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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/22959-8.txt b/22959-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f4be7d --- /dev/null +++ b/22959-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9004 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Recollections, by George W. Julian + +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: Political Recollections + 1840 to 1872 + +Author: George W. Julian + +Release Date: October 11, 2007 [EBook #22959] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Ed Ferris + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Names have been corrected. "Indianians" changed to "Indianans". + + LoC call number: E415.7.J9 1969 + + +POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS + +1840 to 1872. + +BY +GEORGE W. JULIAN. + +MNEMOSYNE PUBLISHING CO., INC. +MIAMI, FLORIDA +1969 + + +Originally Published in Chicago 1884 + +COPYRIGHT +By JANSEN, McCLURG & CO., +A. D. 1883. + +First Mnemosyne reprinting 1969 +Reprinted from a copy in the +Fisk University Library Negro Collection +Copyright ©1969 Mnemosyne Publishing Co., Inc. Miami, Florida +Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: +78-83885 + + +PREFACE. + +The following chapters are devoted mainly to facts and incidents +connected with the development of anti-slavery politics from the +year 1840 to the close of the work of Reconstruction which followed +the late civil war. Other topics, however, are occasionally noticed, +while I have deemed it proper to state my own attitude and course +of action respecting various public questions, and to refer more +particularly to the political strifes of my own State. In doing +this, I have spoken freely of conspicuous personalities in connection +with their public action, or their peculiar relations to myself; +but my aim has been to deal fairly and state only the truth, while +striving to weave into my story some reminiscences of the men and +events of by-gone times, which may interest the reader. In the +endeavor to elucidate the orderly progress of anti-slavery opinions +and their translation into organized action, I have summarized and +re-stated many of the familiar facts of current American politics +during the period embraced; but I hope I have also made a slight +contribution to the sources of history bearing upon a world-famous +movement, touching which we should "gather up the fragments that +nothing be lost." + + G. W. J. + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. +THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN--THE BEGINNING OF ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS. +The "Hard-cider" Frolic of 1840--The Issues--Swartwout and Political +Corruption--The Demand for a Change--Character of Gen. Harrison-- +Personal Defamation--Mass-meetings and Songs--Crushing Defeat of +the Democrats--First Appearance of the Slavery Issue in Politics-- +Pro-slavery Attitude of Harrison and Van Buren--Events favoring +the Growth of Anti-slavery Opinion--Clay and Mendenhall--Texas' +Annexation and John Tyler. + +CHAPTER II. +CAMPAIGN OF 1844--ANNEXATION AND SLAVERY. +The Nomination of Clay--His Position on the Slavery Question and +Annexation--Van Buren's Letter to Hammett, and its Effect upon the +South--His Repudiation, and the Nomination of Polk--The Surprise +of the Country--Unbounded Confidence of the Whigs--The Course of +the New York Democrats--The "Kane Letter"--Trouble among the Whigs +on the Annexation Question--Fierceness of the Contest, and singular +Ability of the Leaders--The Effect of Clay's Defeat upon the Whigs +--Causes of the Defeat--The Abolitionists, and the Abuse heaped +upon them--Cassius M. Clay--Mr. Hoar's Mission to South Carolina-- +Election of John P. Hale--Annexation, and War with Mexico--Polk's +Message, and the Wilmot Proviso--The Oregon Question, and Alex. H. +Stephens. + +CHAPTER III. +CAMPAIGN OF 1848--ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS. +Approach of another Presidential Campaign--Party Divisions threatened +by the Wilmot Proviso--Nomination of Gen. Cass--The "Nicholson +Letter"--Democratic Division in New York--Nomination of Gen. Taylor +--Whig Divisions--Birth of the Free Soil Party--Buffalo Convention +--Nomination of Van Buren and Adams--Difficulty of uniting on Van +Buren--Incidents--Rev. Joshua Leavitt--Work of the Campaign--Webster +and Free Soil--Greeley and Seward--Abuse of Whig Bolters--Remarkable +Results of the Canvass. + +CHAPTER IV. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. +Novel Political Complications--Compromise Measures--First Election +to Congress--Sketch of the "Immortal Nine"--The Speakership and +Wm. J. Brown--Gen. Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso--Slaveholding +Bluster--Compromise Resolutions of Clay and Retreat of Northern +Whigs--Visit to Gen. Taylor--To Mr. Clay--His Speeches--Webster's +Seventh of March Speech--Calhoun--Speech on the Slavery Question. + +CHAPTER V. +THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS (CONTINUED). +Fracas between Col. Benton and Senator Foster--Character of Benton +--Death of Gen. Taylor--The Funeral--Defeat of the "Omnibus Bill" +--Its Triumph in Detail--Celebration of the Victory--"Lower Law" +Sermons and "Union-Saving" Meetings--Slaveholding Literature-- +Mischievous Legislation--Visit to Philadelphia and Boston--Futile +Efforts to suppress Agitation--Andrew Johnson and the Homestead +Law--Effort to censure Mr. Webster--Political Morality in this +Congress--Temperance--Jefferson Davis--John P. Hale--Thaddeus +Stevens--Extracts from Speeches--Famous Men in both Houses--Free +Soilers and their Vindication. + +CHAPTER VI. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. +Pro-slavery Reaction--Indiana and Ohio--Race for Congress--Free +Soil Gains in other States--National Convention at Cleveland-- +National Canvass of 1852--Nomination of Pierce and Scott, and the +"finality" Platforms--Free Soil National Convention--Nomination of +Hale--Samuel Lewis--The Whig Canvass--Webster--Canvass of the +Democrats--Return of New York "Barnburners" to the Party--The Free +Soil Campaign--Stumping Kentucky with Clay--Rev. John G. Fee-- +Incidents--Mob Law in Indiana--Result of the Canvass--Ruin of the +Whigs--Disheartening Facts--The other Side of the Picture. + +CHAPTER VII. +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (CONTINUED). +A Notable Fugitive Slave Case--Inauguration of Pierce--Repeal of +the Missouri Compromise--Its Effects upon the Parties--The Free +Soil Position--Know-Nothingism--The Situation--First Steps in the +Formation of the Republican Party--Movements of the Know-Nothings +--Mistake of the Free Soilers--Anti-slavery Progress--Election of +Banks as Speaker--Call for a Republican National Convention at +Pittsburg--Organization of the Party--The Philadelphia Convention +and its Platform--Nomination of Fremont--Know-Nothing and Whig +Nominations--Democratic Nomination and Platform--The Grand Issue +of the Campaign--The Democratic Canvass--The splendid Fight for +Fremont--Triumph of Buchanan--Its Causes and Results--The Teaching +of Events. + +CHAPTER VIII. +PROGRESS OF REPUBLICANISM. +The Dred Scott Decision--Struggle for Freedom in Kansas--Instructive +Debates in Congress--Republican Gains in the Thirty-fifth Congress +--The English Bill--Its Defeat and the Effect--Defection of Douglas +--Its Advantages and its Perils--Strange Course of the New York +Tribune and other Papers--Republican Retreat in Indiana--Illinois +Republicans stand firm, and hold the Party to its Position--Gains +in the Thirty-sixth Congress--Southern Barbarism and Extravagance +--John Brown's Raid--Cuba and the Slave-trade--Oregon and Kansas-- +Aids to Anti-slavery Progress--The Speakership and Helper's Book-- +Southern Insolence and Extravagance--Degradation of Douglas--Slave- +code for the Territories--Outrages in the South--Campaign of 1860 +--Charleston Convention and Division of the Democrats--Madness of +the Factions--Bell and Everett--Republican Convention and its +Platform--Lincoln and Seward--Canvass of Douglas--Campaign for +Lincoln--Conduct of Seward--Republican Concessions and slave-holding +Madness. + +CHAPTER IX. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR. +Visit to Mr. Lincoln--Closing Months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration +--Efforts to avoid War--Character of Buchanan--Lincoln's Inauguration +--His War Policy--The Grand Army of Office-seekers--The July Session +of Congress--The Atmosphere of Washington--Battle of Bull Run-- +Apologetic Resolve of Congress--First Confiscation Act--Gen. +Fremont's Proclamation and its Effect--Its Revocation--Regular +Session of Congress--Secretary Cameron--Committee on the Conduct +of the War--Its Conference with the President and his Cabinet-- +Secretary Stanton and General McClellan--Order to march upon +Manassas. + +CHAPTER X. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR (CONTINUED). +The Wooden Guns--Conference with Secretary Stanton--His Relations +to Lincoln--Strife between Radicalism and Conservatism--Passage of +the Homestead Law--Visit to the President--The Confiscation Act +and Rebel Land owners--Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions," and +Lincoln's Reply--Effort to disband the Republican Party--The Battle +of Fredericksburg and General Burnside--The Proclamation of +Emancipation--Visit to Mr. Lincoln--General Fremont--Report of the +War Committee--Visit to Philadelphia and New York--Gerrit Smith-- +The Morgan Raid. + +CHAPTER XI. +INCIDENTS AND END OF THE WAR. +Campaigning in Ohio--Attempted Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law-- +Organized Movement in Favor of Chase for the Presidency--Confiscation +of Rebel Lands--Fort Pillow, and the Treatment of Union Soldiers +at Richmond--Mr. Lincoln's Letter to Hodges--Southern Homestead +Bill, and Controversy with Mr. Mallory--Nomination of Andrew Johnson +--Enforcement of Party Discipline--Mr. Lincoln's Change of Opinion +as to Confiscation of Rebel Lands--Opposition to him in Congress-- +General Fremont and Montgomery Blair--Visit to City Point--Adoption +of the XIII Constitutional Amendment--Trip to Richmond, and Incidents +--Assassination of the President--Inauguration of Johnson and +Announcement of his Policy--Feeling toward Mr. Lincoln--Capitulation +of Gen. Johnston. + +CHAPTER XII. +RECONSTRUCTION AND SUFFRAGE--THE LAND QUESTION. +Visit of Indianans to the President--Gov. Morton and Reconstruction +--Report of Committee on the Conduct of the War--Discussion of +Negro Suffrage and Incidents--Personal Matters--Suffrage in the +District of Columbia--The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment-- +Breach between the President and Congress--Blaine and Conkling-- +Land Bounties and the Homestead Law. + +CHAPTER XIII. +MINERAL LANDS AND THE RIGHT OF PRE-EMPTION. +The Lead and Copper Lands of the Northwest--The gold-bearing Regions +of the Pacific, and their Disposition--A legislative Reminiscence +--Mining Act of 1866, and how it was passed--Its deplorable Failure, +and its Lesson--Report of the Land Commission--The Right of Pre- +emption, and the "Dred Scott Decision" of the Settlers. + +CHAPTER XIV. +RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT. +Gov. Morton and his Scheme of Gerrymandering--The XIV Amendment-- +Hasty Reconstruction and the Territorial Plan--The Military Bill-- +Impeachment--An amusing Incident--Vote against Impeachment--The +Vote reversed--The popular Feeling against the President--The Trial +--Republican Intolerance--Injustice to Senators and to Chief Justice +Chase--Nomination of Gen. Grant--Re-nomination for Congress--Personal +--Squabble of Place-hunters--XVI Amendment. + +CHAPTER XV. +GRANT AND GREELEY. +The new Cabinet--Seeds of Party Disaffection--Trip to California-- +Party Degeneracy--The liberal Republican Movement--Re-nomination +of Grant--The Cincinnati Convention--Perplexities of the Situation +--The Canvass for Greeley--Its Bitterness--Its peculiar Features-- +The Defeat--The Vindication of Liberals--Visit to Chase and Sumner +--Death of Greeley. + +CHAPTER XVI. +CONCLUDING NOTES. +Party Changes caused by the Slavery Issue--Notable Men in Congress +during the War--Sketches of prominent Men in the Senate and House +--Scenes and Incidents--Butler and Bingham--Cox and Butler--Judge +Kelley and Van Wyck--Lovejoy and Wickliffe--Washburn and Donnelly +--Oakes Ames--Abolitionism in Washington early in the War--Life at +the Capital--The new Dispensation and its Problems. + +INDEX + + +POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS. + +CHAPTER I. +THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN--THE BEGINNING OF ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS. +The "hard-cider" frolic of 1840--The issues--Swartwout and political +corruption--The demand for a change--Character of Gen. Harrison-- +Personal defamation--Mass-meetings and songs--Crushing defeat of +the Democrats--First appearance of the slavery issue in politics-- +Pro-slavery attitude of Harrison and Van Buren--Events favoring +the growth of anti-slavery opinion--Clay and Mendenhall--Texas +annexation and John Tyler. + +Through the influence of early associations, I began my political +life as a Whig, casting my first presidential ballot for General +Harrison, in 1840. I knew next to nothing of our party politics; +but in the matter of attending mass-meetings, singing Whig songs +and drinking hard cider, I played a considerable part in the +memorable campaign of that year. So far as ideas entered into my +support of the Whig candidate, I simply regarded him as a poor man, +whose home was a log cabin, and who would in some way help the +people through their scuffle with poverty and the "hard times"; +while I was fully persuaded that Van Buren was not only a graceless +aristocrat and a dandy, but a cunning conspirator, seeking the +overthrow of his country's liberties by uniting the sword and the +purse in his own clutches, as he was often painted on the party +banners. In these impressions I was by no means singular. They +filled the air, and seemed to be wafted on every breeze. Horace +Greeley's famous campaign organ, "The Log Cabin," only gave them +voice and fitting pictorial effect, and he frankly admitted in +later years that his Whig appeals, with his music and wood engravings +of General Harrison's battle scenes, were more "vivid" than "sedately +argumentative." No one will now seriously pretend that this was +a campaign of ideas, or a struggle for political reform in any +sense. It was a grand national frolic, in which the imprisoned +mirth and fun of the people found such jubilant and uproarious +expression that anything like calmness of judgment or real seriousness +of purpose was out of the question in the Whig camp. + +As regards party issues, General Harrison, singularly enough, was +not a Whig, but an old fashioned States-Rights Democrat of the +Jeffersonian school. His letters to Harmar Denny and Sherrod +Williams committed him to none of the dogmas which defined a Whig. +No authentic utterance of his could be produced in which he had +ever expressed his agreement with the Whig party on the questions +of a protective tariff, internal improvements, or a national bank. +There was very high Whig authority for saying that the bank question +was not an issue of the canvass, while Van Buren's great measure +for separating the currency from the banks became a law pending +the Presidential struggle. In fact, it was because no proof of +General Harrison's party orthodoxy could be found, that he was +nominated; and the Whig managers of the Harrisburg Convention felt +obliged to sacrifice Henry Clay, which they did through the basest +double-dealing and treachery, for the reason that his right angled +character as a party leader would make him unavailable as a candidate. +As to John Tyler, he was not a Whig in any sense. It is true that +he had opposed the removal of the deposits, and voted against +Benton's expunging resolutions, but on all the regular and recognized +party issues he was fully committed as a Democrat, and was, moreover, +a nullifier. The sole proof of his Whiggery was the apocryphal +statement that he wept when Clay failed to receive the nomination, +while his political position was perfectly understood by the men +who nominated him. There was one policy only on which they were +perfectly agreed, and that was the policy of avowing no principles +whatever; and they tendered but one issue, and that was a change +of the national administration. On this issue they were perfectly +united and thoroughly in earnest, and it was idle to deny that on +their own showing the spoils alone divided them from the Democrats +and inspired their zeal. + +The demand of the Whigs for a change was well-founded. Samuel +Swartwout, the New York Collector of Customs, had disgraced the +Government by his defalcations; and, although he was a legacy of +Mr. Van Buren's "illustrious predecessor," and had been "vindicated" +by a Senate committee composed chiefly of his political opponents, +he was unquestionably a public swindler, and had found shelter +under Mr. Van Buren's administration. He was the most conspicuous +public rascal of his time, but was far from being alone in his +odious notoriety. The system of public plunder inaugurated by +Jackson was in full blast, and an organized effort to reform it +was the real need of the hour; but here was the weak point of the +Whigs. They proceeded upon the perfectly gratuitous assumption +that the shameless abuses against which they clamored would be +thoroughly reformed should they come into power. They took it for +granted that a change would be equivalent to a cure, and that the +people would follow them in thus begging the very question on which +some satisfactory assurance was reasonably required. They seemed +totally unconscious of the fact that human nature is essentially +the same in all parties, and that a mere change of men without any +change of system would be fruitless. They laid down no programme +looking to the reform of the civil service. They did not condemn +it, and their sole panacea for the startling frauds and defalcations +of Van Buren's administration was the imagined superior virtue and +patriotism of the Whigs. In the light of this fact alone, it is +impossible to account for the perfectly unbounded and irrepressible +enthusiasm which swept over the land during the campaign, and so +signally routed the forces of Democracy. Something more than empty +promises and windy declamation was necessary, and that something, +in an evil hour, was supplied by the Democrats themselves. + +General Harrison was a man of Revolutionary blood. He commanded +the confidence of the chief Fathers of the Republic. He was a man +of undoubted bravery, and had made a most honorable record, both +as a soldier and a civilian, upon ample trial in both capacities. +He was unquestionably honest and patriotic, and the fact that he +was a poor man, and a plain farmer of the West, could properly form +no objection to his character or his fitness for the Presidency. +But the Democratic orators and newspapers assailed him as an +"imbecile." They called him a "dotard" and a "granny." They said +he had distinguished himself in war by running away from the enemy. +One Democratic journalist spoke of him, contemptuously, as a man +who should be content with a log cabin and a barrel of hard cider, +without aspiring to the Presidency. The efforts to belittle his +merits and defile his good name became systematic, and degenerated +into the most unpardonable personal abuse and political defamation. +This was exactly what the Whigs needed to supplement their lack of +principles. It worked like a charm. It rallied the Whig masses +like a grand battle-cry. Mass-meetings of the people, such as had +never been dreamed of before, became the order of the day. The +people took the work of politics into their own keeping, and the +leaders became followers. The first monster meeting I attended +was held on the Tippecanoe battle-ground, on the 29th and 30th of +May. In order to attend it I rode on horseback through the mud +and swamps one hundred and fifty miles; but I considered myself +amply compensated for the journey in what I saw and enjoyed. The +gathering was simply immense; and I remember that James Brooks, +since conspicuous in our national politics, tried to address the +multitude from the top of a huge log cabin. Large shipments of +hard cider had been sent up the Wabash by steamer, and it was +liberally dealt out to the people in gourds, as more appropriate +and old-fashioned than glasses. The people seemed to be supremely +happy, and their faces were so uniformly radiant with smiles that +a man who was detected with a serious countenance was at once +suspected as an unrepentant "Loco-foco." But by far the largest +meeting of the campaign was that held at Dayton, on the 12th day +of September, where General Harrison spoke at length. He was the +first "great man" I had seen; and, while gazing into his face with +an awe which I have never since felt for any mortal, I was suddenly +recalled from my rapt condition by the exit of my pocket-book. +The number in attendance at this meeting was estimated at two +hundred thousand, and I think it could not have been far out of +the way. I am sure I have never seen it equaled, although I have +witnessed many great meetings within the past forty years. The +marked peculiarity of all the gatherings of this campaign was a +certain grotesque pomp and extravagance of representation suggestive +of a grand carnival. The banners, devices and pictures were +innumerable, while huge wagons were mounted with log cabins, cider +barrels, canoes, miniature ships, and raccoons. + +But the most distinguishing feature of the campaign was its music. +The spirit of song was everywhere, and made the whole land vocal. +The campaign was set to music, and the song seriously threatened +to drown the stump speech. Whiggery was translated into a tune, +and poured itself forth in doggerel rhymes which seemed to be born +of the hour, and exactly suited to the crisis. I give a few +specimens, partly from memory, and partly from "The Harrison and +Log Cabin Song Book" of 1840, a copy of which is before me: + + What has caused the great commotion, motion, motion, + Our country through? + It is the ball a-rolling on, on, + For