respects higher than the President, and to that +they resolved to go. The National Republican Convention to nominate a +successor to Mr. Lincoln was approaching, and they decided to appeal +to it in a way that would compel a decision between them and the +President. They appointed a delegation to the convention, which they +instructed for General Grant. The Claybanks also appointed a +delegation, which they instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and thus the issue +was made. The convention, although nominating Mr. Lincoln by a vote +that, outside of Missouri's, was unanimous, admitted the Charcoals and +excluded the Claybanks by the remarkable vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +While of no special consequence, some rather humorous experiences in +connection with the events just spoken of may not be lacking in +interest or altogether out of place in a work like this. + +Before leaving Missouri for the National Republican Convention, which +was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864, the Radical delegates, including +the writer, decided to go by way of Washington and call upon the +President, thinking that, as there was a contest ahead with his +professed Missouri supporters, a better understanding with him might +be of advantage. As they were pledged to vote for another man, such a +proceeding on their part was certainly somewhat audacious; +nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln received us graciously and listened +patiently to what we had to say. + +"Mr. President," said one of the delegates, "if you were to go out to +Missouri you would find your best friends as well as practically all +the good Republicans of the State on our side of the dividing line." + +"Well," remarked the President very deliberately, "in speaking of +dividing lines, the situation in Missouri recalls the story of the old +man who had an unruly sow and pigs. One day, when they escaped from +their enclosure and disappeared, he called his boys and started out to +hunt the runaways. Up one side of the creek they went; but while they +discovered plenty of tracks and rootings, they found no hogs. 'Now let +us go over to the other side of the creek,' said the old gentleman; +but the result was the same--many signs but no pigs. 'Confound those +swine!' exclaimed the old man, 'they root and root on both sides, but +it's mighty hard to find them on either.'" + +We, of course, were left to make the application to ourselves, and +that was all the satisfaction we got. + +Being greatly elated over our victory in the convention, and thinking +it settled some, if not all, disputed points, we decided to return by +way of Washington and again call on the President. We wanted to come +to some sort of understanding with him. As we had just voted against +his nomination such a step may have been more audacious than our +previous action. But, for all that, a pretty late hour on the night of +the convention found us at the door of the President's room, seeking +an interview that had been promised us in answer to a telegram. + +Now, we had in our delegation a gentleman who was accustomed to imbibe +somewhat freely on occasions like that. He had pushed himself to the +front, and, when the door opened for us, in he rushed shouting: "Mr. +President! Mr. President! Mr. President! we have found that old sow +and pigs for you!" + +The President, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, +looked somewhat startled at first; but as he evidently recalled the +illustration he had given to us, and which was being returned to him, +a broad grin went over his face, although nothing further was said +about the swine. But the incident was disastrous to our business. We +were relying on a prominent St. Louis lawyer, who was with us, to +present our case in a calm and impressive way; but he, taking offense +at being so unceremoniously forestalled, kept his intended speech to +himself. His dignity was hurt, and he had nothing to say. In fact, he +walked away and left us. The result was that our claims were rather +lamely presented, except by the first speaker, and we left the +official presence not a little chagrined and with no favorable +assurance having been obtained. + +By all recognized party rules, when the nominating convention had +given the Missouri Radicals the stamp of regularity, the President was +bound to prefer them in the bestowal of patronage. He did nothing of +the kind. At his death, practically all of the offices in Missouri +that were under his control were held by Claybanks. These men became +enthusiastic supporters of Andrew Johnson, and, at the end of his +term, to a man went over to the Democratic party, of which their +leader, General Blair, was soon made, on the ticket with Horatio +Seymour, the Vice-Presidential candidate. At Lincoln's death, the +Claybanks, as an organization, went out of business. + +Very different was the treatment the Charcoals received at the hands +of General Grant when he became President. He made the leader of the +anti-Scofield delegation to Washington Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims. He made two or three other leading Missouri Radicals foreign +ministers and officially remembered many of the rest of them. He had +been a Missourian, and it was well known that he was in sympathy with +the Radicals in their fight with Lincoln. + +Although the Missouri Radicals did not favor Mr. Lincoln's +candidature, with the exception of a few supporters of Frémont, they +gave him their loyal support at the polls, and through this a large +majority in the State. They acted towards him much more cordially than +he ever acted toward them. + +That Mr. Lincoln, in antagonizing the Missouri Free Soilers, acted +otherwise than from the most conscientious impulses the writer does +not for a moment believe. He opposed them because he disapproved of +their views and policy. He said so most distinctly on one occasion. +Certain German societies of St. Louis, having adopted a set of +resolutions, entrusted them to James Taussig, a leading lawyer of that +city, to present to the President in person. Mr. Taussig's report of +the results of a two hours' interview can be found in several of Mr. +Lincoln's biographies. One passage from the report is here given +because it clearly shows Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the Missouri +problem. + + "The President," says Mr. Taussig, "said that the Union men in + Missouri who are in favor of gradual emancipation, represented + his views better than those who are in favor of immediate + emancipation. In explanation of his views on this subject the + President said that in his speeches he had frequently used as an + illustration the case of a man who had an excrescence on the back + of his neck, the removal of which in one operation would result in + the death of the patient, while tinkering it off by degrees would + preserve life." + + "Although sorely tempted," continues Mr. Taussig, "I did not reply + with the illustration of the dog whose tail was amputated by + inches, but confined myself to arguments. The President announced + clearly that, so far as he was at present advised, the Radicals in + Missouri had no right to consider themselves the representatives + of his views on the subject of emancipation in that State." + +The foregoing interview, it is well enough to state, was long after +the issuance of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. + +In addition to carrying the State for Mr. Lincoln, the Missouri +Radicals carried it for themselves. They elected a constitutional +convention that promptly passed an unconditional freedom ordinance. +And thus terminated what is certainly one of the most notable contests +in our political history, bringing about, as it did, the triumph of a +reform of unquestionable value to civilization and humanity, which was +accomplished by men working without patronage or other outside help, +with no pecuniary interest at stake, and no incentive beyond the +principle involved. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MISSOURI--_Continued_ + + +Here follows an extract from the published proceedings of the National +Republican Convention of 1864, in which Mr. Lincoln was renominated. + + "When that State [Missouri] was called, Mr. J.F. Hume addressed + the convention as follows: + + "'It is a matter of great regret that we differ from the majority + of the convention that has been so kind to the Radicals of + Missouri, but we came here instructed. We represent those who are + behind us at home, and we recognize the right of instruction and + intend to obey our instruction; but, in doing so, we declare + emphatically that we are with the Union party of the nation, and + we intend to fight the battle through to the end with it, and + assist in carrying it to victory. We will support your nominees be + they whom they may. I will read the resolution adopted by the + convention that sent us here.'" + + [Here resolution of instruction was read.] + + "'Mr. President, in the spirit of that resolution I cast the + twenty-two votes of Missouri for them an who stands at the head of + the fighting Radicals of the nation--General U.S. Grant.'" + +The contention between the Missouri Radical and Conservative +delegations was thrashed out before the committee on delegates, at an +evening session. Judge Samuel M. Breckenridge, of St. Louis, sustained +the cause of the Conservatives in a very ingenious argument, while the +writer spoke for the Radicals. The result was very satisfactory to the +latter, being, with the exception of one vote for compromise, a +unanimous decision in their favor. That decision was sustained by the +convention in its next day's session by a vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +Anticipating that the subject would be discussed on the floor of the +convention,--which was not the case, however,--I asked a very eloquent +St. Louis lawyer to take my place as chairman of the Radical +delegation and conduct the debate on the Radical side. He declined. I +then went to three or four Congressmen who were members of the Radical +delegation and made the same appeal to each one of them. All declined. +I suspected at the time that apprehension that a vote for anybody else +would be hissed by Lincoln's friends, had something to do with their +reticence. I had no such apprehension. I did not believe there was +anybody in that convention who would dare to hiss the name of Grant. +If Grant had been a candidate before the convention he would have been +nominated. + +When, as chairman of my delegation, I pronounced his name as +Missouri's choice I remained on my feet for fully a minute while a +dead silence prevailed. Meanwhile all eyes were turned upon me. Then +came a clap from a single pair of hands, being the expression of a +Missouri delegate. Others followed, both inside and outside of the +delegation, increasing until there was quite a demonstration. When +the clamor had subsided I made the next move according to the +programme agreed upon, and the incident was closed. + +And here it can do no harm to state that General Grant knew that he +was to receive the vote of the Missouri Radicals if they were admitted +to the convention--the newspapers having generally published the +fact--and did not decline the intended compliment. Grant lived in +Missouri for a considerable period, married there, and was on most +friendly terms with the Radical leaders, many of whom he generously +remembered when he got to be President. For their action in voting for +Grant, the Missouri Radical delegates were sharply criticised at the +time, on the alleged ground that they secured admission to the +convention from Lincoln's supporters by concealing the fact--or at +least not revealing it--that they intended to vote for somebody else. +The fact, however, is that there was not a person in the convention +who did not from the first understand where they stood, and exactly +what they intended to do. Their Conservative contestants had +distributed a leaflet, intended as an appeal to the Lincoln men, +setting forth the instructions to both delegations. Instead of the +openly avowed opposition of the Radicals to Mr. Lincoln's nomination +being an impediment in their way, it strengthened them with the +convention, which, notwithstanding its seeming harmony in his support, +contained many delegates who would very much have preferred nominating +somebody else; but who, for lack of organized opposition, were +compelled to vote for him. A sufficient evidence of that fact was the +presence in the convention of a large number of Congressmen whose +antagonism to the President was notorious. An incident that strikingly +illustrated Congressional sentiment toward the President at that time, +is given in the _Life of Lincoln_, by Isaac N. Arnold, then a member +of Congress from Illinois. A Pennsylvanian asked Thaddeus Stevens, the +Republican Congressional leader, to introduce him to "a member of +Congress who was friendly to Mr. Lincoln's renomination." Thereupon +Stevens took him to Arnold, saying: "Here is a man who wants to find a +Lincoln member of Congress, and as you are the only one I know of I +bring him to you." + +The same feeling largely prevailed among leading Republicans outside +of Congress. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York _Times_, in his _Life +of Lincoln_, says that at that time "nearly all the original +Abolitionists and many of the more decidedly Anti-Slavery members of +the Republican party were dissatisfied with the President." More +explicit testimony is the statement, in his _Political Recollections_, +of George W. Julian, for many years a leading member of Congress from +Indiana. He says: + + "The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was nearly unanimous, only the + State of Missouri opposing him, but of the more earnest and + thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not + more than one in ten really favored it. It was not only very + distasteful to a large majority of Congress, but to many of the + more prominent men of the party throughout the country." + +The writer had an opportunity of witnessing a peculiar manifestation +of the feeling that has just been spoken of. He attended a conference +of radical Anti-Slavery people that was held in a parlor of one of the +old Pennsylvania Avenue hotels in Washington, a few months before the +nominating convention. A number of well-known politicians were +present, but probably the most prominent was Horace Greeley. The +writer had never before seen the great editor, and was considerably +amused by his unconventional independence on that occasion. He +occupied an easy chair with a high back. Having given his views at +considerable length, he laid his head back on its support and +peacefully went to sleep; but the half-hour lost in slumber did not +prevent him from joining vigorously in the discussion that was going +on as soon as he awoke. + +There seemed to be but one sentiment on that occasion. All entertained +the opinion that, owing to Mr. Lincoln's peculiar views on +reconstruction, and especially his manifest inclination to postpone +actual freedom for the negro to remote periods, and other "unhappy +idiosyncrasies," as one of the speakers expressed it, his re-election +involved the danger of a compromise that would leave the root of +slavery in the soil, and hence his nomination by the Republicans +should be opposed. Chase was clearly the choice of those present, but +no one had a plan to propose, and, while some committees were +appointed, I never heard anything more of the matter. Two or three of +those present on that occasion were in the nominating convention and +quietly voted with the majority for Mr. Lincoln. The writer was the +only one in both gatherings that maintained his consistency. + +All this, it is well enough to remember, was long after the +President's Emancipation Proclamation had appeared. + +There was, however, another manifestation of the antagonism spoken of +which the public, for some reason, never seemed to "get on to," that +at one time threatened very serious consequences, and which, if it had +gone a little farther, might have materially changed the history of +the country. That was a movement, after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to +compel him to retire from the ticket, or to confront him with a strong +independent Republican candidate. According to Messrs. Nicolay and +Hay, Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries and his biographers, the +movement started in New York City and had its ramifications in many +parts of the country. One meeting was held at the residence of David +Dudley Field, and was attended by such men as George William Curtis, +Noyes, Wilkes, Opdyke, Horace Greeley, and some twenty-five others. In +the movement were such prominent people as Charles Sumner, of +Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. One of the men favorable +to the proposition was Governor Andrew of Massachusetts. "He," says +his biographer, Peleg W. Chandler, "was very busy in the movement in +1864 to displace the President." "The secrecy," he adds, "with which +this branch of the Republican politics of that year has been ever +since enveloped is something marvelous; there were so many concerned +in it. When it all comes out, if it ever does, it will make a curious +page in the history of the time." The signal for the abandonment of +the movement, according to Mr. Chandler, was given by Mr. Chase. + +Almost at the beginning of the movement the _Missouri Democrat_, +doubtless because of its supposed opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was +approached on the subject. If the statements made to it were anywhere +near correct, the conspiracy, as it might be called, had the +countenance of a surprisingly great number of weighty Republicans. The +_Democrat_ declined to become a party to the proposed insurrection. It +held that after what had occurred in the Baltimore convention, it +could not consistently and honorably do so. + +There was another reason why it stood aloof. Before the nomination it +was, naturally enough, looking out for some one who might be urged as +a suitable competitor for Mr. Lincoln's place. Andrew Johnson, of +Tennessee, was then quite popular with a good many people of radical +views. The writer prepared an article discussing his availability as +presidential timber and suggested him as a good man for the +nomination. The article appeared as a leader in the _Democrat_, and +was followed by others in the same vein. The suggestion attracted +attention and led to a good deal of newspaper discussion. Herein we +have, according to the writer's opinion, the leading cause of +Johnson's nomination for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, he was on +the ticket with Lincoln, and the _Democrat_ could not very well go +back on its own man. + +The new departure, as the proposition for another Republican +candidate in case Mr. Lincoln resolved to stick might be called, that +appeared so formidable at one time, faded away without the public +knowing anything of its existence. The reason was that it had no +candidate. It had relied on Chase, knowing the unfriendliness there +was between him and the President, but Chase said "No," and that was +the end of it. + +The nomination of Mr. Chase for the Chief Justiceship has always been +regarded as an act of great magnanimity on Mr. Lincoln's part, as well +as a clear perception of merit. It was doubtless all that, but the +actions of the two men at this time certainly make out a case of +striking coincidence. Such things rarely come by accident. + +From what has been stated, it will be seen that the Missouri Radicals +were by no means alone in their opposition to the President's +nomination, for which they are so sharply taken to task by some of his +biographers and eulogists. They had plenty of company, the only +difference being that they stood out in the open while the others +acted covertly. + +The Missouri Germans, who mostly approved the candidature of Frémont, +and some of whom refused to vote for Lincoln, have been particularly +assailed. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, in their Lincoln biography, even go +so far as to attack them on the ground of their religious, or rather +anti-religious, beliefs, calling them "materialist Missourians," +"Missouri agnostics," etc., etc. + +Now, after having lived among the Missouri Germans at the time of our +civil troubles, the writer is impelled to say a few words in their +behalf. He does not hesitate to say that, in his opinion, there was +no body of men of equal numerical strength in this country to whom, at +that crisis, the Government and country had cause to feel under +greater obligation, and justice would require its acknowledgment at +this time. But for them the enemies of the Union would have captured +the city of St. Louis with its great Government arsenal, and with the +arms and ammunition thus secured would have overrun both the States of +Missouri and Kansas. A large preponderance of the American-born +citizens of St. Louis were Rebels. The Union people of that city who +saved the day, were principally the "Dutch," as they were called. + +A large army was needed at that point to protect the Government's +interests, when it had practically no available forces. There was no +law under which it could be organized on the spot. No man could be +made to serve. No pay for service was assured, or even promised. The +army, however, was created by the voluntary and patriotic action of +its members. Nearly a dozen full regiments were organized and +equipped. Nine tenths of their members were Germans. They did not wait +for hostilities to begin. Foreseeing the emergency near at hand, they +organized into companies and regiments, and put themselves on a war +footing before a blow had been struck or a shot had been fired. They +met by night to drill in factory lofts, in recreation halls, and in +whatever other places were most available, the words of command being +generally delivered in German. The writer has a lively recollection of +the difficulties involved in trying to learn military evolutions from +instructors speaking a language he did not understand. + +Many of the Germans of Missouri had seen service in the Old World. +They had served under Sigel in the struggle of 1848. They found +themselves under Sigel again. It was with the step and bearing of +veterans that they marched (the writer was an eye-witness) in May of +1861, only a few days after Sumter had been fired on, to open the +military ball in the West at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. + +The same people went with Lyon to the State capital, from which the +Rebel officials were driven, never to return. They were with Lyon at +Wilson's Creek, and with him many of them laid down their lives on +that bloody field. They were wherever hard fighting was to be done in +that part of the country. The writer believes he is correct in saying +they furnished more men to the Government's service than any other +numerically equal body of citizens. So large was their representation +in the Union's forces in that region, that the Rebels were accustomed +to speak of the Union soldiers as "the Dutch." + +The fact that the Germans were fighting for an adopted government +makes their loyalty more conspicuous. What they did was not from a +love of war, but because they were Abolitionists. They were opposed to +slavery. They owned no slaves. They wanted the Government sustained, +because they believed that meant the end of slaveholding. They +supported Frémont largely because of his freedom proclamation. + +And here the writer, before closing his work, wants to say something +about Frémont. He believes no man in this country was made the victim +of greater injustice than he was. + +It has always been the opinion of the writer that, if Frémont had been +permitted to take his own way in his Western command a little longer, +he would have achieved a brilliant military success. He was a weak man +in some respects, being over fond of dress parade. The financial +management of his department was bad, or, rather, very careless. Of +these shortcomings, which were considerably misrepresented and +exaggerated, Frémont's enemies took advantage, and succeeded in +effecting his overthrow in the Western Department. But, +notwithstanding his admitted failings, he gave evidence of military +ability. He showed that he possessed both physical and moral courage, +and he knew how to plan a campaign. He undoubtedly formulated the +movement that resulted in the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry in +Tennessee, taking the initial steps, but of which Halleck got the +credit. He was removed from command when in the field, and almost on +the eve of battle. He had an enthusiastic army and the prospect of a +decisive victory. His recall gave up nearly the whole of Missouri to +the enemy, and was one of the causes of complaint that the Missouri +Unionists had against the National Administration. + +Not long afterwards, with no more than even chances, Frémont defeated +Stonewall Jackson in Virginia--at Cross Keys--which was more than any +of the other Union generals then in that department could do. His +prompt removal made it sure that he should not do it again. + +It was the misfortune of Frémont that his independence caused him to +clash with selfish interests, and he was sacrificed. He was selected +for the Trans-Mississippi command by the Blairs, evidently with the +expectation that he would bend to their wishes. He soon showed that he +was his own master, and the trouble began. The Union people of his +department were mostly with him, but the Blairs had control of the +administration in Washington. + +As for his freedom proclamation, it was, to a certain extent, an act +of insubordination, but it was right in principle and sound in policy. +Its adoption by the General Government would have saved four years of +contention and turmoil in Missouri, spent in upholding a tottering +institution that was doomed from the first shot of the Rebellion. The +President, however, for reasons elsewhere explained, did not at that +time want slavery interfered with. + +The story of Frémont's fall is best told by Whittier in four lines: + + "Thy error, Frémont, simply was to act + A brave man's part without the statesman's tact, + And, taking counsel but of common-sense, + To strike at cause as well as consequence." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SOME ABOLITION LEADERS + + +The references that have been made to General Frank P. Blair of +Missouri have not been complimentary to that individual. They would +indicate on the part of the writer no very exalted admiration for or +estimate of the man. In that particular they are not altogether just. +The stormy period of the Rebellion brought out few more picturesque +figures than his, or in some respects more admirable characters. There +is no question that, but for the efforts of Blair, the Rebels would +have effected the capture of St. Louis at the beginning of the war, to +be followed by the at least temporary control of the entire State of +Missouri, and possibly of Kansas as well. To that end preparations had +been carefully and skillfully made. The leader in the movement was +none other than Missouri's Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who was +justly looked upon as one of the most consummate and accomplished +schemers of the time. He was a Rebel from head to foot. He had taken +office with the deliberate purpose of swinging his State into the +Confederate column, and without regard to the wishes of the majority +of the people whom he officially represented. He was supported by a +sympathetic corps of official assistants, including a majority of the +Legislature of his State, who gave him whatever legislation he wanted. +Every advantage seemed to be on his side. He would undoubtedly have +succeeded but for the opposition of Blair. In him he encountered an +equal in cunning, and more than a match in courage and energy. + +When the Governor and his helpers were busy raising an army pursuant +to the conditions of a law that had been enacted for the purpose, and +which hampered their operations, Blair went ahead in raising and +equipping an army on the other side without the slightest regard to +law. The presence or absence of a statute did not trouble him in the +least. He called on the Unionists to organize and arm, and when a +sufficient force, composed in greater part of loyal Germans, had +responded he struck the first blow. In a legal aspect the whole +proceeding was irregular, but it was none the less effective. + +When the Governor's army was quietly encamped on the outskirts of St. +Louis, for the capture and occupancy of which it was getting ready, it +found itself unexpectedly surrounded by a superior force, and its +surrender was demanded in a way that admitted of no denial. The writer +was present on the occasion. From a convenient eminence he witnessed +the whole proceeding. When Jackson's men--the rendezvous had in honor +of his Excellency the Governor been named Camp Jackson--were enjoying +themselves on a pleasant summer's day, sleeping on the grass, playing +cards, or escorting their lady friends and other visitors about the +grounds, suddenly they realized that their position was commanded by +hostile guns. Pointing downward from higher ground not far off were +nearly a score of frowning cannons, behind which stood men with +burning fuses. I had watched the Union forces as they approached. At +the foot of the hill that hid them from the camp they paused for a few +moments, and then up the hill went the horses that were dragging the +cannons at a run. They were wheeled when the summit was reached, and +the guns thrown into position. Everything was ready for action. At the +same time large bodies of armed men, their arms glittering in the +sunlight, were seen approaching from all sides on the double quick. +The Rebels were completely entrapped, and their immediate capitulation +was a thing of course. The credit for the manoeuvres of the day was +given to Captain--afterwards General--Nathaniel Lyon, who was in +immediate command of the Unionists, but everybody understood that the +real leader, as well as instigator, of the movement was Blair. + +Blair had been the admitted leader of the Missouri Abolitionists. He +was as radical as any man among them. One day he stopped me on the +street for the purpose of thanking me for a paper I had contributed to +the _Missouri Democrat_, in which I had favored what was practically +immediate emancipation in Missouri. He said that was the right kind of +talk, and what we had to come to. I felt greatly flattered, because +there was nothing in the article that disclosed its authorship, and +Mr. Blair had taken the trouble to inquire about it. + +Blair turned against the Missouri Abolitionists when a decided +majority of them turned against him in his quarrel with Frémont. They +indorsed Frémont's emancipation proclamation, which the President, at +Blair's instigation, it was charged at the time, revoked. + +Blair was a man not only of strong ambition but of arbitrary +temperament. He could not tolerate the idea of a newcomer pre-empting +what he had considered his premises. If he could not rule he was ready +to ruin. That disposition accorded with both his mental and physical +make-up. Bodily he was a bundle of bones and nerves without a particle +of surplus flesh. His hair was red, his complexion was sandy, and his +eyes, when he was excited and angry, had a baleful expression that led +some one in my presence on a certain occasion to speak of them as +"brush-heaps afire." + +He was not an eloquent man, although a ready and frequent public +speaker. His voice was not musical. His strong forte was invective. He +was nearly always denouncing somebody. Apparently, he was never so +happy as when making another miserable. Sometimes his personal +allusions were very broad. He was accustomed in his speeches to refer +to one of Missouri's United States Senators as "that lop-eared +vulgarian." That he was not almost all the time in personal +difficulties was due to the fact that he was known to be a man of +exceptional courage. He was a born fighter. Physically I think he was +the bravest man I ever knew. I witnessed several manifestations of his +fearlessness, but one particularly impressed me. + +I have spoken of the Camp Jackson affair. Although the people in the +Rebel encampment surrendered without a blow, the incident was +attended with considerable bloodshed. A mob of Rebel sympathizers, +consisting largely of half-grown boys--I was in the midst of the +throng at the time--with their pistols opened fire on a German Union +regiment and killed several of its men. The troops, in return, poured +a volley into the crowd of spectators from which the shots had come, +killing or wounding over forty persons, the most of them, as is usual +in such cases, being inoffensive onlookers. A man standing beside me +and, like myself, a spectator, had the top of one ear clipped off by a +Minié ball as cleanly as if it had been done with a knife. I found +when, soon afterwards, I reached the business center of the city, +where the Rebel element then largely predominated, that the story of +the tragedy had swelled the number of the victims to one thousand. +Intense excitement and the most furious indignation prevailed. +Hundreds of men, with flaming faces, were swearing the most dreadful +oaths that they would shoot Frank Blair, whom they seemed to regard as +wholly responsible, on sight. Many of them were flourishing pistols in +confirmation of their bloody purpose. Just then the attention of the +crowd was drawn to an unusual spectacle. Down Fourth Street, which was +then the leading business avenue of St. Louis, and at that time +densely packed with the excited people, came the Union soldiers with +the prisoners from Camp Jackson on their way to the United States +Arsenal grounds. At the head of the procession marched the men of the +First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for +immediate service, and at their head--the only mounted man in the +regiment, according to my recollection--rode their Colonel, who was +Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more +conspicuous. No better target could have been offered. I watched the +audacious man, expecting to hear a shot at any moment from the +sidewalk, or from a window of one of the high buildings lining the +street, and to see him topple from his saddle. He understood very well +the danger he was braving. He knew that in that throng, where +everybody was armed, there were hundreds toying with the triggers of +their guns, and trying to muster sufficient courage to shoot him down. +Slowly, and as calmly as if on ordinary dress parade, he led the way +until he passed out of sight. I thought then, and still think, it was +the pluckiest thing I ever witnessed. + +The effect of the breaking up and capture of Camp Jackson was +something wonderful. Up to that time, the Rebels of St. Louis and +their sympathizers had been very demonstrative. In portions of the +city the Rebel cockade, which was a red rosette pinned to the side of +the hat, was conspicuous, and any one not displaying that decoration +was in danger of having his hat smashed upon his head. After Camp +Jackson's surrender, I never saw a Rebel cockade openly worn in St. +Louis. + +At the same time there was an extensive shifting of positions. A good +many men of prominence and wealth, who had been leaning over towards +the South, suddenly straightened up, and not a few of them showed a +strong inclination the other way. Some of the evolutions they executed +were amusing. One of the first to discuss with the writer the Union +defeat at Bull Run was a former United States Government official. He +was tremendously excited and correspondingly exultant. After +describing how the Southerners had vanquished the Government's men, +and particularly how the South Carolina "black horse" had ridden them +down in deadly slaughter, he cried out, "That's the way we will give +it to you fellows all the time." + +Not very long afterwards General Grant, having entered Tennessee, and +captured Fort Donelson, and many prisoners, was about to visit St. +Louis, and the leading Unionists there decided to give him a grand +reception and an elaborate dinner. Money had to be raised, and among +those I met who were soliciting it was my ex-Government-official +friend. He was fully as happy as he had been before, when the Fort +Donelson affair was alluded to. "Didn't we give it to those fellows +down there?" he exclaimed. + +Out in western Missouri was a young lawyer of great ambition and +considerable promise. He was afterwards a member of Congress. Like a +good many others he was at first puzzled to know what course to take. +In his dilemma he concluded to consult an old politician in that +section who was much famed for his sagacity, and who bore the military +title of General. + +"If you contemplate remaining in Missouri," said the older man to the +junior, "you should take the Southern side. Missouri is a slave State +and a Southern State, and she will naturally go with her section." + +The young man availed himself of an opportunity to make a public +address, in which he aligned himself in the strongest terms with those +who had gone into rebellion. But scarcely had this been done when +Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and among those nominated to +command them was the old Missouri General. It was announced that he +had accepted the appointment. The younger man was amazed. He went in +hot haste for an explanation. + +"It's all true," said the General. "The fact is, when I talked with +you before, I did not think the Northern people would fight for the +Union, but I now see that I was mistaken; and when the Northern +people, being the stronger and richer, do decide to go to war, they +are almost certain to win. You had better take the Northern side." + +"But it is too late," said the youngster. "I have committed myself in +that speech I made." + +"Oh! as for that matter," was the reply, "it's of very little +consequence if you have committed yourself. It's easy to make a speech +on the other side and take the first one back. Nobody looks for +consistency in times like these." + +Many Missourians, as well as many citizens of other border slave +States, at the beginning of the trouble advocated a policy of +neutrality. They saw no necessity for taking sides. I was at a meeting +out in the interior of Missouri, where many citizens had come together +to consult as to the policy they had better pursue. Among them was an +old gentleman who seemed to be looked upon by his neighbors as a +regular Nestor. He was called upon for his views. "Gentlemen," said +he, "we have got to take sides and maintain our neutrality." + +In that section of the country was another distinguished and unique +personage who conspicuously figured in the events that are here being +dealt with. + +I knew him intimately. I now refer to James H. Lane, who was better +known as "Jim Lane," of Kansas. Like Blair, Lane was a born leader of +men, and a leader under exceptional conditions. He was generally +credited with being a fighter--a dare-devil, in fact--and a desperado; +but in the writer's opinion he was by no means Blair's equal in +personal courage. He had a great deal to do in raising troops and +organizing military movements, but he did not go to the front. His +fighting was chiefly in "private scraps," in one of which he killed +his adversary. + +His paramount ability was as a talker rather than as a fighter. He was +an orator, and his oratory was of a kind that was exactly suited to +his surroundings. No man could more readily adapt himself to the humor +of his hearers. He knew precisely how to put himself on their level. I +have seen him face an audience that was distinctly unfriendly, that +would scarcely give him a hearing; and in less than half an hour every +man in the crowd would be shouting his approval. He could go to his +hearers if he could not bring them to him. I witnessed one of his +performances in that line. + +He was a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. There +was one rival that he particularly feared. The man was the late +General Thomas Ewing, then a resident of Kansas. At that particular +time he was in the Army and the commandant of the St. Louis District +in Missouri. Lane came to St. Louis and had a talk with the writer, +freely admitting his dread of Ewing and asking for the _Missouri +Democrat's_ support. Having a considerable admiration for Lane as well +as a liking for the man, I promised him such assistance as I could +reasonably give. It happened to be at the time when General Sterling +Price, in making his last raid into Missouri, was threatening St. +Louis with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, and there was no +adequate opposing force at hand. Ewing, with barely a tenth as many +troops, went to the front and heroically engaged the enemy. With no +protection but the walls of a little mud fort he succeeded in +repelling the attack of his powerful adversary. That timely action +probably saved St. Louis. + +At this particular time it was arranged that there should be a meeting +of the Republicans of St. Louis--it was in the midst of an exciting +presidential campaign--at which Lane was to be the principal speaker. +The meeting was held and Lane was addressing a large audience with +great acceptance when the news of Ewing's achievement was received. + +It was then customary, when war intelligence arrived in the course of +any political gathering, and sometimes of religious gatherings, to +suspend all other proceedings until it had been announced and the +audience had time enough to manifest its feeling on the subject. + +Lane was in the midst of an eloquent passage when he was interrupted +by the arrival of the news referred to. He stepped back, and the +news-bearer, taking his place, proceeded to give a graphic +description of Ewing's performance, concluding with a glowing eulogy +on that personage, and which was received with tremendous cheering. +Understanding Lane's feelings towards Ewing, I watched his face while +these events were passing. It plainly showed his vexation. It was +almost livid with suppressed emotion. But the time for him to resume +his address had come. What would he do was the question I asked +myself. He answered it very promptly. Jauntily stepping forward with +his countenance fairly wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed, "Ladies and +gentlemen, that is glo-o-orious news for us, but it 's ter-r-r-ible +for the other fellows." + +Lane's enemies were confident they had him beaten as a candidate for +the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular +with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it +necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. +Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the +choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then +he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast +horses--it was before the days of railroads in Kansas--he began a tour +that would bring him practically face to face with every voter in the +State. He traveled and spoke both by day and by night. Sometimes he +addressed as many as a dozen audiences in twenty-four hours. The +excitement attending his progress was great. Men came many miles to +hear him, sometimes bringing their families with them. He succeeded in +completely revolutionizing public opinion. It was too late for his +adversaries to attempt a counter-movement, and the result was that +Lane was re-elected by an almost unanimous vote. + +There was no doubt about Lane's attitude on the slavery question. He +was not only a radical Abolitionist, but the acknowledged leader of +the Free-State men of Kansas. He recognized no right of property in +man, as many Missouri slaveholders learned to their sorrow. I was +present when he congratulated a Kansas regiment that had just returned +from a raid into Missouri, bringing many black people with it. "Fellow +soldiers," he shouted, "you entered Missouri a white body, but you +have returned surrounded by a great black cloud. It is the work of the +Lord." + +There was another man whose name, the author thinks, properly belongs +under the heading of this chapter, and to whom, on account of pleasant +personal recollections, he would like to refer. He was not a fighter +like Blair and Lane, with whom his life was in striking contrast. He +was essentially a man of peace. He was a Quaker. Although born in +Kentucky he was an Abolitionist. I now refer to Levi Coffin of +Cincinnati, who was credited with successfully assisting over three +thousand runaway slaves on their way to freedom, and, in consequence, +became distinguished among both friends and foes as the "President of +'The Underground Railroad.'" The most remarkable thing in his case was +his immunity from legal punishment. The slaveholders knew very well +what he was doing, but so expert was he in hiding his tracks that they +could never get their clutches upon him. + +I had rather an amusing experience with Coffin. Having when a boy +heard so much about him, I was anxious to see him and make his +acquaintance. On the occasion of a visit to Cincinnati, with a letter +of introduction from an acquaintance of Coffin, I went to his office, +but not without trepidation. I found the great man engaged in a +conversation with some one, his back being toward me, as I took my +stand just inside of his door. How he became aware of my presence I +don't know--I certainly made no noise to attract him--but he certainly +knew I was there. Suspending the conversation in which he was +engaged--he was seated in a revolving chair--he suddenly turned so as +to confront me, and silently looked me over. At last he arose, and, +stepping up to me, lifted my hat with one hand, and laid the other +upon my head. I understood very well what his movements meant. He was +looking for outward evidences of negro blood. So far as my complexion +went a suspicion of African taint might very well have been +entertained. I had been assisting my father in harvesting his wheat +crop, and my face and hands had a heavy coating of tan, but my hair +was straight and stiff. I could see that the old gentleman was +puzzled. Not a word, so far, had been spoken on either side. + +"Where is thee from?" was the question that broke the silence. + +I answered that I was from Clark County, meaning Clark County, Ohio. + +Coffin, however, evidently thought I referred to Clark County, +Kentucky, from which there had been many fugitives, and that settled +the matter in his mind. "But, my boy, thee seems to have had a good +home," continued the old gentleman as he looked over my clothes and +general appearance. "Why is thee running away?" + +Then came the explanation and the solemn Quaker indulged in a hearty +laugh. He remarked that he knew my family very well by reputation, and +that he had met my father in Abolitionist conventions--meetings he +called them. + +Then he invited me to go to his home and break bread with him. I +vainly tried to decline. The old man would accept no excuse. + +"Thy father would not refuse my hospitality." + +That settled the matter, and I accompanied my entertainer to his +domicile. I was glad that I did so, as it gave me the opportunity to +see and greet Coffin's wife, who was a charming elderly Quaker lady. +She had gained a reputation as a helper of the slave almost equal to +that of her husband. + +When runaways set out on their venturesome journeys, they were +generally very indifferently equipped. Ordinarily they had only the +working garments they wore on the plantations, and these furnished but +slight relief for a condition very near to nudity. Mrs. Coffin set +apart a working room in her house, and there sympathizers of both +races joined her in garment-making, the result being that very few +fugitives left Cincinnati without being decently clothed. + +At the Coffin table were several guests beside myself. One was a +colored man. He had been a slave, I learned, but his freedom had been +purchased, largely through the Coffins' efforts. + +After I left the Coffin mansion, I remembered my unused letter of +introduction, which I had altogether forgotten. It was no longer +called for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ROLLS OF HONOR + + +The first honors of Abolitionism unquestionably belong to the +organizers of the first societies formed for its promotion. The first +of these in the order of time was the New England Anti-Slavery +Society, which came into being on the first day of January, 1832. +William Lloyd Garrison was chief promoter and master spirit. It +consisted at the outset of twelve men, and that was not the only +evidence of its apostolic mission. It was to be the forerunner in an +ever-memorable revolution. The names of the twelve subscribers to its +declaration of views and aims will always have a place in American +history. They were William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, William J. +Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thatcher, Stillman E. Newcomb, Arnold +Buffum, John B. Hall, Joshua Coffin, Isaac Knapp, Henry K. Stockton, +and Benjamin C. Bacon. + +As a suggestion from, if not an offshoot of, the New England +organization, came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which was +organized in Philadelphia in 1834. It was intended that the meeting of +its promoters should be held in New York, but so intense was the +feeling against the Abolitionists in that city that no suitable room +could there be found, and the "conspirators," as they were called by +their enemies, were compelled to seek for accommodation and protection +among the Philadelphia Quakers. + +In that circumstance there was considerable significance. Two great +declarations of independence have issued from Philadelphia. One was +for political freedom; the other was for personal freedom. One was for +the benefit of its authors as well as of others. The other one was +wholly unselfish. Which had the loftier motive? + +Ten States were represented in the Philadelphia meeting, which, +considering the difficulties incident to travel at that time, was a +very creditable showing. One man rode six hundred miles on horseback +to attend it. + +The following is the list of those in attendance, who became +subscribers to the declaration that was promulgated: + + +_Maine_ + +David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James F. Otis, Isaac +Winslow. + + +_New Hampshire_ + +David Campbell. + + +_Massachusetts_ + +Daniel Southmayd, Effingham C. Capron, Amos Phelps, John G. Whittier, +Horace P. Wakefield, James Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. +Jewitt, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William +Lloyd Garrison. + + +_Rhode Island_ + +John Prentice, George W. Benson. + + +_Connecticut_ + +Samuel J. May, Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon Joselyn, +Robert B. Hall. + + +_New York_ + +Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., Abram T. +Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., Charles W. Denison, John +Frost. + + +_New Jersey_ + +Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkly Gillinghamm, John McCullough, James White. + + +_Pennsylvania_ + +Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Altee, Robert Purviss, James McCrummill, Thomas +Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mace, John McKim, +Anson Vickers, Joseph Loughead, Edward P. Altee, Thomas Whitson, John +R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott. + + +_Ohio_ + +Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff, John M. Sterling. + + * * * * * + +The writer finds it quite impossible to carry out the idea with which +this chapter was begun, which was to furnish a catalogue embracing all +active Anti-Slavery workers who were Abolitionists. Space does not +permit. He will therefore condense by giving a portion of the list, +the selections being dictated partly by claims of superior merit, and +partly by accident. + +As representative men and women of the East--chiefly of New England +and New York--he gives the following: + +David Lee Child, of Boston, for some time editor of the _National +Anti-Slavery Advocate_. He was the husband of Lydia Maria Child, who +wrote the first bound volume published in this country in condemnation +of the enslavement of "those people called Africans"; Samuel E. +Sewell, another Bostonian and a lawyer who volunteered his services in +cases of fugitive slaves; Ellis Gray Lowell, another Boston lawyer of +eminence; Amos Augustus Phelps, a preacher and lecturer, for whose +arrest the slaveholders of New Orleans offered a reward of ten +thousand dollars; Parker Pillsbury, another preacher and lecturer, who +at twenty years of age was the driver of an express wagon, and with no +literary education, but who, in order that he might better plead the +cause of the slave, went to school and became a noted orator; Theodore +Weld, who married Angelina Grimke, the South Carolina Abolitionist, +and who as an Anti-Slavery advocate was excelled, if he was excelled, +only by Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips; Henry Brewster +Stanton, a very vigorous Anti-Slavery editor and the husband of +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the champion of women's rights; Theodore +Parker, the great Boston divine; O.B. Frothingham, another famous +preacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer; Samuel Johnson, +C.L. Redmond, James Monroe, A.T. Foss, William Wells Brown, Henry C. +Wright, G.D. Hudson, Sallie Holley, Anna E. Dickinson, Aaron M. +Powell, George Brodburn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel W. +Whitney, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. Stebbins, Thomas T. +Stone, George M. Putnam, Joseph A. Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frances +E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin Ballou, W.H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A.J. +Conover, James N. Buffum, Charles C. Burleigh, William Goodell, Joshua +Leavitt, Charles M. Denison, Isaac Hopper, Abraham L. Cox. + +To the above should be added the names of Alvin Stewart of New York, +who issued the call for the convention that projected the Liberty +party, and of John Kendrick, who executed the first will including a +bequest in aid of the Abolition cause. + +And here must not be omitted the name of John P. Hale, of New +Hampshire, who was a candidate for the Presidency on the Liberty party +ticket, and also a conspicuous member of the U.S. Senate. + +Going westward, we come to Ohio, which became, early in the movement, +the dominating center of Abolitionist influence. Salmon P. Chase was +there. James G. Birney, after being forced out of Kentucky, was there. +Ex-United States Senator Thomas Morris, a candidate for the +Vice-Presidency on the Liberty party ticket, was there. Leicester King +and Samuel Lewis, Abolition candidates for the governorship of the +State, were there. Joshua R. Giddings and United States Senator Ben. +Wade were there. + +One great advantage the Ohio Abolitionists enjoyed was that they were +harmonious and united. In the East that was not the case. There was a +bitter feud between the Garrisonians, who relied on moral suasion, and +the advocates of political action. All Ohio Abolitionists were ready +and eager to employ the ballot. + +There is another name, in speaking of Ohio, that must not be omitted. +Dr. Townsend was the man who made Salmon P. Chase a United States +Senator, and at a time when the Abolition voting strength in +Ohio was a meager fraction in comparison with that of the old +parties--numbering not over one in twenty. It happened to be a time +when the old parties--the Whigs and the Democrats--had so nearly an +equal representation in the State Legislature that Townsend, who was a +State Senator, and two co-operating members, held a balance of power. +Both parties were exceedingly anxious to control the Legislature, as +that body, under the State constitution then in force, had the +distribution of a great deal of patronage. The consideration for the +deciding vote demanded by Townsend and his associates was the election +of Chase to the Senate. They and the Democrats made the deal. +Naturally enough, the Whigs expressed great indignation until it was +shown that they had offered to enter into very much the same +arrangement. + +Some years before the events just spoken of, Townsend had been a +medical student in Cincinnati. One day he stepped into the courthouse, +where a fugitive-slave case was being tried. There he listened to an +argument from Salmon P. Chase, the negro's defender, that made an +Abolitionist of him. The senatorial incident naturally followed. + +There was another Ohioan--not an individual this time, but an +institution--that will always hold a high place in the annals of +Abolitionism. Oberlin College was a power in the land. It had a corps +of very able professors who were, without exception, active +Anti-Slavery workers. They regarded themselves as public instructors +as well as private teachers. There was scarcely a township in Ohio +that they did not visit, either personally or through their disciples. +They were as ready to talk in country schoolhouses as in their own +college halls. Of course, they were violently opposed. Mobs broke up +their meetings very frequently, but that only made them more +persistent. Their teachings were viciously misrepresented. They were +accused of favoring the intermarriage of the races, and parents were +warned, if they sent their children to Oberlin, to look out for +colored sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. For such slanders, however, +the men and women of Oberlin--for both sexes were admitted to faculty +and classes--seemed to care no more than they did for pro-slavery +mobs. + +There is another name which, although it belongs exclusively neither +to the East nor to the West, to the North nor to the South, should not +be omitted from a record like this. Doctor Gamaliel Bailey resided in +the District of Columbia, and issued the _National Era_ from +Washington city. + +Although a journal of small folio measurement and issued but once a +week, it was for a considerable time the most influential organ of the +Abolitionists. Its circulation was large and its management very +able. Of course, it took no little courage and judgment to conduct +such a publication in the very center of slaveholding influence, and +more than once it barely escaped destruction by mobs. + +If there was nothing else to his credit there was one thing +accomplished by the _Era's_ owner that entitles him to lasting +remembrance. He was the introducer, if not the real producer, of +_Uncle Tom's Cabin._ It first appeared in the _Era_ in serial numbers. +It is perfectly safe to say that no other newspaper in the country, of +any standing, would have touched it. Without Dr. Bailey's +encouragement the work would not have been written. This was admitted +by Mrs. Stowe. + +Up to this point the people whose names have been mentioned in these +pages have, to a certain extent, been public characters and leaders. +They were generals, and colonels, and captains, and orderly sergeants, +in the army of emancipation. There were, also, privates in the ranks +whose services richly deserve to be commemorated, showing, as they do, +the character of the works they performed. The writer cannot resist +the temptation to refer to two of them in particular, although, +doubtless, there were many others of equal merit. A reason for the +preference he shows in this case, that will not be misunderstood, is +the fact that one of the men was his uncle and the other his father. + +James Kedzie and John Hume were plain country farmers residing in +southwestern Ohio, neither very rich nor very poor. They were natives +of Scotland, and stating that fact is almost equivalent to saying +they were Abolitionists. None of the Scotch of the writer's personal +knowledge, at the period referred to, were otherwise than strongly +Anti-Slavery. There are said to be exceptions to all rules, and there +was one in this instance. He was a kinsman of the author, and a "braw" +young Scotchman who came over to this country with the expectation of +picking up a fortune in short order. Finding the North too slow, he +went South. There he met a lady who owned a valuable plantation well +stocked with healthy negroes. He married the woman, and became +something of a local nabob, with the reputation of great severity as a +master. One day, with his own hand, he inflicted a cruel flogging on a +slave who had the name of a "bad nigger." That night, when the master +was playing chess with a neighbor by candlelight on the ground floor +of his dwelling, all the windows being open, the negro crept up with a +loaded gun and shot him dead. + +The sad affair was regretfully commented on by the dead man's +relatives, who, I remember, referred to his untimely ending as "his +judgment," and as a punishment he had brought upon "himself." + +My uncle and father did not conceal their unpopular views. They openly +voted the Abolition ticket. In eight years, beginning with their two +ballots, they raised the third party vote in their immediate vicinity +to eight, and they boasted of the progress they had made. + +They did not make public addresses, but they faithfully listened to +those made by others in support of the cause. They attended all +Abolition meetings that were within reach. They took the _National +Era_. Not only that, but they got up clubs for it. The first club I +recollect my father's securing consisted of half a dozen subscribers, +for one half of which he paid. The next year's was double in size, and +so was my father's contribution. There was no fund for the promotion +of the Abolitionist cause, for which they were called upon, to which +they did not cheerfully pay according to their means. + +All Abolition lecturers and colporteurs were gratuitously entertained, +although their presence was sometimes a cause of abuse, and even of +danger. There were other travelers who sometimes applied for help. +Their faces were of dusky hue, and their great whitish eyes were like +those of hunted beasts of the forest. They went on their way +strengthened and rejoicing--always in the direction of the North Star. + +The men are dead, but Slavery is dead also, partly through their +labors and sacrifices. Their unpretentious, patient, earnest lives +were not in vain. They contributed to the final triumph of Freedom's +holy cause. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + + +January 1, 1863.--Whereas, on the 22d day of September, 1862, a +proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, +containing, among other things, the following, to wit: + +That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves +within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof +shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, +thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the +United States, including the naval and military authority thereof, +will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do +no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any efforts +they may make for their actual freedom. + +That the Executive will on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections, +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States. +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on +this first day of January, 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so +to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days +from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States +and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this +day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: + +Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Ann, and Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are +for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not +issued. + +And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free, and +that the Executive government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of such persons. + +And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend +to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages. + +And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + +And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty +God. + +IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, 1863, and of +the independence of the United States the Eighty-seventh. + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE + + +Amendment to the National Constitution recommended by President +Lincoln in his Message to Congress of December I, 1862. + +_Resolved_ by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled: that the following articles +be proposed to the Legislatures (or conventions) of the several States +as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of +which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said +Legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as parts of the said +Constitution, namely: + +Article.--Every State wherein Slavery now exists, which shall abolish +the same therein, at any time or times before the 1st day of January +in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive +compensation from the United States as follows, to wit: + +(Then follows a provision to issue bonds of the United States +Government, which shall be delivered to the States in amounts +sufficient to compensate the owners of slaves within their +jurisdictions for the loss of their slave property.) + +Article.--All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the +chances of the war, at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall +be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been +disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is +provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way +that no slave shall be twice accounted for. + +Article.--Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for +colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place +or places without the United States. + + + + +"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" + + +On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley, under the above heading, +addressed a letter to the President, which appeared over his signature +in the New York _Tribune_ of that date. The conclusion of Mr. +Greeley's epistle was as follows: + +"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one +disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who +does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the +same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile--that +the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a +year if Slavery were left in full vigor--that army officers who +remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but halfway loyal +to the Union--and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour +of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of +your embassadors in Europe. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the +seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, +slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of +statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer." + + + + +INDEX + +Abolitionism, and Republicanism, 8, 9; + end of, 150-156. + +Abolitionist movement, v. + +Abolitionists, hysterical praise of, 1; + and dissolution of the Union, 1, 2; + effect, 2; + struggles, 3; + and political expediency, 5; + convention at Pittsburgh, 7; + third-party, 7; + vote of, 7; + founders of Republican party, 8; + pro-slavery mobbing, 9; + voting strength, 9; + organization, 10; + lecturers, 11; + stump orators, 11; + newspapers, 11; + preparatory work, 12; + hostility to Union, 13; + disloyalty, 13; + treason, 13; + place in history, 15; + Quakers, 16; + physical courage, 16; + unselfishness of, 16; + motives, 18; + persecution of, 20; + feelings against, 22; + hopefulness of, 26; + first presidential ticket, 28; + prejudice against, 30; + abuse by "gentlemen," 32; + women, 38; + preliminary victory of, 47; + denunciation of early, 49; + leaders, 186-198. + +Adams, John Quincy, 21, 41; + attempted expulsion of, from Congress, 69-71; + speech in his own defense in Congress, 89. + +Altee, Edward P., 203. + +Altee, Edwin A., 203. + +"Amalgamation," 35. + +Anderson "Bill," 165. + +Andrew, Governor, of Massachusetts, Peleg's _Life of_, 179. + +Anthony, Susan B., 102, 205. + +Anti-Slavery, causes, 2; + matter excluded from United States mails, 4; + formation of party, 13; + pioneers, 49-58; + lecturers, 76-78; + orators, 88-93; + women, 100-107; + mobs, 108-112; + in Haverhill, 108; + in Nantucket, 109; + martyrs, 113-120; + sentiment, in England, 130. + +Anti-Slavery societies, organization, 26; + in New England, 72, 74, 75, 130, 201; + National, 76, 79, 87, 201. + +Anti-Unionist, 13. + + * * * * * + +Bacon, Benjamin C., 201. + +Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, 100, 207. + +Ballou, Adin, 205. + +Barbadoes, James, 202. + +Bates, Judge, 161. + +Beecher, Henry Ward, 90, 142, 148; + speech in England, 90-93; + and Lincoln, 92. + +Bell, 152. + +Benson, George W., 203. + +Benton, Thomas H., 154. + +Birney, Jas. G., 2, 5, 42, 56-58, 205. + +"Black laws" 35; + in Ohio, 35. + +Black Republic of Texas, 135. + +Blair, Gen. Prank P., 158, 186-191; + and Missouri emancipationists, 161; + and Missouri Abolitionists, 188; + appearance of, 189; + fearlessness, 189; + quarrel with Frémont, 189; + and capture of Camp Jackson, 189-191; + threats against, 190. + +Blair, Montgomery, 158, 161. + +Bonner, Hon. Benjamin R., 155. + +Border-ruffianism, 153. + +Border Slave-State message, text of, 213-214. + +Boyle, James, 205. + +Bradley, John, 135. + +Breckenridge, 152; + factions, 11. + +Breckenridge, Judge Samuel M., 175. + +Brodburn, George, 205. + +Brown, B. Gratz, 155. + +Brown, John, 45, 113. + +Brown, William Wells, 205. + +Buchanan, James 153. + +Buffum, Arnold, 201, 203. + +Buffum, James N., 205. + +Bull Run, 192. + +Burleigh, Charles C., 205. + +Buxton, Sir Thomas, 132. + + * * * * * + +Camp Jackson (St. Louis), 183; + "affair" at, 186-188; + effect of capture, 191-194. + +Campbell, David, 202. + +Campbell, John R., 202. + +Capron, Effingham C., 202. + +Carlisle, Earl of, 18. + +Chapman, Mrs. Henry, 33. + +"Charcoals," Missouri, 159; + delegation to President, 162, 166; + fight for "Free Missouri," 162; + appeal to President for protection, 166-168. + +Chase, Salmon P., 10, 13, 14, 59-61, 148, 205; + financial policy, 60; + espousal of Abolitionism, 61; + and "third party," 64; + election to United States Senate, 206. + +Child, David Lee, 204. + +Child, Lydia Maria, 204. + +Chittenden, L.E., 134. + +Churchill's _Crisis_, 157. + +Civil War, 11; + due to Abolitionists, 12. + +Clay, Henry, 2, 6. + +"Claybanks," 159; + exclusion from National Convention, 169. + +Coffin, Joshua, 201. + +Coffin, Levi, 197-198; + "President of 'The Underground Railroad,'" 197. + +Colonization, 128-135; + Society, 128; + and England, 130-132; + Lincoln's opinion, 133; + experiments, 133-134. + +Colonizationists, pretended friendship for negroes, 130. + +Compromise of 1850, 6. + +Conover, A.J., 205. + +Cotton-gin, invention of, 31. + +Cox, Abram L., 203, 205. + +Crandall, Prudence, persecution of, 116-117. + +Crandall, Dr. Reuben, 117-118. + +_Crisis, The_, 157. + +Cross Keys, battle of, 184. + +Curtis, Geo. William, 88, 179. + +Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 163. + + * * * * * + +Democratic party, division of, 11. + +Democrats, 4, 7; + Anti-Nebraska, 9; + of New York, 9. + +Denison, Charles M., 203, 205. + +Dickinson, Anna E., 205. + +Dissolution of Union, petition for, 2. + +"Doughface," 4. + +Douglas, Stephen A., 12; + dislike of, by slaveholders' factions, 11; + defeated for President, 94-99; + and Abolitionists, 153; + hated by slave-owners, 153. + +Douglass, Fred., 112. + +Drake, Hon. Charles D., 167. + +Dred Scott decision, 45-46; + too late for South's purpose, 47. + +Dresser, Amos, whipped, 119. + + * * * * * + +Emancipation proclamation, 137-138; + due to Abolitionists, 12; + story of, 139; + moral influence of, 146; + Lincoln's reasons for, 146; + ineffective, 148; + text of, 211-213. + +Ewing, Gen. Thomas, 194; + repulsion of General Price, 195. + + * * * * * + +Field, David Dudley, 179. + +Fish, W.H., 205. + +Fletcher, Thomas C., 155. + +Fort Donelson, capture of, 184, 192. + +Fort Henry, capture of, 184. + +Foss, A.T., 205. + +Foster, Daniel, 205. + +Foster, Stephen, 39. + +"Free-Soil" party, 65. + +Frémont, General, 151; + and western command, 184-185; + financial bad management, 184; + defeats Stonewall Jackson, 184; + removal, 185; + freedom proclamation, 185. + +Frost, John, 203. + +Frothingham, O.B., 204. + +Fugitive Slave Law, 5, 121. + +Fuller, John E., 201. + +Fussell, Bartholomew, 203. + + * * * * * + +Gamble, Hamilton R., 160; + and emancipation ordinance of, 163; + and military control of Missouri, 163. + +Garrison, William Lloyd, 13, 21, 26, 201, 202; + Dragged through streets of Boston, 32; + imprisonment for libel, 54; + reception in England, 131-132; + speech at Exeter Hall, 131. + +_Genius of Universal Emancipation, The,_ 51. + +Giddings, Joshua R., 2, 6, 205. + +Gillinghamm, Chalkly, 203. + +Goodell, William, 203, 205. + +Grant, General, 44; + And "Charcoals," 172; + Nomination by Missouri Radicals, 174-176; + capture of Fort Donelson, 192. + +Greeley, Horace, 142, 148, 178, 179. + +Green, Beriah, 203. + +Green, William, Jr., 203. + +Grimké sisters, 38, 103-106, 204. + + * * * * * + +Hale, John P., 10, 205. + +Hall, John B., 201. + +Hall, Robert B., 203. + +Hallock's Order Number Three, 141. + +Harrison, Wm. Henry, 5. + +Hay, John, 136. + +Henry, Patrick, Williamsburg speech, 88. + +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 204. + +_Hints toward Emancipation in Missouri_, 158. + +Hollie, Sally, 205. + +Hopper, Isaac, 205. + +How, John, 155. + +Howland, Joseph A., 205. + +Hudson, Professor, 35, 112, 205. + +Hudson, Frederic, 89. + +Hume, John, 208-210. + +Hutchinsons, the, 141. + + * * * * * + +Ile a'Vache, 133. + +Indiana, introduction of slavery into, 5. + + * * * * * + +Jackson, Claiborne F., 186; + attempt to make Missouri secede, 186-188; + outwitted by Nathaniel Lyon, 188. + +Jackson, Stonewall, defeat of, 184. + +Jewitt, Daniel E., 202. + +Johnson, Andrew, 171, 180. + +Johnson, Oliver, 73, 201. + +Johnson, Samuel, 205. + +Jones, David, 203. + +Joselyn, Simeon, 203. + +Julian, Geo. W., _Political Recollections_, 177. + + * * * * * + +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 44. + +Kedzie, James, 208-210. + +Kelly, Abby, 38-39. + +Kendrick, John, 205. + +Kentucky, 21. + +Kimball, David T., Jr., 202. + +King, Leicester, 205. + +Kingsley, Alpheus, 203. + +Knapp, Isaac, 201. + +"Know-Nothings," 9. + + * * * * * + +Lafayette, 17. + +Lane, James H., 194-197; + canvas for U.S. Senator, 196-197; + attitude on slavery, 197. + +Lawrence, city of, capture by Quantrell, 165; + butchery of inhabitants, 165. + +Leavitt, Joshua, 205. + +Lewis, Evan, 203. + +Lewis, Samuel, 205. + +Liberal party, 2, 3, 7, 8, 65. + +_Liberator_, 21; + first issue, 55; + South Carolina and Georgia offers reward for its circulation, 55-56; + excluded from U.S. mails, 56; + office wrecked by mob, 56; + opposed to separate party action, 64. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 2, 8, 11, 41; + election of, 11, 48; + Gettysburg speech, 88; + and Douglas, 94-99; + debate of 1858, 94; + and slavery, 96, 97; + preferred by slaveholders, 98; + _Recollections of_, 134-135; + and emancipation, 136-149; + and Missouri Compromise, 139; + message to Minister Dayton of Paris, 140; + proposed constitutional amendment, 144; + special message to Congress, December, 1863, 144; + emancipation policy, 145; + and Abolitionists, 147; + and Free-Soilers, 172; + Congressional sentiment toward, 177; + antagonism to, 177-180; + _Life of_, by I.N. Arnold, 177. + +Lincoln, Sumner, 205. + +Longhead, Joseph, 203. + +Lovejoy, Elijah P., shooting of, 32, 89, 114-115, 161. + +Lowell, Ellis Gray, 204. + +Lundy, Benjamin, 27, 50-54; + meeting with Garrison, 54. + +Lyon, Nathaniel, 188. + + * * * * * + +McCrummil, James, 203. + +McCullough, John, 203. + +McKim, John, 203. + +Mace, Enoch, 203. + +Manumittal, arguments against, 34-35. + +Marshall, "Tom," 70. + +Massachusetts Legislature and slavery, 105. + +May, Samuel J., 203. + +May, Rev. S.T., _Recollections_, 108. + +Mexican War, 44. + +Missouri, 157-185; + Compromise, 6, 12, 139-140; + admission to Union as slave State, 43; + slavery contest, 67; + and the Union, 159-160; + Radicals, 159; + Conservatives, 159; + "Charcoals," 159; + "Claybanks," 159; + military control of, 163-166; + guerrilla bands, 165; + pacification of, 168; + Radicals, opposition to Lincoln, in National Convention, 168-169; + delegation to Lincoln, 169-171; + Germans, attacks on, 181-182; + loyalty of, 182-183. _Missouri Democrat, The_, 157-158; + and Louis Snyder, 158-159; + opposition to Lincoln, 180; + support of Johnson, 180. + +Monroe, James, 205. + +Moody, Loring, 205. + +Morris, Senator, 205. + +Mott, Mrs. Lucretia, 38, 102-103. + +Mott, James, 203. + + * * * * * + +_National Anti-Slavery Advocate_, 204. + +_National Era, The_, 100, 207-208. + +Negroes, prejudice against, + in North, 35; + in Ohio, 36; + stronger in North than in South, 36; + suffrage, 80; + failure as freemen, 80-81. + +Newcomb, Stillman E., 201. + +Nicolay, J.C., 136. + +"Nigger Hill," 26, 73. + +"Nigger-pens," 31. + +Noyes, 179. + + * * * * * + +Oberlin College, 207. + +O'Connell, Daniel, 131. + +Ohio, pro-slavery, 21; + Abolitionists of, 21. + +Opdyke, 179. + +Ordinance of '87, 5. + +Otis, James F., 202. + + * * * * * + +Parker, Theodore, 204. + +Parkhurst, Jonathan, 203. + +Pennsylvania Hall, firing of, 30. + +"Peonage," 80. + +Phelps, Amos, 202, 204. + +Philippine Islands, 82-87; + slavery in, 82; + massacres in, 83; + abuses in, 82-84; + spoliation of, 85. + +Phillips, Wendell, 142; + speech in Faneuil Hall, 88-89. + +Phillips, Mrs., 106-107. + +Pillsbury, Parker, 204. + +Pleasanton, General, 168. + +Pointdexter, 165. + +"Popular sovereignty," 153. + +Powell, Aaron M., 205. + +_Prayer of Twenty Millions, The_, 142; text of, 214-215. + +Prentice, John, 203. + +Presidential campaign of 1844, 7. + +Price, General Sterling, 160, 195. + +Prohibitionists, 2, 3, 14. + +Purviss, Robert, 203. + +Putnam, George M., 203. + + * * * * * + +Quantrell, 165. + + * * * * * + +Rankin, John, 203. + +Raymond, Henry J., _Life of Lincoln,_ 177. + +Redmond, C.L., 205. + +Republican party, 2, 3, 7, 8; + elements of, 10; + lack of policy, 10; + and election of Lincoln, 11; + existence due to Abolitionists, 12; + and negro rights, 81; + and Philippine Islands, 82; + and Abolitionism, 150-151. + +_Republican Party, History of the_, Curtis, 136. + +_Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, 142. + +Roosevelt, Theodore, and Abolitionists, 1-14. + +Rosecrans, General, 168. + +Russell, Earl 137. + + * * * * * + +Schofield, Gen. John M., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 164; + relieved from command, 168. + +Secession, pretext for, 48. + +Sewell, Samuel E., 204. + +Sharp, John, Jr., 203. + +Shipley, Thomas, 203. + +Sigel, General, 183. + +Slave-owners, mastery of, 32. + +Slave power, submission to, 5; + northward march, 13. + +Slave production in Northern States, 31. + +Slavery, destruction of, 1; + overthrow of, 3; + in ante-bellum days, 20; + and Biblical authority, 22; + a State institution, 27; + condemned by Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, 31; + Northern support, 33-35, 68; + spread of, 42; + introduction into Territories, 43-44; + practical extirpation, 138. + +Sleeper, John R., 203. + +Smith, Gen. A.J., 168. + +Snelling, William J., 201. + +Southard, Nathaniel, 202. + +South Carolina "black horse," 192. + +Southmayd, Daniel, 202. + +Southwick, Joseph, 202. + +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 102, 204. + +Stanton, Henry Brewster, 204. + +Stebbins, Giles B., 205. + +Sterling, John M., 203. + +Stevens, Thaddeus, 148, 177. + +Stewart, Alvin, 205. + +Stillman, Edwin A., 203. + +Stockton, Henry K., 201 + +Stone, Lucy, 205. + +Stone, Thomas T., 205. + +Stowe, Harriet Beecher 11, 101, 102. + +Sumner, Charles, 148, 179. + +Sutliff, Levi, 203 + +Sutliff, Milton, 203. + + * * * * * + +Tappan, Arthur, 34. + +Tappan, Lewis, 34, 203. + +Taussig, James, 172. + +Taylor, Gen. Z., 6. + +Texas, annexation of, 44. + +Thatcher, Moses, 201. + +Thirteenth Amendment, 138; + vote on, 143-144. + +Thompson, Edwin, 205. + +_Thoughts on African Colonization_, 129. + +Thurston, David, 202. + +Toombs, Robert, 13. + +Torrey, Charles Turner, 118-119. + +Townsend, Dr., 205. + +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 100, 208. + +Underground railroad, 121-127; + confession of John Smith, 121-127. + +United States in Far East, 85; + Army increase of, 85; + Navy increase of, 85. + +Van Buren, Martin, 4; a + "doughface," 4; + Free Soiler, 5. + +Van Zant case, 61. + +Vickers, Anson, 203. + +Virginia, 21. + + * * * * * + +Wade, Benjamin F., 44, 179, 205. + +Wakefield, Horace P., 202. + +Walker, Jonathan, branded, 119. + +Washington, Booker, 136. + +Watkins, Frances E., 205. + +Weld, Theodore W., 103, 204. + +Wheeling, Va., slavery traffic in, 50. + +Whigs, 2, 5-7, 9. + +White, James, 203. + +Whitney, Eli, 31. + +Whitney, Nathaniel, 205. + +Whitson, Thomas, 203. + +Whittier, John G., 202. + +Wilkes, 179. + +Winslow, Isaac, 202. + +Winslow, Nathan, 202. + +Wise, Henry A., 70. + +Wright, Elizur, Jr., 203. + +Wright, Henry C., 205. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. 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Hume. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + ol { list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + ul { list-style-type: none; + } + span.in1 { margin-left: 1em;} + span.in2 { margin-left: 2em;} + span.in3 { margin-left: 3em;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. Hume + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Abolitionists + Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights + +Author: John F. Hume + +Release Date: August 13, 2004 [EBook #13176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITIONISTS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Victoria Woosley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>THE ABOLITIONISTS</h1> +<br /><br /> + +<h2>TOGETHER WITH PERSONAL MEMORIES OF<br /><br /> +THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS<br /> +<br /><br /> +1830-1864<br /> +<br /><br /> +BY<br /> +JOHN F. HUME<br /></h2> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<h3>G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +The Knickerbocker press<br /> +</h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Page iii --><a name="Page_iii"></a> +<a name="FOREWORD"></a><h2>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>The opening chapter of this work was prepared during the recent +presidential campaign. It was the idea of the author that it should +appear in one of the leading newspapers or magazines before the +election, but maturer reflection brought about a change of purpose. He +realized that its publication at that time, might, not altogether +unreasonably, be looked upon as a political move having as its object +the election or defeat of a particular candidate for office, whereas +he had no desire to play the partisan. His sole aim was to vindicate +the character of a portion of the citizens of this country—some +living, some dead—whom he had always believed to be most deserving of +popular esteem, from what he considered the unmerited aspersions of a +man who has since come into a position so conspicuous and so +influential that his condemnation necessarily carries with it a +damaging effect.</p> + +<p>Having gone so far as the preparation of the initial chapter, he +concluded that proofs of his assumptions and assertions might at +certain points be thought desirable, if not necessary, and that he +should so prolong his work as to provide them. His first idea at this +point, as his years went back beyond the beginning of the Abolitionist +movement in this country, and as he had been from early boyhood +<a name="Page_v"></a> +identified with this movement, was to contribute such information as +his recollection of events would supply. In other words, he decided to +write a narrative, the matter of which would be reminiscent, with here +and there a little history woven in among the strands of memory like a +woof in the warp. It has ended in history supplying the warp, and the +reminiscence indifferently supplying the woof.</p> + +<p>However, the value of the production is, doubtless, greatly enhanced +by the change. A string of pearls—dropping the former simile and +adopting another—is estimated according to the gems it contains, and +not because of the cord that holds it together. The personal +experiences and recollections that are here and there interwoven, by +themselves would be of little consequence; but they will be found to +carry upon them certain historical facts and inferences—some new in +themselves and in their connections—which, as the author hopes and +believes, are of profitable quality and abounding interest.</p> + +<p>In consequence of the change of plan just explained, the scope of the +work is materially affected. What was begun as a magazine article, and +continued as a brochure, ends in a volume.</p> + +<p>J.F.H.</p> + +<p>Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July, 1905. </p> + + + +<br /> +<br /> +<h3> CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<b>FOREWORD</b> <a href="#FOREWORD">iii.</a><br /> +<ol> + <li>THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS <a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></li> + <li>THE ABOLITIONISTS—WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE <a href="#CHAPTER_II">15</a></li> + <li>ONE OF THEIR TRAITS <a href="#CHAPTER_III">26</a></li> + <li>PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">30</a></li> + <li>THE POLITICAL SITUATION <a href="#CHAPTER_V">41</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">49</a></li> + <li>SALMON PORTLAND CHASE <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">59</a></li> + <li>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">67</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">72</a></li> + <li>WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY <a href="#CHAPTER_X">79</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">88</a></li> + <li>LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">94</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">100</a></li> + <li>MOBS <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">108</a></li> + <li>ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">113</a></li> + <li>THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">121</a></li> + <li>COLONIZATION <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">128</a></li> + <li>LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">136</a></li> + <li>THE END OF ABOLITIONISM <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">150</a></li> + <li>MISSOURI <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">157</a></li> + <li>MISSOURI <i>(Continued) </i> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">174</a></li> + <li>SOME ABOLITION LEADERS <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">186</a></li> + <li>ROLLS OF HONOR <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">201</a></li> +</ol> + +<p><b>APPENDIX</b></p> +<ul> + <li>EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION <a href="#EMANCIPATION_PROCLAMATION">211</a></li> + <li>BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE <a href="#BORDER_SLAVE-STATE_MESSAGE">213</a></li> + <li>"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" <a href="#PRAYER_OF_TWENTY_MILLIONS">214</a></li> +</ul> +<b>INDEX</b> <a href="#INDEX">217</a><br /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<br /><br /> +<h1>THE ABOLITIONISTS </h1> +<br /><br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<!-- Page 1 --><a name="Page_1"></a> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The following is an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's biography of +Thomas H. Benton in Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.'s American Statesmen +Series, published in 1887:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received an + immense amount of hysterical praise which they do not deserve, and + have been credited with deeds done by other men whom, in reality, + they hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 1840, the + professed Abolitionists formed a small and comparatively + unimportant portion of the forces that were working towards the + restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and much of what + they did was positively harmful to the cause for which they were + fighting. Those of their number who considered the Constitution as + a league with death and hell, and who, therefore, advocated a + dissolution of the Union, acted as rationally as would + anti-polygamists nowadays if, to show their disapproval of + Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should be allowed to + form a separate nation. The only hope of <!-- Page 2 --><a name="Page_2"></a>ultimately suppressing + slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, and every + Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for the dissolution + was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he complained of, as if + he had been a slaveholder. The Liberty party, in running Birney, + simply committed a political crime, evil in almost all its + consequences. They in no sense paved the way for the Republican + party, or helped forward the Anti-Slavery cause, or hurt the + existing organizations. Their effect on the Democracy was <i>nil</i>; + and all they were able to accomplish with the Whigs was to make + them put forward for the ensuing election a slaveholder from + Louisiana, with whom they were successful. Such were the remote + results of their conduct; the immediate evils they produced have + already been alluded to. They bore considerable + resemblance—except that after all they really did have a + principle to contend for—to the political Prohibitionists of the + present day, who go into the third party organization, and are, + not even excepting the saloon-keepers themselves, the most + efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can + count.</p> + +<p> "Anti-Slavery men like Giddings, who supported Clay, were doing a + thousandfold more effective work for the cause they had at heart + than all the voters who supported Birney; or, to speak more + accurately, they were doing all they could to advance the cause, + while the others were doing all they could to hold it back. + Lincoln in 1860 occupied more nearly the ground held by Clay than + that held by Birney; and the men who supported the latter in 1844 + were the prototypes of those who worked to oppose Lincoln in 1860, + and only worked less hard because they had less chance. The ultra + Abolitionists discarded expediency, and claimed to act for + abstract right on principle, no matter what the results might be; + in consequence they accomplished very little, and that as much + <!-- Page 3 --><a name="Page_3"></a>for harm as for good, until they ate their words, and went + counter to their previous course, thereby acknowledging it to be + bad, and supported in the Republican party the men and principles + they had so fiercely condemned. The Liberty party was not in any + sense the precursor of the Republican party, which was based as + much on expediency as on abstract right, and was, therefore, able + to accomplish good instead of harm. To say that extreme + Abolitionists triumphed in Republican success and were causes of + it, is as absurd as to call Prohibitionists successful if, after + countless efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and + after savage denunciations of those who try to regulate it, they + should then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant + portion of a victorious high-license party. The men who took a + great and effective part in the fight against slavery were the men + who remained with their respective parties."</p></div> + +<p>No word of praise or approval has Mr. Roosevelt for the men and +women—for representatives of both sexes were active sharers in the +work performed—who inaugurated, and for a long period carried +forward, the movement that led up to the overthrow of African slavery +in this country. He has no encomiums to bestow on those same men and +women for the protracted and exhausting labors they performed, the +dangers they encountered, the insults they endured, the sacrifices +they submitted to, the discouragements they confronted in many ways +and forms in prosecuting their arduous undertaking. On the contrary, +he has only bitter words of condemnation. In his estimation, and +according to his dogmatic utterance, they were criminals—political +<!-- Page 4 --><a name="Page_4"></a> +criminals. His words make it very manifest that, if Mr. Roosevelt had +been a voter in 1840, he would not have been an Abolitionist. He would +not have been one of that devoted little band of political +philanthropists who went out, like David of old, to do battle with one +of the giant abuses of the time, and who found in the voter's ballot a +missile that they used with deadly effect. On the contrary, he would +have enrolled himself among their adversaries and assailants, becoming +a member—because it is impossible to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a +non-partisan—of one of the leading political parties of the day. +There were but two of them—the Whigs and the Democrats. In failing to +support one or the other of these parties, and giving their votes and +influence to a new one that was founded and constructed on +Anti-Slavery lines, the Abolitionists, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, +"committed a political crime."</p> + +<p>Now, for what did those parties stand in 1840? Who were their +presidential candidates in that year? Martin Van Buren was the +candidate of the Democrats. He had been for eight years in the offices +of Vice-President and President, and in that time, in the opinion of +the Anti-Slavery people of the country, had shown himself to be a +facile instrument in the hands of the slaveholders. He was what the +Abolitionists described as a "doughface"—a Northern man with Southern +principles. As presiding officer he gave the casting vote in the +Senate for the bill that excluded Anti-Slavery matter from the United +States mails, a bill justly regarded as one of the greatest outrages +<!-- Page 5 --><a name="Page_5"></a> +ever perpetrated in a free country, and as holding a place by the +side of the Fugitive Slave Law. True, he afterwards—this was in +1848,—like Saul of Tarsus, saw a new light and announced himself as a +Free Soiler. Then the Abolitionists, with what must always be regarded +as an extraordinary concession to partisan policy, cast aside their +prejudices and gave him their support. Yet Mr. Roosevelt charges them +with being indifferent to the demands of political expediency.</p> + +<p>General William Henry Harrison, candidate of the Whigs, was a +Virginian by birth and training, and an inveterate pro-slavery man. +When Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he presided over a +convention that met for the purpose of favoring, notwithstanding the +prohibition in the Ordinance of '87, the introduction of slavery in +that Territory.</p> + +<p>These were the men between whom the old parties gave the Abolitionists +the privilege of pick and choice. Declining to support either of them, +they gave their votes to James G. Birney, candidate of the newly +formed Liberty party. He was a Southern man by birth and a slave-owner +by inheritance, but, becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he +freed his negroes, giving them homes of their own, and so frankly +avowed his Anti-Slavery convictions that he was driven from his native +State. His supporters did not expect to elect him, but they hoped to +begin a movement that would lead up to victory. They were planting +seed in what they believed to be receptive soil.</p> + +<p>After 1840, the old parties became more and more submissive to the +Slave Power. Conjointly, <!-- Page 6 --><a name="Page_6"></a>they enacted those measures that became +known as the compromises of 1850, the principal ones being the +Fugitive Slave Law and the act repealing the Missouri Compromise. Both +of them pronounced these acts to be "a finality," and both of them in +national convention declared there should be no further agitation of +the subject. They set out to muzzle all the Anti-Slavery voices of the +country.</p> + +<p>By this time it was perfectly manifest that there was not only nothing +the slaveholders might demand which the old parties would not concede, +but that there was, so far as the slavery issue was involved, +absolutely no difference between them. It is a notable fact that in +the eight years following 1840, of the four presidential candidates +put in nomination by the two parties, three were slaveholders, the +fourth being a Northern "doughface," and both of the two who were +elected held slaves.</p> + +<p>For the nomination and election of one of these men, whom he describes +as "a slaveholder from Louisiana" (General Taylor), Mr. Roosevelt is +disposed to hold the Abolitionists accountable. They forced the poor +Whigs into those proceedings, he intimates, probably by telling them +they ought to do nothing of the kind, that being what they actually +did tell them. But as the Abolitionists, four years earlier, in the +same way defeated the Whigs when they were supporting a slaveholder +from Kentucky (Clay), and a man who, in his time, did more for the +upbuilding of slavery than any other person in America, it would +appear that the score of responsibility on their part was fairly +evened up.</p> + +<p>In citing the action of Joshua R. Giddings as an <!-- Page 7 --><a name="Page_7"></a>anti-third-party +man, Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether fortunate. Subsequent to the +presidential campaign of 1844, the third-party Abolitionists held a +convention in Pittsburg, in which Giddings was a leading actor. As +chairman of the committee on platform, he submitted a resolution +declaring that both of the old parties were "hopelessly corrupt and +unworthy of confidence."</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists could not see that they were under obligation to +either of the old parties, believing they could do far better service +for the cause they championed by standing up and being counted as +candidates honestly representing their principles. They fought both of +the old parties, and finally beat them. They killed the Whig party out +and out, and so far crippled the Democrats that they have been limping +ever since. Their action, in the long run, as attested by the verdict +of results, proved itself to be not only the course of abstract right, +but of political expediency.</p> + +<p>In 1840, the vote of the third-party Abolitionists, then for the first +time in the political field, was 7000; in 1844 it was 60,000, and in +1848 it was nearly 300,000. From that time, with occasional backsets, +Mr. Roosevelt's "political criminals" went steadily forward until they +mastered the situation. From the first, they were a power in the land, +causing the older parties to quake, Belshazzar-like, at sight of their +writing on the wall.</p> + +<p>But according to Mr. Roosevelt, the men of the Liberty-Free-Soil party +had no share in fathering and nurturing the Republican party, to which +he assigns all the credit for crushing slavery. Says he, "<!-- Page 8 --><a name="Page_8"></a>The Liberty +party was not in any sense the precursor of the Republican party, +which was based as much on expediency as on abstract right." It is +very true that many Republicans, especially in the earlier days, were +neither Abolitionists nor Anti-Slavery people. A good many of them, +like Abraham Lincoln, were sentimentally adverse to slavery, but under +existing conditions did not want it disturbed. Many of them, having +broken loose from the old parties, had no other place of shelter and +cared nothing for slavery one way or the other, some being of the +opinion of one of the new party leaders whom the writer hereof heard +declare that "the niggers are just where they ought to be." All this, +however, does not prove that the third-party people were not the real +forerunners and founders of the Republican party. They certainly +helped to break up the old organizations, crushing them in whole or +part. They supplied a contingent of trained and desperately earnest +workers, their hearts being enlisted as well as their hands. And what +was of still greater consequence, they furnished an issue, and one +that was very much alive, around which the detached fragments of the +old parties could collect and unite. Their share in the composition +and development of the new party can be illustrated. Out in our great +midland valley two rivers—the Missouri and the Mississippi—meet and +mingle their waters. The Missouri, although the larger stream, after +the junction is heard of no more; but being charged with a greater +supply of sedimentary matter, gives its color to the combined flood of +the assimilated waters. Abolitionism was merged <!-- Page 9 --><a name="Page_9"></a>in Republicanism. It +was no longer spoken of as a separate element, but from the beginning +it gave color and character to the combination. The whole compound was +Abolitionized.</p> + +<p>It was not, indeed, the voting strength, although this was +considerable, that the Abolitionists brought to the Republican +organization, that made them the real progenitors of that party. It is +possible that the other constituents entering into it, which were +drawn from the Anti-Slavery Whigs, the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats, the +"Barnburner" Democrats of New York, the "Know-Nothings," etc., +numbered more in the aggregate than the Abolitionists it included; but +it was not so much the number of votes the Abolitionists contributed +that made them the chief creators of the Republican party, as it was +their working and fighting ability. They had undergone a thorough +training. For nearly twenty years they had been in the field in active +service. For the whole of that time they had been exposed to +pro-slavery mobbing and almost every kind of persecution. They had to +conquer every foot of ground they occupied. They had done an immense +amount of invaluable preparatory work. To deny to such people a +liberal share of the credit for results accomplished, would be as +reasonable as to say that men who clear the land, plough the ground, +and sow the seed, because others may help to gather the harvest, have +nothing to do with raising the crop. But for the pioneer work of the +Abolitionists there would have been no Republican party.</p> + +<p>There had been Anti-Slavery people in this country <!-- Page 10 --><a name="Page_10"></a>before the +Abolitionists—conscientious, zealous, intelligent—but somehow they +lacked the ability, in the language of the pugilists, to "put up a +winning fight." They had been brushed aside or trampled under foot. +Not so with the Abolitionists. They had learned all the tricks of the +enemy. They were not afraid of opposition. They knew how to give blows +as well as to take them. The result was that from the time they +organized for separate political action in 1840, they had made steady +progress, although this seemed for a period to be discouragingly slow. +It was only a question of time when, if there had been no Republican +party, they would have succeeded in abolishing slavery without its +assistance.</p> + +<p>Although, as before remarked, the Republican party was made up of a +good many elements besides the Abolitionists, there was among them but +little homogeneousness. They were indifferent, if not hostile, to each +other, and, if left to themselves, would never have so far coalesced +as to make a working party. They had no settled policy, no common +ground to stand on. They would have been simply a rope of sand. But +the Abolitionists supplied a bond of union. They had a principle that +operated like a loadstone in bringing the factions together.</p> + +<p>There was another inducement the Abolitionists had to offer. They had +an organization that was perfect in its way. It was weak but active. +It had made its way into Congress where it had such representatives as +John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase in the Senate, and several brilliant +men in the Lower House. It had a complete outfit of party machinery. +It had an efficient force of men and women engaged <!-- Page 11 --><a name="Page_11"></a>in canvassing as +lecturers and stump orators. It had well managed newspapers, and the +ablest pens in the country—not excepting Harriet Beecher +Stowe's—were in its service. All this, it is hardly necessary to say, +was attractive to people without political homes. The Abolitionists +offered them not only shelter but the prospect of meat and drink in +the future. In that way their organization became the nucleus of the +Republican party, which was in no sense a new organization, but a +reorganization of an old force with new material added.</p> + +<p>And here would seem to be the proper place for reference to the +historical fact that the Republican party, under that name, had but +four years of existence behind it when the great crisis came in the +election of Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War—Lincoln's +election being treated by the South as a <i>casus belli</i>. The Republican +party was established under that name in 1856 and Lincoln was elected +in 1860.</p> + +<p>Now, the work preparatory to Lincoln's election was not done in four +years. The most difficult part of it—the most arduous, the most +disagreeable, the most dangerous—had been done long before. Part of +it dated back to 1840. Indeed, the performance of the Republican party +in those four years was not remarkably brilliant. With the slogan of +"Free soil, free men, and Fremont" it made an ostentatious +demonstration in 1856—an attempted <i>coup de main</i>—which failed. It +would have failed quite as signally in 1860, but for the division of +the Democratic party into the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. That +division was pre-arranged by the <!-- Page 12 --><a name="Page_12"></a>slaveholders who disliked Douglas, +the regular Democratic nominee, much more than they did Lincoln, and +who hoped and plotted for Lincoln's election because it furnished them +a pretext for rebellion.</p> + +<p>The change of name from "Free Soil" or "Liberty" to "Republican" in +1856 had very little significance. It was a matter of partisan policy +and nothing more. "Liberty" and "Free Soil," as party cognomens, had a +meaning, and were supposed to antagonize certain prejudices. +"Republican," at that juncture, meant nothing whatever. Besides, it +was sonorous; it was euphonious; it was palatable to weak political +stomachs. The ready acceptance of the new name by the Abolitionists +goes very far to contradict Mr. Roosevelt's accusation against them of +being regardless of the claims of political expediency.</p> + +<p>The writer has shown, as he believes, that without the preparatory +work of the political Abolitionists there would have been no +Republican party. He will now go a step further. He believes that +without that preliminary service there would not only have been no +Republican party, but no Civil War in the interest of free soil, no +Emancipation Proclamation, no Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to +the Federal Constitution. There might have been and probably would +have been considerable discussion, ending in a protest, more or less +"ringing," when slavery was permitted to overstep the line marked out +by the Missouri Compromise. There might even have been another +"settlement." But no such adjustment would <!-- Page 13 --><a name="Page_13"></a>have seriously impeded the +northward march of the triumphant Slave Power. Indeed, in that event +it is more than probable that ere this the legal representatives of +the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia, would, if so inclined, have made +good his boast of calling the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker +Hill monument.</p> + +<p>So far we have dealt with Mr. Roosevelt's indictment of the +Abolitionists for abandoning the old pro-slavery political parties, +and undertaking to construct a new and better one. That, in his +judgment, was a political crime. But he charges them with another +manifestation of criminality which was much more serious. He accuses +them of hostility, to the Union, which was disloyalty and treason. The +evidence offered by him in support of his accusation was the +Anti-Unionist position taken by William Lloyd Garrison, who branded +the Union as a "league with hell," and some of his associates. But +Garrison was not a leader, or even a member, of the third or Liberty +party. He denounced it almost as bitterly as Mr. Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>Garrison was a Quaker, a non-resistant, and a non-voter. He relied on +moral suasion. He saw no salvation in politics. The formation of a new +Anti-Slavery party excited his fiery indignation. He declared that it +was "ludicrous in its folly, pernicious as a measure of policy, and +useless as a political contrivance."</p> + +<p>Far and away the most potential member and leader of the political +Abolitionists was Salmon P. Chase. Instead of denouncing the +Constitution as "a league with death and hell," he claimed that it +<!-- Page 14 --><a name="Page_14"></a>was an Anti-Slavery document and should be so construed. As for the +Union, by his services in successfully managing the finances of the +country in its great crisis, he did as much to sustain the Union as +any other man of that time. To accuse him of hostility and infidelity +to the Union, is something that no one can do with impunity. In fact, +so clear and so clean, as well as so bold and striking, is the record +of Chase and his associates, beginning in 1840 and continuing down +until the last shackle was stricken from the last bondsman's limbs, +that even the shadow of the White House cannot obscure it.</p> + +<p>Nor is Mr. Roosevelt happy in his illustration, when, in his +concluding arraignment of the Abolitionists, he seeks to discredit +them as an organization of impracticables by comparing them to the +political Prohibitionists of to-day. When the latter, if that time is +ever to be, shall become strong enough to rout one or both of the +existing main political parties, and, taking the control of the +Government in their hands, shall not only legally consign the liquor +traffic to its coffin, but nail it down with a constitutional +amendment, then Mr. Roosevelt's comparison will apply. </p><!-- Page 15 --><a name="Page_15"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE ABOLITIONISTS—WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In selecting those who are to receive its remembrance and its honors, +the world has always given its preference to such as have battled for +freedom. It may have been with the sword; it may have been with the +pen; or it may have been with a tongue that was inflamed with holy +rage against tyranny and wrong; but whatever the instrumentality +employed; in whatever field the battle has been fought; and by +whatsoever race, or class, or kind of men; the champions of human +liberty have been hailed as the bravest of the brave and the most +worthy to receive the acclaims of their fellows.</p> + +<p>Now, if that estimate be not altogether inaccurate, what place in the +scale of renown must be assigned to those pioneers in the successful +movement against African slavery in this country who have commonly +been known as "Abolitionists"—a name first given in derision by their +enemies? It should, in the opinion of the writer hereof, be the very +highest. He is not afraid to challenge the whole record of human +achievements by great and good men (always save and except that which +is credited to the Saviour of mankind) for exhibitions of heroism +superior to theirs. Nay, when it is remembered that mainly <!-- Page 16 --><a name="Page_16"></a>through +their efforts and sacrifices was accomplished a revolution by which +four million human beings (but for the Abolitionists the number to-day +in bondage would be eight millions) were lifted from the condition in +which American slaves existed but a few years ago, to freedom and +political equality with their former masters; and, at the same time +when it is considered what qualities of heart and brain were needed +for such a task, he does not believe that history, from its earliest +chapters, furnishes examples of gods or men, except in very rare and +isolated cases, who have shown themselves to be their equals.</p> + +<p>In the matter of physical courage they were unsurpassed, +unsurpassable. A good many of them were Quakers and non-resistants, +and a good many of them were women, but they never shrank from danger +to life and limb, when employed in their humanitarian work. Some of +them achieved the martyr's crown.</p> + +<p>In the matter of conscience they were indomitable. Life to them was +worth less than principle.</p> + +<p>In the matter of money they were absolutely unselfish. Those of them +who were poor, as the most of them were, toiled on without the hope of +financial recompense. They did their work not only without the promise +or prospect of material reward of any kind, but with the certainty of +pains and penalties that included the ostracism and contempt of their +fellows, and even serious risks to property and life.</p> + +<p>All these sacrifices were in the cause of human liberty; but of +liberty for whom? That is the crucial point. In all ages there have +been plenty of m<!-- Page 17 --><a name="Page_17"></a>en who have honorably striven for liberty for +themselves. Some there have been who have risen to higher planes. We +have an example in Lafayette. He fought to liberate a people who were +foreign in language and blood; but they were of his own color and the +peers of his compatriots.</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists, however, espoused the cause, and it was for that +that they endured so much, of creatures that were infinitely below +them; of beings who had ceased to be recognized as belonging to +humanity, and were classed with the cattle of the field and other +species of "property." So low were they that they could neither +appreciate nor return the services rendered in their behalf. For their +condition, the Abolitionists were in no sense responsible. They had no +necessary fellowship with the unfortunates. They were under no +especial obligation to them. They were not of the same family. It was +even doubted whether the races had a common origin. And yet, to the +end of securing release for these wretched victims of an intolerable +oppression, not a few of them dedicated all they possessed—life not +excepted.</p> + +<p>True it is that they had no monopoly of benevolence. Many noble men +and women have gone as missionaries to the poor and benighted, and +have sought through numerous hardships and perils to raise up those +who have been trodden in the dust. But, as a rule, their services have +been rendered pursuant to a secular employment that carried financial +compensation, and behind their devotion to the poor and oppressed has +been the expectation of personal reward in another world, if not in +this. <!-- Page 18 --><a name="Page_18"></a>But such motives barely, if at all, influenced the +Abolitionists. No element of professionalism entered into their work. +They were not particularly religious. They neither very greatly +reverenced nor feared the Church, whose leaders they often accused of +a hankering for the "flesh-pots" that induced them to lead their +followers into Egypt, rather than out of it. They were partly moved by +a hatred of slavery and its long train of abuses that was +irrepressible, and which to most persons was incomprehensible, and +partly by a love for their fellows in distress that was so insistent +as to make them forget themselves. Their impulses seemed to be largely +intuitive, if not instinctive, and if called upon for a philosophical +explanation they could not have given it.</p> + +<p>In such a struggle for freedom and natural human rights as was carried +on by the Abolitionists against tremendous odds and through a term +covering many long years, it does seem to the writer of this essay +that mortal heroism reached its height.</p> + +<p>Nor am I by any means alone in the opinion just expressed. As far back +as 1844, when the Abolitionists were few in number and the objects of +almost savage persecution in every part of our country, the Earl of +Carlisle, who, in his day was one of the most capable leaders of +British public opinion, declared that they were engaged "in fighting a +battle without a parallel in the history of ancient or modern +heroism."</p> + +<p>I am moved to write the story of the Abolitionists, partly because it +is full of romantic interest, and partly because justice demands it. +Those doughty <!-- Page 19 --><a name="Page_19"></a>file leaders in the Anti-Slavery fight do not to-day +have an adequate acknowledgment of the obligations that the country +and humanity should recognize as belonging to them, and they never +have had it. Much of the credit that is fairly theirs has been +mis-applied. Writers of history—so called, although much of it is +simple eulogy—have been more and more inclined to attribute the +overthrow of slavery to the efforts of a few men, and particularly one +man, who, after long opposition to, or neglect of, the freedom +movement, came to its help in the closing scenes of a great conflict, +while the earlier, and certainly equally meritorious, workers and +fighters have been quite left out of the account. The writer does not +object to laborers who entered the field at the eleventh hour, sharing +with those who bore the heat and burden of the day; but when there is +a disposition to give to them all the earnings he does feel like +protesting.</p> + +<p>The case of the Abolitionists is not overstated when it is said that, +but for their labors and struggles, this country, instead of being all +free, would to-day be all slaveholding. The relative importance of +their work in creating, by means of a persistent agitation, an +opposition to human slavery that was powerful enough to compel the +attention of the public and force the machine politicians, after long +opposition, to admit the question into practical politics, cannot well +be overestimated.</p> + +<p>They alone and single-handed fought the opening battles of a great +war, which, although overshadowed and obscured by later and more +dramatic events, were none the less gallantly waged and nobly won. <!-- Page 20 --><a name="Page_20"></a>It +is customary to speak of our Civil War as a four years' conflict. It +was really a thirty years' war, beginning when the pioneer +Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death +struggle. It was then that the hardest battles were fought.</p> + +<p>I write the more willingly because comparatively few now living +remember the mad excitement of the slavery controversy in ante-bellum +days. The majority—the living and the working masses of to-day—will, +doubtless, be gratified to have accurate pictures of scenes and events +of which they have heard their seniors speak, that distinguished the +most tempestuous period in our national history—the one in which the +wildest passions were aroused and indulged. Then it was that the +fiercest and bitterest agitation prevailed. The war that followed did +not increase this. It rather modified it—sobered it in view of the +crisis at hand—and served as a safety-valve for its escape.</p> + +<p>For the same reason, the general public has now but slight +comprehension of the trials endured by the Abolitionists for +principle's sake. In many ways were they persecuted. In society they +were tabooed; in business shunned. By the rabble they were hooted and +pelted. Clowns in the circus made them the subjects of their jokes. +Newspaper scribblers lampooned and libelled them. Politicians +denounced them. By the Church they were regarded as very black sheep, +and sometimes excluded from the fold. And this state of things lasted +for years, during which they kept up a steady agitation with the help +of platform lecturers, and regularly threw <!-- Page 21 --><a name="Page_21"></a>away their votes—so it +was charged—in a "third party" movement that seemed to be a hopeless +venture.</p> + +<p>Another inducement to the writer to take up the cause of the +Abolitionists is the fact that he has always been proud to class +himself as one of them. He came into the world before Abolitionism, by +that name, had been heard of; before the first Abolition Society was +organized; before William Lloyd Garrison founded his <i>Liberator</i>, and +before (not the least important circumstance) John Quincy Adams +entered Congress. He cannot remember when the slavery question was not +discussed. His sympathies at an early day went out to the slave. He +informed himself on the subject as well as a farmer boy might be +expected to do in a household that received the most of its knowledge +of current events from the columns of one weekly newspaper. He cast +his first vote for the ticket of the Abolitionists while they were yet +a "third party."</p> + +<p>The community in which he then lived, although in the free State of +Ohio, was strongly pro-slavery, being not far from the Southern +border. The population was principally from Virginia and Kentucky. +There were a few Abolitionists, and they occasionally tried to hold +public meetings, but the gatherings were always broken up by mobs.</p> + +<p>The writer very well remembers the satisfaction with which he, as a +schoolboy, was accustomed to hear that there was to be another +Abolition "turn-out." The occasion was certain to afford considerable +excitement that was dear to the heart of a boy, and it had another +recommendation. The only <!-- Page 22 --><a name="Page_22"></a>room in the village—"town" we called +it—for such affairs, except the churches, which were barred against +"fanatics," was the district schoolhouse, which, by common consent, +was open to all comers, and as the windows and doors, through which +missiles were hurled during Anti-Slavery gatherings, were always more +or less damaged, "we boys" usually got a holiday or two while the +building was undergoing necessary repairs.</p> + +<p>As might be surmised, the lessons I learned at school were not all +such as are usually acquired at such institutions. My companions were +like other children, full of spirit and mischief, and not without +their prejudices. They hated Abolitionists because they—the +Abolitionists—wanted to compel all white people to marry "niggers." +Although not naturally unkind, they did not always spare the feelings +of "the son of an old Abolitionist." We had our arguments. Some of +them were of the knock-down kind. In more than one shindy, growing out +of the discussion of the great question of the day, I suffered the +penalty of a bloody nose or a blackened eye for standing up for my +side.</p> + +<p>The feeling against the negroes' friends—the Abolitionists—was not +confined to children in years. It was present in all classes. It +entered State and Church alike, and dominated both of them. The +Congressional Representative from the district in which I lived in +those days was an able man and generally held in high esteem. He made +a speech in our village when a candidate for re-election. In +discussing the slavery question—everybody discussed it then—he spoke +of the negroes as being "on <!-- Page 23 --><a name="Page_23"></a>the same footing with other cattle." I +remember the expression very well because it shocked me, boy that I +was. It did not disturb the great majority of those present, however. +They cheered the sentiment and gave their votes for the speaker, who +was re-elected by a large majority.</p> + +<p>About the same time I happened to be present where a General Assembly +of one of our largest religious denominations was in session, and +listened to part of an address by a noted divine—the most +distinguished man in the body—which was intended to prove that +slavery was an institution existing by biblical authority. He spent +two days in a talk that was mostly made up of scriptural texts and his +commentaries upon them. This was in Ohio, and there was not a +slave-owner in the assembly, and yet a resolution commendatory of the +views that had just been declared by the learned doctor, was adopted +by an almost unanimous vote.</p> + +<p>In the neighborhood in which I lived was an old and much respected +clergyman who was called upon to preach a sermon on a day of some +national significance. He made it the occasion for a florid panegyric +upon American institutions, which, he declared, assured freedom to all +men. Here he paused, "When I spoke of all men enjoying freedom under +our flag," he resumed, "I did not, of course, include the Ethiopians +whom Providence has brought to our shores for their own good as well +as ours. They are slaves by a divine decree. As descendants of Ham, +they are under a curse that makes them the servants of their more +fortunate white brethren." Having thus put himself right on the +record, he <!-- Page 24 --><a name="Page_24"></a>proceeded with his sermon. No one seemed to take exception +to what he said.</p> + +<p>In the same neighborhood was a young preacher who had shortly before +come into it from somewhere farther North. In the course of one of his +regular services he offered up a prayer in which he expressed the hope +that the good Lord would find a way to break the bands of all who were +in bondage. That smacked of Abolitionism and at once there was a +commotion. The minister was asked to explain. This he declined to do, +saying that his petition was a matter between him and his God, and he +denied the right of others to question him. That only increased the +opposition, and in a short time the spunky young man was compelled to +resign his charge.</p> + +<p>About that time there appeared a lecturer on slavery—which meant +against slavery—who carried credentials showing that he was a +clergyman in good standing in one of the leading Protestant +denominations. In our village was a church of that persuasion, whose +pastor was not an Abolitionist. As in duty bound, the visiting brother +called on his local fellow-laborer, and informed him that on the +following day, which happened to be Sunday, he would be pleased to +attend service at his church. On the morrow he was on hand and +occupied a seat directly in front of the pulpit; but, notwithstanding +his conspicuousness, the home minister, who should, out of courtesy, +have invited him to a seat in the pulpit, if to no other part in the +services, never saw him. He looked completely over his head, keeping +his eyes, all through the exercises, fixed upon the back pews, <!-- Page 25 --><a name="Page_25"></a>which +happened, on that occasion, to be chiefly unoccupied.</p> + +<p>Such incidents, of themselves, were of no great importance. Their +significance was in the fact that they all occurred on the soil of a +free State. They showed the state of feeling that then and there +existed. </p><!-- Page 26 --><a name="Page_26"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>ONE OF THEIR TRAITS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The writer has spoken of the courage of the Abolitionists. There is +another trait by which they were distinguished that, in his opinion, +should not be passed over. That was their extreme hopefulness—their +untiring confidence. No matter how adverse were the conditions, they +expected to win. They never counted the odds against them. They +trusted in the right which they were firmly persuaded would prevail +some time or another. For that time they were willing to wait, +meanwhile doing what they could to hasten its coming.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker mechanic, who was undeniably the +Peter-the-Hermit of the Abolitionist movement, when setting out alone +and on foot, with his printing material on his back, to begin a +crusade against the strongest and most arrogant institution in the +country, remarked with admirable naïveté, "I do not know how soon I +shall succeed in my undertaking."</p> + +<p>William Lloyd Garrison, when the pioneer Anti-Slavery Society was +organized by only twelve men, and they people of no worldly +consequence, the meeting for lack of a better place being held in a +colored schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" in Boston, <!-- Page 27 --><a name="Page_27"></a>declared that in due +time they would meet to urge their principles in Faneuil Hall—a most +audacious declaration, but he was right.</p> + +<p>The writer, when a boy, was witness to an exhibition of the same +spirit. A kinsman of his was a zealous Abolitionist, although not +particularly gifted with controversial acumen. He and his minister, as +often happened, were discussing the slavery question. The minister, +like many of his cloth at that time, was a staunch supporter of "the +institution," which, according to his contention, firmly rested on +biblical authority.</p> + +<p>"How do you expect to destroy slavery, as it exists in Kentucky, by +talking and voting abolition up here in Ohio?" asked the clergyman.</p> + +<p>"We will crush it through Congress when we get control of the general +government," said my kinsman.</p> + +<p>"But Congress and the general government have, under the Constitution, +absolutely no power over slavery in the States. It is a State +institution," replied the clergyman.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to follow the discussion, but, one after another, +the quicker-witted and better-informed preacher successfully combated +all the propositions advanced by my relative in trying to give a +reason for the faith that was in him, until he was completely +cornered. "Well," said he at last, "the good Lord has not taken me +into His confidence, and I don't know what His plans for upsetting +slavery are, but He will be able to manage it somehow."</p> + +<p>My kinsman lived long enough to see the day <!-- Page 28 --><a name="Page_28"></a>when there was not a +slave on American soil, and the minister lived long enough to become a +roaring Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>It was doubtless their confidence in ultimate triumph, a result of +their absolute belief in the righteousness of their cause, that, as +much as anything else, armed and armored the Abolitionists against all +opposition. It was one main element of their strength in the midst of +their weakness. Without it they could not have persisted, as they did, +in their separate or "third party " political action, that cleared the +way and finally led up to a victorious organization. Year after year, +and for many years, they voted for candidates that had no chance of +election. Their first presidential ticket got only seven thousand +votes in the whole country. The great public, which could not see the +use of acting politically for principle alone, laughed at their +simplicity in "throwing away their votes." "Voting in the air" was the +way it was often spoken of, and those who were guilty of such +incomprehensible folly were characterized as "one idea people." They, +however, cared little for denunciation or ridicule, and kept on +regularly nominating their tickets, and as regularly giving them votes +that generally appeared in the election returns among the +"scattering." They were not abashed by the insignificance of their +party.</p> + +<p class="poem">"They were men who dared to be <br /> +the right with two or three,"</p> + +<p>according to the poet Lowell.</p> + +<p>In the county in which I lived when a boy, there <!-- Page 29 --><a name="Page_29"></a>was one vote polled +for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket. The man who gave it +did not try to hide his responsibility—in fact, he seemed rather +proud of his aloneness—but he was mercilessly guyed on account of the +smallness of his party. His rejoinder was that he thought that he and +God, who was, he believed, with him, made a pretty good-sized and +respectable party. </p><!-- Page 30 --><a name="Page_30"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The intensity—perhaps density would be a better word in this +connection—of the prejudice that confronted the Abolitionists when +they entered on their work is not describable by any expressions we +have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man +could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions +were not much better. Every man and woman—because the muster-roll of +the Abolition propagandists was recruited from both sexes—carried on +the work at the hazard of his or her life. Sneers, scowls, hootings, +curses, and rough handling were absolutely certain. One incident +throws light on the state of feeling at that time.</p> + +<p>When Pennsylvania Hall, which the Abolitionists of +Philadelphia—largely Quakers—had erected for a meeting place at a +cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department +of that city threw water on surrounding property, but not one drop +would it contribute to save the property of the Abolitionists.</p> + +<p>Why was it that this devotion to slavery and this hostility to its +opposers prevailed in the non-slaveholding States? They had not always +existed. Indeed, <!-- Page 31 --><a name="Page_31"></a>there was a time, not so many years before, when +slavery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and +Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public +opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of +universal emancipation, when suddenly—almost in the twinkling of an +eye—there was a change. If it had been a weather-cock—as to a +considerable extent it was, and is—public opinion could not have more +quickly veered about.</p> + +<p>Slavery became the popular idol in the North as well as in the South. +Opposition to it was not only offensive, but dangerous. It was +sacrilege.</p> + +<p>So far as the South was concerned the revolution is easily accounted +for. Slavery became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with +a wand of gold, and from being a languishing, struggling system, it +quickly developed into a money-maker.</p> + +<p>Whitney, the Connecticut mechanical genius, by the invention of the +cotton-gin, made the production of cotton a highly lucrative industry. +The price of negroes to work the cotton fields at once went up, and +yet the supply was inadequate. Northernly slave States could not +produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the +golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in +human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken of as "nigger +pens," in which the "hands" that were to make the cotton were +temporarily gathered, and long coffles—that is, processions of men +and women, each with a hand attached to a common rope or +<!-- Page 32 --><a name="Page_32"></a>chain—marched through their streets with faces turned southward.</p> + +<p>The slave-owners were numerically a lean minority even in the South, +but their mastery over their fellow-citizens was absolute. Nor was +there any mystery about it. As the owners of four million slaves, on +an average worth not far from five hundred dollars each, they formed +the greatest industrial combination—what at this time we would call a +trust—ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel +Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great +financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up +to the dimensions of that one association. It was not incorporated in +law, but its union was perfect. Bound together by a common interest +and a common feeling, its members—in the highest sense co-partners in +business and in politics, in peace and in war—were prepared to act +together as one man.</p> + +<p>But why, I again ask, were the Northern people so infatuated with +slavery? They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of +them, and especially their political leaders, carried their adulation +almost to idolatry.</p> + +<p>When Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot down like a dog, and William Lloyd +Garrison was dragged half naked and half lifeless through the streets +of Boston, and other outrages of like import were being perpetrated +all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were +not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"—of +merchants, manufacturers, and members of the professions. They claimed +the credit for such achievements. <!-- Page 33 --><a name="Page_33"></a>There were reasons for such a state +of things—some very solid, because financial.</p> + +<p>The North and the South were extensively interlaced by mutual +interests. With slave labor the Southern planters made cotton, and +with the proceeds of their cotton they bought Northern machinery and +merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They +came North themselves when their pockets were full, and freely spent +their money at Northern hotels, Northern theatres, Northern +race-tracks, and other Northern places of entertainment.</p> + +<p>Then there were other ties than those of business. The great political +parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their +Southern members. Every kind of trade and calling had its Southern +outlet.</p> + +<p>But social connections were the strongest of all, and probably had +most to do in making Northern sentiment. Southern gentlemen were +popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were +grandiose. They talked boastfully of the number of their "niggers," +and told how they were accustomed to "wallop" them.</p> + +<p>Then there were marriage ties between the sections. Many domestic +alliances strengthened the bond between slavery and the aristocracy of +the North.</p> + +<p>In the circles in which these things were going on, it was the fashion +to denounce the Abolitionists. Women were the most bitter. The +slightest suspicion of sympathy with the "fanatics" was fatal to +social ambition. Mrs. Henry Chapman, the wife of <!-- Page 34 --><a name="Page_34"></a>a wealthy Boston +shipping merchant who gave orders that no slaves should be carried on +his vessels, was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense +in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small +conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former +associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of +Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were +noted for their intelligence and culture, but when the heads of the +families came to be classified as Abolitionists the doors of all +fashionable mansions were at once shut against them. They in other +ways suffered for their opinions. The home of Lewis Tappan was invaded +by a mob, and furniture, books, and <i>bric-a-brac</i> were carried to the +street and there burned to ashes.</p> + +<p>The masses of the Northern people were, however, led to favor slavery +by other arguments. One of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, +would at once rush to the North and overrun the free States. I have +heard that proposition warmly supported by fairly intelligent persons.</p> + +<p>Another argument that weighed with a surprisingly large number of +people, was that civil equality would be followed by social equality. +As soon as they were free, negro men, it was said, would marry white +wives. "Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was +regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of +course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a +negro woman for a slave, I do want her for a wife?" was one of the +quaint and pithy observations attributed to Mr. Lincoln. I <!-- Page 35 --><a name="Page_35"></a>heard +Prof. Hudson, of Oberlin College, express the same idea in about the +same words many years before.</p> + +<p>And yet there were plenty of Northern people to whom +"Amalgamation"—the word used to describe the apprehended union of the +races—was a veritable scarecrow. A young gentleman in a neighborhood +near where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for +matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had +been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," said +the old gentleman, "that you are an Abolitionist." The young man +admitted the justice of the charge. "Then, sir," fairly roared the old +man, "you can't have my daughter; go and marry a nigger."</p> + +<p>But what probably gave slavery its strongest hold upon the favor of +Northern people was the animosity toward the negro that prevailed +among them. Nowhere was he treated by them like a human being. The +"black laws," as those statutes in a number of free States that +regulated the treatment of the blacks were appropriately called, were +inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was +called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws +they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. +Any one employing negroes, not so bonded, was liable to a fine of one +hundred dollars. They could not vote, of course. They could not +testify in a case in which a white man was interested. They could not +send their children to schools which they helped to support. The only +thing they could do "like a white man" was to pay taxes.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 36 --><a name="Page_36"></a>The prejudice against the poor creatures in Ohio was much stronger +than that they encountered on the other side of the Ohio River in the +slave State of Kentucky. Here—in Kentucky—they were property, and +they generally received the care and consideration that ownership +ordinarily establishes. The interest of the master was a factor in +their behalf. In many instances there was genuine affection between +owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had +good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes +would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. +There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the +blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in freedom. +What stronger testimony to the innate desire for liberty—what Byron +has described as "The eternal spirit of the chainless mind"—than the +fact that slaves who were the most indulgently treated, were +constantly escaping from the easy and careless life they led to the +hostilities and barbarities of the free States, and they never went +back except under compulsion.</p> + +<p class="poem">"O carry me back to old Virginy,<br /> +To old Virginy's shore,"</p> + +<p>was the refrain of a song that was very popular in those days, and +which was much affected by what were called "negro minstrels." It was +assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when +they had time to realize what freedom meant in their cases, but I +never heard the words <!-- Page 37 --><a name="Page_37"></a>from the lips of a man who had lived in a state +of servitude.</p> + +<p>I have elsewhere referred to the fact that women were often the most +bitter in their denunciations of the Abolitionists. In the +neighborhood in which I passed my early days was a lady who was born +and raised in the North, and who probably had no decided sentiment, +one way or the other, on the slavery question; but who about this time +spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came +back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She +could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by +the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had nothing to do +except to take the world easy, and that, according to her account, +they did with great unanimity. The slaves, were, she declared, the +happiest people in the world, all care and responsibility being taken +from their shoulders by masters who were kind enough to look out for +their wants.</p> + +<p>But one day she unwittingly exposed a glimpse of the reverse side of +the picture. She told the story of a young slave girl who had been +accused of larceny. She had picked up some trifling article that +ordinarily no one would have cared anything about; but at this time it +was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the +poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a +ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that +purpose, and she was drawn up, with her face to the building, until +her toes barely touched the ground. Then, in the <!-- Page 38 --><a name="Page_38"></a>presence of all her +fellow-slaves, and with her clothing so detached as to expose her +naked shoulders, she was flogged until the blood trickled down her +back.</p> + +<p>"I felt almost as bad for her," said the narrator, "as if she had been +one of my own kind."</p> + +<p>"Thank God she was not one of your kind!" exclaimed a voice that +fairly sizzled with rage.</p> + +<p>The speaker who happened to be present was a relative of the author +and a red-hot Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Then came a furious war of words, the two enraged women shouting +maledictions in each other's faces. As a boy, I enjoyed the +performance hugely until I began to see that there was danger of a +collision. As the only male present, it would be my duty to interfere +in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and +hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be +really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when the +two women, looking into each other's inflamed faces, suddenly realized +the ridiculousness of the situation and broke into hearty peals of +laughter. That, of course, ended the controversy, not a little to the +relief of the writer.</p> + +<p>If the influence of a great majority of the women of that day was +thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the +minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and +aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most +indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women—such as Mrs. +Lucretia Mott, the Grimké sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names +are here omitted, although they richly deserve <!-- Page 39 --><a name="Page_39"></a>to be mentioned. Of +all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a +little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish +crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I +never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes +were small and it appeared to me that they contracted, when she was +speaking, until they emitted sparks of fire. Although she went by her +maiden name, she was a married woman, being the wife of Stephen +Foster, a professional Abolitionist agitator and lecturer. Although +himself noted for the bitterness of his speech, when it came to +hard-hitting vituperation he could not begin to "hold a candle" to his +little wife.</p> + +<p>The two traveled together and spoke from the same platforms. They were +constantly getting into hot water through the hostility of mobs, which +they seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once +in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the +slightest fear. The only meeting addressed by them that I attended, +though held on the Sabbath, was ended by the throwing of stones and +sticks and addled eggs.</p> + +<p>But if the current of public opinion in the North suddenly turned, and +for a long time ran with overwhelming force in favor of slavery, it +changed about almost as suddenly and ran with equal force in the +opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that +furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential +ticket, became a Republican stronghold. It was in what had been a Whig +district, and when the Whig party went to <!-- Page 40 --><a name="Page_40"></a>pieces, the most of its +<i>débris</i> drifted into the Republican lines.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of one of the pro-slavery mobs I elsewhere tell about, +when a supply of eggs with which to garnish the Abolitionists, was +wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the town +constable—the peace officer of the community—put his hand in his +pocket and supplied the funds.</p> + +<p>A few years thereafter, on my return to the village after a +considerable absence, I found that I had come just in time to attend a +Republican rally which was that day to be held in a near-by grove. +When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the +grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, +but by far the most excited individual was the Grand Marshal and +Master of Ceremonies. Seated on a high horse, he was riding up and +down the line shouting out his orders with tremendous unction. He was +the constable of the egg-buying episode. </p><!-- Page 41 --><a name="Page_41"></a> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE POLITICAL SITUATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In several of his addresses before his election to the Presidency, Mr. +Lincoln gave utterance to the following language: "A house divided +against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot +permanently remain half slave and half free. I do not expect the house +to fall, but I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all +one thing or all the other thing."</p> + +<p>The same opinion had been enunciated several years before by John +Quincy Adams on the floor of Congress, when, with his accustomed +pungency, he declared, "The Union will fall before slavery or slavery +will fall before the Union."</p> + +<p>But before either Adams or Lincoln spoke on the subject—away back in +1838—the same idea they expressed had a more elaborate and forcible +presentation in the following words:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The conflict is becoming—has become—not alone of freedom for + the blacks, but of freedom for the whites. It has now become + absolutely necessary that slavery shall cease in order that + freedom may be preserved in any portion of our land. The + antagonistic principles of liberty and slavery have been roused + into action, and one or the other must be victorious. There will + be no <!-- Page 42 --><a name="Page_42"></a>cessation of the strife until slavery shall be exterminated + or liberty destroyed."</p></div> + +<p>The author of the words last above quoted was James Gillespie Birney, +who was the first Abolitionist, or "Liberty party," candidate for the +Presidency, and of whose career a brief sketch is elsewhere given.</p> + +<p>That the slaveholders reached the same conclusion that Birney and +Adams and Lincoln announced, viz., that the country was to be all one +thing or all the other thing, is as manifest as any fact in our +history. It is equally certain that they had firmly resolved to +capture the entire commonwealth for their "institution," and had laid +their plans to that end. They were unwilling to live in a divided +house, particularly with an occupant who was stronger in population +and wealth than they were.</p> + +<p>They saw the danger in such association. Northern sentiment toward +slavery was complacent enough, even servilely so, but it might change. +The South thought it had too much at stake to take the chances when +the opportunity for absolute safety and permanent rule was within its +reach. It resolved to make the whole country, not only pro-slavery, +but slaveholding. If, through any mischance, it failed in its +calculation, the next step would be to tear down the house and from +its ruins reconstruct so much of it as might be needed for its own +occupancy. That it would be able in time to possess itself of the +whole country, however, for and in behalf of its industrial policy, it +did not for an instant doubt. It was not empty braggadocio on the part +<!-- Page 43 --><a name="Page_43"></a>of the celebrated Robert Toombs, of Georgia, when he uttered his +famous boast.<a name="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> He voiced the practically unanimous opinion of his +section.</p> + +<p class="note"><a name="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> See page <a href="#Page_13">13.</a></p> + +<p>Nor was there anything seemingly very presumptuous in that +anticipation. So far, the South had been invariably victorious. In +what appeared to be a decisive battle in the test case of admitting +Missouri into the Union as a slave State, it had won. So pronounced +was its triumph that whatever Anti-Slavery sentiment survived the +conflict appeared to be stunned and helpless. All fight was knocked +out of it. Its spirit was broken. While the South was not only compact +and fully alive, but exultingly aggressive, the North was divided, +fully one half of its population being about as pro-slavery as the +slaveholders themselves, and the rest, with rare exceptions, being +hopelessly apathetic. The Northern leaders of both of the old +political parties—Whig and Democratic—were what the Abolitionists +called "dough-faces," being Northern men with Southern principles. The +Church was "a dumb dog," and the press simply drifted with the tide. +It was not at all strange that the slaveholders expected to go on from +conquest to conquest.</p> + +<p>There were two policies they could adopt. One was to attack the +enemy's citadel; or rather, the several citadels it possessed in its +individual States, and force them to open their doors to the master +and his human chattels. The other was to flank and cover, approaching +the main point of attack by way of the Territories. These, once in +possession of the slaveholders, could be converted into enough <!-- Page 44 --><a name="Page_44"></a>slave +States to give them the control of the general government, from which +coigne of advantage they could proceed in their own time and way to +possess themselves of such other free States as they might want.</p> + +<p>In the matter of the Territories they had a great advantage. The North +was up against a stone wall at the Canadian border. In that direction +it could not advance a step, while the South had practically an +unlimited field on its side from which to carve possessions as they +might be wanted, very much as you would cut a pie.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of its territorial policy—being the line of action it +first resolved upon—the first movement of the South was to annex +Texas—a victory. The next was to make war on Mexico, and (a joke of +the day) conquer a "piece" from it large enough to make half a dozen +States, all expected to be slaveholding—another victory.</p> + +<p>By a curious irony the filching of land for slavery's uses from a +neighbor, and on which the foot of a slave had never pressed, was +exultingly spoken of at the time by its supporters as "an extension of +the area of freedom." The act was justified on the ground that we +needed "land for the landless," which led Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio to +assert on the floor of the United States Senate, with as much truth as +wit, that it was not land for the landless that was wanted, but +"niggers for the niggerless."</p> + +<p>Then came the battle over Kansas. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill in Congress, although involving a breach of good faith on the +part of the South, was hailed as another victory for that section. <!-- Page 45 --><a name="Page_45"></a>It +was a costly victory. It was followed by defeat not only disastrous +but fatal. The result in Kansas was really the turning-point in the +great struggle. It broke the line of Southern victories. It +neutralized the effect of the whole territorial movement up to that +point. It completely spoiled the slaveholders' well-laid plans. We +will always give Grant and his men all praise for victories leading up +to Appomatox, but, in some respects, the most important victory of the +great conflict was won on the plains of Kansas by John Brown of +Ossawattomie and his Abolition associates.</p> + +<p>The most sagacious Southern leaders saw in that result conclusive +proof that the scale was turned. They realized that they were beaten +within the lines of the Union, and they began to arrange for going out +of it. They helped to elect a Republican President by dividing the +Democratic party in 1860 between two candidates—Douglas and +Breckenridge—in order that they might have a plausible pretext for +secession.</p> + +<p>But the slaveholders had not abandoned the other policy to which +reference has been made—that of carrying their institution, by main +force, as it were, into some, if not all, of the free States. To that +end they had, in sporting parlance, a card up their sleeves which they +proceeded to play. That card was the decision of the United States +Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, upon which they relied to give +them the legal power to take and hold their slaves in all parts of the +land. Up to the date of that decision, the current of judicial rulings +had been that slavery, being a municipal institution, <!-- Page 46 --><a name="Page_46"></a>was local, +while freedom was national. Hence, when a master took his slave into a +free State, at that instant he became a free man. The Dred Scott +decision was intended to reverse the rule. Practically it held that +slave ownership, wherever the Constitution prevailed, was both a legal +and a natural right. It, as Benton forcibly expressed it, "made +slavery the organic law of the land and freedom the exception"; or, as +it was jocularly expressed at the time, it left freedom nowhere.</p> + +<p>Although at the time of its promulgation, it was claimed by some of +the more conservative pro-slavery leaders that the Dred Scott dictum +applied only to the Territories, giving the masters the legal +authority to enter them with their slaves, that position was clearly +deceptive. The principle involved, as laid down by the Court, was +altogether too broad for that construction. In effect it put the +proprietorship of human beings upon the same footing with other +property rights, and claimed for it the same constitutional +protection. The bolder men of the South, like Toombs of Georgia, did +not hesitate to give that interpretation to the Court's pronouncement, +and to insist on it with brutal frankness. If they were wrong, the +Court was putty in their hands and they could easily have had a +supplemental ruling that would have gone to any extent.</p> + +<p>If the Dred Scott decision had been promulgated by our highest court, +and the slaveholders had insisted upon the license it was intended to +give them for taking their slave property into free territory, at the +time that Garrison was being dragged by a mob through Boston's +streets; when Birney's printing-press <!-- Page 47 --><a name="Page_47"></a>in Cincinnati was being tumbled +into the Ohio River; when Pennsylvania Hall, the Quaker Abolitionists' +forty-thousand-dollar construction, was ablaze in Philadelphia; when +Lovejoy, the Abolition martyr, was bleeding out his life in one of the +streets of Alton, Illinois—when, in fact, the whole land was swayed +by a frenzied hatred of the men and women who dared to question +slavery's right to supremacy, the writer believes the movement would +have been successful. Public opinion was so inclined in States like +Indiana and Illinois, and even in Ohio, that they might have been +easily toppled over to the South. Indeed, at that time it is a problem +how Massachusetts would have voted on a proposition to "slaveryize" +her soil. The surprising thing, as we look back to that period, is +that slavery did not get a foothold in some of the free States, if not +in all of them.</p> + +<p>But by the time the South was ready to play its trump card, it was too +late. The game was lost. Public opinion had become revolutionized +throughout the North. The leaven of Abolitionism had got in its work. +The men and women, few in number and weak in purse and worldly +position as they were, who had enlisted years before in the cause of +emancipation, and had fought for it in the face of almost every +conceivable discouragement, had at last won a great preliminary +victory. Slavery, through their exertions, had become impossible, both +in the Territories and in the free States of the North, the United +States Supreme Court and all the forces of the slave power to the +contrary notwithstanding. <!-- Page 48 --><a name="Page_48"></a>Then came to the South a not unanticipated, +and to many of her leaders a not unwelcome political Waterloo, in the +election of Lincoln. This gave the argument for secession that was +wanted. The South had then to yield—which she had no idea of +doing—or to go into rebellion. She went out of the Union very much as +she would have gone to a frolic. She had no thought that serious +fighting was to follow. She did not believe, as one of the Southern +leaders expressed it, that the Northern people would go to war for the +sake of the "niggers."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a><h2><!-- Page 49 --><a name="Page_49"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The early Abolitionists were denounced as fanatics, or "fan-a-tics," +according to the pronunciation of some of their detractors. They were +treated as if partially insane. The writer when a boy attended the +trial of a cause between two neighbors in a court of low grade. It was +what was called a "cow case," and involved property worth, perhaps, as +much as twenty dollars. One of the witnesses on the stand was asked by +a lawyer, who wanted to embarrass or discredit him, if he were not an +Abolitionist. Objection came from the other side on the ground that +the inquiry was irrelevant; but the learned justice-of-the-peace who +presided held that, as it related to the witness's sanity, and that +would affect his credibility, the question was admissible. It is not, +perhaps, so very strange that in those days, in view of the +disreputableness of those whose cause they espoused, and the +apparently utter hopelessness of anything ever coming out of it, the +supporters of Anti-Slaveryism should be suspected of being "out of +their heads."</p> + +<p>Although Don Quixote, who, according to the veracious Cervantes, set +out with his unaided strong right arm to upset things, including +wind-mills and <!-- Page 50 --><a name="Page_50"></a>obnoxious dynasties, has long been looked upon as the +world's best specimen of a "fanatic," he would ordinarily be set down +as a very Solomon beside the man who would undertake single-handed to +overthrow such an institution as American slavery used to be. Such a +man there was, however. He really entered on the job of abolishing +that institution, and without a solitary assistant. Strange to say, he +was neither a giant nor a millionaire.</p> + +<p>According to Horace Greeley, "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high honor +of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distinctive Anti-Slaveryism in +America."</p> + +<p>He was slight in frame and below the medium height, and unassuming in +manner. He had, it is said, neither eloquence nor shining ability of +any sort.</p> + +<p>At nineteen years of age he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the +trade of a saddler. He learned more than that. Wheeling, as he tells +us, was then a great thoroughfare for the traffickers in human flesh. +Their coffles passed through the place frequently. "My heart," he +continues, "was grieved at the great abomination. I heard the wail of +the captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered into my +soul."</p> + +<p>But much as Lundy loathed the business of the slave-dealers and +slave-drivers, he then had no idea of attempting its abolishment. He +married and settled down to the prosecution of his trade, and had he +been like other people generally he would have been content. But he +could not shut the pictures of those street scenes in Wheeling out of +his mind and out of his heart.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 51 --><a name="Page_51"></a>The first thing in the reformatory line he did was to organize a +local Anti-Slavery society in the village in which he was then living +in Ohio; at the first meeting of this society only five persons were +present.</p> + +<p>About this time Lundy made some important discoveries. He learned that +he could write what the newspapers would print, and give expression to +words that the people would listen to. He was quick to realize the +fact that the best way to reach the people of this country was through +the press. He started a very small paper with a very large name. It +was ambitiously nominated <i>The Genius of Universal Emancipation</i>. He +began with only six subscribers and without a press or other +publishing material. Moreover, he had no money. He was not then a +practical printer, though later he learned the art of type-setting. At +this time he had his newspaper printed twenty miles from his home, and +carried the edition for that distance on his back.</p> + +<p>But insignificant as Lundy's paper was, it had the high distinction of +being the only exclusively Anti-Slavery journal in the country, and +its editor and proprietor was the only professional Abolition lecturer +and agitator of that time.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, in speaking of his journalistic undertaking, Mr. Lundy +said: "I began this work without a dollar of funds, trusting to the +sacredness of the cause." Another saying of his was that he did not +stop to calculate "how soon his efforts would be crowned with +success."</p> + +<p>As Lundy spent the greater part of his time in traveling from place to +place, procuring subscriptions <!-- Page 52 --><a name="Page_52"></a>to his journal and lecturing on +slavery, he could not issue his paper regularly at any one point. In +some instances he carried the head-rules, column-rules, and +subscription-book of his journal with him, and when he came to a town +where he found a printing-press he would stop long enough to print and +mail a number of his periodical. He traveled for the most part on +foot, carrying a heavy pack. In ten years in that way he covered +twenty-five thousand miles, five thousand on foot.</p> + +<p>He decided to invade the enemy's country by going where slavery was. +He went to Tennessee, making the journey of eight hundred miles, one +half by water, and one half on foot. That was, of course, before the +day of railroads.</p> + +<p>He continued to issue his paper, although often threatened with +personal violence. Once two bullies locked him in a room and, with +revolvers in hand, tried to frighten him into a promise to discontinue +his work. He did not frighten to any extent.</p> + +<p>Seeking what seemed to be the most inviting field for his operations, +he decided to move his establishment to Baltimore, going most of the +way on foot and lecturing as he went whenever he could find an +audience.</p> + +<p>His residence in Baltimore came near proving fatal. A slave-trader, +whom he had offended, attacked and brutally beat him on the street. +The consolation he got from the court that tried the ruffian, who was +"honorably discharged," was that he (Lundy) had got "nothing more than +he deserved." Soon afterwards his printing material and other property +was burned by a mob.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 53 --><a name="Page_53"></a>He went to Mexico to select a location for a projected colony of +colored people. He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the +strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of +saddlery and harness mending. In his journal he tells us that he often +slept in the open air, the country traversed being mostly new and +unsettled. He was in constant danger from panthers, alligators, and +rattlesnakes, while he was cruelly beset by gnats and mosquitoes. His +clothes in the morning, he tells us, would be as wet from heavy dews +as if he had fallen into the river.</p> + +<p>Intellectually, Lundy was not a great man, but his heart was beyond +measurement. The torch that he carried in the midst of the all but +universal darkness of that period emitted but a feeble ray, but he +kept it burning, and it possessed the almost invaluable property of +being able to transmit its flame to other torches. It kindled the +brand that was wielded by William Lloyd Garrison, and which possessed +a wonderful power of illumination.</p> + +<p>Garrison was beyond all question a remarkable man. In the qualities +that endow a successful leader in a desperate cause he has never been +surpassed. He had an iron will that was directed by an inflexible +conscience. "To him," says James Freeman Clarke, "right was right, and +wrong was wrong, and he saw no half lights or half shadows between +them." He was a natural orator. I never heard him talk, either on or +off the platform, but I have heard those who had listened to him, +speak of the singular gift he possessed in stating or combating a +proposition. One person who had heard him, <!-- Page 54 --><a name="Page_54"></a>often compared him, when +dealing with an adversary, to a butcher engaged in dissecting a +carcass, and who knew just where to strike every time,—a homely, but +expressive illustration. His addresses in England on a certain notable +occasion, which is dealt with somewhat at length elsewhere, were +declared by the first British orators to be models of perfect +eloquence.</p> + +<p>Lundy and Garrison met by accident. They were boarding at the same +house in Boston, and became acquainted. Lundy's mind was full of the +subject of slavery, and Garrison's proved to be receptive soil. They +decided to join forces, and we have the singular spectacle of two poor +mechanics—a journeyman saddler and a journeyman printer—conspiring +to revolutionize the domestic institutions of half of the country.</p> + +<p>They decided to continue the Baltimore newspaper. Garrison's +plain-spokenness, however, soon got him into trouble in that city. He +was prosecuted for libelling a shipmaster for transporting slaves, was +convicted and fined fifty dollars. The amount, so far as his ability +to pay was involved, might as well have been a million. He went to +prison, being incarcerated in a cell just vacated by a man who had +been hanged for murder, and there he remained for seven weeks. At the +end of that time Arthur Tappan, the big-hearted merchant of New York, +learning the facts of the case, advanced the money needed to set +Garrison free.</p> + +<p>Undeterred by his experience as a martyr, Garrison—who had returned +to Boston—resolved to establish a journal of his own in that city, +which <!-- Page 55 --><a name="Page_55"></a>was to be devoted to the cause of the slave. <i>The Liberator</i> +appeared on the 1st of January, 1831.</p> + +<p>In entering upon this venture, Garrison had not a subscriber nor a +dollar of money. Being a printer, he set up the type and struck off +the first issue with his own hands.</p> + +<p>In the initial number the proprietor of the <i>Liberator</i> outlined his +proposed policy in these words: "I will be as harsh as truth; as +uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will not excuse; I will +not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard."</p> + +<p>The first issue of the paper brought in a contribution of fifty +dollars from a colored man and twenty-five subscribers. It was not, +therefore, a failure, but its continuance involved a terrible strain. +Garrison and one co-worker occupied one room for work-shop, +dining-room, and bedroom. They cooked their own meals and slept upon +the floor. It was almost literally true, as pictured by Lowell, the +poet:</p> + +<p class="poem">"In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,<br /> +<span class="i2">Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man.</span> +The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean,<br /> +<span class="i2">Yet there the freedom of a race began."</span></p> + +<p>The effects produced by Garrison's unique production were simply +wonderful. In October of its first year the Vigilance Association of +South Carolina offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the +apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any white person who +might be detected in distributing or circulating the <i>Liberator</i>. +Georgia went farther than that. Less than a year after <!-- Page 56 --><a name="Page_56"></a>Garrison had +established his paper, the Legislature of that State passed an act +offering a reward of five thousand dollars to whomsoever should +arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute its publisher to conviction. The +<i>Liberator</i> was excluded from the United States mails in all the slave +States, illegal as such a proceeding was.</p> + +<p>There was, however, opposition nearer home. The <i>Liberator</i> +establishment was wrecked by a mob, and Garrison, after having been +stripped of nearly all his clothing, was dragged, bareheaded, by a +rope round his body through the streets of Boston until, to save his +life, the authorities thrust him into jail.</p> + +<p>No man in this country was so cordially hated by the slaveholders as +Garrison. Of the big men up North—the leaders of politics and +society—they had no apprehension. They knew how to manage them. It +was the little fellows like the editor of the <i>Liberator</i> that gave +them trouble. These men had no money, but they could not be bought. +They had no fear of mobs. They cared nothing for the scoldings of the +church and the press. An adverse public sentiment never disturbed +their equanimity or caused them to turn a hair's breadth in their +course.</p> + +<p>It is true that Lundy and Garrison had very little to lose. They had +neither property nor social position. That, however, cannot be said of +another early Abolitionist, who, in some respects, is entitled to more +consideration than any of his co-workers.</p> + +<p>James Gillespie Birney was a Southerner by birth. He belonged to a +family of financial and social prominence. He was a gentleman of +education and <!-- Page 57 --><a name="Page_57"></a>culture, having graduated from a leading college and +being a lawyer of recognized ability. He was a slave-owner. For a time +he conducted a plantation with slave labor. He lived in Alabama, where +he filled several important official positions, and was talked of for +the governorship of the State. But having been led to think about the +moral, and other aspects of slaveholding, he decided that it was wrong +and he would wash his hands of it. He could not in Alabama legally +manumit his slaves. Moreover, his neighbors had risen up against him +and threatened his forcible expulsion. He removed to Kentucky, where +he thought a more liberal sentiment prevailed. There he freed his +slaves and made liberal provision for their comfortable sustenance. +But the slave power was on his track. He was warned to betake himself +out of the State. The infliction of personal violence was meditated, +and a party of his opposers came together for that purpose. They were +engaged in discussing ways and means when a young man of commanding +presence and strength, who happened to be present, announced that +while he lived Mr. Birney would not be molested. His opposition broke +up the plot. That young man became a leading clergyman and was +subsequently for a time Chaplain of the United States Senate.</p> + +<p>Birney went with his belongings to Ohio, thinking that upon the soil +of a free State he would be safe from molestation. He established a +newspaper in Cincinnati to advocate emancipation. A mob promptly +destroyed his press and other property, and it was with difficulty +that he escaped with his life. <!-- Page 58 --><a name="Page_58"></a>More sagacious, although not more +zealous, than Lundy and Garrison and a good many of their followers, +Birney early saw the necessity of political action in the interest of +freedom. He was the real founder of the old "Liberty" party, of which +he was the presidential candidate in 1840 and in 1844.</p> + +<p>Of course, there were other early laborers for emancipation that, in +this connection, ought to be mentioned and remembered. They were +pioneers in the truest sense. The writer would gladly make a record of +their services, and pay a tribute, especially, to the memories of such +as have gone to the spirit land, where the great majority are now +mustered, but space at this point forbids.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a><h2><!-- Page 59 --><a name="Page_59"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>SALMON PORTLAND CHASE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man to whom the colored people of this +country, who were slaves, or were liable to become slaves, are under +the greatest obligation for their freedom, I would unhesitatingly say +Salmon Portland Chase.</p> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man who was the strongest and most useful +factor in the Government during the great final contest that ended in +the emancipation of the black man, I would say Salmon Portland Chase.</p> + +<p>In expressing the opinions above given, no reproach for Abraham +Lincoln, nor for any of the distinguished members of his Cabinet, is +intended or implied. Inferiority to Salmon P. Chase was not a +disgrace. Physically he rose above all his official associates, which +was no discredit to them, and in much the same way he towered +intellectually and administratively. His was the most trying, the most +difficult position, in the entire circle of public departments. It was +easy to get men to fight the battles of the Union if there was money +to pay them. It was easy to furnish ships and arms and supplies in +sufficient quantity, notwithstanding the terrible drain of the +greatest of civil wars, as long as the <!-- Page 60 --><a name="Page_60"></a>funds held out. Everything +depended on the treasury. Failure there meant irretrievable disaster. +It would not answer to have any serious mistakes in that quarter, and +in fact no fatal mistakes were there made. In all other departments +there were failures and blunders, but the financial department met +every emergency and every requisition. Chase's financial policy it was +that carried the country majestically through the war, and that +afterwards paid the nation's debts.</p> + +<p>There is a circumstance that has not been mentioned, as far as the +writer knows, by any of Mr. Chase's biographers, which seems to him to +be significant and worth referring to. During the Civil War, Walter +Bagehot was editor of the <i>Economist,</i> the great English financial +journal. His opinion in financial matters was regarded as the highest +authority. It was accepted as infallible. He discussed the plans of +Mr. Chase with great elaborateness and great severity. He predicted +that they were all destined to failure, and proved this theoretically +to his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of many others. The +result showed that Mr. Chase was right all the time, and the great +English economist was wrong.</p> + +<p>The entrance of such a man into the Abolitionist movement marked an +era in its history. It was the thing most needed. He gave it a leader +who, of all men then living, was most competent for leadership. From +that time he was its Moses.</p> + +<p>The greatest service rendered to the Abolition cause by Salmon P. +Chase was in pushing it forward on political lines. There was a +contest for the mastery <!-- Page 61 --><a name="Page_61"></a>of the Government from the hour he took +command. The movement was to be slow, sometimes halting and apparently +falling back, in some respects insignificant, in all respects +desperate, but there was to be no permanent defeat and no compromise.</p> + +<p>The espousal of Abolitionism by Mr. Chase was a remarkable +circumstance. He was not an enthusiast like Garrison and Lundy and +many other Anti-Slavery pioneers, but precisely the opposite. He was +cold-blooded and cool-headed, a deliberate and conservative man. His +speeches were described as giving light but no heat. His sympathies +were seemingly weak, but his sense of justice was immense. Apparently, +he opposed slavery because it was wrong rather than because it was +cruel. He had a big body, a big head, and a big conscience, the +combination making a strong man and a good fighter.</p> + +<p>That he did, in fact, sympathize with the slaves was shown by his +professional work in their behalf, more particularly in pleading +without fee or other reward the cases of escaped fugitives in the +courts. So numerous were his engagements in this regard that his +antagonists spoke of him sneeringly as the "Attorney-General for +runaway niggers." Upon some of his Anti-Slavery cases he bestowed an +immense amount of work. His argument in the case of Van Zant—the +original of Van Tromp in Mrs. Stowe's <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>,—an old man +who was prosecuted and fined until he was financially ruined for +giving a "lift" in his farm wagon to a slave family on its way to +Canada, was said at the time to <!-- Page 62 --><a name="Page_62"></a>have been the most able so far made +in the Supreme Court of the United States. That and other similar +utterances by Mr. Chase were published for popular reading, and were +widely distributed by friends of the cause.</p> + +<p>It is possible that, in performing this arduous labor, Mr. Chase, who +was not without personal ambition, was able, with his great native +sagacity, to foresee, although it must have been but dimly, the +possibilities of political development and official promotion, but at +the same time, for the same reason, he could the more clearly realize +the wearisome, heart-breaking struggle that was before him.</p> + +<p>It was an enormous sacrifice that he made. Journeymen printers and +saddlers, like Garrison and Lundy, who had never had as much as one +hundred dollars at one time in their lives, and who had no social +position and no influential kinsfolks, had little to lose. But it was +very different with Chase. He had a profession that represented great +wealth. He had distinguished and aristocratic family connections. He +had a high place in society. All these he risked and largely lost.</p> + +<p>In speaking of his sacrifices at that time in a subsequent letter to a +friend, he wrote:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time + and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles + and building up the organization of the party of constitutional + freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed + insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demand + upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed + severely all my abilities."</p></div> + +<p><!-- Page 63 --><a name="Page_63"></a>The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed something +of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way because of his +principles. While a law student in a country village he was sent down +to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the form of affidavits. +During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law office, introduced +himself, and was very pleasantly received. He noticed that there was a +notary public in the office.</p> + +<p>Among other instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of +a leading business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The +document was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before +whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew where +there was a notary in a near-by office. We proceeded to Mr. Chase's +chambers, and were about to enter when my companion noticed the name +on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck in the face. "The +---- Abolitionist," he exclaimed, "I wouldn't enter his place for a +hundred dollars!" We went elsewhere for our business, and on the way +my companion expressed himself about Mr. Chase. "What a pity it is," +he said, "that that young man is ruining himself. He is a bright man," +he went on, "and I employed him professionally until he went daft on +the subject of freeing the niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose +of serving the white people."</p> + +<p>Like pretty much all the early Abolitionists, Mr. Chase had a taste of +mob violence. He had one singular experience. When the mob destroyed +the printing establishment of James G. Birney in Cincinnati, Chase +mingled with the crowd. He <!-- Page 64 --><a name="Page_64"></a>discovered that personal violence to Mr. +Birney was contemplated and that his life was in danger. He made all +haste to Birney's residence and gave him warning of his peril. Then he +took his stand in the doorway of the building and calmly awaited the +coming of the rabble. Those who knew Chase will remember that in size +he was almost a giant, and his countenance had a stern, determined +look. The multitude, finding itself thus unexpectedly confronted, +paused and entered into a parley that gave the hunted man an +opportunity to reach a place of safety.</p> + +<p>Chase had an appointment to speak in the village in which the writer +lived, and the opposers of his cause arranged to give him a warm +reception. Something prevented his attendance, and a very mild and +amiable old clergyman from an adjoining town, who took his place, +received the shower-bath of uncooked eggs that had been intended for +the Cincinnati Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Chase's great work for the Anti-Slavery cause was in projecting and +directing it on independent political lines. Up to that time most +Anti-Slavery people opposed separate party action. Garrison and his +<i>Liberator</i> violently denounced such action. Moral suasion was urged +as the panacea. Chase himself had not been a "third party" man. In +1840, when there was an Abolition ticket in the field, headed by his +personal friend, James G. Birney, he had not supported it. But soon +afterwards, becoming firmly convinced that Anti-Slavery people had +nothing to hope for from either of the old parties, he set about the +work of building a new one. The undertaking <!-- Page 65 --><a name="Page_65"></a>was with no mental +reservation on his part. When he put his hand to that plow there was +no looking back, notwithstanding that a rougher or more stony field, +and one less promising of returns for the laborer than that before +him, would be difficult to imagine.</p> + +<p>In 1841 he headed a call for a convention at Columbus, the State +capital, to organize the Liberty party in the State of Ohio, and at +the same time nominate a State ticket. Less than a hundred +sympathizers responded to the call, and the ticket put in nomination +received less than one thousand votes.</p> + +<p>Among the attendants at the Columbus meeting was a near kinsman of the +author. On his return, in describing the proceedings, he said that +pretty much everything was directed by a Mr. Chase (Salamander Chase +was his name, he said), a young Cincinnati lawyer. That young man, he +declared, would yet make a mark in the world.</p> + +<p>From that time every important move was directed by Chase. He prepared +the calls for important meetings. He wrote their addresses and their +platforms. He made the leading speeches. He presided at the great +convention at Buffalo in 1848, which formulated the "Free-Soil" +party—successor to the Liberty party—and wrote the platform which it +adopted.</p> + +<p>In speaking of Chase's share in the independent organization of this +time, William M. Evarts says: "He must be awarded the full credit of +having understood, resolved upon, planned, organized, and executed +this political movement."</p> + +<p>The movement thus conducted by Mr. Chase was <!-- Page 66 --><a name="Page_66"></a>slow and tremendously +laborious, but it was effective. In the presidential elections of 1844 +and 1848 it held the balance of power and turned the scale to further +its purposes. In 1852 it shattered and destroyed one of the old +pro-slavery parties, and became the second party in the country +instead of the third. In eight years more it was the first.</p> + +<p>The charge has been made against Mr. Chase that, while a member of +Lincoln's Cabinet, he aspired to supersede his chief in the +Presidency. But did he not have a right to seek the higher office, +especially when the policy pursued by its incumbent did not meet his +full approval? He merely shared the sentiment that was then +entertained by nearly all the radical Anti-Slavery people of the +country. It is not unlikely that Chase felt somewhat envious of +Lincoln. After, as he stated in his letter of congratulation to Mr. +Lincoln on his first election, he had given nineteen years of +continuous and exhausting labor to the freedom movement, it would be +but natural that he should feel aggrieved when he saw that the chief +credit of that movement was likely to go to one who had, to his own +exclusion, come up slowly and reluctantly at a later day to its +support. If he were somewhat jealous, it would be hard not to +sympathize with him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If I were asked to name the man who, next to Salmon P. Chase, most +effectually and meritoriously contributed to the liberation of the +black man in this country, I should unhesitatingly say John Quincy +Adams.</p> + +<p>By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as +having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a +very distinguished family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a +time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, +or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It +can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually +and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what +Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, +but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration.</p> + +<p>When Adams entered Congress opposition to slavery was at its lowest +ebb. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the +Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had +correspondingly depressed and cowed their adversaries. As a general +thing, the latter had given <!-- Page 68 --><a name="Page_68"></a>up all idea of making any further fight. +Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern +churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. +Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had +perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a +few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There +was one magnificent exception.</p> + +<p>It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and +began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen +years, literally lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried +helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen +when in the discharge of his duties.</p> + +<p>The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent +candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political +party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles in regulating his +course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who +was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that +fight. There was nothing in the eloquence of Demosthenes in Athens, of +Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in +England, that surpassed the force and grandeur of the philippics of +Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his +service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant assailants +like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the +in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished +and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists. He +was always "the <!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69"></a>old man eloquent." Says one of our leading historical +writers:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In + knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the House that could + be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He + was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible + to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the + House was something upon which he was always ready to enter."</p></div> + +<p>Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another +Congressman writes:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with + my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble + through every nerve and joint, when he arraigned before them their + political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any + conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic."</p></div> + +<p>At last his enemies in Congress decided that they would endure his +attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan +of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his +biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was +the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make +an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to +humiliate and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to +do."</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal +endorsement, asking for a dissolution of the Union. That furnished the +pretext his <!-- Page 70 --><a name="Page_70"></a>enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in +countenancing an assault upon the Union, although they were at the time +engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate +overthrow. The outcome of this undertaking was one of the most +thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that +matter, in any other deliberative assembly.</p> + +<p>Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The +galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of +pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry of the South were +there. They had come to witness the abasement of the great enemy of +their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the +nation's council chamber, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one +friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the +attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that +gave him their sympathies.</p> + +<p>The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead +the prosecution. One was the celebrated Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; +the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the +proceedings by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with +treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with +a speech of much ingenuity. Wise followed in a fiery diatribe. Both +speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions of a somewhat +scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their +careers of questionable propriety, to retaliation from a man who +thoroughly knew their records. <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71"></a>At this point we have the testimony of +an eye-witness:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands + tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose + consecrated head the vials of tyrannic wrath had been outpoured. + Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, + but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his + infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but + be noted, trembling, not with fear, but with age."</p></div> + +<p>His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been +urged against him and triumphantly refuted it. He handled his +oratorical antagonists with merciless severity, depicting certain +events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers gazed +upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men +when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage +in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have +mercy on him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly admitted their +discomfiture and dropped the whole business.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided +efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at +a time when it was almost moribund. He plowed the ground, cutting a +deep and broad furrow as he went his way, and in the upturned soil +such laborers as Birney and Garrison and Chase planted the seed that +rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful harvest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a><h2><!-- Page 72 --><a name="Page_72"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The divergent characteristics of the East and the West were never more +clearly shown than in the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement. +Efforts were made to plant Abolition societies at various points +throughout the West, but they failed to take permanent root and soon +disappeared. The failure was not due to any lack of interest, but +rather to an excess of zeal on the part of the Western supporters of +the cause. Society organizations on the lines of moral suasion were +too slow and tame to suit them. They preferred the excitement of +politics. They believed in the superior efficacy of a political party, +and to its upbuilding they gave their energies and resources. In the +"long run" they were amply vindicated, but for all that, the favorite +Eastern method for organized effort had its advantages.