Tippecanoe and Tyler too--Tippecanoe and Tyler too; + And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van; + Van is a used up man; + And with them we'll beat little Van. + + Like the rushing of mighty waters, waters, waters, + On it will go, + And in its course will clear the way + For Tippecanoe and Tyler too--Tippecanoe and Tyler too; + And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van; + Van is a used up man; + And with them we'll beat little Van. + +The famous "ball" alluded to in this song originated with the Whigs +of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and was sent by them to a Mass +Convention held at Baltimore. It was ten or twelve feet in diameter, +and upon the ends of it, on blue ground, were stars corresponding +in number with the States of the Union. On its wide spaces of red +and white stripes various inscriptions were made, including the +following, which belongs to the poetry and music of the campaign: + + With heart and soul + This ball we roll; + May times improve + As on we move. + + This Democratic ball + Set rolling first by Benton, + Is on another track + From that it first was sent on. + + Farewell, dear Van, + You're not our man; + To guide the ship, + We'll try old Tip. + +The following, sung to the tune of "Old Rosin the Bow," was quite +as popular: + + Come ye who, whatever betide her, + To Freedom have sworn to be true, + Prime up with a cup of hard cider, + And drink to old Tippecanoe. + + On top I've a cask of as good, sir, + As man from the tap ever drew; + No poison to cut up your blood, sir, + But liquor as pure as the dew. + + Parched corn men can't stand it much longer, + Enough is as much as we'll bear; + With Tip at our head, in October, + We'll tumble Van out of the chair. + + Then ho! for March fourth, forty-one, boys, + We'll shout till the heavens' arched blue + Shall echo hard cider and fun, boys, + Drink, drink, to old Tippecanoe. + +The following kindred verses will be familiar to everybody who +remembers the year 1840: + + Ye jolly young lads of Ohio, + And all ye sick Vanocrats, too, + Come out from among the foul party, + And vote for old Tippecanoe. + + Good men from the Van jacks are flying, + Which makes them look kinder askew, + For they see they are joining the standard + With the hero of Tippecanoe. + + They say that he lived in a cabin, + And lived on old cider, too; + Well, what if he did? I'm certain + He's the hero of Tippecanoe. + +I give the following verses of one of the best, which used to be +sung with tremendous effect: + + The times are bad, and want curing; + They are getting past all enduring; + Let us turn out Martin Van Buren, + And put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do, + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + + It's a business we all can take part in, + So let us give notice to Martin + That he must get ready for sartin', + For we'll put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + + We've had of their humbugs a plenty; + For now all our pockets are empty; + We've a dollar now where we had twenty, + So we'll put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do, + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + +The following verses are perfectly characteristic: + + See the farmer to his meal + Joyfully repair; + Crackers, cheese and cider, too, + A hard but homely fare. + + Martin to his breakfast comes + At the hour of noon; + Sipping from a china cup, + With a golden spoon. + + Martin's steeds impatient wait + At the palace door; + Outriders behind the coach + And lackeys on before. + +After the State election in Maine, a new song appeared, which at +once became a favorite, and from which I quote the following: + + And have you heard the news from Maine, + And what old Maine can do? + She went hell bent for Governor Kent, + And Tippecanoe and Tyler too, + And Tippecanoe and Tyler too. + +Such was this most remarkable Whig campaign, with its monster +meetings and music, its infinite drolleries, its rollicking fun, +and its strong flavor of political lunacy. As to the canvass of +the Democrats, the story is soon told. In all points it was the +reverse of a success. The attempt to manufacture enthusiasm failed +signally. They had neither fun nor music in their service, and +the attempt to secure them would have been completely overwhelmed +by the flood on the other side. It was a melancholy struggle, and +constantly made more so by the provoking enthusiasm and unbounded +good humor of the Whigs. It ended as a campaign of despair, while +its humiliating catastrophe must have awakened inexpressible +disappointment and disgust both among the leaders and masses of +the party. + +This picture of party politics, forty-three years ago, is not very +flattering to our American pride, but it simply shows the working +of Democratic institutions in dealing with the "raw material" of +society and life at that time. The movement of 1840 was necessarily +transient and provisional, while underneath its clatter and nonsense +was a real issue. It was unrecognized by both parties, but it made +its advent, and the men who pointed its way quietly served notice +upon the country of their ulterior purposes. + +As long ago as the year 1817, Charles Osborn had established an +anti-slavery newspaper in Ohio, entitled "The Philanthropist," +which was followed in 1821 by the publication of Benjamin Lundy's +"Genius of Universal Emancipation." In 1831 the uprising of slaves +in Southampton County, Virginia, under the lead of Nat. Turner, +had startled the country and invited attention to the question of +slavery. In the same year Garrison had established "The Liberator," +and in 1835 was mobbed in Boston, and dragged through its streets +with a rope about his neck. In 1837 Lovejoy had been murdered in +Alton, Illinois, and his assassins compared by the Mayor of Boston +to the patriots of the Revolution. In 1838 a pro-slavery mob had +set fire to Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, and defied the city +authorities in this service of slavery. President Jackson and Amos +Kendall, his Postmaster General, had openly set the Constitution +at defiance by justifying the rifling of the mails and the suppression +of the circulation of anti-slavery newspapers in the South. The +"gag" resolutions had been introduced in the House of Representatives +in 1836, which provoked the splendid fights of Adams, Giddings and +Slade for the right of petition and the freedom of speech. Dr. +Channing had published his prophetic letter to Henry Clay, on the +annexation of Texas, in 1837, and awakened a profound interest in +the slavery question on both sides of the Atlantic. We had been +disgraced by two Florida wars, caused by the unconstitutional +espousal of slavery by the General Government. President Van Buren +had dishonored his administration and defied the moral sense of +the civilized world by his efforts to prostitute our foreign policy +to the service of slavery and the slave trade. In February, 1839, +Henry Clay had made his famous speech on "Abolitionism," and thus +recognized the bearing of the slavery question upon the presidential +election of the following year. The Abolitionists had laid siege +to the conscience and humanity of the people, and their moral +appeals were to be a well-spring of life to the nation in its final +struggle for self-preservation; but as yet they had agreed upon no +organized plan of action against the aggressions of an institution +which threatened the overthrow of the Union and the end of Republican +government. But now they were divided into two camps, the larger +of which favored political action, organized as a party, and +nominated, as its candidate for President, James G. Birney, who +received nearly seven thousand votes. + +This was a small beginning, but it was the beginning of the end. +That slavery was to be put down without political action in a +government carried on by the ballot was never a tenable proposition, +and the inevitable work was at last inaugurated. It was done +opportunely. Harrison and Van Buren were alike objectionable to +anti-slavery men who understood their record. To choose between +them was to betray the cause. Van Buren had attempted to shelter +the slave trade under the national flag. He had allied himself to +the enemies of the right of petition and the freedom of debate, as +the means of conciliating the South. He had taken sides with +Jackson in his lawless interference with the mails at the bidding +of slave-holders. In a word, he had fairly earned the description +of "a Northern man with Southern principles." General Harrison, +on the other hand, was a pro-slavery Virginian. While Governor of +Indiana Territory he had repeatedly sought the introduction of +slavery into that region through the suspension of the ordnance of +1787, which had forever dedicated it to freedom. He had taken +sides with the South in 1820 on the Missouri question. He had no +sympathy with the struggle of Adams and his associates, against +the gag and in favor of the right of petition, and regarded the +discussion of the slavery question as unconstitutional. The first +draft of his inaugural was so wantonly offensive to the anti-slavery +Whigs who had aided in his election, that even Mr. Clay condemned +it, and prevailed on the General to modify it. He had declared +that "the schemes of the Abolitionists were fraught with horrors, +upon which an incarnate devil only could look with approbation." +With such candidates the hour had fairly struck for anti-slavery +men, who believed in the use of the ballot, to launch the grand +movement which was finally to triumph over all opposition; while +to oppose this movement, however honestly, was to encourage men to +choose between parties equally untrustworthy, and by thus prolonging +their rule to defeat all practical anti-slavery work. It was the +singular mistake of the non-voting Abolitionists at this time, +that, while they looked forward to political action as the ultimate +result of their moral agitation, they vehemently opposed the +formation of an anti-slavery political party, and either withheld +their votes or divided them between these pro-slavery chieftains, +though giving by far the larger proportion to the Whig candidate. + +From this time forward anti-slavery progress was more marked. The +struggle over the right of petition in Congress continued, and was +characterized by a constantly increasing measure of fierceness on +the part of the South. This is vividly depicted in a passage from +the diary of Mr. Adams, in March, 1841, in which he declares that +"The world, the flesh, and all the devils in hell are arrayed +against any man who now, in this North American Union, shall dare +to join the standard of Almighty God to put down the African slave +trade; and what can I, upon the verge of my seventy-fourth birthday, +with a shaking hand, a darkening eye, a drowsy brain, and with all +my faculties dropping from me one by one as the teeth are dropping +from my head, what can I do for the cause of God and man, for the +progress of human emancipation, for the suppression of the African +slave-trade? Yet my conscience presses me on; let me but die upon +the breach." + +The celebrated trial of Mr. Adams the following year, for presenting +a petition from the citizens of Haverhill, requesting Congress to +take steps toward a peaceable dissolution of the Union, was a great +national event, and his triumph gave a new impulse to the cause of +freedom. The censure of Mr. Giddings which followed, for offering +resolutions in the House embodying the simplest truisms respecting +the relations of the General Government to slavery, and the elaborate +State paper of Mr. Webster, which provoked these resolutions, in +which he attempted to commit the Government to the protection of +slavery on the high seas, in accordance with the theories of Mr. +Calhoun, still further kept alive the anti-slavery agitation, and +awakened the interest of Northern men. A kindred aid, unwittingly +rendered the anti-slavery cause, was the infamous diplomacy of +General Cass, our Ambassador to France in 1842, in connection with +the Quintuple Treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade. +His monstrous effort to shield that trade under the flag of the +United States was characterized by Mr. Adams as "a compound of +Yankee cunning, of Italian perfidy, and of French _légéreté_, +cemented by shameless profligacy unparalleled in American diplomacy." +In October, 1842, Henry Clay himself became an anti-slavery agitator +through his famous "Mendenhall Speech" at Richmond, Indiana. In +response to a petition asking him to emancipate his slaves, he told +the people "that whatever the law secures as property _is_ property," +and described his slaves as "being well fed and clad," and as +looking "sleek and hearty." "Go home, Mr. Mendenhall," said he, +"and mind your own business, and leave other people to take care +of theirs." Mr. Mendenhall was an anti-slavery Quaker; but Mr. +Clay, while rebuking him severely, took pains to compliment the +society itself on its practically pro-slavery attitude, and thus +stung into redoubled earnestness and zeal the men who had recently +been driven out of it on account of their "abolitionism." On the +day following this speech, which was the Sabbath, he was escorted +to the yearly meeting by Elijah Coffin, its clerk, seated in a very +conspicuous place, honored by every mark of the most obsequious +deference, and thus made the instrument of widening the breach +already formed in the society, while feeding the anti-slavery fires +which he was so anxious to assuage. + +The work of agitation was still further kept alive by conflicts +between the Northern and Southern States respecting the reclamation +of fugitives from crime. Virginia had demanded of New York the +surrender of three colored sailors who were charged with having +aided a slave to escape. Governor Seward refused to deliver them +up, for the reason that the Constitutional provision on the subject +must be so understood as that States would only be required to +surrender fugitives accused of an offense considered a crime in +the State called upon to make the surrender as well as in the State +asking for it. Similar controversies occurred between other States, +in all of which the South failed in her purpose. The anti-slavery +spirit found further expression in 1843 in Massachusetts, whose +Legislature resolved to move, through the Representatives of the +State in Congress, an Amendment to the Constitution, basing +representation on the free population only of the States; which +proposition gave rise to a most memorable debate in the national +House of Representatives. It was in the August of the same year +that the voting Abolitionists held a National Convention in Buffalo, +in which all the free States, except New Hampshire, were represented; +while in the following year the Methodist Episcopal Church was rent +in twain by the same unmanageable question, which had previously +divided other ecclesiastical communions. + +In the meanwhile, the question of Texan annexation had been steadily +advancing to the political front, and stirring the blood of the +people both North and South. This "robbery of a realm," as Dr. +Channing had styled it, was the unalterable purpose and unquenchable +desire of the slave-holding interest, and its accomplishment was +to be secured by openly espousing the principle that the end +justifies the means, and setting all consequences at defiance. +This is exactly what the Government did. The diplomacy through +which the plot was prosecuted was marked by a cunning, audacity, +and perfidy, which, in these particulars, leave the administration +of John Tyler unrivalled in its ugly pre-eminence, and form one of +the blackest pages in the history of the Republic. The momentous +question was now upon us; and on the dawning of the year 1844, all +parties saw that it was destined to be the overshadowing issue in +the ensuing presidential campaign. + + +CHAPTER II. +THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844--ANNEXATION AND SLAVERY. +The nomination of Clay--His position on the slavery question and +annexation--Van Buren's letter to Hammet, and its effect upon the +South--His repudiation, and the nomination of Polk--The surprise +of the country--Unbounded confidence of the Whigs--The course of +the New York Democrats--The "Kane Letter"--Trouble among the Whigs +on the annexation question--Fierceness of the contest, and singular +ability of the leaders--The effect of Clay's defeat upon the Whigs +--Causes of the defeat--The Abolitionists, and the abuse heaped +upon them--Cassius M. Clay--Mr. Hoar's mission to South Carolina-- +Election of John P. Hale--Annexation and war with Mexico--Polk's +message, and the Wilmot proviso--The Oregon question, and Alex. H. +Stephens. + +The times were serious. The fun and frolic of 1840 had borne no +fruit, and that part of our history could not be repeated. The +campaign of 1844 promised to be a struggle for principle; and among +the Whigs all eyes were turned for a standard-bearer to Mr. Clay, +who had been so shabbily treated four years before. He was +unanimously nominated on the first of May, with Theodore Frelinghuysen +as the candidate for Vice President. The party issues were not +very sharply defined, but this was scarcely necessary with a +candidate who was proverbially regarded as himself "the embodiment +of Whig principles." On the subject of annexation, he clearly +defined his position in his letter of the 17th of April to the +"National Intelligencer." He declared that annexation and war with +Mexico were identical, and placed himself squarely against it, +except upon conditions specified, which would make the project of +immediate annexation impossible. On the slavery question, he had +not yet seriously offended the anti-slavery element in his own +party, and was even trusted by some of the voting anti-slavery men. +In a speech at Raleigh, in April of this year, he declared it to +be "the duty of each State to sustain its own domestic institutions." +He had publicly said that the General Government had nothing to do +with slavery, save in the matters of taxation, representation, and +the return of fugitive slaves. He had condemned the censure of +Mr. Giddings in 1842 as an outrage, and indorsed the principles +laid down in his tract, signed "Pacificus," on the relations of +the Federal Government to slavery, and the rights and duties of +the people of the free States. In his earlier years, he had been +an outspoken emancipationist, and had always frankly expressed his +opinion that slavery was a great evil. These considerations, and +especially his unequivocal utterances against the annexation scheme, +were regarded as hopeful auguries of a thoroughly united party, +and its triumph at the polls; while Mr. Webster, always on the +presidential anxious-seat, and carefully watching the signs of the +political zodiac, now cordially lent his efforts to the Whig cause. + +With the Democracy, Mr. Van Buren was still a general favorite. +His friends felt that the wrong done him in 1840 should now be +righted, and a large majority of his party undoubtedly favored his +renomination. But his famous letter to Mr. Hammet, of Mississippi, +dated March 27th, on the annexation of Texas, placed a lion in his +path. In this lengthy and elaborate document he committed himself +against the project of immediate annexation, and the effect was at +once seen in the decidedly unfriendly tone of Democratic opinion +in the South. He had been faithful to the Slave oligarchy in many +things, but his failure in one was counted a breach of the whole +law. By many acts of patient and dutiful service he had earned +the gratitude of his Southern task-masters; but now, when driven +to the wall, he mustered the courage to say, "Thus far, no farther"; +and for this there was no forgiveness. General Jackson came to +his rescue, but it was in vain. The Southern heart was set upon +immediate annexation as the golden opportunity for rebuilding the +endangered edifice of slavery, and Mr. Van Buren's talk about +national obligations and the danger of a foreign war was treated +as the idle wind. The Southern Democrats were bent upon his +overthrow, and they went about it in the Baltimore Convention of +the 27th of May as if perfectly conscious of their power over the +Northern wing of the party. They moved and carried the "two-thirds +rule," which had been acted on in the National Convention of 1832, +and afterward in that of 1835, although this could not have been +done without the votes of a majority of the convention, which was +itself strongly for Van Buren. The rule was adopted by a considerable +majority, the South being nearly unanimous in its favor, while the +North largely "supplied the men who handed Van Buren over to his +enemies with a kiss." Even General Cass, the most gifted and +accomplished dough-face in the Northern States, failed to receive +a majority of the votes of the Convention on any ballot, and James +K. Polk was finally nominated as the champion of immediate annexation, +with George M. Dallas as the candidate for Vice President. + +The nomination was a perfect surprise to the country, because Mr. +Polk was wholly unknown to the people as a statesman. Like Governor +Hayes, when nominated in 1876, he belonged to the "illustrious +obscure." The astonished native who, on hearing the news, suddenly +inquired of a bystander, "Who the devil is Polk?" simply echoed +the common feeling, while his question provoked the general laughter +of the Whigs. For a time the nomination was somewhat disappointing +to the Democrats themselves; but they soon rallied, and finally +went into the canvass very earnestly, and with a united front. +The Whigs began the campaign in high hopes and in fact with unbounded +confidence in their success. Their great captain was in command, +and they took comfort in his favorite utterance that "truth is +omnipotent, and public justice certain." To pit him against such +a pigmy as Polk seemed to them a miserable burlesque, and they +counted their triumph as already perfectly assured. They claimed +the advantage on the question of annexation, and still more as to +the tariff, since the act of 1842 was popular, and Polk was known +to be a free-trader of the Calhoun school. As the canvass proceeded, +however, it became evident that the fight was to be fierce and +bitter to the last degree, and that the issue, after all, was not +so certain. Mr. Polk, notwithstanding his obscurity, was able to +rouse the enthusiasm of his party, North and South, to a very +remarkable degree. The annexation pill was swallowed by many +Democrats whose support of him had been deemed morally impossible. +In New York, where the opposition was strongest, leading Democrats, +with William Cullen Bryant as their head, denounced the annexation +scheme and repudiated the paragraph of the National platform which +favored it, and yet voted for Polk, who owed his nomination solely +to the fact that he had committed himself to the policy of immediate +and unconditional annexation, thus anticipating the sickly political +morality of 1852, when so many men of repute tried in vain to save +both their consciences and their party orthodoxy by "spitting upon +the platform and swallowing the candidate who stood upon it." +History will have to record that the action of these New York +Democrats saved the ticket in that State, and justly attaches to +them the responsibility for the very evils to the country against +which they so eloquently warned their brethren. The power of the +spoils came in as a tremendous make-weight, while the party lash +was vigorously flourished, and the "independent voter" was as +hateful to the party managers on both sides as we find him to-day. +Those who refused to wear the party collar were branded by the +"organs" as a "pestiferous and demoralizing brood," who deserved +"extermination." Discipline was rigorously enforced, and made to +take the place of argument. As regards the tariff question, Mr. +Polk's letter to Judge Kane, of Philadelphia, of the 19th of June, +enabled his friends completely to turn the tables on the Whigs of +Pennsylvania, where "Polk, Dallas, and the tariff of 1842," was +blazoned on the Democratic banners, and thousands of Democrats were +actually made to believe that Polk was even a better tariff man +than Clay. This letter, committing its free-trade author to the +principle of a revenue tariff, with "reasonable incidental protection +to our home industries," was translated into German and printed in +all the party papers; and as a triumphant effort to make the people +believe a lie, and a masterpiece of political duplicity employed +by the great party as a means of success, it had no precedent in +American politics. In later times, however, it has been completely +eclipsed by the scheme of "tissue ballots," and other wholesale +methods of balking the popular will in the South, by the successful +effort to cheat the nation out of the right to choose its Chief +Magistrate in 1876, and by the startling bribery of a great +commonwealth four years later, now unblushingly confessed by the +party leaders who accomplished it. + +In the meantime the spirit of discontent began to manifest itself +among the Whigs of the South respecting Mr. Clay's attitude on the +question of annexation, and in a moment of weakness he wrote his +unfortunate "Alabama letter," of the 27th of July. In that letter +he said: "I do not think the subject of slavery ought to affect +the question one way or the other. Whether Texas be independent +or incorporated into the United States, I do not believe it will +prolong or shorten the duration of that institution." He also +declared that he would be "glad to see it, without dishonor, without +war, with the common consent of the Union, and upon just and fair +terms." These words were perfectly chilling to his anti-slavery +supporters, who were utterly opposed to annexation on _any_ terms, +because the power of slavery would thus inevitably be extended and +strengthened in the United States. The letter was an irreparable +mistake. It was a fresh example of his besetting tendency to +mediate between opposing policies, and undoubtedly drove from his +support many who would otherwise have followed the Whig banner to +the end. + +But the Whigs kept up the fight. The issues were joined, and it +was too late to change front. The real question in dispute was +that of annexation, and the election of Polk was certain to secure +it, and to involve the nation in war. Clay was unquestionably +right in saying that annexation and war were identical; and, although +on the slavery question he might be feared as a compromiser, there +was no reason to doubt that, if elected, he would vigorously resist +the annexation scheme, except upon conditions already stated, which +could not fail to defeat it as a present measure and avoid the +calamities of war. I was inexpressibly disappointed and grieved +by his letter; but I agreed with Cassius M. Clay, that opposition +to annexation except "with the common consent of the Union" was +practically absolute opposition, and I therefore kept up the fight +in which I had enlisted in the beginning and made my first venture +as a stump speaker. I cared little about the old party issues. +I had outgrown the teachings of the Whigs on the subject of +protection, and especially their pet dogma of "the higher the duty +the lower the price of the protected article." As to a national +bank, I followed Webster, who had pronounced it "an obsolete idea"; +and I totally repudiated the land policy of the Whigs, having at +that early day espoused the principle that the public lands should +cease to be a source of revenue, and be granted in small homesteads +to the landless poor for actual settlement and tillage. But on +the subject of slavery, though it had escaped my attention in the +hurrah of 1840, I was thoroughly aroused. This came of my Quaker +training, the speeches of Adams and Giddings, the anti-slavery +newspapers, and the writings of Dr. Channing, all of which I had +been reading with profound interest since the Harrison Campaign. +Being perfectly sure that annexation would lead to slavery-extension +and war, I thought it my clear and unhesitating duty to resist the +election of Polk with all my might. This I did to the end, and in +doing it I employed substantially the same arguments on which I +justified my separation from the Whigs four years later. + +The contest proceeded with its variety of charges and counter- +charges, and was prosecuted on both sides with extraordinary vigor +and zeal in every part of the Union. I think it was everywhere +and pre-eminently a struggle between the men of brains on either +side. I am quite sure this was true in my own State. Indiana was +remarkable at that time, not only for her gifted stump orators, +but for her men of real calibre and power of argument. On the side +of the Whigs were such men as Oliver H. Smith, Joseph G. Marshall, +George G. Dunn, Joseph L. White, Richard W. Thompson, Caleb B. +Smith, George H. Proffit, Henry S. Lane, Samuel W. Parker, and +James H. Cravens. The Democrats could boast of Tilghman A. Howard, +James Whitcomb, Edward A. Hannegan, William W. Wick, John Law, +Joseph A. Wright, Jesse D. Bright, John W. Davis, Thomas J. Henly, +and John L. Robinson. The best talking talent of the nation was +called into service, including such Democratic giants as Thomas H. +Benton, William Allen, Silas Wright, Robert J. Walker, James +Buchanan, and Daniel S. Dickinson; and such Whigs to match them as +Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Thomas F. Marshall, Thomas Corwin, +S. S. Prentiss, Thomas Ewing, and W. C. Preston. The fight was +more ably if not more hotly contested than any preceding national +struggle, raging and blazing everywhere, while the forces marshaled +against each other were more evenly balanced than in any contest +since the year 1800. The race was so close that the result hung +in agonizing doubt and suspense up to the evening following the +election. Party feeling rose to a frenzy, and the consuming desire +of the Whigs to crown their great Chief with the laurels of victory +was only equaled by that of the Democrats for the triumph of the +unknown Tennessean whose nomination had provoked the aggravating +laughter of the enemy in the beginning. + +It is not possible to describe the effect of Mr. Clay's defeat upon +the Whigs. It was wholly unexpected, and Mr. Clay especially +remained sanguine as to his triumph up to the last moment. When +the result became known, it was accepted by his friends as a great +national calamity and humiliation. It shocked and paralyzed them +like a great tragedy. I remember very vividly one zealous Whig, +afterward a prominent Free Soiler and Republican leader, who was +so utterly overwhelmed that for a week he lost the power of sleep, +and gave himself up to political sorrow and despair. Letters of +the most heart-felt condolence poured in upon Mr. Clay from all +quarters, and the Whigs everywhere seemed to feel that no statesman +of real eminence could ever be made President. They insisted that +an overwhelming preponderance of the virtue, intelligence and +respectability of the country had supported their candidate, while +the larger element of ignorance and "unwashed" humanity, including +our foreign-born population, gave the victory to Mr. Polk. Their +faith in republican government was fearfully shaken, while the +causes of the great disaster were of course sought out, and made +the text of hasty but copious moralizings. One of these causes +was the Kane letter, which undoubtedly gave Mr. Polk the State of +Pennsylvania. Another was the baneful influence of "nativism," +which had just broken out in the great cities, and been made the +occasion of such frightful riot and bloodshed in Philadelphia as +to alarm our foreign-born citizens, and throw them almost unanimously +against the Whigs. The Abolitionists declared that Mr. Clay's +defeat was caused by his trimming on the annexation question, which +drew from him a sufficient number of conscientious anti-slavery +men to have turned the tide in his favor. The famous Plaquemine +frauds in Louisiana unquestionably lost that State to Mr. Clay. +This infamous conspiracy to strangle the voice of a sovereign State +was engineered by John Slidell, and it consisted of the shipment +from New Orleans to Plaquemine of two steamboats loaded with roughs +and villains, whose illegal votes were sufficient to turn the State +over to the Democrats. + +But the cause of Mr. Clay's defeat which was dwelt upon with most +emphasis and feeling was the action of the Liberty party. Birney, +its candidate for President, received 66,304 votes, and these, it +was alleged, came chiefly from the Whig party. The vote of these +men in New York and Michigan was greater than the Democratic +majority, so that if they had united with the Whigs, Clay would +have been elected in spite of all other opposition. Mr. Polk's +plurality over Clay in New York was only 5,106, while Birney received +in that State 15,812; and Horace Greeley insisted that if only one +third of this vote had been cast for Mr. Clay, he would have been +President. The feeling of the Whigs against these anti-slavery +men was bitter and damnatory to the last degree. The Plaquemine +frauds, the Kane letter, and everything else, were forgotten in +the general and abounding wrath against these "fanatics," who were +denounced as the betrayers of their country and of the cause which +a very great and critical opportunity had placed it in their power +to save. "The Abolitionists deserve to be damned, and they will +be," said a zealous Whig to an anti-slavery Quaker; and this was +simply the expression of the prevailing feeling at this time, at +least in the West. + +But this treatment of the Abolitionists was manifestly unjust. +Their organization four years before was neither untimely nor +unnecessary, but belonged to the inevitable logic of a great and +dominating idea. A party was absolutely necessary which should +make this idea paramount, and utterly refuse to be drawn away from +it by any party divisions upon subsidiary questions. It should be +remembered, too, that the Liberty party was made up of Democratic +as well as Whig deserters, and that if it had disbanded, or had +not been formed, the result of this election would have been the +same. The statement of Mr. Greeley, that one third of Birney's +vote in New York would have elected Clay, was unwarranted, unless +he was able to show what would have been the action of the other +two thirds. In justice to these Abolitionists it should also be +remembered and recorded, to say the very least, that Mr. Clay +himself divided with them the responsibility of his defeat by his +Alabama letter, and that now, in the clear perspective of history, +they stand vindicated against their Whig assailants, whose fevered +brains and party intolerance blinded their eyes to the truth. +Doubtless there were honest differences of opinion as to the best +method of serving the anti-slavery cause in this exasperating +campaign, and these differences may still survive as an inheritance; +but abolitionism, as a working force in our politics, had to have +a beginning, and no man who cherishes the memory of the old Free +Soil party, and of the larger one to which it gave birth, will +withhold the meed of his praise from the heroic little band of +sappers and miners who blazed the way for the armies which were to +follow, and whose voices, though but faintly heard in the whirlwind +of 1840, were made significantly audible in 1844. Although they +were everywhere totally misunderstood and grossly misrepresented, +they clearly comprehended their work and courageously entered upon +its performance. Their political creed was substantially identical +with that of the Free Soilers of 1848 and the Republicans of 1856 +and 1860. They were anything but political fanatics, and history +will record that their sole offense was the espousal of the truth +in advance of the multitude, which slowly and finally followed in +their footsteps. + +But the war against slavery was not at all intermitted by the +victory of the Democrats. Events are schoolmasters, and this +triumph only quickened their march toward the final catastrophe. +Cassius M. Clay, who had espoused the Whig cause in this canvass +with great vigor and zeal, and on anti-slavery grounds, re-enlisted +in the battle against slavery, and resolved to prosecute it by new +methods. He had been sorely tried by Mr. Clay's Alabama letter +and the Whig defeat, but he was now armed with fresh courage, and +resolved to "carry the war into Africa" by the establishment of +his newspaper, the "True American," in Lexington, in his own State. +His arraignment of slavery was so eloquent and masterly that a +large meeting of slave-holders appointed a committee to wait on +him, and request the discontinuance of his paper. His reply was: +"Go, tell your secret conclave of cowardly assassins that Cassius +M. Clay knows his rights, and how to defend them." These words +thrilled all lovers of liberty, and sounded to them like a trumpet +call to battle. Another fruitful event was the effort of Massachusetts, +in the fall of this year, to protect her colored seamen in the +ports of Charleston and New Orleans, where they were seized on +merchant ships and sold into slavery under local police regulations. +When Mr. Hoar visited Charleston as the accredited agent of his +State for the purpose of taking measures to test the constitutionality +of these regulations, the Legislature of South Carolina, by a vote +of one hundred and nineteen against one, passed a series of outrageous +resolutions culminating in a request to the Governor to expel him +from the State as a confessed disturber of the peace. He was +obliged summarily to depart, as the only means of escaping the +vengeance of the mob. This open and insolent defiance of the +national authority could not fail to strengthen anti-slavery opinion +in the Northern States. The same end was served by an unexpected +movement in New Hampshire. This State, like Massachusetts and +Vermont, had taken ground against annexation, but it wheeled into +line after Polk was nominated. John P. Hale, however, then a +Democratic member of Congress from that State, refused to follow +his party, and for this reason, after he had been formally declared +its choice for re-election, he was thrown overboard, and another +candidate nominated. No election, however, was effected, and his +seat remained vacant during the 29th Congress, but he obtained a +seat in the Legislature in 1846, and the following year was chosen +United States Senator, while Amos Tuck, afterward a prominent Free +Soiler, was elected to the Lower House of Congress. These were +pregnant events, and especially the triumph of Hale, who became a +very formidable champion of freedom, and a thorn in the side of +slavery till it perished. + +In the meantime the hunger for immediate annexation had been whetted +by the election of Mr. Polk, and its champions hurried up their +work, and pushed it by methods in open disregard of the Constitution +and of our treaty obligations with Mexico. In the last hours of +the administration of John Tyler the atrocious plot received its +finishing touch and the Executive approval, and, in the apt words +of the ablest and fairest historian of the transaction, "the bridal +dress in which Calhoun had led the beloved of the slaveocracy to +the Union was the torn and tattered Constitution of the United +States." War with Mexico, as prophesied by the Whigs, speedily +followed. As early as August, 1845, General Taylor was ordered by +President Polk to advance to a position on the Nueces. In March +of the following year, in pursuance of further orders, his army +again advanced, taking its position on the east bank of the Rio +Grande, and, of course, on the soil of Mexico. Hostilities naturally +followed, and after two battles the President, in his message to +Congress, declared that "American blood has been shed on American +soil." This robust Executive falsehood, with which the slave power +compelled him to face the civilized world, must always hold a very +high rank in the annals of public audacity and crime. It is what +Thomas Carlyle might have styled "the second power of a lie," and +is only rivaled by the parallel falsehood of Congress in declaring +that "by the act of the Republic of Mexico a state of war exists +between that Government and the United States." In the message of +the President referred to, he recommended that a considerable sum +of money be placed at his disposal for the purpose of negotiating +a peace, and it was on the consideration of this message that David +Wilmot fortunately obtained the floor, and moved his memorable +proviso for the interdiction of slavery in any territory which +might be wrested from Mexico by our arms. This was the session of +Congress for 1846-47, and the proposition passed the House with +great unanimity as to the Northern members. At the following +session of Congress, on the 28th of February, 1848, the proviso +again came before the House, and the motion to lay it on the table +failed, all the Whigs and a large majority of the Democrats from +the free States voting in the negative. It passed the House on +the 13th of December following, on a similar division of parties +and sections, but the Senate refused to concur, and the Thirtieth +Congress adjourned without any provisions whatever for the organization +or government of our recently acquired Territories. + +It is worth while to notice in passing that on the first introduction +of the Wilmot proviso, in August, 1846, General Cass was decidedly +in its favor, and regretted that it had been talked to death by +the long speech of John Davis; but on the 24th of December, 1847, +he wrote his famous "Nicholson letter," proclaiming his gospel of +"popular sovereignty" in the Territories, which proved the seed- +plot of immeasurable national trouble and disaster. "I am strongly +impressed with the opinion," said he, "that a great change is going +on in the public mind on this subject--in my own mind as well as +others"; and he had before declared, on the 19th of February, that +the passage of the Wilmot proviso "would be death to the war, death +to all hope of getting an acre of territory, death to the +administration, and death to the Democratic party." This was +thoroughly characteristic, and in perfect harmony with his action, +already referred to, respecting the Quintuple treaty; but it showed +how the political waters were being troubled by the slavery question, +and how impossible it was to accommodate the growing anti-slavery +feeling of the country by any shallow expedients. + +But another conspiracy against freedom was now hatched; and if the +Senate had strangled the Wilmot proviso, it was gratifying to find +the House ready to strangle this monster of senatorial birth. I +allude to the now almost forgotten "Clayton Compromise," which +passed the Senate by a decided majority on the 26th of July. By +submitting the whole question of slavery in all our Territories to +the Supreme Court of the United States, as then constituted, it +would almost certainly have spawned the curse in all of them, +including Oregon, which had long been exposed to peril and massacre +by the reckless opposition of our slave-masters to a government +there without the recognition of slavery. The defeat of this +nefarious proposition, which was happily followed by the passage +of a bill giving Oregon a territorial government, is largely due +to Alexander H. Stephens, whose motion to lay it on the table in +the House prevailed by a small majority. In this action he had +the courage to separate himself from the great body of the leading +men of his own section; but in doing so he was prompted by his +supreme devotion to slavery. This he has since denied and labored +to explain in his private correspondence and published works, but +the record is fatally against him. He was unwilling to trust the +interests of the South in the hands of the Supreme Court, and his +speech of August 7th, in the House of Representatives, in defense +of his motion, gave very plausible reasons for his apprehensions; +but the Dred Scott decision of a few years later showed how completely +he misjudged that tribunal, and how opportunely his blindness came +to the rescue of freedom. It seems now to have been providential; +for in this Continental plot against liberty the superior sagacity +of Calhoun and his associates was demonstrated by subsequent events, +while Mr. Stephens, with his great