</p> + +<p>The East, and especially New England, always believed in societies. If +anything of a public nature was to be promoted or prevented, a society +always appealed to the New Englander as the natural instrumentality. +There is a tradition that when Boston was ravaged by a loathsome +disease, a number of its leading citizens came together and promptly +organized an anti-smallpox society.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73"></a>When, therefore, it was decided that an Anti-Slavery movement should +be inaugurated in Boston, the proper thing to do, according to all the +standards of the place, was to organize a society. But the thing was +more easily resolved upon than done. It required the concurrence of +several parties of like-mindedness. Boston was a pretty large place, +but Anti-Slavery people were scarce. The number (doubtless selected +because it was Apostolic) assumed to be necessary was twelve. Fifteen +people of somewhat similar views were at last brought together. After +much discussion nine favored an organization and six opposed it. So +far the operation was a failure. But at last, after much canvassing, +twelve men were found who promised their co-operation—twelve and no +more. Although respectable people, they were not of Boston's "first +citizens" by any means. It is said that if they had been called upon +for a hundred dollars each, not over two of them could have responded +without bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>The twelve came together at night and in the basement of an African +Baptist Church, the room being used in the daytime to accommodate a +school for colored children. It was in an obscure quarter of Boston +known as "Nigger Hill." The conference was in the month of December, +and the night is thus described by Oliver Johnson, who was one of the +twelve: "A fierce northeast storm, combining rain, snow, and hail in +about equal proportions, was raging, and the streets were full of +slush. They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days was +very economical of light on Nigger Hill."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 74 --><a name="Page_74"></a>Both nature and man seemed to be in league against those plucky +pioneers of an unpopular cause. They, however, were not dismayed nor +disheartened. It was as they were stepping out into the gloomy night, +that Mr. Garrison, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, was one of +the twelve, remarked to his associates: "We have met to-night in this +obscure schoolhouse; our numbers are few, and our influence limited, +but mark my prediction. Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo to the +principles we have set forth."</p> + +<p>What those principles were is shown by the declaration adopted by that +handful of confederates, and which, in view of the time and +circumstances of its formulation, was certainly a most remarkable +document. Its essential proposition was: "We, the undersigned, hold +that every person of full age and sound mind has a right to immediate +freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by +the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime."</p> + +<p>The Declaration of Independence, which was produced with no little +theatrical effect amid the pomp and circumstance of a national +conclave that had met in the finest hall in the country, was +unquestionably a remarkable and memorable pronouncement. It was for +the time and situation a radical utterance. It was the precursor of a +revolution that gave political freedom to several million people.</p> + +<p>But the platform of principles that was announced by the New England +Anti-Slavery Society (the name adopted) in that little grimy +schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" was, in at least some respects, a more +remarkable <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75"></a>document. Its enunciation required an equal degree of +physical and moral courage. It was the precursor of a revolution that +gave both personal and political freedom to a larger number than were +benefited by the other declaration. But what chiefly distinguished it, +the time and the situation being considered, was its radical +utterance. It gave no countenance to any measure of compromise. It +offered no pabulum to the wrongdoer in the form of compensation for +stolen humanity. It demanded what was right, and demanded it at once. +And that fearless and unyielding platform became the basis for all the +Abolition societies that came after it. A goodly number of such +societies were organized. "The Anti-Slavery Society for the City of +New York" was formed by a few men who met and did their work while a +mob was pounding at the door, and who, having completed their task, +fled for their lives.</p> + +<p>It was at first intended that a national Anti-Slavery society should +be established with headquarters in the city of New York, but its +proposed organizers discovered that there was not a public hall or +church in that city in which they would be permitted to assemble. +Philadelphia, with its Quaker contingent, offered a more inviting +field, and to that city it was decided to go. But serious obstructions +here interposed. Representatives appeared from fourteen States, which +was highly encouraging, but no prominent Philadelphian could be found +to act as chairman of the meeting. A committee was appointed to secure +the services of such a man, but, after interviewing a number of +<!-- Page 76 --><a name="Page_76"></a>leading citizens, it was compelled to report that it was received by +all of them with "polite frigidity."</p> + +<p>Strange to say, the convention was permitted to meet for three days in +succession in a public assembly room without interference from a mob. +The police, however, warned the participants not to hold night +sessions, as they in that case would not promise protection. The good +behavior of Philadelphia on this occasion was noteworthy, but it was +too good to last. When another Anti-Slavery meeting, not long after, +was convened in that city, it was broken up by a mob, and the hall in +which it met was burned to the ground.</p> + +<p>Finally came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which, in view of its +limited financial resources, certainly did a wonderful work. Its +publications, in spite of careful watching of the mails and other +precautions adopted by the slaveholders, reached all parts of the +country, and its preachers, sent out and commissioned to proclaim the +new evangel of equal manhood, were absolutely ubiquitous.</p> + +<p>Those early Anti-Slavery lecturers were a peculiar set. Since the days +of the Apostles there have been no more earnest propagandists. They +were both male and female. That they were, as a rule, financially +poor, it is unnecessary to state. They lived largely on the country +traversed. Sympathizers with their views, having received and +entertained them—sometimes clandestinely—after a public talk or two, +would carry them on to the next stations on their routes, occasionally +contributing a few dollars to their purses. It made no particular +difference to them whether they spoke in halls, in <!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77"></a>churches, or in +the open air. Before beginning their addresses their usual course was +to challenge their opponents to debate, and to taunt them with lack of +courage or principle if they failed to respond. Of course, they were +in constant danger from mobs. They were stoned, clubbed, shot at, and +rotten-egged, and in a few extreme cases tarred and feathered; but +they were never frightened from their work.</p> + +<p>They were by no means policy-wise. That was one of their +peculiarities. Their idea seemed to be that they could drive people +easier than they could lead them. They used no buttered phrases. They +told the plainest truths in the plainest way. They gave their +audiences hard words, and often received hard knocks in return. They +called the slaveholders robbers and man-stealers. They branded +Northern politicians with Southern principles as "dough-faces." But +their hardest and sharpest expletives were reserved for those Northern +clergymen who were either pro-slavery or non-committal. They blistered +them all over with their lashings. In speaking of one of the most +noted among them, Lowell describes him as</p> + +<p class="poem">"A kind of maddened John the Baptist<br /> +To whom the hardest word came aptest."</p> + +<p>The lecturer of whom I saw the most in those early trying days was +Professor Hudson, of Oberlin College. While in that part of the field +he made headquarters at my father's house, radiating out and filling +appointments in different directions. He was exceedingly sharp-tongued +and very fearless. <!-- Page 78 --><a name="Page_78"></a>Nothing seemed to please him better than a +"scrimmage" with his opponents. Often he conquered mobs by resolutely +talking them down and making them ashamed of themselves. But on one +occasion, looking through the window from the outside to see what +awaited him in a room where he was to speak, he saw a pot of boiling +tar on the stove that heated the room and a pillow-case full of +feathers conveniently near, while a half-drunken crowd was in +possession of the place, and concluded to run. He, however, had been +seen and was pursued. There was a foot race, but as some of the +pursuers were better sprinters than Hudson, and he was about to be +captured, he dashed into the first house he came to and asked for +protection. The proprietor was a kinsman of mine. He was an old man, +but hearty and vigorous. He ordered his sons to take their guns and +guard the other entrances, while he took his stand in the front door +with an axe in his hand. When the mob came up and demanded the +Abolitionist, he gave warning that he would brain the first man that +attempted to enter his house without his consent. So evidently in +earnest was he that the rowdies, after a little bluster, concluded to +give up the hunt and left in disgust.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a><h2><!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The National Anti-Slavery Society—the society organized by Garrison +and his <i>confrères</i>, and which longest maintained its +organization—made one great mistake. It disbanded. It assumed that +its work was done when African slavery in this country was pronounced +defunct by law. It took it for granted that the enslavement of the +colored man—not necessarily the negro—was no longer possible under +the Stars and Stripes. Then and there it committed a grievous blunder. +Its paramount error was in assuming that a political party could for +all time be depended upon as a party of freedom. It trusted to the +assurances of politicians that they would protect the colored man in +all his natural and acquired rights, and in that belief voluntarily +gave up the ghost and cast its mantle to the winds.</p> + +<p>Now, the fact is that the National Anti-Slavery Society was never more +needed than it is to-day. There is a mighty work to be done that was +directly in the line of its operations. First and foremost, it will +not be denied that a citizen of our Republic who is deprived of the +elective franchise is robbed of one of his most valuable +privileges—one of his most <!-- Page 80 --><a name="Page_80"></a>essential rights. The ballot, under a +political system like ours, is both the sword and the shield of +liberty. Without it no man is really a freeman. He does not stand on +an equality with his fellows.</p> + +<p>Nor will it be denied that the negro, although our amended +Constitution promises him all the privileges of citizenship, is in +many parts of our country practically divested of his vote. By a +species of legerdemain in the communities in which he is most numerous +and most needs protection, he is to all intents and purposes +disfranchised. What will follow as the final outcome we do not know, +but that is the beginning of his attempted re-enslavement. It is +beyond any question that his return to involuntary servitude in some +condition or conditions, the disarming him of the ballot being the +initial step in the proceeding, is seriously contemplated, if not +deliberately planned. Indeed, under the name of "peonage" the work of +re-establishing a system of slaveholding that is barbarous in the +extreme is already begun. Men and women have been seized upon by +force, and upon the most flimsy pretexts have been subjected to a +bondage that in its inhumanities may easily equal even the slavery of +the olden time. The number of victims is undoubtedly much larger than +the general public has any idea of.</p> + +<p>Nor are there lacking signs of studied preparation for the extension +of the system. The present time is full of them. Efforts to create a +prejudice against the colored man are visible in all directions. He is +described as a failure in the role of freeman. The idleness and +shiftlessness of certain members of his race—undoubtedly altogether +too numerous—are <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81"></a>dwelt upon as characteristic of the entire family. +Scant praise is given to those members who are doing well, and whose +number is encouragingly large. These are as far as possible ignored. +The race problem is spoken of as full of increasing difficulties, and +as imperatively demanding a change from present conditions. The people +of the North are being especially indoctrinated with such ideas. They +are told that they must leave their brethren of the former +slaveholding States, and in which the negroes principally dwell, to +deal with the issues arising between the whites and the blacks; that +they—the Southerners—understand the questions to be settled, and +that outsiders should withhold their hands and their sympathies. It is +none of their business, they are informed, while assurances are freely +given that the people who, because of their experience with them, +understand the negroes, will take considerate care of them. What kind +of care they are taking of them in certain quarters is shown by recent +incontestable revelations.</p> + +<p>And what has the political party which, in view of its manifold +professions, was supposed to have the interests of the negro in its +especial keeping, done about it? Nothing whatever. It has looked on +with the coolest indifference. The only concern it has shown in the +matter has related to the question of Congressional representation as +dependent upon the enumeration of electors, and, in so doing, has +plainly intimated that if, through the negro's political robbery, it +can secure an increase of partisan power, it is perfectly willing that +the cause of the injured black man should "slide."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 82 --><a name="Page_82"></a>Indifference in regard to the rights of peoples of color is +unfortunately not the only nor even the greatest charge to be laid at +the door of the Republican party. It may be asserted that this party +has become an active aggressor in trampling down the liberties of +colored peoples. As the assignee of Spain in taking over (without +consulting those who were most concerned) the control of the territory +of the Philippine Islands, it has purchased (and has paid cash for) +the right to dominate from eight to ten millions of people. These +people may, under the existing conditions, be described as being in a +state of slavery. If a foreign people, say a people coming from the +other side of the globe, should treat Americans as we have treated the +Filipinos, should deny to us the right of self-government, should send +great armies to chastise us for disobedience (or for what they might +call "rebellion"), and should do this for no better reason than that +our skin was darker or lighter than their own, we Americans would +doubtless consider ourselves to be in a state of slavery. Why in any +sense is slavery in Luzon more defensible than slavery in South +Carolina or in Alabama? If it be wrong to keep in slavery the black +man in America (as in theory at least we are all now agreed it is +wrong), what is the justice in depriving of his freedom the +brown-skinned Tagal? Can a bill of sale from Spain give to us any such +privilege, if privilege it may be called? Can an agreement with Spain +bring to naught our responsibilities under our own Declaration of +Independence?</p> + +<p>Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83"></a>we have as yet but +little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this +new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the +things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached +us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm +or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of +pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of +butcheries called "battles" in which have been slaughtered hundreds of +almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up +for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would +not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and +that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have +equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres +which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, +women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with +operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the +taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. +As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her +properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We +do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial +government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite +than that of the "water cure." How many of the perpetrators of these +atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been +punished at all?</p> + +<p>It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of +these horrible affairs. <!-- Page 84 --><a name="Page_84"></a>Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, +beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has +been silent—at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not +one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer +heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, +being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The +greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by +the apprehension that, through somebody's lack of patriotism, our flag +may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used +to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows +it.</p> + +<p>In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, +but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body +of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the +difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of +revulsion toward it.</p> + +<p>One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity—the +practical sameness—of the arguments used to justify the Philippine +occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We +are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were +then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the +bludgeon.</p> + +<p>Of course, there are other arguments. Increase of trade and wealth, as +the result of our appropriation of other peoples' possessions, is +freely predicted. It has always been the robber's plea. That is what +it is to-day, even when employed by a professed Christian nation. Nor +is it improved by the fact <!-- Page 85 --><a name="Page_85"></a>that the grounds upon which it is +predicated and urged are largely fallacious. The spoliation of the +Philippines will never repay us for the blood—our own blood—and +treasure it has cost us, apart from any moral or humanitarian +consideration. There is not one aspect in this business that promises +to redound to our benefit. No, I won't say that; I would hardly be +justified in going that far. In one particular the Philippine +operation has profited a considerable part of our people. It has added +materially to our Army and our Navy. The opportunity for enlargement +in those quarters was, undoubtedly, the strongest inducement for our +entering upon a colonial policy. For a great many people, and +especially in official circles, we cannot have a standing army that is +too large, nor too many ships of war. The more powerful those +appendages of our authority the larger is the opening for the kinsmen +and retainers of those in high places, who may be seeking profitable +and agreeable employment, and the more liberal the contributions of +contractors and jobbers to the sinews of partisan warfare. Our Army +to-day is nearly three times what it was five years ago, although +outside of the Philippines we are at peace with all mankind. Nor is +that formidable advance at an end. The Far East is now certain to be +the world's great battle-ground for the near future, and since we have +entered that field as the master of the Philippines, like a knight of +the olden time who was ready to do battle with all comers, we must be +constantly increasing our preparation. We may not only have to fight +the Russians and the Japanese and the Chinese, one or all, but those +<!-- Page 86 --><a name="Page_86"></a>foolish Filipinos may again take it into their silly heads that they +can govern themselves as well or better than we can do it for them. +That means rebellion, and, of course, chastisement must follow. As +climatic conditions in that part of the world are such that it +requires the presence of three men in the army to supply the active +services of one, it is obvious that so long as we adhere to our +present Asiatic policy, we shall never have an army and a navy large +enough and strong enough to meet the requirements of our new +condition.</p> + +<p>On all questions affecting human liberty, no one can fail to observe +that the attitude of the two great political parties of to-day, is +practically that of the two principal parties at the time the +Abolitionists began their operations. One of them may pass perfunctory +resolutions against the Philippine crime, but dares to say nothing +about the treatment visited upon the negro. The other may say a few +compassionate, but meaningless, words for the negro, but cannot +denounce the oppression of the Filipinos. Both are fatally handicapped +by their connections and committals. Both are, in fact, pro-slavery, +although the one in power, because of its responsibility for existing +conditions, is the more criminal of the two.</p> + +<p>What this country now needs, in the opinion of the writer, is a +revival of Abolitionism, and to that end, as one of the +instrumentalities that would be serviceable, he holds that the old +National Anti-Slavery Society should be restored. The most of the men +and women that made that institution so useful and honorable, have +passed from the scenes of their labors, but a few of them are left, +and they <!-- Page 87 --><a name="Page_87"></a>and such as may feel like joining them, should meet and +unfurl the old standard once more. There may be new associations +looking to very much the same ends, but better the old guard under the +old name. It would carry a prestige that no newer organization could +command. It would create a measure of confidence that would be most +strongly felt. The principles and policies it should urge are few and +simple.</p> + +<p>First: Let it declare that the colored man in this country must be +permitted to enjoy all his rights under the Constitution as it is, +both political and personal.</p> + +<p>Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude, including the +denial of political self-government, under the flag, as well as under +the Constitution, must cease.</p> + +<p>And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated, in the +spirit and with the confidence of the old-time leaders. The Society +should be revived and re-established, not for a single campaign only, +or for the rectification of such oppressions as are now in sight, but +for all time. It ought to be made a permanent institution. It should +be so arranged that the sons would step into the ranks as the fathers +dropped out and that new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus +reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable watchman +on the walls of Freedom's stronghold. The exhortation to which it +should listen, is that of the poet Bryant when he says:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="i8">"Oh not yet</span> +Mayst thou unloose thy corslet, nor lay by<br /> +Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids<br /> +In slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a><h2><!-- Page 88 --><a name="Page_88"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says that "three speeches +have made the places where they were delivered illustrious in our +history—three, and there is no fourth." He refers to the speech of +Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia, of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and +the first address of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall.</p> + +<p>If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three notable +deliverances above mentioned as the best and foremost examples of +American oratory, the author cannot agree with him. In his opinion we +shall have but little difficulty in picking out the three entitled to +that distinction, provided we go to the discussion of the slavery +question to find them. That furnished the greatest occasion, being +with its ramifications and developments, by far the greatest issue +with which Americans have had to deal.</p> + +<p>The three speeches to which the writer refers were the more notable +because they were altogether impromptu. They were what we call "off +hand." They were delivered in the face of mobs or other bitterly +hostile audiences—a circumstance that probably contributed not a +little to their effectiveness.</p> + +<p>John Quincy Adams, who was unquestionably <!-- Page 89 --><a name="Page_89"></a>one of the greatest of +American orators, made several speeches in Congress that will always +command our highest admiration; but the one to which a somewhat +extended reference is made in another chapter, when an attempt was +made by the slaveholders to expel him from that body, easily ranks +among the first three exhibitions of American eloquence.</p> + +<p>I quite agree with Mr. Curtis in giving the Faneuil Hall speech of +Wendell Phillips a pre-eminent place. A meeting had been called to +denounce the murder of Lovejoy, the Abolitionist editor. The audience +was composed in large part of pro-slavery rowdies, who were bent on +capturing or breaking up the meeting. One of their leaders—a high +official of the State of Massachusetts, by the way—made a speech in +which he justified the murderous act. "That speech must be answered +here and now," exclaimed a young man in the audience. "Answer it +yourself," shouted those about him. "I will," was the reply, "if I can +reach the platform." To the platform he was assisted, and although an +attempt was made for a time to howl him down, he persisted, and before +long so interested and charmed his hearers that his triumph was +complete.</p> + +<p>It did not take the country long to realize that in that young man, +who was Wendell Phillips, a new oratorical luminary had arisen. He +took up the work of lecturing as a profession, treating on other +subjects as well as slavery; but when slavery was the subject no +charge was made for his services. Said Frederic Hudson, the noted New +York editor, in 1860: "It is probable that there is not another <!-- Page 90 --><a name="Page_90"></a>man +in the United States who is as much heard and read as Henry Ward +Beecher, unless the other man be Wendell Phillips."</p> + +<p>The mention of Henry Ward Beecher's name is suggestive of oratory of +the very highest order. It will not be denied by any competent and +unprejudiced person that his great speech in England—there were five +addresses, but the substance was the same—upon the American question +(which directly involved the slavery issue) during our Civil War was +far and away the finest exhibition of masterful eloquence that is to +be credited to any of our countrymen. The world has never beaten it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher found himself in England by a fortunate accident at a most +critical period in our national affairs. A crisis had there been +reached. A powerful party, including a large majority of the public +men of Great Britain, favored intervention in behalf of the South. +Southern agents were at work all over the kingdom, and were remarkably +effective in propagating their views. It looked as if the Rebel +interest was on the point of winning, when Mr. Beecher appeared on the +scene. He had not gone to England to make public speeches. He was +there for health and recreation, but, realizing the situation with his +quick perceptiveness, he took up the gage of battle. It was a fearful +resolution on his part. The chances seemed to be all against him. It +was one man against thousands. His victory, however, was complete. His +five great speeches in the business centres of England and Scotland +were not only listened to by thousands, but they went all over the +country in the public prints. <!-- Page 91 --><a name="Page_91"></a>They completely changed the current of +public opinion.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher's first address was in Manchester, which, owing to the +interest of the leading business men of that city in the cotton trade +and the furnishing of ships and supplies for blockade running, was a +seething hot bed of Rebel sentiment. When he arrived in that place on +the day he was to speak, he was met at the depot by friends with +troubled faces, who informed him that hostile placards—significantly +printed in red colors—had been posted all over the city, and, if he +persisted in trying to speak, he would have a very uncomfortable +reception.</p> + +<p>He was asked how he felt about trying to go on. "I am going to be +heard," was his reply.</p> + +<p>The best description of the scene that ensued is supplied in Mr. +Beecher's own words:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The uproar would come in on this side, and then on that. They + would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, + and I would wait until the noise had subsided and then get in + about five minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down, and + then up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see things + that amused me, and I would laugh outright, and the crowd would + stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I would sail in with + another sentence or two. A good many times the crowd threw up + questions that I caught and threw back. I may as well at this + point mention a thing that amused me hugely. There were baize + doors that opened both ways into side alleys, and there was a huge + burly Englishman standing right in front of one of these doors and + roaring like a bull of Bashan. One of the policemen swung his + elbow round and hit him in the <!-- Page 92 --><a name="Page_92"></a>belly and knocked him through the + doorway, so that the last part of his bawl was out in the + alleyway. It struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must + have looked when he found himself 'hollering' outside, that I + could not refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately + stopped its uproar, wondering what I was laughing at. That gave me + another chance, and I caught on to it. So we kept it up for about + an hour and a half before the people became so far calmed down + that I could go on peaceably with my speech. My audience got to + like the pluck I showed. Englishmen like a man that can stand on + his feet and give and take, and so for the last hour I had pretty + much clear sailing. The next morning every great paper in England + had the whole speech down.</p> + +<p> "And when the vote came to be taken—for in England it is + customary for audiences to express their decision on the subject + under discussion—you would have thought it was a tropical + thunder-storm that swept through the hall as the Ayes were + thundered, while the Nays were an insignificant and contemptible + minority. It had all gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never + saw."</p></div> + +<p>It has been repeatedly stated, and to this day is generally +believed,—is so stated in several of Mr. Lincoln's biographies, I +believe,—that Mr. Beecher went to England at the President's request, +and for the purpose of making a speaking tour. The best answer is that +given by Mr. Beecher himself.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"It has been asked," said he, "whether I was sent by the + government. The government took no stock in me at that time. I had + been pounding Lincoln in the earlier years of the war, and I don't + believe there was <!-- Page 93 --><a name="Page_93"></a>a man down there, unless it was Mr. Chase, who + would have trusted me with anything. At any rate, I went on my own + responsibility."</p></div> + +<p>But in referring to Abolition orators, and especially orators whose +experience it was to encounter mobs, the writer desires to pay a +tribute to one of them whose name he does not even know.</p> + +<p>A meeting that was called to organize an Anti-Slavery society in New +York City was broken up by a mob. All of those in attendance made +their escape except one negro. He was caught and his captors thought +it would be a capital joke to make him personify one of the big +Abolitionists. He was lifted to the platform and directed to imagine +himself an Anti-Slavery leader and make an Abolition speech. The +fellow proved to be equal to the occasion. He proceeded to assert the +right of his race to the privileges of human beings with force and +eloquence. His hearers listened with amazement, and possibly with +something like admiration, until, realizing that the joke was on them, +they pulled him from the platform and kicked him from the building.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a><h2><!-- Page 94 --><a name="Page_94"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In speaking of the orators and oratory that were evolved by the +Slavery issue, there are two names that cannot be omitted. These are +Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It was the good fortune of the +writer to be an eye and ear witness of the closing bout, at Alton, +Illinois, between those two political champions in their great debate +of 1858. The contrast between the men was remarkable. Lincoln was very +tall and spare, standing up, when speaking, straight and stiff. +Douglas was short and stumpy, a regular roly-poly man. Lincoln's face +was calm and meek, almost immobile. He referred to it in his address +as "my rather melancholy face." Although plain and somewhat rugged, I +never regarded Lincoln's face as homely. I saw him many times and +talked with him, after the occasion now referred to. It was a good +face, and had many winning lines. Douglas's countenance, on the other +hand, was leonine and full of expression. His was a handsome face. +When lighted up by the excitement of debate it could not fail to +impress an audience.</p> + +<p>Lincoln indulged in no gesticulation. If he had been addressing a +bench of judges he would not <!-- Page 95 --><a name="Page_95"></a>have been more impassive in his manner. +He was an animate, but not an animated, bean-pole. He poured out a +steady flow of words—three to Douglas's two—in a simple and +semi-conversational tone. He attempted no witticisms and indulged in +no oratorical claptrap. His address was pure argument. Douglas's +manner was one of excitement, and accompanied and emphasized by almost +continuous bodily movement. His hands and his feet, and especially +that pliable face of his, were all busy talking. He said sharp things, +evidently for their immediate effect on his audience, and showed that +he was not only master of all the arts of the practical stump orator, +but was ready to employ them.</p> + +<p>But the most noticeable difference was in the voices of the men. +Douglas spoke first, and for the first minute or two was utterly +unintelligible. His voice seemed to be all worn out by his speaking in +that long and principally open-air debate. He simply bellowed. But +gradually he got command of his organ, and pretty soon, in a somewhat +laborious and painful way, it is true, he succeeded in making himself +understood.</p> + +<p>Lincoln's voice, on the contrary, was without a quaver or a sign of +huskiness. He had been speaking in the open air exactly as much as +Douglas, but it was perfectly fresh, not a particle strained. It was a +perfect voice.</p> + +<p>Those who wanted to understand Douglas had to press up close to the +platform from which he was speaking, and there was collected a dense, +but not very deep, crowd. There was no crowding in front of Lincoln +when he was speaking. He could be <!-- Page 96 --><a name="Page_96"></a>heard without it. There was a line +of wagons and carriages on the outskirts of the audience, and I +noticed, when Lincoln was speaking, that they were filled with +comfortably seated people listening to his address. They did not need +to go any nearer to him. The most of the shouting was done by +Douglas's partisans, composing a clear majority of the crowd, but it +was very manifest that Lincoln commanded the attention of the greater +number of those who were interested in the arguments. He did not act +as if he cared for the applause of the multitude. He said nothing, +apparently, simply to tickle the ears of his hearers.</p> + +<p>Rather strange was it that the only points on which there did not +appear to be much, if any, difference between the two men were reached +when they came to the propositions they advocated. Douglas was +avowedly pro-slavery. He was talking in southern Illinois and on the +border of Missouri, to which many of his hearers belonged, and his +audience was mostly Southern in its feelings. He was plainly trying to +please that element. He not only approved of slavery where it was, but +metaphorically jumped on the negro and trampled all over him. He +denied that the negro was a "man" within the meaning of the +Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, however, as far as slavery in +the States was involved, met Douglas on his own ground, and "went him +one better." He said, "I have on all occasions declared as strongly as +Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing +institution of slavery."</p> + +<p>If a stranger who knew nothing of the speakers <!-- Page 97 --><a name="Page_97"></a>and their party +associations had heard the two men on that occasion, he would have +concluded that one was strongly in favor of slavery and the other was +not opposed to it.</p> + +<p>Their only disagreement was as to slavery in the Territories, and that +was more apparent than real. Lincoln contended for free soil through +the direct action of the general government. Douglas advocated a +roundabout way that led up to the same result. His proposition, which +he called "popular sovereignty," was to leave the decision to the +people of the Territories, saying he did not care whether they voted +slavery up or voted it down. That was a practical, although indirect +declaration in favor of free soil. The outcome of the contests in +Kansas and California showed that at that game the free States with +their superior resources were certain to win. The shrewder +slaveholders recognized that fact, and their antagonism to Douglas +grew accordingly. They deliberately defeated him for the Presidency in +1860, when he was the regular candidate of the Democratic party, by +running Breckenridge as an independent candidate. Otherwise Mr. +Douglas would have become President of the United States. Out of a +total of 4,680,193 votes, Mr. Lincoln had only 1,866,631. The rest +were divided between his three antagonists.</p> + +<p>As between Lincoln and Douglas, who together held the controlling +hand, the slaveholders preferred Lincoln, against whom they had no +personal feeling, while they knew that his policy was no more +dangerous to their interests than the other man's, if faithfully +adhered to and carried out. Besides <!-- Page 98 --><a name="Page_98"></a>that, by this time many of them +had reached that state of mind in which they wanted a pretext for +secession from the Union. Lincoln's election would give them that +pretext while Douglas's would not.</p> + +<p>On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the +writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a +prominent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who +expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather trust +the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative and +honest man like "Old Abe," than to those of "a political jumping-jack +like Douglas." The most of the other Southern men and slaveholders +present seemed to concur in his views.</p> + +<p>It is a fact that a good many of the Anti-Slavery leaders living +outside of Illinois, and a good many of those living within it, wanted +the Republicans of that State to let Douglas go back to the Senate +without a contest, believing that he would be far more useful to them +there than a Republican would be. It is not improbable that enough of +the Illinois Republicans took that view of the matter, and helped to +give Douglas the victory in what was a very close contest.</p> + +<p>A portion of Douglas's speech was a spirited defense of his "squatter +sovereignty" doctrine against the denunciations of members of his own +political party, in the course of which he gave President Buchanan a +savage overhauling. It showed him to be a master of invective.</p> + +<p>"Go it, husband; go it, bear," was Mr. Lincoln's comment on that part +of Douglas's address. <!-- Page 99 --><a name="Page_99"></a>I went to the debate with a very strong +prejudice against Douglas, looking upon him as one of the most +time-serving of those Northern men whom the Abolitionists called +"dough-faces." I confess that my views of the man were considerably +modified. I admired the pluck he showed in speaking when his voice was +in tatters. Still more did I like the resolution he displayed in +defying those leaders of his own party, including the President, who +wanted him to retreat from the ground he had taken, seeing that it had +become practically Anti-Slavery.</p> + +<p>At the same time I had an almost worshipful admiration for Lincoln, +whom I had not before seen or heard. I expected a great deal from him. +I thought his closing appeal in that great debate would contain some +ringing words for freedom. He had, as I supposed, a great opportunity +for telling eloquence. He stood almost on the ground that had drunk +the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact +ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was +altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It +was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died +in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I +was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with +any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression +was not afterwards wholly removed from my mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 100 --><a name="Page_100"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN</h3> +<br /> + +<p>My father was a subscriber to the <i>National Era</i>, the Anti-Slavery +weekly that was published in Washington City before the war by Dr. +Gamaliel Bailey. Being the youngest member of the family, I usually +went to the post-office for the paper on the day of its weekly +arrival. One day I brought it home and handed it to my father, who, as +the day was warm, was seated outside of the house. He was soon +apparently very much absorbed in his reading. A call for dinner was +sounded, but he paid no attention to it. The meal was delayed a little +while and then the call was repeated, but with the same result. At +last the meal proceeded without my father's presence, he coming in at +the close and swinging the paper in his hand. His explanation, by way +of apology, was that he had become very much interested in the opening +installment of a story that was begun in the <i>Era</i>, and which he +declared would make a sensation. "It will make a renovation," he +repeated several times.</p> + +<p>That story, it is almost needless to say, was <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, and +it is altogether needless to say that it fully accomplished my +father's prediction as to its sensational effects. Since the +appearance of <!-- Page 101 --><a name="Page_101"></a>the Bible in a form that brought it home to the common +people, there has been no work in the English language so extensively +read. The author's name became at once a cynosure the world over. When +Henry Ward Beecher, the writer's distinguished brother, delivered his +first lecture in England, he was introduced to the audience by the +chairman as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Stowe.</p> + +<p>The way in which the idea of writing the book came to the author was +significant of the will that produced it. A lady friend wrote Mrs. +Stowe a letter in which she said, "If I could use a pen as you can, I +would write something that would make the whole nation feel what an +accursed thing slavery is." When the letter reached its destination, +and Mrs. Stowe came to the passage above quoted, as the story is told +by a friend who was present, she sprang to her feet, crushed the +letter in her hand in the intensity of her feeling, and with an +expression on her face of the utmost determination, exclaimed, "If I +live, I will write something that will do that thing."</p> + +<p>The circumstances under which she executed her great task would +ordinarily be looked upon as altogether prohibitory. She was the wife +of a poor minister and school-teacher. To eke out the family income +she took boarders. She had five children of her own, who were too +young to be of any material assistance, and, in addition, she +occasionally harbored a waif that besought her protection when fleeing +from slavery. Necessarily the most of her time was spent in the +kitchen. There, surrounded <!-- Page 102 --><a name="Page_102"></a>by meats and vegetables and cooking +appliances, with just enough of the common deal table cleared away to +give space for her writing materials, she composed and made ready for +the publisher by far the most remarkable work of fiction this country +has produced. Slavery is dead, but Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece lives, and +is likely to live with growing luster as long as our free institutions +survive, which it is to be hoped will be forever.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable early workers in the Abolition cause was +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, a little Quaker woman of Pennsylvania. The writer +saw her for the last time shortly before her death. She was then +acting as presiding officer of an "Equal Rights"—meaning equal +suffrage—meeting. Sitting on one hand was Susan B. Anthony, and on +the other Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and next to one of them sat a +stately negro.</p> + +<p>She was then an aged woman, but her eye seemed to be as bright and her +movements as alert as they had ever been. Framed by her becoming +Quaker bonnet, which she retained in her official position, the face +of the handsome old lady would have been a splendid subject for an +artist.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mott gave much of her time and all the means she could control to +the cause of the slave. She was an exceedingly spirited and eloquent +speaker. On one lecturing tour she traveled twenty-four hundred miles, +the most of the way in old-fashioned stage-coaches. By a number of +taverns she was denied entertainment.</p> + +<p>Like other pioneers in the same movement, Mrs. Mott was the victim of +numerous mobbings. One <!-- Page 103 --><a name="Page_103"></a>incident shows her courage and +resourcefulness. An Anti-Slavery meeting she was attending was broken +up by rowdies, and some of the ladies present were greatly frightened. +Seeing this Mrs. Mott asked the gentleman who was escorting her, to +leave her and assist some of the others who were more timid. "But who +will take care of you?" he asked. "This man," she answered, lightly +laying her hand on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob. The man, +completely surprised, responded by respectfully conducting her through +the tumult to a place of safety.</p> + +<p>But before Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Mott had taken up the work for the +bondman, two other remarkable women had become interested in his +cause. Their history has some features that the most accomplished +novel-writer could not improve upon. They were sisters, known as the +Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, the latter becoming the wife of +Theodore W. Weld, a noted Abolition lecturer. They were daughters of a +Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, their early home being +in Charleston.</p> + +<p>The family was of the highest pretension, being related to the Rhetts, +the Barnwells, the Pickenses, and other famous representatives of the +Palmetto aristocracy. It was wealthy, and of course had many slaves. +The girls had their colored attendants, whose only service was to wait +upon them and do their bidding. That circumstance finally led to +trouble.</p> + +<p>At that time there was a statute in South Carolina against teaching +slaves to read and write. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. +The Grimké <!-- Page 104 --><a name="Page_104"></a>girls, however, had little respect for or fear of that +law. The story of their offending is told by Sarah.</p> + +<p>Her attendant, when she was little more than a child, was a colored +girl of about the same age. She says,</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"I took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little + waiting maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in + combing and brushing my long hair. The light was put out, the + key-hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with + the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South + Carolina."</p></div> + +<p>South Carolina was long noted for its rebels, but it never had a more +interesting one than the author of the above narrative; nor a braver +one.</p> + +<p>As the sisters grew up, they more and more showed their dislike of +slavery and their disposition to aid such colored people as were +within their circle. Such conduct could not escape observation, and +the result was their banishment from their Southern home. They were +given the alternative of "behaving themselves" or going North to live. +They were not long in deciding, and they became residents of +Philadelphia. Here they joined the Quakers, because of their +coincidence of views on the slavery question. They had before been +Presbyterians, having been raised as such. They became industrious and +noted Anti-Slavery lecturers. To one of them is to be credited a +notable oratorical achievement.</p> + +<p>Being no longer able to ignore the growing Anti-Slavery sentiment of +its constituency, the Massachusetts <!-- Page 105 --><a name="Page_105"></a>Legislature in 1838 appointed a +committee to consider the part that that State had in the subject of +slavery, and especially in connection with slavery in the District of +Columbia. The committee asked an expression of their views from those +entertaining different sentiments on the subject. The Anti-Slavery +people invited Angelina Grimké to represent them. The sessions of the +committee were to be held in the great hall of the Legislature in the +State House, where, up to that time, no woman had ever spoken. The +chairman of the committee, however, consented that Miss Grimké should +be heard, and the fact that she was a woman probably helped to bring +out an immense audience.</p> + +<p>She spoke for two hours, and then, being asked to speak again, at the +next meeting, she spoke for two hours more. The impression she +produced may be inferred from the fact that the chairman of the +committee was in tears nearly the whole time she was speaking. The +effect upon all who heard her was admitted to be very great.</p> + +<p>The sincerity of these women was put to an unusual test. They had a +brother who remained in South Carolina, where he was a prominent +citizen and a large slave-owner. Like many sharing the privileges of +"the institution," he led a double life. He was married to a white +woman by whom he had children. He also had a family by a colored woman +who was one of his slaves. In his will he bequeathed his slave family +to a son by his lawful wife, with the stipulation that they should not +be sold or unkindly treated.</p> + +<p>Of these things the Grimké sisters knew nothing <!-- Page 106 --><a name="Page_106"></a>until after the war +which had freed their illegitimate relatives. Then all the facts came +to their knowledge. What should they do about it? was the question +that immediately confronted them. Should they—"Carolina's high-souled +daughters," as Whittier describes them, and not without some part in +the pride of the family to which they belonged—acknowledge such a +disreputable relationship? Not a day nor an hour did they hesitate. +They sent for their unfortunate kinspeople, accepted them as blood +connections, and took upon themselves the duty of promoting their +interests as far as it was in their power to do so.</p> + +<p>Although a quiet and retiring person, and, moreover, so much of an +invalid that the greater part of her time was necessarily passed in a +bed of sickness, a New England woman had much to do with publishing +the doctrines of Abolitionism, through the lips of the most eloquent +man in the country. She was the wife of Wendell Phillips, the noted +Anti-Slavery lecturer.</p> + +<p>"My wife made me an Abolitionist," said Phillips. How the work was +done is not without its romantic interest.</p> + +<p>It was several years before he made his meteoric appearance before the +public as a platform talker, and while yet a law student, that +Phillips met the lady in question. The interview, as described by one +of the parties, certainly had its comical aspect. "I talked +Abolitionism to him all the time we were together," said Mrs. +Phillips, as she afterwards related the affair. Phillips listened, and +that he was not surfeited nor disgusted appears from the fact <!-- Page 107 --><a name="Page_107"></a>that he +went again and again for that sort of entertainment.</p> + +<p>When Phillips asked for her hand, as the story goes, she asked him if +he was fully persuaded to be a friend of the slave, leaving him to +infer that their union was otherwise impossible.</p> + +<p>"My life shall attest the sincerity of my conversion," was his gallant +reply.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><h2><!-- Page 108 --><a name="Page_108"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>MOBS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In his <i>Recollections</i>, the Rev. Samuel T. May, who was one of the +most faithful and zealous of the Anti-Slavery pioneers, and belonged +to that band of devoted workers who were known as Abolition lecturers, +tells of his experience in delivering an Anti-Slavery address in the +sober New England city of Haverhill.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"It was a Sabbath evening," he says. "I had spoken about fifteen + minutes when the most hideous outcries—yells and screeches—from + a crowd of men and boys, who had surrounded the house, startled + us, and then came heavy missiles against the doors and the blinds + of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping + the doors and blinds were strong enough to withstand the attack. + But presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, + scattered a pane of glass, and fell upon the head of a lady + sitting near the center of the hall. She uttered a shriek and fell + bleeding on the floor."</p></div> + +<p>There was a panic, of course, and the Abolition lecturer would have +been roughly handled by the mob if a young lady, a sister of the poet +Whittier, had not taken him by the arm, and walked with him <!-- Page 109 --><a name="Page_109"></a>through +the astonished crowd. They did not feel like attacking a woman.</p> + +<p>There was nothing unusual, except the part performed by the young +lady, in the affair described in the foregoing narrative. Mobs were of +constant occurrence in the period of which we are speaking. It was not +in the slave States that they were most frequent. Northern communities +that were regarded as absolutely peaceable and perfectly moral thought +nothing of an anti-Abolitionist riot now and then. They occurred "away +up North" and "away down East." Even sleepy old Nantucket, in its +sedentary repose by the sea, woke up long enough to mob a couple of +Abolition lecturers, a man and a woman.</p> + +<p>The community in which the writer resided when a boy, was fully up to +the pacific standard of most Northern neighborhoods. Yet it was the +scene of many turmoils growing out of Anti-Slavery meetings. The +district schoolhouse, which was the only public building in the +village that was open for such gatherings, called for frequent repairs +on account of damages done by mobs. Broken windows and doors were +often in evidence, and stains from mud-balls, decayed vegetables, and +antiquated eggs, which nobody took the trouble to remove, were nearly +always visible.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, at an evening meeting, the lecturer was a young +professor, who was "down" from Oberlin College, against which, as "an +Abolition hole," there was a very strong prejudice. He had not got +more than well started, when rocks, bricks, and other missiles began +to crash through the windows. The mob was resolved to punish that +young <!-- Page 110 --><a name="Page_110"></a>man, and had come prepared to give him a coating of unsavory +mixture. He was a preacher as well as a teacher, and his "store +clothes" were likely to betray him; but some thoughtful person had +brought an old drab overcoat and a rough workman's cap, and arrayed in +these garments he walked through the crowd without his identity being +suspected.</p> + +<p>But another party was not so fortunate. He was a respected citizen of +the village, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a strong +pro-slavery man. He dressed in black and his appearance was not unlike +that of the lecturer. By some hard luck he happened to be passing that +way when the crowd was looking for the Abolitionist, and was +discovered. "There he goes," was the cry that was raised, and a fire +of eggs and other things was opened upon him. He reached his home in +an awful plight, and it was charged that his conversation was not +unmixed with profanity.</p> + +<p>On another occasion the writer was present when the friends of the +lecturer undertook to convey him to a place of safety. They formed a +circle about him and moved away while the mob followed, hurling eggs +and clods and sticks and whatever else came handy. We kept quietly on +our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly +graveled, and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to +our use. Here we halted, and, with rocks in hand, formed a line of +battle. It took only one volley to put the enemy to rout, and we had +no further trouble.</p> + +<p>At last, after several men had been prevented from speaking in our +village, the services of a female <!-- Page 111 --><a name="Page_111"></a>lecturer were secured. The question +then was, whether the mob would be so ungallant as to disturb a woman. +The matter was settled by the rowdies on that occasion being more than +usually demonstrative. The lecturer showed great courage and presence +of mind. She closed the meeting in due form, and then walked calmly +through the noisy throng that gave her no personal molestation or +insult. Deliberately she proceeded to a place of safety—and then went +into hysterics.</p> + +<p>Finding that it was impossible to hold undisturbed public meetings, +the Abolitionists adopted a plan of operations that was altogether +successful. They met in their several homes, taking them in order, and +there the subject they were interested in was uninterruptedly +discussed. Intelligent opponents of their views were invited to +attend, and frequently did so. So warm were the discussions that arose +that the meetings sometimes lasted for entire days, and conversions +were not unusual.</p> + +<p>It was in one of these neighborhood gatherings that the writer first +became an active Anti-Slavery worker. He had memorized one of Daniel +O'Connell's philippics against American slavery, and, being given the +opportunity, declaimed it with much earnestness. After that he was +invited to all the meetings, and had on hand a stock of selections for +delivery, his favorite being Whittier's <i>Slave Mother's Lament over +the Loss of Her Daughters</i>:</p> + +<p class="Poem"><span class="i4">"Gone, gone—sold and gone</span> +<span class="i4">To the rice swamp dank and lone,</span> +Where the slave whip ceaseless swings,<br /> +Where the noisome insect stings;<br /> +Where the fever demon strews<br /><!-- Page 112 --><a name="Page_112"></a> +Poison with the falling dews;<br /> +Where the sickly sunbeams glare<br /> +Through the hot and misty air.<br /> +<span class="i4">Gone, gone—sold and gone</span> +<span class="i4">To the rice swamp dank and lone,</span> +<span class="i4">From Virginia's hills and waters—</span> +<span class="i4">Woe is me my stolen daughters!"</span></p> + +<p>It was marvelous how little damage all the mobs effected. Lovejoy of +Illinois was killed—a great loss—and occasionally an Abolitionist +lecturer got a bloody nose or a sore shin. Professor Hudson, of +Oberlin College, used to say that the injury he most feared was to his +clothes. He carried with him what he called "a storm suit," which he +wore at evening meetings. It showed many marks of battle.</p> + +<p>Among those who suffered real physical injury was Fred. Douglass, the +runaway slave. While in bondage he was often severely punished, but he +encountered rougher treatment in the North than in the South. He was +attacked by a mob while lecturing in the State of Indiana; was struck +to the earth and rendered senseless by blows on the head and body, and +for a time his life was supposed to be in danger. Although in the main +he recovered, his right hand was always crippled in consequence of +some of its bones having been broken.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a><h2><!-- Page 113 --><a name="Page_113"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>If any one is desirous of estimating the extent of the sacrifice of +life, of treasure, of home and family comforts, and of innumerable +fair hopes that the institution of slavery, in its struggle, not +merely for existence, but for supremacy, cost this country, let him +visit a government cemetery in the neighborhood of one of the great +battle-fields of the Rebellion, and there, while looking down the long +avenues lined with memorial stones that a grateful country has set up, +make inquiry as to the number of those that are there bivouacked "in +fame's eternal camping ground." Some idea—a faint one it is +true—will then be had of the multitudes that gave up all they +possessed that liberty might live and rule in this fair land of ours. +They were martyrs in the very highest sense to Freedom's immeasurable +cause. The war was the product of slavery. It was the natural outcome +of the great moral conflict that had so long raged in this country. It +was simply the development of an agitation that had begun on other +lines.</p> + +<p>But there were martyrs to the cause of freedom before the war. +Everybody knows more or less of the story of John Brown, of +Ossawatomie, whose <!-- Page 114 --><a name="Page_114"></a>soul kept "marching on," although his body was +"a-mouldering in the grave."</p> + +<p>There was another case involving the surrender of life to that cause, +which has always struck me as having stronger claims to our sympathies +than that of John Brown and his comrades in self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p>I have already referred to Elijah P. Lovejoy who was a young +Congregational clergyman, who went from the State of Maine to St. +Louis, Missouri, in 1839. He became the editor of a religious journal +in which he expressed, in very moderate terms, an opinion that was not +favorable to slave-holding. The supporters of the institution were +aroused at once. They demanded a retraction. "I have sworn eternal +hostility to slavery, and by the blessing of God I will never go +back," was his reply. He also declared, "We have slaves here, but I am +not one of them."</p> + +<p>It was deemed advisable by Mr. Lovejoy and his friends to move his +printing establishment to Alton, opposite Missouri, in the free State +of Illinois. There, however, a pro-slavery antagonism immediately +developed. His press was seized and thrown into the Mississippi River. +The same fate awaited two others that were procured. But, undismayed, +Mr. Lovejoy and his friends once more decided that their rights and +liberties should not be surrendered without a further effort. Another +press was sent for. But in the meanwhile a violent public agitation +had arisen. At the instance of certain pro-slavery leaders in the +community a public meeting had been called to denounce the +Abolitionists. Mr. <!-- Page 115 --><a name="Page_115"></a>Lovejoy was invited to attend it and declare what +he would do.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "as long as I am an American citizen; as long as +American blood runs in my veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to +speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, +being amenable to the laws of my country for the same."</p> + +<p>The fourth press arrived. It was landed from a passing boat in the +small hours of the morning, and was safely conveyed to a warehouse +where Mr. Lovejoy and several of his friends assembled with a view to +its protection. What followed is thus described:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"An hour or two afterwards there came from the grog-shops a crowd + of people who knocked at the door and demanded the press. One of + the owners of the warehouse informed them it would not be given + up. Presenting a pistol, the leader of the mob announced that they + were resolved to have the press at any cost. Stones were thrown, + windows broken, and shots were fired at the building. The cry of + 'burn them out' was raised. Ladders were procured, and some of the + rioters mounted to the roof of the building and set it on fire. + Mr. Lovejoy at this point stepped out of the building for the + purpose of having a talk with his enemies, when he was fired upon. + He received five balls, three in his breast. He was killed almost + instantly."</p></div> + +<p>The animosity of his enemies was such that they followed his remains +with scoffings and insults on its way to the grave.</p> + +<p>But the most cruel and brutal persecutions by the <!-- Page 116 --><a name="Page_116"></a>slave power were +not always those that involved the sacrifice of life.</p> + +<p>In Canterbury, in the State of Connecticut, lived a Quaker lady of the +name of Prudence Crandall. She conducted a school for young ladies. +Among those she admitted was a colored girl. The fact becoming known, +objection was raised by the citizens of the place. The position in +which Miss Crandall was placed was a most trying one. Having invested +all her means in the school building and its equipment, she was +confronted with the alternative of losing her business and her +property, or dismissing the colored student who had done no wrong. She +chose to stand by her principles.</p> + +<p>A public meeting was called, and a resolution to prevent the +maintenance of the school, if colored students were admitted, was +adopted by the citizens. Nevertheless, that brave Quakeress opened her +doors to several colored young women. That brought the issue to a +head, and then began a system of most remarkable persecutions. The +school building was bombarded with clubs and stones, the proprietress +found the stores of the village closed against her, and the young lady +students were grossly insulted when they appeared upon the streets. +Even the well from which drinking water was obtained was polluted.</p> + +<p>Finding that there was no law in Connecticut under which the +instruction of colored people could be prohibited and punished, the +enemies of Miss Crandall went to the Legislature of the State and +asked for such an enactment, and, to the eternal disgrace of that +body, their request was complied <!-- Page 117 --><a name="Page_117"></a>with. It was made a crime in +Connecticut to instruct colored people in the rudiments of an ordinary +education.</p> + +<p>Miss Crandall, as she made no change in her course of action, was +arrested, brought before a committing magistrate, and sent to jail. A +man had shortly before been confined in the same prison for the murder +of his wife, and therefrom had gone to execution. Miss Crandall was +confined in the cell this man had occupied. Other indignities were +heaped upon this devoted and courageous lady. Physicians refused to +attend the sick of her household, and the trustees of the church she +was accustomed to attend notified her that she and the members of her +family were denied admission to that sanctuary.</p> + +<p>Miss Crandall was finally convicted of the crime with which she was +charged, but the case, being carried to the highest court of the +State, was dismissed on a technicality. But, although the legal +prosecution of this poor woman reached an end, her enemies did not +cease their opposition. The mob made an attack upon her dwelling, +which was also her schoolhouse. Doors and windows were broken in, and +the building was so thoroughly wrecked as to be uninhabitable. Having +no money with which to make repairs, she was forced to abandon the +structure and her educational business at the same time.</p> + +<p>The Crandall family became noted for its martyrs. A brother of +Prudence Crandall was Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington City. He was +a man of high attainments, being a lecturer in a public scientific +<!-- Page 118 --><a name="Page_118"></a>institution. While engaged in his office he received some packages +that had been wrapped in newspapers, among which happened to be a copy +or two of Abolition journals. At the request of a gentleman who was +present at the unpacking he gave him one of the publications. Having +looked it over the gentleman dropped it, where it was picked up by +some one who was on the lookout for incendiary publications. No little +excitement followed its discovery. The community was aroused. Indeed, +so great was the agitation occasioned that Dr. Crandall, to whom the +inhibited paper had been traced, was in great physical danger from mob +violence. He was arrested, and, partly to save his life, was thrust +into jail, where he remained for eight months. He was tried and, +although acquitted, was really made the subject of capital punishment. +Tuberculosis developed as the result of his incarceration, and death +soon followed.</p> + +<p>Of many cases of the kind that might be cited, perhaps none is more +strikingly illustrative than that of Charles Turner Torrey, a New +England man. He was accused of helping a slave to escape from the city +of Baltimore, and being convicted on what was said to be perjured +testimony, was sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. The +confinement was fatal, a galloping consumption mercifully putting a +speedy end to his confinement. And then a remarkable incident +occurred. Torrey was a minister in good standing of the Congregational +denomination, and also a member of the Park Avenue Church of Boston. +Arrangements were made for funeral exercises in that church, but its +<!-- Page 119 --><a name="Page_119"></a>managers, taking alarm at the threats of certain pro-slavery men, +withdrew their permission and locked the sanctuary's doors. Slavery +punished the dead as well as the living.</p> + +<p>The case of Amos Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be +mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a +convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass +for a book called the <i>Cottage Bible</i> which would not ordinarily be +supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. While +peaceably attending to his business he was accused of Anti-Slaveryism. +He did not deny the charge and was arrested, his trunk being broken +open and its contents searched and scattered. He was taken before a +vigilance committee and by it was condemned to receive twenty lashes +on his bare back, "well laid on," and then to be driven out of town. +The sentence was carried out, we are told, in the presence of +thousands of people of both sexes.</p> + +<p>Of the many somewhat similar instances that might here be referred to +the writer will make room for only one more.</p> + +<p>A seafaring man of the name of Jonathan Walker undertook to convey in +a sloop of which he was the owner seven colored fugitives to the +Bahama Islands, where they would be free. Owing to an accident to his +boat, he and his companions were captured. He was sentenced, among +other things, to have his hand branded with the letters S.S., +signifying "Slave Stealer."</p> + +<p>The incident just referred to inspired one of the <!-- Page 120 --><a name="Page_120"></a>finest productions +of Whittier's pen. Singing of that "bold plowman of the wave" he +proceeds:</p> + +<p class="poem">"Why, that hand is highest honor,<br /> +<span class="i2">Than its traces never yet</span> +Upon old memorial hatchments was<br /> +<span class="i2">A prouder blazon set;</span> +And the unborn generations, as they<br /> +<span class="i2">Tread our rocky strand,</span> +Shall tell with pride the story of<br /> +<span class="i2">Their father's branded hand."</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><h2><!-- Page 121 --><a name="Page_121"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The prescribed penalties for assisting in the escape of fugitive +slaves were severe. By the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, as it was +called, any one convicted of that offense, besides a liability for one +thousand dollars damages recoverable in a civil action, was subject to +a five-hundred-dollars fine and imprisonment in a penitentiary for one +year. As the writer has not "done time" for participation in certain +transactions dating back to his earlier days, in which the legal +rights of slave-owners were indifferently respected, he thinks it +advisable to be somewhat reserved in his recital of personal +experiences when taking the public into his confidence. The Fugitive +Slave Law—and for that fact we should give "most hearty thanks"—is +about as dead as any statute can be, but as in the case of a snake +that has been killed, it may be the wiser course not to trifle with +its fangs. Therefore, instead of telling my own story in the first +person singular, I offer as a substitute the confession of one John +Smith, whose existence no one will presume to dispute. Here is his +statement:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"There was an old barn on my father's farm. It was almost a ruin. + One end of the roof had fallen <!-- Page 122 --><a name="Page_122"></a>in, pretty much all the windows + were gone, and there was a general air of dilapidation about the + place. A dwelling-house, to which it was an appendage, had been + burned and not rebuilt, and the barn had been left to fight a + battle with the elements and other foes in pretty much its own + way.</p> + +<p> "Not that it was wholly abandoned. There was one mow that was kept + pretty well supplied with grass, and there were two or three horse + stalls that were in tolerable order, although but rarely used. + There were a number of excellent hiding-places about the old + rookery. In the basement all sorts of rubbish, including unused + vehicles and machinery, had been stored away, and so wedged and + packed was it that it would have taken hours to uncover man or + beast seeking concealment there.</p> + +<p> "One of the curious features of the situation was that the + building was in sight of none of the roads in the neighborhood, + while less than a hundred feet from it was a strip of woods in + which the removal of the larger trees had stimulated a sturdy and + densely matted undergrowth that was penetrable only by means of + paths that had been made by the cattle. It was what was called a + 'woods pasture.' With this cover for his movements any one could + approach or leave the old barn with little danger of discovery.</p> + +<p> "Naturally enough, such a ramshackle was in ill-repute. There were + tales about it in the neighborhood. Some children had gone there + to play on one occasion, and had been badly frightened by a + big—as big as a half-bushel, they asserted—black face that was + seen to be watching them. They fled <!-- Page 123 --><a name="Page_123"></a>from the premises in great + alarm, and for a time there was talk of an investigation by their + friends. The incident, however, was soon forgotten.</p> + +<p> "That old barn was a regular station on one of the underground + railroads that extended from the Ohio River to Canada. To but few + persons was its true character known, and they were very + close-mouthed about it. I was one of the few that were in the + secret. Being the youngest member of the family, it fell to my lot + to drive the horses and cows to and from the pasture in which the + old barrack was located, and while there it was an easy matter to + visit that establishment and ascertain if it sheltered any fresh + arrivals.</p> + +<p> "One day I had to report that two fugitives were in the barn, + being a mother and child. Then came the question—which in that + instance was a difficult one to answer—as to who should convey + them to the next station on the line, twenty miles away. A + brother, between five and six years older than I was, and who was + something of a dare-devil, did the most of the work of + transportation, but he was in bed with typhoid fever. A hired man, + who was employed partly because he was in hearty accord with the + humanitarian views of the household, and who on several occasions + had taken my brother's place, was absent. There was nobody but + myself who was ready to undertake the job, and I was only eleven + years old. There was no help for it, however. The slaves had to be + moved on, and I was greatly rejoiced in the prospect of adventure + that was opened up to me. The journey had to be made at night, but + for that I cared nothing, as I <!-- Page 124 --><a name="Page_124"></a>had repeatedly gone over the route + by daylight, and thought I knew the road perfectly.</p> + +<p> "Midnight found me on the highway, and on the driver's seat of one + of our farm wagons, to which was attached a span of horses moving + in the direction of the north star. That luminary was not on this + occasion visible. The sky was heavily overcast and the night was + very dark. A light rain was falling. With all the confidence I had + in my own ability, more than once would I have lost the way, but + for the sagacity of the horses, which had gone over that route a + number of times under similar circumstances. They acted as if + altogether familiar with it. Those horses proved themselves to be + excellent Abolitionists.</p> + +<p> "The inclemency of the night was in one respect a great advantage. + It kept at home those who might incline to be too inquisitive. The + few travelers we met passed on with a word of greeting, while I + whistled unconcernedly.</p> + +<p> "Over the bottom of the wagon was scattered some hay that might be + used either as feed for the horses or as a bed for weary + travelers. There was also an old-fashioned buffalo-robe, somewhat + dilapidated, that could serve for concealment or as shelter from + the elements. Two or three empty baskets suggested a return from + the market. There was another article that one would hardly have + looked for. This was a smoke-cured ham loosely wrapped in some old + sacking. It had gone over that route a number of times. Its odor + neutralized the smell by which the presence, immediate or recent, + of negroes might be detected.</p> + +<p> "<!-- Page 125 --><a name="Page_125"></a>My fellow-travelers, as my passengers might be called, were + interesting companions. Both, in one sense, were children, the + mother certainly not being over seventeen years old. She was a + comely half-breed mulatto. Her baby—a pretty boy of two + years—was one degree nearer white.</p> + +<p> "The girl was inclined to be confidential and talkative. She said + she was 'old mas'r's' daughter. Her mother had been one of 'old + mas'r's' people. She had grown up with the other slave children on + the place, being in no way favored because of her relationship to + her owner. The baby's father was 'young mas'r'—old master's son, + as it appeared—and who, consequently, was a half-brother of the + youthful mother. Slavery sometimes created singular relationships.</p> + +<p> "As the story ran, all the people, including the narrator and her + baby, when 'ole mas'r' died were 'leveled' on by the Sheriff's + man. She did not quite understand the meaning of it all, but it + was doubtless a case of bankruptcy.</p> + +<p> "'Young mas'r,' she said, 'tole' her she had to run away, taking + the baby of course. 'Oh, yes," she said very emphatically, 'I + never would have left Kentuck without Thomas Jefferson'—meaning + her little boy. 'Young mas'r,' according to her account, arranged + the whole proceeding, telling her what course to take by night, + where to stop and conceal herself by day, and what signal to give + when she reached the 'big river.'</p> + +<p> "When the Ohio had been crossed her young master met her, + evidently to the great delight of the poor creature. He gave her + some money, and <!-- Page 126 --><a name="Page_126"></a>told her that when she reached her destination he + would send her some 'mo.' After putting her in charge of some kind + people, evidently representatives of the underground line, they + had parted, according to her description of the incident, in an + affecting way. 'He kissed me and I cried,' was her simple + statement. Notwithstanding the boasted superiority of one race + over another, human nature seems to be very much the same, whether + we read it in a white face or in a black one.</p> + +<p> "The little girlish mother was very much alarmed for the safety of + her boy and herself when we began our journey, wanting to get out + and conceal herself whenever we heard any one on the road. After + several detentions from that cause, the weary creature stretched + herself upon the hay beside her sleeping infant and almost + immediately fell into a heavy slumber. She could stand the strain + no longer. I drew the buffalo-robe over the two sleepers, and + there they rested in blissful unconsciousness until the journey + was ended.</p> + +<p> "Half-way between the termini of my route was a village in which + lived a constable who was suspected of being in the employ of the + slave-owners. It was thought advisable that I should avoid that + village by taking a roundabout road. That I did, although it added + an extra half to my trip. The result was that the sun was just + peeping over the eastern hills, as I reached a set of bars showing + an entrance into a pasture lot on one side of the highway. + Removing the bars, I drove into the field, and passing over a + ridge that hid it from the road, I stopped in front of a log cabin + that had every <!-- Page 127 --><a name="Page_127"></a>appearance of being an abandoned and neglected + homestead. That was the station I was looking for. Arousing my + sleeping passengers, I saw them enter the old domicile, where I + bade them good-by, and received the tearful and repeated thanks of + the youthful slave mother, speaking for herself and her offspring. + I never saw them again, but in due time the news came back, over + what was jocularly called the 'grape-vine telegraph,' that they + had safely reached their destination.</p> + +<p> "At the home of the station agent I was enthusiastically received. + That a boy of eleven should accomplish what I had done was thought + to be quite wonderful. I was given an excellent breakfast, and + then shown to a room with a bed, where I had a good sleep. On my + awakening I set out on the return journey, this time taking the + most direct route, as I had then no fear of that hireling + constable.</p> + +<p> "Subsequently I passed through several experiences of a similar + kind, some of them involving greater risks and more exciting + incidents, but the recollection of none of them brings me greater + satisfaction than the memory of my first conductorship on the + Underground.</p> + +<p> "All of which is respectfully submitted by</p> + +<p> "JOHN SMITH."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><h2><!-- Page 128 --><a name="Page_128"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>COLONIZATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>I have had a good deal to say about Anti-Slavery societies. There was +another society which was called into existence by the slavery +situation. Whether it was pro-slavery or anti-slavery was a question +that long puzzled a good many people. It was the Colonization Society. +A good many Anti-Slavery people believed in it for a time and gave it +their support. "I am opposed to slavery, but I am not an Abolitionist: +I am a Colonizationist," was a declaration that, when I was a boy, I +heard many and many times, and from the lips of well-intending people.</p> + +<p>It did not take the sharp-sighted leaders of the Abolition movement +very long to discover that one of the uses its managers expected to +make of the Colonization Society was as a shield for slavery. It kept +a number of excellent people from joining in an aggressive movement +against it, took their money, and made them believe that they were at +work for the freedom of the negro.</p> + +<p>Strangely as it might appear, the negroes, who were assumed to be the +beneficiaries of the colonization scheme, were opposed to it. Quicker +than the white people generally did, they saw through its <!-- Page 129 --><a name="Page_129"></a>false +pretense, and, besides, they could not understand why they should be +taken from the land of their nativity, and sent to the country from +which their progenitors had come, any more than the descendants of +Scotch, English, and German immigrants should be deported to the lands +of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>Equally strange was it that the Colonization Society, if really +friendly to the negro, should find its most zealous supporters among +slaveholders. Its first president, who was a nephew of George +Washington, upon learning that his slaves had got the idea that they +were to be set at liberty, sent over fifty of them to be sold from the +auction block at New Orleans. That was intended as a warning to the +rest. One of its presidents was said to be the owner of a thousand +slaves and had never manumitted one of them. The principal service +that the colonization movement was expected to do for the slave-owners +was to relieve them of the presence of free negroes. These were always +regarded as a menace by slave-masters. They disseminated ideas of +freedom and manhood among their unfortunate brethren. They were +object-lessons to those in bondage. The slave-owners were only too +glad to have them sent away. They looked to Liberia as a safety-valve. +It did not take long for intelligent people who were really +well-wishers of the black man to perceive these facts.</p> + +<p>The severest blow that the Colonization Society received in America +was from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, who, under the title of +<i>Thoughts on African Colonisation</i>, published a pamphlet that had +<!-- Page 130 --><a name="Page_130"></a>wide distribution. It completely unmasked the pretended friendship of +the Colonizationists for the negroes, free or slave. From that time +they lost all support from real Anti-Slavery people. There was, +however, to be a battle fought, in which the Colonization Society +figured as a party, that furnished one of the most interesting +episodes of the slavery conflict.</p> + +<p>England, at the time of which we are speaking, was full of +Anti-Slavery sentiment. Slavery, at the end of a long and bitter +contest, had been abolished in all her colonies. Her philanthropists +were rejoicing in their victory. The managers of the Colonization +Society resolved, if possible, to capture that sentiment, and with it +the pecuniary aid the British Abolitionists might render. It was +always a tremendous beggar. They, accordingly, selected a +fluent-tongued agent and sent him to England to advocate their cause. +He did not hesitate to represent that the Colonization Society was the +especial friend of the negro, working for his deliverance from +bondage, and, in addition, that it had the support of "the wealth, the +respectability, and the piety of the American people."</p> + +<p>When these facts came to the knowledge of the members of the newly +formed New England Anti-Slavery Society, they were naturally excited, +and resolved to meet the enemy in this new field of operations. This +they decided to do by sending a representative to England, who would +be able to meet the colonization agent in discussion, and otherwise +proclaim and champion their particular views. For this service the man +selected was William <!-- Page 131 --><a name="Page_131"></a>Lloyd Garrison, who was then but twenty-eight +years old.</p> + +<p>Remarkable it was that one who was not only so young, but imperfectly +educated, being a poor mechanic, daily toiling as a compositor at his +printer's case, should be chosen to meet the most polished people in +the British Empire, and hold himself ready to debate the most serious +question of the time. That such a person should be willing to enter +upon such an undertaking was almost as remarkable. But Garrison showed +no hesitation in accepting the task for which he was selected.</p> + +<p>On his arrival in England, Garrison sent a challenge to the +colonization agent for a public debate. This the Colonizationist +refused to receive. Two more challenges were sent and were treated in +the same way. Then Garrison, at a cost of thirty dollars, which he +could ill afford to pay, published the challenge in the London +<i>Times</i>, with a statement of the manner in which it had been so far +treated. Of course, public interest was aroused, and when Garrison +appeared upon the public platform, as he at once proceeded to do, he +was greeted with the attendance of multitudes of interested hearers. +Exeter Hall in London was crowded. The most distinguished men in +England sat upon the stage when he spoke, and applauded his addresses. +Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, paid them a most florid +compliment. They were, unquestionably, most remarkable samples of +effective eloquence—plain in statement, simple in style, but +exceedingly logical and forcible. They were widely published +throughout England at the time of their delivery.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 132 --><a name="Page_132"></a>One of the results was that the leading emancipationists of Great +Britain signed and published a warning against the colonization +scheme, denouncing it as having its roots in "a cruel prejudice," and +declaring that it was calculated to "increase the spirit of caste so +unhappily predominant," and that it "exposed the colored people to +great practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate."</p> + +<p>As for the poor agent of the Colonizationists, seeing how the battle +was tending, he left England in a hurry, and was nevermore heard of in +that part of the world.</p> + +<p>Garrison's personal triumph was very striking, and it was splendidly +earned. He was made the recipient of many compliments and +testimonials. A curious incident resulted from this great popularity. +He was invited to breakfast by Sir Thomas Buxton, the noted English +philanthropist, with a view to making the acquaintance of a number of +distinguished persons who were to be present. When Mr. Garrison +presented himself, his entertainer, who had not before met or seen +him, looked at him in great astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Are you William Lloyd Garrison?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"That is who I am," replied Mr. Garrison, "and I am here on your +invitation."</p> + +<p>"But you are a white man," said Buxton, "and from your zeal and labors +in behalf of the colored people, I assumed that you were one of them."</p> + +<p>Garrison left England in what, metaphorically, might be described as +"a blaze of glory." Hundreds attended him when he went to embark on +his homeward voyage, and he was followed by their <!-- Page 133 --><a name="Page_133"></a>cheers and +benedictions. Wonderfully different was the treatment he received on +his arrival in his own country. Not long afterwards he was dragged +through Boston streets by a hempen rope about his body, and was +assigned to a prison cell, as affording the most available protection +from the mob.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we have had some excellent people—not +slave-owners—who, out of compassion for the black man, or from +prejudice against his color, and, perhaps, from a little of both, have +favored a policy of colonization in this country. Mr. Lincoln was one +of them. "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what +to do with the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free +the slaves and send them to Liberia." So said Mr. Lincoln in one of +his debates with Douglas.</p> + +<p>"I cannot make it better known than it already is," said Mr. Lincoln +in a message to Congress, dated December 1, 1862, "that I strongly +favor colonization."</p> + +<p>At Lincoln's instance Congress appropriated several large sums of +money—then much needed in warlike operations—for colonizing +experiments. One of these has a curious and somewhat pathetic history. +A sharper by the name of Koch, having worked himself into the +confidence of the President and some other good people, got them to +buy from him an island in the West Indies, called Ile a'Vache, which +he represented to be a veritable earthly paradise. Strangely enough, +it was wholly uninhabited, and therefore ready for the uses of a +colony. Several hundred people—colored, of course—were collected, +put aboard a ship, and dumped upon this unknown <!-- Page 134 --><a name="Page_134"></a>land. It will +surprise no one to learn that pretty soon these people, poisoned by +malaria, stung by venomous insects and reptiles, and having scarcely +anything to eat, were dying like cattle with the murrain. In the end a +ship was sent to bring back the survivors.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the kind-hearted President did not give up the idea. At +his request a delegation of Washington negroes called upon him. He +made them quite a long speech, telling them that Congress had given +him money with which to found a colony of colored people, and that he +had found what seemed to be a suitable location in Central America. He +appealed to them to supply the colonists. The negroes, not anxious for +exile, diplomatically said they would think the matter over. In the +end it was discovered that Central America did not want the negroes, +and that the negroes did not want Central America.</p> + +<p>A story that is curiously illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's attachment to +the policy of removing the colored people is told by L.E. Chittenden +in his <i>Recollections of President Lincoln</i>. Mr. Chittenden was a +citizen of Vermont and Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, with +whom he was in intimate and confidential relations:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"During one of his welcome visits to my office," says Mr. + Chittenden, "the President seemed to be buried in thought over + some subject of great interest. After long reflection he abruptly + exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a question.</p> + +<p> "'Do you know any energetic contractor?' he inquired; 'one who + would be willing to take a large contract attended with some + risk?'</p> + +<p> "<!-- Page 135 --><a name="Page_135"></a>'I know New England contractors," I replied, 'who would not be + frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element + of prospective profit is the only one that would interest them. If + there was a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to + contract to suppress the Rebellion in ninety days."</p> + +<p> "'There will be profit and reputation in the contract I may + propose,' said the President. 'It is to remove the whole colored + race of the slave States into Texas. If you have any acquaintance + who would take that contract, I would like to see him.'</p> + +<p> "'I know a man who would take that contract and perform it,' I + replied. 'I would be willing to put you into communication with + him, so that you might form your own opinion about him.'</p> + +<p> "By the President's direction I requested John Bradley, a + well-known Vermonter, to come to Washington. He was at my office + the morning after I sent the telegram to him. I declined to give + him any hint of the purpose of my invitation, but took him + directly to the President. When I presented him I said: 'Here, Mr. + President, is the contractor whom I named to you yesterday.'</p> + +<p> "I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to my + office overflowing with admiration for the President and + enthusiasm for his proposed work. 'The proposition is,' he said, + 'to remove the whole colored race into Texas, there to establish a + republic of their own. The subject has political bearings of which + I am no judge, and upon which the President has not yet made up + his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will + undertake to remove them all within a year.'"</p></div> + +<p>It is unnecessary to state that the Black Republic of Texas was a +dream that never materialized.