influence in the South, could +almost certainly have secured its triumph if he had become its +champion instead of its enemy. + + +CHAPTER III. +THE CAMPAIGN OF 1848--ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS. +The approach of another presidential campaign--Party divisions +threatened by the Wilmot proviso--Nomination of Gen. Cass--The +"Nicholson Letter"--Democratic division in New York--The nomination +of Gen. Taylor--Whig divisions--Birth of the Free Soil party--The +Buffalo Convention--Nomination of Van Buren and Adams--Difficulty +of uniting on Van Buren--Incidents--Rev. Joshua Leavitt--The work +of the campaign--Mr. Webster and Free Soil--Greeley and Seward-- +Abuse of Whig bolters--Remarkable results of the canvass. + +The approach of another presidential year was thus marked by a +steadily growing interest in the question of slavery. The conflict +with it seemed far more irrepressible than ever before. The Liberty +party had nominated John P. Hale as its candidate in 1847. The +Whigs in Massachusetts were threatened with an incurable division +into "Conscience Whigs" and "Cotton Whigs," growing out of the +question of annexation and the government of our new Territories. +The same causes were dividing the Democrats of New York, and the +feud was seriously aggravated by remembering the defeat of Mr. Van +Buren in 1844, for the one sin of opposing the immediate annexation +of Texas, while a large majority of the party favored his nomination. +The Van Buren element in the Democratic party threatened revolt in +other States, while both Whigs and Democrats in the North were +committed to the policy of the Wilmot proviso. This was to be the +great question of the ensuing national canvass, and the roused +spirit of the people of the free States seemed clearly to foreshadow +the triumph of freedom in the organization and government of our +Mexican acquisitions. + +But the virtue and courage of our politicians were now to be severely +tried. The power of party discipline and the tempting bait of the +spoils were to be employed as never before in swerving men from +their convictions. The South, of course, was a perfect unit, and +fully resolved upon the spread of slavery over our Territories. +It had always been the absolute master of the Northern Democracy, +and had no dream of anything less than the supremacy of its own +will. Its favorite candidate was now Gen. Cass, and he was nominated +by the Baltimore National Convention on the 22d day of May. It +was a fit nomination for the party of slavery. He had been thirsting +for it many years, and had earned it by multiplied acts of the most +obsequious and crouching servility to his Southern overseers. +Again and again he had crawled in the dust at their feet, and, if +they could not now reward him with the presidency, it seemed utterly +useless for any Northern man to hope for their favor. The "Nicholson +letter" was not all that the South wanted, but it was a very +important concession, and with Gen. Cass as its interpreter it +meant the nearest thing possible to a complete surrender. In this +National Convention the State of New York had two sets of delegates, +both of which were formally admitted, as a compromise; but the +members of the Van Buren or Free Soil wing refused to take their +seats, and thus held themselves in reserve for such revolutionary +work as should afterward seem to them advisable. + +The Whig National Convention met in Philadelphia on the 7th of +June. The party seemed completely demoralized by the defeat of +Mr. Clay in the previous canvass, and was now in search of "an +available candidate," and inspired by the same miserable policy of +expediency which had been so barren of results in 1840. The Northern +Whigs appeared to be unanimously and zealously committed to the +prohibition of slavery in our Territories, but equally unanimous +and zealous in the determination to succeed in the canvass. For +more than a year Gen. Taylor had been growing into favor with the +party as a candidate, and he had now become decidedly formidable. +The spectacle was a melancholy one, since it demonstrated the +readiness of this once respectable old party to make complete +shipwreck of everything wearing the semblance of principle, for +the sake of success. General Taylor had never identified himself +in any way with the Whig party. He had spent his life as a mere +soldier on the frontier, and had never given a vote. He had frankly +said he had not made up his mind upon the questions which divided +the parties. He not only refused to be the exponent of Whig +principles, but accepted the nomination of bodies of men not known +as Whigs, who scouted the idea of being bound by the acts of any +national convention. He was a very large slave-owner, and thus +identified in interest, and presumably in sympathy, with the South; +but he could not be induced to define his position. His active +supporters were chiefly from the slave-holding States and those +free States which had generally given Democratic majorities, while +the men most violent in their opposition to the Wilmot proviso were +his most conspicuous followers; but the Whigs from the free States +vouched for his soundness on the slavery issue. His letters +contained nothing but vague generalities, and he utterly declined +to commit himself on the question that was stirring the nation to +its depths. To the different sections of the Union he wore a +different face, and each section seemed confident that the other +would be duped, while cordially joining in a common struggle for +the spoils of office which constituted the sole bond of union. +His early letters, before he fell into the hands of the politicians, +were frank and unstudied, reflecting his character as a plain old +soldier without any political training; but his later letters were +diplomatic, not wanting in style and finish, and obviously written +by others. His second letter to Allison, on which the campaign +was finally fought, was written in the room of Alexander H. Stephens, +in Washington, after consulting with Toombs and Crittenden, and +afterward forwarded to Taylor, who gave it to the world as his own. +He had constantly about him a sort of political body-guard, or +"committee of safety," to direct his way during the canvass, and +no one could reasonably pretend that any principle whatever would +be settled by the election. He had whipped the Mexicans, and the +Whig platform was "Rough and Ready," "A little more Grape, Captain +Bragg," and political success. + +The nomination, moreover, was accomplished by methods which made +it exceedingly exasperating to Mr. Clay and his friends. The +treachery of the Whig managers to their great leader exceeded that +which had sacrificed him at the Harrisburg Convention of 1839. +The Whigs of Virginia nominated Taylor on the credit of a forged +dispatch, to the effect that Kentucky had decided in his favor, +and thus abandoned her favorite son. General Scott had expressed +his willingness to run for Vice President if Clay should be nominated +for President, but the member of Congress who had been authorized +to make this known kept it a secret. Clay allowed his name to go +before the Convention on the assurance of Governor Bebb that Ohio +would stand by him, but the delegation voted for Scott. On the +first ballot, even seven delegates from Kentucky voted for Taylor, +and he was nominated by 171 votes, with 63 for Scott, and only 32 +for Clay. Of the votes for Taylor, on the first ballot, 97 were +cast by States that had voted for Polk in 1844; and of the 94 Whig +delegates from the Free States he received the votes of only four. +He was nominated as the candidate of the Whigs who believed in the +extension of slavery, by a Convention which repeatedly and +contemptuously voted down the Wilmot proviso, already endorsed by +all the Whig Legislatures of the Free States, while no platform of +principles was adopted; and Horace Greeley was thus perfectly +justified in branding it as "the slaughter-house of Whig principles." +Such an exhibition of shameless political prostitution has rarely +been witnessed, and three of the leading Whigs of Massachusetts-- +Charles Allen, Henry Wilson, and Stephen C. Phillips--left the +Convention in disgust, and severed their connection with the party +forever. + +In this state of the country, and of the old parties, a new +organization and another nomination became inevitable. The followers +of Mr. Van Buren, in New York and other States, were aching for +the opportunity to make themselves felt in avenging the wrong done +to their chief in 1844, and were quite ready to strike hands with +the members of the Liberty party. The members of that party were +generally ready to withdraw their candidate for President and unite +with the anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats of the Northern States, +if an honorable basis of action could be agreed upon. The "Conscience +Whigs" of Massachusetts, and thousands of Whigs in other States, +who regarded the freedom of our Territories as a vital issue, and +were thoroughly soured by the nomination of General Taylor, were +equally anxious to fuse with the other elements of political +discontent, and make their voices heard in a new and independent +organization. There was little time for delay, and as soon as the +troubled political elements would permit, a call was issued for a +National Free Soil Convention, at Buffalo, on the 9th of August. + +The Convention was historic. It marked a new and significant +departure in party politics, and was a conspicuous milestone in +the anti-slavery journey. It met in a spacious pavilion, and was +one of the largest political gatherings ever assembled in the +country, and animated by unbounded earnestness and enthusiasm. +Its leading spirits were men of character and undisputed ability. +The "Barnburners" of New York were largely in attendance, including +such veteran leaders as Preston King, Benjamin F. Butler, David +Dudley Field, Samuel J. Tilden, and James W. Nye. Ohio sent a +formidable force headed by Joshua R. Giddings, Salmon Chase, and +Samuel Lewis. The "Conscience Whigs" of Massachusetts were well +represented, with Charles Francis Adams, Stephen C. Phillips, and +Francis W. Bird, in the front. The Liberty party sent its delegates, +including such men as the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, Samuel Lewis, and +Henry B. Stanton. The disappointed Clay Whigs were there, led by +such representative men as Joseph L. White, who were eager to lay +hold of any weapon by which they could hope to strike down the +betrayers of the Whig cause. The "Land Reformers" and "Workingmen" +of New York were represented, as also the special advocates of +"Cheap postage for the people," who longed to be rid of the tariff +of twenty-five cents on the privilege of sending a single letter +through the mails, and whose wishes afterward found expression in +the platform. + +Could these elements be harmonized? Could the bolters from the +Whig party overcome their traditional hatred of Martin Van Buren? +If so, could the Liberty party men be prevailed upon to give up +their chosen candidate, and labor for the election of the "foxy +old politician" whose reputation for tricky and ambidextrous +political methods had become proverbial? If not, could the +Barnburners, with their large following, be united on the candidate +of the Liberty party, or some new man? These questions had to be +met; but preliminary to the nomination was the construction of a +platform. This was accomplished without serious difficulty, and, +considering the circumstances of the country, it was perhaps the +most admirable declaration of principles ever promulgated by any +party. It was chiefly the work of Mr. Chase, assisted by Charles +Francis Adams, Benjamin F. Butler, and others, and it declared, +among its pregnant and telling sentences, that "Congress has no +more power to make a slave than to make a king," and that "it is +the duty of the Federal Government to relieve itself of all +responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery wherever +that Government possesses authority to legislate and is thus +responsible for its existence." The reading of these declarations +called forth thunders of applause, while the last plank in the +platform "resolved, that we inscribe on our banner free soil, free +speech, free labor, and free men, and under it we will fight on +and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our +exertions." + +The nominating Convention assembled in the large Universalist Church +in Buffalo. Mr. Van Buren was not understood as desiring the +nomination, but it was now authoritatively stated that he would +accept it if tendered, and that he would, without hesitation or +evasions, accept the platform of the Convention. The different +elements of this movement had been in conference, and the time for +action was at hand. In common with my Whig associates, I had all +along felt that I could not support Mr. Van Buren under any +circumstances; but the pervading tone of earnestness in the +Convention, and the growing spirit of political fraternity, had +modified our views. We saw that several of the great leaders of +the Liberty party were quite ready to meet the "Barnburners" on +common ground. It seemed very desirable to combine with so large +a body of helpers, and to profit by their experience and training +in the school of practical politics. Mr. Van Buren had certainly +gone great lengths as the servant of the slave power, but there +was _one_ great and vital issue to freedom on which he had taken +the right side, and maintained it without flinching in the presence +of a great temptation; and for this he had been anathematized by +the South, and driven into retirement. If nominated by the anti- +slavery men of the free States, and squarely committed to their +principles, it was altogether improbable, if not morally impossible, +that he would again lend himself to the service of slavery. Besides, +the whole country had been so demoralized by this evil that it was +not easy to find any public man of eminence whose record had been +spotless; and it was a part of the work of earnest anti-slavery +men to forget party memories and prejudices for the sake of the +cause, and to cultivate the virtues of hope and trust, rather than +the spirit of doubt and suspicion, in dealing with a man who was +now ready to unfurl the flag of freedom, and had been stricken down +by her foes. The nomination of Mr. Van Buren would undoubtedly +mean the freedom of our Territories and the denationalization of +slavery, and this was the great point. In this movement there was +no element of compromise. It was wholly unhampered by a Southern +wing; and even should the nominee betray the men who now trusted +him, their choice of him, as their standard bearer, would be +vindicated by the circumstances of the hour. + +Mr. Chase, then in the prime of his manhood, and a splendid figure, +was the president of this nominating Convention, and its work +proceeded. There was a feeling of intense anxiety about the result, +and an earnestness and real seriousness which I have never witnessed +in any other Convention. There were leading Whigs and Liberty +party men, whose action in respect to Mr. Van Buren was not yet +generally known. Several delegates remarked, "I want to know what +Samuel Lewis will do before I decide," or, "I want to hear from +Joshua Leavitt." After the nomination of Mr. Van Buren had been +moved, Mr. Leavitt rose from his seat, and all eyes were instantly +turned upon him. He was then in middle life, and his tall and +erect form and fine physiognomy were singularly striking. He was +full of emotion, and seemed at first to lack the power of utterance, +while the stillness of death prevailed in the Convention. He began +by saying: "Mr. Chairman, this is the most solemn experience of +my life. I feel as if in the immediate presence of the Divine +Spirit." He paused here for a few moments, while there did not +seem to be a dry eye in the Convention; but he proceeded grandly +with his speech, defined his position, and seconded the motion for +Mr. Van Buren's nomination, upon which the mingled political +enthusiasm and religious fervor of the Convention broke over all +bounds, and utterly defied description. Men laughed and cried at +the same time, and gave themselves up to the perfect abandon of +their feelings. All divisions had completely died away, and the +nomination of Mr. Van Buren by acclamation became a matter of +course. Charles Francis Adams was then nominated for Vice President, +when the Convention adjourned, and its members returned to their +homes to prepare for the coming canvass under the banner of "Van +Buren and Free Soil--Adams and Liberty." + +The new national party was now launched, and the work of the +presidential canvass began in earnest. John A. Dix, then one of +the United States Senators from New York, was nominated for Governor, +with Seth M. Gates, the anti-slavery colleague of Adams and Giddings +in Congress, for Lieutenant-Governor. The Free Soil State Convention +of Ohio set the ball in motion in that State, and the new party, +by securing the balance of power in the Legislature, was able to +place Mr. Chase in the Senate of the United States. Stephen C. +Phillips was nominated for Governor in Massachusetts, where the +movement was very formidable, and exceedingly annoying to the +"Cotton Whigs." Like conventions were held in Indiana and other +free States, organizations effected, and candidates nominated, +while the movement extended to the border slave states, in which +it afterward did excellent service. The canvass of the Democrats +was not remarkably enthusiastic. The division of the party and +the probable loss of the State of New York had a very depressing +influence. The Whig canvass was perhaps marked by still less +earnestness and spirit. It was hollow and false, and the best men +in the party felt it. The only enthusiasm of the campaign was in +the new party, and it was perfectly spontaneous and fervid. The +most remarkable feature of this contest was the bitterness of the +Whigs toward the Free Soilers, and especially those who had deserted +from the Whig ranks. They seemed to be maddened by the imputation +that they were not perfectly sound on the Free Soil issue. This +was particularly true of Mr. Webster, who had been branded by Mr. +Adams as a "Traitor to freedom," as far back as the year 1843, and +who afterward justified these strong words in his "Seventh of March +Speech." In the Whig State Convention of Massachusetts, held at +Springfield, in 1847, Mr. Webster, speaking of the Wilmot proviso, +had said: "Did I not commit myself to that in the year 1838, fully, +entirely? I do not consent that more recent discoverers shall take +out a patent for the discovery. Allow me to say, sir, it is not +their thunder." He then claimed Free Soil as a distinctive Whig +doctrine, and in a speech at Abingdon, he now said: "The gentlemen +who have joined this new party, from among the Whigs, pretend that +they are greater lovers of liberty and greater haters of slavery +than those they leave behind them. I do not admit it. I do not +admit any such thing. I think we are as good Free Soil men as they +are." The same ground was urged by Washington Hunt, James Brooks, +and other leading Whigs; and Mr. Greeley declared that "at no time +previously had Whig inculcations throughout the free States been +so decidedly and strongly hostile to the extension of slavery, and +so determined in requiring its inhibition by Congress, as during +the canvass of 1848." These statements appear very remarkable, +when it is remembered that the Whig nominee was a Louisiana planter, +and that he was nominated at the bidding of the slave-holding wing +of the party, and by a convention which not only contemptuously +voted down the Wilmot proviso, but treated its advocates as +"fanatics." But even Governor Seward strangely clung to the old +party after the death and burial of its conscience, and seriously +brought his personal integrity into question by urging the support +of General Taylor upon those who favored the abolition of slavery. +In a speech at Cleveland, Ohio, in October of that year, he said: +"Freedom insists on the emancipation and development of labor; +slavery demands a soil moistened with tears and blood--freedom a +soil that exults under the elastic tread of man in his native +majesty. These elements divide and classify the American people +into two parties," and he proceeded to argue as if the Whigs and +Democrats were thus divided, when he knew that both were in the +absolute control of the slave power. + +The Free Soilers, of course, did not particularly relish these +moral lectures on slavery by men who had sold their principles at +public auction for the chance of office and plunder through the +elevation of a mere military chieftain to the Presidency. But the +Whigs were not content with claiming the complete monopoly of anti- +slavery virtue, and parading it before the country; they became +abusive and insulting to the full measure of their insincerity. +Their talk about "renegades" and "apostates" anticipated the abuse +heaped upon the Greeley men of 1872, when the Republican party had +so completely triumphed over the integrity of its earlier life. +The course of the Whigs in Indiana supplies a striking illustration. +After the presidential election of 1844, I resolved that I would +never vote for another slaveholder, and the course of events and +my own reflections had constantly strengthened this purpose. I +saw no honorable way of escape, and my position was well known to +my Whig brethren; but, as soon as General Taylor was nominated, +the policy of browbeating and threats was invoked. I had no taste +for politics, and had determined to devote myself entirely to my +profession. I was especially anxious to avoid any strife with the +Whigs, who were overwhelmingly in the ascendant in Eastern Indiana, +and in whose ranks were most of my clients and best friends. But +the party leaders talked to me in the imperative mood. They saw +my embarrassment, and seemed determined to coerce me into submission +by the supposed extremity of my situation; and I was obliged to +offer them open defiance. I was made an elector for Van Buren and +Adams in the Fourth Indiana District, and entered upon the contest +with a will; and from that time forth I was subjected to a torrent +of billingsgate which rivalled the fish market. Words were neither +minced nor mollified, but made the vehicles of political wrath and +the explosions of personal malice. The charge of "abolitionism" +was flung at me everywhere, and it is impossible now to realize +the odium then attaching to that term by the general opinion. I +was an "amalgamationist" and a "woolly-head." I was branded as +the "apostle of disunion" and "the orator of free-dirt." It was +a standing charge of the Whigs that I carried in my pocket a lock +of the hair of Frederick Douglass, to regale my senses with its +aroma when I grew faint. They declared that my audiences consisted +of "eleven men, three boys, and a negro," and sometimes I could +not deny this inventory was not very far from the truth. I was +threatened with mob violence by my own neighbors, and treated as +if slavery had been an established institution of the State, with +its machinery of overseers and background of pauperized whites; +while these same Whigs, as if utterly unconscious of the irony of +their professions, uniformly resolved, in their conventions, that +"the Whig party is the only true Free Soil party." + +I was not, of course, a non-resistant in the warfare, and for two +months I gave myself up to the work absolutely. I was seriously +embarrassed in the outset by the question of transportation, having +neither horse nor carriage, nor the financial ability to procure +either; but an anti-slavery Quaker, and personal friend, named +Jonathan Macy, came to my rescue. He furnished me an old white +horse, fully seventeen hands high, and rather thin in flesh, but +which served my purpose pretty well. I named him "Old Whitey," in +honor of General Taylor's famous war steed, and sallied forth in +the work of the campaign. Having a first-class pair of lungs and +much physical endurance, I frequently spoke as often as three times +a day, and generally from two to three hours at each meeting. I +spoke at cross-roads, in barns, in pork houses, in saw-mills, in +any place in which a few or many people would hear me; but I was +rarely permitted to enter any of the churches. I was so perfectly +swallowed up in my work and dominated by the singleness of my +purpose, that I took no thought of anything else; and the vigor of +my invective in dealing with the scurrilous attacks of my assailants +was very keenly realized, and, I believe, universally acknowledged. +With the truth on my side, I was delighted to find myself perfectly +able, single-handed, to fight my battle against the advantages of +superior talent and the trained leadership of men of established +reputations on the stump. But the fight, as I have said, was +unspeakably relentless, vitriolic and exhausting, and nothing could +redeem it but an overmastering sense of duty and self-respect. +The worst passions of humanity were set on fire among the Whigs by +this provoking insurrection against their party as the mere tool +of slavery, while animosities were engendered that still survive, +and which many men have carried to their graves. This is only a +single illustration of the spirit of the canvass, for similar +conflicts marked the struggle in Ohio, Massachusetts and other +States, and they were made inevitable by the desperation of a party +already dead in its trespasses, and which deserved a funeral instead +of a triumph. + +The results of this contest were most remarkable. General Taylor +was elected but his triumph was the death of the Whig party. The +long-coveted prize of the presidency was snatched from General +Cass, and the Democratic party divided and humiliated by its struggle +to serve two masters, while the friends of Mr. Van Buren had their +longed-for revenge. The Free Soil ticket received a little less +than three hundred thousand votes, and failed to carry the electoral +vote of a single State; but the effect of the movement was inestimably +important. It seated Chase in the United States Senate from Ohio, +and sent to the lower branch of Congress a sufficient number of +anti-slavery men from different States to hold the balance of power +in that body. It was very savingly felt in Congress in July of +this year, on the vote by which Oregon, with a territory nearly +equal to that of the thirteen original States, narrowly escaped +the damnation of slavery. It emphasized the demand of the million +for "cheap postage," and the freedom of the public domain, and thus +helped stereotype these great measures into law; and it played its +part in creating the public opinion which compelled the admission +of California as a free State. These were great achievements, but +they were mere preliminaries to the magnificent and far-reaching +work of succeeding years, of which the revolt of 1848 was the +promise and pledge. + + +CHAPTER IV. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. +Novel political complications--The Compromise Measures--First +election to Congress--Sketch of the "immortal nine"--The speakership +and Wm. J. Brown--Gen. Taylor and the Wilmot proviso--Slave-holding +banter--Compromise resolutions of Clay, and retreat of Northern +Whigs--Visit to Gen. Taylor--To Mr. Clay--His speeches--Webster's +seventh of March speech--Character of Calhoun--Speech on the slavery +question. + +The scheme of "pacification" and "final settlement," which was +launched in 1850, under the leadership of Henry Clay, constitutes +one of the chief landmarks in the history of the great conflict +between freedom and slavery. It was the futile attempt of legislative +diplomacy to escape the fatal logic of antecedent facts. The war +with Mexico, like the annexation of Texas which paved the way for +it, was inspired by the lust for slave territory. No sophistry +could disguise this fact, nor could its significance be overstated. +The prophets of slavery saw clearly that restriction meant destruction. +They girded themselves for battle on this issue, and were not at +all placated by Northern disclaimers of "abolitionism," and reiterated +disavowals of any right or purpose to intermeddle with slavery as +the creature of State law. Its existence was menaced by the policy +of confinement and ultimate suffocation; and therefore no compromise +of the pending strife over its prohibition in New Mexico, Utah and +California was possible. + +This strife was aggravated by its peculiar relations to the dominant +political parties. The sacrifice of Martin Van Buren in 1844, +because of his manly letter on the annexation of Texas, had been +a sore trial to his devoted friends. They could neither forgive +nor forget it; and when the opportunity for revenge finally came +in 1848, they laid hold of it with the sincerest and most heartfelt +satisfaction. As we have seen, they bolted from their party, threw +themselves into the Free Soil movement, and thus made the defeat +of Gen. Cass inevitable by the election of Gen. Taylor. Thousands +of these bolting Democrats, particularly in the State of New York, +cared more for the personal and political fortunes of Mr. Van Buren +than for the slavery question, as their subsequent return to their +party allegiance made manifest; but their action was none the less +decisive in the emergency which called it forth. The trouble in +the Whig camp was also serious. The last hopes of Mr. Clay and +his worshipers had perished forever in the nomination of the hero +of the Mexican war and the owner of two hundred slaves, by a +Convention which became famous as "the slaughter house of Whig +principles." Very many of these Clay Whigs, like the devotees of +Mr. Van Buren, would have been satisfied with almost any dispensation +of the slavery issue if their chief had been nominated, but they +were now enlisted in the anti-slavery army, and, like Joseph L. +White, of Indiana, vociferously shouted for "liberty and revenge." +Mr. Webster and his friends were also profoundly disgusted, and +lent a strong hand to the work of party insubordination, while the +election of Gen. Taylor was quite naturally followed by formidable +party coalitions. One of these, as already stated, made Salmon P. +Chase a senator of the United States from Ohio, as John P. Hale +had been chosen from New Hampshire some time before, and Charles +Sumner came in a little later from Massachusetts; and the House of +Representatives now contained nine distinctly anti-slavery men, +chosen from different States by kindred combinations, who had +completely renounced their allegiance to the old parties, and were +able to wield the balance of power in that body. Such were the +complications of the great problem which confronted the Thirty- +first Congress at the opening of its first session, on the third +day of December, 1849. + +In this Congress I was a representative, for the first time, of +the Fourth Indiana District. This district contained a large Quaker +population, and in the matter of liberality and progress was in +advance of all other portions of the State; and yet the immeasurable +wrath and scorn which were lavished upon the men who deserted the +Whig party on account of the nomination of General Taylor can +scarcely be conceived. The friends of a life-time were suddenly +turned to enemies, and their words were often dipped in venom. It +seemed as if a section of Kentucky or Virginia had in some way +usurped the geography of Eastern Indiana, bringing with it the +discipline of the slave-master, and a considerable importation of +"white trash." The contest was bitter beyond all precedent; but +after a hard fight, and by a union of Free Soilers, Democrats, and +Independent Whigs, I was elected by a small majority. Owing to +serious illness, resulting from the excitement and overwork of the +canvass, I did not reach Washington till the 19th of December--just +in time to cast my vote for speaker on the fifty-sixth ballot in +this first important "dead-lock" in the organization of the House. +With the exception of two Indiana members, I had no personal +acquaintance in either branch of Congress, and, on entering the +old Hall of Representatives, my first thought was to find the Free +Soil members, whose political fortunes and experience had been so +similar to my own. The seat of Mr. Giddings was pointed out to me +in the northwest corner of the Hall, where I found the stalwart +champion of free speech busy with his pen. He received me with +evident cordiality, and at once sent a page for the other Free Soil +members. Soon the "immortal nine," as we were often sportively +styled, were all together: David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, then +famous as the author of the "Provsio," short and corpulent in +person, and emphatic in speech; Preston King, of New York, with +his still more remarkable rotundity of belt, and a face beaming +with good humor; the eccentric and witty "Jo Root," of Ohio, always +ready to break a lance with the slave-holders; Charles Allen, of +Massachusetts, the quiet, dignified, clear-headed and genial +gentleman, but a good fighter and the unflinching enemy of slavery; +Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin, the fine-looking and large-hearted +philanthropist, whose enthusiasm never cooled; Amos Tuck, of New +Hampshire, amiable and somewhat feminine in appearance, but firm +in purpose; John W. Howe, of Pennsylvania, with a face radiant with +smiles and good will, and full of anti-slavery fervor; and Joshua +R. Giddings, of Ohio, with his broad shoulders, giant frame, +unquenchable love of freedom, and almost as familiar with the +slavery question, in all its aspects, as he was with the alphabet. +These, all now gone to their reckoning, were the elect of freedom +in the lower branch of this memorable Congress. They all greeted +me warmly, and the more so, perhaps, because my reported illness +and doubtful recovery had awakened a peculiar interest in my fortunes +at that time, on account of the political situation, and the possible +significance of a single vote. John P. Hale happened to enter the +hall during these congratulations, and still further lighted up +the scene by his jolly presence; while Dr. Bailey, of the "National +Era," also joined in the general welcome, and at once confirmed +all the good opinions I had formed of this courageous and single- +minded friend of the slave. I was delighted with all my brethren, +and at once entered fully into their plans and counsels. + +An incident connected with the organization of the House, which +caused intense excitement at the time, seems to deserve some notice. +It occurred on the 12th of December, while William J. Brown, of +Indiana, was being voted for as the Democratic candidate for Speaker. +He was a pro-slavery Democrat, through and through, and commanded +the entire and unhesitating confidence of Southern members; and +yet, on the last ballot for him, he received the votes of Allen, +Durkee, Giddings, King, and Wilmot, and came within two votes of +an election. The support of Mr. Brown by the leading Free Soilers +was a great surprise to both sides of the House, and the suspicion +that some secret arrangement had been made gave birth to a rumor +to that effect. After the balloting, while Mr. Bailey, of Virginia, +was on the floor, Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, asked him whether +a secret correspondence had not taken place between some member of +the Free Soil party and Mr. Brown, by which the latter had agreed +to constitute the Committees on the Judiciary, on Territories, and +on the District of Columbia, in a manner satisfactory to that party. +Mr. Bailey scouted the idea, and asked Mr. Ashmun what authority +he had for the statement. Mr. Ashmun replied, "Common rumor"; to +which Mr. Bailey rejoined, "Does not the gentleman know that common +rumor is a common liar?" Turning to Mr. Brown, he said, "Has any +such correspondence taken place?" Mr. Brown shook his head, and +Mr. Bailey became more emphatic than ever in his denial. But the +fever was now up, and the Southern members scented treason. Several +of them withheld their votes from Mr. Brown because of his Free +Soil support, and thus prevented his election. He was in a very +trying dilemma with his Southern friends, while the Free Soilers +who had supported him were also placed in a novel predicament, and +subjected to catechism. The fact was finally revealed in the course +of a long and exciting debate, that Mr. Wilmot _had_ entered into +a correspondence with Mr. Brown on the subject of the organization +of the Committees named, and that the latter _had_ promised in +writing to constitute them as stated in Mr. Ashumn's inquiry-- +declaring that he had "always been opposed to the extension of +slavery," and believed that "the Federal Government should be +relieved from the responsibility of slavery where it had the +constitutional right to abolish it." This, in substance, was the +whole Free Soil gospel; and the disappointment and rage of Southern +members, when the letter was produced, can be more easily imagined +than described. Mr. Brown labored very painfully to explain his +letter and pacify his Southern friends, but the effort was utterly +vain. He was branded with treachery and duplicity by Bailey, +Harris, Burt, Venable, Stanton, and McMullen, while no man from +the South pretended to excuse him. In the midst of great excitement +he withdrew from the contest for Speaker, and the catastrophe of +his secret maneuver was so unspeakably humiliating that even his +enemies pitied him. But he was unjustly dealt with by his Southern +brethren, whose fear of betrayal and morbid sensitiveness made all +coolness of judgment impossible. While he possessed very social +and kindly personal traits of character, no man in this Congress +was more inflexibly true to slavery, as his subsequent career amply +demonstrated. If he had been chosen Speaker he would doubtless +have placed some of the Free Soil members on the Committees specified, +but the whole power of his office would have been studiously +subservient to the behests of the slave oligarchy; and nothing +could excuse the conduct of Mr. Wilmot and his associates but their +entire ignorance of his political character and antecedents. I +regretted this affair most sincerely, for I knew Mr. Brown well, +and could undoubtedly have prevented the negotiation if I had been +present. + +The Speakership was obviously the first question on which the slave +power must be met in the Thirty-first Congress. No question could +more completely have presented the entire controversy between the +free and slave States which had so stirred the country during the +previous eighteen months. In view of the well-nigh autocratic +power of the Speaker over legislative measures, no honest Free +Soiler could vote for a candidate who was not known to be sound on +the great issue. We could not support Howell Cobb, of Georgia, +the nominee of the Democratic party, however anxious our Democratic +constituents might be to have us do so; nor could we vote for Robert +C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, to please the Whigs and semi-Free +Soilers who affiliated with them, since Giddings, Palfrey and others +had demonstrated that he was wholly untrustworthy in facing the +ragged issue of slavery. This had been proved by his acts as +Speaker in the preceding Congress. We therefore united in the +determination to vote for neither of these candidates. The contest +was protracted till December 22d, when, on the sixty third ballot, +Mr. Cobb was chosen. The result was effected, by adopting, at the +instigation of the Whigs, what was called the "plurality rule," +the operation of which enabled a minority to choose the speaker. +The Whigs, when they entered upon this proceeding, well knew that +the Free Soilers were willing and anxious to vote for Thaddeus +Stevens, or any other reliable member of the party. They well knew +that none of us would vote for Mr. Winthrop, under any circumstances, +and for excellent reasons which we had announced. Further, they +well knew that without Free Soil votes Mr. Cobb would certainly be +chosen; and yet the angry cry went up from the Whigs in Congress +and throughout the Northern States that the Free Soilers had elected +a slave-holder to be speaker of the House! For a time the ridiculous +charge served the purpose of its authors, but the subsequent career +of Mr. Winthrop finally and entirely vindicated the sagacity of +the men whose resolute opposition had thwarted his ambition. + +In the further organization of the House Mr. Campbell, a Tennessee +slave-holder, was chosen clerk on the twentieth ballot, by the help +of Southern Democrats, over John W. Forney, who was then the +particular friend of James Buchanan, and who had made himself so +conspicuous by his abuse of anti-slavery men that the Free Soil +members could not give him their support. On the eighth ballot +Mr. Glossbrenner, of Pennsylvania, the nominee of the Democrats, +was chosen sergeant-at-arms, and after fourteen ineffectual ballots +for doorkeeper, Mr. Horner, the Whig incumbent in the preceding +Congress, was continued by resolution of the House. This was on +January 18th, and the organization of the House was not yet completed, +but further proceedings in this direction were now postponed till +the first of March. + +In the meantime the slavery question had been receiving daily +attention. The strife over the Speakership had necessarily involved +it, and constantly provoked its animated discussion. The great +issue was the Congressional prohibition of slavery in the Territories, +then popularly known as the "Wilmot proviso"; and the first vote +on it was taken December 31st, upon the motion to lay on the table +Mr. Root's resolution which embodied it. The yeas were 83, nays +101; being a majority of only 18 in its favor. The Southern men +seemed to gather hope and courage from this vote. On January 4th, +the President sent in his special message relative to California +and New Mexico, announcing his famous "Non-action" policy, which +was simply another name for the "Non-intervention" dogma of Gen. +Cass. A year before he had declared that the new Territories must +not be "surrendered to the pistol and the bowie-knife"; but a new +light now dawned upon him, and he advised Congress to leave the +Territories to themselves till their people should be prepared to +ask admission into the Union as States. He talked glibly about +"geographical parties" and the "operation of natural causes" as +any trained Whig politician, and seemed to have totally forgotten +his repeated pledges not to interfere with the action of Congress +respecting "domestic questions." While the hand of the Executive +was thus at work, extreme men in both Houses led the way in violent +and inflammatory speeches. "When we ask for justice, and to be +let alone," said Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, "we are met by +the senseless and insane cry of Union, Union! Sir, I am disgusted +with it. When it comes from Northern gentlemen who are attacking +us, it falls on my ear as it would do if a band of robbers had +surrounded a dwelling, and when the inmates attempted to resist, +the assailants should raise the cry of peace, union, harmony!" He +gave out the threat, that unless the slave-holders were allowed to +extend their system over the virgin soil of our Territories, they +would block the wheels of Government, and involve the nation in +the horrors of civil war. He charged that the free States "keep +up and foster in the bosoms Abolition Societies, whose main purpose +is to scatter fire-brands throughout the South, to incite servile +insurrections, and stimulate by licentious pictures our negroes to +invade the persons of our white women." Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, +said he regarded slavery "as a great moral, social and _religious_ +blessing,--a blessing to the slave, and a blessing to the master." +He graciously admitted that Northern people thought slavery an +evil; but he added, "Very well, think so; _but keep your thoughts +to yourselves_." Jefferson Davis, then as ever afterward, the +apostle of disunion, declared that "slavery existed in the tents +of the patriarchs, and in the households of His own chosen people"; +that "it was established by the decree of Almighty God," and +"sanctioned in the Bible--in both Testaments--from Genesis to +Revelations." Southern members pointed to the battle-fields of +the Revolution, and warned the people of the free States to beware; +while the menace was uttered that if the representatives of the +Northern States should vote California into the Union as a free +State, without some compensating measures to the South, their +numbers would be decimated by violence. Mr. Toombs, in referring +to the exclusion of slavery from the common territory, said "I will +then, if I can, bring my children and my constituents to the altar +of liberty, and like Hamilcar, I will swear them to eternal hostility +to your foul domination." On January 29th, Mr. Clay introduced +his eight resolutions of compromise, which still further weakened +the anti-slavery policy of Northern Whigs; and when, on February +4th, another vote was taken on the Wilmot proviso, it was laid on +the table by yeas 104, noes 75;--showing a majority of 29, and a +change of 47 votes in a little more than one month! Thus began +the sickening career of political apostacy, which so gathered +momentum during the spring and summer months that it became impossible +to admit the free State of California into the Union until the +passage of the Texas Boundary Bill and the new Fugitive Slave Act +had been made certain. + +Early in the session I called on President Taylor with Mr. Giddings +and Judge Allen. I had a very strong curiosity to see the man +whose name I had used so freely in two exasperating political +campaigns, and desired to stand corrected in my estimate of his +character, if I should find such correction to be demanded by the +truth. Our interview with the old soldier was exceedingly interesting +and amusing. I decidedly liked his kindly, honest, farmer-like +face, and his old-fashioned simplicity of dress and manners. His +conversation was awkward and labored, and evinced a lack of self- +possession; while his whole demeanor suggested his frontier life, +and that he had reached a position for which he was singularly +unfitted by training and experience, or any natural aptitude. In +the few remarks he addressed to me about farming in the West, he +greatly amused us by saying, "I would like to visit Indiana, and +see your plows, hoes--and other reaping implements"; failing, as +he often did, to find the word he wanted. He frequently mispronounced +his words, hesitated and stammered, and sometimes made a breakdown +in the middle of a sentence. But although he seemed to be in the +hands of the slave-holders, and was about to proclaim his policy +of non-intervention with slavery in the Territories, he impressed +me as being personally honest and patriotic. In this impression +I was fully confirmed later in the session, when he sorrowfully +but manfully resisted the attempt of Senator Davis, his son-in-law, +and other extreme men, to bully him into their measures, and avowed +his sympathy with the anti-slavery sentiment of the country. I +believe his dying words in July, "I have tried to do my duty," were +the key-note of his life, and that in the Presidential campaign of +1848, I did him much, though unintentional, injustice. + +It was about the same time that I called with other Western members +to see Mr. Clay, at the National Hotel. He received us with the +most gracious cordiality, and perfectly captivated us all by the +peculiar and proverbial charm of his manners and conversation. I +remember nothing like it in the social intercourse of my life. +One of our party was Hon. L. D. Campbell, then a prominent Whig +politician of Ohio, and an old friend of Mr. Clay, who seemed +anxious to explain his action in supporting Gen. Scott in the +National Convention of 1848. He failed to satisfy Mr. Clay, whose +eye kindled during the conversation, and who had desired and counted +on the nomination himself. Mr. Clay, addressing him, but turning +to me, said: "I can readily understand the position of our friend +from Indiana, whose strong opinions on the slavery question governed +his action; but your position was different, and, besides, General +Scott had no chance for the nomination, and you were under no +obligation to support him." He spoke in kindly terms of the Free +Soil men; said they acted consistently in supporting Van Buren in +preference to Taylor, and that the election of the latter would +prove the ruin of the Whigs. I heard Mr. Clay's great speech in +the Senate on the Compromise Measures, and although I believed him +to be radically wrong, I felt myself at times drawn toward him by +that peculiar spell which years before had bound me to him as my +idolized political leader. I witnessed his principal encounters +with Col. Benton during this session, in which I thought the latter +had the better of the argument; but his reply to Mr. Barnwell, of +South Carolina, on July 22d, in which he said: "I owe a paramount +allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my State," and +denounced the treasonable utterances of Mr. Rhett, was altogether +inimitable and unsurpassed. In the same speech he showed as little +quarter to the Abolitionists. Turning to Mr. Hale, he said, "They +live by agitation. It is their meat, their bread, the air which +they breathe; and if they saw in its incipient state, a measure +giving them more of that food, and meat, and bread, and air, do +you believe they would oppose themselves to its adoption? Do you +not believe that they would _hail_ [Hale] it as a blessing? * * * +They see their doom as certain as there is a God in heaven, who +sends his providential dispensations to calm the threatening storm, +and to tranquilize agitated men. As certain as God exists in +heaven, your business, your vocation, is gone." His devotion to +the Union was his ruling passion, and in one of his numerous speeches +during this session he held up a fragment of Washington's coffin, +and with much dramatic effect pleaded for reconciliation and peace +between the warring sections. + +His scheme of compromise, or "omnibus bill," was the darling child +of his political ambition and old age; and when, after lovingly +nursing it and gallantly fighting for it through seven or eight +weary months, he saw it cruelly dismembered on July 31st, and his +sovereign remedy for our national troubles insulted by the separate +passage of the bill providing a Territorial Government for Utah, +I could not help feeling a profound personal sympathy with him. +Beaten at last on every point, deserted by some senators in whom +he had trusted implicitly, crushed and exhausted by labors which +few young and vigorous men could have endured, he bowed to the +inevitable, and retired from the Senate Chamber. But in the next +morning, prior to his departure for the sea-shore, he was in his +seat; and with lightning in his eye, and figure erect as ever, he +paid his respects to the men whose work of political havoc he +deplored. His impassioned arraignment of the disunionists was +loudly applauded by the galleries, and clearly indicated the part +he would have played in the late Rebellion had his life been spared +to witness that direful event. "So long," said he, "as it pleases +God to give me a voice to express my sentiments, or an arm, weak +and enfeebled as it may be by age, that voice and that arm will be +on the side of my country, for the support of the general authority, +and for the maintenance of the powers of this Union." + +I heard the famous "Seventh of March Speech" of Mr. Webster. To +me his oratory was a perfect surprise and curiosity. He not only +spoke with very unusual deliberation, but with pauses having no +relation whatever to the sense. His sentences were broken into +the oddest fragments, and the hearer was perplexed in the endeavor +to gather his meaning. In declaring, for example, that he "would +put in no Wilmot proviso for the purpose of a taunt," etc., he made +a long pause at "Wilmot," perhaps half a minute, and finally, having +apparently recovered his breath, added the word "proviso"; and +then, after another considerable pause, went on with his sentence. +His speaking seemed painfully laborious. Great drops of perspiration +stood upon his forehead and face, notwithstanding the slowness of +his utterance, suggesting, as a possible explanation, a very recent +and heavy dinner, or a greatly troubled conscience over his final +act of apostasy from his early New England faith. The latter was +probably the truth, since he is known to have long and seriously +pondered the question of his ultimate decision; and with his +naturally great and noble traits of character he could not have +announced it without manifest tokens of uneasiness. I was greatly +interested in the brief dialogue between him and Mr. Calhoun, which +followed this speech. Reference was made to their famous passage- +at-arms twenty years before; and Mr. Calhoun, while taking exception +to some of Mr. Webster's positions, congratulated him on his strong +deliverance in the interest of slavery. The great Carolinian was +then wrestling with the disease which soon afterward terminated +his life, and was thin, pale, and feeble of step; but his singularly +intellectual face, and the peculiar light which flashed from his +eye while speaking, made him the most strikingly picturesque figure +in the Senate. No man can compute the evils wrought by his political +theories; but in private life he was thoroughly upright and pure, +and no suspicion of political jobbery was ever whispered in connection +with his name. In his social relations he was most genial and +kindly, while he always welcomed the society of young men who sought +the aid of his friendly counsel. Politically, he has been singularly +misunderstood. He was not, as has been so generally thought, a +disunionist. He was the champion of State Sovereignty, but he +believed that this was the sure basis and bond of Union. He thought +the right of State nullification, if recognized, would hold the +central power in check, and thus cement the Union; while his devotion +to African slavery as a defensible form of society, and a solution +of the conflict between capital and labor, was doubtless as sincere +as it was fanciful. + +During the first months of this session my spare time was devoted +to the preparation of a speech on the slavery question. My +constituents expected this, and so did my anti-slavery and Free +Soil friends generally. It was my darling purpose, and I resolved +to do my best upon it. I not only meant that they should not be +ashamed of it, but that, if possible, it should stand the test of +criticism, both as to matter and diction. I re-examined the question +in its various aspects, and more thoroughly than I had been able +to do before, giving special attention to the speeches of Southern +members in both Houses, and carefully noting their vulnerable +points. I overhauled the question of "Northern aggression" pretty +thoroughly, and endeavored to expose the absurdity of that complaint, +while crowding into my task such facts and arguments as would help +educate the people in right thinking. I had my task completed in +March, and now anxiously waited the opportunity for its delivery. +I was very curious to know how it would sound, and what would be +thought of it, while my constitutional self-distrust made me dread +the experiment unspeakably. My scuffle for the floor was a sore +trial of patience, and it was not until the fourteenth of May that +the competitive contest was ended. I got through with the work +better than I anticipated, was handsomely listened to, and went +home in triumph. A great burden of anxiety had been lifted, while +I received letters from the leading Abolitionists of New England +and elsewhere, very cordially complimenting the speech, which was +copied into the principal anti-slavery newspapers, and quite +favorably noticed. I was flattered beyond measure, and found my +self-esteem germinating into new life under these fertilizing dews. + + +CHAPTER V. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS (CONTINUED). +Fracas between Col. Benton and Senator Foote--Character of Benton +--Death of Gen. Taylor--The funeral--Defeat of the "Omnibus Bill" +--Its triumph in detail--Celebration of the victory--"Lower law" +sermons and "Union-saving" meetings--Slave-holding literature-- +Mischievous legislation--Visit to Philadelphia and Boston--Futile +efforts to suppress agitation--Andrew Johnson and the homestead +law--Effort to censure Mr. Webster--Political morality in this +Congress--Temperance--Jefferson Davis and other notable men--John +P. Hale--Thaddeus Stevens--Extracts from speeches--The famous men +in both Houses--The Free Soilers and their vindication. + +I happened to be in the Senate on April 17th, just before the +memorable fracas between Foote, of Mississippi, and Col. Benton. +They had had an unfriendly encounter not long before, and it was +well understood that Benton had made up his mind that Foote should +not henceforward name him or allude to him in debate. Foote had +said: "I do not denounce him as a _coward_--such language is +unfitted for this audience--but if he wishes to be blackguarded in +the discharge of his duty, and the culprit go unpunished? Is +language to be used here which would not be permitted to be used +in the lowest pot-house, tavern, or oyster cellar, and for the use +of which he would be turned out of any tavern by a decent landlord?" +Benton's wrath had not in the least cooled since this altercation. +Foote was on the floor, and in speaking of the late "Southern +address," referred to Benton in terms which everybody understood. +In an indirect way he became more and more personal as he proceeded. +Col. Benton finally arose from his seat with every appearance of +intense passion, and with a quick pace moved toward Foote, who was +addressing the Senate from his desk near the main aisle. The Vice +President demanded "order," and several senators tried to hold +Benton back, but he broke loose from his keepers, and was moving +rapidly upon his foe. When he saw Benton nearing him, Foote sprang +into the main aisle, and retreated toward the Vice President, +presenting a pistol as he fled, or, as he afterward expressed it, +"advanced backward." In the meantime Benton had been so obstructed +by the sergeant-at-arms and others that Foote, if disposed to shoot, +could not have done so without firing through the crowd. But +Benton, with several senators hanging to him, now proceeded round +the lobby so as to meet Foote at the opposite side of the Chamber. +Tearing himself away from those who sought to hold him, and throwing +open his bosom, he said: "Let him shoot me! The cowardly assassin +has come here to shoot me; let him shoot me if he dares! I never +carry arms, and he knows it; let the assassin fire!" He was an +embodied fury, and raged and raved, the helpless victim of his +passions. I had never seen such an uproar in a legislative body; +but the sergeant-at-arms at last restored order, when Mr. Clay +suggested that both parties should voluntarily enter into bonds to +keep the peace, upon which Benton instantly rose and said: "I'll +rot in jail, sir, before I will do it! No, sir! I'll rot in jail +first. I'll rot, sir!" and he poured forth a fresh torrent of +bitter words upon the man who was then so well known throughout +the Northern States as "Hangman Foote."* Benton was not only a +man of tremendous passion, but unrivalled as a hater. Nor did his +hatred spend itself entirely upon injustice and meanness. It was +largely personal and unreasoning. He was pre-eminently unforgiving. +He hated Calhoun with a real vengeance, styling him "John Cataline +Calhoun," and branding him as a "coward cur that sneaked to his +kennel when the Master of the Hermitage blew his bugle horn." He +seemed to relent a little, however, when he saw the life of the +great Carolinian rapidly ebbing away, and on one occasion declared +that, "When God lays his hand on a man, I take mine off." His wit +was sometimes as pungent as his invective. In his famous speech +on the Compromise measures, he gave Mr. Clay a telling hit by +comparing the boasted panacea of his "Omnibus Bill," or "five old +bills tacked together," to "old Dr. Jacob Townsend's sarsaparilla," +and contrasting it with the alleged worthlessness of the same +measures when separately proposed, which he likened to "young Dr. +Samuel Townsend's" extract from the same vegetable. "Sarsaparilla" +was thus more widely advertised than ever before, but it aided the +triumph of the "young Dr.," and the defeat of Mr. Clay's pet scheme. + +[* So named because of his declaration in the Senate the year +before, that if John P. Hale would come to Mississippi he would be +hung to "one of the tallest trees of the forest," and that he +(Foote) would himself "assist in the operation."] + +The sudden death of Gen. Taylor, July 9, 1850, produced a very +profound impression. The shock to the people of the Northern States +was felt the more keenly because of the peculiarly threatening +aspect of public affairs, and of the unexpectedly manly course of +the President in withstanding the imperious and insolent demands +of the extreme men of his own section. Millard Fillmore then stood +well before the country, and was quite as emphatically committed +to the growing anti-slavery sentiment of the Free States as Gov. +Seward himself; but he was now to be severely tried, and no one +could tell whether he would be true to the policy of his predecessor +in resisting the ultra demands of the South, or repeat the perfidy +of John Tyler by flagrantly turning his back on his past life. +For the time, however, the national bereavement seemed too absorbing +for any political speculations. The funeral pageant, which took +place on the 13th, was very imposing. The funeral car was a long- +coupled running gear, with wheels carved from solid blocks of wood. +Over this was raised a canopy covered with broadcloth, and surmounted +by a magnificent eagle. Curtains of black and white silk in +alternating festoons hung from the canopy, with rosettes, fringes, +and tassels. The car was drawn by eight white horses, richly +caparisoned, and led by as many grooms, who were all white men. +"Old Whitey," the venerable war steed of the President, followed +immediately behind the remains of his master, and attracted universal +attention. The procession was accompanied by the tolling of bells, +the firing of heavy ordnance, and plaintive strains of music; and +the whole affair exceeded anything of the kind that had ever taken +place in Washington, although the outpouring of the people would +bear no comparison with that of several notable funerals of later +years. + +The dreadful heat of the summer months, and the monotonous "ding- +dong" of the debate on the Compromise measures, made life dreary +enough. The "rump-session," as it was then called, became more +and more dismal as it dragged its slow length into the fall months. +Members grew pale and thin, and sighed for their homes; but the +Congressional mill had to be kept running till the grists of the +slave-power could be got fully ready for the hopper, and ground in +their regular order. Mr. Clay's Omnibus Bill having gone to pieces, +the "five gaping wounds" of the country, about which he had talked +so eloquently, called for treatment in detail; and by far the most +threatening of these was the dispute between Texas and New Mexico. +The remedy was the Texas Boundary Bill, which surrendered a large +belt of country to Texas and slavery, and gave her ten million +dollars besides. It was vehemently opposed in the House, and its +fate seemed to hang in doubt up to the final vote upon it; but +its passage was really assured from the beginning by the corrupt +appliances of its friends. Texas bonds, which were then worth ten +cents on the dollar, would be lifted nearly to par by this measure, +and its success was undoubtedly secured by the bribery of members. +The territorial question was disposed of by the legislative covenant +that new States might be admitted from our Mexican acquisitions, +either with or without slavery, as their people might determine. +This was not only an open abandonment of the Wilmot proviso, but +a legislative condemnation of the Missouri compromise line, as a +violation of the principle of "popular sovereignty," and was sure +to breed the mischiefs which followed four years later. But of +the several compromise or "healing measures" of this session, the +Fugitive Slave Bill was by far the most atrocious. It made the +_ex parte_ interested oath of the slave-hunter final and conclusive +evidence of the fact of escape, and of the identity of the party +pursued, while the simplest duties of humanity were punished as +felonies by fine and imprisonment. The method of its enactment +perfectly accorded with its character. It was reached on the +Speaker's table on September 12th, and on motion of Mr. Thompson, +of Pennsylvania, who served as the parliamentary hangman of his +employers, the previous question was seconded on its passage; and +thus, without reference to any committee, without even being printed, +and with no opportunity whatever for debate, it became a law. It +is needless to say that these pretended measures of final adjustment +paved the way for the repeal of the Missouri restriction, the bloody +raid into Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and the final chapter +of the Civil War; while they completely vindicated the little party +of Independents in this Congress in standing aloof from the Whig +and Democratic organizations, and warning the country against +further submission to their rule. One hundred guns were fired in +Washington over the final triumph of slavery in this memorable +struggle; and Congress adjourned, at last, on September 30th, the +session having lasted nearly ten months, and being considerably +the longest thus far since the formation of the Government. + +The adjournment was followed by great "Union-saving" meetings +throughout the country, which denounced "abolitionism" in the +severest terms, and endorsed the action of Congress. Multitudes +of "lower law" sermons by conservative Doctors of Divinity were +scattered over the Northern States through the mails, and a regular +system of agitation to _suppress_ agitation was inaugurated. The +sickly air of compromise filled the land, and for a time the deluded +masses were made to believe that the Free Soilers had brought the +country to the verge of ruin. Both clergy and laity zealously +dedicated