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 136 --><a name="Page_136"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who were Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries +during the time he was President, and afterwards the authors of his +most elaborate biography, say: "The blessings of an enfranchised race +must forever hail him as their liberator."</p> + +<p>Says Francis Curtis in his <i>History of the Republican Party</i>, in +speaking of the President's Emancipation Proclamation: "On the 1st day +of January, 1863, the final proclamation of freedom was issued, and +every negro slave within the confines of the United States was at last +made free."</p> + +<p>Other writers of what is claimed to be history, almost without number, +speak of the President's pronouncement as if it caused the bulwarks of +slavery to fall down very much as the walls of Jericho are said to +have done, at one blast, overwhelming the whole institution and +setting every bondman free. Indeed, there are multitudes of fairly +intelligent people who believe that slaveholding in this country +ceased the very day and hour the proclamation appeared. In a recent +magazine article, so intelligent a man as Booker Washington speaks of +a Kentucky slave family as being emancipated <!-- Page 137 --><a name="Page_137"></a>by Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation, when, in fact, the proclamation never applied to +Kentucky at all.</p> + +<p>The emancipationists of Missouri were working hard to free their State +from slavery, and they would have been only too glad to have Mr. +Lincoln do the work for them. They appealed to him to extend his edict +to their State, but got no satisfaction. The emancipationists of +Maryland had much the same experience. Both Missouri and Maryland were +left out of the proclamation, as were Tennessee and Kentucky and +Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Louisiana and the Carolinas. (See +Appendix.) The explanation is that the proclamation was not intended +to cover all slaveholding territory. All of it that belonged to States +that had not been in rebellion, or had been subdued, was excluded. The +President's idea was to reach only such sections as were then in +revolt. If the proclamation had been immediately operative, and had +liberated every bondman in the jurisdiction to which it applied, it +would have left over a million slaves in actual thraldom. Indeed, Earl +Russell, the British premier, was quite correct when, in speaking of +the proclamation, he said: "It does not more than profess to +emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make +emancipation a reality, and emancipates no one where the decree can be +carried into effect."</p> + +<p>For the failure of the proclamation to cover all slaveholding +territory there was a plausible reason. Freedom under it was not +decreed as a boon, but as a penalty. It was not, in theory at least, +intended to help the slave, but to chastise the master. It <!-- Page 138 --><a name="Page_138"></a>was to be +in punishment of treason, and, of course, could not consistently be +made to apply to loyal communities, or to such as were under +government control. The proclamation, it will be recollected, was +issued in two parts separated by one hundred days. The first part gave +the Rebels warning that the second would follow if, in the meanwhile, +they did not give up their rebellion. All they had to do to save +slavery was to cease from their treasonable practices. Had the Rebels +been shrewd enough, within the hundred days, to take the President at +his word, he would have stood pledged to maintain their institution, +and his proclamation, instead of being a charter of freedom, would +have been a license for slaveholding.</p> + +<p>The proclamation did not, in fact, whatever it may have otherwise +accomplished at the time it was issued, liberate a single slave. What +is more, slavery as an institution was altogether too securely rooted +in our system to be abolished by proclamation. The talk of such a +thing greatly belittles the magnitude of the task that was performed. +Its removal required a long preliminary work, involving, as is made to +appear in previous chapters of this work, almost incalculable toil and +sacrifice, to be followed by an enormous expenditure of blood and +treasure. Its practical extinguishment was the work of the army, while +its legal extirpation was accomplished by Congress and the +Legislatures of the States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution, which forbids all slaveholding. That amendment +was a production of Congress and not of the Executive, whose official +<!-- Page 139 --><a name="Page_139"></a>approval was not even required to make it legally effective.</p> + +<p>The story of the proclamation, with not a few variations, has often +been told; but the writer fancies that the altogether correct account +has not always been given. It may be presumptuous on his part, but he +will submit his version.</p> + +<p>To understand the motive underlying the proclamation we must take into +account its author's feeling toward slavery. Notwithstanding various +unfriendly references of an academic sort to that institution, he was +not at the time the proclamation appeared, and never had been, an +Abolitionist.</p> + +<p>Not very long before the time referred to the writer heard Mr. +Lincoln, in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois, +declare—laying unusual emphasis on his words: "I have on all +occasions declared as strongly as Judge Douglas against the +disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery."</p> + +<p>Judge Douglas was what was then called a "dough-face" by the +Abolitionists—being a Northern man with Southern principles, or +"proclivities," as he called them.</p> + +<p>Only a little earlier, and several years after Mr. Lincoln had claimed +to be a Republican, and a leader of the Republicans, he had, in a +speech at Bloomington, Illinois, asserted that, "the conclusion of it +all is that we must restore the Missouri Compromise."</p> + +<p>Now the adoption of the Missouri Compromise was the hardest blow ever +inflicted on the cause of free soil in America. It did more to +encourage the <!-- Page 140 --><a name="Page_140"></a>supporters of slavery and to discourage its opponents +than anything else that ever happened. Its restoration would +undoubtedly have produced a similar effect. Although he is not to be +credited with any philanthropic motive, Stephen A. Douglas did an +effective work for freedom when he helped to overthrow that measure. +Leading Abolitionists have accorded him that meed of praise.</p> + +<p>But there was that proposition which Mr. Lincoln was so fond of +repeating, that the nation could not remain half free and half +slave—"a divided house"—but the remedy he had to propose was not +manumission at any proximate or certain time, but the adoption of a +policy that, to use his own words, would cause "the public mind to +rest in the belief that it [slavery] was in the course of ultimate +extinction." Practically that meant very little or nothing. What the +public mind then needed was not "rest," but properly directed +activity.</p> + +<p>But the declarations above quoted were all before Mr. Lincoln had +become President or had probably thought of such a thing. Did the +change of position lead to a change of opinion on his part? We are not +left in uncertainty on this point. His official views were declared in +what might be called a State paper. Soon after his inauguration, his +Secretary of State sent Minister Dayton, at Paris, a dispatch that he +might use with foreign officials, in which, in speaking of the +Rebellion, he said: "The condition of slavery in the several States +will remain just the same whether it succeeds or fails.... It is +hardly necessary to add to this incontrovertible statement the further +fact that the new President <!-- Page 141 --><a name="Page_141"></a>has always repudiated all designs, +whenever and wherever imputed to him, of disturbing the system of +slavery as it has existed under the Constitution and laws."</p> + +<p>About the same time Mr. Lincoln stated to a party of Southern +Congressmen, who called upon him, that he "recognized the rights of +property that had grown out of it [slavery] and would respect those +rights as fully as he would similar rights in any other property."</p> + +<p>No steps were taken by Mr. Lincoln to recall or repudiate the +foregoing announcements. On the contrary, he confirmed them in his +official action. He annulled the freedom proclamations of Frémont and +Hunter. He did not interfere when some of his military officers were +so busy returning fugitive slaves that they had no time to fight the +masters. He approved Hallock's order Number Three excluding fugitives +from the lines. He even permitted the poor old Hutchinsons to be sent +away from the army very much as if they had been colored people, when +trying to rouse "the boys" with their freedom songs. In many ways Mr. +Lincoln showed that in the beginning and throughout the earlier part +of his Administration he hoped to re-establish the Union without +disturbing slavery. In effect he so declared in his introduction to +his freedom proclamation. He gave the rebel slaveholders one hundred +days in which to abandon their rebellion and save their institution. +In view of such things it is no wonder that Henry Wilson, so long a +leading Republican Senator from Massachusetts, in his <i>Rise and Fall +of the Slave Power</i>, in speaking of emancipation, <!-- Page 142 --><a name="Page_142"></a>said "it was a +policy, indeed, which he [the President] did not personally favor +except in connection with his favorite idea of colonization."</p> + +<p>It is needless to say that the President's attitude was a great +surprise and a sore disappointment to the more radical Anti-Slavery +people of the country, who had supported him with much enthusiasm and +high hopes. They felt that they had been deceived. They said so very +plainly, for the Abolitionists were not the sort of people to keep +quiet under provocation. Horace Greeley published his signed attack +(see Appendix) entitled, <i>The Prayer of Twenty Millions</i>, which is, +without doubt, the most scathing denunciation in the English language. +Henry Ward Beecher "pounded" Mr. Lincoln, as he expressed it. Wendell +Phillips fairly thundered his denunciations. There was a general +under-swell of indignation.</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Lincoln was not a man who was incapable of reading the signs +of the times. He saw that he was drifting towards an irreparable +breach with an element that had previously furnished his staunchest +supporters. As a politician of great native shrewdness, as well as the +head of the Government, he could not afford to let the quarrel go on +and widen. There was need of conciliation. Something had to be done. +We know what he did. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation.</p> + +<p>As far as freeing any slaves was concerned, he knew it amounted to +very little, if anything. He said so. Less than two weeks before the +preliminary section of the proclamation appeared, Mr. Lincoln was +waited on by a delegation of over one hundred <!-- Page 143 --><a name="Page_143"></a>Chicago clergymen, who +urged him to issue a proclamation of freedom for the slaves. "What +good would a proclamation from me do, especially as we are now +situated?" asked Mr. Lincoln by way of reply. "I do not want to issue +a document that the whole world would see must necessarily be +inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word +free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the +rebel States?"</p> + +<p>In contemplating a proclamation applicable to the rebel States, it is +hardly to be supposed that Mr. Lincoln did not understand the +situation two weeks earlier quite as well as when the document +appeared.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Lincoln had been told, when he entered on the Presidency, that +before his term of office would expire he would be hailed as "The +Great Emancipator," he would have treated the statement as equal to +one of his own best jokes. Slavery was a thing he did not then want to +have disturbed. He discountenanced all radical agitators of the +subject, and especially in the border slave States, where he was able +to hold them pretty well in check, except in Missouri. There they +stood up and fought him, and in the end beat him. One of the rather +curious results of this condition of things was that, when the States +came to action on the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, the one +absolutely abolishing slavery, the three border slave States of +Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, over which the President's influence +was practically supreme, gave an adverse vote of four to one, while +Missouri, with whose radical emancipationists he had continuously been +at loggerheads, ratified the amendment by a <!-- Page 144 --><a name="Page_144"></a>legislative vote of one +hundred and eleven ayes to forty nays.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, notwithstanding the President, at the beginning of his +official term, opposed Anti-Slavery agitation and Anti-Slavery action +with all his might, he promptly faced about as soon as he discovered +that the subject was one that would not "down." No one ever worked +harder to find a solution of a difficult problem than he did of the +slavery question. He began to formulate plans to that end, the most +distinguishing feature, however, being the spirit of compromise by +which they were pervaded. All of them stopped before an ultimatum was +reached. Besides his proclamation, which, as we have seen, applied to +only a part of the slaves, he devised a measure that would have been +applicable to all of them. In his special message of December, 1863, +he proposed to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment +that would work universal liberation. There were conditions, however. +One was that the slaves should be paid for by the Government; another +that the masters might retain their uncompensated services until +January 1, 1900; that is, for a period of thirty-seven years, unless +they were sooner emancipated by the grave, as the most of them would +be. (See Appendix.)</p> + +<p>The President's somewhat fantastic proposition was not claimed by him +to be for the bondman's benefit. He urged it as a measure of public +economy, holding that, as slavery was the admitted cause of the +Rebellion, the quickest and surest way to remove that cause would be +by purchase of all <!-- Page 145 --><a name="Page_145"></a>the slaves, which, he insisted, "would shorten the +war, and thus lessen the expenditure of money and blood."</p> + +<p>The public did not take to the President's plan at all, especially the +Abolitionists did not. They no more favored the buying of men by the +Government than by anybody else. They held that if the master had no +right to the person of his bondman, he had no right to payment for +him. And as for an arrangement that might prolong slaveholding for +thirty-seven years, they saw in it not only a measure of injustice to +the men, women, and children then in servitude, the most of whom would +be doomed to bondage for the rest of their natural lives, but a +possible plan for side-tracking a genuine freedom movement.</p> + +<p>In the proposition just considered we have not only the core of the +President's policy during much of his official tenure, but an +explanation of his mental operations. He was sentimentally opposed to +slavery, but he was afraid of freedom. He dreaded its effect on both +races. He was opposed to slavery more because it was a public nuisance +than because of its injustice to the oppressed black man, whose +condition, he did not believe, would be greatly, if at all, benefited +by freedom. Hence he wanted manumission put off as long as possible. +It was "ultimate extinction" he wanted, to be attended with payment to +the master for his lost property. Another thing he favored—and which +he seems to have thought entirely practicable—as a condition to +liberation, was the black man's removal to a place or places out of +contact with our white population.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 146 --><a name="Page_146"></a>But in entire fairness to Mr. Lincoln, it should be said that, +although his proclamation was inoperative for the immediate release of +any slaves, it was by no means wholly ineffectual. Its moral influence +was considerable. It helped to hasten a movement that had, however, by +that time become practically irresistible. Its political results were +far more marked and important. If it did not fully restore cordiality +between the President and the Abolition leaders, it prevented an open +rupture. It served as a bridge between them. Although they never took +Mr. Lincoln fully into their confidence again, the Abolitionists +interpreted his proclamation as a concession and an abandonment of his +previous policy, which it was much more in appearance than actually. +At all events, it was splendid politics. The somewhat theatrical +manner in which it was worked up and promulgated in installments, thus +arousing in advance a widespread interest and curiosity, showed no +little strategic ability. No more skillful move is recorded in the +history of our parties and partisans than this act of Mr. Lincoln, by +which he disarmed his Anti-Slavery critics without giving them any +material advantage or changing the actual situation. I am not now +speaking of the motive underlying the proclamation of the President, +but of its effect. Without it he could not have been renominated and +re-elected.</p> + +<p>Another observation, in order to be entirely just to Mr. Lincoln, +after what has been stated, would at this point seem to be called for. +There is no doubt that from the first he was at heart an Anti-Slavery +man, which is saying a good deal for one <!-- Page 147 --><a name="Page_147"></a>born in Kentucky, raised in +southern Indiana and southern Illinois, and who was naturally of a +conservative turn of mind. Nevertheless, he was never an Abolitionist. +He was opposed to immediate—what he called "sudden"—emancipation. He +recognized the "right"—his own word—of the slave-owner to his pound +of flesh, either in the person of his bondman or a cash equivalent. He +was strongly prejudiced against the negro. Of that fact we have the +evidence in his colonization ideas. He favored the banishment of our +American-born black people from their native land. It was a cruel +proposition. True, the President did move from his first position, +which, as we have seen, was far from that occupied by the +Abolitionists, but from first to last he was more of a follower than +leader in the procession.</p> + +<p>And here the author wishes to add, in justice to himself, that if, by +reason of anything he has said in this chapter, or elsewhere in this +work, in criticism of Mr. Lincoln's dealings with the slavery issue, +he should be accused of unfriendliness toward the great martyr +President, he enters a full and strong denial. He holds that, in view +of all the difficulties besetting him, Mr. Lincoln did well, although +he might have done better. Much allowance, must be made to one +situated as he was. He undoubtedly deserves the most of the encomiums +that have been lavished upon him. At the same time, the conclusion is +inevitable that his fame as a statesman will ultimately depend less +upon his treatment of the slavery issue than upon any other part of +his public administration. The fact will <!-- Page 148 --><a name="Page_148"></a>always appear that it was +the policy of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, +Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and other advocates of the radical +cure, with whom the President was in constant opposition, that +prevailed in the end, and with a decisiveness that proves it to have +been feasible and sound from the beginning. Mr. Lincoln's most ultra +prescription—his Emancipation Proclamation—was ineffective. If it +was intended to eradicate slavery altogether, it was too narrow; if to +free the slaves of Rebels only, it was too broad. So with his other +propositions. His thirty-seven-year-liberation scheme, his "tinkering +off" policy (as he called it) for Missouri, his reconstruction +proposals, and his colonization projects, all failed. Indeed, if we +take his official action from first to last, it is a question whether +the President, owing to his extreme conservatism, was not more of an +obstructionist than a promoter of the Anti-Slavery cause.</p> + +<p>Not that any change of opinion on the point just stated will +materially affect the general estimate in which Mr. Lincoln is held. +Although his popularity, due, in part at least, to the extravagance of +over-zealous admirers, has without much doubt already passed its +perihelion, it can never disappear or greatly diminish. His untiring +and exhaustive labors for the Union, the many lovable traits of his +unique personality, his unquestionable honesty, his courage, his +patriotism, and, above all, his tragic taking off, have unalterably +determined his place in the regard of his countrymen. Indeed, so +strong is the admiration in which he is held, that it would be vain to +attempt to disabuse many, by any amount <!-- Page 149 --><a name="Page_149"></a>of proof and argument, of the +opinion that African slavery in this country was actually and +exclusively killed by a presidential edict. So firmly fixed in the +popular belief is that historical myth that it will undoubtedly live +for many years, if not generations, although history in the end will +right it like all other misunderstandings.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln had his weaknesses and limitations, like other men. All +must admit that his treatment of the slavery question was not without +its mistakes. It has always seemed to the writer that his most ardent +admirers seriously blunder in claiming superlativeness for him in that +regard, and more especially in giving him credit for results that were +due to the efforts of other men. His fame is secure without such +misappropriation. He would not ask it if living, and it will in due +time be condemned by history.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><h2><!-- Page 150 --><a name="Page_150"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE END OF ABOLITIONISM</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The original and distinctive Abolition movement that was directed +against slavery in all parts of the land without regard to State or +territorial lines, and because it was assumed to be wrong in principle +and practice, may be said, as far as the country at large was +concerned, to have culminated at the advent of the Republican party. +To a considerable extent it disappeared, but its disappearance was +that of one stream flowing into or uniting with another. The union of +the two currents extended, but did not intensify, the Anti-Slavery +sentiment of the country. It diluted it and really weakened it. It +brought about a crisis of great peril to the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism—in some respects the most critical through which it +was called upon to pass. Many of those attaching themselves to the +Republican party, as the new political organization was called, were +not in sympathy with Abolitionism. They were utterly opposed to +immediate emancipation; or, for that matter, to emancipation of any +kind. They wanted slavery to remain where it was, and were perfectly +willing that it should be undisturbed. They disliked the blacks, and +did not want to have them freed, fearing that if set at liberty they +would overrun what was then free soil.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 151 --><a name="Page_151"></a>The writer recollects hearing a prominent man in the new party, who +about that time was making a public speech, declare with great +emphasis that, "as for the niggers, they are where they ought to be." +The speaker on that occasion was one of many who belonged to the +<i>débris</i> of the broken-up Whig party, and who drifted into +Republicanism because there was no other more attractive harbor to go +to. One of these men was Abraham Lincoln, whom I heard declare in his +debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois: "I was with the old-line Whigs +from the origin to the end of their party." The Whigs were never an +Anti-Slavery party. The recruits to Republicanism from that quarter +were generally very tender on "the nigger question," and the most they +were prepared to admit was that they were opposed to slavery's +extension. These men largely dominated the new party. They generally +dictated its platforms, which, compared with earlier Abolition +utterances, were extremely timid, and they had much to do with making +party nominations. Their favorite candidates were not those whose +opinions on the slavery question were positive and well understood, +but those whose views were unsettled if not altogether unknown. When +General Frémont was nominated for the Presidency, not one in ten of +those supporting him knew what his opinions on that subject were, and +a good many of them did not care. Mr. Lincoln was accepted in much the +same way.</p> + +<p>It is true that, from certain expressions about the danger to our +national house from being "half free" and "half slave," and other +generalizations <!-- Page 152 --><a name="Page_152"></a>of a more or less academic sort, it was known that +Mr. Lincoln was antagonistic to slavery; but as to whether he favored +that institution's immediate or speedy extinguishment, and, if so, by +what measures, was altogether unknown. We now know, from what has been +set forth in another chapter, that at the time of his first nomination +and election, he had very few things in common with the Abolitionists. +He then evidently had no thought of being hailed as the "liberator of +a race." He preferred, for the time at least, that the race in +question should remain where it was, and as it was, unless it could be +bodily transported to some other country and be put under the +protection of some other flag.</p> + +<p>He did not break with the Abolitionists, although he kept on the edge +of a quarrel with them, and especially with what he called the +"Greeley faction," a good part of the time. He never liked them, but +he was a shrewd man—a born politician—and was too sagacious to +discard the principal round in the ladder by which he had climbed to +eminence. He managed to keep in touch with the Anti-Slavery movement +through all its steady advancement, but, as elsewhere stated, it was +as a follower rather than as a leader.</p> + +<p>While a resident of the slave State of Missouri, I twice voted for Mr. +Lincoln, which was some evidence of my personal feeling toward him. +Both times I did it somewhat reluctantly. On the first occasion there +were four candidates. Breckenridge and Bell were Southern men—both by +residence and principle—and had no claim on Anti-Slavery support. But +with Douglas the case was different. <!-- Page 153 --><a name="Page_153"></a>He had quarreled with the +pro-slavery leaders, although of his own party. He had defied +President Buchanan in denouncing border-ruffianism in Kansas. He had +refused to give up his "popular sovereignty" dogma, although it +clearly meant ultimate free soil. The slave-masters hated him far more +than they did Lincoln. I heard them freely discuss the matter. They +were more afraid of the vindictiveness of the fiery Douglas than of +the opposition of good-hearted, conservative Lincoln. In my opinion +there was good reason for that feeling. Douglas, as President, would +undoubtedly have pushed the war for the Union with superior energy, +and slavery would have suffered rougher treatment from his hands than +it did from Mr. Lincoln's. There was another reason why the +slaveholders preferred the election of Lincoln to that of Douglas. +Lincoln's election would furnish the better pretext for the rebellion +on which they were bent, and which they had already largely planned. +They were resolved to defeat Douglas at all hazards, and they +succeeded.</p> + +<p>Douglas had been very distasteful to the Abolitionists. They called +him a "dough-face." Nevertheless, quite a number of them where I lived +in Missouri voted for him. Missouri was the only State he carried, and +there he had less than five hundred majority. He got more than that +many free-soil votes. I was strongly tempted to give him mine. Chiefly +on account of political associations, I voted for Lincoln.</p> + +<p>When it came to the second election, I again voted for Mr. Lincoln +with reluctance. The principal <!-- Page 154 --><a name="Page_154"></a>reason for my hesitancy was his +treatment of the Anti-Slavery people of the border slave States, and +especially of Missouri. The grounds for my objection on that score +will appear in the next chapter, which deals with the Missouri +embroglio, as it was called.</p> + +<p>From what has just been stated, it will be seen that the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism had, at the formation of the Republican party, reached +a most perilous crisis. It was in danger of being submerged and +suffocated by unsympathetic, if not positively unfriendly, +associations. It ran the risk, after so many years of toil and +conflict, of being undone by those in whose support it was forced to +confide. Such would undoubtedly have been its fate if, owing to +circumstances over which no political party or other organization of +men had control, the current of Anti-Slavery sentiment had not risen +to a flood that swept all before it.</p> + +<p>It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis just alluded +to, the nearest approach to original Abolitionism that was to be +found, was in a slave State. In Missouri there was an organized +opposition to slavery that had been maintained for several years, and +which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed by this movement was +undoubtedly due in large measure to the inspiration of the man who was +its originator, if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton. +Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has been a +much-disputed question, but one thing is certain, and that is that the +men who sat at his feet, who were his closest disciples and imbibed +the most of his spirit—such as <!-- Page 155 --><a name="Page_155"></a>B. Gratz Brown, John How, the Blairs, +the Filleys, and other influential Missourians,—were Abolitionists. +Some of them weakened under the influence of the national +administration, but not a few of them maintained their integrity. Even +in the first days of the Civil War, when all was chaos there, an +organization was maintained, although at one time its only working and +visible representatives consisted of the members of a committee of +four men—a fifth having withdrawn—who were B. Gratz Brown, +afterwards a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards +Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of St. Louis, and the +writer of this narrative. They issued an appeal that was distributed +all over the State, asking those in sympathy with their views to hold +fast to their principles, and to keep up the contest for unconditional +freedom. To that appeal there was an encouraging number of favorable +responses.</p> + +<p>And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said to have been lost +by merger elsewhere, it remained in its independence and integrity in +slaveholding Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil, and +in four years so far made itself master of the situation that a +constitutional State convention, chosen by popular vote, adopted an +ordinance under which an emancipationist Governor issued his +proclamation, declaring that "hence and forever no person within the +jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of +liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, +or know any master but God."</p> + +<p>The writer entered on this work with no purpose <!-- Page 156 --><a name="Page_156"></a>of relating or +discussing the story of the Republican party, in whole or in any part. +His subject was Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but +for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which reference has just +been made. That manifestation, he thinks, is deserving of recognition, +both on its own account and as a continuation of the original +movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute to its discussion +because he was then a Missourian by residence, and had something to do +with its successful prosecution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a><h2><!-- Page 157 --><a name="Page_157"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>MISSOURI</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In his interesting, though rather melodramatic, romance, <i>The Crisis</i>, +Winston Churchill tells the imaginary story of a young lawyer who went +from New England to St. Louis, and settled there shortly before the +outbreak of the Civil War. Having an abundance of leisure, and being +an Abolitionist, he devoted a portion of the time that was not +absorbed by his profession to writing articles on slavery for the +<i>Missouri Democrat</i>, which, notwithstanding its name, was the organ of +the Missouri emancipationists, and lived in part on the money he +received as compensation for that work. That in part describes the +author's experience. He was at that time a young lawyer in St. Louis, +to which place he had come from the North, and those who have read the +earlier chapters of this work are aware that he was an Abolitionist. +Having a good deal of time that was not taken up by his professional +employments, he occupied a portion of it in writing Anti-Slavery +contributions to the <i>Democrat</i>, and, so far as he knows, he was the +only person who to any extent did so. A collection was made of a +portion of his articles, and with money contributed by friends of the +cause, they were published in <!-- Page 158 --><a name="Page_158"></a>pamphlet form under the title of <i>Hints +toward Emancipation in Missouri</i>, and distributed throughout the +State.</p> + +<p>There the parallelism of the cases ceases. The writer got no pecuniary +compensation for his labor. He asked for none and expected none. The +<i>Democrat</i> was then in no condition to pay for volunteer services, +having a hard struggle for existence. He was able to do it a service +that, possibly, saved it from at least a temporary suspension. One of +its chief difficulties was in getting printing paper, the manufacturer +it had been patronizing declining to furnish it except for cash, while +the <i>Democrat</i> needed partial credit. At that time Louis Snyder, of +Hamilton, Ohio, a large paper-maker, visited St. Louis on business +that called for legal assistance, and I was employed by him. When the +work in hand was finished, I remarked that there was something else he +might do in St. Louis that would pay him. I explained the situation of +the <i>Democrat</i>, and assured him that, in my opinion, he would be +perfectly safe in giving trust to its proprietors, who were honest +men.</p> + +<p>"Will you indorse their paper?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Mr. Snyder was a crafty as well as a thrifty German.</p> + +<p>I replied that, as I was not a wealthy man, the question did not seem +to be pertinent.</p> + +<p>"Will you indorse their paper for one thousand dollars?" was his next +question.</p> + +<p>Being by this time somewhat "spunked up," I replied that I would.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall be pleased to meet your friends," said Mr. Snyder.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 159 --><a name="Page_159"></a>The result of the interview that followed was such that the +<i>Democrat</i> was materially assisted in continuing its publication.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to state that I never heard anything more of +the one-thousand-dollar indorsement, the sole purpose of which was, +doubtless, to test my sincerity.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards I was offered the political editorship of the +<i>Democrat</i>, which I accepted on the one condition that there was to be +"no let-up on emancipation." I held the position until Missouri was a +free State.</p> + +<p>In a surprisingly short time after the question of Missouri's status +in reference to the Union was decided, the issue between +Pro-Slaveryism and Anti-Slaveryism came up. Political parties ranged +themselves upon it. Those who favored slavery's immediate or speedy +abolishment became known as Radicals, while those advocating its +prolongation were called Conservatives. Those descriptives, however, +were too mild for such a time, and they were quickly superseded by a +more expressive local nomenclature. The Radicals, because of their +alleged sympathy with the negro, were branded as "Charcoals," and +their opponents, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and +Semi-Unionists, because of the variegated complexion of the mixture, +were set down as "Claybanks." Mulattoes are Claybanks.</p> + +<p>The Claybanks, or Conservatives, at the outset enjoyed a decided +advantage in having the State government on their side. This was not +the regularly elected administration, which was driven out <!-- Page 160 --><a name="Page_160"></a>because of +its open support of secession, but its provisional successor. In +trying to take the State out of the Union with a show of legality, the +lawful Governor and his official associates made provision for a State +convention to be chosen by the people, which they expected to control, +but which, having a Unionist majority, played the boomerang on them by +sending them adrift and taking the affairs of the State into its own +hands. In this it had opposition. The most progressive men of the +State insisted that, after it had settled the question of Missouri's +relations to the Union, with reference to which it was specially +chosen, it was <i>functus officio</i>. They held that there should be a new +and up-to-date convention, especially as the old one, owing to the +desertion of many of its treasonably inclined members, including +General Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, who was its first +president, had become "a rump," and so there were old-conventionists +and new-conventionists. The old-convention men, however, were in the +saddle. They had the governmental machinery, and were resolved to hold +on to it. In that spirit the convention proceeded to fill the vacant +offices. It was in sentiment strongly pro-slavery, as was shown by the +fact that a proposal looking to the very gradual extinguishment of +slavery was rejected by it in an almost unanimous vote, a circumstance +that led the leading pro-slavery journal of the State to boast that +the convention had killed emancipation "at the first pop." Very +naturally such a body selected pro-slavery officials. Hamilton R. +Gamble, whom it made Governor, was a bigoted supporter of "the +<!-- Page 161 --><a name="Page_161"></a>institution." He had not long before been mixed up in the proceedings +that compelled Elijah P. Lovejoy to leave Missouri for Alton, +Illinois, where he was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Gamble was an +able and ambitious man.</p> + +<p>The Conservatives, likewise, had the backing of the Federal +Administration—a statement that to a good many people nowadays will +be surprising. There were reasons why such should be the case. Judge +Bates, of Missouri, who was Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, had +long been Gamble's law partner and most intimate friend. He never was +more than nominally a Republican. Another member of the Cabinet was +Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who had been a resident of Missouri, +and was a brother of General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. +General Blair had been the leader of the Missouri emancipationists, +but had turned against them. For his face-about there were, at least, +two intelligible reasons. One was that in the quarrel between him and +Frémont the most of his former followers had sided with Frémont. That +was enough to sour him against them. The other was a very natural +desire to be solid with the administration at Washington, which, as +elsewhere shown, was not then actively Anti-Slavery. It did not want +the question of slavery agitated, especially in the border slave +States.</p> + +<p>The Blairs were a clan as well as a family. The quarrel of one was the +quarrel of all, and the Missouri Radicals had no more effective +antagonist than the old Washington editor and politician, Francis P. +Blair, Sr., the family's head, who was so intimate <!-- Page 162 --><a name="Page_162"></a>with the President +that it was understood he could at any time enter the White House by +the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>The writer was once a member of a delegation of Missouri "Charcoals" +that went to Washington to see the President. An hour was set for the +interview, and we were promptly at the door of the President's +chamber, where we were kept waiting for a considerable time. At last +the door opened, but before we could enter, out stepped a little old +man who tripped away very lightly for one of his years. That little +old man was Francis P. Blair, Sr., and we knew that we had been +forestalled. The President received us politely and patiently listened +to what we had to say, but our mission was fruitless.</p> + +<p>The Radicals of Missouri sent deputation after deputation to the White +House, and got nothing they wanted. The Conservatives never sent a +deputation, and got all they wanted. They had advocates at the +President's elbows all the time.</p> + +<p>With both State and Federal administrations against them, the Missouri +Charcoals may be regarded as foolhardy in persisting in the fight they +made for the deliverance of their State from slavery. They did +persist, however, and with such success in propagating their views +that Governor Gamble and the other Conservative leaders decided that +heroic measures to hold them in check were necessary. He undertook to +cut the ground from under their feet. The old convention that had +killed emancipation "at the first pop," or as much of it as was in +existence, was called together by the Governor, who appealed to it to +take such action as would <!-- Page 163 --><a name="Page_163"></a>quiet agitation on the slavery question. +Accordingly, it proceeded to enact what was called an emancipation +ordinance. The trouble with it was that it emancipated nobody. It +provided for the liberation of part of the slaves at a distant future +day, allowing the rest to remain as they were. The Radicals simply +laughed at the measure. They pronounced it a snare and a fraud, and +went right on with their work for unconditional freedom, and the +slave-owners continued to hold their human property the same as +before.</p> + +<p>The Conservatives, however, had not exhausted their resources. They +sought to secure the military as well as the civil control. On the +assurance that he could maintain peace and order, Governor Gamble was +given authority by the President to recruit an army of State troops, +which, although equipped and paid out of the national treasury, he was +to officer and direct. The organization was entrusted to General John +M. Scofield, a resident of Missouri, and one of the Governor's +friends.</p> + +<p>The political advantage to the Conservatives of exercising military +control at such a time is obvious enough. But at first there was an +obstruction in the person of General Samuel R. Curtis, the Federal +commander of the district, who was not a man to waive his superior +prerogative at a time when martial law prevailed, and who was, +besides, openly in sympathy with the Radicals. They got not only +protection from him, but about all the patronage he had to give. +Pretty soon it was discovered that active efforts for the removal of +Curtis were in progress. Charges of irregularities—afterwards shown +<!-- Page 164 --><a name="Page_164"></a>to be without any foundation—were circulated against him. Indignant +because of such injustice to their friend, the Radicals were further +incensed when they learned that the scheme was to make Scofield his +successor.</p> + +<p>Against General Scofield, as a gentleman and soldier, they had nothing +to say; but his affiliation with their opponents made him obnoxious to +them, and they sent a vigorous protest against his appointment to the +President. The proposed change, however, was made, and the inevitable +disagreement between the new commander and the Radicals quickly +developed.</p> + +<p>Scofield's administration was not successful. The principal cause of +failure was the adoption of Governor Gamble's policy of trying to run +the State without the help of Federal troops. They were pretty much +all sent away, and an elaborate plan for substituting an "enrolled +militia" was put in operation. Here was an opportunity of which the +Rebels were quick to take advantage. They had a wholesome regard for +United States soldiers, particularly under Curtis, who at Pea Ridge +had given them the worst drubbing they ever received west of the +Mississippi, but they cared little for "Gamble's militia," into which +a good many of their friends were mustered, and when the pressure of +Curtis's strong hand was removed they at once aroused to pernicious +activity.</p> + +<p>At this time it can be safely said that nowhere, outside of hell, was +there such a horrible condition as prevailed in Missouri. Singly and +in squads a good many of Price's men returned from the South, and +<!-- Page 165 --><a name="Page_165"></a>with local sympathizers forming guerrilla bands under such leaders as +"Bill" Anderson, Poindexter, Jackson, and Quantrell, soon had +practical possession of the greater part of the State. The Radicals +were the principal sufferers. Conservatives, except by the occasional +loss of property, were rarely molested. Between them and the Rebels +there was often an agreement for mutual protection—in fact, it was +not always easy to draw the line between them,—but the Charcoals, +especially if they were "Dutchmen," could look for no compassion. They +were shot down in their fields. They were called to their doors at +night and there dispatched. Their houses were burned and their stock +stolen. Many families of comparative wealth and refinement, including +women and children, because of the insecurity of their homes, slept in +the woods for weeks and months. The Radicals were not always fortunate +enough to escape bodily torture. Having captured one of the best known +among them, an old man and a civilian, some of "Bill" Anderson's men +set him up against the wall of his house as a target for pistol +practice. Their play consisted in seeing how near they could put their +shots without hitting, and this amusement they kept up while his wife +was running about in an effort to raise the amount of money that was +demanded for his ransom.</p> + +<p>So successful were the Rebel bands at this time that Missouri was not +large enough to hold them. One of them, led by Quantrell, crossed the +Kansas line, captured the city of Lawrence, and butchered two hundred +of its peaceable inhabitants, while the <!-- Page 166 --><a name="Page_166"></a>border towns and cities of +Iowa and Illinois were greatly alarmed for their safety.</p> + +<p>So intolerable did the situation become, that the Radicals from all +parts of the State met in conference and decided to send a delegation +to ask Mr. Lincoln to change the department commander, in the hope +that it would bring a change of policy.</p> + +<p>It is to be presumed that no President was ever confronted with such a +motley crowd of visitors as the members of that delegation—between +seventy and eighty in number—as they formed in line around three +sides of the East Room in the White House. Their garments were a +sight! Some of the men were in full military dress and some in +civilian clothes, but the costumes of a majority were a mixture of +both kinds, just as accident had arranged it, and pretty much all +showed evidences of hard usage. One of the most forward of the +delegates had neither cuffs nor collar, and his shirt had manifestly +not been near a laundry for a long time. He apologized to the +President for his appearance, saying that he had been sleeping in the +woods where toilet accommodations were very indifferent. Two or three +of the men bore marks of battle with the guerrillas, in patched-up +faces, and one of them carried an arm that had been disabled by a gun +shot in a red handkerchief sling. In speaking of these visitors, the +President afterwards jocularly referred to them as "those crackerjacks +from Missouri."</p> + +<p>A formal address was presented, the principal point being that, as the +Missouri Unionists had furnished many thousand recruits to the Federal +Army, they had a right to look to the Government for <!-- Page 167 --><a name="Page_167"></a>soldiers to +assist in protecting their families and their property. And here it +will do no harm to state that, notwithstanding the heavy drain made by +the Confederacy, Missouri, during the war, furnished 109,000 men to +the national army.</p> + +<p>After their formal address had been presented to the President, the +members of the delegation tackled him, one after the other, as the +spirit moved them, and it can truthfully be said that in some of the +bouts that ensued he did not come out "first best." He admitted as +much when, afterwards referring to this meeting, he spoke of the +Missouri Radicals as "the unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with +in a discussion."</p> + +<p>The conclusion of the interview was attended with an unexpected +incident. The recognized leading spokesman of the Missourians was the +Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, who was made Chief Justice of the +Court of Claims at Washington by Grant, when he became President. He +was a very forcible speaker. As Mr. Lincoln indicated by rising from +his seat that the conference was at an end, Mr. Drake stepped forward +and in well-chosen words thanked him for the lengthy and courteous +hearing he had given his visitors, and in their names bade him +good-by. Then he started for the door, but something seemed to arrest +him. Turning sharply to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Mr. President, we are +about to return to our homes. Many of these men before you live where +rebel sentiments prevail and where they are surrounded by deadly +enemies. They return at the risk of their lives, and let me tell you +that if any of their lives are sacrificed by reason of <!-- Page 168 --><a name="Page_168"></a>the military +administration you maintain in Missouri, their blood will be upon your +garments and not upon ours."</p> + +<p>The President, evidently greatly surprised, made no oral reply. +Instead of speaking he raised his handkerchief to his eyes. Seeing +that he was weeping, the delegates quietly and quickly filed out, +leaving Mr. Lincoln with his face still concealed.</p> + +<p>The President denied the delegation's request, although his formal +decision was not announced for several days, and its members returned +to their homes, when fortunate enough to have them, sorely +disappointed.</p> + +<p>It is here well enough to state that two or three months later the +President relieved Scofield from his Missouri command and sent him to +the front in the South, much to the betterment of his military +reputation, and doubtless to his own personal gratification. Rosecrans +was made his successor. Among the earliest things he did was the +bringing into the State of a considerable force of Federal troops +under Generals Pleasanton and A.J. Smith. These were sent through the +State. The effect was almost magical. Some of the guerrilla bands went +South to join Price, but the most of them dissolved and disappeared. +Their members, doubtless, went back to their former occupations, and +that was the last of them. Missouri was pacified.</p> + +<p>But were the Missouri Radicals so far disheartened by their rebuffs +from the President that they gave up the fight? Not a bit of it. There +was a tribunal in some respects higher than the President, and to that +they resolved to go. The National Republican <!-- Page 169 --><a name="Page_169"></a>Convention to nominate a +successor to Mr. Lincoln was approaching, and they decided to appeal +to it in a way that would compel a decision between them and the +President. They appointed a delegation to the convention, which they +instructed for General Grant. The Claybanks also appointed a +delegation, which they instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and thus the issue +was made. The convention, although nominating Mr. Lincoln by a vote +that, outside of Missouri's, was unanimous, admitted the Charcoals and +excluded the Claybanks by the remarkable vote of four hundred and +forty to four.</p> + +<p>While of no special consequence, some rather humorous experiences in +connection with the events just spoken of may not be lacking in +interest or altogether out of place in a work like this.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Missouri for the National Republican Convention, which +was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864, the Radical delegates, including +the writer, decided to go by way of Washington and call upon the +President, thinking that, as there was a contest ahead with his +professed Missouri supporters, a better understanding with him might +be of advantage. As they were pledged to vote for another man, such a +proceeding on their part was certainly somewhat audacious; +nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln received us graciously and listened +patiently to what we had to say.</p> + +<p>"Mr. President," said one of the delegates, "if you were to go out to +Missouri you would find your best friends as well as practically all +the good Republicans of the State on our side of the dividing line."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 170 --><a name="Page_170"></a>Well," remarked the President very deliberately, "in speaking of +dividing lines, the situation in Missouri recalls the story of the old +man who had an unruly sow and pigs. One day, when they escaped from +their enclosure and disappeared, he called his boys and started out to +hunt the runaways. Up one side of the creek they went; but while they +discovered plenty of tracks and rootings, they found no hogs. 'Now let +us go over to the other side of the creek,' said the old gentleman; +but the result was the same—many signs but no pigs. 'Confound those +swine!' exclaimed the old man, 'they root and root on both sides, but +it's mighty hard to find them on either.'"</p> + +<p>We, of course, were left to make the application to ourselves, and +that was all the satisfaction we got.</p> + +<p>Being greatly elated over our victory in the convention, and thinking +it settled some, if not all, disputed points, we decided to return by +way of Washington and again call on the President. We wanted to come +to some sort of understanding with him. As we had just voted against +his nomination such a step may have been more audacious than our +previous action. But, for all that, a pretty late hour on the night of +the convention found us at the door of the President's room, seeking +an interview that had been promised us in answer to a telegram.</p> + +<p>Now, we had in our delegation a gentleman who was accustomed to imbibe +somewhat freely on occasions like that. He had pushed himself to the +front, and, when the door opened for us, in he rushed shouting: "Mr. +President! Mr. President! <!-- Page 171 --><a name="Page_171"></a>Mr. President! we have found that old sow +and pigs for you!"</p> + +<p>The President, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, +looked somewhat startled at first; but as he evidently recalled the +illustration he had given to us, and which was being returned to him, +a broad grin went over his face, although nothing further was said +about the swine. But the incident was disastrous to our business. We +were relying on a prominent St. Louis lawyer, who was with us, to +present our case in a calm and impressive way; but he, taking offense +at being so unceremoniously forestalled, kept his intended speech to +himself. His dignity was hurt, and he had nothing to say. In fact, he +walked away and left us. The result was that our claims were rather +lamely presented, except by the first speaker, and we left the +official presence not a little chagrined and with no favorable +assurance having been obtained.</p> + +<p>By all recognized party rules, when the nominating convention had +given the Missouri Radicals the stamp of regularity, the President was +bound to prefer them in the bestowal of patronage. He did nothing of +the kind. At his death, practically all of the offices in Missouri +that were under his control were held by Claybanks. These men became +enthusiastic supporters of Andrew Johnson, and, at the end of his +term, to a man went over to the Democratic party, of which their +leader, General Blair, was soon made, on the ticket with Horatio +Seymour, the Vice-Presidential candidate. At Lincoln's death, the +Claybanks, as an organization, went out of business.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 172 --><a name="Page_172"></a>Very different was the treatment the Charcoals received at the hands +of General Grant when he became President. He made the leader of the +anti-Scofield delegation to Washington Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims. He made two or three other leading Missouri Radicals foreign +ministers and officially remembered many of the rest of them. He had +been a Missourian, and it was well known that he was in sympathy with +the Radicals in their fight with Lincoln.</p> + +<p>Although the Missouri Radicals did not favor Mr. Lincoln's +candidature, with the exception of a few supporters of Frémont, they +gave him their loyal support at the polls, and through this a large +majority in the State. They acted towards him much more cordially than +he ever acted toward them.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Lincoln, in antagonizing the Missouri Free Soilers, acted +otherwise than from the most conscientious impulses the writer does +not for a moment believe. He opposed them because he disapproved of +their views and policy. He said so most distinctly on one occasion. +Certain German societies of St. Louis, having adopted a set of +resolutions, entrusted them to James Taussig, a leading lawyer of that +city, to present to the President in person. Mr. Taussig's report of +the results of a two hours' interview can be found in several of Mr. +Lincoln's biographies. One passage from the report is here given +because it clearly shows Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the Missouri +problem.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The President," says Mr. Taussig, "said that the Union men in + Missouri who are in favor of gradual <!-- Page 173 --><a name="Page_173"></a>emancipation, represented + his views better than those who are in favor of immediate + emancipation. In explanation of his views on this subject the + President said that in his speeches he had frequently used as an + illustration the case of a man who had an excrescence on the back + of his neck, the removal of which in one operation would result in + the death of the patient, while tinkering it off by degrees would + preserve life."</p> + +<p> "Although sorely tempted," continues Mr. Taussig, "I did not reply + with the illustration of the dog whose tail was amputated by + inches, but confined myself to arguments. The President announced + clearly that, so far as he was at present advised, the Radicals in + Missouri had no right to consider themselves the representatives + of his views on the subject of emancipation in that State."</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing interview, it is well enough to state, was long after +the issuance of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.</p> + +<p>In addition to carrying the State for Mr. Lincoln, the Missouri +Radicals carried it for themselves. They elected a constitutional +convention that promptly passed an unconditional freedom ordinance. +And thus terminated what is certainly one of the most notable contests +in our political history, bringing about, as it did, the triumph of a +reform of unquestionable value to civilization and humanity, which was +accomplished by men working without patronage or other outside help, +with no pecuniary interest at stake, and no incentive beyond the +principle involved.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><h2><!-- Page 174 --><a name="Page_174"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>MISSOURI—<i>Continued</i></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Here follows an extract from the published proceedings of the National +Republican Convention of 1864, in which Mr. Lincoln was renominated.</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"When that State [Missouri] was called, Mr. J.F. Hume addressed + the convention as follows:</p> + +<p> "'It is a matter of great regret that we differ from the majority + of the convention that has been so kind to the Radicals of + Missouri, but we came here instructed. We represent those who are + behind us at home, and we recognize the right of instruction and + intend to obey our instruction; but, in doing so, we declare + emphatically that we are with the Union party of the nation, and + we intend to fight the battle through to the end with it, and + assist in carrying it to victory. We will support your nominees be + they whom they may. I will read the resolution adopted by the + convention that sent us here.'"</p> + +<p> [Here resolution of instruction was read.]</p> + +<p> "'Mr. President, in the spirit of that resolution I cast the + twenty-two votes of Missouri for them an who stands at the head of + the fighting Radicals of the nation—General U.S. Grant.'"</p></div> + +<p>The contention between the Missouri Radical and Conservative +delegations was thrashed out before <!-- Page 175 --><a name="Page_175"></a>the committee on delegates, at an +evening session. Judge Samuel M. Breckenridge, of St. Louis, sustained +the cause of the Conservatives in a very ingenious argument, while the +writer spoke for the Radicals. The result was very satisfactory to the +latter, being, with the exception of one vote for compromise, a +unanimous decision in their favor. That decision was sustained by the +convention in its next day's session by a vote of four hundred and +forty to four.</p> + +<p>Anticipating that the subject would be discussed on the floor of the +convention,—which was not the case, however,—I asked a very eloquent +St. Louis lawyer to take my place as chairman of the Radical +delegation and conduct the debate on the Radical side. He declined. I +then went to three or four Congressmen who were members of the Radical +delegation and made the same appeal to each one of them. All declined. +I suspected at the time that apprehension that a vote for anybody else +would be hissed by Lincoln's friends, had something to do with their +reticence. I had no such apprehension. I did not believe there was +anybody in that convention who would dare to hiss the name of Grant. +If Grant had been a candidate before the convention he would have been +nominated.</p> + +<p>When, as chairman of my delegation, I pronounced his name as +Missouri's choice I remained on my feet for fully a minute while a +dead silence prevailed. Meanwhile all eyes were turned upon me. Then +came a clap from a single pair of hands, being the expression of a +Missouri delegate. Others followed, both inside and outside of the +delegation, <!-- Page 176 --><a name="Page_176"></a>increasing until there was quite a demonstration. When +the clamor had subsided I made the next move according to the +programme agreed upon, and the incident was closed.</p> + +<p>And here it can do no harm to state that General Grant knew that he +was to receive the vote of the Missouri Radicals if they were admitted +to the convention—the newspapers having generally published the +fact—and did not decline the intended compliment. Grant lived in +Missouri for a considerable period, married there, and was on most +friendly terms with the Radical leaders, many of whom he generously +remembered when he got to be President. For their action in voting for +Grant, the Missouri Radical delegates were sharply criticised at the +time, on the alleged ground that they secured admission to the +convention from Lincoln's supporters by concealing the fact—or at +least not revealing it—that they intended to vote for somebody else. +The fact, however, is that there was not a person in the convention +who did not from the first understand where they stood, and exactly +what they intended to do. Their Conservative contestants had +distributed a leaflet, intended as an appeal to the Lincoln men, +setting forth the instructions to both delegations. Instead of the +openly avowed opposition of the Radicals to Mr. Lincoln's nomination +being an impediment in their way, it strengthened them with the +convention, which, notwithstanding its seeming harmony in his support, +contained many delegates who would very much have preferred nominating +somebody else; but who, for lack of organized opposition, were +compelled to vote for him. A sufficient <!-- Page 177 --><a name="Page_177"></a>evidence of that fact was the +presence in the convention of a large number of Congressmen whose +antagonism to the President was notorious. An incident that strikingly +illustrated Congressional sentiment toward the President at that time, +is given in the <i>Life of Lincoln</i>, by Isaac N. Arnold, then a member +of Congress from Illinois. A Pennsylvanian asked Thaddeus Stevens, the +Republican Congressional leader, to introduce him to "a member of +Congress who was friendly to Mr. Lincoln's renomination." Thereupon +Stevens took him to Arnold, saying: "Here is a man who wants to find a +Lincoln member of Congress, and as you are the only one I know of I +bring him to you."</p> + +<p>The same feeling largely prevailed among leading Republicans outside +of Congress. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York <i>Times</i>, in his <i>Life +of Lincoln</i>, says that at that time "nearly all the original +Abolitionists and many of the more decidedly Anti-Slavery members of +the Republican party were dissatisfied with the President." More +explicit testimony is the statement, in his <i>Political Recollections</i>, +of George W. Julian, for many years a leading member of Congress from +Indiana. He says:</p> + +<div class="blkquot"><p>"The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was nearly unanimous, only the + State of Missouri opposing him, but of the more earnest and + thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not + more than one in ten really favored it. It was not only very + distasteful to a large majority of Congress, but to many of the + more prominent men of the party throughout the country."</p></div> + +<p>The writer had an opportunity of witnessing a <!-- Page 178 --><a name="Page_178"></a>peculiar manifestation +of the feeling that has just been spoken of. He attended a conference +of radical Anti-Slavery people that was held in a parlor of one of the +old Pennsylvania Avenue hotels in Washington, a few months before the +nominating convention. A number of well-known politicians were +present, but probably the most prominent was Horace Greeley. The +writer had never before seen the great editor, and was considerably +amused by his unconventional independence on that occasion. He +occupied an easy chair with a high back. Having given his views at +considerable length, he laid his head back on its support and +peacefully went to sleep; but the half-hour lost in slumber did not +prevent him from joining vigorously in the discussion that was going +on as soon as he awoke.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be but one sentiment on that occasion. All entertained +the opinion that, owing to Mr. Lincoln's peculiar views on +reconstruction, and especially his manifest inclination to postpone +actual freedom for the negro to remote periods, and other "unhappy +idiosyncrasies," as one of the speakers expressed it, his re-election +involved the danger of a compromise that would leave the root of +slavery in the soil, and hence his nomination by the Republicans +should be opposed. Chase was clearly the choice of those present, but +no one had a plan to propose, and, while some committees were +appointed, I never heard anything more of the matter. Two or three of +those present on that occasion were in the nominating convention and +quietly voted with the majority for Mr. Lincoln. The writer was <!-- Page 179 --><a name="Page_179"></a>the +only one in both gatherings that maintained his consistency.</p> + +<p>All this, it is well enough to remember, was long after the +President's Emancipation Proclamation had appeared.</p> + +<p>There was, however, another manifestation of the antagonism spoken of +which the public, for some reason, never seemed to "get on to," that +at one time threatened very serious consequences, and which, if it had +gone a little farther, might have materially changed the history of +the country. That was a movement, after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to +compel him to retire from the ticket, or to confront him with a strong +independent Republican candidate. According to Messrs. Nicolay and +Hay, Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries and his biographers, the +movement started in New York City and had its ramifications in many +parts of the country. One meeting was held at the residence of David +Dudley Field, and was attended by such men as George William Curtis, +Noyes, Wilkes, Opdyke, Horace Greeley, and some twenty-five others. In +the movement were such prominent people as Charles Sumner, of +Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. One of the men favorable +to the proposition was Governor Andrew of Massachusetts. "He," says +his biographer, Peleg W. Chandler, "was very busy in the movement in +1864 to displace the President." "The secrecy," he adds, "with which +this branch of the Republican politics of that year has been ever +since enveloped is something marvelous; there were so many concerned +in it. When it all comes out, if it ever does, <!-- Page 180 --><a name="Page_180"></a>it will make a curious +page in the history of the time." The signal for the abandonment of +the movement, according to Mr. Chandler, was given by Mr. Chase.</p> + +<p>Almost at the beginning of the movement the <i>Missouri Democrat</i>, +doubtless because of its supposed opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was +approached on the subject. If the statements made to it were anywhere +near correct, the conspiracy, as it might be called, had the +countenance of a surprisingly great number of weighty Republicans. The +<i>Democrat</i> declined to become a party to the proposed insurrection. It +held that after what had occurred in the Baltimore convention, it +could not consistently and honorably do so.</p> + +<p>There was another reason why it stood aloof. Before the nomination it +was, naturally enough, looking out for some one who might be urged as +a suitable competitor for Mr. Lincoln's place. Andrew Johnson, of +Tennessee, was then quite popular with a good many people of radical +views. The writer prepared an article discussing his availability as +presidential timber and suggested him as a good man for the +nomination. The article appeared as a leader in the <i>Democrat</i>, and +was followed by others in the same vein. The suggestion attracted +attention and led to a good deal of newspaper discussion. Herein we +have, according to the writer's opinion, the leading cause of +Johnson's nomination for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, he was on +the ticket with Lincoln, and the <i>Democrat</i> could not very well go +back on its own man.</p> + +<p>The new departure, as the proposition for another <!-- Page 181 --><a name="Page_181"></a>Republican +candidate in case Mr. Lincoln resolved to stick might be called, that +appeared so formidable at one time, faded away without the public +knowing anything of its existence. The reason was that it had no +candidate. It had relied on Chase, knowing the unfriendliness there +was between him and the President, but Chase said "No," and that was +the end of it.</p> + +<p>The nomination of Mr. Chase for the Chief Justiceship has always been +regarded as an act of great magnanimity on Mr. Lincoln's part, as well +as a clear perception of merit. It was doubtless all that, but the +actions of the two men at this time certainly make out a case of +striking coincidence. Such things rarely come by accident.</p> + +<p>From what has been stated, it will be seen that the Missouri Radicals +were by no means alone in their opposition to the President's +nomination, for which they are so sharply taken to task by some of his +biographers and eulogists. They had plenty of company, the only +difference being that they stood out in the open while the others +acted covertly.</p> + +<p>The Missouri Germans, who mostly approved the candidature of Frémont, +and some of whom refused to vote for Lincoln, have been particularly +assailed. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, in their Lincoln biography, even go +so far as to attack them on the ground of their religious, or rather +anti-religious, beliefs, calling them "materialist Missourians," +"Missouri agnostics," etc., etc.</p> + +<p>Now, after having lived among the Missouri Germans at the time of our +civil troubles, the writer is impelled to say a few words in their +behalf. He <!-- Page 182 --><a name="Page_182"></a>does not hesitate to say that, in his opinion, there was +no body of men of equal numerical strength in this country to whom, at +that crisis, the Government and country had cause to feel under +greater obligation, and justice would require its acknowledgment at +this time. But for them the enemies of the Union would have captured +the city of St. Louis with its great Government arsenal, and with the +arms and ammunition thus secured would have overrun both the States of +Missouri and Kansas. A large preponderance of the American-born +citizens of St. Louis were Rebels. The Union people of that city who +saved the day, were principally the "Dutch," as they were called.</p> + +<p>A large army was needed at that point to protect the Government's +interests, when it had practically no available forces. There was no +law under which it could be organized on the spot. No man could be +made to serve. No pay for service was assured, or even promised. The +army, however, was created by the voluntary and patriotic action of +its members. Nearly a dozen full regiments were organized and +equipped. Nine tenths of their members were Germans. They did not wait +for hostilities to begin. Foreseeing the emergency near at hand, they +organized into companies and regiments, and put themselves on a war +footing before a blow had been struck or a shot had been fired. They +met by night to drill in factory lofts, in recreation halls, and in +whatever other places were most available, the words of command being +generally delivered in German. The writer has a lively recollection of +the difficulties involved in trying to learn military evolutions <!-- Page 183 --><a name="Page_183"></a>from +instructors speaking a language he did not understand.</p> + +<p>Many of the Germans of Missouri had seen service in the Old World. +They had served under Sigel in the struggle of 1848. They found +themselves under Sigel again. It was with the step and bearing of +veterans that they marched (the writer was an eye-witness) in May of +1861, only a few days after Sumter had been fired on, to open the +military ball in the West at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis.</p> + +<p>The same people went with Lyon to the State capital, from which the +Rebel officials were driven, never to return. They were with Lyon at +Wilson's Creek, and with him many of them laid down their lives on +that bloody field. They were wherever hard fighting was to be done in +that part of the country. The writer believes he is correct in saying +they furnished more men to the Government's service than any other +numerically equal body of citizens. So large was their representation +in the Union's forces in that region, that the Rebels were accustomed +to speak of the Union soldiers as "the Dutch."</p> + +<p>The fact that the Germans were fighting for an adopted government +makes their loyalty more conspicuous. What they did was not from a +love of war, but because they were Abolitionists. They were opposed to +slavery. They owned no slaves. They wanted the Government sustained, +because they believed that meant the end of slaveholding. They +supported Frémont largely because of his freedom proclamation.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 184 --><a name="Page_184"></a>And here the writer, before closing his work, wants to say something +about Frémont. He believes no man in this country was made the victim +of greater injustice than he was.</p> + +<p>It has always been the opinion of the writer that, if Frémont had been +permitted to take his own way in his Western command a little longer, +he would have achieved a brilliant military success. He was a weak man +in some respects, being over fond of dress parade. The financial +management of his department was bad, or, rather, very careless. Of +these shortcomings, which were considerably misrepresented and +exaggerated, Frémont's enemies took advantage, and succeeded in +effecting his overthrow in the Western Department. But, +notwithstanding his admitted failings, he gave evidence of military +ability. He showed that he possessed both physical and moral courage, +and he knew how to plan a campaign. He undoubtedly formulated the +movement that resulted in the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry in +Tennessee, taking the initial steps, but of which Halleck got the +credit. He was removed from command when in the field, and almost on +the eve of battle. He had an enthusiastic army and the prospect of a +decisive victory. His recall gave up nearly the whole of Missouri to +the enemy, and was one of the causes of complaint that the Missouri +Unionists had against the National Administration.</p> + +<p>Not long afterwards, with no more than even chances, Frémont defeated +Stonewall Jackson in Virginia—at Cross Keys—which was more than any +of the other Union generals then in that department <!-- Page 185 --><a name="Page_185"></a>could do. His +prompt removal made it sure that he should not do it again.</p> + +<p>It was the misfortune of Frémont that his independence caused him to +clash with selfish interests, and he was sacrificed. He was selected +for the Trans-Mississippi command by the Blairs, evidently with the +expectation that he would bend to their wishes. He soon showed that he +was his own master, and the trouble began. The Union people of his +department were mostly with him, but the Blairs had control of the +administration in Washington.</p> + +<p>As for his freedom proclamation, it was, to a certain extent, an act +of insubordination, but it was right in principle and sound in policy. +Its adoption by the General Government would have saved four years of +contention and turmoil in Missouri, spent in upholding a tottering +institution that was doomed from the first shot of the Rebellion. The +President, however, for reasons elsewhere explained, did not at that +time want slavery interfered with.</p> + +<p>The story of Frémont's fall is best told by Whittier in four lines:</p> + +<p class="poem">"Thy error, Frémont, simply was to act<br /> +A brave man's part without the statesman's tact,<br /> +And, taking counsel but of common-sense,<br /> +To strike at cause as well as consequence."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><h2><!-- Page 186 --><a name="Page_186"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>SOME ABOLITION LEADERS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The references that have been made to General Frank P. Blair of +Missouri have not been complimentary to that individual. They would +indicate on the part of the writer no very exalted admiration for or +estimate of the man. In that particular they are not altogether just. +The stormy period of the Rebellion brought out few more picturesque +figures than his, or in some respects more admirable characters. There +is no question that, but for the efforts of Blair, the Rebels would +have effected the capture of St. Louis at the beginning of the war, to +be followed by the at least temporary control of the entire State of +Missouri, and possibly of Kansas as well. To that end preparations had +been carefully and skillfully made. The leader in the movement was +none other than Missouri's Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who was +justly looked upon as one of the most consummate and accomplished +schemers of the time. He was a Rebel from head to foot. He had taken +office with the deliberate purpose of swinging his State into the +Confederate column, and without regard to the wishes of the majority +of the people whom he officially represented. He was supported by a +sympathetic corps <!-- Page 187 --><a name="Page_187"></a>of official assistants, including a majority of the +Legislature of his State, who gave him whatever legislation he wanted. +Every advantage seemed to be on his side. He would undoubtedly have +succeeded but for the opposition of Blair. In him he encountered an +equal in cunning, and more than a match in courage and energy.</p> + +<p>When the Governor and his helpers were busy raising an army pursuant +to the conditions of a law that had been enacted for the purpose, and +which hampered their operations, Blair went ahead in raising and +equipping an army on the other side without the slightest regard to +law. The presence or absence of a statute did not trouble him in the +least. He called on the Unionists to organize and arm, and when a +sufficient force, composed in greater part of loyal Germans, had +responded he struck the first blow. In a legal aspect the whole +proceeding was irregular, but it was none the less effective.</p> + +<p>When the Governor's army was quietly encamped on the outskirts of St. +Louis, for the capture and occupancy of which it was getting ready, it +found itself unexpectedly surrounded by a superior force, and its +surrender was demanded in a way that admitted of no denial. The writer +was present on the occasion. From a convenient eminence he witnessed +the whole proceeding. When Jackson's men—the rendezvous had in honor +of his Excellency the Governor been named Camp Jackson—were enjoying +themselves on a pleasant summer's day, sleeping on the grass, playing +cards, or escorting their lady friends and other visitors about the +grounds, suddenly they realized that their position was <!-- Page 188 --><a name="Page_188"></a>commanded by +hostile guns. Pointing downward from higher ground not far off were +nearly a score of frowning cannons, behind which stood men with +burning fuses. I had watched the Union forces as they approached. At +the foot of the hill that hid them from the camp they paused for a few +moments, and then up the hill went the horses that were dragging the +cannons at a run. They were wheeled when the summit was reached, and +the guns thrown into position. Everything was ready for action. At the +same time large bodies of armed men, their arms glittering in the +sunlight, were seen approaching from all sides on the double quick. +The Rebels were completely entrapped, and their immediate capitulation +was a thing of course. The credit for the manoeuvres of the day was +given to Captain—afterwards General—Nathaniel Lyon, who was in +immediate command of the Unionists, but everybody understood that the +real leader, as well as instigator, of the movement was Blair.</p> + +<p>Blair had been the admitted leader of the Missouri Abolitionists. He +was as radical as any man among them. One day he stopped me on the +street for the purpose of thanking me for a paper I had contributed to +the <i>Missouri Democrat</i>, in which I had favored what was practically +immediate emancipation in Missouri. He said that was the right kind of +talk, and what we had to come to. I felt greatly flattered, because +there was nothing in the article that disclosed its authorship, and +Mr. Blair had taken the trouble to inquire about it.</p> + +<p>Blair turned against the Missouri Abolitionists when a decided +majority of them turned against <!-- Page 189 --><a name="Page_189"></a>him in his quarrel with Frémont. They +indorsed Frémont's emancipation proclamation, which the President, at +Blair's instigation, it was charged at the time, revoked.</p> + +<p>Blair was a man not only of strong ambition but of arbitrary +temperament. He could not tolerate the idea of a newcomer pre-empting +what he had considered his premises. If he could not rule he was ready +to ruin. That disposition accorded with both his mental and physical +make-up. Bodily he was a bundle of bones and nerves without a particle +of surplus flesh. His hair was red, his complexion was sandy, and his +eyes, when he was excited and angry, had a baleful expression that led +some one in my presence on a certain occasion to speak of them as +"brush-heaps afire."</p> + +<p>He was not an eloquent man, although a ready and frequent public +speaker. His voice was not musical. His strong forte was invective. He +was nearly always denouncing somebody. Apparently, he was never so +happy as when making another miserable. Sometimes his personal +allusions were very broad. He was accustomed in his speeches to refer +to one of Missouri's United States Senators as "that lop-eared +vulgarian." That he was not almost all the time in personal +difficulties was due to the fact that he was known to be a man of +exceptional courage. He was a born fighter. Physically I think he was +the bravest man I ever knew. I witnessed several manifestations of his +fearlessness, but one particularly impressed me.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of the Camp Jackson affair. Although the people in the +Rebel encampment surrendered <!-- Page 190 --><a name="Page_190"></a>without a blow, the incident was +attended with considerable bloodshed. A mob of Rebel sympathizers, +consisting largely of half-grown boys—I was in the midst of the +throng at the time—with their pistols opened fire on a German Union +regiment and killed several of its men. The troops, in return, poured +a volley into the crowd of spectators from which the shots had come, +killing or wounding over forty persons, the most of them, as is usual +in such cases, being inoffensive onlookers. A man standing beside me +and, like myself, a spectator, had the top of one ear clipped off by a +Minié ball as cleanly as if it had been done with a knife. I found +when, soon afterwards, I reached the business center of the city, +where the Rebel element then largely predominated, that the story of +the tragedy had swelled the number of the victims to one thousand. +Intense excitement and the most furious indignation prevailed. +Hundreds of men, with flaming faces, were swearing the most dreadful +oaths that they would shoot Frank Blair, whom they seemed to regard as +wholly responsible, on sight. Many of them were flourishing pistols in +confirmation of their bloody purpose. Just then the attention of the +crowd was drawn to an unusual spectacle. Down Fourth Street, which was +then the leading business avenue of St. Louis, and at that time +densely packed with the excited people, came the Union soldiers with +the prisoners from Camp Jackson on their way to the United States +Arsenal grounds. At the head of the procession marched the men of the +First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for +immediate service, and at their head—the <!-- Page 191 --><a name="Page_191"></a>only mounted man in the +regiment, according to my recollection—rode their Colonel, who was +Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more +conspicuous. No better target could have been offered. I watched the +audacious man, expecting to hear a shot at any moment from the +sidewalk, or from a window of one of the high buildings lining the +street, and to see him topple from his saddle. He understood very well +the danger he was braving. He knew that in that throng, where +everybody was armed, there were hundreds toying with the triggers of +their guns, and trying to muster sufficient courage to shoot him down. +Slowly, and as calmly as if on ordinary dress parade, he led the way +until he passed out of sight. I thought then, and still think, it was +the pluckiest thing I ever witnessed.</p> + +<p>The effect of the breaking up and capture of Camp Jackson was +something wonderful. Up to that time, the Rebels of St. Louis and +their sympathizers had been very demonstrative. In portions of the +city the Rebel cockade, which was a red rosette pinned to the side of +the hat, was conspicuous, and any one not displaying that decoration +was in danger of having his hat smashed upon his head. After Camp +Jackson's surrender, I never saw a Rebel cockade openly worn in St. +Louis.</p> + +<p>At the same time there was an extensive shifting of positions. A good +many men of prominence and wealth, who had been leaning over towards +the South, suddenly straightened up, and not a few of them showed a +strong inclination the other way. Some of the evolutions they executed +were amusing. <!-- Page 192 --><a name="Page_192"></a>One of the first to discuss with the writer the Union +defeat at Bull Run was a former United States Government official. He +was tremendously excited and correspondingly exultant. After +describing how the Southerners had vanquished the Government's men, +and particularly how the South Carolina "black horse" had ridden them +down in deadly slaughter, he cried out, "That's the way we will give +it to you fellows all the time."</p> + +<p>Not very long afterwards General Grant, having entered Tennessee, and +captured Fort Donelson, and many prisoners, was about to visit St. +Louis, and the leading Unionists there decided to give him a grand +reception and an elaborate dinner. Money had to be raised, and among +those I met who were soliciting it was my ex-Government-official +friend. He was fully as happy as he had been before, when the Fort +Donelson affair was alluded to. "Didn't we give it to those fellows +down there?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Out in western Missouri was a young lawyer of great ambition and +considerable promise. He was afterwards a member of Congress. Like a +good many others he was at first puzzled to know what course to take. +In his dilemma he concluded to consult an old politician in that +section who was much famed for his sagacity, and who bore the military +title of General.</p> + +<p>"If you contemplate remaining in Missouri," said the older man to the +junior, "you should take the Southern side. Missouri is a slave State +and a Southern State, and she will naturally go with her section."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 193 --><a name="Page_193"></a>The young man availed himself of an opportunity to make a public +address, in which he aligned himself in the strongest terms with those +who had gone into rebellion. But scarcely had this been done when +Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and among those nominated to +command them was the old Missouri General. It was announced that he +had accepted the appointment. The younger man was amazed. He went in +hot haste for an explanation.</p> + +<p>"It's all true," said the General. "The fact is, when I talked with +you before, I did not think the Northern people would fight for the +Union, but I now see that I was mistaken; and when the Northern +people, being the stronger and richer, do decide to go to war, they +are almost certain to win. You had better take the Northern side."</p> + +<p>"But it is too late," said the youngster. "I have committed myself in +that speech I made."</p> + +<p>"Oh! as for that matter," was the reply, "it's of very little +consequence if you have committed yourself. It's easy to make a speech +on the other side and take the first one back. Nobody looks for +consistency in times like these."</p> + +<p>Many Missourians, as well as many citizens of other border slave +States, at the beginning of the trouble advocated a policy of +neutrality. They saw no necessity for taking sides. I was at a meeting +out in the interior of Missouri, where many citizens had come together +to consult as to the policy they had better pursue. Among them was an +old gentleman who seemed to be looked upon by his neighbors as a +regular Nestor. He was called upon for his <!-- Page 194 --><a name="Page_194"></a>views. "Gentlemen," said +he, "we have got to take sides and maintain our neutrality."</p> + +<p>In that section of the country was another distinguished and unique +personage who conspicuously figured in the events that are here being +dealt with.</p> + +<p>I knew him intimately. I now refer to James H. Lane, who was better +known as "Jim Lane," of Kansas. Like Blair, Lane was a born leader of +men, and a leader under exceptional conditions. He was generally +credited with being a fighter—a dare-devil, in fact—and a desperado; +but in the writer's opinion he was by no means Blair's equal in +personal courage. He had a great deal to do in raising troops and +organizing military movements, but he did not go to the front. His +fighting was chiefly in "private scraps," in one of which he killed +his adversary.</p> + +<p>His paramount ability was as a talker rather than as a fighter. He was +an orator, and his oratory was of a kind that was exactly suited to +his surroundings. No man could more readily adapt himself to the humor +of his hearers. He knew precisely how to put himself on their level. I +have seen him face an audience that was distinctly unfriendly, that +would scarcely give him a hearing; and in less than half an hour every +man in the crowd would be shouting his approval. He could go to his +hearers if he could not bring them to him. I witnessed one of his +performances in that line.</p> + +<p>He was a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. There +was one rival that he particularly feared. The man was the late +General Thomas Ewing, then a resident of Kansas. At that particular +<!-- Page 195 --><a name="Page_195"></a>time he was in the Army and the commandant of the St. Louis District +in Missouri. Lane came to St. Louis and had a talk with the writer, +freely admitting his dread of Ewing and asking for the <i>Missouri +Democrat's</i> support. Having a considerable admiration for Lane as well +as a liking for the man, I promised him such assistance as I could +reasonably give. It happened to be at the time when General Sterling +Price, in making his last raid into Missouri, was threatening St. +Louis with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, and there was no +adequate opposing force at hand. Ewing, with barely a tenth as many +troops, went to the front and heroically engaged the enemy. With no +protection but the walls of a little mud fort he succeeded in +repelling the attack of his powerful adversary. That timely action +probably saved St. Louis.</p> + +<p>At this particular time it was arranged that there should be a meeting +of the Republicans of St. Louis—it was in the midst of an exciting +presidential campaign—at which Lane was to be the principal speaker. +The meeting was held and Lane was addressing a large audience with +great acceptance when the news of Ewing's achievement was received.</p> + +<p>It was then customary, when war intelligence arrived in the course of +any political gathering, and sometimes of religious gatherings, to +suspend all other proceedings until it had been announced and the +audience had time enough to manifest its feeling on the subject.</p> + +<p>Lane was in the midst of an eloquent passage when he was interrupted +by the arrival of the news referred to. He stepped back, and the +news-bearer, <!-- Page 196 --><a name="Page_196"></a>taking his place, proceeded to give a graphic +description of Ewing's performance, concluding with a glowing eulogy +on that personage, and which was received with tremendous cheering. +Understanding Lane's feelings towards Ewing, I watched his face while +these events were passing. It plainly showed his vexation. It was +almost livid with suppressed emotion. But the time for him to resume +his address had come. What would he do was the question I asked +myself. He answered it very promptly. Jauntily stepping forward with +his countenance fairly wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed, "Ladies and +gentlemen, that is glo-o-orious news for us, but it 's ter-r-r-ible +for the other fellows."</p> + +<p>Lane's enemies were confident they had him beaten as a candidate for +the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular +with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it +necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. +Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the +choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then +he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast +horses—it was before the days of railroads in Kansas—he began a tour +that would bring him practically face to face with every voter in the +State. He traveled and spoke both by day and by night. Sometimes he +addressed as many as a dozen audiences in twenty-four hours. The +excitement attending his progress was great. Men came many miles to +hear him, sometimes bringing their families with them. He succeeded in +completely revolutionizing public opinion. It was <!-- Page 197 --><a name="Page_197"></a>too late for his +adversaries to attempt a counter-movement, and the result was that +Lane was re-elected by an almost unanimous vote.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt about Lane's attitude on the slavery question. He +was not only a radical Abolitionist, but the acknowledged leader of +the Free-State men of Kansas. He recognized no right of property in +man, as many Missouri slaveholders learned to their sorrow. I was +present when he congratulated a Kansas regiment that had just returned +from a raid into Missouri, bringing many black people with it. "Fellow +soldiers," he shouted, "you entered Missouri a white body, but you +have returned surrounded by a great black cloud. It is the work of the +Lord."</p> + +<p>There was another man whose name, the author thinks, properly belongs +under the heading of this chapter, and to whom, on account of pleasant +personal recollections, he would like to refer. He was not a fighter +like Blair and Lane, with whom his life was in striking contrast. He +was essentially a man of peace. He was a Quaker. Although born in +Kentucky he was an Abolitionist. I now refer to Levi Coffin of +Cincinnati, who was credited with successfully assisting over three +thousand runaway slaves on their way to freedom, and, in consequence, +became distinguished among both friends and foes as the "President of +'The Underground Railroad.'" The most remarkable thing in his case was +his immunity from legal punishment. The slaveholders knew very well +what he was doing, but so expert was he in hiding his tracks that they +could never get their clutches upon him.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 198 --><a name="Page_198"></a>I had rather an amusing experience with Coffin. Having when a boy +heard so much about him, I was anxious to see him and make his +acquaintance. On the occasion of a visit to Cincinnati, with a letter +of introduction from an acquaintance of Coffin, I went to his office, +but not without trepidation. I found the great man engaged in a +conversation with some one, his back being toward me, as I took my +stand just inside of his door. How he became aware of my presence I +don't know—I certainly made no noise to attract him—but he certainly +knew I was there. Suspending the conversation in which he was +engaged—he was seated in a revolving chair—he suddenly turned so as +to confront me, and silently looked me over. At last he arose, and, +stepping up to me, lifted my hat with one hand, and laid the other +upon my head. I understood very well what his movements meant. He was +looking for outward evidences of negro blood. So far as my complexion +went a suspicion of African taint might very well have been +entertained. I had been assisting my father in harvesting his wheat +crop, and my face and hands had a heavy coating of tan, but my hair +was straight and stiff. I could see that the old gentleman was +puzzled. Not a word, so far, had been spoken on either side.</p> + +<p>"Where is thee from?" was the question that broke the silence.</p> + +<p>I answered that I was from Clark County, meaning Clark County, Ohio.</p> + +<p>Coffin, however, evidently thought I referred to Clark County, +Kentucky, from which there had been many fugitives, and that settled +the matter in his mind. "<!-- Page 199 --><a name="Page_199"></a>But, my boy, thee seems to have had a good +home," continued the old gentleman as he looked over my clothes and +general appearance. "Why is thee running away?"</p> + +<p>Then came the explanation and the solemn Quaker indulged in a hearty +laugh. He remarked that he knew my family very well by reputation, and +that he had met my father in Abolitionist conventions—meetings he +called them.</p> + +<p>Then he invited me to go to his home and break bread with him. I +vainly tried to decline. The old man would accept no excuse.</p> + +<p>"Thy father would not refuse my hospitality."</p> + +<p>That settled the matter, and I accompanied my entertainer to his +domicile. I was glad that I did so, as it gave me the opportunity to +see and greet Coffin's wife, who was a charming elderly Quaker lady. +She had gained a reputation as a helper of the slave almost equal to +that of her husband.</p> + +<p>When runaways set out on their venturesome journeys, they were +generally very indifferently equipped. Ordinarily they had only the +working garments they wore on the plantations, and these furnished but +slight relief for a condition very near to nudity. Mrs. Coffin set +apart a working room in her house, and there sympathizers of both +races joined her in garment-making, the result being that very few +fugitives left Cincinnati without being decently clothed.</p> + +<p>At the Coffin table were several guests beside myself. One was a +colored man. He had been a slave, I learned, but his freedom had been +purchased, largely through the Coffins' efforts.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 200 --><a name="Page_200"></a>After I left the Coffin mansion, I remembered my unused letter of +introduction, which I had altogether forgotten. It was no longer +called for.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><h2><!-- Page 201 --><a name="Page_201"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>ROLLS OF HONOR</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The first honors of Abolitionism unquestionably belong to the +organizers of the first societies formed for its promotion. The first +of these in the order of time was the New England Anti-Slavery +Society, which came into being on the first day of January, 1832. +William Lloyd Garrison was chief promoter and master spirit. It +consisted at the outset of twelve men, and that was not the only +evidence of its apostolic mission. It was to be the forerunner in an +ever-memorable revolution. The names of the twelve subscribers to its +declaration of views and aims will always have a place in American +history. They were William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, William J. +Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thatcher, Stillman E. Newcomb, Arnold +Buffum, John B. Hall, Joshua Coffin, Isaac Knapp, Henry K. Stockton, +and Benjamin C. Bacon.</p> + +<p>As a suggestion from, if not an offshoot of, the New England +organization, came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which was +organized in Philadelphia in 1834. It was intended that the meeting of +its promoters should be held in New York, but so intense was the +feeling against the Abolitionists in that city that no suitable room +could there be <!-- Page 202 --><a name="Page_202"></a>found, and the "conspirators," as they were called by +their enemies, were compelled to seek for accommodation and protection +among the Philadelphia Quakers.</p> + +<p>In that circumstance there was considerable significance. Two great +declarations of independence have issued from Philadelphia. One was +for political freedom; the other was for personal freedom. One was for +the benefit of its authors as well as of others. The other one was +wholly unselfish. Which had the loftier motive?</p> + +<p>Ten States were represented in the Philadelphia meeting, which, +considering the difficulties incident to travel at that time, was a +very creditable showing. One man rode six hundred miles on horseback +to attend it.</p> + +<p>The following is the list of those in attendance, who became +subscribers to the declaration that was promulgated:</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Maine</i></p> + +<p>David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James F. Otis, Isaac +Winslow.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New Hampshire</i></p> + +<p>David Campbell.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Massachusetts</i></p> + +<p>Daniel Southmayd, Effingham C. Capron, Amos Phelps, John G. Whittier, +Horace P. Wakefield, James Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. +Jewitt, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William +Lloyd Garrison.</p> +<br /> + +<p><!-- Page 203 --><a name="Page_203"></a><i>Rhode Island</i></p> + +<p>John Prentice, George W. Benson.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Connecticut</i></p> + +<p>Samuel J. May, Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon Joselyn, +Robert B. Hall.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New York</i></p> + +<p>Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., Abram T. +Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., Charles W. Denison, John +Frost.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>New Jersey</i></p> + +<p>Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkly Gillinghamm, John McCullough, James White.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Pennsylvania</i></p> + +<p>Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Altee, Robert Purviss, James McCrummill, Thomas +Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mace, John McKim, +Anson Vickers, Joseph Loughead, Edward P. Altee, Thomas Whitson, John +R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Ohio</i></p> + +<p>Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff, John M. Sterling.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The writer finds it quite impossible to carry out the idea with which +this chapter was begun, which was to furnish a catalogue embracing all +active Anti-Slavery workers who were Abolitionists. Space <!-- Page 204 --><a name="Page_204"></a>does not +permit. He will therefore condense by giving a portion of the list, +the selections being dictated partly by claims of superior merit, and +partly by accident.</p> + +<p>As representative men and women of the East—chiefly of New England +and New York—he gives the following:</p> + +<p>David Lee Child, of Boston, for some time editor of the <i>National +Anti-Slavery Advocate</i>. He was the husband of Lydia Maria Child, who +wrote the first bound volume published in this country in condemnation +of the enslavement of "those people called Africans"; Samuel E. +Sewell, another Bostonian and a lawyer who volunteered his services in +cases of fugitive slaves; Ellis Gray Lowell, another Boston lawyer of +eminence; Amos Augustus Phelps, a preacher and lecturer, for whose +arrest the slaveholders of New Orleans offered a reward of ten +thousand dollars; Parker Pillsbury, another preacher and lecturer, who +at twenty years of age was the driver of an express wagon, and with no +literary education, but who, in order that he might better plead the +cause of the slave, went to school and became a noted orator; Theodore +Weld, who married Angelina Grimke, the South Carolina Abolitionist, +and who as an Anti-Slavery advocate was excelled, if he was excelled, +only by Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips; Henry Brewster +Stanton, a very vigorous Anti-Slavery editor and the husband of +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the champion of women's rights; Theodore +Parker, the great Boston divine; O.B. Frothingham, another famous +preacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer; Samuel <!-- Page 205 --><a name="Page_205"></a>Johnson, +C.L. Redmond, James Monroe, A.T. Foss, William Wells Brown, Henry C. +Wright, G.D. Hudson, Sallie Holley, Anna E. Dickinson, Aaron M. +Powell, George Brodburn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel W. +Whitney, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. Stebbins, Thomas T. +Stone, George M. Putnam, Joseph A. Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frances +E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin Ballou, W.H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A.J. +Conover, James N. Buffum, Charles C. Burleigh, William Goodell, Joshua +Leavitt, Charles M. Denison, Isaac Hopper, Abraham L. Cox.</p> + +<p>To the above should be added the names of Alvin Stewart of New York, +who issued the call for the convention that projected the Liberty +party, and of John Kendrick, who executed the first will including a +bequest in aid of the Abolition cause.</p> + +<p>And here must not be omitted the name of John P. Hale, of New +Hampshire, who was a candidate for the Presidency on the Liberty party +ticket, and also a conspicuous member of the U.S. Senate.</p> + +<p>Going westward, we come to Ohio, which became, early in the movement, +the dominating center of Abolitionist influence. Salmon P. Chase was +there. James G. Birney, after being forced out of Kentucky, was there. +Ex-United States Senator Thomas Morris, a candidate for the +Vice-Presidency on the Liberty party ticket, was there. Leicester King +and Samuel Lewis, Abolition candidates for the governorship of the +State, were there. Joshua R. Giddings and United States Senator Ben. +Wade were there.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 206 --><a name="Page_206"></a>One great advantage the Ohio Abolitionists enjoyed was that they were +harmonious and united. In the East that was not the case. There was a +bitter feud between the Garrisonians, who relied on moral suasion, and +the advocates of political action. All Ohio Abolitionists were ready +and eager to employ the ballot.</p> + +<p>There is another name, in speaking of Ohio, that must not be omitted. +Dr. Townsend was the man who made Salmon P. Chase a United States +Senator, and at a time when the Abolition voting strength in Ohio was +a meager fraction in comparison with that of the old +parties—numbering not over one in twenty. It happened to be a time +when the old parties—the Whigs and the Democrats—had so nearly an +equal representation in the State Legislature that Townsend, who was a +State Senator, and two co-operating members, held a balance of power. +Both parties were exceedingly anxious to control the Legislature, as +that body, under the State constitution then in force, had the +distribution of a great deal of patronage. The consideration for the +deciding vote demanded by Townsend and his associates was the election +of Chase to the Senate. They and the Democrats made the deal. +Naturally enough, the Whigs expressed great indignation until it was +shown that they had offered to enter into very much the same +arrangement.</p> + +<p>Some years before the events just spoken of, Townsend had been a +medical student in Cincinnati. One day he stepped into the courthouse, +where a fugitive-slave case was being tried. There he listened to an +argument from Salmon P. Chase, the <!-- Page 207 --><a name="Page_207"></a>negro's defender, that made an +Abolitionist of him. The senatorial incident naturally followed.</p> + +<p>There was another Ohioan—not an individual this time, but an +institution—that will always hold a high place in the annals of +Abolitionism. Oberlin College was a power in the land. It had a corps +of very able professors who were, without exception, active +Anti-Slavery workers. They regarded themselves as public instructors +as well as private teachers. There was scarcely a township in Ohio +that they did not visit, either personally or through their disciples. +They were as ready to talk in country schoolhouses as in their own +college halls. Of course, they were violently opposed. Mobs broke up +their meetings very frequently, but that only made them more +persistent. Their teachings were viciously misrepresented. They were +accused of favoring the intermarriage of the races, and parents were +warned, if they sent their children to Oberlin, to look out for +colored sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. For such slanders, however, +the men and women of Oberlin—for both sexes were admitted to faculty +and classes—seemed to care no more than they did for pro-slavery +mobs.</p> + +<p>There is another name which, although it belongs exclusively neither +to the East nor to the West, to the North nor to the South, should not +be omitted from a record like this. Doctor Gamaliel Bailey resided in +the District of Columbia, and issued the <i>National Era</i> from +Washington city.</p> + +<p>Although a journal of small folio measurement and issued but once a +week, it was for a considerable time the most influential organ of the +Abolitionists. <!-- Page 208 --><a name="Page_208"></a>Its circulation was large and its management very +able. Of course, it took no little courage and judgment to conduct +such a publication in the very center of slaveholding influence, and +more than once it barely escaped destruction by mobs.</p> + +<p>If there was nothing else to his credit there was one thing +accomplished by the <i>Era's</i> owner that entitles him to lasting +remembrance. He was the introducer, if not the real producer, of +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin.</i> It first appeared in the <i>Era</i> in serial numbers. +It is perfectly safe to say that no other newspaper in the country, of +any standing, would have touched it. Without Dr. Bailey's +encouragement the work would not have been written. This was admitted +by Mrs. Stowe.</p> + +<p>Up to this point the people whose names have been mentioned in these +pages have, to a certain extent, been public characters and leaders. +They were generals, and colonels, and captains, and orderly sergeants, +in the army of emancipation. There were, also, privates in the ranks +whose services richly deserve to be commemorated, showing, as they do, +the character of the works they performed. The writer cannot resist +the temptation to refer to two of them in particular, although, +doubtless, there were many others of equal merit. A reason for the +preference he shows in this case, that will not be misunderstood, is +the fact that one of the men was his uncle and the other his father.</p> + +<p>James Kedzie and John Hume were plain country farmers residing in +southwestern Ohio, neither very rich nor very poor. They were natives +of Scotland, and stating that fact is almost equivalent <!-- Page 209 --><a name="Page_209"></a>to saying +they were Abolitionists. None of the Scotch of the writer's personal +knowledge, at the period referred to, were otherwise than strongly +Anti-Slavery. There are said to be exceptions to all rules, and there +was one in this instance. He was a kinsman of the author, and a "braw" +young Scotchman who came over to this country with the expectation of +picking up a fortune in short order. Finding the North too slow, he +went South. There he met a lady who owned a valuable plantation well +stocked with healthy negroes. He married the woman, and became +something of a local nabob, with the reputation of great severity as a +master. One day, with his own hand, he inflicted a cruel flogging on a +slave who had the name of a "bad nigger." That night, when the master +was playing chess with a neighbor by candlelight on the ground floor +of his dwelling, all the windows being open, the negro crept up with a +loaded gun and shot him dead.</p> + +<p>The sad affair was regretfully commented on by the dead man's +relatives, who, I remember, referred to his untimely ending as "his +judgment," and as a punishment he had brought upon "himself."</p> + +<p>My uncle and father did not conceal their unpopular views. They openly +voted the Abolition ticket. In eight years, beginning with their two +ballots, they raised the third party vote in their immediate vicinity +to eight, and they boasted of the progress they had made.</p> + +<p>They did not make public addresses, but they faithfully listened to +those made by others in support of the cause. They attended all +Abolition meetings that were within reach. They took the <!-- Page 210 --><a name="Page_210"></a><i>National +Era</i>. Not only that, but they got up clubs for it. The first club I +recollect my father's securing consisted of half a dozen subscribers, +for one half of which he paid. The next year's was double in size, and +so was my father's contribution. There was no fund for the promotion +of the Abolitionist cause, for which they were called upon, to which +they did not cheerfully pay according to their means.</p> + +<p>All Abolition lecturers and colporteurs were gratuitously entertained, +although their presence was sometimes a cause of abuse, and even of +danger. There were other travelers who sometimes applied for help. +Their faces were of dusky hue, and their great whitish eyes were like +those of hunted beasts of the forest. They went on their way +strengthened and rejoicing—always in the direction of the North Star.</p> + +<p>The men are dead, but Slavery is dead also, partly through their +labors and sacrifices. Their unpretentious, patient, earnest lives +were not in vain. They contributed to the final triumph of Freedom's +holy cause.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><!-- Page 211 --><a name="Page_211"></a>APPENDIX</h2> + +<a name="EMANCIPATION_PROCLAMATION"></a><h3>EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>January 1, 1863.—Whereas, on the 22d day of September, 1862, a +proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, +containing, among other things, the following, to wit:</p> + +<p>That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves +within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof +shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, +thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the +United States, including the naval and military authority thereof, +will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do +no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any efforts +they may make for their actual freedom.</p> + +<p>That the Executive will on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections, +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States. +<!-- Page 212 --><a name="Page_212"></a>Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on +this first day of January, 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so +to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days +from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States +and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this +day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:</p> + +<p>Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Ann, and Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are +for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not +issued.</p> + +<p>And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free, and +that the Executive government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of such persons.</p> + +<p>And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend +to them that, in all <!-- Page 213 --><a name="Page_213"></a>cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages.</p> + +<p>And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service.</p> + +<p>And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty +God.</p> + +<p>IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.</p> + +<p>Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, 1863, and of +the independence of the United States the Eighty-seventh.</p> + +<span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</span><br /> +<br /> +By the President:<br /> +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.<br /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="BORDER_SLAVE-STATE_MESSAGE"></a><h3>BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Amendment to the National Constitution recommended by President +Lincoln in his Message to Congress of December I, 1862.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i> by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled: that the following articles +be proposed to the Legislatures (or conventions) of the several States +as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of +which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said +Legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as parts of the said +Constitution, namely:</p> + +<p>Article.—Every State wherein Slavery now exists, <!-- Page 214 --><a name="Page_214"></a>which shall abolish +the same therein, at any time or times before the 1st day of January +in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive +compensation from the United States as follows, to wit:</p> + +<p>(Then follows a provision to issue bonds of the United States +Government, which shall be delivered to the States in amounts +sufficient to compensate the owners of slaves within their +jurisdictions for the loss of their slave property.)</p> + +<p>Article.—All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the +chances of the war, at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall +be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been +disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is +provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way +that no slave shall be twice accounted for.</p> + +<p>Article.—Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for +colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place +or places without the United States.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="PRAYER_OF_TWENTY_MILLIONS"></a><h3>"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS"</h3> +<br /> + +<p>On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley, under the above heading, +addressed a letter to the President, which appeared over his signature +in the New York <i>Tribune</i> of that date. The conclusion of Mr. +Greeley's epistle was as follows:</p> + +<p>"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one +disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who +does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the +same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile—that +the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a +year if Slavery were left in full vigor—that army <!-- Page 215 --><a name="Page_215"></a>officers who +remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but halfway loyal +to the Union—and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour +of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of +your embassadors in Europe. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the +seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, +slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of +statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<a name="INDEX"></a><h2><!-- Page 217 --><a name="Page_217"></a><!-- Page 216 --><a name="Page_216"></a>INDEX</h2> + +Abolitionism, and Republicanism, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">end of, <a href="#Page_150">150-156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Abolitionist movement, <a href="#Page_v">v</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abolitionists, hysterical praise of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and dissolution of the Union, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">effect, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">struggles, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and political expediency, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">convention at Pittsburgh, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">third-party, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">vote of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">founders of Republican party, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pro-slavery mobbing, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">voting strength, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">organization, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">lecturers, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">stump orators, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">newspapers, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preparatory work, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hostility to Union, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">disloyalty, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">treason, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">place in history, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Quakers, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">physical courage, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">unselfishness of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">motives, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">persecution of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">feelings against, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hopefulness of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">first presidential ticket, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">prejudice against, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">abuse by "gentlemen", <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">women, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preliminary victory of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">denunciation of early, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">leaders, <a href="#Page_186">186-198</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Adams, John Quincy, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">attempted expulsion of, from Congress, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">speech in his own defense in Congress, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Altee, Edward P., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Altee, Edwin A., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Amalgamation", <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anderson "Bill", <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Andrew, Governor, of Massachusetts, Peleg's <i>Life of</i>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anthony, Susan B., <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anti-Slavery, causes, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">matter excluded from United States mails, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">formation of party, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pioneers, <a href="#Page_49">49-58</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">lecturers, <a href="#Page_76">76-78</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">orators, <a href="#Page_88">88-93</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">women, <a href="#Page_100">100-107</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">mobs, <a href="#Page_108">108-112</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Haverhill, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Nantucket, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">martyrs, <a href="#Page_113">113-120</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">sentiment, in England, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anti-Slavery societies, organization, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">in New England, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">National, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anti-Unionist, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Bacon, Benjamin C., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ballou, Adin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barbadoes, James, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bates, Judge, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">speech in England, <a href="#Page_90">90-93</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Lincoln, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bell, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benson, George W., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Benton, Thomas H., <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Birney, Jas. G., <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-58</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Blacklaws" <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">in Ohio, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Black Republic of Texas, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Blair, Gen. Prank P., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186-191</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri emancipationists, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">appearance of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">fearlessness, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">quarrel with Frémont, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and capture of Camp Jackson, <a href="#Page_189">189-191</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">threats against, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Blair, Montgomery, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bonner, Hon. Benjamin R., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Border-ruffianism, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Border Slave-State message, text of, <a href="#Page_213">213-214</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boyle, James, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bradley, John, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Breckenridge, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">factions, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.,</span><br /> +<br /> +Breckenridge, Judge Samuel M., <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brodburn, George, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, B. Gratz, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, John, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, William Wells, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buchanan, James<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buffum, Arnold, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buffum, James N., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bull Run, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burleigh, Charles C., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buxton, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Camp Jackson (St. Louis), <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">"affair" at, <a href="#Page_186">186-188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">effect of capture, <a href="#Page_191">191-194</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Campbell, David, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Campbell, John R., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Capron, Effingham C., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carlisle, Earl of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chapman, Mrs. Henry, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Charcoals", Missouri, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">delegation to President, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">fight for "Free Missouri", <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">appeal to President for protection, <a href="#Page_166">166-168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Chase, Salmon P., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59-61</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">financial policy, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">espousal of Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and "third party,"<a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">election to United States Senate, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Child, David Lee, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Child, Lydia Maria, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chittenden, L.E., <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Churchill's <i>Crisis</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Civil War, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Clay, Henry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Claybanks", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">exclusion from National Convention, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Coffin, Joshua, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coffin, Levi, <a href="#Page_197">197-198</a>; <br /> +<span class="in1">"President of 'The Underground Railroad'", <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Colonization, <a href="#Page_128">128-135</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Society, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and England, <a href="#Page_130">130-132</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Lincoln's opinion, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">experiments, <a href="#Page_133">133-134</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Colonizationists, pretended friendship for negroes, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Conover, A.J., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton-gin, invention of, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cox, Abram L., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crandall, Prudence, persecution of, <a href="#Page_116">116-117</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crandall, Dr. Reuben, <a href="#Page_117">117-118</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Crisis, The</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cross Keys, battle of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Curtis, Geo. William, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">charges against, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Democratic party, division of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Democrats, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Anti-Nebraska, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">of New York, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Denison, Charles M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dickinson, Anna E., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dissolution of Union, petition for, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Doughface", <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Douglas, Stephen A., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">dislike of, by slaveholders' factions, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">defeated for President, <a href="#Page_94">94-99</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">hated by slave-owners, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Douglass, Fred., <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Drake, Hon. Charles D., <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dred Scott decision, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">too late for South's purpose, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dresser, Amos, whipped, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Emancipation proclamation, <a href="#Page_137">137-138</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">story of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">moral influence of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Lincoln's reasons for, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">ineffective, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">text of, <a href="#Page_211">211-213</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ewing, Gen. Thomas, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">repulsion of General Price, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Field, David Dudley, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fish, W.H., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fletcher, Thomas C., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Donelson, capture of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fort Henry, capture of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foss, A.T., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foster, Daniel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foster, Stephen, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Free-Soil" party, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frémont, General, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and western command, <a href="#Page_184">184-185</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">financial bad management, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">defeats Stonewall Jackson, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">removal, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">freedom proclamation, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Frost, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frothingham, O.B., <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fugitive Slave Law, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fuller, John E., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fussell, Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Gamble, Hamilton R., <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and emancipation ordinance of, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Dragged through streets of Boston, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">imprisonment for libel, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">reception in England, <a href="#Page_131">131-132</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">speech at Exeter Hall, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Genius of Universal Emancipation, The,</i><a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Giddings, Joshua R., <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gillinghamm, Chalkly, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goodell, William, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grant, General, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">And "Charcoals", <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Nomination by Missouri Radicals, <a href="#Page_174">174-176</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">capture of Fort Donelson, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Greeley, Horace, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, Beriah, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Green, William, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grimké sisters, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103-106</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Hale, John P., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, John B., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, Robert B., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hallock's Order Number Three, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harrison, Wm. Henry, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hay, John, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henry, Patrick, Williamsburg speech, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hints toward Emancipation in Missouri</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hollie, Sally, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hopper, Isaac, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +How, John, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Howland, Joseph A., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, Professor, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, Frederic, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hume, John, <a href="#Page_208">208-210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hutchinsons, the, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Ile a'Vache, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Indiana, introduction of slavery into, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Claiborne F., <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">attempt to make Missouri secede, <a href="#Page_186">186-188</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">outwitted by Nathaniel Lyon, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Stonewall, defeat of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jewitt, Daniel E., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Andrew, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Oliver, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jones, David, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Joselyn, Simeon, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Julian, Geo. W., <i>Political Recollections</i>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kedzie, James, <a href="#Page_208">208-210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kelly, Abby, <a href="#Page_38">38-39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kendrick, John, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kentucky, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kimball, David T., Jr., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +King, Leicester, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kingsley, Alpheus, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Knapp, Isaac, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Know-Nothings", <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Lafayette, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lane, James H., <a href="#Page_194">194-197</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">canvas for U.S. Senator, <a href="#Page_196">196-197</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">attitude on slavery, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lawrence, city of, capture by Quantrell, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">butchery of inhabitants, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Leavitt, Joshua, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Evan, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Samuel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Liberal party, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liberator</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">first issue, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">South Carolina and Georgia offers reward for its circulation, <a href="#Page_55">55-56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">excluded from U.S. mails, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">office wrecked by mob, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">opposed to separate party action, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">election of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Gettysburg speech, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Douglas, <a href="#Page_94">94-99</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">debate of 1858, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and slavery, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">preferred by slaveholders, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1"><i>Recollections of</i>, <a href="#Page_134">134-135</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and emancipation, <a href="#Page_136">136-149</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">message to Minister Dayton of Paris, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">proposed constitutional amendment, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">special message to Congress, December, 1863, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">emancipation policy, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Free-Soilers, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Congressional sentiment toward, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">antagonism to, <a href="#Page_177">177-180</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1"><i>Life of</i>, by I.N. Arnold, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, Sumner, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Longhead, Joseph, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lovejoy, Elijah P., shooting of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114-115</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lowell, Ellis Gray, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lundy, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50-54</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">meeting with Garrison, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lyon, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +McCrummil, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McCullough, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +McKim, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mace, Enoch, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Manumittal, arguments against, <a href="#Page_34">34-35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marshall, "Tom", <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Massachusetts Legislature and slavery, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +May, Samuel J., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +May, Rev. S.T., <i>Recollections</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mexican War, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Missouri, <a href="#Page_157">157-185</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Compromise, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">admission to Union as slave State, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">slavery contest, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and the Union, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Radicals, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Conservatives, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">"Charcoals", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">"Claybanks", <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">military control of, <a href="#Page_163">163-166</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">guerrilla bands, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">pacification of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Radicals, opposition to Lincoln, in National Convention, <a href="#Page_168">168-169</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">delegation to Lincoln, <a href="#Page_169">169-171</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Germans, attacks on, <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">loyalty of, <a href="#Page_182">182-183</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Missouri Democrat, The</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">and Louis Snyder, <a href="#Page_158">158-159</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">opposition to Lincoln, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">support of Johnson, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Monroe, James, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moody, Loring, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morris, Senator, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mott, Mrs. Lucretia, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102-103</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mott, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +<i>National Anti-Slavery Advocate</i>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>National Era, The</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207-208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Negroes, prejudice against,<br /> +<span class="in1">in North, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in Ohio, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">stronger in North than in South, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">suffrage, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">failure as freemen, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Newcomb, Stillman E., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nicolay, J.C., <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Nigger Hill", <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Nigger-pens", <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Noyes, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Oberlin College, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +O'Connell, Daniel, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ohio, pro-slavery, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Abolitionists of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Opdyke, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ordinance of '87, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Otis, James F., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Parker, Theodore, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Parkhurst, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pennsylvania Hall, firing of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Peonage", <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phelps, Amos, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Philippine Islands, <a href="#Page_82">82-87</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">slavery in, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">massacres in, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">abuses in, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">spoliation of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">speech in Faneuil Hall, <a href="#Page_88">88-89</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Mrs., <a href="#Page_106">106-107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pillsbury, Parker, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pleasanton, General, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pointdexter, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Popular sovereignty,"<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Powell, Aaron M., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Prayer of Twenty Millions, The</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">text of, <a href="#Page_214">214-215</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Prentice, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Presidential campaign of 1844, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Price, General Sterling, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Prohibitionists, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Purviss, Robert, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Putnam, George M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Quantrell, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Rankin, John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Raymond, Henry J., <i>Life of Lincoln,</i><a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Redmond, C.L., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Republican party, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">elements of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; </span><br /> +<span class="in1">lack of policy, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and election of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">existence due to Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and negro rights, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Philippine Islands, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_150">150-151</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Republican Party, History of the</i>, Curtis, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Rise and Fall of the Slave Power</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Roosevelt, Theodore, and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_1">1-14</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rosecrans, General, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Russell, Earl, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Schofield, Gen. John M., and military control of Missouri, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">charges against, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">relieved from command, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Secession, pretext for, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sewell, Samuel E., <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sharp, John, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shipley, Thomas, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sigel, General, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slave-owners, mastery of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slave power, submission to, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">northward march, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Slave production in Northern States, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Slavery, destruction of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">overthrow of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">in ante-bellum days, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">and Biblical authority, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">a State institution, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">condemned by Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Northern support, <a href="#Page_33">33-35</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">spread of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">introduction into Territories, <a href="#Page_43">43-44</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">practical extirpation, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sleeper, John R., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Smith, Gen. A.J., <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Snelling, William J., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southard, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +South Carolina "black horse", <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southmayd, Daniel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Southwick, Joseph, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stanton, Henry Brewster, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stebbins, Giles B., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sterling, John M., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stevens, Thaddeus, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stewart, Alvin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stillman, Edwin A., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stockton, Henry K., <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Stone, Lucy, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stone, Thomas T., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sutliff, Levi, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sutliff, Milton, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Tappan, Arthur, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tappan, Lewis, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taussig, James, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taylor, Gen. Z., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Texas, annexation of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thatcher, Moses, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thirteenth Amendment, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">vote on, <a href="#Page_143">143-144</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Thompson, Edwin, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Thoughts on African Colonization</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thurston, David, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Toombs, Robert, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Torrey, Charles Turner, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Townsend, Dr., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Underground railroad, <a href="#Page_121">121-127</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">confession of John Smith, <a href="#Page_121">121-127</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +United States in Far East, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">Army increase of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Navy increase of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Van Buren, Martin, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span class="in1">"doughface", <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="in1">Free Soiler, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Van Zant case, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vickers, Anson, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Virginia, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><br /> +<br /> +Wade, Benjamin F., <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wakefield, Horace P., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Walker, Jonathan, branded, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Washington, Booker, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Watkins, Frances E., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weld, Theodore W., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wheeling, Va., slavery traffic in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whigs, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5-7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br /> +<br /> +White, James, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Eli, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whittier, John G., <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilkes, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winslow, Isaac, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winslow, Nathan, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wise, Henry A., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Elizur, Jr., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wright, Henry C., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Abolitionists + Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights + +Author: John F. Hume + +Release Date: August 13, 2004 [EBook #13176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITIONISTS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Victoria Woosley and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + TOGETHER WITH PERSONAL MEMORIES OF + THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS + + 1830-1864 + + BY + JOHN F. HUME + + + + + G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + The Knickerbocker press + 1905 + + + + + +FOREWORD + +The opening chapter of this work was prepared during the recent +presidential campaign. It was the idea of the author that it should +appear in one of the leading newspapers or magazines before the +election, but maturer reflection brought about a change of purpose. He +realized that its publication at that time, might, not altogether +unreasonably, be looked upon as a political move having as its object +the election or defeat of a particular candidate for office, whereas +he had no desire to play the partisan. His sole aim was to vindicate +the character of a portion of the citizens of this country--some +living, some dead--whom he had always believed to be most deserving of +popular esteem, from what he considered the unmerited aspersions of a +man who has since come into a position so conspicuous and so +influential that his condemnation necessarily carries with it a +damaging effect. + +Having gone so far as the preparation of the initial chapter, he +concluded that proofs of his assumptions and assertions might at +certain points be thought desirable, if not necessary, and that he +should so prolong his work as to provide them. His first idea at this +point, as his years went back beyond the beginning of the Abolitionist +movement in this country, and as he had been from early boyhood +identified with this movement, was to contribute such information as +his recollection of events would supply. In other words, he decided to +write a narrative, the matter of which would be reminiscent, with here +and there a little history woven in among the strands of memory like a +woof in the warp. It has ended in history supplying the warp, and the +reminiscence indifferently supplying the woof. + +However, the value of the production is, doubtless, greatly enhanced +by the change. A string of pearls--dropping the former simile and +adopting another--is estimated according to the gems it contains, and +not because of the cord that holds it together. The personal +experiences and recollections that are here and there interwoven, by +themselves would be of little consequence; but they will be found to +carry upon them certain historical facts and inferences--some new in +themselves and in their connections--which, as the author hopes and +believes, are of profitable quality and abounding interest. + +In consequence of the change of plan just explained, the scope of the +work is materially affected. What was begun as a magazine article, and +continued as a brochure, ends in a volume. + +J.F.H. + +Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July, 1905. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I.--THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS 1 + + II.--THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE 15 + + III.--ONE OF THEIR TRAITS 26 + + IV.--PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE 30 + + V.--THE POLITICAL SITUATION 41 + + VI.--ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS 49 + + VII.--SALMON PORTLAND CHASE 59 + + VIII.--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 67 + + IX.--ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES 72 + + X.--WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY 79 + + XI.--ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS 88 + + XII.--LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 94 + + XIII.--ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN 100 + + XIV.--MOBS 108 + + XV.--ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS 113 + + XVI.--THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 121 + + XVII.--COLONIZATION 128 + + XVIII.--LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION 136 + + XIX.--THE END OF ABOLITIONISM 150 + + XX.--MISSOURI 157 + + XXI.--MISSOURI _(Continued)_ 174 + + XXII.--SOME ABOLITION LEADERS 186 + + XXIII.--ROLLS OF HONOR 201 + + + APPENDIX + + + EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 211 + + BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE 213 + + "PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" 214 + + + INDEX 217 + + + + + +THE ABOLITIONISTS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE ABOLITIONISTS + + +The following is an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's biography of +Thomas H. Benton in Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.'s American Statesmen +Series, published in 1887: + + "Owing to a variety of causes, the Abolitionists have received an + immense amount of hysterical praise which they do not deserve, and + have been credited with deeds done by other men whom, in reality, + they hampered and opposed rather than aided. After 1840, the + professed Abolitionists formed a small and comparatively + unimportant portion of the forces that were working towards the + restriction and ultimate destruction of slavery; and much of what + they did was positively harmful to the cause for which they were + fighting. Those of their number who considered the Constitution as + a league with death and hell, and who, therefore, advocated a + dissolution of the Union, acted as rationally as would + anti-polygamists nowadays if, to show their disapproval of + Mormonism, they should advocate that Utah should be allowed to + form a separate nation. The only hope of ultimately suppressing + slavery lay in the preservation of the Union, and every + Abolitionist who argued or signed a petition for the dissolution + was doing as much to perpetuate the evil he complained of, as if + he had been a slaveholder. The Liberty party, in running Birney, + simply committed a political crime, evil in almost all its + consequences. They in no sense paved the way for the Republican + party, or helped forward the Anti-Slavery cause, or hurt the + existing organizations. Their effect on the Democracy was _nil_; + and all they were able to accomplish with the Whigs was to make + them put forward for the ensuing election a slaveholder from + Louisiana, with whom they were successful. Such were the remote + results of their conduct; the immediate evils they produced have + already been alluded to. They bore considerable + resemblance--except that after all they really did have a + principle to contend for--to the political Prohibitionists of the + present day, who go into the third party organization, and are, + not even excepting the saloon-keepers themselves, the most + efficient allies on whom intemperance and the liquor traffic can + count. + + "Anti-Slavery men like Giddings, who supported Clay, were doing a + thousandfold more effective work for the cause they had at heart + than all the voters who supported Birney; or, to speak more + accurately, they were doing all they could to advance the cause, + while the others were doing all they could to hold it back. + Lincoln in 1860 occupied more nearly the ground held by Clay than + that held by Birney; and the men who supported the latter in 1844 + were the prototypes of those who worked to oppose Lincoln in 1860, + and only worked less hard because they had less chance. The ultra + Abolitionists discarded expediency, and claimed to act for + abstract right on principle, no matter what the results might be; + in consequence they accomplished very little, and that as much + for harm as for good, until they ate their words, and went + counter to their previous course, thereby acknowledging it to be + bad, and supported in the Republican party the men and principles + they had so fiercely condemned. The Liberty party was not in any + sense the precursor of the Republican party, which was based as + much on expediency as on abstract right, and was, therefore, able + to accomplish good instead of harm. To say that extreme + Abolitionists triumphed in Republican success and were causes of + it, is as absurd as to call Prohibitionists successful if, after + countless efforts totally to prohibit the liquor traffic, and + after savage denunciations of those who try to regulate it, they + should then turn round and form a comparatively insignificant + portion of a victorious high-license party. The men who took a + great and effective part in the fight against slavery were the men + who remained with their respective parties." + +No word of praise or approval has Mr. Roosevelt for the men and +women--for representatives of both sexes were active sharers in the +work performed--who inaugurated, and for a long period carried +forward, the movement that led up to the overthrow of African slavery +in this country. He has no encomiums to bestow on those same men and +women for the protracted and exhausting labors they performed, the +dangers they encountered, the insults they endured, the sacrifices +they submitted to, the discouragements they confronted in many ways +and forms in prosecuting their arduous undertaking. On the contrary, +he has only bitter words of condemnation. In his estimation, and +according to his dogmatic utterance, they were criminals--political +criminals. His words make it very manifest that, if Mr. Roosevelt had +been a voter in 1840, he would not have been an Abolitionist. He would +not have been one of that devoted little band of political +philanthropists who went out, like David of old, to do battle with one +of the giant abuses of the time, and who found in the voter's ballot a +missile that they used with deadly effect. On the contrary, he would +have enrolled himself among their adversaries and assailants, becoming +a member--because it is impossible to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a +non-partisan--of one of the leading political parties of the day. +There were but two of them--the Whigs and the Democrats. In failing to +support one or the other of these parties, and giving their votes and +influence to a new one that was founded and constructed on +Anti-Slavery lines, the Abolitionists, in Mr. Roosevelt's opinion, +"committed a political crime." + +Now, for what did those parties stand in 1840? Who were their +presidential candidates in that year? Martin Van Buren was the +candidate of the Democrats. He had been for eight years in the offices +of Vice-President and President, and in that time, in the opinion of +the Anti-Slavery people of the country, had shown himself to be a +facile instrument in the hands of the slaveholders. He was what the +Abolitionists described as a "doughface"--a Northern man with Southern +principles. As presiding officer he gave the casting vote in the +Senate for the bill that excluded Anti-Slavery matter from the United +States mails, a bill justly regarded as one of the greatest outrages +ever perpetrated in a free country, and as holding a place by the +side of the Fugitive Slave Law. True, he afterwards--this was in +1848,--like Saul of Tarsus, saw a new light and announced himself as a +Free Soiler. Then the Abolitionists, with what must always be regarded +as an extraordinary concession to partisan policy, cast aside their +prejudices and gave him their support. Yet Mr. Roosevelt charges them +with being indifferent to the demands of political expediency. + +General William Henry Harrison, candidate of the Whigs, was a +Virginian by birth and training, and an inveterate pro-slavery man. +When Governor of the Territory of Indiana, he presided over a +convention that met for the purpose of favoring, notwithstanding the +prohibition in the Ordinance of '87, the introduction of slavery in +that Territory. + +These were the men between whom the old parties gave the Abolitionists +the privilege of pick and choice. Declining to support either of them, +they gave their votes to James G. Birney, candidate of the newly +formed Liberty party. He was a Southern man by birth and a slave-owner +by inheritance, but, becoming convinced that slavery was wrong, he +freed his negroes, giving them homes of their own, and so frankly +avowed his Anti-Slavery convictions that he was driven from his native +State. His supporters did not expect to elect him, but they hoped to +begin a movement that would lead up to victory. They were planting +seed in what they believed to be receptive soil. + +After 1840, the old parties became more and more submissive to the +Slave Power. Conjointly, they enacted those measures that became +known as the compromises of 1850, the principal ones being the +Fugitive Slave Law and the act repealing the Missouri Compromise. Both +of them pronounced these acts to be "a finality," and both of them in +national convention declared there should be no further agitation of +the subject. They set out to muzzle all the Anti-Slavery voices of the +country. + +By this time it was perfectly manifest that there was not only nothing +the slaveholders might demand which the old parties would not concede, +but that there was, so far as the slavery issue was involved, +absolutely no difference between them. It is a notable fact that in +the eight years following 1840, of the four presidential candidates +put in nomination by the two parties, three were slaveholders, the +fourth being a Northern "doughface," and both of the two who were +elected held slaves. + +For the nomination and election of one of these men, whom he describes +as "a slaveholder from Louisiana" (General Taylor), Mr. Roosevelt is +disposed to hold the Abolitionists accountable. They forced the poor +Whigs into those proceedings, he intimates, probably by telling them +they ought to do nothing of the kind, that being what they actually +did tell them. But as the Abolitionists, four years earlier, in the +same way defeated the Whigs when they were supporting a slaveholder +from Kentucky (Clay), and a man who, in his time, did more for the +upbuilding of slavery than any other person in America, it would +appear that the score of responsibility on their part was fairly +evened up. + +In citing the action of Joshua R. Giddings as an anti-third-party +man, Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether fortunate. Subsequent to the +presidential campaign of 1844, the third-party Abolitionists held a +convention in Pittsburg, in which Giddings was a leading actor. As +chairman of the committee on platform, he submitted a resolution +declaring that both of the old parties were "hopelessly corrupt and +unworthy of confidence." + +The Abolitionists could not see that they were under obligation to +either of the old parties, believing they could do far better service +for the cause they championed by standing up and being counted as +candidates honestly representing their principles. They fought both of +the old parties, and finally beat them. They killed the Whig party out +and out, and so far crippled the Democrats that they have been limping +ever since. Their action, in the long run, as attested by the verdict +of results, proved itself to be not only the course of abstract right, +but of political expediency. + +In 1840, the vote of the third-party Abolitionists, then for the first +time in the political field, was 7000; in 1844 it was 60,000, and in +1848 it was nearly 300,000. From that time, with occasional backsets, +Mr. Roosevelt's "political criminals" went steadily forward until they +mastered the situation. From the first, they were a power in the land, +causing the older parties to quake, Belshazzar-like, at sight of their +writing on the wall. + +But according to Mr. Roosevelt, the men of the Liberty-Free-Soil party +had no share in fathering and nurturing the Republican party, to which +he assigns all the credit for crushing slavery. Says he, "The Liberty +party was not in any sense the precursor of the Republican party, +which was based as much on expediency as on abstract right." It is +very true that many Republicans, especially in the earlier days, were +neither Abolitionists nor Anti-Slavery people. A good many of them, +like Abraham Lincoln, were sentimentally adverse to slavery, but under +existing conditions did not want it disturbed. Many of them, having +broken loose from the old parties, had no other place of shelter and +cared nothing for slavery one way or the other, some being of the +opinion of one of the new party leaders whom the writer hereof heard +declare that "the niggers are just where they ought to be." All this, +however, does not prove that the third-party people were not the real +forerunners and founders of the Republican party. They certainly +helped to break up the old organizations, crushing them in whole or +part. They supplied a contingent of trained and desperately earnest +workers, their hearts being enlisted as well as their hands. And what +was of still greater consequence, they furnished an issue, and one +that was very much alive, around which the detached fragments of the +old parties could collect and unite. Their share in the composition +and development of the new party can be illustrated. Out in our great +midland valley two rivers--the Missouri and the Mississippi--meet and +mingle their waters. The Missouri, although the larger stream, after +the junction is heard of no more; but being charged with a greater +supply of sedimentary matter, gives its color to the combined flood of +the assimilated waters. Abolitionism was merged in Republicanism. It +was no longer spoken of as a separate element, but from the beginning +it gave color and character to the combination. The whole compound was +Abolitionized. + +It was not, indeed, the voting strength, although this was +considerable, that the Abolitionists brought to the Republican +organization, that made them the real progenitors of that party. It is +possible that the other constituents entering into it, which were +drawn from the Anti-Slavery Whigs, the "Anti-Nebraska" Democrats, the +"Barnburner" Democrats of New York, the "Know-Nothings," etc., +numbered more in the aggregate than the Abolitionists it included; but +it was not so much the number of votes the Abolitionists contributed +that made them the chief creators of the Republican party, as it was +their working and fighting ability. They had undergone a thorough +training. For nearly twenty years they had been in the field in active +service. For the whole of that time they had been exposed to +pro-slavery mobbing and almost every kind of persecution. They had to +conquer every foot of ground they occupied. They had done an immense +amount of invaluable preparatory work. To deny to such people a +liberal share of the credit for results accomplished, would be as +reasonable as to say that men who clear the land, plough the ground, +and sow the seed, because others may help to gather the harvest, have +nothing to do with raising the crop. But for the pioneer work of the +Abolitionists there would have been no Republican party. + +There had been Anti-Slavery people in this country before the +Abolitionists--conscientious, zealous, intelligent--but somehow they +lacked the ability, in the language of the pugilists, to "put up a +winning fight." They had been brushed aside or trampled under foot. +Not so with the Abolitionists. They had learned all the tricks of the +enemy. They were not afraid of opposition. They knew how to give blows +as well as to take them. The result was that from the time they +organized for separate political action in 1840, they had made steady +progress, although this seemed for a period to be discouragingly slow. +It was only a question of time when, if there had been no Republican +party, they would have succeeded in abolishing slavery without its +assistance. + +Although, as before remarked, the Republican party was made up of a +good many elements besides the Abolitionists, there was among them but +little homogeneousness. They were indifferent, if not hostile, to each +other, and, if left to themselves, would never have so far coalesced +as to make a working party. They had no settled policy, no common +ground to stand on. They would have been simply a rope of sand. But +the Abolitionists supplied a bond of union. They had a principle that +operated like a loadstone in bringing the factions together. + +There was another inducement the Abolitionists had to offer. They had +an organization that was perfect in its way. It was weak but active. +It had made its way into Congress where it had such representatives as +John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase in the Senate, and several brilliant +men in the Lower House. It had a complete outfit of party machinery. +It had an efficient force of men and women engaged in canvassing as +lecturers and stump orators. It had well managed newspapers, and the +ablest pens in the country--not excepting Harriet Beecher +Stowe's--were in its service. All this, it is hardly necessary to say, +was attractive to people without political homes. The Abolitionists +offered them not only shelter but the prospect of meat and drink in +the future. In that way their organization became the nucleus of the +Republican party, which was in no sense a new organization, but a +reorganization of an old force with new material added. + +And here would seem to be the proper place for reference to the +historical fact that the Republican party, under that name, had but +four years of existence behind it when the great crisis came in the +election of Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War--Lincoln's +election being treated by the South as a _casus belli_. The Republican +party was established under that name in 1856 and Lincoln was elected +in 1860. + +Now, the work preparatory to Lincoln's election was not done in four +years. The most difficult part of it--the most arduous, the most +disagreeable, the most dangerous--had been done long before. Part of +it dated back to 1840. Indeed, the performance of the Republican party +in those four years was not remarkably brilliant. With the slogan of +"Free soil, free men, and Fremont" it made an ostentatious +demonstration in 1856--an attempted _coup de main_--which failed. It +would have failed quite as signally in 1860, but for the division of +the Democratic party into the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. That +division was pre-arranged by the slaveholders who disliked Douglas, +the regular Democratic nominee, much more than they did Lincoln, and +who hoped and plotted for Lincoln's election because it furnished them +a pretext for rebellion. + +The change of name from "Free Soil" or "Liberty" to "Republican" in +1856 had very little significance. It was a matter of partisan policy +and nothing more. "Liberty" and "Free Soil," as party cognomens, had a +meaning, and were supposed to antagonize certain prejudices. +"Republican," at that juncture, meant nothing whatever. Besides, it +was sonorous; it was euphonious; it was palatable to weak political +stomachs. The ready acceptance of the new name by the Abolitionists +goes very far to contradict Mr. Roosevelt's accusation against them of +being regardless of the claims of political expediency. + +The writer has shown, as he believes, that without the preparatory +work of the political Abolitionists there would have been no +Republican party. He will now go a step further. He believes that +without that preliminary service there would not only have been no +Republican party, but no Civil War in the interest of free soil, no +Emancipation Proclamation, no Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to +the Federal Constitution. There might have been and probably would +have been considerable discussion, ending in a protest, more or less +"ringing," when slavery was permitted to overstep the line marked out +by the Missouri Compromise. There might even have been another +"settlement." But no such adjustment would have seriously impeded the +northward march of the triumphant Slave Power. Indeed, in that event +it is more than probable that ere this the legal representatives of +the late Robert Toombs, of Georgia, would, if so inclined, have made +good his boast of calling the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker +Hill monument. + +So far we have dealt with Mr. Roosevelt's indictment of the +Abolitionists for abandoning the old pro-slavery political parties, +and undertaking to construct a new and better one. That, in his +judgment, was a political crime. But he charges them with another +manifestation of criminality which was much more serious. He accuses +them of hostility, to the Union, which was disloyalty and treason. The +evidence offered by him in support of his accusation was the +Anti-Unionist position taken by William Lloyd Garrison, who branded +the Union as a "league with hell," and some of his associates. But +Garrison was not a leader, or even a member, of the third or Liberty +party. He denounced it almost as bitterly as Mr. Roosevelt. + +Garrison was a Quaker, a non-resistant, and a non-voter. He relied on +moral suasion. He saw no salvation in politics. The formation of a new +Anti-Slavery party excited his fiery indignation. He declared that it +was "ludicrous in its folly, pernicious as a measure of policy, and +useless as a political contrivance." + +Far and away the most potential member and leader of the political +Abolitionists was Salmon P. Chase. Instead of denouncing the +Constitution as "a league with death and hell," he claimed that it +was an Anti-Slavery document and should be so construed. As for the +Union, by his services in successfully managing the finances of the +country in its great crisis, he did as much to sustain the Union as +any other man of that time. To accuse him of hostility and infidelity +to the Union, is something that no one can do with impunity. In fact, +so clear and so clean, as well as so bold and striking, is the record +of Chase and his associates, beginning in 1840 and continuing down +until the last shackle was stricken from the last bondsman's limbs, +that even the shadow of the White House cannot obscure it. + +Nor is Mr. Roosevelt happy in his illustration, when, in his +concluding arraignment of the Abolitionists, he seeks to discredit +them as an organization of impracticables by comparing them to the +political Prohibitionists of to-day. When the latter, if that time is +ever to be, shall become strong enough to rout one or both of the +existing main political parties, and, taking the control of the +Government in their hands, shall not only legally consign the liquor +traffic to its coffin, but nail it down with a constitutional +amendment, then Mr. Roosevelt's comparison will apply. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ABOLITIONISTS--WHO AND WHAT THEY WERE + + +In selecting those who are to receive its remembrance and its honors, +the world has always given its preference to such as have battled for +freedom. It may have been with the sword; it may have been with the +pen; or it may have been with a tongue that was inflamed with holy +rage against tyranny and wrong; but whatever the instrumentality +employed; in whatever field the battle has been fought; and by +whatsoever race, or class, or kind of men; the champions of human +liberty have been hailed as the bravest of the brave and the most +worthy to receive the acclaims of their fellows. + +Now, if that estimate be not altogether inaccurate, what place in the +scale of renown must be assigned to those pioneers in the successful +movement against African slavery in this country who have commonly +been known as "Abolitionists"--a name first given in derision by their +enemies? It should, in the opinion of the writer hereof, be the very +highest. He is not afraid to challenge the whole record of human +achievements by great and good men (always save and except that which +is credited to the Saviour of mankind) for exhibitions of heroism +superior to theirs. Nay, when it is remembered that mainly through +their efforts and sacrifices was accomplished a revolution by which +four million human beings (but for the Abolitionists the number to-day +in bondage would be eight millions) were lifted from the condition in +which American slaves existed but a few years ago, to freedom and +political equality with their former masters; and, at the same time +when it is considered what qualities of heart and brain were needed +for such a task, he does not believe that history, from its earliest +chapters, furnishes examples of gods or men, except in very rare and +isolated cases, who have shown themselves to be their equals. + +In the matter of physical courage they were unsurpassed, +unsurpassable. A good many of them were Quakers and non-resistants, +and a good many of them were women, but they never shrank from danger +to life and limb, when employed in their humanitarian work. Some of +them achieved the martyr's crown. + +In the matter of conscience they were indomitable. Life to them was +worth less than principle. + +In the matter of money they were absolutely unselfish. Those of them +who were poor, as the most of them were, toiled on without the hope of +financial recompense. They did their work not only without the promise +or prospect of material reward of any kind, but with the certainty of +pains and penalties that included the ostracism and contempt of their +fellows, and even serious risks to property and life. + +All these sacrifices were in the cause of human liberty; but of +liberty for whom? That is the crucial point. In all ages there have +been plenty of men who have honorably striven for liberty for +themselves. Some there have been who have risen to higher planes. We +have an example in Lafayette. He fought to liberate a people who were +foreign in language and blood; but they were of his own color and the +peers of his compatriots. + +The Abolitionists, however, espoused the cause, and it was for that +that they endured so much, of creatures that were infinitely below +them; of beings who had ceased to be recognized as belonging to +humanity, and were classed with the cattle of the field and other +species of "property." So low were they that they could neither +appreciate nor return the services rendered in their behalf. For their +condition, the Abolitionists were in no sense responsible. They had no +necessary fellowship with the unfortunates. They were under no +especial obligation to them. They were not of the same family. It was +even doubted whether the races had a common origin. And yet, to the +end of securing release for these wretched victims of an intolerable +oppression, not a few of them dedicated all they possessed--life not +excepted. + +True it is that they had no monopoly of benevolence. Many noble men +and women have gone as missionaries to the poor and benighted, and +have sought through numerous hardships and perils to raise up those +who have been trodden in the dust. But, as a rule, their services have +been rendered pursuant to a secular employment that carried financial +compensation, and behind their devotion to the poor and oppressed has +been the expectation of personal reward in another world, if not in +this. But such motives barely, if at all, influenced the +Abolitionists. No element of professionalism entered into their work. +They were not particularly religious. They neither very greatly +reverenced nor feared the Church, whose leaders they often accused of +a hankering for the "flesh-pots" that induced them to lead their +followers into Egypt, rather than out of it. They were partly moved by +a hatred of slavery and its long train of abuses that was +irrepressible, and which to most persons was incomprehensible, and +partly by a love for their fellows in distress that was so insistent +as to make them forget themselves. Their impulses seemed to be largely +intuitive, if not instinctive, and if called upon for a philosophical +explanation they could not have given it. + +In such a struggle for freedom and natural human rights as was carried +on by the Abolitionists against tremendous odds and through a term +covering many long years, it does seem to the writer of this essay +that mortal heroism reached its height. + +Nor am I by any means alone in the opinion just expressed. As far back +as 1844, when the Abolitionists were few in number and the objects of +almost savage persecution in every part of our country, the Earl of +Carlisle, who, in his day was one of the most capable leaders of +British public opinion, declared that they were engaged "in fighting a +battle without a parallel in the history of ancient or modern +heroism." + +I am moved to write the story of the Abolitionists, partly because it +is full of romantic interest, and partly because justice demands it. +Those doughty file leaders in the Anti-Slavery fight do not to-day +have an adequate acknowledgment of the obligations that the country +and humanity should recognize as belonging to them, and they never +have had it. Much of the credit that is fairly theirs has been +mis-applied. Writers of history--so called, although much of it is +simple eulogy--have been more and more inclined to attribute the +overthrow of slavery to the efforts of a few men, and particularly one +man, who, after long opposition to, or neglect of, the freedom +movement, came to its help in the closing scenes of a great conflict, +while the earlier, and certainly equally meritorious, workers and +fighters have been quite left out of the account. The writer does not +object to laborers who entered the field at the eleventh hour, sharing +with those who bore the heat and burden of the day; but when there is +a disposition to give to them all the earnings he does feel like +protesting. + +The case of the Abolitionists is not overstated when it is said that, +but for their labors and struggles, this country, instead of being all +free, would to-day be all slaveholding. The relative importance of +their work in creating, by means of a persistent agitation, an +opposition to human slavery that was powerful enough to compel the +attention of the public and force the machine politicians, after long +opposition, to admit the question into practical politics, cannot well +be overestimated. + +They alone and single-handed fought the opening battles of a great +war, which, although overshadowed and obscured by later and more +dramatic events, were none the less gallantly waged and nobly won. It +is customary to speak of our Civil War as a four years' conflict. It +was really a thirty years' war, beginning when the pioneer +Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death +struggle. It was then that the hardest battles were fought. + +I write the more willingly because comparatively few now living +remember the mad excitement of the slavery controversy in ante-bellum +days. The majority--the living and the working masses of to-day--will, +doubtless, be gratified to have accurate pictures of scenes and events +of which they have heard their seniors speak, that distinguished the +most tempestuous period in our national history--the one in which the +wildest passions were aroused and indulged. Then it was that the +fiercest and bitterest agitation prevailed. The war that followed did +not increase this. It rather modified it--sobered it in view of the +crisis at hand--and served as a safety-valve for its escape. + +For the same reason, the general public has now but slight +comprehension of the trials endured by the Abolitionists for +principle's sake. In many ways were they persecuted. In society they +were tabooed; in business shunned. By the rabble they were hooted and +pelted. Clowns in the circus made them the subjects of their jokes. +Newspaper scribblers lampooned and libelled them. Politicians +denounced them. By the Church they were regarded as very black sheep, +and sometimes excluded from the fold. And this state of things lasted +for years, during which they kept up a steady agitation with the help +of platform lecturers, and regularly threw away their votes--so it +was charged--in a "third party" movement that seemed to be a hopeless +venture. + +Another inducement to the writer to take up the cause of the +Abolitionists is the fact that he has always been proud to class +himself as one of them. He came into the world before Abolitionism, by +that name, had been heard of; before the first Abolition Society was +organized; before William Lloyd Garrison founded his _Liberator_, and +before (not the least important circumstance) John Quincy Adams +entered Congress. He cannot remember when the slavery question was not +discussed. His sympathies at an early day went out to the slave. He +informed himself on the subject as well as a farmer boy might be +expected to do in a household that received the most of its knowledge +of current events from the columns of one weekly newspaper. He cast +his first vote for the ticket of the Abolitionists while they were yet +a "third party." + +The community in which he then lived, although in the free State of +Ohio, was strongly pro-slavery, being not far from the Southern +border. The population was principally from Virginia and Kentucky. +There were a few Abolitionists, and they occasionally tried to hold +public meetings, but the gatherings were always broken up by mobs. + +The writer very well remembers the satisfaction with which he, as a +schoolboy, was accustomed to hear that there was to be another +Abolition "turn-out." The occasion was certain to afford considerable +excitement that was dear to the heart of a boy, and it had another +recommendation. The only room in the village--"town" we called +it--for such affairs, except the churches, which were barred against +"fanatics," was the district schoolhouse, which, by common consent, +was open to all comers, and as the windows and doors, through which +missiles were hurled during Anti-Slavery gatherings, were always more +or less damaged, "we boys" usually got a holiday or two while the +building was undergoing necessary repairs. + +As might be surmised, the lessons I learned at school were not all +such as are usually acquired at such institutions. My companions were +like other children, full of spirit and mischief, and not without +their prejudices. They hated Abolitionists because they--the +Abolitionists--wanted to compel all white people to marry "niggers." +Although not naturally unkind, they did not always spare the feelings +of "the son of an old Abolitionist." We had our arguments. Some of +them were of the knock-down kind. In more than one shindy, growing out +of the discussion of the great question of the day, I suffered the +penalty of a bloody nose or a blackened eye for standing up for my +side. + +The feeling against the negroes' friends--the Abolitionists--was not +confined to children in years. It was present in all classes. It +entered State and Church alike, and dominated both of them. The +Congressional Representative from the district in which I lived in +those days was an able man and generally held in high esteem. He made +a speech in our village when a candidate for re-election. In +discussing the slavery question--everybody discussed it then--he spoke +of the negroes as being "on the same footing with other cattle." I +remember the expression very well because it shocked me, boy that I +was. It did not disturb the great majority of those present, however. +They cheered the sentiment and gave their votes for the speaker, who +was re-elected by a large majority. + +About the same time I happened to be present where a General Assembly +of one of our largest religious denominations was in session, and +listened to part of an address by a noted divine--the most +distinguished man in the body--which was intended to prove that +slavery was an institution existing by biblical authority. He spent +two days in a talk that was mostly made up of scriptural texts and his +commentaries upon them. This was in Ohio, and there was not a +slave-owner in the assembly, and yet a resolution commendatory of the +views that had just been declared by the learned doctor, was adopted +by an almost unanimous vote. + +In the neighborhood in which I lived was an old and much respected +clergyman who was called upon to preach a sermon on a day of some +national significance. He made it the occasion for a florid panegyric +upon American institutions, which, he declared, assured freedom to all +men. Here he paused, "When I spoke of all men enjoying freedom under +our flag," he resumed, "I did not, of course, include the Ethiopians +whom Providence has brought to our shores for their own good as well +as ours. They are slaves by a divine decree. As descendants of Ham, +they are under a curse that makes them the servants of their more +fortunate white brethren." Having thus put himself right on the +record, he proceeded with his sermon. No one seemed to take exception +to what he said. + +In the same neighborhood was a young preacher who had shortly before +come into it from somewhere farther North. In the course of one of his +regular services he offered up a prayer in which he expressed the hope +that the good Lord would find a way to break the bands of all who were +in bondage. That smacked of Abolitionism and at once there was a +commotion. The minister was asked to explain. This he declined to do, +saying that his petition was a matter between him and his God, and he +denied the right of others to question him. That only increased the +opposition, and in a short time the spunky young man was compelled to +resign his charge. + +About that time there appeared a lecturer on slavery--which meant +against slavery--who carried credentials showing that he was a +clergyman in good standing in one of the leading Protestant +denominations. In our village was a church of that persuasion, whose +pastor was not an Abolitionist. As in duty bound, the visiting brother +called on his local fellow-laborer, and informed him that on the +following day, which happened to be Sunday, he would be pleased to +attend service at his church. On the morrow he was on hand and +occupied a seat directly in front of the pulpit; but, notwithstanding +his conspicuousness, the home minister, who should, out of courtesy, +have invited him to a seat in the pulpit, if to no other part in the +services, never saw him. He looked completely over his head, keeping +his eyes, all through the exercises, fixed upon the back pews, which +happened, on that occasion, to be chiefly unoccupied. + +Such incidents, of themselves, were of no great importance. Their +significance was in the fact that they all occurred on the soil of a +free State. They showed the state of feeling that then and there +existed. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ONE OF THEIR TRAITS + + +The writer has spoken of the courage of the Abolitionists. There is +another trait by which they were distinguished that, in his opinion, +should not be passed over. That was their extreme hopefulness--their +untiring confidence. No matter how adverse were the conditions, they +expected to win. They never counted the odds against them. They +trusted in the right which they were firmly persuaded would prevail +some time or another. For that time they were willing to wait, +meanwhile doing what they could to hasten its coming. + +Benjamin Lundy, the little Quaker mechanic, who was undeniably the +Peter-the-Hermit of the Abolitionist movement, when setting out alone +and on foot, with his printing material on his back, to begin a +crusade against the strongest and most arrogant institution in the +country, remarked with admirable naivete, "I do not know how soon I +shall succeed in my undertaking." + +William Lloyd Garrison, when the pioneer Anti-Slavery Society was +organized by only twelve men, and they people of no worldly +consequence, the meeting for lack of a better place being held in a +colored schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" in Boston, declared that in due +time they would meet to urge their principles in Faneuil Hall--a most +audacious declaration, but he was right. + +The writer, when a boy, was witness to an exhibition of the same +spirit. A kinsman of his was a zealous Abolitionist, although not +particularly gifted with controversial acumen. He and his minister, as +often happened, were discussing the slavery question. The minister, +like many of his cloth at that time, was a staunch supporter of "the +institution," which, according to his contention, firmly rested on +biblical authority. + +"How do you expect to destroy slavery, as it exists in Kentucky, by +talking and voting abolition up here in Ohio?" asked the clergyman. + +"We will crush it through Congress when we get control of the general +government," said my kinsman. + +"But Congress and the general government have, under the Constitution, +absolutely no power over slavery in the States. It is a State +institution," replied the clergyman. + +It is unnecessary to follow the discussion, but, one after another, +the quicker-witted and better-informed preacher successfully combated +all the propositions advanced by my relative in trying to give a +reason for the faith that was in him, until he was completely +cornered. "Well," said he at last, "the good Lord has not taken me +into His confidence, and I don't know what His plans for upsetting +slavery are, but He will be able to manage it somehow." + +My kinsman lived long enough to see the day when there was not a +slave on American soil, and the minister lived long enough to become a +roaring Abolitionist. + +It was doubtless their confidence in ultimate triumph, a result of +their absolute belief in the righteousness of their cause, that, as +much as anything else, armed and armored the Abolitionists against all +opposition. It was one main element of their strength in the midst of +their weakness. Without it they could not have persisted, as they did, +in their separate or "third party" political action, that cleared the +way and finally led up to a victorious organization. Year after year, +and for many years, they voted for candidates that had no chance of +election. Their first presidential ticket got only seven thousand +votes in the whole country. The great public, which could not see the +use of acting politically for principle alone, laughed at their +simplicity in "throwing away their votes." "Voting in the air" was the +way it was often spoken of, and those who were guilty of such +incomprehensible folly were characterized as "one idea people." They, +however, cared little for denunciation or ridicule, and kept on +regularly nominating their tickets, and as regularly giving them votes +that generally appeared in the election returns among the +"scattering." They were not abashed by the insignificance of their +party. + + "They were men who dared to be + the right with two or three," + +according to the poet Lowell. + +In the county in which I lived when a boy, there was one vote polled +for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket. The man who gave it +did not try to hide his responsibility--in fact, he seemed rather +proud of his aloneness--but he was mercilessly guyed on account of the +smallness of his party. His rejoinder was that he thought that he and +God, who was, he believed, with him, made a pretty good-sized and +respectable party. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PRO-SLAVERY PREJUDICE + + +The intensity--perhaps density would be a better word in this +connection--of the prejudice that confronted the Abolitionists when +they entered on their work is not describable by any expressions we +have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man +could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions +were not much better. Every man and woman--because the muster-roll of +the Abolition propagandists was recruited from both sexes--carried on +the work at the hazard of his or her life. Sneers, scowls, hootings, +curses, and rough handling were absolutely certain. One incident +throws light on the state of feeling at that time. + +When Pennsylvania Hall, which the Abolitionists of +Philadelphia--largely Quakers--had erected for a meeting place at a +cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department +of that city threw water on surrounding property, but not one drop +would it contribute to save the property of the Abolitionists. + +Why was it that this devotion to slavery and this hostility to its +opposers prevailed in the non-slaveholding States? They had not always +existed. Indeed, there was a time, not so many years before, when +slavery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and +Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public +opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of +universal emancipation, when suddenly--almost in the twinkling of an +eye--there was a change. If it had been a weather-cock--as to a +considerable extent it was, and is--public opinion could not have more +quickly veered about. + +Slavery became the popular idol in the North as well as in the South. +Opposition to it was not only offensive, but dangerous. It was +sacrilege. + +So far as the South was concerned the revolution is easily accounted +for. Slavery became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with +a wand of gold, and from being a languishing, struggling system, it +quickly developed into a money-maker. + +Whitney, the Connecticut mechanical genius, by the invention of the +cotton-gin, made the production of cotton a highly lucrative industry. +The price of negroes to work the cotton fields at once went up, and +yet the supply was inadequate. Northernly slave States could not +produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the +golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, +Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in +human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken of as "nigger +pens," in which the "hands" that were to make the cotton were +temporarily gathered, and long coffles--that is, processions of men +and women, each with a hand attached to a common rope or +chain--marched through their streets with faces turned southward. + +The slave-owners were numerically a lean minority even in the South, +but their mastery over their fellow-citizens was absolute. Nor was +there any mystery about it. As the owners of four million slaves, on +an average worth not far from five hundred dollars each, they formed +the greatest industrial combination--what at this time we would call a +trust--ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel +Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great +financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up +to the dimensions of that one association. It was not incorporated in +law, but its union was perfect. Bound together by a common interest +and a common feeling, its members--in the highest sense co-partners in +business and in politics, in peace and in war--were prepared to act +together as one man. + +But why, I again ask, were the Northern people so infatuated with +slavery? They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of +them, and especially their political leaders, carried their adulation +almost to idolatry. + +When Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot down like a dog, and William Lloyd +Garrison was dragged half naked and half lifeless through the streets +of Boston, and other outrages of like import were being perpetrated +all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were +not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"--of +merchants, manufacturers, and members of the professions. They claimed +the credit for such achievements. There were reasons for such a state +of things--some very solid, because financial. + +The North and the South were extensively interlaced by mutual +interests. With slave labor the Southern planters made cotton, and +with the proceeds of their cotton they bought Northern machinery and +merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They +came North themselves when their pockets were full, and freely spent +their money at Northern hotels, Northern theatres, Northern +race-tracks, and other Northern places of entertainment. + +Then there were other ties than those of business. The great political +parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their +Southern members. Every kind of trade and calling had its Southern +outlet. + +But social connections were the strongest of all, and probably had +most to do in making Northern sentiment. Southern gentlemen were +popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were +grandiose. They talked boastfully of the number of their "niggers," +and told how they were accustomed to "wallop" them. + +Then there were marriage ties between the sections. Many domestic +alliances strengthened the bond between slavery and the aristocracy of +the North. + +In the circles in which these things were going on, it was the fashion +to denounce the Abolitionists. Women were the most bitter. The +slightest suspicion of sympathy with the "fanatics" was fatal to +social ambition. Mrs. Henry Chapman, the wife of a wealthy Boston +shipping merchant who gave orders that no slaves should be carried on +his vessels, was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense +in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small +conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former +associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of +Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were +noted for their intelligence and culture, but when the heads of the +families came to be classified as Abolitionists the doors of all +fashionable mansions were at once shut against them. They in other +ways suffered for their opinions. The home of Lewis Tappan was invaded +by a mob, and furniture, books, and _bric-a-brac_ were carried to the +street and there burned to ashes. + +The masses of the Northern people were, however, led to favor slavery +by other arguments. One of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, +would at once rush to the North and overrun the free States. I have +heard that proposition warmly supported by fairly intelligent persons. + +Another argument that weighed with a surprisingly large number of +people, was that civil equality would be followed by social equality. +As soon as they were free, negro men, it was said, would marry white +wives. "Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was +regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of +course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a +negro woman for a slave, I do want her for a wife?" was one of the +quaint and pithy observations attributed to Mr. Lincoln. I heard +Prof. Hudson, of Oberlin College, express the same idea in about the +same words many years before. + +And yet there were plenty of Northern people to whom +"Amalgamation"--the word used to describe the apprehended union of the +races--was a veritable scarecrow. A young gentleman in a neighborhood +near where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for +matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had +been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," said +the old gentleman, "that you are an Abolitionist." The young man +admitted the justice of the charge. "Then, sir," fairly roared the old +man, "you can't have my daughter; go and marry a nigger." + +But what probably gave slavery its strongest hold upon the favor of +Northern people was the animosity toward the negro that prevailed +among them. Nowhere was he treated by them like a human being. The +"black laws," as those statutes in a number of free States that +regulated the treatment of the blacks were appropriately called, were +inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was +called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws +they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. +Any one employing negroes, not so bonded, was liable to a fine of one +hundred dollars. They could not vote, of course. They could not +testify in a case in which a white man was interested. They could not +send their children to schools which they helped to support. The only +thing they could do "like a white man" was to pay taxes. + +The prejudice against the poor creatures in Ohio was much stronger +than that they encountered on the other side of the Ohio River in the +slave State of Kentucky. Here--in Kentucky--they were property, and +they generally received the care and consideration that ownership +ordinarily establishes. The interest of the master was a factor in +their behalf. In many instances there was genuine affection between +owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had +good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes +would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. +There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the +blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in freedom. +What stronger testimony to the innate desire for liberty--what Byron +has described as "The eternal spirit of the chainless mind"--than the +fact that slaves who were the most indulgently treated, were +constantly escaping from the easy and careless life they led to the +hostilities and barbarities of the free States, and they never went +back except under compulsion. + + "O carry me back to old Virginy, + To old Virginy's shore," + +was the refrain of a song that was very popular in those days, and +which was much affected by what were called "negro minstrels." It was +assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when +they had time to realize what freedom meant in their cases, but I +never heard the words from the lips of a man who had lived in a state +of servitude. + +I have elsewhere referred to the fact that women were often the most +bitter in their denunciations of the Abolitionists. In the +neighborhood in which I passed my early days was a lady who was born +and raised in the North, and who probably had no decided sentiment, +one way or the other, on the slavery question; but who about this time +spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came +back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She +could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by +the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had nothing to do +except to take the world easy, and that, according to her account, +they did with great unanimity. The slaves, were, she declared, the +happiest people in the world, all care and responsibility being taken +from their shoulders by masters who were kind enough to look out for +their wants. + +But one day she unwittingly exposed a glimpse of the reverse side of +the picture. She told the story of a young slave girl who had been +accused of larceny. She had picked up some trifling article that +ordinarily no one would have cared anything about; but at this time it +was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the +poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a +ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that +purpose, and she was drawn up, with her face to the building, until +her toes barely touched the ground. Then, in the presence of all her +fellow-slaves, and with her clothing so detached as to expose her +naked shoulders, she was flogged until the blood trickled down her +back. + +"I felt almost as bad for her," said the narrator, "as if she had been +one of my own kind." + +"Thank God she was not one of your kind!" exclaimed a voice that +fairly sizzled with rage. + +The speaker who happened to be present was a relative of the author +and a red-hot Abolitionist. + +Then came a furious war of words, the two enraged women shouting +maledictions in each other's faces. As a boy, I enjoyed the +performance hugely until I began to see that there was danger of a +collision. As the only male present, it would be my duty to interfere +in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and +hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be +really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when the +two women, looking into each other's inflamed faces, suddenly realized +the ridiculousness of the situation and broke into hearty peals of +laughter. That, of course, ended the controversy, not a little to the +relief of the writer. + +If the influence of a great majority of the women of that day was +thrown on the side of slavery, as was undoubtedly the case, the +minority largely made up for the disparity of numbers by the spunk and +aggressiveness of their demonstrations. A good many of the most +indomitable and effective Abolition lecturers were women--such as Mrs. +Lucretia Mott, the Grimke sisters, Abby Kelly, and others whose names +are here omitted, although they richly deserve to be mentioned. Of +all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a +little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish +crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I +never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes +were small and it appeared to me that they contracted, when she was +speaking, until they emitted sparks of fire. Although she went by her +maiden name, she was a married woman, being the wife of Stephen +Foster, a professional Abolitionist agitator and lecturer. Although +himself noted for the bitterness of his speech, when it came to +hard-hitting vituperation he could not begin to "hold a candle" to his +little wife. + +The two traveled together and spoke from the same platforms. They were +constantly getting into hot water through the hostility of mobs, which +they seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once +in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the +slightest fear. The only meeting addressed by them that I attended, +though held on the Sabbath, was ended by the throwing of stones and +sticks and addled eggs. + +But if the current of public opinion in the North suddenly turned, and +for a long time ran with overwhelming force in favor of slavery, it +changed about almost as suddenly and ran with equal force in the +opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that +furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential +ticket, became a Republican stronghold. It was in what had been a Whig +district, and when the Whig party went to pieces, the most of its +_debris_ drifted into the Republican lines. + +On the occasion of one of the pro-slavery mobs I elsewhere tell about, +when a supply of eggs with which to garnish the Abolitionists, was +wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the town +constable--the peace officer of the community--put his hand in his +pocket and supplied the funds. + +A few years thereafter, on my return to the village after a +considerable absence, I found that I had come just in time to attend a +Republican rally which was that day to be held in a near-by grove. +When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the +grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, +but by far the most excited individual was the Grand Marshal and +Master of Ceremonies. Seated on a high horse, he was riding up and +down the line shouting out his orders with tremendous unction. He was +the constable of the egg-buying episode. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE POLITICAL SITUATION + + +In several of his addresses before his election to the Presidency, Mr. +Lincoln gave utterance to the following language: "A house divided +against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot +permanently remain half slave and half free. I do not expect the house +to fall, but I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all +one thing or all the other thing." + +The same opinion had been enunciated several years before by John +Quincy Adams on the floor of Congress, when, with his accustomed +pungency, he declared, "The Union will fall before slavery or slavery +will fall before the Union." + +But before either Adams or Lincoln spoke on the subject--away back in +1838--the same idea they expressed had a more elaborate and forcible +presentation in the following words: + + "The conflict is becoming--has become--not alone of freedom for + the blacks, but of freedom for the whites. It has now become + absolutely necessary that slavery shall cease in order that + freedom may be preserved in any portion of our land. The + antagonistic principles of liberty and slavery have been roused + into action, and one or the other must be victorious. There will + be no cessation of the strife until slavery shall be exterminated + or liberty destroyed." + +The author of the words last above quoted was James Gillespie Birney, +who was the first Abolitionist, or "Liberty party," candidate for the +Presidency, and of whose career a brief sketch is elsewhere given. + +That the slaveholders reached the same conclusion that Birney and +Adams and Lincoln announced, viz., that the country was to be all one +thing or all the other thing, is as manifest as any fact in our +history. It is equally certain that they had firmly resolved to +capture the entire commonwealth for their "institution," and had laid +their plans to that end. They were unwilling to live in a divided +house, particularly with an occupant who was stronger in population +and wealth than they were. + +They saw the danger in such association. Northern sentiment toward +slavery was complacent enough, even servilely so, but it might change. +The South thought it had too much at stake to take the chances when +the opportunity for absolute safety and permanent rule was within its +reach. It resolved to make the whole country, not only pro-slavery, +but slaveholding. If, through any mischance, it failed in its +calculation, the next step would be to tear down the house and from +its ruins reconstruct so much of it as might be needed for its own +occupancy. That it would be able in time to possess itself of the +whole country, however, for and in behalf of its industrial policy, it +did not for an instant doubt. It was not empty braggadocio on the part +of the celebrated Robert Toombs, of Georgia, when he uttered his +famous boast.[1] He voiced the practically unanimous opinion of his +section. + +[1] See page 13. + +Nor was there anything seemingly very presumptuous in that +anticipation. So far, the South had been invariably victorious. In +what appeared to be a decisive battle in the test case of admitting +Missouri into the Union as a slave State, it had won. So pronounced +was its triumph that whatever Anti-Slavery sentiment survived the +conflict appeared to be stunned and helpless. All fight was knocked +out of it. Its spirit was broken. While the South was not only compact +and fully alive, but exultingly aggressive, the North was divided, +fully one half of its population being about as pro-slavery as the +slaveholders themselves, and the rest, with rare exceptions, being +hopelessly apathetic. The Northern leaders of both of the old +political parties--Whig and Democratic--were what the Abolitionists +called "dough-faces," being Northern men with Southern principles. The +Church was "a dumb dog," and the press simply drifted with the tide. +It was not at all strange that the slaveholders expected to go on from +conquest to conquest. + +There were two policies they could adopt. One was to attack the +enemy's citadel; or rather, the several citadels it possessed in its +individual States, and force them to open their doors to the master +and his human chattels. The other was to flank and cover, approaching +the main point of attack by way of the Territories. These, once in +possession of the slaveholders, could be converted into enough slave +States to give them the control of the general government, from which +coigne of advantage they could proceed in their own time and way to +possess themselves of such other free States as they might want. + +In the matter of the Territories they had a great advantage. The North +was up against a stone wall at the Canadian border. In that direction +it could not advance a step, while the South had practically an +unlimited field on its side from which to carve possessions as they +might be wanted, very much as you would cut a pie. + +In pursuance of its territorial policy--being the line of action it +first resolved upon--the first movement of the South was to annex +Texas--a victory. The next was to make war on Mexico, and (a joke of +the day) conquer a "piece" from it large enough to make half a dozen +States, all expected to be slaveholding--another victory. + +By a curious irony the filching of land for slavery's uses from a +neighbor, and on which the foot of a slave had never pressed, was +exultingly spoken of at the time by its supporters as "an extension of +the area of freedom." The act was justified on the ground that we +needed "land for the landless," which led Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio to +assert on the floor of the United States Senate, with as much truth as +wit, that it was not land for the landless that was wanted, but +"niggers for the niggerless." + +Then came the battle over Kansas. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska +Bill in Congress, although involving a breach of good faith on the +part of the South, was hailed as another victory for that section. It +was a costly victory. It was followed by defeat not only disastrous +but fatal. The result in Kansas was really the turning-point in the +great struggle. It broke the line of Southern victories. It +neutralized the effect of the whole territorial movement up to that +point. It completely spoiled the slaveholders' well-laid plans. We +will always give Grant and his men all praise for victories leading up +to Appomatox, but, in some respects, the most important victory of the +great conflict was won on the plains of Kansas by John Brown of +Ossawattomie and his Abolition associates. + +The most sagacious Southern leaders saw in that result conclusive +proof that the scale was turned. They realized that they were beaten +within the lines of the Union, and they began to arrange for going out +of it. They helped to elect a Republican President by dividing the +Democratic party in 1860 between two candidates--Douglas and +Breckenridge--in order that they might have a plausible pretext for +secession. + +But the slaveholders had not abandoned the other policy to which +reference has been made--that of carrying their institution, by main +force, as it were, into some, if not all, of the free States. To that +end they had, in sporting parlance, a card up their sleeves which they +proceeded to play. That card was the decision of the United States +Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, upon which they relied to give +them the legal power to take and hold their slaves in all parts of the +land. Up to the date of that decision, the current of judicial rulings +had been that slavery, being a municipal institution, was local, +while freedom was national. Hence, when a master took his slave into a +free State, at that instant he became a free man. The Dred Scott +decision was intended to reverse the rule. Practically it held that +slave ownership, wherever the Constitution prevailed, was both a legal +and a natural right. It, as Benton forcibly expressed it, "made +slavery the organic law of the land and freedom the exception"; or, as +it was jocularly expressed at the time, it left freedom nowhere. + +Although at the time of its promulgation, it was claimed by some of +the more conservative pro-slavery leaders that the Dred Scott dictum +applied only to the Territories, giving the masters the legal +authority to enter them with their slaves, that position was clearly +deceptive. The principle involved, as laid down by the Court, was +altogether too broad for that construction. In effect it put the +proprietorship of human beings upon the same footing with other +property rights, and claimed for it the same constitutional +protection. The bolder men of the South, like Toombs of Georgia, did +not hesitate to give that interpretation to the Court's pronouncement, +and to insist on it with brutal frankness. If they were wrong, the +Court was putty in their hands and they could easily have had a +supplemental ruling that would have gone to any extent. + +If the Dred Scott decision had been promulgated by our highest court, +and the slaveholders had insisted upon the license it was intended to +give them for taking their slave property into free territory, at the +time that Garrison was being dragged by a mob through Boston's +streets; when Birney's printing-press in Cincinnati was being tumbled +into the Ohio River; when Pennsylvania Hall, the Quaker Abolitionists' +forty-thousand-dollar construction, was ablaze in Philadelphia; when +Lovejoy, the Abolition martyr, was bleeding out his life in one of the +streets of Alton, Illinois--when, in fact, the whole land was swayed +by a frenzied hatred of the men and women who dared to question +slavery's right to supremacy, the writer believes the movement would +have been successful. Public opinion was so inclined in States like +Indiana and Illinois, and even in Ohio, that they might have been +easily toppled over to the South. Indeed, at that time it is a problem +how Massachusetts would have voted on a proposition to "slaveryize" +her soil. The surprising thing, as we look back to that period, is +that slavery did not get a foothold in some of the free States, if not +in all of them. + +But by the time the South was ready to play its trump card, it was too +late. The game was lost. Public opinion had become revolutionized +throughout the North. The leaven of Abolitionism had got in its work. +The men and women, few in number and weak in purse and worldly +position as they were, who had enlisted years before in the cause of +emancipation, and had fought for it in the face of almost every +conceivable discouragement, had at last won a great preliminary +victory. Slavery, through their exertions, had become impossible, both +in the Territories and in the free States of the North, the United +States Supreme Court and all the forces of the slave power to the +contrary notwithstanding. Then came to the South a not unanticipated, +and to many of her leaders a not unwelcome political Waterloo, in the +election of Lincoln. This gave the argument for secession that was +wanted. The South had then to yield--which she had no idea of +doing--or to go into rebellion. She went out of the Union very much as +she would have gone to a frolic. She had no thought that serious +fighting was to follow. She did not believe, as one of the Southern +leaders expressed it, that the Northern people would go to war for the +sake of the "niggers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ANTI-SLAVERY PIONEERS + + +The early Abolitionists were denounced as fanatics, or "fan-a-tics," +according to the pronunciation of some of their detractors. They were +treated as if partially insane. The writer when a boy attended the +trial of a cause between two neighbors in a court of low grade. It was +what was called a "cow case," and involved property worth, perhaps, as +much as twenty dollars. One of the witnesses on the stand was asked by +a lawyer, who wanted to embarrass or discredit him, if he were not an +Abolitionist. Objection came from the other side on the ground that +the inquiry was irrelevant; but the learned justice-of-the-peace who +presided held that, as it related to the witness's sanity, and that +would affect his credibility, the question was admissible. It is not, +perhaps, so very strange that in those days, in view of the +disreputableness of those whose cause they espoused, and the +apparently utter hopelessness of anything ever coming out of it, the +supporters of Anti-Slaveryism should be suspected of being "out of +their heads." + +Although Don Quixote, who, according to the veracious Cervantes, set +out with his unaided strong right arm to upset things, including +wind-mills and obnoxious dynasties, has long been looked upon as the +world's best specimen of a "fanatic," he would ordinarily be set down +as a very Solomon beside the man who would undertake single-handed to +overthrow such an institution as American slavery used to be. Such a +man there was, however. He really entered on the job of abolishing +that institution, and without a solitary assistant. Strange to say, he +was neither a giant nor a millionaire. + +According to Horace Greeley, "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high honor +of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distinctive Anti-Slaveryism in +America." + +He was slight in frame and below the medium height, and unassuming in +manner. He had, it is said, neither eloquence nor shining ability of +any sort. + +At nineteen years of age he went to Wheeling, Virginia, to learn the +trade of a saddler. He learned more than that. Wheeling, as he tells +us, was then a great thoroughfare for the traffickers in human flesh. +Their coffles passed through the place frequently. "My heart," he +continues, "was grieved at the great abomination. I heard the wail of +the captive, I felt his pang of distress, and the iron entered into my +soul." + +But much as Lundy loathed the business of the slave-dealers and +slave-drivers, he then had no idea of attempting its abolishment. He +married and settled down to the prosecution of his trade, and had he +been like other people generally he would have been content. But he +could not shut the pictures of those street scenes in Wheeling out of +his mind and out of his heart. + +The first thing in the reformatory line he did was to organize a +local Anti-Slavery society in the village in which he was then living +in Ohio; at the first meeting of this society only five persons were +present. + +About this time Lundy made some important discoveries. He learned that +he could write what the newspapers would print, and give expression to +words that the people would listen to. He was quick to realize the +fact that the best way to reach the people of this country was through +the press. He started a very small paper with a very large name. It +was ambitiously nominated _The Genius of Universal Emancipation_. He +began with only six subscribers and without a press or other +publishing material. Moreover, he had no money. He was not then a +practical printer, though later he learned the art of type-setting. At +this time he had his newspaper printed twenty miles from his home, and +carried the edition for that distance on his back. + +But insignificant as Lundy's paper was, it had the high distinction of +being the only exclusively Anti-Slavery journal in the country, and +its editor and proprietor was the only professional Abolition lecturer +and agitator of that time. + +Afterwards, in speaking of his journalistic undertaking, Mr. Lundy +said: "I began this work without a dollar of funds, trusting to the +sacredness of the cause." Another saying of his was that he did not +stop to calculate "how soon his efforts would be crowned with +success." + +As Lundy spent the greater part of his time in traveling from place to +place, procuring subscriptions to his journal and lecturing on +slavery, he could not issue his paper regularly at any one point. In +some instances he carried the head-rules, column-rules, and +subscription-book of his journal with him, and when he came to a town +where he found a printing-press he would stop long enough to print and +mail a number of his periodical. He traveled for the most part on +foot, carrying a heavy pack. In ten years in that way he covered +twenty-five thousand miles, five thousand on foot. + +He decided to invade the enemy's country by going where slavery was. +He went to Tennessee, making the journey of eight hundred miles, one +half by water, and one half on foot. That was, of course, before the +day of railroads. + +He continued to issue his paper, although often threatened with +personal violence. Once two bullies locked him in a room and, with +revolvers in hand, tried to frighten him into a promise to discontinue +his work. He did not frighten to any extent. + +Seeking what seemed to be the most inviting field for his operations, +he decided to move his establishment to Baltimore, going most of the +way on foot and lecturing as he went whenever he could find an +audience. + +His residence in Baltimore came near proving fatal. A slave-trader, +whom he had offended, attacked and brutally beat him on the street. +The consolation he got from the court that tried the ruffian, who was +"honorably discharged," was that he (Lundy) had got "nothing more than +he deserved." Soon afterwards his printing material and other property +was burned by a mob. + +He went to Mexico to select a location for a projected colony of +colored people. He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the +strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of +saddlery and harness mending. In his journal he tells us that he often +slept in the open air, the country traversed being mostly new and +unsettled. He was in constant danger from panthers, alligators, and +rattlesnakes, while he was cruelly beset by gnats and mosquitoes. His +clothes in the morning, he tells us, would be as wet from heavy dews +as if he had fallen into the river. + +Intellectually, Lundy was not a great man, but his heart was beyond +measurement. The torch that he carried in the midst of the all but +universal darkness of that period emitted but a feeble ray, but he +kept it burning, and it possessed the almost invaluable property of +being able to transmit its flame to other torches. It kindled the +brand that was wielded by William Lloyd Garrison, and which possessed +a wonderful power of illumination. + +Garrison was beyond all question a remarkable man. In the qualities +that endow a successful leader in a desperate cause he has never been +surpassed. He had an iron will that was directed by an inflexible +conscience. "To him," says James Freeman Clarke, "right was right, and +wrong was wrong, and he saw no half lights or half shadows between +them." He was a natural orator. I never heard him talk, either on or +off the platform, but I have heard those who had listened to him, +speak of the singular gift he possessed in stating or combating a +proposition. One person who had heard him, often compared him, when +dealing with an adversary, to a butcher engaged in dissecting a +carcass, and who knew just where to strike every time,--a homely, but +expressive illustration. His addresses in England on a certain notable +occasion, which is dealt with somewhat at length elsewhere, were +declared by the first British orators to be models of perfect +eloquence. + +Lundy and Garrison met by accident. They were boarding at the same +house in Boston, and became acquainted. Lundy's mind was full of the +subject of slavery, and Garrison's proved to be receptive soil. They +decided to join forces, and we have the singular spectacle of two poor +mechanics--a journeyman saddler and a journeyman printer--conspiring +to revolutionize the domestic institutions of half of the country. + +They decided to continue the Baltimore newspaper. Garrison's +plain-spokenness, however, soon got him into trouble in that city. He +was prosecuted for libelling a shipmaster for transporting slaves, was +convicted and fined fifty dollars. The amount, so far as his ability +to pay was involved, might as well have been a million. He went to +prison, being incarcerated in a cell just vacated by a man who had +been hanged for murder, and there he remained for seven weeks. At the +end of that time Arthur Tappan, the big-hearted merchant of New York, +learning the facts of the case, advanced the money needed to set +Garrison free. + +Undeterred by his experience as a martyr, Garrison--who had returned +to Boston--resolved to establish a journal of his own in that city, +which was to be devoted to the cause of the slave. _The Liberator_ +appeared on the 1st of January, 1831. + +In entering upon this venture, Garrison had not a subscriber nor a +dollar of money. Being a printer, he set up the type and struck off +the first issue with his own hands. + +In the initial number the proprietor of the _Liberator_ outlined his +proposed policy in these words: "I will be as harsh as truth; as +uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will not excuse; I will +not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard." + +The first issue of the paper brought in a contribution of fifty +dollars from a colored man and twenty-five subscribers. It was not, +therefore, a failure, but its continuance involved a terrible strain. +Garrison and one co-worker occupied one room for work-shop, +dining-room, and bedroom. They cooked their own meals and slept upon +the floor. It was almost literally true, as pictured by Lowell, the +poet: + + "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, + Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man. + The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean, + Yet there the freedom of a race began." + +The effects produced by Garrison's unique production were simply +wonderful. In October of its first year the Vigilance Association of +South Carolina offered a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for the +apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any white person who +might be detected in distributing or circulating the _Liberator_. +Georgia went farther than that. Less than a year after Garrison had +established his paper, the Legislature of that State passed an act +offering a reward of five thousand dollars to whomsoever should +arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute its publisher to conviction. The +_Liberator_ was excluded from the United States mails in all the slave +States, illegal as such a proceeding was. + +There was, however, opposition nearer home. The _Liberator_ +establishment was wrecked by a mob, and Garrison, after having been +stripped of nearly all his clothing, was dragged, bareheaded, by a +rope round his body through the streets of Boston until, to save his +life, the authorities thrust him into jail. + +No man in this country was so cordially hated by the slaveholders as +Garrison. Of the big men up North--the leaders of politics and +society--they had no apprehension. They knew how to manage them. It +was the little fellows like the editor of the _Liberator_ that gave +them trouble. These men had no money, but they could not be bought. +They had no fear of mobs. They cared nothing for the scoldings of the +church and the press. An adverse public sentiment never disturbed +their equanimity or caused them to turn a hair's breadth in their +course. + +It is true that Lundy and Garrison had very little to lose. They had +neither property nor social position. That, however, cannot be said of +another early Abolitionist, who, in some respects, is entitled to more +consideration than any of his co-workers. + +James Gillespie Birney was a Southerner by birth. He belonged to a +family of financial and social prominence. He was a gentleman of +education and culture, having graduated from a leading college and +being a lawyer of recognized ability. He was a slave-owner. For a time +he conducted a plantation with slave labor. He lived in Alabama, where +he filled several important official positions, and was talked of for +the governorship of the State. But having been led to think about the +moral, and other aspects of slaveholding, he decided that it was wrong +and he would wash his hands of it. He could not in Alabama legally +manumit his slaves. Moreover, his neighbors had risen up against him +and threatened his forcible expulsion. He removed to Kentucky, where +he thought a more liberal sentiment prevailed. There he freed his +slaves and made liberal provision for their comfortable sustenance. +But the slave power was on his track. He was warned to betake himself +out of the State. The infliction of personal violence was meditated, +and a party of his opposers came together for that purpose. They were +engaged in discussing ways and means when a young man of commanding +presence and strength, who happened to be present, announced that +while he lived Mr. Birney would not be molested. His opposition broke +up the plot. That young man became a leading clergyman and was +subsequently for a time Chaplain of the United States Senate. + +Birney went with his belongings to Ohio, thinking that upon the soil +of a free State he would be safe from molestation. He established a +newspaper in Cincinnati to advocate emancipation. A mob promptly +destroyed his press and other property, and it was with difficulty +that he escaped with his life. More sagacious, although not more +zealous, than Lundy and Garrison and a good many of their followers, +Birney early saw the necessity of political action in the interest of +freedom. He was the real founder of the old "Liberty" party, of which +he was the presidential candidate in 1840 and in 1844. + +Of course, there were other early laborers for emancipation that, in +this connection, ought to be mentioned and remembered. They were +pioneers in the truest sense. The writer would gladly make a record of +their services, and pay a tribute, especially, to the memories of such +as have gone to the spirit land, where the great majority are now +mustered, but space at this point forbids. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SALMON PORTLAND CHASE + + +If I were asked to name the man to whom the colored people of this +country, who were slaves, or were liable to become slaves, are under +the greatest obligation for their freedom, I would unhesitatingly say +Salmon Portland Chase. + +If I were asked to name the man who was the strongest and most useful +factor in the Government during the great final contest that ended in +the emancipation of the black man, I would say Salmon Portland Chase. + +In expressing the opinions above given, no reproach for Abraham +Lincoln, nor for any of the distinguished members of his Cabinet, is +intended or implied. Inferiority to Salmon P. Chase was not a +disgrace. Physically he rose above all his official associates, which +was no discredit to them, and in much the same way he towered +intellectually and administratively. His was the most trying, the most +difficult position, in the entire circle of public departments. It was +easy to get men to fight the battles of the Union if there was money +to pay them. It was easy to furnish ships and arms and supplies in +sufficient quantity, notwithstanding the terrible drain of the +greatest of civil wars, as long as the funds held out. Everything +depended on the treasury. Failure there meant irretrievable disaster. +It would not answer to have any serious mistakes in that quarter, and +in fact no fatal mistakes were there made. In all other departments +there were failures and blunders, but the financial department met +every emergency and every requisition. Chase's financial policy it was +that carried the country majestically through the war, and that +afterwards paid the nation's debts. + +There is a circumstance that has not been mentioned, as far as the +writer knows, by any of Mr. Chase's biographers, which seems to him to +be significant and worth referring to. During the Civil War, Walter +Bagehot was editor of the _Economist,_ the great English financial +journal. His opinion in financial matters was regarded as the highest +authority. It was accepted as infallible. He discussed the plans of +Mr. Chase with great elaborateness and great severity. He predicted +that they were all destined to failure, and proved this theoretically +to his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of many others. The +result showed that Mr. Chase was right all the time, and the great +English economist was wrong. + +The entrance of such a man into the Abolitionist movement marked an +era in its history. It was the thing most needed. He gave it a leader +who, of all men then living, was most competent for leadership. From +that time he was its Moses. + +The greatest service rendered to the Abolition cause by Salmon P. +Chase was in pushing it forward on political lines. There was a +contest for the mastery of the Government from the hour he took +command. The movement was to be slow, sometimes halting and apparently +falling back, in some respects insignificant, in all respects +desperate, but there was to be no permanent defeat and no compromise. + +The espousal of Abolitionism by Mr. Chase was a remarkable +circumstance. He was not an enthusiast like Garrison and Lundy and +many other Anti-Slavery pioneers, but precisely the opposite. He was +cold-blooded and cool-headed, a deliberate and conservative man. His +speeches were described as giving light but no heat. His sympathies +were seemingly weak, but his sense of justice was immense. Apparently, +he opposed slavery because it was wrong rather than because it was +cruel. He had a big body, a big head, and a big conscience, the +combination making a strong man and a good fighter. + +That he did, in fact, sympathize with the slaves was shown by his +professional work in their behalf, more particularly in pleading +without fee or other reward the cases of escaped fugitives in the +courts. So numerous were his engagements in this regard that his +antagonists spoke of him sneeringly as the "Attorney-General for +runaway niggers." Upon some of his Anti-Slavery cases he bestowed an +immense amount of work. His argument in the case of Van Zant--the +original of Van Tromp in Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_,--an old man +who was prosecuted and fined until he was financially ruined for +giving a "lift" in his farm wagon to a slave family on its way to +Canada, was said at the time to have been the most able so far made +in the Supreme Court of the United States. That and other similar +utterances by Mr. Chase were published for popular reading, and were +widely distributed by friends of the cause. + +It is possible that, in performing this arduous labor, Mr. Chase, who +was not without personal ambition, was able, with his great native +sagacity, to foresee, although it must have been but dimly, the +possibilities of political development and official promotion, but at +the same time, for the same reason, he could the more clearly realize +the wearisome, heart-breaking struggle that was before him. + +It was an enormous sacrifice that he made. Journeymen printers and +saddlers, like Garrison and Lundy, who had never had as much as one +hundred dollars at one time in their lives, and who had no social +position and no influential kinsfolks, had little to lose. But it was +very different with Chase. He had a profession that represented great +wealth. He had distinguished and aristocratic family connections. He +had a high place in society. All these he risked and largely lost. + +In speaking of his sacrifices at that time in a subsequent letter to a +friend, he wrote: + + "Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time + and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles + and building up the organization of the party of constitutional + freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed + insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demand + upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed + severely all my abilities." + +The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed something +of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way because of his +principles. While a law student in a country village he was sent down +to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the form of affidavits. +During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law office, introduced +himself, and was very pleasantly received. He noticed that there was a +notary public in the office. + +Among other instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of +a leading business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The +document was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before +whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew where +there was a notary in a near-by office. We proceeded to Mr. Chase's +chambers, and were about to enter when my companion noticed the name +on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck in the face. "The +---- Abolitionist," he exclaimed, "I wouldn't enter his place for a +hundred dollars!" We went elsewhere for our business, and on the way +my companion expressed himself about Mr. Chase. "What a pity it is," +he said, "that that young man is ruining himself. He is a bright man," +he went on, "and I employed him professionally until he went daft on +the subject of freeing the niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose +of serving the white people." + +Like pretty much all the early Abolitionists, Mr. Chase had a taste of +mob violence. He had one singular experience. When the mob destroyed +the printing establishment of James G. Birney in Cincinnati, Chase +mingled with the crowd. He discovered that personal violence to Mr. +Birney was contemplated and that his life was in danger. He made all +haste to Birney's residence and gave him warning of his peril. Then he +took his stand in the doorway of the building and calmly awaited the +coming of the rabble. Those who knew Chase will remember that in size +he was almost a giant, and his countenance had a stern, determined +look. The multitude, finding itself thus unexpectedly confronted, +paused and entered into a parley that gave the hunted man an +opportunity to reach a place of safety. + +Chase had an appointment to speak in the village in which the writer +lived, and the opposers of his cause arranged to give him a warm +reception. Something prevented his attendance, and a very mild and +amiable old clergyman from an adjoining town, who took his place, +received the shower-bath of uncooked eggs that had been intended for +the Cincinnati Abolitionist. + +Chase's great work for the Anti-Slavery cause was in projecting and +directing it on independent political lines. Up to that time most +Anti-Slavery people opposed separate party action. Garrison and his +_Liberator_ violently denounced such action. Moral suasion was urged +as the panacea. Chase himself had not been a "third party" man. In +1840, when there was an Abolition ticket in the field, headed by his +personal friend, James G. Birney, he had not supported it. But soon +afterwards, becoming firmly convinced that Anti-Slavery people had +nothing to hope for from either of the old parties, he set about the +work of building a new one. The undertaking was with no mental +reservation on his part. When he put his hand to that plow there was +no looking back, notwithstanding that a rougher or more stony field, +and one less promising of returns for the laborer than that before +him, would be difficult to imagine. + +In 1841 he headed a call for a convention at Columbus, the State +capital, to organize the Liberty party in the State of Ohio, and at +the same time nominate a State ticket. Less than a hundred +sympathizers responded to the call, and the ticket put in nomination +received less than one thousand votes. + +Among the attendants at the Columbus meeting was a near kinsman of the +author. On his return, in describing the proceedings, he said that +pretty much everything was directed by a Mr. Chase (Salamander Chase +was his name, he said), a young Cincinnati lawyer. That young man, he +declared, would yet make a mark in the world. + +From that time every important move was directed by Chase. He prepared +the calls for important meetings. He wrote their addresses and their +platforms. He made the leading speeches. He presided at the great +convention at Buffalo in 1848, which formulated the "Free-Soil" +party--successor to the Liberty party--and wrote the platform which it +adopted. + +In speaking of Chase's share in the independent organization of this +time, William M. Evarts says: "He must be awarded the full credit of +having understood, resolved upon, planned, organized, and executed +this political movement." + +The movement thus conducted by Mr. Chase was slow and tremendously +laborious, but it was effective. In the presidential elections of 1844 +and 1848 it held the balance of power and turned the scale to further +its purposes. In 1852 it shattered and destroyed one of the old +pro-slavery parties, and became the second party in the country +instead of the third. In eight years more it was the first. + +The charge has been made against Mr. Chase that, while a member of +Lincoln's Cabinet, he aspired to supersede his chief in the +Presidency. But did he not have a right to seek the higher office, +especially when the policy pursued by its incumbent did not meet his +full approval? He merely shared the sentiment that was then +entertained by nearly all the radical Anti-Slavery people of the +country. It is not unlikely that Chase felt somewhat envious of +Lincoln. After, as he stated in his letter of congratulation to Mr. +Lincoln on his first election, he had given nineteen years of +continuous and exhausting labor to the freedom movement, it would be +but natural that he should feel aggrieved when he saw that the chief +credit of that movement was likely to go to one who had, to his own +exclusion, come up slowly and reluctantly at a later day to its +support. If he were somewhat jealous, it would be hard not to +sympathize with him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + + +If I were asked to name the man who, next to Salmon P. Chase, most +effectually and meritoriously contributed to the liberation of the +black man in this country, I should unhesitatingly say John Quincy +Adams. + +By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as +having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a +very distinguished family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a +time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, +or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It +can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually +and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what +Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, +but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration. + +When Adams entered Congress opposition to slavery was at its lowest +ebb. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the +Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had +correspondingly depressed and cowed their adversaries. As a general +thing, the latter had given up all idea of making any further fight. +Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern +churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. +Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had +perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a +few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There +was one magnificent exception. + +It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and +began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen +years, literally lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried +helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen +when in the discharge of his duties. + +The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent +candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political +party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles in regulating his +course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who +was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that +fight. There was nothing in the eloquence of Demosthenes in Athens, of +Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in +England, that surpassed the force and grandeur of the philippics of +Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his +service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant assailants +like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the +in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished +and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists. He +was always "the old man eloquent." Says one of our leading historical +writers: + + "As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In + knowledge and dexterity there was no one in the House that could + be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He + was terrible in invective, matchless at repartee, and insensible + to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the + House was something upon which he was always ready to enter." + +Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another +Congressman writes: + + "He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with + my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble + through every nerve and joint, when he arraigned before them their + political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any + conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic." + +At last his enemies in Congress decided that they would endure his +attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan +of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his +biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was +the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make +an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to +humiliate and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to +do." + +Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal +endorsement, asking for a dissolution of the Union. That furnished the +pretext his enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in +countenancing an assault upon the Union, although they were at the time +engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate +overthrow. The outcome of this undertaking was one of the most +thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that +matter, in any other deliberative assembly. + +Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The +galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of +pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry of the South were +there. They had come to witness the abasement of the great enemy of +their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the +nation's council chamber, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one +friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the +attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that +gave him their sympathies. + +The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead +the prosecution. One was the celebrated Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; +the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the +proceedings by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with +treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with +a speech of much ingenuity. Wise followed in a fiery diatribe. Both +speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions of a somewhat +scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their +careers of questionable propriety, to retaliation from a man who +thoroughly knew their records. At this point we have the testimony of +an eye-witness: + + "Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands + tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose + consecrated head the vials of tyrannic wrath had been outpoured. + Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, + but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his + infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but + be noted, trembling, not with fear, but with age." + +His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been +urged against him and triumphantly refuted it. He handled his +oratorical antagonists with merciless severity, depicting certain +events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers gazed +upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men +when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage +in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have +mercy on him." + +Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly admitted their +discomfiture and dropped the whole business. + +It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided +efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at +a time when it was almost moribund. He plowed the ground, cutting a +deep and broad furrow as he went his way, and in the upturned soil +such laborers as Birney and Garrison and Chase planted the seed that +rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful harvest. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES + + +The divergent characteristics of the East and the West were never more +clearly shown than in the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement. +Efforts were made to plant Abolition societies at various points +throughout the West, but they failed to take permanent root and soon +disappeared. The failure was not due to any lack of interest, but +rather to an excess of zeal on the part of the Western supporters of +the cause. Society organizations on the lines of moral suasion were +too slow and tame to suit them. They preferred the excitement of +politics. They believed in the superior efficacy of a political party, +and to its upbuilding they gave their energies and resources. In the +"long run" they were amply vindicated, but for all that, the favorite +Eastern method for organized effort had its advantages. + +The East, and especially New England, always believed in societies. If +anything of a public nature was to be promoted or prevented, a society +always appealed to the New Englander as the natural instrumentality. +There is a tradition that when Boston was ravaged by a loathsome +disease, a number of its leading citizens came together and promptly +organized an anti-smallpox society. + +When, therefore, it was decided that an Anti-Slavery movement should +be inaugurated in Boston, the proper thing to do, according to all the +standards of the place, was to organize a society. But the thing was +more easily resolved upon than done. It required the concurrence of +several parties of like-mindedness. Boston was a pretty large place, +but Anti-Slavery people were scarce. The number (doubtless selected +because it was Apostolic) assumed to be necessary was twelve. Fifteen +people of somewhat similar views were at last brought together. After +much discussion nine favored an organization and six opposed it. So +far the operation was a failure. But at last, after much canvassing, +twelve men were found who promised their co-operation--twelve and no +more. Although respectable people, they were not of Boston's "first +citizens" by any means. It is said that if they had been called upon +for a hundred dollars each, not over two of them could have responded +without bankruptcy. + +The twelve came together at night and in the basement of an African +Baptist Church, the room being used in the daytime to accommodate a +school for colored children. It was in an obscure quarter of Boston +known as "Nigger Hill." The conference was in the month of December, +and the night is thus described by Oliver Johnson, who was one of the +twelve: "A fierce northeast storm, combining rain, snow, and hail in +about equal proportions, was raging, and the streets were full of +slush. They were dark, too, for the city of Boston in those days was +very economical of light on Nigger Hill." + +Both nature and man seemed to be in league against those plucky +pioneers of an unpopular cause. They, however, were not dismayed nor +disheartened. It was as they were stepping out into the gloomy night, +that Mr. Garrison, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, was one of +the twelve, remarked to his associates: "We have met to-night in this +obscure schoolhouse; our numbers are few, and our influence limited, +but mark my prediction. Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo to the +principles we have set forth." + +What those principles were is shown by the declaration adopted by that +handful of confederates, and which, in view of the time and +circumstances of its formulation, was certainly a most remarkable +document. Its essential proposition was: "We, the undersigned, hold +that every person of full age and sound mind has a right to immediate +freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by +the sentence of the law for the commission of some crime." + +The Declaration of Independence, which was produced with no little +theatrical effect amid the pomp and circumstance of a national +conclave that had met in the finest hall in the country, was +unquestionably a remarkable and memorable pronouncement. It was for +the time and situation a radical utterance. It was the precursor of a +revolution that gave political freedom to several million people. + +But the platform of principles that was announced by the New England +Anti-Slavery Society (the name adopted) in that little grimy +schoolroom on "Nigger Hill" was, in at least some respects, a more +remarkable document. Its enunciation required an equal degree of +physical and moral courage. It was the precursor of a revolution that +gave both personal and political freedom to a larger number than were +benefited by the other declaration. But what chiefly distinguished it, +the time and the situation being considered, was its radical +utterance. It gave no countenance to any measure of compromise. It +offered no pabulum to the wrongdoer in the form of compensation for +stolen humanity. It demanded what was right, and demanded it at once. +And that fearless and unyielding platform became the basis for all the +Abolition societies that came after it. A goodly number of such +societies were organized. "The Anti-Slavery Society for the City of +New York" was formed by a few men who met and did their work while a +mob was pounding at the door, and who, having completed their task, +fled for their lives. + +It was at first intended that a national Anti-Slavery society should +be established with headquarters in the city of New York, but its +proposed organizers discovered that there was not a public hall or +church in that city in which they would be permitted to assemble. +Philadelphia, with its Quaker contingent, offered a more inviting +field, and to that city it was decided to go. But serious obstructions +here interposed. Representatives appeared from fourteen States, which +was highly encouraging, but no prominent Philadelphian could be found +to act as chairman of the meeting. A committee was appointed to secure +the services of such a man, but, after interviewing a number of +leading citizens, it was compelled to report that it was received by +all of them with "polite frigidity." + +Strange to say, the convention was permitted to meet for three days in +succession in a public assembly room without interference from a mob. +The police, however, warned the participants not to hold night +sessions, as they in that case would not promise protection. The good +behavior of Philadelphia on this occasion was noteworthy, but it was +too good to last. When another Anti-Slavery meeting, not long after, +was convened in that city, it was broken up by a mob, and the hall in +which it met was burned to the ground. + +Finally came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which, in view of its +limited financial resources, certainly did a wonderful work. Its +publications, in spite of careful watching of the mails and other +precautions adopted by the slaveholders, reached all parts of the +country, and its preachers, sent out and commissioned to proclaim the +new evangel of equal manhood, were absolutely ubiquitous. + +Those early Anti-Slavery lecturers were a peculiar set. Since the days +of the Apostles there have been no more earnest propagandists. They +were both male and female. That they were, as a rule, financially +poor, it is unnecessary to state. They lived largely on the country +traversed. Sympathizers with their views, having received and +entertained them--sometimes clandestinely--after a public talk or two, +would carry them on to the next stations on their routes, occasionally +contributing a few dollars to their purses. It made no particular +difference to them whether they spoke in halls, in churches, or in +the open air. Before beginning their addresses their usual course was +to challenge their opponents to debate, and to taunt them with lack of +courage or principle if they failed to respond. Of course, they were +in constant danger from mobs. They were stoned, clubbed, shot at, and +rotten-egged, and in a few extreme cases tarred and feathered; but +they were never frightened from their work. + +They were by no means policy-wise. That was one of their +peculiarities. Their idea seemed to be that they could drive people +easier than they could lead them. They used no buttered phrases. They +told the plainest truths in the plainest way. They gave their +audiences hard words, and often received hard knocks in return. They +called the slaveholders robbers and man-stealers. They branded +Northern politicians with Southern principles as "dough-faces." But +their hardest and sharpest expletives were reserved for those Northern +clergymen who were either pro-slavery or non-committal. They blistered +them all over with their lashings. In speaking of one of the most +noted among them, Lowell describes him as + + "A kind of maddened John the Baptist + To whom the hardest word came aptest." + +The lecturer of whom I saw the most in those early trying days was +Professor Hudson, of Oberlin College. While in that part of the field +he made headquarters at my father's house, radiating out and filling +appointments in different directions. He was exceedingly sharp-tongued +and very fearless. Nothing seemed to please him better than a +"scrimmage" with his opponents. Often he conquered mobs by resolutely +talking them down and making them ashamed of themselves. But on one +occasion, looking through the window from the outside to see what +awaited him in a room where he was to speak, he saw a pot of boiling +tar on the stove that heated the room and a pillow-case full of +feathers conveniently near, while a half-drunken crowd was in +possession of the place, and concluded to run. He, however, had been +seen and was pursued. There was a foot race, but as some of the +pursuers were better sprinters than Hudson, and he was about to be +captured, he dashed into the first house he came to and asked for +protection. The proprietor was a kinsman of mine. He was an old man, +but hearty and vigorous. He ordered his sons to take their guns and +guard the other entrances, while he took his stand in the front door +with an axe in his hand. When the mob came up and demanded the +Abolitionist, he gave warning that he would brain the first man that +attempted to enter his house without his consent. So evidently in +earnest was he that the rowdies, after a little bluster, concluded to +give up the hunt and left in disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WANTED, AN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY + + +The National Anti-Slavery Society--the society organized by +Garrison and his _confreres_, and which longest maintained its +organization--made one great mistake. It disbanded. It assumed that +its work was done when African slavery in this country was pronounced +defunct by law. It took it for granted that the enslavement of the +colored man--not necessarily the negro--was no longer possible under +the Stars and Stripes. Then and there it committed a grievous blunder. +Its paramount error was in assuming that a political party could for +all time be depended upon as a party of freedom. It trusted to the +assurances of politicians that they would protect the colored man in +all his natural and acquired rights, and in that belief voluntarily +gave up the ghost and cast its mantle to the winds. + +Now, the fact is that the National Anti-Slavery Society was never more +needed than it is to-day. There is a mighty work to be done that was +directly in the line of its operations. First and foremost, it will +not be denied that a citizen of our Republic who is deprived of the +elective franchise is robbed of one of his most valuable +privileges--one of his most essential rights. The ballot, under a +political system like ours, is both the sword and the shield of +liberty. Without it no man is really a freeman. He does not stand on +an equality with his fellows. + +Nor will it be denied that the negro, although our amended +Constitution promises him all the privileges of citizenship, is in +many parts of our country practically divested of his vote. By a +species of legerdemain in the communities in which he is most numerous +and most needs protection, he is to all intents and purposes +disfranchised. What will follow as the final outcome we do not know, +but that is the beginning of his attempted re-enslavement. It is +beyond any question that his return to involuntary servitude in some +condition or conditions, the disarming him of the ballot being the +initial step in the proceeding, is seriously contemplated, if not +deliberately planned. Indeed, under the name of "peonage" the work of +re-establishing a system of slaveholding that is barbarous in the +extreme is already begun. Men and women have been seized upon by +force, and upon the most flimsy pretexts have been subjected to a +bondage that in its inhumanities may easily equal even the slavery of +the olden time. The number of victims is undoubtedly much larger than +the general public has any idea of. + +Nor are there lacking signs of studied preparation for the extension +of the system. The present time is full of them. Efforts to create a +prejudice against the colored man are visible in all directions. He is +described as a failure in the role of freeman. The idleness and +shiftlessness of certain members of his race--undoubtedly altogether +too numerous--are dwelt upon as characteristic of the entire family. +Scant praise is given to those members who are doing well, and whose +number is encouragingly large. These are as far as possible ignored. +The race problem is spoken of as full of increasing difficulties, and +as imperatively demanding a change from present conditions. The people +of the North are being especially indoctrinated with such ideas. They +are told that they must leave their brethren of the former +slaveholding States, and in which the negroes principally dwell, to +deal with the issues arising between the whites and the blacks; that +they--the Southerners--understand the questions to be settled, and +that outsiders should withhold their hands and their sympathies. It is +none of their business, they are informed, while assurances are freely +given that the people who, because of their experience with them, +understand the negroes, will take considerate care of them. What kind +of care they are taking of them in certain quarters is shown by recent +incontestable revelations. + +And what has the political party which, in view of its manifold +professions, was supposed to have the interests of the negro in its +especial keeping, done about it? Nothing whatever. It has looked on +with the coolest indifference. The only concern it has shown in the +matter has related to the question of Congressional representation as +dependent upon the enumeration of electors, and, in so doing, has +plainly intimated that if, through the negro's political robbery, it +can secure an increase of partisan power, it is perfectly willing that +the cause of the injured black man should "slide." + +Indifference in regard to the rights of peoples of color is +unfortunately not the only nor even the greatest charge to be laid at +the door of the Republican party. It may be asserted that this party +has become an active aggressor in trampling down the liberties of +colored peoples. As the assignee of Spain in taking over (without +consulting those who were most concerned) the control of the territory +of the Philippine Islands, it has purchased (and has paid cash for) +the right to dominate from eight to ten millions of people. These +people may, under the existing conditions, be described as being in a +state of slavery. If a foreign people, say a people coming from the +other side of the globe, should treat Americans as we have treated the +Filipinos, should deny to us the right of self-government, should send +great armies to chastise us for disobedience (or for what they might +call "rebellion"), and should do this for no better reason than that +our skin was darker or lighter than their own, we Americans would +doubtless consider ourselves to be in a state of slavery. Why in any +sense is slavery in Luzon more defensible than slavery in South +Carolina or in Alabama? If it be wrong to keep in slavery the black +man in America (as in theory at least we are all now agreed it is +wrong), what is the justice in depriving of his freedom the +brown-skinned Tagal? Can a bill of sale from Spain give to us any such +privilege, if privilege it may be called? Can an agreement with Spain +bring to naught our responsibilities under our own Declaration of +Independence? + +Although, owing to the remoteness of the islands, we have as yet but +little trustworthy knowledge as to what has really occurred in this +new territory, and possibly in any case have not been informed of the +things which are most to be condemned, the reports that have reached +us of barbarities perpetrated upon a people who never did us any harm +or wrong ought certainly to awaken in American bosoms every throb of +pity and every sentiment of manliness. We have had accounts of +butcheries called "battles" in which have been slaughtered hundreds of +almost defenseless creatures for no offense except that of standing up +for their independence. It is said that certain districts that would +not acknowledge our mastery have been turned into wildernesses, and +that in these districts the number of the slain may easily have +equaled the victims of massacres in Armenia and Bessarabia, massacres +which we have always so strenuously condemned. Thousands of men, +women, and children have perished at our hands or in connection with +operations for which we were responsible; and in addition to the +taking of life there is record of the infliction of serious cruelties. +As assignees of Spain, we seem to have succeeded not only to her +properties but to her policies in the treatment of subject races. We +do not know that in the greatest excesses of the bad colonial +government of Spaniards they ever inflicted a torture more exquisite +than that of the "water cure." How many of the perpetrators of these +atrocities have been adequately punished, or how many have been +punished at all? + +It is wonderful with what complacency we have received the accounts of +these horrible affairs. Nobody has been disturbed. The newspapers, +beyond reporting the facts, have had nothing to say. The Church has +been silent--at least that can be said of the Protestant Church. Not +one brave or manly word of protest or condemnation has the writer +heard, or heard of, from a Protestant American pulpit. Catholics, +being victims and sufferers, have complained and protested. The +greatest discomfort these things have produced has been occasioned by +the apprehension that, through somebody's lack of patriotism, our flag +may be withdrawn from the field of such glorious operations. It used +to be our boast that Freedom followed our flag. Now slavery follows +it. + +In view of the facts stated we can understand, not only the serenity, +but the favor with which the people of this country, or the great body +of them, so long looked upon the workings of African slavery, and the +difficulty which the Abolitionists had in arousing a sentiment of +revulsion toward it. + +One of the curious things in this connection is the similarity--the +practical sameness--of the arguments used to justify the Philippine +occupation and those once used to justify American slaveholding. We +are now working to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, and were +then civilizing and Christianizing the negroes with the lash and the +bludgeon. + +Of course, there are other arguments. Increase of trade and wealth, as +the result of our appropriation of other peoples' possessions, is +freely predicted. It has always been the robber's plea. That is what +it is to-day, even when employed by a professed Christian nation. Nor +is it improved by the fact that the grounds upon which it is +predicated and urged are largely fallacious. The spoliation of the +Philippines will never repay us for the blood--our own blood--and +treasure it has cost us, apart from any moral or humanitarian +consideration. There is not one aspect in this business that promises +to redound to our benefit. No, I won't say that; I would hardly be +justified in going that far. In one particular the Philippine +operation has profited a considerable part of our people. It has added +materially to our Army and our Navy. The opportunity for enlargement +in those quarters was, undoubtedly, the strongest inducement for our +entering upon a colonial policy. For a great many people, and +especially in official circles, we cannot have a standing army that is +too large, nor too many ships of war. The more powerful those +appendages of our authority the larger is the opening for the kinsmen +and retainers of those in high places, who may be seeking profitable +and agreeable employment, and the more liberal the contributions of +contractors and jobbers to the sinews of partisan warfare. Our Army +to-day is nearly three times what it was five years ago, although +outside of the Philippines we are at peace with all mankind. Nor is +that formidable advance at an end. The Far East is now certain to be +the world's great battle-ground for the near future, and since we have +entered that field as the master of the Philippines, like a knight of +the olden time who was ready to do battle with all comers, we must be +constantly increasing our preparation. We may not only have to fight +the Russians and the Japanese and the Chinese, one or all, but those +foolish Filipinos may again take it into their silly heads that they +can govern themselves as well or better than we can do it for them. +That means rebellion, and, of course, chastisement must follow. As +climatic conditions in that part of the world are such that it +requires the presence of three men in the army to supply the active +services of one, it is obvious that so long as we adhere to our +present Asiatic policy, we shall never have an army and a navy large +enough and strong enough to meet the requirements of our new +condition. + +On all questions affecting human liberty, no one can fail to observe +that the attitude of the two great political parties of to-day, is +practically that of the two principal parties at the time the +Abolitionists began their operations. One of them may pass perfunctory +resolutions against the Philippine crime, but dares to say nothing +about the treatment visited upon the negro. The other may say a few +compassionate, but meaningless, words for the negro, but cannot +denounce the oppression of the Filipinos. Both are fatally handicapped +by their connections and committals. Both are, in fact, pro-slavery, +although the one in power, because of its responsibility for existing +conditions, is the more criminal of the two. + +What this country now needs, in the opinion of the writer, is a +revival of Abolitionism, and to that end, as one of the +instrumentalities that would be serviceable, he holds that the old +National Anti-Slavery Society should be restored. The most of the men +and women that made that institution so useful and honorable, have +passed from the scenes of their labors, but a few of them are left, +and they and such as may feel like joining them, should meet and +unfurl the old standard once more. There may be new associations +looking to very much the same ends, but better the old guard under the +old name. It would carry a prestige that no newer organization could +command. It would create a measure of confidence that would be most +strongly felt. The principles and policies it should urge are few and +simple. + +First: Let it declare that the colored man in this country must be +permitted to enjoy all his rights under the Constitution as it is, +both political and personal. + +Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude, including the +denial of political self-government, under the flag, as well as under +the Constitution, must cease. + +And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated, in the +spirit and with the confidence of the old-time leaders. The Society +should be revived and re-established, not for a single campaign only, +or for the rectification of such oppressions as are now in sight, but +for all time. It ought to be made a permanent institution. It should +be so arranged that the sons would step into the ranks as the fathers +dropped out and that new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus +reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable watchman +on the walls of Freedom's stronghold. The exhortation to which it +should listen, is that of the poet Bryant when he says: + + "Oh not yet + Mayst thou unloose thy corslet, nor lay by + Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom, close thy lids + In slumber, for thine enemy never sleeps." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS + + +George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says that "three speeches +have made the places where they were delivered illustrious in our +history--three, and there is no fourth." He refers to the speech of +Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia, of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and +the first address of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall. + +If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three notable +deliverances above mentioned as the best and foremost examples of +American oratory, the author cannot agree with him. In his opinion we +shall have but little difficulty in picking out the three entitled to +that distinction, provided we go to the discussion of the slavery +question to find them. That furnished the greatest occasion, being +with its ramifications and developments, by far the greatest issue +with which Americans have had to deal. + +The three speeches to which the writer refers were the more notable +because they were altogether impromptu. They were what we call "off +hand." They were delivered in the face of mobs or other bitterly +hostile audiences--a circumstance that probably contributed not a +little to their effectiveness. + +John Quincy Adams, who was unquestionably one of the greatest of +American orators, made several speeches in Congress that will always +command our highest admiration; but the one to which a somewhat +extended reference is made in another chapter, when an attempt was +made by the slaveholders to expel him from that body, easily ranks +among the first three exhibitions of American eloquence. + +I quite agree with Mr. Curtis in giving the Faneuil Hall speech of +Wendell Phillips a pre-eminent place. A meeting had been called to +denounce the murder of Lovejoy, the Abolitionist editor. The audience +was composed in large part of pro-slavery rowdies, who were bent on +capturing or breaking up the meeting. One of their leaders--a high +official of the State of Massachusetts, by the way--made a speech in +which he justified the murderous act. "That speech must be answered +here and now," exclaimed a young man in the audience. "Answer it +yourself," shouted those about him. "I will," was the reply, "if I can +reach the platform." To the platform he was assisted, and although an +attempt was made for a time to howl him down, he persisted, and before +long so interested and charmed his hearers that his triumph was +complete. + +It did not take the country long to realize that in that young man, +who was Wendell Phillips, a new oratorical luminary had arisen. He +took up the work of lecturing as a profession, treating on other +subjects as well as slavery; but when slavery was the subject no +charge was made for his services. Said Frederic Hudson, the noted New +York editor, in 1860: "It is probable that there is not another man +in the United States who is as much heard and read as Henry Ward +Beecher, unless the other man be Wendell Phillips." + +The mention of Henry Ward Beecher's name is suggestive of oratory of +the very highest order. It will not be denied by any competent and +unprejudiced person that his great speech in England--there were five +addresses, but the substance was the same--upon the American question +(which directly involved the slavery issue) during our Civil War was +far and away the finest exhibition of masterful eloquence that is to +be credited to any of our countrymen. The world has never beaten it. + +Mr. Beecher found himself in England by a fortunate accident at a most +critical period in our national affairs. A crisis had there been +reached. A powerful party, including a large majority of the public +men of Great Britain, favored intervention in behalf of the South. +Southern agents were at work all over the kingdom, and were remarkably +effective in propagating their views. It looked as if the Rebel +interest was on the point of winning, when Mr. Beecher appeared on the +scene. He had not gone to England to make public speeches. He was +there for health and recreation, but, realizing the situation with his +quick perceptiveness, he took up the gage of battle. It was a fearful +resolution on his part. The chances seemed to be all against him. It +was one man against thousands. His victory, however, was complete. His +five great speeches in the business centres of England and Scotland +were not only listened to by thousands, but they went all over the +country in the public prints. They completely changed the current of +public opinion. + +Mr. Beecher's first address was in Manchester, which, owing to the +interest of the leading business men of that city in the cotton trade +and the furnishing of ships and supplies for blockade running, was a +seething hot bed of Rebel sentiment. When he arrived in that place on +the day he was to speak, he was met at the depot by friends with +troubled faces, who informed him that hostile placards--significantly +printed in red colors--had been posted all over the city, and, if he +persisted in trying to speak, he would have a very uncomfortable +reception. + +He was asked how he felt about trying to go on. "I am going to be +heard," was his reply. + +The best description of the scene that ensued is supplied in Mr. +Beecher's own words: + + "The uproar would come in on this side, and then on that. They + would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, + and I would wait until the noise had subsided and then get in + about five minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down, and + then up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see things + that amused me, and I would laugh outright, and the crowd would + stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I would sail in with + another sentence or two. A good many times the crowd threw up + questions that I caught and threw back. I may as well at this + point mention a thing that amused me hugely. There were baize + doors that opened both ways into side alleys, and there was a huge + burly Englishman standing right in front of one of these doors and + roaring like a bull of Bashan. One of the policemen swung his + elbow round and hit him in the belly and knocked him through the + doorway, so that the last part of his bawl was out in the + alleyway. It struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must + have looked when he found himself 'hollering' outside, that I + could not refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately + stopped its uproar, wondering what I was laughing at. That gave me + another chance, and I caught on to it. So we kept it up for about + an hour and a half before the people became so far calmed down + that I could go on peaceably with my speech. My audience got to + like the pluck I showed. Englishmen like a man that can stand on + his feet and give and take, and so for the last hour I had pretty + much clear sailing. The next morning every great paper in England + had the whole speech down. + + "And when the vote came to be taken--for in England it is + customary for audiences to express their decision on the subject + under discussion--you would have thought it was a tropical + thunder-storm that swept through the hall as the Ayes were + thundered, while the Nays were an insignificant and contemptible + minority. It had all gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never + saw." + +It has been repeatedly stated, and to this day is generally +believed,--is so stated in several of Mr. Lincoln's biographies, I +believe,--that Mr. Beecher went to England at the President's request, +and for the purpose of making a speaking tour. The best answer is that +given by Mr. Beecher himself. + + "It has been asked," said he, "whether I was sent by the + government. The government took no stock in me at that time. I had + been pounding Lincoln in the earlier years of the war, and I don't + believe there was a man down there, unless it was Mr. Chase, who + would have trusted me with anything. At any rate, I went on my own + responsibility." + +But in referring to Abolition orators, and especially orators whose +experience it was to encounter mobs, the writer desires to pay a +tribute to one of them whose name he does not even know. + +A meeting that was called to organize an Anti-Slavery society in New +York City was broken up by a mob. All of those in attendance made +their escape except one negro. He was caught and his captors thought +it would be a capital joke to make him personify one of the big +Abolitionists. He was lifted to the platform and directed to imagine +himself an Anti-Slavery leader and make an Abolition speech. The +fellow proved to be equal to the occasion. He proceeded to assert the +right of his race to the privileges of human beings with force and +eloquence. His hearers listened with amazement, and possibly with +something like admiration, until, realizing that the joke was on them, +they pulled him from the platform and kicked him from the building. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS + + +In speaking of the orators and oratory that were evolved by the +Slavery issue, there are two names that cannot be omitted. These are +Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. It was the good fortune of the +writer to be an eye and ear witness of the closing bout, at Alton, +Illinois, between those two political champions in their great debate +of 1858. The contrast between the men was remarkable. Lincoln was very +tall and spare, standing up, when speaking, straight and stiff. +Douglas was short and stumpy, a regular roly-poly man. Lincoln's face +was calm and meek, almost immobile. He referred to it in his address +as "my rather melancholy face." Although plain and somewhat rugged, I +never regarded Lincoln's face as homely. I saw him many times and +talked with him, after the occasion now referred to. It was a good +face, and had many winning lines. Douglas's countenance, on the other +hand, was leonine and full of expression. His was a handsome face. +When lighted up by the excitement of debate it could not fail to +impress an audience. + +Lincoln indulged in no gesticulation. If he had been addressing a +bench of judges he would not have been more impassive in his manner. +He was an animate, but not an animated, bean-pole. He poured out a +steady flow of words--three to Douglas's two--in a simple and +semi-conversational tone. He attempted no witticisms and indulged in +no oratorical claptrap. His address was pure argument. Douglas's +manner was one of excitement, and accompanied and emphasized by almost +continuous bodily movement. His hands and his feet, and especially +that pliable face of his, were all busy talking. He said sharp things, +evidently for their immediate effect on his audience, and showed that +he was not only master of all the arts of the practical stump orator, +but was ready to employ them. + +But the most noticeable difference was in the voices of the men. +Douglas spoke first, and for the first minute or two was utterly +unintelligible. His voice seemed to be all worn out by his speaking in +that long and principally open-air debate. He simply bellowed. But +gradually he got command of his organ, and pretty soon, in a somewhat +laborious and painful way, it is true, he succeeded in making himself +understood. + +Lincoln's voice, on the contrary, was without a quaver or a sign of +huskiness. He had been speaking in the open air exactly as much as +Douglas, but it was perfectly fresh, not a particle strained. It was a +perfect voice. + +Those who wanted to understand Douglas had to press up close to the +platform from which he was speaking, and there was collected a dense, +but not very deep, crowd. There was no crowding in front of Lincoln +when he was speaking. He could be heard without it. There was a line +of wagons and carriages on the outskirts of the audience, and I +noticed, when Lincoln was speaking, that they were filled with +comfortably seated people listening to his address. They did not need +to go any nearer to him. The most of the shouting was done by +Douglas's partisans, composing a clear majority of the crowd, but it +was very manifest that Lincoln commanded the attention of the greater +number of those who were interested in the arguments. He did not act +as if he cared for the applause of the multitude. He said nothing, +apparently, simply to tickle the ears of his hearers. + +Rather strange was it that the only points on which there did not +appear to be much, if any, difference between the two men were reached +when they came to the propositions they advocated. Douglas was +avowedly pro-slavery. He was talking in southern Illinois and on the +border of Missouri, to which many of his hearers belonged, and his +audience was mostly Southern in its feelings. He was plainly trying to +please that element. He not only approved of slavery where it was, but +metaphorically jumped on the negro and trampled all over him. He +denied that the negro was a "man" within the meaning of the +Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, however, as far as slavery in +the States was involved, met Douglas on his own ground, and "went him +one better." He said, "I have on all occasions declared as strongly as +Judge Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing +institution of slavery." + +If a stranger who knew nothing of the speakers and their party +associations had heard the two men on that occasion, he would have +concluded that one was strongly in favor of slavery and the other was +not opposed to it. + +Their only disagreement was as to slavery in the Territories, and that +was more apparent than real. Lincoln contended for free soil through +the direct action of the general government. Douglas advocated a +roundabout way that led up to the same result. His proposition, which +he called "popular sovereignty," was to leave the decision to the +people of the Territories, saying he did not care whether they voted +slavery up or voted it down. That was a practical, although indirect +declaration in favor of free soil. The outcome of the contests in +Kansas and California showed that at that game the free States with +their superior resources were certain to win. The shrewder +slaveholders recognized that fact, and their antagonism to Douglas +grew accordingly. They deliberately defeated him for the Presidency in +1860, when he was the regular candidate of the Democratic party, by +running Breckenridge as an independent candidate. Otherwise Mr. +Douglas would have become President of the United States. Out of a +total of 4,680,193 votes, Mr. Lincoln had only 1,866,631. The rest +were divided between his three antagonists. + +As between Lincoln and Douglas, who together held the controlling +hand, the slaveholders preferred Lincoln, against whom they had no +personal feeling, while they knew that his policy was no more +dangerous to their interests than the other man's, if faithfully +adhered to and carried out. Besides that, by this time many of them +had reached that state of mind in which they wanted a pretext for +secession from the Union. Lincoln's election would give them that +pretext while Douglas's would not. + +On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the +writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a +prominent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who +expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather trust +the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative and +honest man like "Old Abe," than to those of "a political jumping-jack +like Douglas." The most of the other Southern men and slaveholders +present seemed to concur in his views. + +It is a fact that a good many of the Anti-Slavery leaders living +outside of Illinois, and a good many of those living within it, wanted +the Republicans of that State to let Douglas go back to the Senate +without a contest, believing that he would be far more useful to them +there than a Republican would be. It is not improbable that enough of +the Illinois Republicans took that view of the matter, and helped to +give Douglas the victory in what was a very close contest. + +A portion of Douglas's speech was a spirited defense of his "squatter +sovereignty" doctrine against the denunciations of members of his own +political party, in the course of which he gave President Buchanan a +savage overhauling. It showed him to be a master of invective. + +"Go it, husband; go it, bear," was Mr. Lincoln's comment on that part +of Douglas's address. I went to the debate with a very strong +prejudice against Douglas, looking upon him as one of the most +time-serving of those Northern men whom the Abolitionists called +"dough-faces." I confess that my views of the man were considerably +modified. I admired the pluck he showed in speaking when his voice was +in tatters. Still more did I like the resolution he displayed in +defying those leaders of his own party, including the President, who +wanted him to retreat from the ground he had taken, seeing that it had +become practically Anti-Slavery. + +At the same time I had an almost worshipful admiration for Lincoln, +whom I had not before seen or heard. I expected a great deal from him. +I thought his closing appeal in that great debate would contain some +ringing words for freedom. He had, as I supposed, a great opportunity +for telling eloquence. He stood almost on the ground that had drunk +the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact +ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was +altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It +was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died +in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I +was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with +any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression +was not afterwards wholly removed from my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ANTI-SLAVERY WOMEN + + +My father was a subscriber to the _National Era_, the Anti-Slavery +weekly that was published in Washington City before the war by Dr. +Gamaliel Bailey. Being the youngest member of the family, I usually +went to the post-office for the paper on the day of its weekly +arrival. One day I brought it home and handed it to my father, who, as +the day was warm, was seated outside of the house. He was soon +apparently very much absorbed in his reading. A call for dinner was +sounded, but he paid no attention to it. The meal was delayed a little +while and then the call was repeated, but with the same result. At +last the meal proceeded without my father's presence, he coming in at +the close and swinging the paper in his hand. His explanation, by way +of apology, was that he had become very much interested in the opening +installment of a story that was begun in the _Era_, and which he +declared would make a sensation. "It will make a renovation," he +repeated several times. + +That story, it is almost needless to say, was _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, and +it is altogether needless to say that it fully accomplished my +father's prediction as to its sensational effects. Since the +appearance of the Bible in a form that brought it home to the common +people, there has been no work in the English language so extensively +read. The author's name became at once a cynosure the world over. When +Henry Ward Beecher, the writer's distinguished brother, delivered his +first lecture in England, he was introduced to the audience by the +chairman as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Stowe. + +The way in which the idea of writing the book came to the author was +significant of the will that produced it. A lady friend wrote Mrs. +Stowe a letter in which she said, "If I could use a pen as you can, I +would write something that would make the whole nation feel what an +accursed thing slavery is." When the letter reached its destination, +and Mrs. Stowe came to the passage above quoted, as the story is told +by a friend who was present, she sprang to her feet, crushed the +letter in her hand in the intensity of her feeling, and with an +expression on her face of the utmost determination, exclaimed, "If I +live, I will write something that will do that thing." + +The circumstances under which she executed her great task would +ordinarily be looked upon as altogether prohibitory. She was the wife +of a poor minister and school-teacher. To eke out the family income +she took boarders. She had five children of her own, who were too +young to be of any material assistance, and, in addition, she +occasionally harbored a waif that besought her protection when fleeing +from slavery. Necessarily the most of her time was spent in the +kitchen. There, surrounded by meats and vegetables and cooking +appliances, with just enough of the common deal table cleared away to +give space for her writing materials, she composed and made ready for +the publisher by far the most remarkable work of fiction this country +has produced. Slavery is dead, but Mrs. Stowe's masterpiece lives, and +is likely to live with growing luster as long as our free institutions +survive, which it is to be hoped will be forever. + +One of the most remarkable early workers in the Abolition cause was +Mrs. Lucretia Mott, a little Quaker woman of Pennsylvania. The writer +saw her for the last time shortly before her death. She was then +acting as presiding officer of an "Equal Rights"--meaning equal +suffrage--meeting. Sitting on one hand was Susan B. Anthony, and on +the other Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and next to one of them sat a +stately negro. + +She was then an aged woman, but her eye seemed to be as bright and her +movements as alert as they had ever been. Framed by her becoming +Quaker bonnet, which she retained in her official position, the face +of the handsome old lady would have been a splendid subject for an +artist. + +Mrs. Mott gave much of her time and all the means she could control to +the cause of the slave. She was an exceedingly spirited and eloquent +speaker. On one lecturing tour she traveled twenty-four hundred miles, +the most of the way in old-fashioned stage-coaches. By a number of +taverns she was denied entertainment. + +Like other pioneers in the same movement, Mrs. Mott was the victim of +numerous mobbings. One incident shows her courage and resourcefulness. +An Anti-Slavery meeting she was attending was broken up by rowdies, +and some of the ladies present were greatly frightened. Seeing this +Mrs. Mott asked the gentleman who was escorting her, to leave her and +assist some of the others who were more timid. "But who will take care +of you?" he asked. "This man," she answered, lightly laying her hand +on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob. The man, completely +surprised, responded by respectfully conducting her through the tumult +to a place of safety. + +But before Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Mott had taken up the work for the +bondman, two other remarkable women had become interested in his +cause. Their history has some features that the most accomplished +novel-writer could not improve upon. They were sisters, known as the +Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, the latter becoming the wife of +Theodore W. Weld, a noted Abolition lecturer. They were daughters of a +Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, their early home being +in Charleston. + +The family was of the highest pretension, being related to the Rhetts, +the Barnwells, the Pickenses, and other famous representatives of the +Palmetto aristocracy. It was wealthy, and of course had many slaves. +The girls had their colored attendants, whose only service was to wait +upon them and do their bidding. That circumstance finally led to +trouble. + +At that time there was a statute in South Carolina against teaching +slaves to read and write. The penalties were fine and imprisonment. +The Grimke girls, however, had little respect for or fear of that +law. The story of their offending is told by Sarah. + +Her attendant, when she was little more than a child, was a colored +girl of about the same age. She says, + + "I took an almost malicious satisfaction in teaching my little + waiting maid at night, when she was supposed to be occupied in + combing and brushing my long hair. The light was put out, the + key-hole screened, and flat on our stomachs before the fire, with + the spelling-book under our eyes, we defied the law of South + Carolina." + +South Carolina was long noted for its rebels, but it never had a more +interesting one than the author of the above narrative; nor a braver +one. + +As the sisters grew up, they more and more showed their dislike of +slavery and their disposition to aid such colored people as were +within their circle. Such conduct could not escape observation, and +the result was their banishment from their Southern home. They were +given the alternative of "behaving themselves" or going North to live. +They were not long in deciding, and they became residents of +Philadelphia. Here they joined the Quakers, because of their +coincidence of views on the slavery question. They had before been +Presbyterians, having been raised as such. They became industrious and +noted Anti-Slavery lecturers. To one of them is to be credited a +notable oratorical achievement. + +Being no longer able to ignore the growing Anti-Slavery sentiment of +its constituency, the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838 appointed a +committee to consider the part that that State had in the subject of +slavery, and especially in connection with slavery in the District of +Columbia. The committee asked an expression of their views from those +entertaining different sentiments on the subject. The Anti-Slavery +people invited Angelina Grimke to represent them. The sessions of the +committee were to be held in the great hall of the Legislature in the +State House, where, up to that time, no woman had ever spoken. The +chairman of the committee, however, consented that Miss Grimke should +be heard, and the fact that she was a woman probably helped to bring +out an immense audience. + +She spoke for two hours, and then, being asked to speak again, at the +next meeting, she spoke for two hours more. The impression she +produced may be inferred from the fact that the chairman of the +committee was in tears nearly the whole time she was speaking. The +effect upon all who heard her was admitted to be very great. + +The sincerity of these women was put to an unusual test. They had a +brother who remained in South Carolina, where he was a prominent +citizen and a large slave-owner. Like many sharing the privileges of +"the institution," he led a double life. He was married to a white +woman by whom he had children. He also had a family by a colored woman +who was one of his slaves. In his will he bequeathed his slave family +to a son by his lawful wife, with the stipulation that they should not +be sold or unkindly treated. + +Of these things the Grimke sisters knew nothing until after the war +which had freed their illegitimate relatives. Then all the facts came +to their knowledge. What should they do about it? was the question +that immediately confronted them. Should they--"Carolina's high-souled +daughters," as Whittier describes them, and not without some part in +the pride of the family to which they belonged--acknowledge such a +disreputable relationship? Not a day nor an hour did they hesitate. +They sent for their unfortunate kinspeople, accepted them as blood +connections, and took upon themselves the duty of promoting their +interests as far as it was in their power to do so. + +Although a quiet and retiring person, and, moreover, so much of an +invalid that the greater part of her time was necessarily passed in a +bed of sickness, a New England woman had much to do with publishing +the doctrines of Abolitionism, through the lips of the most eloquent +man in the country. She was the wife of Wendell Phillips, the noted +Anti-Slavery lecturer. + +"My wife made me an Abolitionist," said Phillips. How the work was +done is not without its romantic interest. + +It was several years before he made his meteoric appearance before the +public as a platform talker, and while yet a law student, that +Phillips met the lady in question. The interview, as described by one +of the parties, certainly had its comical aspect. "I talked +Abolitionism to him all the time we were together," said Mrs. +Phillips, as she afterwards related the affair. Phillips listened, and +that he was not surfeited nor disgusted appears from the fact that he +went again and again for that sort of entertainment. + +When Phillips asked for her hand, as the story goes, she asked him if +he was fully persuaded to be a friend of the slave, leaving him to +infer that their union was otherwise impossible. + +"My life shall attest the sincerity of my conversion," was his gallant +reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MOBS + + +In his _Recollections_, the Rev. Samuel T. May, who was one of the +most faithful and zealous of the Anti-Slavery pioneers, and belonged +to that band of devoted workers who were known as Abolition lecturers, +tells of his experience in delivering an Anti-Slavery address in the +sober New England city of Haverhill. + + "It was a Sabbath evening," he says. "I had spoken about fifteen + minutes when the most hideous outcries--yells and screeches--from + a crowd of men and boys, who had surrounded the house, startled + us, and then came heavy missiles against the doors and the blinds + of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping + the doors and blinds were strong enough to withstand the attack. + But presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, + scattered a pane of glass, and fell upon the head of a lady + sitting near the center of the hall. She uttered a shriek and fell + bleeding on the floor." + +There was a panic, of course, and the Abolition lecturer would have +been roughly handled by the mob if a young lady, a sister of the poet +Whittier, had not taken him by the arm, and walked with him through +the astonished crowd. They did not feel like attacking a woman. + +There was nothing unusual, except the part performed by the young +lady, in the affair described in the foregoing narrative. Mobs were of +constant occurrence in the period of which we are speaking. It was not +in the slave States that they were most frequent. Northern communities +that were regarded as absolutely peaceable and perfectly moral thought +nothing of an anti-Abolitionist riot now and then. They occurred "away +up North" and "away down East." Even sleepy old Nantucket, in its +sedentary repose by the sea, woke up long enough to mob a couple of +Abolition lecturers, a man and a woman. + +The community in which the writer resided when a boy, was fully up to +the pacific standard of most Northern neighborhoods. Yet it was the +scene of many turmoils growing out of Anti-Slavery meetings. The +district schoolhouse, which was the only public building in the +village that was open for such gatherings, called for frequent repairs +on account of damages done by mobs. Broken windows and doors were +often in evidence, and stains from mud-balls, decayed vegetables, and +antiquated eggs, which nobody took the trouble to remove, were nearly +always visible. + +On one occasion, at an evening meeting, the lecturer was a young +professor, who was "down" from Oberlin College, against which, as "an +Abolition hole," there was a very strong prejudice. He had not got +more than well started, when rocks, bricks, and other missiles began +to crash through the windows. The mob was resolved to punish that +young man, and had come prepared to give him a coating of unsavory +mixture. He was a preacher as well as a teacher, and his "store +clothes" were likely to betray him; but some thoughtful person had +brought an old drab overcoat and a rough workman's cap, and arrayed in +these garments he walked through the crowd without his identity being +suspected. + +But another party was not so fortunate. He was a respected citizen of +the village, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and a strong +pro-slavery man. He dressed in black and his appearance was not unlike +that of the lecturer. By some hard luck he happened to be passing that +way when the crowd was looking for the Abolitionist, and was +discovered. "There he goes," was the cry that was raised, and a fire +of eggs and other things was opened upon him. He reached his home in +an awful plight, and it was charged that his conversation was not +unmixed with profanity. + +On another occasion the writer was present when the friends of the +lecturer undertook to convey him to a place of safety. They formed a +circle about him and moved away while the mob followed, hurling eggs +and clods and sticks and whatever else came handy. We kept quietly on +our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly +graveled, and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to +our use. Here we halted, and, with rocks in hand, formed a line of +battle. It took only one volley to put the enemy to rout, and we had +no further trouble. + +At last, after several men had been prevented from speaking in our +village, the services of a female lecturer were secured. The question +then was, whether the mob would be so ungallant as to disturb a woman. +The matter was settled by the rowdies on that occasion being more than +usually demonstrative. The lecturer showed great courage and presence +of mind. She closed the meeting in due form, and then walked calmly +through the noisy throng that gave her no personal molestation or +insult. Deliberately she proceeded to a place of safety--and then went +into hysterics. + +Finding that it was impossible to hold undisturbed public meetings, +the Abolitionists adopted a plan of operations that was altogether +successful. They met in their several homes, taking them in order, and +there the subject they were interested in was uninterruptedly +discussed. Intelligent opponents of their views were invited to +attend, and frequently did so. So warm were the discussions that arose +that the meetings sometimes lasted for entire days, and conversions +were not unusual. + +It was in one of these neighborhood gatherings that the writer first +became an active Anti-Slavery worker. He had memorized one of Daniel +O'Connell's philippics against American slavery, and, being given the +opportunity, declaimed it with much earnestness. After that he was +invited to all the meetings, and had on hand a stock of selections for +delivery, his favorite being Whittier's _Slave Mother's Lament over +the Loss of Her Daughters_: + + "Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + Where the slave whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings; + Where the fever demon strews + Poison with the falling dews; + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air. + Gone, gone--sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia's hills and waters-- + Woe is me my stolen daughters!" + +It was marvelous how little damage all the mobs effected. Lovejoy of +Illinois was killed--a great loss--and occasionally an Abolitionist +lecturer got a bloody nose or a sore shin. Professor Hudson, of +Oberlin College, used to say that the injury he most feared was to his +clothes. He carried with him what he called "a storm suit," which he +wore at evening meetings. It showed many marks of battle. + +Among those who suffered real physical injury was Fred. Douglass, the +runaway slave. While in bondage he was often severely punished, but he +encountered rougher treatment in the North than in the South. He was +attacked by a mob while lecturing in the State of Indiana; was struck +to the earth and rendered senseless by blows on the head and body, and +for a time his life was supposed to be in danger. Although in the main +he recovered, his right hand was always crippled in consequence of +some of its bones having been broken. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS + + +If any one is desirous of estimating the extent of the sacrifice of +life, of treasure, of home and family comforts, and of innumerable +fair hopes that the institution of slavery, in its struggle, not +merely for existence, but for supremacy, cost this country, let him +visit a government cemetery in the neighborhood of one of the great +battle-fields of the Rebellion, and there, while looking down the long +avenues lined with memorial stones that a grateful country has set up, +make inquiry as to the number of those that are there bivouacked "in +fame's eternal camping ground." Some idea--a faint one it is +true--will then be had of the multitudes that gave up all they +possessed that liberty might live and rule in this fair land of ours. +They were martyrs in the very highest sense to Freedom's immeasurable +cause. The war was the product of slavery. It was the natural outcome +of the great moral conflict that had so long raged in this country. It +was simply the development of an agitation that had begun on other +lines. + +But there were martyrs to the cause of freedom before the war. +Everybody knows more or less of the story of John Brown, of +Ossawatomie, whose soul kept "marching on," although his body was +"a-mouldering in the grave." + +There was another case involving the surrender of life to that cause, +which has always struck me as having stronger claims to our sympathies +than that of John Brown and his comrades in self-sacrifice. + +I have already referred to Elijah P. Lovejoy who was a young +Congregational clergyman, who went from the State of Maine to St. +Louis, Missouri, in 1839. He became the editor of a religious journal +in which he expressed, in very moderate terms, an opinion that was not +favorable to slave-holding. The supporters of the institution were +aroused at once. They demanded a retraction. "I have sworn eternal +hostility to slavery, and by the blessing of God I will never go +back," was his reply. He also declared, "We have slaves here, but I am +not one of them." + +It was deemed advisable by Mr. Lovejoy and his friends to move his +printing establishment to Alton, opposite Missouri, in the free State +of Illinois. There, however, a pro-slavery antagonism immediately +developed. His press was seized and thrown into the Mississippi River. +The same fate awaited two others that were procured. But, undismayed, +Mr. Lovejoy and his friends once more decided that their rights and +liberties should not be surrendered without a further effort. Another +press was sent for. But in the meanwhile a violent public agitation +had arisen. At the instance of certain pro-slavery leaders in the +community a public meeting had been called to denounce the +Abolitionists. Mr. Lovejoy was invited to attend it and declare what +he would do. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "as long as I am an American citizen; as long as +American blood runs in my veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to +speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject, +being amenable to the laws of my country for the same." + +The fourth press arrived. It was landed from a passing boat in the +small hours of the morning, and was safely conveyed to a warehouse +where Mr. Lovejoy and several of his friends assembled with a view to +its protection. What followed is thus described: + + "An hour or two afterwards there came from the grog-shops a crowd + of people who knocked at the door and demanded the press. One of + the owners of the warehouse informed them it would not be given + up. Presenting a pistol, the leader of the mob announced that they + were resolved to have the press at any cost. Stones were thrown, + windows broken, and shots were fired at the building. The cry of + 'burn them out' was raised. Ladders were procured, and some of the + rioters mounted to the roof of the building and set it on fire. + Mr. Lovejoy at this point stepped out of the building for the + purpose of having a talk with his enemies, when he was fired upon. + He received five balls, three in his breast. He was killed almost + instantly." + +The animosity of his enemies was such that they followed his remains +with scoffings and insults on its way to the grave. + +But the most cruel and brutal persecutions by the slave power were +not always those that involved the sacrifice of life. + +In Canterbury, in the State of Connecticut, lived a Quaker lady of the +name of Prudence Crandall. She conducted a school for young ladies. +Among those she admitted was a colored girl. The fact becoming known, +objection was raised by the citizens of the place. The position in +which Miss Crandall was placed was a most trying one. Having invested +all her means in the school building and its equipment, she was +confronted with the alternative of losing her business and her +property, or dismissing the colored student who had done no wrong. She +chose to stand by her principles. + +A public meeting was called, and a resolution to prevent the +maintenance of the school, if colored students were admitted, was +adopted by the citizens. Nevertheless, that brave Quakeress opened her +doors to several colored young women. That brought the issue to a +head, and then began a system of most remarkable persecutions. The +school building was bombarded with clubs and stones, the proprietress +found the stores of the village closed against her, and the young lady +students were grossly insulted when they appeared upon the streets. +Even the well from which drinking water was obtained was polluted. + +Finding that there was no law in Connecticut under which the +instruction of colored people could be prohibited and punished, the +enemies of Miss Crandall went to the Legislature of the State and +asked for such an enactment, and, to the eternal disgrace of that +body, their request was complied with. It was made a crime in +Connecticut to instruct colored people in the rudiments of an ordinary +education. + +Miss Crandall, as she made no change in her course of action, was +arrested, brought before a committing magistrate, and sent to jail. A +man had shortly before been confined in the same prison for the murder +of his wife, and therefrom had gone to execution. Miss Crandall was +confined in the cell this man had occupied. Other indignities were +heaped upon this devoted and courageous lady. Physicians refused to +attend the sick of her household, and the trustees of the church she +was accustomed to attend notified her that she and the members of her +family were denied admission to that sanctuary. + +Miss Crandall was finally convicted of the crime with which she was +charged, but the case, being carried to the highest court of the +State, was dismissed on a technicality. But, although the legal +prosecution of this poor woman reached an end, her enemies did not +cease their opposition. The mob made an attack upon her dwelling, +which was also her schoolhouse. Doors and windows were broken in, and +the building was so thoroughly wrecked as to be uninhabitable. Having +no money with which to make repairs, she was forced to abandon the +structure and her educational business at the same time. + +The Crandall family became noted for its martyrs. A brother of +Prudence Crandall was Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington City. He was +a man of high attainments, being a lecturer in a public scientific +institution. While engaged in his office he received some packages +that had been wrapped in newspapers, among which happened to be a copy +or two of Abolition journals. At the request of a gentleman who was +present at the unpacking he gave him one of the publications. Having +looked it over the gentleman dropped it, where it was picked up by +some one who was on the lookout for incendiary publications. No little +excitement followed its discovery. The community was aroused. Indeed, +so great was the agitation occasioned that Dr. Crandall, to whom the +inhibited paper had been traced, was in great physical danger from mob +violence. He was arrested, and, partly to save his life, was thrust +into jail, where he remained for eight months. He was tried and, +although acquitted, was really made the subject of capital punishment. +Tuberculosis developed as the result of his incarceration, and death +soon followed. + +Of many cases of the kind that might be cited, perhaps none is more +strikingly illustrative than that of Charles Turner Torrey, a New +England man. He was accused of helping a slave to escape from the city +of Baltimore, and being convicted on what was said to be perjured +testimony, was sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. The +confinement was fatal, a galloping consumption mercifully putting a +speedy end to his confinement. And then a remarkable incident +occurred. Torrey was a minister in good standing of the Congregational +denomination, and also a member of the Park Avenue Church of Boston. +Arrangements were made for funeral exercises in that church, but its +managers, taking alarm at the threats of certain pro-slavery men, +withdrew their permission and locked the sanctuary's doors. Slavery +punished the dead as well as the living. + +The case of Amos Dresser, a young Southerner, may not improperly be +mentioned here. He had gone to a Northern school, and had become a +convert to Abolitionism. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to canvass +for a book called the _Cottage Bible_ which would not ordinarily be +supposed to be dangerous to well regulated public institutions. While +peaceably attending to his business he was accused of Anti-Slaveryism. +He did not deny the charge and was arrested, his trunk being broken +open and its contents searched and scattered. He was taken before a +vigilance committee and by it was condemned to receive twenty lashes +on his bare back, "well laid on," and then to be driven out of town. +The sentence was carried out, we are told, in the presence of +thousands of people of both sexes. + +Of the many somewhat similar instances that might here be referred to +the writer will make room for only one more. + +A seafaring man of the name of Jonathan Walker undertook to convey in +a sloop of which he was the owner seven colored fugitives to the +Bahama Islands, where they would be free. Owing to an accident to his +boat, he and his companions were captured. He was sentenced, among +other things, to have his hand branded with the letters S.S., +signifying "Slave Stealer." + +The incident just referred to inspired one of the finest productions +of Whittier's pen. Singing of that "bold plowman of the wave" he +proceeds: + + "Why, that hand is highest honor, + Than its traces never yet + Upon old memorial hatchments was + A prouder blazon set; + And the unborn generations, as they + Tread our rocky strand, + Shall tell with pride the story of + Their father's branded hand." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD + + +The prescribed penalties for assisting in the escape of fugitive +slaves were severe. By the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, as it was +called, any one convicted of that offense, besides a liability for one +thousand dollars damages recoverable in a civil action, was subject to +a five-hundred-dollars fine and imprisonment in a penitentiary for one +year. As the writer has not "done time" for participation in certain +transactions dating back to his earlier days, in which the legal +rights of slave-owners were indifferently respected, he thinks it +advisable to be somewhat reserved in his recital of personal +experiences when taking the public into his confidence. The Fugitive +Slave Law--and for that fact we should give "most hearty thanks"--is +about as dead as any statute can be, but as in the case of a snake +that has been killed, it may be the wiser course not to trifle with +its fangs. Therefore, instead of telling my own story in the first +person singular, I offer as a substitute the confession of one John +Smith, whose existence no one will presume to dispute. Here is his +statement: + + "There was an old barn on my father's farm. It was almost a ruin. + One end of the roof had fallen in, pretty much all the windows + were gone, and there was a general air of dilapidation about the + place. A dwelling-house, to which it was an appendage, had been + burned and not rebuilt, and the barn had been left to fight a + battle with the elements and other foes in pretty much its own + way. + + "Not that it was wholly abandoned. There was one mow that was kept + pretty well supplied with grass, and there were two or three horse + stalls that were in tolerable order, although but rarely used. + There were a number of excellent hiding-places about the old + rookery. In the basement all sorts of rubbish, including unused + vehicles and machinery, had been stored away, and so wedged and + packed was it that it would have taken hours to uncover man or + beast seeking concealment there. + + "One of the curious features of the situation was that the + building was in sight of none of the roads in the neighborhood, + while less than a hundred feet from it was a strip of woods in + which the removal of the larger trees had stimulated a sturdy and + densely matted undergrowth that was penetrable only by means of + paths that had been made by the cattle. It was what was called a + 'woods pasture.' With this cover for his movements any one could + approach or leave the old barn with little danger of discovery. + + "Naturally enough, such a ramshackle was in ill-repute. There were + tales about it in the neighborhood. Some children had gone there + to play on one occasion, and had been badly frightened by a + big--as big as a half-bushel, they asserted--black face that was + seen to be watching them. They fled from the premises in great + alarm, and for a time there was talk of an investigation by their + friends. The incident, however, was soon forgotten. + + "That old barn was a regular station on one of the underground + railroads that extended from the Ohio River to Canada. To but few + persons was its true character known, and they were very + close-mouthed about it. I was one of the few that were in the + secret. Being the youngest member of the family, it fell to my lot + to drive the horses and cows to and from the pasture in which the + old barrack was located, and while there it was an easy matter to + visit that establishment and ascertain if it sheltered any fresh + arrivals. + + "One day I had to report that two fugitives were in the barn, + being a mother and child. Then came the question--which in that + instance was a difficult one to answer--as to who should convey + them to the next station on the line, twenty miles away. A + brother, between five and six years older than I was, and who was + something of a dare-devil, did the most of the work of + transportation, but he was in bed with typhoid fever. A hired man, + who was employed partly because he was in hearty accord with the + humanitarian views of the household, and who on several occasions + had taken my brother's place, was absent. There was nobody but + myself who was ready to undertake the job, and I was only eleven + years old. There was no help for it, however. The slaves had to be + moved on, and I was greatly rejoiced in the prospect of adventure + that was opened up to me. The journey had to be made at night, but + for that I cared nothing, as I had repeatedly gone over the route + by daylight, and thought I knew the road perfectly. + + "Midnight found me on the highway, and on the driver's seat of one + of our farm wagons, to which was attached a span of horses moving + in the direction of the north star. That luminary was not on this + occasion visible. The sky was heavily overcast and the night was + very dark. A light rain was falling. With all the confidence I had + in my own ability, more than once would I have lost the way, but + for the sagacity of the horses, which had gone over that route a + number of times under similar circumstances. They acted as if + altogether familiar with it. Those horses proved themselves to be + excellent Abolitionists. + + "The inclemency of the night was in one respect a great advantage. + It kept at home those who might incline to be too inquisitive. The + few travelers we met passed on with a word of greeting, while I + whistled unconcernedly. + + "Over the bottom of the wagon was scattered some hay that might be + used either as feed for the horses or as a bed for weary + travelers. There was also an old-fashioned buffalo-robe, somewhat + dilapidated, that could serve for concealment or as shelter from + the elements. Two or three empty baskets suggested a return from + the market. There was another article that one would hardly have + looked for. This was a smoke-cured ham loosely wrapped in some old + sacking. It had gone over that route a number of times. Its odor + neutralized the smell by which the presence, immediate or recent, + of negroes might be detected. + + "My fellow-travelers, as my passengers might be called, were + interesting companions. Both, in one sense, were children, the + mother certainly not being over seventeen years old. She was a + comely half-breed mulatto. Her baby--a pretty boy of two + years--was one degree nearer white. + + "The girl was inclined to be confidential and talkative. She said + she was 'old mas'r's' daughter. Her mother had been one of 'old + mas'r's' people. She had grown up with the other slave children on + the place, being in no way favored because of her relationship to + her owner. The baby's father was 'young mas'r'--old master's son, + as it appeared--and who, consequently, was a half-brother of the + youthful mother. Slavery sometimes created singular relationships. + + "As the story ran, all the people, including the narrator and her + baby, when 'ole mas'r' died were 'leveled' on by the Sheriff's + man. She did not quite understand the meaning of it all, but it + was doubtless a case of bankruptcy. + + "'Young mas'r,' she said, 'tole' her she had to run away, taking + the baby of course. 'Oh, yes," she said very emphatically, 'I + never would have left Kentuck without Thomas Jefferson'--meaning + her little boy. 'Young mas'r,' according to her account, arranged + the whole proceeding, telling her what course to take by night, + where to stop and conceal herself by day, and what signal to give + when she reached the 'big river.' + + "When the Ohio had been crossed her young master met her, + evidently to the great delight of the poor creature. He gave her + some money, and told her that when she reached her destination he + would send her some 'mo.' After putting her in charge of some kind + people, evidently representatives of the underground line, they + had parted, according to her description of the incident, in an + affecting way. 'He kissed me and I cried,' was her simple + statement. Notwithstanding the boasted superiority of one race + over another, human nature seems to be very much the same, whether + we read it in a white face or in a black one. + + "The little girlish mother was very much alarmed for the safety of + her boy and herself when we began our journey, wanting to get out + and conceal herself whenever we heard any one on the road. After + several detentions from that cause, the weary creature stretched + herself upon the hay beside her sleeping infant and almost + immediately fell into a heavy slumber. She could stand the strain + no longer. I drew the buffalo-robe over the two sleepers, and + there they rested in blissful unconsciousness until the journey + was ended. + + "Half-way between the termini of my route was a village in which + lived a constable who was suspected of being in the employ of the + slave-owners. It was thought advisable that I should avoid that + village by taking a roundabout road. That I did, although it added + an extra half to my trip. The result was that the sun was just + peeping over the eastern hills, as I reached a set of bars showing + an entrance into a pasture lot on one side of the highway. + Removing the bars, I drove into the field, and passing over a + ridge that hid it from the road, I stopped in front of a log cabin + that had every appearance of being an abandoned and neglected + homestead. That was the station I was looking for. Arousing my + sleeping passengers, I saw them enter the old domicile, where I + bade them good-by, and received the tearful and repeated thanks of + the youthful slave mother, speaking for herself and her offspring. + I never saw them again, but in due time the news came back, over + what was jocularly called the 'grape-vine telegraph,' that they + had safely reached their destination. + + "At the home of the station agent I was enthusiastically received. + That a boy of eleven should accomplish what I had done was thought + to be quite wonderful. I was given an excellent breakfast, and + then shown to a room with a bed, where I had a good sleep. On my + awakening I set out on the return journey, this time taking the + most direct route, as I had then no fear of that hireling + constable. + + "Subsequently I passed through several experiences of a similar + kind, some of them involving greater risks and more exciting + incidents, but the recollection of none of them brings me greater + satisfaction than the memory of my first conductorship on the + Underground. + + "All of which is respectfully submitted by + + "JOHN SMITH." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +COLONIZATION + + +I have had a good deal to say about Anti-Slavery societies. There was +another society which was called into existence by the slavery +situation. Whether it was pro-slavery or anti-slavery was a question +that long puzzled a good many people. It was the Colonization Society. +A good many Anti-Slavery people believed in it for a time and gave it +their support. "I am opposed to slavery, but I am not an Abolitionist: +I am a Colonizationist," was a declaration that, when I was a boy, I +heard many and many times, and from the lips of well-intending people. + +It did not take the sharp-sighted leaders of the Abolition movement +very long to discover that one of the uses its managers expected to +make of the Colonization Society was as a shield for slavery. It kept +a number of excellent people from joining in an aggressive movement +against it, took their money, and made them believe that they were at +work for the freedom of the negro. + +Strangely as it might appear, the negroes, who were assumed to be the +beneficiaries of the colonization scheme, were opposed to it. Quicker +than the white people generally did, they saw through its false +pretense, and, besides, they could not understand why they should be +taken from the land of their nativity, and sent to the country from +which their progenitors had come, any more than the descendants of +Scotch, English, and German immigrants should be deported to the lands +of their ancestors. + +Equally strange was it that the Colonization Society, if really +friendly to the negro, should find its most zealous supporters among +slaveholders. Its first president, who was a nephew of George +Washington, upon learning that his slaves had got the idea that they +were to be set at liberty, sent over fifty of them to be sold from the +auction block at New Orleans. That was intended as a warning to the +rest. One of its presidents was said to be the owner of a thousand +slaves and had never manumitted one of them. The principal service +that the colonization movement was expected to do for the slave-owners +was to relieve them of the presence of free negroes. These were always +regarded as a menace by slave-masters. They disseminated ideas of +freedom and manhood among their unfortunate brethren. They were +object-lessons to those in bondage. The slave-owners were only too +glad to have them sent away. They looked to Liberia as a safety-valve. +It did not take long for intelligent people who were really +well-wishers of the black man to perceive these facts. + +The severest blow that the Colonization Society received in America +was from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, who, under the title of +_Thoughts on African Colonisation_, published a pamphlet that had +wide distribution. It completely unmasked the pretended friendship of +the Colonizationists for the negroes, free or slave. From that time +they lost all support from real Anti-Slavery people. There was, +however, to be a battle fought, in which the Colonization Society +figured as a party, that furnished one of the most interesting +episodes of the slavery conflict. + +England, at the time of which we are speaking, was full of +Anti-Slavery sentiment. Slavery, at the end of a long and bitter +contest, had been abolished in all her colonies. Her philanthropists +were rejoicing in their victory. The managers of the Colonization +Society resolved, if possible, to capture that sentiment, and with it +the pecuniary aid the British Abolitionists might render. It was +always a tremendous beggar. They, accordingly, selected a +fluent-tongued agent and sent him to England to advocate their cause. +He did not hesitate to represent that the Colonization Society was the +especial friend of the negro, working for his deliverance from +bondage, and, in addition, that it had the support of "the wealth, the +respectability, and the piety of the American people." + +When these facts came to the knowledge of the members of the newly +formed New England Anti-Slavery Society, they were naturally excited, +and resolved to meet the enemy in this new field of operations. This +they decided to do by sending a representative to England, who would +be able to meet the colonization agent in discussion, and otherwise +proclaim and champion their particular views. For this service the man +selected was William Lloyd Garrison, who was then but twenty-eight +years old. + +Remarkable it was that one who was not only so young, but imperfectly +educated, being a poor mechanic, daily toiling as a compositor at his +printer's case, should be chosen to meet the most polished people in +the British Empire, and hold himself ready to debate the most serious +question of the time. That such a person should be willing to enter +upon such an undertaking was almost as remarkable. But Garrison showed +no hesitation in accepting the task for which he was selected. + +On his arrival in England, Garrison sent a challenge to the +colonization agent for a public debate. This the Colonizationist +refused to receive. Two more challenges were sent and were treated in +the same way. Then Garrison, at a cost of thirty dollars, which he +could ill afford to pay, published the challenge in the London +_Times_, with a statement of the manner in which it had been so far +treated. Of course, public interest was aroused, and when Garrison +appeared upon the public platform, as he at once proceeded to do, he +was greeted with the attendance of multitudes of interested hearers. +Exeter Hall in London was crowded. The most distinguished men in +England sat upon the stage when he spoke, and applauded his addresses. +Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, paid them a most florid +compliment. They were, unquestionably, most remarkable samples of +effective eloquence--plain in statement, simple in style, but +exceedingly logical and forcible. They were widely published +throughout England at the time of their delivery. + +One of the results was that the leading emancipationists of Great +Britain signed and published a warning against the colonization +scheme, denouncing it as having its roots in "a cruel prejudice," and +declaring that it was calculated to "increase the spirit of caste so +unhappily predominant," and that it "exposed the colored people to +great practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate." + +As for the poor agent of the Colonizationists, seeing how the battle +was tending, he left England in a hurry, and was nevermore heard of in +that part of the world. + +Garrison's personal triumph was very striking, and it was splendidly +earned. He was made the recipient of many compliments and +testimonials. A curious incident resulted from this great popularity. +He was invited to breakfast by Sir Thomas Buxton, the noted English +philanthropist, with a view to making the acquaintance of a number of +distinguished persons who were to be present. When Mr. Garrison +presented himself, his entertainer, who had not before met or seen +him, looked at him in great astonishment. + +"Are you William Lloyd Garrison?" he inquired. + +"That is who I am," replied Mr. Garrison, "and I am here on your +invitation." + +"But you are a white man," said Buxton, "and from your zeal and labors +in behalf of the colored people, I assumed that you were one of them." + +Garrison left England in what, metaphorically, might be described as +"a blaze of glory." Hundreds attended him when he went to embark on +his homeward voyage, and he was followed by their cheers and +benedictions. Wonderfully different was the treatment he received on +his arrival in his own country. Not long afterwards he was dragged +through Boston streets by a hempen rope about his body, and was +assigned to a prison cell, as affording the most available protection +from the mob. + +Nevertheless, we have had some excellent people--not +slave-owners--who, out of compassion for the black man, or from +prejudice against his color, and, perhaps, from a little of both, have +favored a policy of colonization in this country. Mr. Lincoln was one +of them. "If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what +to do with the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free +the slaves and send them to Liberia." So said Mr. Lincoln in one of +his debates with Douglas. + +"I cannot make it better known than it already is," said Mr. Lincoln +in a message to Congress, dated December 1, 1862, "that I strongly +favor colonization." + +At Lincoln's instance Congress appropriated several large sums of +money--then much needed in warlike operations--for colonizing +experiments. One of these has a curious and somewhat pathetic history. +A sharper by the name of Koch, having worked himself into the +confidence of the President and some other good people, got them to +buy from him an island in the West Indies, called Ile a'Vache, which +he represented to be a veritable earthly paradise. Strangely enough, +it was wholly uninhabited, and therefore ready for the uses of a +colony. Several hundred people--colored, of course--were collected, +put aboard a ship, and dumped upon this unknown land. It will +surprise no one to learn that pretty soon these people, poisoned by +malaria, stung by venomous insects and reptiles, and having scarcely +anything to eat, were dying like cattle with the murrain. In the end a +ship was sent to bring back the survivors. + +Nevertheless, the kind-hearted President did not give up the idea. At +his request a delegation of Washington negroes called upon him. He +made them quite a long speech, telling them that Congress had given +him money with which to found a colony of colored people, and that he +had found what seemed to be a suitable location in Central America. He +appealed to them to supply the colonists. The negroes, not anxious for +exile, diplomatically said they would think the matter over. In the +end it was discovered that Central America did not want the negroes, +and that the negroes did not want Central America. + +A story that is curiously illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's attachment to +the policy of removing the colored people is told by L.E. Chittenden +in his _Recollections of President Lincoln_. Mr. Chittenden was a +citizen of Vermont and Register of the Treasury under Lincoln, with +whom he was in intimate and confidential relations: + + "During one of his welcome visits to my office," says Mr. + Chittenden, "the President seemed to be buried in thought over + some subject of great interest. After long reflection he abruptly + exclaimed that he wanted to ask me a question. + + "'Do you know any energetic contractor?' he inquired; 'one who + would be willing to take a large contract attended with some + risk?' + + "'I know New England contractors," I replied, 'who would not be + frightened by the magnitude or risk of any contract. The element + of prospective profit is the only one that would interest them. If + there was a fair prospect of profit, they would not hesitate to + contract to suppress the Rebellion in ninety days." + + "'There will be profit and reputation in the contract I may + propose,' said the President. 'It is to remove the whole colored + race of the slave States into Texas. If you have any acquaintance + who would take that contract, I would like to see him.' + + "'I know a man who would take that contract and perform it,' I + replied. 'I would be willing to put you into communication with + him, so that you might form your own opinion about him.' + + "By the President's direction I requested John Bradley, a + well-known Vermonter, to come to Washington. He was at my office + the morning after I sent the telegram to him. I declined to give + him any hint of the purpose of my invitation, but took him + directly to the President. When I presented him I said: 'Here, Mr. + President, is the contractor whom I named to you yesterday.' + + "I left them together. Two hours later Mr. Bradley returned to my + office overflowing with admiration for the President and + enthusiasm for his proposed work. 'The proposition is,' he said, + 'to remove the whole colored race into Texas, there to establish a + republic of their own. The subject has political bearings of which + I am no judge, and upon which the President has not yet made up + his mind. But I have shown him that it is practicable. I will + undertake to remove them all within a year.'" + +It is unnecessary to state that the Black Republic of Texas was a +dream that never materialized. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION + + +Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, who were Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries +during the time he was President, and afterwards the authors of his +most elaborate biography, say: "The blessings of an enfranchised race +must forever hail him as their liberator." + +Says Francis Curtis in his _History of the Republican Party_, in +speaking of the President's Emancipation Proclamation: "On the 1st day +of January, 1863, the final proclamation of freedom was issued, and +every negro slave within the confines of the United States was at last +made free." + +Other writers of what is claimed to be history, almost without number, +speak of the President's pronouncement as if it caused the bulwarks of +slavery to fall down very much as the walls of Jericho are said to +have done, at one blast, overwhelming the whole institution and +setting every bondman free. Indeed, there are multitudes of fairly +intelligent people who believe that slaveholding in this country +ceased the very day and hour the proclamation appeared. In a recent +magazine article, so intelligent a man as Booker Washington speaks of +a Kentucky slave family as being emancipated by Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation, when, in fact, the proclamation never applied to +Kentucky at all. + +The emancipationists of Missouri were working hard to free their State +from slavery, and they would have been only too glad to have Mr. +Lincoln do the work for them. They appealed to him to extend his edict +to their State, but got no satisfaction. The emancipationists of +Maryland had much the same experience. Both Missouri and Maryland were +left out of the proclamation, as were Tennessee and Kentucky and +Delaware, and parts of Virginia and Louisiana and the Carolinas. (See +Appendix.) The explanation is that the proclamation was not intended +to cover all slaveholding territory. All of it that belonged to States +that had not been in rebellion, or had been subdued, was excluded. The +President's idea was to reach only such sections as were then in +revolt. If the proclamation had been immediately operative, and had +liberated every bondman in the jurisdiction to which it applied, it +would have left over a million slaves in actual thraldom. Indeed, Earl +Russell, the British premier, was quite correct when, in speaking of +the proclamation, he said: "It does not more than profess to +emancipate slaves where the United States authorities cannot make +emancipation a reality, and emancipates no one where the decree can be +carried into effect." + +For the failure of the proclamation to cover all slaveholding +territory there was a plausible reason. Freedom under it was not +decreed as a boon, but as a penalty. It was not, in theory at least, +intended to help the slave, but to chastise the master. It was to be +in punishment of treason, and, of course, could not consistently be +made to apply to loyal communities, or to such as were under +government control. The proclamation, it will be recollected, was +issued in two parts separated by one hundred days. The first part gave +the Rebels warning that the second would follow if, in the meanwhile, +they did not give up their rebellion. All they had to do to save +slavery was to cease from their treasonable practices. Had the Rebels +been shrewd enough, within the hundred days, to take the President at +his word, he would have stood pledged to maintain their institution, +and his proclamation, instead of being a charter of freedom, would +have been a license for slaveholding. + +The proclamation did not, in fact, whatever it may have otherwise +accomplished at the time it was issued, liberate a single slave. What +is more, slavery as an institution was altogether too securely rooted +in our system to be abolished by proclamation. The talk of such a +thing greatly belittles the magnitude of the task that was performed. +Its removal required a long preliminary work, involving, as is made to +appear in previous chapters of this work, almost incalculable toil and +sacrifice, to be followed by an enormous expenditure of blood and +treasure. Its practical extinguishment was the work of the army, while +its legal extirpation was accomplished by Congress and the +Legislatures of the States in adopting the Thirteenth Amendment to the +Federal Constitution, which forbids all slaveholding. That amendment +was a production of Congress and not of the Executive, whose official +approval was not even required to make it legally effective. + +The story of the proclamation, with not a few variations, has often +been told; but the writer fancies that the altogether correct account +has not always been given. It may be presumptuous on his part, but he +will submit his version. + +To understand the motive underlying the proclamation we must take into +account its author's feeling toward slavery. Notwithstanding various +unfriendly references of an academic sort to that institution, he was +not at the time the proclamation appeared, and never had been, an +Abolitionist. + +Not very long before the time referred to the writer heard Mr. +Lincoln, in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois, +declare--laying unusual emphasis on his words: "I have on all +occasions declared as strongly as Judge Douglas against the +disposition to interfere with the existing institution of slavery." + +Judge Douglas was what was then called a "dough-face" by the +Abolitionists--being a Northern man with Southern principles, or +"proclivities," as he called them. + +Only a little earlier, and several years after Mr. Lincoln had claimed +to be a Republican, and a leader of the Republicans, he had, in a +speech at Bloomington, Illinois, asserted that, "the conclusion of it +all is that we must restore the Missouri Compromise." + +Now the adoption of the Missouri Compromise was the hardest blow ever +inflicted on the cause of free soil in America. It did more to +encourage the supporters of slavery and to discourage its opponents +than anything else that ever happened. Its restoration would +undoubtedly have produced a similar effect. Although he is not to be +credited with any philanthropic motive, Stephen A. Douglas did an +effective work for freedom when he helped to overthrow that measure. +Leading Abolitionists have accorded him that meed of praise. + +But there was that proposition which Mr. Lincoln was so fond of +repeating, that the nation could not remain half free and half +slave--"a divided house"--but the remedy he had to propose was not +manumission at any proximate or certain time, but the adoption of a +policy that, to use his own words, would cause "the public mind to +rest in the belief that it [slavery] was in the course of ultimate +extinction." Practically that meant very little or nothing. What the +public mind then needed was not "rest," but properly directed +activity. + +But the declarations above quoted were all before Mr. Lincoln had +become President or had probably thought of such a thing. Did the +change of position lead to a change of opinion on his part? We are not +left in uncertainty on this point. His official views were declared in +what might be called a State paper. Soon after his inauguration, his +Secretary of State sent Minister Dayton, at Paris, a dispatch that he +might use with foreign officials, in which, in speaking of the +Rebellion, he said: "The condition of slavery in the several States +will remain just the same whether it succeeds or fails.... It is +hardly necessary to add to this incontrovertible statement the further +fact that the new President has always repudiated all designs, +whenever and wherever imputed to him, of disturbing the system of +slavery as it has existed under the Constitution and laws." + +About the same time Mr. Lincoln stated to a party of Southern +Congressmen, who called upon him, that he "recognized the rights of +property that had grown out of it [slavery] and would respect those +rights as fully as he would similar rights in any other property." + +No steps were taken by Mr. Lincoln to recall or repudiate the +foregoing announcements. On the contrary, he confirmed them in his +official action. He annulled the freedom proclamations of Fremont and +Hunter. He did not interfere when some of his military officers were +so busy returning fugitive slaves that they had no time to fight the +masters. He approved Hallock's order Number Three excluding fugitives +from the lines. He even permitted the poor old Hutchinsons to be sent +away from the army very much as if they had been colored people, when +trying to rouse "the boys" with their freedom songs. In many ways Mr. +Lincoln showed that in the beginning and throughout the earlier part +of his Administration he hoped to re-establish the Union without +disturbing slavery. In effect he so declared in his introduction to +his freedom proclamation. He gave the rebel slaveholders one hundred +days in which to abandon their rebellion and save their institution. +In view of such things it is no wonder that Henry Wilson, so long a +leading Republican Senator from Massachusetts, in his _Rise and Fall +of the Slave Power_, in speaking of emancipation, said "it was a +policy, indeed, which he [the President] did not personally favor +except in connection with his favorite idea of colonization." + +It is needless to say that the President's attitude was a great +surprise and a sore disappointment to the more radical Anti-Slavery +people of the country, who had supported him with much enthusiasm and +high hopes. They felt that they had been deceived. They said so very +plainly, for the Abolitionists were not the sort of people to keep +quiet under provocation. Horace Greeley published his signed attack +(see Appendix) entitled, _The Prayer of Twenty Millions_, which is, +without doubt, the most scathing denunciation in the English language. +Henry Ward Beecher "pounded" Mr. Lincoln, as he expressed it. Wendell +Phillips fairly thundered his denunciations. There was a general +under-swell of indignation. + +Now, Mr. Lincoln was not a man who was incapable of reading the signs +of the times. He saw that he was drifting towards an irreparable +breach with an element that had previously furnished his staunchest +supporters. As a politician of great native shrewdness, as well as the +head of the Government, he could not afford to let the quarrel go on +and widen. There was need of conciliation. Something had to be done. +We know what he did. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation. + +As far as freeing any slaves was concerned, he knew it amounted to +very little, if anything. He said so. Less than two weeks before the +preliminary section of the proclamation appeared, Mr. Lincoln was +waited on by a delegation of over one hundred Chicago clergymen, who +urged him to issue a proclamation of freedom for the slaves. "What +good would a proclamation from me do, especially as we are now +situated?" asked Mr. Lincoln by way of reply. "I do not want to issue +a document that the whole world would see must necessarily be +inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word +free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the +rebel States?" + +In contemplating a proclamation applicable to the rebel States, it is +hardly to be supposed that Mr. Lincoln did not understand the +situation two weeks earlier quite as well as when the document +appeared. + +If Mr. Lincoln had been told, when he entered on the Presidency, that +before his term of office would expire he would be hailed as "The +Great Emancipator," he would have treated the statement as equal to +one of his own best jokes. Slavery was a thing he did not then want to +have disturbed. He discountenanced all radical agitators of the +subject, and especially in the border slave States, where he was able +to hold them pretty well in check, except in Missouri. There they +stood up and fought him, and in the end beat him. One of the rather +curious results of this condition of things was that, when the States +came to action on the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, the one +absolutely abolishing slavery, the three border slave States of +Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, over which the President's influence +was practically supreme, gave an adverse vote of four to one, while +Missouri, with whose radical emancipationists he had continuously been +at loggerheads, ratified the amendment by a legislative vote of one +hundred and eleven ayes to forty nays. + +Nevertheless, notwithstanding the President, at the beginning of his +official term, opposed Anti-Slavery agitation and Anti-Slavery action +with all his might, he promptly faced about as soon as he discovered +that the subject was one that would not "down." No one ever worked +harder to find a solution of a difficult problem than he did of the +slavery question. He began to formulate plans to that end, the most +distinguishing feature, however, being the spirit of compromise by +which they were pervaded. All of them stopped before an ultimatum was +reached. Besides his proclamation, which, as we have seen, applied to +only a part of the slaves, he devised a measure that would have been +applicable to all of them. In his special message of December, 1863, +he proposed to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment +that would work universal liberation. There were conditions, however. +One was that the slaves should be paid for by the Government; another +that the masters might retain their uncompensated services until +January 1, 1900; that is, for a period of thirty-seven years, unless +they were sooner emancipated by the grave, as the most of them would +be. (See Appendix.) + +The President's somewhat fantastic proposition was not claimed by him +to be for the bondman's benefit. He urged it as a measure of public +economy, holding that, as slavery was the admitted cause of the +Rebellion, the quickest and surest way to remove that cause would be +by purchase of all the slaves, which, he insisted, "would shorten the +war, and thus lessen the expenditure of money and blood." + +The public did not take to the President's plan at all, especially the +Abolitionists did not. They no more favored the buying of men by the +Government than by anybody else. They held that if the master had no +right to the person of his bondman, he had no right to payment for +him. And as for an arrangement that might prolong slaveholding for +thirty-seven years, they saw in it not only a measure of injustice to +the men, women, and children then in servitude, the most of whom would +be doomed to bondage for the rest of their natural lives, but a +possible plan for side-tracking a genuine freedom movement. + +In the proposition just considered we have not only the core of the +President's policy during much of his official tenure, but an +explanation of his mental operations. He was sentimentally opposed to +slavery, but he was afraid of freedom. He dreaded its effect on both +races. He was opposed to slavery more because it was a public nuisance +than because of its injustice to the oppressed black man, whose +condition, he did not believe, would be greatly, if at all, benefited +by freedom. Hence he wanted manumission put off as long as possible. +It was "ultimate extinction" he wanted, to be attended with payment to +the master for his lost property. Another thing he favored--and which +he seems to have thought entirely practicable--as a condition to +liberation, was the black man's removal to a place or places out of +contact with our white population. + +But in entire fairness to Mr. Lincoln, it should be said that, +although his proclamation was inoperative for the immediate release of +any slaves, it was by no means wholly ineffectual. Its moral influence +was considerable. It helped to hasten a movement that had, however, by +that time become practically irresistible. Its political results were +far more marked and important. If it did not fully restore cordiality +between the President and the Abolition leaders, it prevented an open +rupture. It served as a bridge between them. Although they never took +Mr. Lincoln fully into their confidence again, the Abolitionists +interpreted his proclamation as a concession and an abandonment of his +previous policy, which it was much more in appearance than actually. +At all events, it was splendid politics. The somewhat theatrical +manner in which it was worked up and promulgated in installments, thus +arousing in advance a widespread interest and curiosity, showed no +little strategic ability. No more skillful move is recorded in the +history of our parties and partisans than this act of Mr. Lincoln, by +which he disarmed his Anti-Slavery critics without giving them any +material advantage or changing the actual situation. I am not now +speaking of the motive underlying the proclamation of the President, +but of its effect. Without it he could not have been renominated and +re-elected. + +Another observation, in order to be entirely just to Mr. Lincoln, +after what has been stated, would at this point seem to be called for. +There is no doubt that from the first he was at heart an Anti-Slavery +man, which is saying a good deal for one born in Kentucky, raised in +southern Indiana and southern Illinois, and who was naturally of a +conservative turn of mind. Nevertheless, he was never an Abolitionist. +He was opposed to immediate--what he called "sudden"--emancipation. He +recognized the "right"--his own word--of the slave-owner to his pound +of flesh, either in the person of his bondman or a cash equivalent. He +was strongly prejudiced against the negro. Of that fact we have the +evidence in his colonization ideas. He favored the banishment of our +American-born black people from their native land. It was a cruel +proposition. True, the President did move from his first position, +which, as we have seen, was far from that occupied by the +Abolitionists, but from first to last he was more of a follower than +leader in the procession. + +And here the author wishes to add, in justice to himself, that if, by +reason of anything he has said in this chapter, or elsewhere in this +work, in criticism of Mr. Lincoln's dealings with the slavery issue, +he should be accused of unfriendliness toward the great martyr +President, he enters a full and strong denial. He holds that, in view +of all the difficulties besetting him, Mr. Lincoln did well, although +he might have done better. Much allowance, must be made to one +situated as he was. He undoubtedly deserves the most of the encomiums +that have been lavished upon him. At the same time, the conclusion is +inevitable that his fame as a statesman will ultimately depend less +upon his treatment of the slavery issue than upon any other part of +his public administration. The fact will always appear that it was +the policy of Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, +Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, and other advocates of the radical +cure, with whom the President was in constant opposition, that +prevailed in the end, and with a decisiveness that proves it to have +been feasible and sound from the beginning. Mr. Lincoln's most ultra +prescription--his Emancipation Proclamation--was ineffective. If it +was intended to eradicate slavery altogether, it was too narrow; if to +free the slaves of Rebels only, it was too broad. So with his other +propositions. His thirty-seven-year-liberation scheme, his "tinkering +off" policy (as he called it) for Missouri, his reconstruction +proposals, and his colonization projects, all failed. Indeed, if we +take his official action from first to last, it is a question whether +the President, owing to his extreme conservatism, was not more of an +obstructionist than a promoter of the Anti-Slavery cause. + +Not that any change of opinion on the point just stated will +materially affect the general estimate in which Mr. Lincoln is held. +Although his popularity, due, in part at least, to the extravagance of +over-zealous admirers, has without much doubt already passed its +perihelion, it can never disappear or greatly diminish. His untiring +and exhaustive labors for the Union, the many lovable traits of his +unique personality, his unquestionable honesty, his courage, his +patriotism, and, above all, his tragic taking off, have unalterably +determined his place in the regard of his countrymen. Indeed, so +strong is the admiration in which he is held, that it would be vain to +attempt to disabuse many, by any amount of proof and argument, of the +opinion that African slavery in this country was actually and +exclusively killed by a presidential edict. So firmly fixed in the +popular belief is that historical myth that it will undoubtedly live +for many years, if not generations, although history in the end will +right it like all other misunderstandings. + +Mr. Lincoln had his weaknesses and limitations, like other men. All +must admit that his treatment of the slavery question was not without +its mistakes. It has always seemed to the writer that his most ardent +admirers seriously blunder in claiming superlativeness for him in that +regard, and more especially in giving him credit for results that were +due to the efforts of other men. His fame is secure without such +misappropriation. He would not ask it if living, and it will in due +time be condemned by history. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE END OF ABOLITIONISM + + +The original and distinctive Abolition movement that was directed +against slavery in all parts of the land without regard to State or +territorial lines, and because it was assumed to be wrong in principle +and practice, may be said, as far as the country at large was +concerned, to have culminated at the advent of the Republican party. +To a considerable extent it disappeared, but its disappearance was +that of one stream flowing into or uniting with another. The union of +the two currents extended, but did not intensify, the Anti-Slavery +sentiment of the country. It diluted it and really weakened +it. It brought about a crisis of great peril to the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism--in some respects the most critical through which it +was called upon to pass. Many of those attaching themselves to the +Republican party, as the new political organization was called, were +not in sympathy with Abolitionism. They were utterly opposed to +immediate emancipation; or, for that matter, to emancipation of any +kind. They wanted slavery to remain where it was, and were perfectly +willing that it should be undisturbed. They disliked the blacks, and +did not want to have them freed, fearing that if set at liberty they +would overrun what was then free soil. + +The writer recollects hearing a prominent man in the new party, who +about that time was making a public speech, declare with great +emphasis that, "as for the niggers, they are where they ought to be." +The speaker on that occasion was one of many who belonged to the +_debris_ of the broken-up Whig party, and who drifted into +Republicanism because there was no other more attractive harbor to go +to. One of these men was Abraham Lincoln, whom I heard declare in his +debate with Douglas at Alton, Illinois: "I was with the old-line Whigs +from the origin to the end of their party." The Whigs were never an +Anti-Slavery party. The recruits to Republicanism from that quarter +were generally very tender on "the nigger question," and the most they +were prepared to admit was that they were opposed to slavery's +extension. These men largely dominated the new party. They generally +dictated its platforms, which, compared with earlier Abolition +utterances, were extremely timid, and they had much to do with making +party nominations. Their favorite candidates were not those whose +opinions on the slavery question were positive and well understood, +but those whose views were unsettled if not altogether unknown. When +General Fremont was nominated for the Presidency, not one in ten of +those supporting him knew what his opinions on that subject were, and +a good many of them did not care. Mr. Lincoln was accepted in much the +same way. + +It is true that, from certain expressions about the danger to our +national house from being "half free" and "half slave," and other +generalizations of a more or less academic sort, it was known that +Mr. Lincoln was antagonistic to slavery; but as to whether he favored +that institution's immediate or speedy extinguishment, and, if so, by +what measures, was altogether unknown. We now know, from what has been +set forth in another chapter, that at the time of his first nomination +and election, he had very few things in common with the Abolitionists. +He then evidently had no thought of being hailed as the "liberator of +a race." He preferred, for the time at least, that the race in +question should remain where it was, and as it was, unless it could be +bodily transported to some other country and be put under the +protection of some other flag. + +He did not break with the Abolitionists, although he kept on the edge +of a quarrel with them, and especially with what he called the +"Greeley faction," a good part of the time. He never liked them, but +he was a shrewd man--a born politician--and was too sagacious to +discard the principal round in the ladder by which he had climbed to +eminence. He managed to keep in touch with the Anti-Slavery movement +through all its steady advancement, but, as elsewhere stated, it was +as a follower rather than as a leader. + +While a resident of the slave State of Missouri, I twice voted for Mr. +Lincoln, which was some evidence of my personal feeling toward him. +Both times I did it somewhat reluctantly. On the first occasion there +were four candidates. Breckenridge and Bell were Southern men--both by +residence and principle--and had no claim on Anti-Slavery support. But +with Douglas the case was different. He had quarreled with the +pro-slavery leaders, although of his own party. He had defied +President Buchanan in denouncing border-ruffianism in Kansas. He had +refused to give up his "popular sovereignty" dogma, although it +clearly meant ultimate free soil. The slave-masters hated him far more +than they did Lincoln. I heard them freely discuss the matter. They +were more afraid of the vindictiveness of the fiery Douglas than of +the opposition of good-hearted, conservative Lincoln. In my opinion +there was good reason for that feeling. Douglas, as President, would +undoubtedly have pushed the war for the Union with superior energy, +and slavery would have suffered rougher treatment from his hands than +it did from Mr. Lincoln's. There was another reason why the +slaveholders preferred the election of Lincoln to that of Douglas. +Lincoln's election would furnish the better pretext for the rebellion +on which they were bent, and which they had already largely planned. +They were resolved to defeat Douglas at all hazards, and they +succeeded. + +Douglas had been very distasteful to the Abolitionists. They called +him a "dough-face." Nevertheless, quite a number of them where I lived +in Missouri voted for him. Missouri was the only State he carried, and +there he had less than five hundred majority. He got more than that +many free-soil votes. I was strongly tempted to give him mine. Chiefly +on account of political associations, I voted for Lincoln. + +When it came to the second election, I again voted for Mr. Lincoln +with reluctance. The principal reason for my hesitancy was his +treatment of the Anti-Slavery people of the border slave States, and +especially of Missouri. The grounds for my objection on that score +will appear in the next chapter, which deals with the Missouri +embroglio, as it was called. + +From what has just been stated, it will be seen that the cause of +Anti-Slaveryism had, at the formation of the Republican party, reached +a most perilous crisis. It was in danger of being submerged and +suffocated by unsympathetic, if not positively unfriendly, +associations. It ran the risk, after so many years of toil and +conflict, of being undone by those in whose support it was forced to +confide. Such would undoubtedly have been its fate if, owing to +circumstances over which no political party or other organization of +men had control, the current of Anti-Slavery sentiment had not risen +to a flood that swept all before it. + +It is rather a curious circumstance that, at the crisis just alluded +to, the nearest approach to original Abolitionism that was to be +found, was in a slave State. In Missouri there was an organized +opposition to slavery that had been maintained for several years, and +which was never abandoned. The vitality displayed by this movement was +undoubtedly due in large measure to the inspiration of the man who was +its originator, if not its leader. That man was Thomas H. Benton. +Whether Benton was ever an Abolitionist or not, has been a +much-disputed question, but one thing is certain, and that is that the +men who sat at his feet, who were his closest disciples and imbibed +the most of his spirit--such as B. Gratz Brown, John How, the Blairs, +the Filleys, and other influential Missourians,--were Abolitionists. +Some of them weakened under the influence of the national +administration, but not a few of them maintained their integrity. Even +in the first days of the Civil War, when all was chaos there, an +organization was maintained, although at one time its only working and +visible representatives consisted of the members of a committee of +four men--a fifth having withdrawn--who were B. Gratz Brown, +afterwards a United States Senator; Thomas C. Fletcher, afterwards +Governor of the State; Hon. Benjamin R. Bonner, of St. Louis, and the +writer of this narrative. They issued an appeal that was distributed +all over the State, asking those in sympathy with their views to hold +fast to their principles, and to keep up the contest for unconditional +freedom. To that appeal there was an encouraging number of favorable +responses. + +And thus it was that when Abolitionism may be said to have been lost +by merger elsewhere, it remained in its independence and integrity in +slaveholding Missouri, where it kept up a struggle for free soil, and +in four years so far made itself master of the situation that a +constitutional State convention, chosen by popular vote, adopted an +ordinance under which an emancipationist Governor issued his +proclamation, declaring that "hence and forever no person within the +jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of +liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, +or know any master but God." + +The writer entered on this work with no purpose of relating or +discussing the story of the Republican party, in whole or in any part. +His subject was Abolitionism, and his task would now be completed but +for the movement in the State of Missouri, to which reference has just +been made. That manifestation, he thinks, is deserving of recognition, +both on its own account and as a continuation of the original +movement, and he is the more inclined to contribute to its discussion +because he was then a Missourian by residence, and had something to do +with its successful prosecution. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MISSOURI + + +In his interesting, though rather melodramatic, romance, _The Crisis_, +Winston Churchill tells the imaginary story of a young lawyer who went +from New England to St. Louis, and settled there shortly before the +outbreak of the Civil War. Having an abundance of leisure, and being +an Abolitionist, he devoted a portion of the time that was not +absorbed by his profession to writing articles on slavery for the +_Missouri Democrat_, which, notwithstanding its name, was the organ of +the Missouri emancipationists, and lived in part on the money he +received as compensation for that work. That in part describes the +author's experience. He was at that time a young lawyer in St. Louis, +to which place he had come from the North, and those who have read the +earlier chapters of this work are aware that he was an Abolitionist. +Having a good deal of time that was not taken up by his professional +employments, he occupied a portion of it in writing Anti-Slavery +contributions to the _Democrat_, and, so far as he knows, he was the +only person who to any extent did so. A collection was made of a +portion of his articles, and with money contributed by friends of the +cause, they were published in pamphlet form under the title of _Hints +toward Emancipation in Missouri_, and distributed throughout the +State. + +There the parallelism of the cases ceases. The writer got no pecuniary +compensation for his labor. He asked for none and expected none. The +_Democrat_ was then in no condition to pay for volunteer services, +having a hard struggle for existence. He was able to do it a service +that, possibly, saved it from at least a temporary suspension. One of +its chief difficulties was in getting printing paper, the manufacturer +it had been patronizing declining to furnish it except for cash, while +the _Democrat_ needed partial credit. At that time Louis Snyder, of +Hamilton, Ohio, a large paper-maker, visited St. Louis on business +that called for legal assistance, and I was employed by him. When the +work in hand was finished, I remarked that there was something else he +might do in St. Louis that would pay him. I explained the situation of +the _Democrat_, and assured him that, in my opinion, he would be +perfectly safe in giving trust to its proprietors, who were honest +men. + +"Will you indorse their paper?" he asked. + +Mr. Snyder was a crafty as well as a thrifty German. + +I replied that, as I was not a wealthy man, the question did not seem +to be pertinent. + +"Will you indorse their paper for one thousand dollars?" was his next +question. + +Being by this time somewhat "spunked up," I replied that I would. + +"Then I shall be pleased to meet your friends," said Mr. Snyder. + +The result of the interview that followed was such that the +_Democrat_ was materially assisted in continuing its publication. + +It is hardly necessary to state that I never heard anything more of +the one-thousand-dollar indorsement, the sole purpose of which was, +doubtless, to test my sincerity. + +Soon afterwards I was offered the political editorship of the +_Democrat_, which I accepted on the one condition that there was to be +"no let-up on emancipation." I held the position until Missouri was a +free State. + +In a surprisingly short time after the question of Missouri's status +in reference to the Union was decided, the issue between +Pro-Slaveryism and Anti-Slaveryism came up. Political parties ranged +themselves upon it. Those who favored slavery's immediate or speedy +abolishment became known as Radicals, while those advocating its +prolongation were called Conservatives. Those descriptives, however, +were too mild for such a time, and they were quickly superseded by a +more expressive local nomenclature. The Radicals, because of their +alleged sympathy with the negro, were branded as "Charcoals," and +their opponents, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and +Semi-Unionists, because of the variegated complexion of the mixture, +were set down as "Claybanks." Mulattoes are Claybanks. + +The Claybanks, or Conservatives, at the outset enjoyed a decided +advantage in having the State government on their side. This was not +the regularly elected administration, which was driven out because of +its open support of secession, but its provisional successor. In +trying to take the State out of the Union with a show of legality, the +lawful Governor and his official associates made provision for a State +convention to be chosen by the people, which they expected to control, +but which, having a Unionist majority, played the boomerang on them by +sending them adrift and taking the affairs of the State into its own +hands. In this it had opposition. The most progressive men of the +State insisted that, after it had settled the question of Missouri's +relations to the Union, with reference to which it was specially +chosen, it was _functus officio_. They held that there should be a new +and up-to-date convention, especially as the old one, owing to the +desertion of many of its treasonably inclined members, including +General Sterling Price, of the Confederate Army, who was its first +president, had become "a rump," and so there were old-conventionists +and new-conventionists. The old-convention men, however, were in the +saddle. They had the governmental machinery, and were resolved to hold +on to it. In that spirit the convention proceeded to fill the vacant +offices. It was in sentiment strongly pro-slavery, as was shown by the +fact that a proposal looking to the very gradual extinguishment of +slavery was rejected by it in an almost unanimous vote, a circumstance +that led the leading pro-slavery journal of the State to boast that +the convention had killed emancipation "at the first pop." Very +naturally such a body selected pro-slavery officials. Hamilton R. +Gamble, whom it made Governor, was a bigoted supporter of "the +institution." He had not long before been mixed up in the proceedings +that compelled Elijah P. Lovejoy to leave Missouri for Alton, +Illinois, where he was murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Gamble was an +able and ambitious man. + +The Conservatives, likewise, had the backing of the Federal +Administration--a statement that to a good many people nowadays will +be surprising. There were reasons why such should be the case. Judge +Bates, of Missouri, who was Attorney-General in Lincoln's Cabinet, had +long been Gamble's law partner and most intimate friend. He never was +more than nominally a Republican. Another member of the Cabinet was +Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who had been a resident of Missouri, +and was a brother of General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis. +General Blair had been the leader of the Missouri emancipationists, +but had turned against them. For his face-about there were, at least, +two intelligible reasons. One was that in the quarrel between him and +Fremont the most of his former followers had sided with Fremont. That +was enough to sour him against them. The other was a very natural +desire to be solid with the administration at Washington, which, as +elsewhere shown, was not then actively Anti-Slavery. It did not want +the question of slavery agitated, especially in the border slave +States. + +The Blairs were a clan as well as a family. The quarrel of one was the +quarrel of all, and the Missouri Radicals had no more effective +antagonist than the old Washington editor and politician, Francis P. +Blair, Sr., the family's head, who was so intimate with the President +that it was understood he could at any time enter the White House by +the kitchen door. + +The writer was once a member of a delegation of Missouri "Charcoals" +that went to Washington to see the President. An hour was set for the +interview, and we were promptly at the door of the President's +chamber, where we were kept waiting for a considerable time. At last +the door opened, but before we could enter, out stepped a little old +man who tripped away very lightly for one of his years. That little +old man was Francis P. Blair, Sr., and we knew that we had been +forestalled. The President received us politely and patiently listened +to what we had to say, but our mission was fruitless. + +The Radicals of Missouri sent deputation after deputation to the White +House, and got nothing they wanted. The Conservatives never sent a +deputation, and got all they wanted. They had advocates at the +President's elbows all the time. + +With both State and Federal administrations against them, the Missouri +Charcoals may be regarded as foolhardy in persisting in the fight they +made for the deliverance of their State from slavery. They did +persist, however, and with such success in propagating their views +that Governor Gamble and the other Conservative leaders decided that +heroic measures to hold them in check were necessary. He undertook to +cut the ground from under their feet. The old convention that had +killed emancipation "at the first pop," or as much of it as was in +existence, was called together by the Governor, who appealed to it to +take such action as would quiet agitation on the slavery question. +Accordingly, it proceeded to enact what was called an emancipation +ordinance. The trouble with it was that it emancipated nobody. It +provided for the liberation of part of the slaves at a distant future +day, allowing the rest to remain as they were. The Radicals simply +laughed at the measure. They pronounced it a snare and a fraud, and +went right on with their work for unconditional freedom, and the +slave-owners continued to hold their human property the same as +before. + +The Conservatives, however, had not exhausted their resources. They +sought to secure the military as well as the civil control. On the +assurance that he could maintain peace and order, Governor Gamble was +given authority by the President to recruit an army of State troops, +which, although equipped and paid out of the national treasury, he was +to officer and direct. The organization was entrusted to General John +M. Scofield, a resident of Missouri, and one of the Governor's +friends. + +The political advantage to the Conservatives of exercising military +control at such a time is obvious enough. But at first there was an +obstruction in the person of General Samuel R. Curtis, the Federal +commander of the district, who was not a man to waive his superior +prerogative at a time when martial law prevailed, and who was, +besides, openly in sympathy with the Radicals. They got not only +protection from him, but about all the patronage he had to give. +Pretty soon it was discovered that active efforts for the removal of +Curtis were in progress. Charges of irregularities--afterwards shown +to be without any foundation--were circulated against him. Indignant +because of such injustice to their friend, the Radicals were further +incensed when they learned that the scheme was to make Scofield his +successor. + +Against General Scofield, as a gentleman and soldier, they had nothing +to say; but his affiliation with their opponents made him obnoxious to +them, and they sent a vigorous protest against his appointment to the +President. The proposed change, however, was made, and the inevitable +disagreement between the new commander and the Radicals quickly +developed. + +Scofield's administration was not successful. The principal cause of +failure was the adoption of Governor Gamble's policy of trying to run +the State without the help of Federal troops. They were pretty much +all sent away, and an elaborate plan for substituting an "enrolled +militia" was put in operation. Here was an opportunity of which the +Rebels were quick to take advantage. They had a wholesome regard for +United States soldiers, particularly under Curtis, who at Pea Ridge +had given them the worst drubbing they ever received west of the +Mississippi, but they cared little for "Gamble's militia," into which +a good many of their friends were mustered, and when the pressure of +Curtis's strong hand was removed they at once aroused to pernicious +activity. + +At this time it can be safely said that nowhere, outside of hell, was +there such a horrible condition as prevailed in Missouri. Singly and +in squads a good many of Price's men returned from the South, and +with local sympathizers forming guerrilla bands under such leaders as +"Bill" Anderson, Poindexter, Jackson, and Quantrell, soon had +practical possession of the greater part of the State. The Radicals +were the principal sufferers. Conservatives, except by the occasional +loss of property, were rarely molested. Between them and the Rebels +there was often an agreement for mutual protection--in fact, it was +not always easy to draw the line between them,--but the Charcoals, +especially if they were "Dutchmen," could look for no compassion. They +were shot down in their fields. They were called to their doors at +night and there dispatched. Their houses were burned and their stock +stolen. Many families of comparative wealth and refinement, including +women and children, because of the insecurity of their homes, slept in +the woods for weeks and months. The Radicals were not always fortunate +enough to escape bodily torture. Having captured one of the best known +among them, an old man and a civilian, some of "Bill" Anderson's men +set him up against the wall of his house as a target for pistol +practice. Their play consisted in seeing how near they could put their +shots without hitting, and this amusement they kept up while his wife +was running about in an effort to raise the amount of money that was +demanded for his ransom. + +So successful were the Rebel bands at this time that Missouri was not +large enough to hold them. One of them, led by Quantrell, crossed the +Kansas line, captured the city of Lawrence, and butchered two hundred +of its peaceable inhabitants, while the border towns and cities of +Iowa and Illinois were greatly alarmed for their safety. + +So intolerable did the situation become, that the Radicals from all +parts of the State met in conference and decided to send a delegation +to ask Mr. Lincoln to change the department commander, in the hope +that it would bring a change of policy. + +It is to be presumed that no President was ever confronted with such a +motley crowd of visitors as the members of that delegation--between +seventy and eighty in number--as they formed in line around three +sides of the East Room in the White House. Their garments were a +sight! Some of the men were in full military dress and some in +civilian clothes, but the costumes of a majority were a mixture of +both kinds, just as accident had arranged it, and pretty much all +showed evidences of hard usage. One of the most forward of the +delegates had neither cuffs nor collar, and his shirt had manifestly +not been near a laundry for a long time. He apologized to the +President for his appearance, saying that he had been sleeping in the +woods where toilet accommodations were very indifferent. Two or three +of the men bore marks of battle with the guerrillas, in patched-up +faces, and one of them carried an arm that had been disabled by a gun +shot in a red handkerchief sling. In speaking of these visitors, the +President afterwards jocularly referred to them as "those crackerjacks +from Missouri." + +A formal address was presented, the principal point being that, as the +Missouri Unionists had furnished many thousand recruits to the Federal +Army, they had a right to look to the Government for soldiers to +assist in protecting their families and their property. And here it +will do no harm to state that, notwithstanding the heavy drain made by +the Confederacy, Missouri, during the war, furnished 109,000 men to +the national army. + +After their formal address had been presented to the President, the +members of the delegation tackled him, one after the other, as the +spirit moved them, and it can truthfully be said that in some of the +bouts that ensued he did not come out "first best." He admitted as +much when, afterwards referring to this meeting, he spoke of the +Missouri Radicals as "the unhandiest fellows in the world to deal with +in a discussion." + +The conclusion of the interview was attended with an unexpected +incident. The recognized leading spokesman of the Missourians was the +Hon. Charles D. Drake, of St. Louis, who was made Chief Justice of the +Court of Claims at Washington by Grant, when he became President. He +was a very forcible speaker. As Mr. Lincoln indicated by rising from +his seat that the conference was at an end, Mr. Drake stepped forward +and in well-chosen words thanked him for the lengthy and courteous +hearing he had given his visitors, and in their names bade him +good-by. Then he started for the door, but something seemed to arrest +him. Turning sharply to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Mr. President, we are +about to return to our homes. Many of these men before you live where +rebel sentiments prevail and where they are surrounded by deadly +enemies. They return at the risk of their lives, and let me tell you +that if any of their lives are sacrificed by reason of the military +administration you maintain in Missouri, their blood will be upon your +garments and not upon ours." + +The President, evidently greatly surprised, made no oral reply. +Instead of speaking he raised his handkerchief to his eyes. Seeing +that he was weeping, the delegates quietly and quickly filed out, +leaving Mr. Lincoln with his face still concealed. + +The President denied the delegation's request, although his formal +decision was not announced for several days, and its members returned +to their homes, when fortunate enough to have them, sorely +disappointed. + +It is here well enough to state that two or three months later the +President relieved Scofield from his Missouri command and sent him to +the front in the South, much to the betterment of his military +reputation, and doubtless to his own personal gratification. Rosecrans +was made his successor. Among the earliest things he did was the +bringing into the State of a considerable force of Federal troops +under Generals Pleasanton and A.J. Smith. These were sent through the +State. The effect was almost magical. Some of the guerrilla bands went +South to join Price, but the most of them dissolved and disappeared. +Their members, doubtless, went back to their former occupations, and +that was the last of them. Missouri was pacified. + +But were the Missouri Radicals so far disheartened by their rebuffs +from the President that they gave up the fight? Not a bit of it. There +was a tribunal in some respects higher than the President, and to that +they resolved to go. The National Republican Convention to nominate a +successor to Mr. Lincoln was approaching, and they decided to appeal +to it in a way that would compel a decision between them and the +President. They appointed a delegation to the convention, which they +instructed for General Grant. The Claybanks also appointed a +delegation, which they instructed for Mr. Lincoln, and thus the issue +was made. The convention, although nominating Mr. Lincoln by a vote +that, outside of Missouri's, was unanimous, admitted the Charcoals and +excluded the Claybanks by the remarkable vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +While of no special consequence, some rather humorous experiences in +connection with the events just spoken of may not be lacking in +interest or altogether out of place in a work like this. + +Before leaving Missouri for the National Republican Convention, which +was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864, the Radical delegates, including +the writer, decided to go by way of Washington and call upon the +President, thinking that, as there was a contest ahead with his +professed Missouri supporters, a better understanding with him might +be of advantage. As they were pledged to vote for another man, such a +proceeding on their part was certainly somewhat audacious; +nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln received us graciously and listened +patiently to what we had to say. + +"Mr. President," said one of the delegates, "if you were to go out to +Missouri you would find your best friends as well as practically all +the good Republicans of the State on our side of the dividing line." + +"Well," remarked the President very deliberately, "in speaking of +dividing lines, the situation in Missouri recalls the story of the old +man who had an unruly sow and pigs. One day, when they escaped from +their enclosure and disappeared, he called his boys and started out to +hunt the runaways. Up one side of the creek they went; but while they +discovered plenty of tracks and rootings, they found no hogs. 'Now let +us go over to the other side of the creek,' said the old gentleman; +but the result was the same--many signs but no pigs. 'Confound those +swine!' exclaimed the old man, 'they root and root on both sides, but +it's mighty hard to find them on either.'" + +We, of course, were left to make the application to ourselves, and +that was all the satisfaction we got. + +Being greatly elated over our victory in the convention, and thinking +it settled some, if not all, disputed points, we decided to return by +way of Washington and again call on the President. We wanted to come +to some sort of understanding with him. As we had just voted against +his nomination such a step may have been more audacious than our +previous action. But, for all that, a pretty late hour on the night of +the convention found us at the door of the President's room, seeking +an interview that had been promised us in answer to a telegram. + +Now, we had in our delegation a gentleman who was accustomed to imbibe +somewhat freely on occasions like that. He had pushed himself to the +front, and, when the door opened for us, in he rushed shouting: "Mr. +President! Mr. President! Mr. President! we have found that old sow +and pigs for you!" + +The President, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, +looked somewhat startled at first; but as he evidently recalled the +illustration he had given to us, and which was being returned to him, +a broad grin went over his face, although nothing further was said +about the swine. But the incident was disastrous to our business. We +were relying on a prominent St. Louis lawyer, who was with us, to +present our case in a calm and impressive way; but he, taking offense +at being so unceremoniously forestalled, kept his intended speech to +himself. His dignity was hurt, and he had nothing to say. In fact, he +walked away and left us. The result was that our claims were rather +lamely presented, except by the first speaker, and we left the +official presence not a little chagrined and with no favorable +assurance having been obtained. + +By all recognized party rules, when the nominating convention had +given the Missouri Radicals the stamp of regularity, the President was +bound to prefer them in the bestowal of patronage. He did nothing of +the kind. At his death, practically all of the offices in Missouri +that were under his control were held by Claybanks. These men became +enthusiastic supporters of Andrew Johnson, and, at the end of his +term, to a man went over to the Democratic party, of which their +leader, General Blair, was soon made, on the ticket with Horatio +Seymour, the Vice-Presidential candidate. At Lincoln's death, the +Claybanks, as an organization, went out of business. + +Very different was the treatment the Charcoals received at the hands +of General Grant when he became President. He made the leader of the +anti-Scofield delegation to Washington Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims. He made two or three other leading Missouri Radicals foreign +ministers and officially remembered many of the rest of them. He had +been a Missourian, and it was well known that he was in sympathy with +the Radicals in their fight with Lincoln. + +Although the Missouri Radicals did not favor Mr. Lincoln's +candidature, with the exception of a few supporters of Fremont, they +gave him their loyal support at the polls, and through this a large +majority in the State. They acted towards him much more cordially than +he ever acted toward them. + +That Mr. Lincoln, in antagonizing the Missouri Free Soilers, acted +otherwise than from the most conscientious impulses the writer does +not for a moment believe. He opposed them because he disapproved of +their views and policy. He said so most distinctly on one occasion. +Certain German societies of St. Louis, having adopted a set of +resolutions, entrusted them to James Taussig, a leading lawyer of that +city, to present to the President in person. Mr. Taussig's report of +the results of a two hours' interview can be found in several of Mr. +Lincoln's biographies. One passage from the report is here given +because it clearly shows Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the Missouri +problem. + + "The President," says Mr. Taussig, "said that the Union men in + Missouri who are in favor of gradual emancipation, represented + his views better than those who are in favor of immediate + emancipation. In explanation of his views on this subject the + President said that in his speeches he had frequently used as an + illustration the case of a man who had an excrescence on the back + of his neck, the removal of which in one operation would result in + the death of the patient, while tinkering it off by degrees would + preserve life." + + "Although sorely tempted," continues Mr. Taussig, "I did not reply + with the illustration of the dog whose tail was amputated by + inches, but confined myself to arguments. The President announced + clearly that, so far as he was at present advised, the Radicals in + Missouri had no right to consider themselves the representatives + of his views on the subject of emancipation in that State." + +The foregoing interview, it is well enough to state, was long after +the issuance of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. + +In addition to carrying the State for Mr. Lincoln, the Missouri +Radicals carried it for themselves. They elected a constitutional +convention that promptly passed an unconditional freedom ordinance. +And thus terminated what is certainly one of the most notable contests +in our political history, bringing about, as it did, the triumph of a +reform of unquestionable value to civilization and humanity, which was +accomplished by men working without patronage or other outside help, +with no pecuniary interest at stake, and no incentive beyond the +principle involved. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MISSOURI--_Continued_ + + +Here follows an extract from the published proceedings of the National +Republican Convention of 1864, in which Mr. Lincoln was renominated. + + "When that State [Missouri] was called, Mr. J.F. Hume addressed + the convention as follows: + + "'It is a matter of great regret that we differ from the majority + of the convention that has been so kind to the Radicals of + Missouri, but we came here instructed. We represent those who are + behind us at home, and we recognize the right of instruction and + intend to obey our instruction; but, in doing so, we declare + emphatically that we are with the Union party of the nation, and + we intend to fight the battle through to the end with it, and + assist in carrying it to victory. We will support your nominees be + they whom they may. I will read the resolution adopted by the + convention that sent us here.'" + + [Here resolution of instruction was read.] + + "'Mr. President, in the spirit of that resolution I cast the + twenty-two votes of Missouri for them an who stands at the head of + the fighting Radicals of the nation--General U.S. Grant.'" + +The contention between the Missouri Radical and Conservative +delegations was thrashed out before the committee on delegates, at an +evening session. Judge Samuel M. Breckenridge, of St. Louis, sustained +the cause of the Conservatives in a very ingenious argument, while the +writer spoke for the Radicals. The result was very satisfactory to the +latter, being, with the exception of one vote for compromise, a +unanimous decision in their favor. That decision was sustained by the +convention in its next day's session by a vote of four hundred and +forty to four. + +Anticipating that the subject would be discussed on the floor of the +convention,--which was not the case, however,--I asked a very eloquent +St. Louis lawyer to take my place as chairman of the Radical +delegation and conduct the debate on the Radical side. He declined. I +then went to three or four Congressmen who were members of the Radical +delegation and made the same appeal to each one of them. All declined. +I suspected at the time that apprehension that a vote for anybody else +would be hissed by Lincoln's friends, had something to do with their +reticence. I had no such apprehension. I did not believe there was +anybody in that convention who would dare to hiss the name of Grant. +If Grant had been a candidate before the convention he would have been +nominated. + +When, as chairman of my delegation, I pronounced his name as +Missouri's choice I remained on my feet for fully a minute while a +dead silence prevailed. Meanwhile all eyes were turned upon me. Then +came a clap from a single pair of hands, being the expression of a +Missouri delegate. Others followed, both inside and outside of the +delegation, increasing until there was quite a demonstration. When +the clamor had subsided I made the next move according to the +programme agreed upon, and the incident was closed. + +And here it can do no harm to state that General Grant knew that he +was to receive the vote of the Missouri Radicals if they were admitted +to the convention--the newspapers having generally published the +fact--and did not decline the intended compliment. Grant lived in +Missouri for a considerable period, married there, and was on most +friendly terms with the Radical leaders, many of whom he generously +remembered when he got to be President. For their action in voting for +Grant, the Missouri Radical delegates were sharply criticised at the +time, on the alleged ground that they secured admission to the +convention from Lincoln's supporters by concealing the fact--or at +least not revealing it--that they intended to vote for somebody else. +The fact, however, is that there was not a person in the convention +who did not from the first understand where they stood, and exactly +what they intended to do. Their Conservative contestants had +distributed a leaflet, intended as an appeal to the Lincoln men, +setting forth the instructions to both delegations. Instead of the +openly avowed opposition of the Radicals to Mr. Lincoln's nomination +being an impediment in their way, it strengthened them with the +convention, which, notwithstanding its seeming harmony in his support, +contained many delegates who would very much have preferred nominating +somebody else; but who, for lack of organized opposition, were +compelled to vote for him. A sufficient evidence of that fact was the +presence in the convention of a large number of Congressmen whose +antagonism to the President was notorious. An incident that strikingly +illustrated Congressional sentiment toward the President at that time, +is given in the _Life of Lincoln_, by Isaac N. Arnold, then a member +of Congress from Illinois. A Pennsylvanian asked Thaddeus Stevens, the +Republican Congressional leader, to introduce him to "a member of +Congress who was friendly to Mr. Lincoln's renomination." Thereupon +Stevens took him to Arnold, saying: "Here is a man who wants to find a +Lincoln member of Congress, and as you are the only one I know of I +bring him to you." + +The same feeling largely prevailed among leading Republicans outside +of Congress. Henry J. Raymond, of the New York _Times_, in his _Life +of Lincoln_, says that at that time "nearly all the original +Abolitionists and many of the more decidedly Anti-Slavery members of +the Republican party were dissatisfied with the President." More +explicit testimony is the statement, in his _Political Recollections_, +of George W. Julian, for many years a leading member of Congress from +Indiana. He says: + + "The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was nearly unanimous, only the + State of Missouri opposing him, but of the more earnest and + thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not + more than one in ten really favored it. It was not only very + distasteful to a large majority of Congress, but to many of the + more prominent men of the party throughout the country." + +The writer had an opportunity of witnessing a peculiar manifestation +of the feeling that has just been spoken of. He attended a conference +of radical Anti-Slavery people that was held in a parlor of one of the +old Pennsylvania Avenue hotels in Washington, a few months before the +nominating convention. A number of well-known politicians were +present, but probably the most prominent was Horace Greeley. The +writer had never before seen the great editor, and was considerably +amused by his unconventional independence on that occasion. He +occupied an easy chair with a high back. Having given his views at +considerable length, he laid his head back on its support and +peacefully went to sleep; but the half-hour lost in slumber did not +prevent him from joining vigorously in the discussion that was going +on as soon as he awoke. + +There seemed to be but one sentiment on that occasion. All entertained +the opinion that, owing to Mr. Lincoln's peculiar views on +reconstruction, and especially his manifest inclination to postpone +actual freedom for the negro to remote periods, and other "unhappy +idiosyncrasies," as one of the speakers expressed it, his re-election +involved the danger of a compromise that would leave the root of +slavery in the soil, and hence his nomination by the Republicans +should be opposed. Chase was clearly the choice of those present, but +no one had a plan to propose, and, while some committees were +appointed, I never heard anything more of the matter. Two or three of +those present on that occasion were in the nominating convention and +quietly voted with the majority for Mr. Lincoln. The writer was the +only one in both gatherings that maintained his consistency. + +All this, it is well enough to remember, was long after the +President's Emancipation Proclamation had appeared. + +There was, however, another manifestation of the antagonism spoken of +which the public, for some reason, never seemed to "get on to," that +at one time threatened very serious consequences, and which, if it had +gone a little farther, might have materially changed the history of +the country. That was a movement, after Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to +compel him to retire from the ticket, or to confront him with a strong +independent Republican candidate. According to Messrs. Nicolay and +Hay, Mr. Lincoln's private secretaries and his biographers, the +movement started in New York City and had its ramifications in many +parts of the country. One meeting was held at the residence of David +Dudley Field, and was attended by such men as George William Curtis, +Noyes, Wilkes, Opdyke, Horace Greeley, and some twenty-five others. In +the movement were such prominent people as Charles Sumner, of +Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio. One of the men favorable +to the proposition was Governor Andrew of Massachusetts. "He," says +his biographer, Peleg W. Chandler, "was very busy in the movement in +1864 to displace the President." "The secrecy," he adds, "with which +this branch of the Republican politics of that year has been ever +since enveloped is something marvelous; there were so many concerned +in it. When it all comes out, if it ever does, it will make a curious +page in the history of the time." The signal for the abandonment of +the movement, according to Mr. Chandler, was given by Mr. Chase. + +Almost at the beginning of the movement the _Missouri Democrat_, +doubtless because of its supposed opposition to Mr. Lincoln, was +approached on the subject. If the statements made to it were anywhere +near correct, the conspiracy, as it might be called, had the +countenance of a surprisingly great number of weighty Republicans. The +_Democrat_ declined to become a party to the proposed insurrection. It +held that after what had occurred in the Baltimore convention, it +could not consistently and honorably do so. + +There was another reason why it stood aloof. Before the nomination it +was, naturally enough, looking out for some one who might be urged as +a suitable competitor for Mr. Lincoln's place. Andrew Johnson, of +Tennessee, was then quite popular with a good many people of radical +views. The writer prepared an article discussing his availability as +presidential timber and suggested him as a good man for the +nomination. The article appeared as a leader in the _Democrat_, and +was followed by others in the same vein. The suggestion attracted +attention and led to a good deal of newspaper discussion. Herein we +have, according to the writer's opinion, the leading cause of +Johnson's nomination for the Vice-Presidency. At all events, he was on +the ticket with Lincoln, and the _Democrat_ could not very well go +back on its own man. + +The new departure, as the proposition for another Republican +candidate in case Mr. Lincoln resolved to stick might be called, that +appeared so formidable at one time, faded away without the public +knowing anything of its existence. The reason was that it had no +candidate. It had relied on Chase, knowing the unfriendliness there +was between him and the President, but Chase said "No," and that was +the end of it. + +The nomination of Mr. Chase for the Chief Justiceship has always been +regarded as an act of great magnanimity on Mr. Lincoln's part, as well +as a clear perception of merit. It was doubtless all that, but the +actions of the two men at this time certainly make out a case of +striking coincidence. Such things rarely come by accident. + +From what has been stated, it will be seen that the Missouri Radicals +were by no means alone in their opposition to the President's +nomination, for which they are so sharply taken to task by some of his +biographers and eulogists. They had plenty of company, the only +difference being that they stood out in the open while the others +acted covertly. + +The Missouri Germans, who mostly approved the candidature of Fremont, +and some of whom refused to vote for Lincoln, have been particularly +assailed. Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, in their Lincoln biography, even go +so far as to attack them on the ground of their religious, or rather +anti-religious, beliefs, calling them "materialist Missourians," +"Missouri agnostics," etc., etc. + +Now, after having lived among the Missouri Germans at the time of our +civil troubles, the writer is impelled to say a few words in their +behalf. He does not hesitate to say that, in his opinion, there was +no body of men of equal numerical strength in this country to whom, at +that crisis, the Government and country had cause to feel under +greater obligation, and justice would require its acknowledgment at +this time. But for them the enemies of the Union would have captured +the city of St. Louis with its great Government arsenal, and with the +arms and ammunition thus secured would have overrun both the States of +Missouri and Kansas. A large preponderance of the American-born +citizens of St. Louis were Rebels. The Union people of that city who +saved the day, were principally the "Dutch," as they were called. + +A large army was needed at that point to protect the Government's +interests, when it had practically no available forces. There was no +law under which it could be organized on the spot. No man could be +made to serve. No pay for service was assured, or even promised. The +army, however, was created by the voluntary and patriotic action of +its members. Nearly a dozen full regiments were organized and +equipped. Nine tenths of their members were Germans. They did not wait +for hostilities to begin. Foreseeing the emergency near at hand, they +organized into companies and regiments, and put themselves on a war +footing before a blow had been struck or a shot had been fired. They +met by night to drill in factory lofts, in recreation halls, and in +whatever other places were most available, the words of command being +generally delivered in German. The writer has a lively recollection of +the difficulties involved in trying to learn military evolutions from +instructors speaking a language he did not understand. + +Many of the Germans of Missouri had seen service in the Old World. +They had served under Sigel in the struggle of 1848. They found +themselves under Sigel again. It was with the step and bearing of +veterans that they marched (the writer was an eye-witness) in May of +1861, only a few days after Sumter had been fired on, to open the +military ball in the West at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. + +The same people went with Lyon to the State capital, from which the +Rebel officials were driven, never to return. They were with Lyon at +Wilson's Creek, and with him many of them laid down their lives on +that bloody field. They were wherever hard fighting was to be done in +that part of the country. The writer believes he is correct in saying +they furnished more men to the Government's service than any other +numerically equal body of citizens. So large was their representation +in the Union's forces in that region, that the Rebels were accustomed +to speak of the Union soldiers as "the Dutch." + +The fact that the Germans were fighting for an adopted government +makes their loyalty more conspicuous. What they did was not from a +love of war, but because they were Abolitionists. They were opposed to +slavery. They owned no slaves. They wanted the Government sustained, +because they believed that meant the end of slaveholding. They +supported Fremont largely because of his freedom proclamation. + +And here the writer, before closing his work, wants to say something +about Fremont. He believes no man in this country was made the victim +of greater injustice than he was. + +It has always been the opinion of the writer that, if Fremont had been +permitted to take his own way in his Western command a little longer, +he would have achieved a brilliant military success. He was a weak man +in some respects, being over fond of dress parade. The financial +management of his department was bad, or, rather, very careless. Of +these shortcomings, which were considerably misrepresented and +exaggerated, Fremont's enemies took advantage, and succeeded in +effecting his overthrow in the Western Department. But, +notwithstanding his admitted failings, he gave evidence of military +ability. He showed that he possessed both physical and moral courage, +and he knew how to plan a campaign. He undoubtedly formulated the +movement that resulted in the capture of Forts Donelson and Henry in +Tennessee, taking the initial steps, but of which Halleck got the +credit. He was removed from command when in the field, and almost on +the eve of battle. He had an enthusiastic army and the prospect of a +decisive victory. His recall gave up nearly the whole of Missouri to +the enemy, and was one of the causes of complaint that the Missouri +Unionists had against the National Administration. + +Not long afterwards, with no more than even chances, Fremont defeated +Stonewall Jackson in Virginia--at Cross Keys--which was more than any +of the other Union generals then in that department could do. His +prompt removal made it sure that he should not do it again. + +It was the misfortune of Fremont that his independence caused him to +clash with selfish interests, and he was sacrificed. He was selected +for the Trans-Mississippi command by the Blairs, evidently with the +expectation that he would bend to their wishes. He soon showed that he +was his own master, and the trouble began. The Union people of his +department were mostly with him, but the Blairs had control of the +administration in Washington. + +As for his freedom proclamation, it was, to a certain extent, an act +of insubordination, but it was right in principle and sound in policy. +Its adoption by the General Government would have saved four years of +contention and turmoil in Missouri, spent in upholding a tottering +institution that was doomed from the first shot of the Rebellion. The +President, however, for reasons elsewhere explained, did not at that +time want slavery interfered with. + +The story of Fremont's fall is best told by Whittier in four lines: + + "Thy error, Fremont, simply was to act + A brave man's part without the statesman's tact, + And, taking counsel but of common-sense, + To strike at cause as well as consequence." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SOME ABOLITION LEADERS + + +The references that have been made to General Frank P. Blair of +Missouri have not been complimentary to that individual. They would +indicate on the part of the writer no very exalted admiration for or +estimate of the man. In that particular they are not altogether just. +The stormy period of the Rebellion brought out few more picturesque +figures than his, or in some respects more admirable characters. There +is no question that, but for the efforts of Blair, the Rebels would +have effected the capture of St. Louis at the beginning of the war, to +be followed by the at least temporary control of the entire State of +Missouri, and possibly of Kansas as well. To that end preparations had +been carefully and skillfully made. The leader in the movement was +none other than Missouri's Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who was +justly looked upon as one of the most consummate and accomplished +schemers of the time. He was a Rebel from head to foot. He had taken +office with the deliberate purpose of swinging his State into the +Confederate column, and without regard to the wishes of the majority +of the people whom he officially represented. He was supported by a +sympathetic corps of official assistants, including a majority of the +Legislature of his State, who gave him whatever legislation he wanted. +Every advantage seemed to be on his side. He would undoubtedly have +succeeded but for the opposition of Blair. In him he encountered an +equal in cunning, and more than a match in courage and energy. + +When the Governor and his helpers were busy raising an army pursuant +to the conditions of a law that had been enacted for the purpose, and +which hampered their operations, Blair went ahead in raising and +equipping an army on the other side without the slightest regard to +law. The presence or absence of a statute did not trouble him in the +least. He called on the Unionists to organize and arm, and when a +sufficient force, composed in greater part of loyal Germans, had +responded he struck the first blow. In a legal aspect the whole +proceeding was irregular, but it was none the less effective. + +When the Governor's army was quietly encamped on the outskirts of St. +Louis, for the capture and occupancy of which it was getting ready, it +found itself unexpectedly surrounded by a superior force, and its +surrender was demanded in a way that admitted of no denial. The writer +was present on the occasion. From a convenient eminence he witnessed +the whole proceeding. When Jackson's men--the rendezvous had in honor +of his Excellency the Governor been named Camp Jackson--were enjoying +themselves on a pleasant summer's day, sleeping on the grass, playing +cards, or escorting their lady friends and other visitors about the +grounds, suddenly they realized that their position was commanded by +hostile guns. Pointing downward from higher ground not far off were +nearly a score of frowning cannons, behind which stood men with +burning fuses. I had watched the Union forces as they approached. At +the foot of the hill that hid them from the camp they paused for a few +moments, and then up the hill went the horses that were dragging the +cannons at a run. They were wheeled when the summit was reached, and +the guns thrown into position. Everything was ready for action. At the +same time large bodies of armed men, their arms glittering in the +sunlight, were seen approaching from all sides on the double quick. +The Rebels were completely entrapped, and their immediate capitulation +was a thing of course. The credit for the manoeuvres of the day was +given to Captain--afterwards General--Nathaniel Lyon, who was in +immediate command of the Unionists, but everybody understood that the +real leader, as well as instigator, of the movement was Blair. + +Blair had been the admitted leader of the Missouri Abolitionists. He +was as radical as any man among them. One day he stopped me on the +street for the purpose of thanking me for a paper I had contributed to +the _Missouri Democrat_, in which I had favored what was practically +immediate emancipation in Missouri. He said that was the right kind of +talk, and what we had to come to. I felt greatly flattered, because +there was nothing in the article that disclosed its authorship, and +Mr. Blair had taken the trouble to inquire about it. + +Blair turned against the Missouri Abolitionists when a decided +majority of them turned against him in his quarrel with Fremont. They +indorsed Fremont's emancipation proclamation, which the President, at +Blair's instigation, it was charged at the time, revoked. + +Blair was a man not only of strong ambition but of arbitrary +temperament. He could not tolerate the idea of a newcomer pre-empting +what he had considered his premises. If he could not rule he was ready +to ruin. That disposition accorded with both his mental and physical +make-up. Bodily he was a bundle of bones and nerves without a particle +of surplus flesh. His hair was red, his complexion was sandy, and his +eyes, when he was excited and angry, had a baleful expression that led +some one in my presence on a certain occasion to speak of them as +"brush-heaps afire." + +He was not an eloquent man, although a ready and frequent public +speaker. His voice was not musical. His strong forte was invective. He +was nearly always denouncing somebody. Apparently, he was never so +happy as when making another miserable. Sometimes his personal +allusions were very broad. He was accustomed in his speeches to refer +to one of Missouri's United States Senators as "that lop-eared +vulgarian." That he was not almost all the time in personal +difficulties was due to the fact that he was known to be a man of +exceptional courage. He was a born fighter. Physically I think he was +the bravest man I ever knew. I witnessed several manifestations of his +fearlessness, but one particularly impressed me. + +I have spoken of the Camp Jackson affair. Although the people in the +Rebel encampment surrendered without a blow, the incident was +attended with considerable bloodshed. A mob of Rebel sympathizers, +consisting largely of half-grown boys--I was in the midst of the +throng at the time--with their pistols opened fire on a German Union +regiment and killed several of its men. The troops, in return, poured +a volley into the crowd of spectators from which the shots had come, +killing or wounding over forty persons, the most of them, as is usual +in such cases, being inoffensive onlookers. A man standing beside me +and, like myself, a spectator, had the top of one ear clipped off by a +Minie ball as cleanly as if it had been done with a knife. I found +when, soon afterwards, I reached the business center of the city, +where the Rebel element then largely predominated, that the story of +the tragedy had swelled the number of the victims to one thousand. +Intense excitement and the most furious indignation prevailed. +Hundreds of men, with flaming faces, were swearing the most dreadful +oaths that they would shoot Frank Blair, whom they seemed to regard as +wholly responsible, on sight. Many of them were flourishing pistols in +confirmation of their bloody purpose. Just then the attention of the +crowd was drawn to an unusual spectacle. Down Fourth Street, which was +then the leading business avenue of St. Louis, and at that time +densely packed with the excited people, came the Union soldiers with +the prisoners from Camp Jackson on their way to the United States +Arsenal grounds. At the head of the procession marched the men of the +First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for +immediate service, and at their head--the only mounted man in the +regiment, according to my recollection--rode their Colonel, who was +Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more +conspicuous. No better target could have been offered. I watched the +audacious man, expecting to hear a shot at any moment from the +sidewalk, or from a window of one of the high buildings lining the +street, and to see him topple from his saddle. He understood very well +the danger he was braving. He knew that in that throng, where +everybody was armed, there were hundreds toying with the triggers of +their guns, and trying to muster sufficient courage to shoot him down. +Slowly, and as calmly as if on ordinary dress parade, he led the way +until he passed out of sight. I thought then, and still think, it was +the pluckiest thing I ever witnessed. + +The effect of the breaking up and capture of Camp Jackson was +something wonderful. Up to that time, the Rebels of St. Louis and +their sympathizers had been very demonstrative. In portions of the +city the Rebel cockade, which was a red rosette pinned to the side of +the hat, was conspicuous, and any one not displaying that decoration +was in danger of having his hat smashed upon his head. After Camp +Jackson's surrender, I never saw a Rebel cockade openly worn in St. +Louis. + +At the same time there was an extensive shifting of positions. A good +many men of prominence and wealth, who had been leaning over towards +the South, suddenly straightened up, and not a few of them showed a +strong inclination the other way. Some of the evolutions they executed +were amusing. One of the first to discuss with the writer the Union +defeat at Bull Run was a former United States Government official. He +was tremendously excited and correspondingly exultant. After +describing how the Southerners had vanquished the Government's men, +and particularly how the South Carolina "black horse" had ridden them +down in deadly slaughter, he cried out, "That's the way we will give +it to you fellows all the time." + +Not very long afterwards General Grant, having entered Tennessee, and +captured Fort Donelson, and many prisoners, was about to visit St. +Louis, and the leading Unionists there decided to give him a grand +reception and an elaborate dinner. Money had to be raised, and among +those I met who were soliciting it was my ex-Government-official +friend. He was fully as happy as he had been before, when the Fort +Donelson affair was alluded to. "Didn't we give it to those fellows +down there?" he exclaimed. + +Out in western Missouri was a young lawyer of great ambition and +considerable promise. He was afterwards a member of Congress. Like a +good many others he was at first puzzled to know what course to take. +In his dilemma he concluded to consult an old politician in that +section who was much famed for his sagacity, and who bore the military +title of General. + +"If you contemplate remaining in Missouri," said the older man to the +junior, "you should take the Southern side. Missouri is a slave State +and a Southern State, and she will naturally go with her section." + +The young man availed himself of an opportunity to make a public +address, in which he aligned himself in the strongest terms with those +who had gone into rebellion. But scarcely had this been done when +Lincoln issued his first call for troops, and among those nominated to +command them was the old Missouri General. It was announced that he +had accepted the appointment. The younger man was amazed. He went in +hot haste for an explanation. + +"It's all true," said the General. "The fact is, when I talked with +you before, I did not think the Northern people would fight for the +Union, but I now see that I was mistaken; and when the Northern +people, being the stronger and richer, do decide to go to war, they +are almost certain to win. You had better take the Northern side." + +"But it is too late," said the youngster. "I have committed myself in +that speech I made." + +"Oh! as for that matter," was the reply, "it's of very little +consequence if you have committed yourself. It's easy to make a speech +on the other side and take the first one back. Nobody looks for +consistency in times like these." + +Many Missourians, as well as many citizens of other border slave +States, at the beginning of the trouble advocated a policy of +neutrality. They saw no necessity for taking sides. I was at a meeting +out in the interior of Missouri, where many citizens had come together +to consult as to the policy they had better pursue. Among them was an +old gentleman who seemed to be looked upon by his neighbors as a +regular Nestor. He was called upon for his views. "Gentlemen," said +he, "we have got to take sides and maintain our neutrality." + +In that section of the country was another distinguished and unique +personage who conspicuously figured in the events that are here being +dealt with. + +I knew him intimately. I now refer to James H. Lane, who was better +known as "Jim Lane," of Kansas. Like Blair, Lane was a born leader of +men, and a leader under exceptional conditions. He was generally +credited with being a fighter--a dare-devil, in fact--and a desperado; +but in the writer's opinion he was by no means Blair's equal in +personal courage. He had a great deal to do in raising troops and +organizing military movements, but he did not go to the front. His +fighting was chiefly in "private scraps," in one of which he killed +his adversary. + +His paramount ability was as a talker rather than as a fighter. He was +an orator, and his oratory was of a kind that was exactly suited to +his surroundings. No man could more readily adapt himself to the humor +of his hearers. He knew precisely how to put himself on their level. I +have seen him face an audience that was distinctly unfriendly, that +would scarcely give him a hearing; and in less than half an hour every +man in the crowd would be shouting his approval. He could go to his +hearers if he could not bring them to him. I witnessed one of his +performances in that line. + +He was a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate. There +was one rival that he particularly feared. The man was the late +General Thomas Ewing, then a resident of Kansas. At that particular +time he was in the Army and the commandant of the St. Louis District +in Missouri. Lane came to St. Louis and had a talk with the writer, +freely admitting his dread of Ewing and asking for the _Missouri +Democrat's_ support. Having a considerable admiration for Lane as well +as a liking for the man, I promised him such assistance as I could +reasonably give. It happened to be at the time when General Sterling +Price, in making his last raid into Missouri, was threatening St. +Louis with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, and there was no +adequate opposing force at hand. Ewing, with barely a tenth as many +troops, went to the front and heroically engaged the enemy. With no +protection but the walls of a little mud fort he succeeded in +repelling the attack of his powerful adversary. That timely action +probably saved St. Louis. + +At this particular time it was arranged that there should be a meeting +of the Republicans of St. Louis--it was in the midst of an exciting +presidential campaign--at which Lane was to be the principal speaker. +The meeting was held and Lane was addressing a large audience with +great acceptance when the news of Ewing's achievement was received. + +It was then customary, when war intelligence arrived in the course of +any political gathering, and sometimes of religious gatherings, to +suspend all other proceedings until it had been announced and the +audience had time enough to manifest its feeling on the subject. + +Lane was in the midst of an eloquent passage when he was interrupted +by the arrival of the news referred to. He stepped back, and the +news-bearer, taking his place, proceeded to give a graphic +description of Ewing's performance, concluding with a glowing eulogy +on that personage, and which was received with tremendous cheering. +Understanding Lane's feelings towards Ewing, I watched his face while +these events were passing. It plainly showed his vexation. It was +almost livid with suppressed emotion. But the time for him to resume +his address had come. What would he do was the question I asked +myself. He answered it very promptly. Jauntily stepping forward with +his countenance fairly wreathed in smiles, he exclaimed, "Ladies and +gentlemen, that is glo-o-orious news for us, but it 's ter-r-r-ible +for the other fellows." + +Lane's enemies were confident they had him beaten as a candidate for +the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular +with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it +necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. +Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the +choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then +he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast +horses--it was before the days of railroads in Kansas--he began a tour +that would bring him practically face to face with every voter in the +State. He traveled and spoke both by day and by night. Sometimes he +addressed as many as a dozen audiences in twenty-four hours. The +excitement attending his progress was great. Men came many miles to +hear him, sometimes bringing their families with them. He succeeded in +completely revolutionizing public opinion. It was too late for his +adversaries to attempt a counter-movement, and the result was that +Lane was re-elected by an almost unanimous vote. + +There was no doubt about Lane's attitude on the slavery question. He +was not only a radical Abolitionist, but the acknowledged leader of +the Free-State men of Kansas. He recognized no right of property in +man, as many Missouri slaveholders learned to their sorrow. I was +present when he congratulated a Kansas regiment that had just returned +from a raid into Missouri, bringing many black people with it. "Fellow +soldiers," he shouted, "you entered Missouri a white body, but you +have returned surrounded by a great black cloud. It is the work of the +Lord." + +There was another man whose name, the author thinks, properly belongs +under the heading of this chapter, and to whom, on account of pleasant +personal recollections, he would like to refer. He was not a fighter +like Blair and Lane, with whom his life was in striking contrast. He +was essentially a man of peace. He was a Quaker. Although born in +Kentucky he was an Abolitionist. I now refer to Levi Coffin of +Cincinnati, who was credited with successfully assisting over three +thousand runaway slaves on their way to freedom, and, in consequence, +became distinguished among both friends and foes as the "President of +'The Underground Railroad.'" The most remarkable thing in his case was +his immunity from legal punishment. The slaveholders knew very well +what he was doing, but so expert was he in hiding his tracks that they +could never get their clutches upon him. + +I had rather an amusing experience with Coffin. Having when a boy +heard so much about him, I was anxious to see him and make his +acquaintance. On the occasion of a visit to Cincinnati, with a letter +of introduction from an acquaintance of Coffin, I went to his office, +but not without trepidation. I found the great man engaged in a +conversation with some one, his back being toward me, as I took my +stand just inside of his door. How he became aware of my presence I +don't know--I certainly made no noise to attract him--but he certainly +knew I was there. Suspending the conversation in which he was +engaged--he was seated in a revolving chair--he suddenly turned so as +to confront me, and silently looked me over. At last he arose, and, +stepping up to me, lifted my hat with one hand, and laid the other +upon my head. I understood very well what his movements meant. He was +looking for outward evidences of negro blood. So far as my complexion +went a suspicion of African taint might very well have been +entertained. I had been assisting my father in harvesting his wheat +crop, and my face and hands had a heavy coating of tan, but my hair +was straight and stiff. I could see that the old gentleman was +puzzled. Not a word, so far, had been spoken on either side. + +"Where is thee from?" was the question that broke the silence. + +I answered that I was from Clark County, meaning Clark County, Ohio. + +Coffin, however, evidently thought I referred to Clark County, +Kentucky, from which there had been many fugitives, and that settled +the matter in his mind. "But, my boy, thee seems to have had a good +home," continued the old gentleman as he looked over my clothes and +general appearance. "Why is thee running away?" + +Then came the explanation and the solemn Quaker indulged in a hearty +laugh. He remarked that he knew my family very well by reputation, and +that he had met my father in Abolitionist conventions--meetings he +called them. + +Then he invited me to go to his home and break bread with him. I +vainly tried to decline. The old man would accept no excuse. + +"Thy father would not refuse my hospitality." + +That settled the matter, and I accompanied my entertainer to his +domicile. I was glad that I did so, as it gave me the opportunity to +see and greet Coffin's wife, who was a charming elderly Quaker lady. +She had gained a reputation as a helper of the slave almost equal to +that of her husband. + +When runaways set out on their venturesome journeys, they were +generally very indifferently equipped. Ordinarily they had only the +working garments they wore on the plantations, and these furnished but +slight relief for a condition very near to nudity. Mrs. Coffin set +apart a working room in her house, and there sympathizers of both +races joined her in garment-making, the result being that very few +fugitives left Cincinnati without being decently clothed. + +At the Coffin table were several guests beside myself. One was a +colored man. He had been a slave, I learned, but his freedom had been +purchased, largely through the Coffins' efforts. + +After I left the Coffin mansion, I remembered my unused letter of +introduction, which I had altogether forgotten. It was no longer +called for. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ROLLS OF HONOR + + +The first honors of Abolitionism unquestionably belong to the +organizers of the first societies formed for its promotion. The first +of these in the order of time was the New England Anti-Slavery +Society, which came into being on the first day of January, 1832. +William Lloyd Garrison was chief promoter and master spirit. It +consisted at the outset of twelve men, and that was not the only +evidence of its apostolic mission. It was to be the forerunner in an +ever-memorable revolution. The names of the twelve subscribers to its +declaration of views and aims will always have a place in American +history. They were William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, William J. +Snelling, John E. Fuller, Moses Thatcher, Stillman E. Newcomb, Arnold +Buffum, John B. Hall, Joshua Coffin, Isaac Knapp, Henry K. Stockton, +and Benjamin C. Bacon. + +As a suggestion from, if not an offshoot of, the New England +organization, came the National Anti-Slavery Society, which was +organized in Philadelphia in 1834. It was intended that the meeting of +its promoters should be held in New York, but so intense was the +feeling against the Abolitionists in that city that no suitable room +could there be found, and the "conspirators," as they were called by +their enemies, were compelled to seek for accommodation and protection +among the Philadelphia Quakers. + +In that circumstance there was considerable significance. Two great +declarations of independence have issued from Philadelphia. One was +for political freedom; the other was for personal freedom. One was for +the benefit of its authors as well as of others. The other one was +wholly unselfish. Which had the loftier motive? + +Ten States were represented in the Philadelphia meeting, which, +considering the difficulties incident to travel at that time, was a +very creditable showing. One man rode six hundred miles on horseback +to attend it. + +The following is the list of those in attendance, who became +subscribers to the declaration that was promulgated: + + +_Maine_ + +David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James F. Otis, Isaac +Winslow. + + +_New Hampshire_ + +David Campbell. + + +_Massachusetts_ + +Daniel Southmayd, Effingham C. Capron, Amos Phelps, John G. Whittier, +Horace P. Wakefield, James Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. +Jewitt, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William +Lloyd Garrison. + + +_Rhode Island_ + +John Prentice, George W. Benson. + + +_Connecticut_ + +Samuel J. May, Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon Joselyn, +Robert B. Hall. + + +_New York_ + +Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Green, Jr., Abram T. +Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr., Charles W. Denison, John +Frost. + + +_New Jersey_ + +Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkly Gillinghamm, John McCullough, James White. + + +_Pennsylvania_ + +Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Altee, Robert Purviss, James McCrummill, Thomas +Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mace, John McKim, +Anson Vickers, Joseph Loughead, Edward P. Altee, Thomas Whitson, John +R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott. + + +_Ohio_ + +Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff, John M. Sterling. + + * * * * * + +The writer finds it quite impossible to carry out the idea with which +this chapter was begun, which was to furnish a catalogue embracing all +active Anti-Slavery workers who were Abolitionists. Space does not +permit. He will therefore condense by giving a portion of the list, +the selections being dictated partly by claims of superior merit, and +partly by accident. + +As representative men and women of the East--chiefly of New England +and New York--he gives the following: + +David Lee Child, of Boston, for some time editor of the _National +Anti-Slavery Advocate_. He was the husband of Lydia Maria Child, who +wrote the first bound volume published in this country in condemnation +of the enslavement of "those people called Africans"; Samuel E. +Sewell, another Bostonian and a lawyer who volunteered his services in +cases of fugitive slaves; Ellis Gray Lowell, another Boston lawyer of +eminence; Amos Augustus Phelps, a preacher and lecturer, for whose +arrest the slaveholders of New Orleans offered a reward of ten +thousand dollars; Parker Pillsbury, another preacher and lecturer, who +at twenty years of age was the driver of an express wagon, and with no +literary education, but who, in order that he might better plead the +cause of the slave, went to school and became a noted orator; Theodore +Weld, who married Angelina Grimke, the South Carolina Abolitionist, +and who as an Anti-Slavery advocate was excelled, if he was excelled, +only by Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips; Henry Brewster +Stanton, a very vigorous Anti-Slavery editor and the husband of +Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the champion of women's rights; Theodore +Parker, the great Boston divine; O.B. Frothingham, another famous +preacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer; Samuel Johnson, +C.L. Redmond, James Monroe, A.T. Foss, William Wells Brown, Henry C. +Wright, G.D. Hudson, Sallie Holley, Anna E. Dickinson, Aaron M. +Powell, George Brodburn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel W. +Whitney, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. Stebbins, Thomas T. +Stone, George M. Putnam, Joseph A. Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frances +E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin Ballou, W.H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A.J. +Conover, James N. Buffum, Charles C. Burleigh, William Goodell, Joshua +Leavitt, Charles M. Denison, Isaac Hopper, Abraham L. Cox. + +To the above should be added the names of Alvin Stewart of New York, +who issued the call for the convention that projected the Liberty +party, and of John Kendrick, who executed the first will including a +bequest in aid of the Abolition cause. + +And here must not be omitted the name of John P. Hale, of New +Hampshire, who was a candidate for the Presidency on the Liberty party +ticket, and also a conspicuous member of the U.S. Senate. + +Going westward, we come to Ohio, which became, early in the movement, +the dominating center of Abolitionist influence. Salmon P. Chase was +there. James G. Birney, after being forced out of Kentucky, was there. +Ex-United States Senator Thomas Morris, a candidate for the +Vice-Presidency on the Liberty party ticket, was there. Leicester King +and Samuel Lewis, Abolition candidates for the governorship of the +State, were there. Joshua R. Giddings and United States Senator Ben. +Wade were there. + +One great advantage the Ohio Abolitionists enjoyed was that they were +harmonious and united. In the East that was not the case. There was a +bitter feud between the Garrisonians, who relied on moral suasion, and +the advocates of political action. All Ohio Abolitionists were ready +and eager to employ the ballot. + +There is another name, in speaking of Ohio, that must not be omitted. +Dr. Townsend was the man who made Salmon P. Chase a United States +Senator, and at a time when the Abolition voting strength in +Ohio was a meager fraction in comparison with that of the old +parties--numbering not over one in twenty. It happened to be a time +when the old parties--the Whigs and the Democrats--had so nearly an +equal representation in the State Legislature that Townsend, who was a +State Senator, and two co-operating members, held a balance of power. +Both parties were exceedingly anxious to control the Legislature, as +that body, under the State constitution then in force, had the +distribution of a great deal of patronage. The consideration for the +deciding vote demanded by Townsend and his associates was the election +of Chase to the Senate. They and the Democrats made the deal. +Naturally enough, the Whigs expressed great indignation until it was +shown that they had offered to enter into very much the same +arrangement. + +Some years before the events just spoken of, Townsend had been a +medical student in Cincinnati. One day he stepped into the courthouse, +where a fugitive-slave case was being tried. There he listened to an +argument from Salmon P. Chase, the negro's defender, that made an +Abolitionist of him. The senatorial incident naturally followed. + +There was another Ohioan--not an individual this time, but an +institution--that will always hold a high place in the annals of +Abolitionism. Oberlin College was a power in the land. It had a corps +of very able professors who were, without exception, active +Anti-Slavery workers. They regarded themselves as public instructors +as well as private teachers. There was scarcely a township in Ohio +that they did not visit, either personally or through their disciples. +They were as ready to talk in country schoolhouses as in their own +college halls. Of course, they were violently opposed. Mobs broke up +their meetings very frequently, but that only made them more +persistent. Their teachings were viciously misrepresented. They were +accused of favoring the intermarriage of the races, and parents were +warned, if they sent their children to Oberlin, to look out for +colored sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. For such slanders, however, +the men and women of Oberlin--for both sexes were admitted to faculty +and classes--seemed to care no more than they did for pro-slavery +mobs. + +There is another name which, although it belongs exclusively neither +to the East nor to the West, to the North nor to the South, should not +be omitted from a record like this. Doctor Gamaliel Bailey resided in +the District of Columbia, and issued the _National Era_ from +Washington city. + +Although a journal of small folio measurement and issued but once a +week, it was for a considerable time the most influential organ of the +Abolitionists. Its circulation was large and its management very +able. Of course, it took no little courage and judgment to conduct +such a publication in the very center of slaveholding influence, and +more than once it barely escaped destruction by mobs. + +If there was nothing else to his credit there was one thing +accomplished by the _Era's_ owner that entitles him to lasting +remembrance. He was the introducer, if not the real producer, of +_Uncle Tom's Cabin._ It first appeared in the _Era_ in serial numbers. +It is perfectly safe to say that no other newspaper in the country, of +any standing, would have touched it. Without Dr. Bailey's +encouragement the work would not have been written. This was admitted +by Mrs. Stowe. + +Up to this point the people whose names have been mentioned in these +pages have, to a certain extent, been public characters and leaders. +They were generals, and colonels, and captains, and orderly sergeants, +in the army of emancipation. There were, also, privates in the ranks +whose services richly deserve to be commemorated, showing, as they do, +the character of the works they performed. The writer cannot resist +the temptation to refer to two of them in particular, although, +doubtless, there were many others of equal merit. A reason for the +preference he shows in this case, that will not be misunderstood, is +the fact that one of the men was his uncle and the other his father. + +James Kedzie and John Hume were plain country farmers residing in +southwestern Ohio, neither very rich nor very poor. They were natives +of Scotland, and stating that fact is almost equivalent to saying +they were Abolitionists. None of the Scotch of the writer's personal +knowledge, at the period referred to, were otherwise than strongly +Anti-Slavery. There are said to be exceptions to all rules, and there +was one in this instance. He was a kinsman of the author, and a "braw" +young Scotchman who came over to this country with the expectation of +picking up a fortune in short order. Finding the North too slow, he +went South. There he met a lady who owned a valuable plantation well +stocked with healthy negroes. He married the woman, and became +something of a local nabob, with the reputation of great severity as a +master. One day, with his own hand, he inflicted a cruel flogging on a +slave who had the name of a "bad nigger." That night, when the master +was playing chess with a neighbor by candlelight on the ground floor +of his dwelling, all the windows being open, the negro crept up with a +loaded gun and shot him dead. + +The sad affair was regretfully commented on by the dead man's +relatives, who, I remember, referred to his untimely ending as "his +judgment," and as a punishment he had brought upon "himself." + +My uncle and father did not conceal their unpopular views. They openly +voted the Abolition ticket. In eight years, beginning with their two +ballots, they raised the third party vote in their immediate vicinity +to eight, and they boasted of the progress they had made. + +They did not make public addresses, but they faithfully listened to +those made by others in support of the cause. They attended all +Abolition meetings that were within reach. They took the _National +Era_. Not only that, but they got up clubs for it. The first club I +recollect my father's securing consisted of half a dozen subscribers, +for one half of which he paid. The next year's was double in size, and +so was my father's contribution. There was no fund for the promotion +of the Abolitionist cause, for which they were called upon, to which +they did not cheerfully pay according to their means. + +All Abolition lecturers and colporteurs were gratuitously entertained, +although their presence was sometimes a cause of abuse, and even of +danger. There were other travelers who sometimes applied for help. +Their faces were of dusky hue, and their great whitish eyes were like +those of hunted beasts of the forest. They went on their way +strengthened and rejoicing--always in the direction of the North Star. + +The men are dead, but Slavery is dead also, partly through their +labors and sacrifices. Their unpretentious, patient, earnest lives +were not in vain. They contributed to the final triumph of Freedom's +holy cause. + + + + +APPENDIX + + +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + + +January 1, 1863.--Whereas, on the 22d day of September, 1862, a +proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, +containing, among other things, the following, to wit: + +That on the 1st day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves +within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof +shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, +thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the +United States, including the naval and military authority thereof, +will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do +no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any efforts +they may make for their actual freedom. + +That the Executive will on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections, +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States. +Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on +this first day of January, 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so +to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days +from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States +and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this +day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: + +Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Ann, and Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are +for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not +issued. + +And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free, and +that the Executive government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of such persons. + +And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend +to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages. + +And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + +And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty +God. + +IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, 1863, and of +the independence of the United States the Eighty-seventh. + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +By the President: +WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. + + + + +BORDER SLAVE-STATE MESSAGE + + +Amendment to the National Constitution recommended by President +Lincoln in his Message to Congress of December I, 1862. + +_Resolved_ by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled: that the following articles +be proposed to the Legislatures (or conventions) of the several States +as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of +which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said +Legislatures (or conventions) to be valid as parts of the said +Constitution, namely: + +Article.--Every State wherein Slavery now exists, which shall abolish +the same therein, at any time or times before the 1st day of January +in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, shall receive +compensation from the United States as follows, to wit: + +(Then follows a provision to issue bonds of the United States +Government, which shall be delivered to the States in amounts +sufficient to compensate the owners of slaves within their +jurisdictions for the loss of their slave property.) + +Article.--All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the +chances of the war, at any time before the end of the rebellion, shall +be forever free; but all owners of such, who shall not have been +disloyal, shall be compensated for them at the same rates as is +provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way +that no slave shall be twice accounted for. + +Article.--Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for +colonizing free colored persons, with their own consent, at any place +or places without the United States. + + + + +"PRAYER OF TWENTY MILLIONS" + + +On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley, under the above heading, +addressed a letter to the President, which appeared over his signature +in the New York _Tribune_ of that date. The conclusion of Mr. +Greeley's epistle was as follows: + +"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one +disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who +does not feel that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the +same time uphold its inciting cause, are preposterous and futile--that +the rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a +year if Slavery were left in full vigor--that army officers who +remain to this day devoted to Slavery can at best be but halfway loyal +to the Union--and that every hour of deference to Slavery is an hour +of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to the testimony of +your embassadors in Europe. Ask them to tell you candidly whether the +seeming subserviency of your policy to the slaveholding, +slavery-upholding interest is not the perplexity, the despair of +statesmen of all parties, and be admonished by the general answer." + + + + +INDEX + +Abolitionism, and Republicanism, 8, 9; + end of, 150-156. + +Abolitionist movement, v. + +Abolitionists, hysterical praise of, 1; + and dissolution of the Union, 1, 2; + effect, 2; + struggles, 3; + and political expediency, 5; + convention at Pittsburgh, 7; + third-party, 7; + vote of, 7; + founders of Republican party, 8; + pro-slavery mobbing, 9; + voting strength, 9; + organization, 10; + lecturers, 11; + stump orators, 11; + newspapers, 11; + preparatory work, 12; + hostility to Union, 13; + disloyalty, 13; + treason, 13; + place in history, 15; + Quakers, 16; + physical courage, 16; + unselfishness of, 16; + motives, 18; + persecution of, 20; + feelings against, 22; + hopefulness of, 26; + first presidential ticket, 28; + prejudice against, 30; + abuse by "gentlemen," 32; + women, 38; + preliminary victory of, 47; + denunciation of early, 49; + leaders, 186-198. + +Adams, John Quincy, 21, 41; + attempted expulsion of, from Congress, 69-71; + speech in his own defense in Congress, 89. + +Altee, Edward P., 203. + +Altee, Edwin A., 203. + +"Amalgamation," 35. + +Anderson "Bill," 165. + +Andrew, Governor, of Massachusetts, Peleg's _Life of_, 179. + +Anthony, Susan B., 102, 205. + +Anti-Slavery, causes, 2; + matter excluded from United States mails, 4; + formation of party, 13; + pioneers, 49-58; + lecturers, 76-78; + orators, 88-93; + women, 100-107; + mobs, 108-112; + in Haverhill, 108; + in Nantucket, 109; + martyrs, 113-120; + sentiment, in England, 130. + +Anti-Slavery societies, organization, 26; + in New England, 72, 74, 75, 130, 201; + National, 76, 79, 87, 201. + +Anti-Unionist, 13. + + * * * * * + +Bacon, Benjamin C., 201. + +Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, 100, 207. + +Ballou, Adin, 205. + +Barbadoes, James, 202. + +Bates, Judge, 161. + +Beecher, Henry Ward, 90, 142, 148; + speech in England, 90-93; + and Lincoln, 92. + +Bell, 152. + +Benson, George W., 203. + +Benton, Thomas H., 154. + +Birney, Jas. G., 2, 5, 42, 56-58, 205. + +"Black laws" 35; + in Ohio, 35. + +Black Republic of Texas, 135. + +Blair, Gen. Prank P., 158, 186-191; + and Missouri emancipationists, 161; + and Missouri Abolitionists, 188; + appearance of, 189; + fearlessness, 189; + quarrel with Fremont, 189; + and capture of Camp Jackson, 189-191; + threats against, 190. + +Blair, Montgomery, 158, 161. + +Bonner, Hon. Benjamin R., 155. + +Border-ruffianism, 153. + +Border Slave-State message, text of, 213-214. + +Boyle, James, 205. + +Bradley, John, 135. + +Breckenridge, 152; + factions, 11. + +Breckenridge, Judge Samuel M., 175. + +Brodburn, George, 205. + +Brown, B. Gratz, 155. + +Brown, John, 45, 113. + +Brown, William Wells, 205. + +Buchanan, James 153. + +Buffum, Arnold, 201, 203. + +Buffum, James N., 205. + +Bull Run, 192. + +Burleigh, Charles C., 205. + +Buxton, Sir Thomas, 132. + + * * * * * + +Camp Jackson (St. Louis), 183; + "affair" at, 186-188; + effect of capture, 191-194. + +Campbell, David, 202. + +Campbell, John R., 202. + +Capron, Effingham C., 202. + +Carlisle, Earl of, 18. + +Chapman, Mrs. Henry, 33. + +"Charcoals," Missouri, 159; + delegation to President, 162, 166; + fight for "Free Missouri," 162; + appeal to President for protection, 166-168. + +Chase, Salmon P., 10, 13, 14, 59-61, 148, 205; + financial policy, 60; + espousal of Abolitionism, 61; + and "third party," 64; + election to United States Senate, 206. + +Child, David Lee, 204. + +Child, Lydia Maria, 204. + +Chittenden, L.E., 134. + +Churchill's _Crisis_, 157. + +Civil War, 11; + due to Abolitionists, 12. + +Clay, Henry, 2, 6. + +"Claybanks," 159; + exclusion from National Convention, 169. + +Coffin, Joshua, 201. + +Coffin, Levi, 197-198; + "President of 'The Underground Railroad,'" 197. + +Colonization, 128-135; + Society, 128; + and England, 130-132; + Lincoln's opinion, 133; + experiments, 133-134. + +Colonizationists, pretended friendship for negroes, 130. + +Compromise of 1850, 6. + +Conover, A.J., 205. + +Cotton-gin, invention of, 31. + +Cox, Abram L., 203, 205. + +Crandall, Prudence, persecution of, 116-117. + +Crandall, Dr. Reuben, 117-118. + +_Crisis, The_, 157. + +Cross Keys, battle of, 184. + +Curtis, Geo. William, 88, 179. + +Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 163. + + * * * * * + +Democratic party, division of, 11. + +Democrats, 4, 7; + Anti-Nebraska, 9; + of New York, 9. + +Denison, Charles M., 203, 205. + +Dickinson, Anna E., 205. + +Dissolution of Union, petition for, 2. + +"Doughface," 4. + +Douglas, Stephen A., 12; + dislike of, by slaveholders' factions, 11; + defeated for President, 94-99; + and Abolitionists, 153; + hated by slave-owners, 153. + +Douglass, Fred., 112. + +Drake, Hon. Charles D., 167. + +Dred Scott decision, 45-46; + too late for South's purpose, 47. + +Dresser, Amos, whipped, 119. + + * * * * * + +Emancipation proclamation, 137-138; + due to Abolitionists, 12; + story of, 139; + moral influence of, 146; + Lincoln's reasons for, 146; + ineffective, 148; + text of, 211-213. + +Ewing, Gen. Thomas, 194; + repulsion of General Price, 195. + + * * * * * + +Field, David Dudley, 179. + +Fish, W.H., 205. + +Fletcher, Thomas C., 155. + +Fort Donelson, capture of, 184, 192. + +Fort Henry, capture of, 184. + +Foss, A.T., 205. + +Foster, Daniel, 205. + +Foster, Stephen, 39. + +"Free-Soil" party, 65. + +Fremont, General, 151; + and western command, 184-185; + financial bad management, 184; + defeats Stonewall Jackson, 184; + removal, 185; + freedom proclamation, 185. + +Frost, John, 203. + +Frothingham, O.B., 204. + +Fugitive Slave Law, 5, 121. + +Fuller, John E., 201. + +Fussell, Bartholomew, 203. + + * * * * * + +Gamble, Hamilton R., 160; + and emancipation ordinance of, 163; + and military control of Missouri, 163. + +Garrison, William Lloyd, 13, 21, 26, 201, 202; + Dragged through streets of Boston, 32; + imprisonment for libel, 54; + reception in England, 131-132; + speech at Exeter Hall, 131. + +_Genius of Universal Emancipation, The,_ 51. + +Giddings, Joshua R., 2, 6, 205. + +Gillinghamm, Chalkly, 203. + +Goodell, William, 203, 205. + +Grant, General, 44; + And "Charcoals," 172; + Nomination by Missouri Radicals, 174-176; + capture of Fort Donelson, 192. + +Greeley, Horace, 142, 148, 178, 179. + +Green, Beriah, 203. + +Green, William, Jr., 203. + +Grimke sisters, 38, 103-106, 204. + + * * * * * + +Hale, John P., 10, 205. + +Hall, John B., 201. + +Hall, Robert B., 203. + +Hallock's Order Number Three, 141. + +Harrison, Wm. Henry, 5. + +Hay, John, 136. + +Henry, Patrick, Williamsburg speech, 88. + +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 204. + +_Hints toward Emancipation in Missouri_, 158. + +Hollie, Sally, 205. + +Hopper, Isaac, 205. + +How, John, 155. + +Howland, Joseph A., 205. + +Hudson, Professor, 35, 112, 205. + +Hudson, Frederic, 89. + +Hume, John, 208-210. + +Hutchinsons, the, 141. + + * * * * * + +Ile a'Vache, 133. + +Indiana, introduction of slavery into, 5. + + * * * * * + +Jackson, Claiborne F., 186; + attempt to make Missouri secede, 186-188; + outwitted by Nathaniel Lyon, 188. + +Jackson, Stonewall, defeat of, 184. + +Jewitt, Daniel E., 202. + +Johnson, Andrew, 171, 180. + +Johnson, Oliver, 73, 201. + +Johnson, Samuel, 205. + +Jones, David, 203. + +Joselyn, Simeon, 203. + +Julian, Geo. W., _Political Recollections_, 177. + + * * * * * + +Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 44. + +Kedzie, James, 208-210. + +Kelly, Abby, 38-39. + +Kendrick, John, 205. + +Kentucky, 21. + +Kimball, David T., Jr., 202. + +King, Leicester, 205. + +Kingsley, Alpheus, 203. + +Knapp, Isaac, 201. + +"Know-Nothings," 9. + + * * * * * + +Lafayette, 17. + +Lane, James H., 194-197; + canvas for U.S. Senator, 196-197; + attitude on slavery, 197. + +Lawrence, city of, capture by Quantrell, 165; + butchery of inhabitants, 165. + +Leavitt, Joshua, 205. + +Lewis, Evan, 203. + +Lewis, Samuel, 205. + +Liberal party, 2, 3, 7, 8, 65. + +_Liberator_, 21; + first issue, 55; + South Carolina and Georgia offers reward for its circulation, 55-56; + excluded from U.S. mails, 56; + office wrecked by mob, 56; + opposed to separate party action, 64. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 2, 8, 11, 41; + election of, 11, 48; + Gettysburg speech, 88; + and Douglas, 94-99; + debate of 1858, 94; + and slavery, 96, 97; + preferred by slaveholders, 98; + _Recollections of_, 134-135; + and emancipation, 136-149; + and Missouri Compromise, 139; + message to Minister Dayton of Paris, 140; + proposed constitutional amendment, 144; + special message to Congress, December, 1863, 144; + emancipation policy, 145; + and Abolitionists, 147; + and Free-Soilers, 172; + Congressional sentiment toward, 177; + antagonism to, 177-180; + _Life of_, by I.N. Arnold, 177. + +Lincoln, Sumner, 205. + +Longhead, Joseph, 203. + +Lovejoy, Elijah P., shooting of, 32, 89, 114-115, 161. + +Lowell, Ellis Gray, 204. + +Lundy, Benjamin, 27, 50-54; + meeting with Garrison, 54. + +Lyon, Nathaniel, 188. + + * * * * * + +McCrummil, James, 203. + +McCullough, John, 203. + +McKim, John, 203. + +Mace, Enoch, 203. + +Manumittal, arguments against, 34-35. + +Marshall, "Tom," 70. + +Massachusetts Legislature and slavery, 105. + +May, Samuel J., 203. + +May, Rev. S.T., _Recollections_, 108. + +Mexican War, 44. + +Missouri, 157-185; + Compromise, 6, 12, 139-140; + admission to Union as slave State, 43; + slavery contest, 67; + and the Union, 159-160; + Radicals, 159; + Conservatives, 159; + "Charcoals," 159; + "Claybanks," 159; + military control of, 163-166; + guerrilla bands, 165; + pacification of, 168; + Radicals, opposition to Lincoln, in National Convention, 168-169; + delegation to Lincoln, 169-171; + Germans, attacks on, 181-182; + loyalty of, 182-183. _Missouri Democrat, The_, 157-158; + and Louis Snyder, 158-159; + opposition to Lincoln, 180; + support of Johnson, 180. + +Monroe, James, 205. + +Moody, Loring, 205. + +Morris, Senator, 205. + +Mott, Mrs. Lucretia, 38, 102-103. + +Mott, James, 203. + + * * * * * + +_National Anti-Slavery Advocate_, 204. + +_National Era, The_, 100, 207-208. + +Negroes, prejudice against, + in North, 35; + in Ohio, 36; + stronger in North than in South, 36; + suffrage, 80; + failure as freemen, 80-81. + +Newcomb, Stillman E., 201. + +Nicolay, J.C., 136. + +"Nigger Hill," 26, 73. + +"Nigger-pens," 31. + +Noyes, 179. + + * * * * * + +Oberlin College, 207. + +O'Connell, Daniel, 131. + +Ohio, pro-slavery, 21; + Abolitionists of, 21. + +Opdyke, 179. + +Ordinance of '87, 5. + +Otis, James F., 202. + + * * * * * + +Parker, Theodore, 204. + +Parkhurst, Jonathan, 203. + +Pennsylvania Hall, firing of, 30. + +"Peonage," 80. + +Phelps, Amos, 202, 204. + +Philippine Islands, 82-87; + slavery in, 82; + massacres in, 83; + abuses in, 82-84; + spoliation of, 85. + +Phillips, Wendell, 142; + speech in Faneuil Hall, 88-89. + +Phillips, Mrs., 106-107. + +Pillsbury, Parker, 204. + +Pleasanton, General, 168. + +Pointdexter, 165. + +"Popular sovereignty," 153. + +Powell, Aaron M., 205. + +_Prayer of Twenty Millions, The_, 142; text of, 214-215. + +Prentice, John, 203. + +Presidential campaign of 1844, 7. + +Price, General Sterling, 160, 195. + +Prohibitionists, 2, 3, 14. + +Purviss, Robert, 203. + +Putnam, George M., 203. + + * * * * * + +Quantrell, 165. + + * * * * * + +Rankin, John, 203. + +Raymond, Henry J., _Life of Lincoln,_ 177. + +Redmond, C.L., 205. + +Republican party, 2, 3, 7, 8; + elements of, 10; + lack of policy, 10; + and election of Lincoln, 11; + existence due to Abolitionists, 12; + and negro rights, 81; + and Philippine Islands, 82; + and Abolitionism, 150-151. + +_Republican Party, History of the_, Curtis, 136. + +_Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, 142. + +Roosevelt, Theodore, and Abolitionists, 1-14. + +Rosecrans, General, 168. + +Russell, Earl 137. + + * * * * * + +Schofield, Gen. John M., and military control of Missouri, 163-164; + charges against, 164; + relieved from command, 168. + +Secession, pretext for, 48. + +Sewell, Samuel E., 204. + +Sharp, John, Jr., 203. + +Shipley, Thomas, 203. + +Sigel, General, 183. + +Slave-owners, mastery of, 32. + +Slave power, submission to, 5; + northward march, 13. + +Slave production in Northern States, 31. + +Slavery, destruction of, 1; + overthrow of, 3; + in ante-bellum days, 20; + and Biblical authority, 22; + a State institution, 27; + condemned by Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, 31; + Northern support, 33-35, 68; + spread of, 42; + introduction into Territories, 43-44; + practical extirpation, 138. + +Sleeper, John R., 203. + +Smith, Gen. A.J., 168. + +Snelling, William J., 201. + +Southard, Nathaniel, 202. + +South Carolina "black horse," 192. + +Southmayd, Daniel, 202. + +Southwick, Joseph, 202. + +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 102, 204. + +Stanton, Henry Brewster, 204. + +Stebbins, Giles B., 205. + +Sterling, John M., 203. + +Stevens, Thaddeus, 148, 177. + +Stewart, Alvin, 205. + +Stillman, Edwin A., 203. + +Stockton, Henry K., 201 + +Stone, Lucy, 205. + +Stone, Thomas T., 205. + +Stowe, Harriet Beecher 11, 101, 102. + +Sumner, Charles, 148, 179. + +Sutliff, Levi, 203 + +Sutliff, Milton, 203. + + * * * * * + +Tappan, Arthur, 34. + +Tappan, Lewis, 34, 203. + +Taussig, James, 172. + +Taylor, Gen. Z., 6. + +Texas, annexation of, 44. + +Thatcher, Moses, 201. + +Thirteenth Amendment, 138; + vote on, 143-144. + +Thompson, Edwin, 205. + +_Thoughts on African Colonization_, 129. + +Thurston, David, 202. + +Toombs, Robert, 13. + +Torrey, Charles Turner, 118-119. + +Townsend, Dr., 205. + +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 100, 208. + +Underground railroad, 121-127; + confession of John Smith, 121-127. + +United States in Far East, 85; + Army increase of, 85; + Navy increase of, 85. + +Van Buren, Martin, 4; a + "doughface," 4; + Free Soiler, 5. + +Van Zant case, 61. + +Vickers, Anson, 203. + +Virginia, 21. + + * * * * * + +Wade, Benjamin F., 44, 179, 205. + +Wakefield, Horace P., 202. + +Walker, Jonathan, branded, 119. + +Washington, Booker, 136. + +Watkins, Frances E., 205. + +Weld, Theodore W., 103, 204. + +Wheeling, Va., slavery traffic in, 50. + +Whigs, 2, 5-7, 9. + +White, James, 203. + +Whitney, Eli, 31. + +Whitney, Nathaniel, 205. + +Whitson, Thomas, 203. + +Whittier, John G., 202. + +Wilkes, 179. + +Winslow, Isaac, 202. + +Winslow, Nathan, 202. + +Wise, Henry A., 70. + +Wright, Elizur, Jr., 203. + +Wright, Henry C., 205. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abolitionists, by John F. 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