themselves to the great work of sectional pacification. +The labors of Dr. Nehemiah Adams and Dr. Lord in this direction +will not be forgotten. The Rev. Moses Stuart, of Andover Theological +Seminary, in a work in the interest of peace, spoke of the "blessings +and comforts" of slavery, and declared that "Christ doubtless felt +that slavery might be made a very tolerable condition--aye, even +a blessing, to such as were shiftless and helpless." Another book, +entitled "Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or Southern Life as it is," was +issued from the press, in which it was said that slavery was +"authorized by God, permitted by Jesus Christ, sanctioned by the +Apostles, and maintained by good men in all ages." A very remarkable +book made its appearance, entitled "A Choice of Evils; or Thirteen +Years in the South. By a Northern man." Its author was a Mr. +Hooker, of Philadelphia. In this work he announced the discovery +that slavery is not only an unspeakable blessing, but a great +"missionary institution for the conversion of the heathen." One +of the chapters of this book is on "The Pleasures of Slavery." He +declared that the Southern slave is not merely contented, but a +"joyous fellow"; and that "in willing and faithful subjection to +a benignant and protecting power, and that visible to his senses, +he leans upon it in complete and sure confidence, as a trusting +child holds on to the hand of his Father, and passes joyously along +the thronged and jostling way, where he would not dare to be left +alone." Mr. Hooker declared that "his are the thoughts that make +glad the cared-for child, led by paternal hand"; and that "of all +the people in the world, the pleasures of the Southern slaves seem, +as they really are, most unalloyed." The press teemed with kindred +publications, while "Graham's Magazine," Harper's "Journal of +Civilization," the "Literary World," "Godey's Ladies' Book," and +other periodicals, joined in the united effort to shout the anti- +slavery agitation into silence. + +During this session some laws were passed having no connection with +the slavery question, which were pregnant with very great mischief, +and have only yielded up their meaning as they have been practically +applied and extended. The act of September 28th, granting land +bounties to the soldiers of the Mexican war, opened the way for +the monopoly of many millions of acres of the public domain by +sharks and speculators, while proving a wretched mockery of the +just claims of the men in whose name it was urged. The Swamp Land +Act of the same date, owing to its loose and unguarded provisions +and shameful mal-administration, has been still more fruitful of +wide-spread spoilation and plunder. The act of September 20th, +granting alternate sections of land in aid of the Illinois Central +Railway, inaugurated our famous land-grant policy, which, becoming +more and more reckless and improvident in its exactions, and +cunningly combining the power of great corporations with vast +monopolies of the public domain, has signally eclipsed all other +schemes of commercial feudalism, and left to coming generations a +problem involving the very life of our popular institutions. The +fruits of this legislation were not foreseen at the time, but the +legislation itself fitly belongs to the extraordinary work of this +Congress. + +The events of this session formed a new band of union among anti- +slavery men everywhere, and naturally strengthened the wish I had +long cherished to meet some of the famous people with whose names +I had been most familiar. Accordingly, I paid a visit to James +and Lucretia Mott in Philadelphia, which I greatly enjoyed, meeting +there Dr. Elder, J. Miller McKim, Dr. Furness, and other well known +friends of freedom. Oddly enough, I was invited to dine with Judge +Kane, then conspicuous through his remarkable rulings in fugitive +slave cases, and I found his manners and hospitality as charming +as his opinions about slavery were detestable. From Philadelphia +I went to Boston, and attended the Free Soil State Convention which +met there early in October, 1850, where Sumner and Burlingame were +the principal speakers. The latter was extremely boyish in +appearance, but was counted a marvel in native eloquence. Mr. +Sumner was then comparatively a young man, apparently somewhat +fastidious, with a winning face, commanding figure, and a voice +singularly musical. At this time he was only famous through his +orations, and I think knew relatively little of American life and +society outside of Boston and his books. He told me he had recently +been lecturing at several points out of the city, and had been +delighted to find the people so intelligent and so capable of +understanding him. He seemed much surprised when I told him how +many admirers he had in Indiana, and I found that others shared +his unflattering impressions respecting the general intelligence +of the West. At this convention I met Dr. Palfrey, then actively +interested in anti-slavery politics, and Charles Francis Adams, +the Free Soil nominee for Vice President in 1848, with whom I dined +at the old Adams mansion in Quincy a few days later. I enjoyed +the honor of a call from Theodore Parker while in the city, but +failed to meet Mr. Garrison, who was absent. At the "Liberator" +office, however, I met Stephen S. Foster, who entertained me with +his views on "non-resistance." I attended a spirited anti-fugitive- +slave-law meeting in Lynn, where I first met Wendell Phillips, and +enjoyed the long-coveted pleasure of hearing him speak. The music +of his voice so charmed me that I became completely his captive. +From Boston I went to Worcester, and after a delightful visit with +my excellent friend, Judge Allen, returned to my home in the West. + +After a vacation of two months, the work of the Thirty-first Congress +was resumed at the opening of its second session. Members returned +so refreshed and invigorated that they did not appear like the same +men. All parties seemed more friendly, but the agitation of the +slavery question had not been suppressed. Thousands of fugitive +slaves had fled to Canada or to remote sections of the Northern +States, through the fear of recapture under the harsh features of +the new Fugitive Slave Act. The method of enforcing it in different +States, involving the intervention of the army and navy, had stirred +the blood of thousands who had else remained unmoved by the slavery +issue. The effort of the National Government to make the harboring +of a fugitive constructive treason, was the farthest thing possible +from a peace-offering to the Abolitionists, but the friends of the +Compromise measures failed to see that their scheme had proved +entirely abortive, and made one further effort to silence the voice +of humanity. They entered into a solemn compact in writing to +support no man for President or Vice President of the United States, +or for senator or representative in Congress, or member of a State +legislature, who was not known to be opposed to disturbing their +"final settlement" of the slavery question. The signature of Henry +Clay was the first on this document, and was followed by those of +various prominent men of the free and slave States, and of different +political parties. But the extreme men of the South and most of +the moderate men of the North refused to assume this obligation, +while the Free Soilers felt perfectly sure that their cause would +be advanced by the very measures which had been taken to defeat +it. In this they were not mistaken. "Uncle Tom's Cabin," born of +the Fugitive Slave Act, was then making its first appearance in +weekly numbers of Dr. Bailey's "National Era." Hildreth's "White +Slave" and Sumner's "White Slavery in the Barbary States" were +widely circulated, and exerted a powerful influence. The writings +of Judge Jay and William Goodell on the slavery question found more +readers than ever before, while the pro-slavery literature and +"south side" theology, already referred to, called forth replies +from various writers, and contributed largely to the general ferment +which the friends of the Compromise measures were so anxious to +tranquilize. Indeed, while the champions of slavery were exerting +themselves as never before to stifle the anti-slavery spirit of +the free States, the Abolitionists were delighted with the tokens +of progress which everywhere saluted their vision and animated them +with new courage and hope. + +It was early in the first session of this Congress that several +members of the House introduced bills providing homesteads of one +hundred and sixty acres each to actual landless settlers, without +cost, on prescribed conditions of occupancy and improvement. The +first of these bills in the order of time was that of Andrew Johnson, +which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and subsequently +reported favorably, and debated at different times. Similar +propositions were offered in the Senate by Mr. Webster, and by +Senator Walker, of Wisconsin. The fact is also worthy of note, +that Horace Greeley, during his short term of service in the previous +Congress, had offered a bill giving landless men the right to pre- +empt one hundred and sixty acres for seven years, and, on condition +of occupancy and improvement, the "right of unlimited occupancy" +to forty acres of the same, without price, by a single man, or +eighty acres by the married head of a family. But the legislative +initiation of the Homestead law, substantially as we now have it, +belongs to the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Congress, +and its policy was borrowed from the Free Soil platform of 1848 +and the Land Reformers of New York. This measure completely reversed +the early policy of the Government, when settlers on the public +lands were dealt with as trespassers, while its triumph, years +afterward, marked an epoch in our legislation, and has done more +to make the American name honored and loved at home and abroad than +any single enactment since the year 1789. Having earnestly espoused +this policy years before, I sought the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson +for the purpose of co-operating with him in urging it, and found +him its sincere friend. Although loyal to his party, he seemed to +have little sympathy with the extreme men among its leaders, and +no unfriendliness to me on account of my decided anti-slavery +opinions. When my homestead speech was ready for delivery, although +the slave-holders hated its doctrines as heartily as they hated +"abolitionism" itself, and it was through his friendly tactics that +I finally obtained the floor, in opposition to the earnest wish +and determined purpose of Speaker Cobb. + +Near the close of this session, at the instance of Charles Allen, +of Massachusetts, a man of real ability and stainless life, a +preamble and resolutions were offered by myself calling for a +committee to inquire into the alleged corrupt conduct of Daniel +Webster in accepting the office of Secretary of State as the +stipendary of Eastern capitalists. On the motion to suspend the +rules to allow this to be done, the yeas were only thirty-five; +but this vote was quite as large as could have been expected, +considering the excellent standing of Mr. Webster at that time with +the pro-slavery sentiment of the country. I think it is not doubted +that, being then poor, he accepted office, as he had done before, +on condition of pecuniary indemnity by his rich friends in Wall +street and State street; but in the light of the far greater +immoralities and profligacies of later times, it now seems a +relatively small matter. + +Political morality was at a very low ebb during the period covered +by the Thirty-first Congress. The Whigs, now that they were in +power, saw nothing amiss in the spoils system inaugurated by Gen. +Jackson, which was in full blast. The President had declared that +he had "no friends to reward and no enemies to punish," but under +the party pressure he totally lost sight of these words, and seemed +almost as powerless to withstand it as did Gen. Grant in later +years. Thousands of officials were turned adrift for no other than +party reasons, while political nepotism was the order of the day. +Under the brief administration of Gen. Taylor, unprecedented +political jobbery prevailed, both in the legislative and executive +departments of the Government, and these evils seemed to be aggravated +by the accession of Mr. Fillmore, and to gather strength as the +spirit of liberty declined. Nor was the personal morality of +members more to be commended than their political. The vice of +intemperance was not, as now, restricted to a few exceptional cases, +but was fearfully prevalent. A glass of wine could sometimes be +seen on the desk of a senator while engaged in debate, and the free +use of intoxicating drinks by senators was too common to provoke +remark. It was still more common in the House; and the scenes of +drunkenness and disorder in that body on the last night of the last +session beggared description. Much of the most important legislation +of the session, involving the expenditure of many millions, remained +to be disposed of at that sitting; and, as a preparation for the +work, a large supply of whisky had been deposited in a room +immediately connected with the Hall of Representatives, which was +thronged by members at all hours of the night. The chairman of +the Ways and Means Committee became so exhilarated that he had to +be retired from his post; and some of his brethren, who had been +calling him to order in a most disorderly manner, were quite as +incapable of business as himself, while order had sought her +worshipers elsewhere. The exhibition was most humiliating, but it +now pleasantly reminds us of the wonderful changes which have been +wrought by thirty years. + +In this Congress, the men who afterward became the chief leaders +of the Rebellion were conspicuous, and foreshadowed their future +course. Jefferson Davis had a military and magisterial look. His +estimate of himself was so exalted that his ordinary demeanor toward +others seemed like a personal condescension, if not an insinuation +of contempt. One of the most striking personalities in the Senate +was A. P. Butler, the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, and uncle of Preston +S. Brooks, of infamous memory. His robust physique, florid +complexion, sparkling eye, heavy bushy suit of snow-white hair, +and a certain indefinable expression of mischievous audacity, made +him a very attractive figure. In his eulogy upon Calhoun he marred +the solemnity of the occasion by pronouncing the world "always" as +if written "allers," and by kindred evidences of "life among the +lowly." The wit of John P. Hale was effective and unfailing, and +gave him a decided advantage over Mr. Chase, who had nothing but +his dignity and power of argument with which to confront the +tremendous odds against him. This was happily illustrated early +in the first session of this Congress, in his reply to Mr. Clemens, +of Alabama, who, in a furious tirade against the Abolitionists, +had pronounced the Union dissolved already. "There are many timid +people at the North," said Hale, "who have looked forward with +excited nerves and trembling fears at the 'wreck of matter and the +crush of worlds' which they believed would be the result of the +dissolution of this Union. I think they will be exceedingly quiet +now, when they find it has already taken place and they did not +know it, for the honorable senator from Alabama tells us it is +already dissolved. If it is not a matter too serious for pleasant +illustration, let me give you one. Once in my life, in the capacity +of a justice of the peace--for I held that office before I was a +senator--I was called on to officiate in uniting a couple in the +bonds of matrimony. They came up, and I made short work of it. +I asked the man if he would take the woman whom he held by the hand +to be his wedded wife; he replied, 'To be sure I will, I came here +to do that very thing.' I then put the question to the lady, +whether she would have the man for her husband. And when she +answered in the affirmative, I told them they were man and wife. +She looked up with apparent astonishment, and inquired 'Is that +all?' 'Yes,' I said, 'that is all.' 'Well,' said she, 'it is not +such a mighty affair as I expected it to be, after all.'" + +Some of the finest of Mr. Seward's speeches were delivered during +the first session of this Congress, but in the same husky voice +which marked his later efforts. Decidedly the finest looking man +in the Senate was General Shields, of Illinois, then in his prime, +and crowned with the laurels he had won in the Mexican War. The +appearance of Mr. Douglas, familiarly known as the "little giant," +was in striking contrast with that of his colleague. He cared +nothing about dignity and refinement, and had a slovenly and +"unwashed" appearance. The towering and erect form of General +Houston always commanded attention in the Senate, and he added to +his attractiveness by wearing an old-fashioned knit cap, and always +devoting a portion of his time to whittling a pine board. The most +fascinating member of the Senate was Soule, of Louisiana. There +was a tropical charm about his oratory, which was heightened by +his foreign accent and his singularly striking presence and +physiognomy. Winthrop was the most accomplished gentleman in the +House. Edward D. Baker, since so famous, was a member from Illinois, +but made no mark. Stephens, of Georgia, looked like a corpse, but +his clear and ringing voice always commanded attention, and his +words went directly to the mark. Toombs was recognized as a leader +of Southern opinion, but disfigured his speeches by his swagger +and defiance. Among the notable men from the Northern States, +Hannibal Hamlin, lately retired from public life, was in the Senate. +He was then a young man, erect, fine looking, a thorough Democrat, +but not the tool of slavery. Thaddeus Stevens was in the House, +and just at the beginning of his remarkable congressional life; +but the slave power, then in full sweep of its despotism, took good +care to keep him in the background in the organization of the +committees. He made several speeches, in which he displayed his +rare powers of invective, irony, and sarcasm, in dealing with the +Southern leaders; and no one who listened to his speech of Feb. +20, 1850, could ever forget his withering reply to Mr. Mead, of +Virginia, who had argued against the prohibition of slavery in the +Territories because it would conflict with the interests of Virginia +as a breeder of slaves. I quote the following: + +"Let us pause for a moment over this humiliating confession. In +plain English, what does it mean? That Virginia is now only fit +to be the breeder, not the employer, of slaves! That she is reduced +to the condition that her proud chivalry are compelled to turn +slave-traders for a livelihood! Instead of attempting to renovate +the soil, and by their own honest labor compelling the earth to +yield her abundance; instead of seeking for the best breed of cattle +and horses to feed on her hills and valleys, and fertilize the +land, the sons of that great State must devote their time to +selecting and grooming the most lusty sires and the most fruitful +wenches, to supply the slave barracoons of the South! And the +learned gentleman pathetically laments that the profits of this +genteel traffic will be greatly lessened by the circumscription of +slavery! This is his picture, not mine." + +Mr. Stevens was equally merciless in dealing with the tribe of +"dough-faces." This was illustrated in a speech later in the +session, in which he alluded to his colleague from Bucks County, +Mr. Ross, who had attacked him in a violent pro-slavery harangue: + +"There is," said Mr. Stevens, "in the natural world, a little, +spotted, contemptible animal, which is armed by nature with a fetid, +volatile, penetrating _virus_, which so pollutes whoever attacks +it as to make him offensive to himself and all around him for a +long time. Indeed, he is almost incapable of purification. Nothing, +sir, no insult, shall provoke me to crush so filthy a beast." As +these words were being uttered, Mr. Ross was seen precipitately +making his way out of the hall under the return fire of his foe. +But Mr. Stevens then gave no clear promise of the wonderful career +as a parliamentary leader which awaited him in later years, when +perfectly unshackled by the power that at first held him in check. + +The Thirty-first Congress was not alone remarkable for the great +questions it confronted and its shameless recreancy to humanity +and justice; it was equally remarkable for its able and eminent +men. In the Senate, the great triumvirate of Webster, Clay, and +Calhoun, appeared in public life for the last time. With them were +associated Benton, Cass, Douglas, Seward, Chase, Bell, Berrien, +Soule, Davis of Mississippi, Dayton, Hale, Ewing, Corwin, Hamlin, +Butler, Houston, and Mason. In the House were Thaddeus Stevens, +Winthrop, Ashmun, Allen, Cobb of Georgia, McDowell, Giddings, +Preston King, Horace Mann, Marshall, Orr, Schenck, Stanley, Toombs, +Alexander H. Stephens, and Vinton. If mere talent could have +supplemented the lack of conscience, the slave power might have +been overborne in 1850, and the current of American history turned +into the channels of liberty and peace. But the better days of +the Republic, when high integrity and unselfish devotion to the +country inspired our statesmen, were past, and we had entered upon +the era of mean ambitions and huckstering politics. "The bulk of +the nation," as Harriet Martineau said, a little later, "was below +its institutions," and our fathers "had laid down a loftier program +than their successors were able to fulfill." It was not strange, +therefore, that the little band of Free Soilers in this Congress +encountered popular obloquy and social outlawry at the Capital. +Their position was offensive, because it rebuked the ruling influences +of the times, and summoned the real manhood of the country to its +rescue. They were treated as pestilent fanatics because they +bravely held up the ideal of the Republic, and sought to make it +real. But they pressed forward along the path of their aspirations. +They found a solace for their social ostracism in delightful +gatherings which assembled weekly at the residence of Dr. Bailey, +where they met philanthropists, reformers, and literary notables. +They had the courage of their opinions, and the genuine satisfaction +which accompanies manliness of character; and they lived to see +their principles vindicated, and the political and social tables +turned upon the men who had honored them by their scorn and contempt. +The anti-slavery revolt of 1848, which they represented, saved +Oregon from slavery, made California a free State, and launched +the policy of free homes on the public domain which finally prevailed +in 1862; and it was the prophecy and parent of the larger movement +which rallied under Fremont in 1856, elected Lincoln in 1860, and +played its grand part in saving the nation from destruction by the +armed insurgents whom it had vanquished at the ballot-box. This +will be the sure award of history; but history will find another +parentage for the party despotism and political corruption which +have since disgraced the administration of the Government. + + +CHAPTER VI. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. +Pro-slavery reaction--Indiana and Ohio--Race for Congress--Free +Soil gains in other States--National Convention at Cleveland-- +National canvass of 1852--Nomination of Pierce and Scott, and the +"finality" platforms--Free Soil National Convention--Nomination of +Hale--Samuel Lewis--The Whig canvass--Webster--Canvass of the +Democrats--Return of New York "Barnburners" to the party--The Free +Soil campaign--Stumping Kentucky with Clay--Rev. John G. Fee-- +Incidents--Mob law in Indiana--Result of the canvass--Ruin of the +Whigs--Disheartening facts--The other side of the picture. + +The reaction which followed the passage of the compromise acts of +1850 was quite as remarkable as the anti-slavery revolt of 1848, +which frightened the champions of slavery into the espousal of +these desperate measures. Immense meetings were held in Philadelphia, +New York, Boston, and other cities and towns throughout the country, +in which leading Whigs and Democrats united in pledging themselves +to make the suppression of abolitionism paramount to any question +of party allegiance. These demonstrations were vigorously seconded +by leading clergymen and doctors of divinity, whose sermons were +plentifully scattered over the land under the frank of members of +Congress and otherwise. The press put forth its whole power on +the side of anti-slavery submission and peace, while the Executive +and Judicial departments of the Government made haste to abase +themselves by their super-serviceable zeal in the enforcement of +the new Fugitive Slave law. The tables seemed to be completely +turned, and the time-honored rule of our slave-masters impregnably +re-established. The anti-slavery commotion which a little while +before had rocked the country from one end of the Union to the +other was hushed in the restored order which succeeded, and gave +promise of that longed-for "finality" for which the two great +parties had so ardently labored. + +In no section of the non-slaveholding States was this reaction more +strikingly felt than in the West, and especially in Illinois and +Indiana. These States were outlying provinces of the empire of +slavery. Their black codes and large Southern population bore +witness to their perfect loyalty to slave-holding traditions. +Indiana, while a Territory, had repeatedly sought the introduction +of slavery into her borders. Her black laws had disfigured her +legislation from the beginning, and in 1850 were made still blacker +by her new Constitution, the 13th article of which, forbidding +negroes from coming into the State and white men from encouraging +them to remain, was submitted to the people separately, and ratified +by a popular majority of nearly ninety thousand votes. Ten years +before, in the Harrison campaign, Mr. Bigger, the Whig candidate +for Governor, made himself very popular by proving that Van Buren +had favored negro suffrage in New York. In 1842, four of the +Indiana delegation in Congress--namely, Lane, Wallace, Thompson, +and Kennedy--voted for the censure of Mr. Giddings, which Mr. Clay +indignantly denounced at the time, and two only--namely, White and +Cravens--voted in the negative. Although the execution of the +Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was a matter of Federal cognizance +exclusively, yet the State code made the harboring of a fugitive +an offense against its peace and dignity, punishable by fine and +imprisonment. The colored people were denied any share in the +school fund, but were taxed for its support; and under the law +forbidding them to testify in cases where white men were parties, +they were at the mercy of any white villain who might take the +precaution of perpetrate an outrage upon them in the absence of +white witnesses. Of course, the organization of an anti-slavery +party strong enough to rule such States as these, was to be the +work of time, toil, and patience. It was only possible to lay the +foundation, and build as the material could be commanded; but the +Free Soilers, whether in the east or in the West, were undismayed +by the crisis, and fully resolved upon keeping up the fight. In +compliance with the wishes of my anti-slavery friends, and by way +of doing my part in the work, I decided to stand for a re-election +from the Fourth Indiana District in the spring of 1851. The Wilmot +proviso Democrats who had been chosen with me two years before on +the strength of their Free Soil pledges, including such men as +Joseph E. McDonald and Graham N. Fitch, now stood squarely on the +Compromise measures. + +The Whigs of the State, following the lead of Webster and Clay, +and including Edward W. McGaughey, their only delegate in Congress, +had also completely changed their base. My competitor, Samuel W. +Parker, whom I had defeated two years before, and who had then +insisted that the Whigs were better anti-slavery men than the Free +Soilers themselves, now made a complete somersault, fully committing +himself to the Compromise acts, and especially the Fugitive Slave +law, which he declared he approved without changing the dotting of +an _i_ or the crossing of a _t_. Foote, Cass, and Webster were +now the oracles of the Whig faith; but, oddly enough, the Democrats, +who had formed by far the larger portion of my support two years +before, now stood firm, and I would undoubtedly have been re-elected +but for very vigorous outside interference. Wm. J. Brown, who had +intrigued with the leading Free Soilers for the Speakership in +1849, as I have already shown, and favored the passage of the Wilmot +proviso in order to "stick it at old Zach," was now the editor of +the "Sentinel," the State organ of the Democracy, which was +sufficiently orthodox on the slavery question to pass muster in +South Carolina. It was this organ which afterward insisted that +my abolitionism entitled me to at least five years service at hard +labor in the penitentiary. Mr. Brown's dread of this fearful heresy +seemed as intense as it was unbounded, and he resolved at all +hazards to avert any further alliance with it by Democrats in any +portion of the State. By very hard work and the most unscrupulous +expedients he succeeded in enlisting a few ambitious local magnates +of his party in the district, who were fully in sympathy with his +spirit and aims, and of whom Oliver P. Morton was the chief; and +by thus drawing away from the democracy from two to three hundred +pro-slavery malcontents and turning them over to my Whig competitor, +my defeat was accomplished. + +But the effort to stem the tide of slavery fared better elsewhere. +While Mr. Webster was publicly ridiculing the "higher law," and +blurting his contempt upon one of the noted anti-slavery strongholds +of the country as "a laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and treason," +Massachusetts sent Charles Sumner to the Senate of the United +States, and elected Horace Mann, Charles Allen and Robert Rantoul +as members of the House. Amos Tuck was returned from New Hampshire, +Preston King from New York, Thaddeus Stevens and John W. Howe from +Pennsylvania, Charles Durkee from Wisconsin, and Giddings and +Townsend from Ohio. These events were exceedingly gratifying, and +lent new life to the cause throughout the Northern States. During +the summer of this year Mr. Sumner moved the repeal of the Fugitive +Slave Act, and although it received but ten votes, it led to an +angry and protracted discussion, which showed how signally the +attempt to suppress anti-slavery agitation had failed. In the +latter part of September of this year a Free Soil National Convention +met at Cleveland, to take into consideration the state of the country +and the duty of anti-slavery men. It was large and enthusiastic. +It adopted a series of spirited resolutions and a timely public +address, and admirable speeches were made by Cassius M. Clay, Joshua +R. Giddings, Samuel Lewis, George Bradburn, and others. The only +drawback to the prevailing spirit of hopefulness and courage was +the absence of Mr. Chase, who had just withdrawn from the Free Soil +party and united his fortunes with the Democrats of Ohio, who had +adopted a platform which admitted an interpretation covering, +substantially, the principles of the Free Soil creed. + +As the time for another Presidential election drew near, Whigs and +Democrats were alike engrossed with the consideration of their +"final settlement" of the slavery question, and their attitude +respecting it in the impending struggle. Among the latter there +was substantially no division. Their experience in 1848 with Gen. +Cass and his "Nicholson letter," had convinced them that nothing +was to be gained by mincing matters, and that a hearty, complete +and unhesitating surrender to slavery was the surest means of +success. The Democrats in Congress, both North and South, had very +generally favored this "settlement," and there was now no division +in the party except as to men. The candidates were Cass, Buchanan, +Douglas, and Marcy; and the National Convention assembled on the +first of June. The platform of the party began with the declaration +of its "trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the +discriminating justice of the American people"; and then, in the +fourth and fifth resolutions, pronounced the Fugitive Slave Act +equally sacred with the Constitution, and pledged the party to +"resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the +agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color +the attempt may be made." So far as slavery was concerned it thus +became a recognized and authoritative principle of American Democracy +to muzzle the press and crush out the freedom of speech, as the +means of upholding and perpetuating its power. On this platform +Franklin Pierce was nominated on the forty-ninth ballot; and in +his letter of acceptance he declared that "the principles it embraces +command the approbation of my judgment, and with them I believe I +can safely say that no word nor act of my life is in conflict." +It is difficult to conceive of any words by which he could more +completely have abdicated his manhood and self-respect, and sounded +the knell of his own conscience. There was no lower deep, and he +was evidently the right man in the right place. + +The Whig National Convention assembled on the sixteenth of June, +with Scott, Fillmore and Webster as the candidates. There was yet +a considerable anti-slavery element in the party, but it was +paralyzed and powerless. It had made a fatal mistake in submitting +to the nomination of Gen. Taylor, and became still more completely +demoralized by the accession of Fillmore, who turned his back upon +his past life, and threw himself into the arms of the slave-holders. +The old party had gone astray too long and too far to return, and +now determined to seek its fortunes in the desperate effort to +outdo the Democrats in cringing servility to the South. The platform +of the Convention expressed the reliance of the Whigs "upon the +intelligence of the American people," but in its eighth resolution +declared their acquiescence in the Compromise Acts of 1850 "as a +final settlement, in principle and substance, of the subjects to +which they relate"; and it deprecated "all further agitation of +the questions thus settled, as dangerous to our peace," and pledged +the party "to discountenance all efforts to continue or renew such +agitation, whenever, wherever, or however made." On this platform, +which is well understood to have been the work of Mr. Webster, Gen. +Scott was nominated on the fifty-ninth ballot by a vote of two +hundred and twenty-seven to sixty-six, while the highest vote +received by Mr. Webster was twenty-nine. Here at last, the Whig +party had made a complete surrender of its integrity, and verified +all that had ever been said by Free Soilers as to its treachery to +freedom; and here, finally, these rival parties were tumbled together +into the ditch of slavery, and wallowing in the mire of their +degradation and shame. The only issue of the canvass was slavery, +and on this they were perfectly agreed, while each, for the sake +of the spoils of office, was trying to surpass the other in the +damning proofs of its treason to humanity and contempt for the +fundamental truths of republican government. + +The spectacle was most pitiably humiliating, but I counted it an +omen of progress. The old parties were now unequivocally committed +to the policy of nationalizing the sectional interest of slavery, +and the way thus opened for a fair fight. The lines were clearly +drawn, and the issue unmistakably made between freedom and free +speech on the one side, and slavery and the gag on the other. I +thought we should have no more anti-slavery professions from Whigs +and Democrats, no further courting of Free-Soilers, and no more +mutual upbraidings of servility to the South; and that thus the +way would be smoothed for intelligent and effective anti-slavery +work. + +The Free Soil National Convention met in Pittsburg on the eleventh +of August, and I believe an assemblage of purer men never convened +for any political purpose. All the compromising and trading elements +that had drifted into the movement in 1848 had now gravitated back +to the old parties, leaving a residuum of permanent adherents of +the cause, who were perfectly ready to brave the frowns of public +opinion and the proscription and wrath of the old parties. Henry +Wilson was made president of the convention, and the platform +adopted was substantially that of 1848. A few additional resolves, +however, were added, including the declaration "that emigrants and +exiles from the old world should find a cordial welcome to homes +of comfort and fields of enterprise in the new," and that "every +attempt to abridge their privilege of becoming citizens and owners +of the soil among us ought to be resisted with inflexible +determination." It was also declared "that the Free Democratic +party was not organized to aid either the Whig or Democratic wing +of the great Slave Compromise party of the Nation, but to defeat +them both; and that, repudiating and renouncing both as hopelessly +corrupt and utterly unworthy of confidence, the purpose of the Free +Democracy is to take possession of the Federal Government, and +administer it for the better protection of the rights and interests +of the whole people." On this platform John P. Hale was nominated +for the Presidency. My own nomination for the second place on the +ticket was to me a complete surprise. I fully expected this honor +would fall upon Samuel Lewis, of Ohio, and the delegation from my +own State was unitedly for him. He coveted the nomination, and so +did his many devoted friends, simply as a fitting recognition of +his faithful service in the cause of freedom, to which he had been +unselfishly devoted since the year 1841. He had made himself a +public benefactor by his long and powerful championship of the +cause of education in Ohio. He was a man of brains, and enthusiastically +devoted to every work of practical philanthropy and reform. As an +impassioned, eloquent, and effective popular orator, he had no +equal in the country. His profound earnestness, perfect sincerity, +and religious fervor conquered all hearts, and made his anti-slavery +appeals irresistible. He was a strong and brave old man, who richly +deserved whatever distinction his nomination could confer; but for +reasons unknown to me he encountered in the convention the formidable +opposition of Mr. Chase, and he wrote me very touchingly a few days +afterward that "among the thousands who have given their lives and +fortunes to this cause, my name will be forgotten, while those who +have coolly stood by and watched the signs of the times, and filled +their sails with the wind that others have raised, will go down to +history as heroes and martyrs in a cause for which they never fought +a battle nor suffered a sacrifice." + +The canvass of the Whigs was totally without heart or enthusiasm. +The Southern wing of the party had dictated the platform, but did +not like Gen. Scott. Stephens and Toombs, of Georgia, and Jones +and Gentry, of Tennessee, refused to support him. The Northern +Whigs were greatly embarrassed, and while they felt constrained to +support the candidate, tried to relieve their consciences by +"spitting upon the platform" on which he stood. Mr. Webster did +not disguise his hostility to the ticket, and predicted the speedy +dissolution of the party. The Democrats were united in this contest. +Notwithstanding their atrocious platform they succeeded in persuading +the leading Barnburners of 1848 to return to the party and muster +again in the army of slavery. Dix, the Van Burens, David Dudley +Field, Tilden, and a host of others, including even Robert Rantoul +and Preston King, were now fighting for Pierce, while Bryant's +"Evening Post" and Greeley's "Tribune" cravenly submitted to the +shackles of slavery. In the light of such facts as these it was +easy to forecast the result of the contest. + +The real enthusiasm of this campaign was in the ranks of the Free +Soilers. They had, of course, no dream of success, or even of +carrying a single electoral vote; but they were profoundly in +earnest, and united as one man against the combination of the old +parties in behalf of slavery. I took the stump, and early in the +campaign accepted an invitation to join Cassius M. Clay in the +canvass of the counties of Lewis, Bracken, and Mason, in Kentucky. +On my way to our first appointment I stopped at Maysville, where +I found myself in the midst of a considerable excitement about some +thirty or forty slaves who had just crossed the Ohio on their way +to Canada. I met Mr. Clay at the residence of the Rev. John G. +Fee, some eight miles distant in Lewis county, where we talked over +the plan of our campaign. Mr. Fee was the founder of an anti- +slavery colony, a free school, and a free church, in that region, +and was a scholar, philanthropist, and reformer. His whole heart +was in the anti-slavery cause, and his courage had never failed +him in facing the ruffianism and brutality which slavery employed +in its service; but I would not have felt very safe in this enterprise +without the presence of Mr. Clay, who was known in Kentucky, and +everywhere else, as "a fighting Christian," who would defend the +freedom of speech at any hazard. Our first meeting was in Mr. +Fee's church, in the rocky and mountainous region of the county, +where we had perfect order and an attentive and sympathetic audience. +From this point we proceeded the next day to our appointment in +Maysville, finding a good deal of excitement in the city as to the +propriety of allowing us to speak in the court house. It was +finally thrown open to us, and in the afternoon I was handsomely +introduced by Mr. Clay to a fine audience, speaking at length, and +with great plainness, on the issues of the canvass, and being +frequently applauded. Mr. Clay spoke at night to a still larger +audience, while perfect order prevailed. So far our success seemed +gratifying, and Mr. Fee was delighted; and we proceeded the following +morning to our next appointment at Brooksville, in Bracken county. +Here we found assembled a large crowd of that brutalized rabble +element which formed the background of slavery everywhere. The +aboriginal creatures gazed at us like so many wild animals, but +showed not the slightest disposition to enter the house in which +we were to speak. Mr. Clay remarked that they must be Whigs, since +they did not seemed inclined to "resist," but only to "discountenance" +our agitation; but we had come to speak, and with Mr. Fee's family +and a few friends who had come with us for an audience, we spoke +about an hour and a half each, just as if the house had been filled. +A few straggled in during the speaking, and several hung about the +windows and listened, though they tried to seem not to do so; but +the most remarkable and praiseworthy thing about this congregation +of Yahoos was that they did not mob us. It must have seemed to +them a strange waste of power to spare such notorious disturbers +of the peace, and return to their homes without any laurels. This +ended our work in Kentucky, where we could boast that the "finality" +platform had been openly set at defiance, and I returned to my work +on the other side of the Ohio. + +Later in the canvass, on my return from Wisconsin and Illinois, I +learned that Andrew L. Robinson, the Free Soil candidate for Governor +of Indiana, had been mobbed in the city of Terre Haute, and prevented +from making an anti-slavery speech. This was not surprising, as +this section of the State was largely settled by people from +Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, who were as intolerant of +abolitionism as those of Bracken county already described. I +immediately sent a telegram making an appointment to speak in that +city, and on the day appointed reported for duty. I found my +friends uneasy and apprehensive. They evidently regretted my +coming, and some of them advised me quietly to return home. The +town was full of rumors that I was not to be allowed to speak, and +was to be "wabashed," as the rowdies phrased it. But I had no +thought of returning without being heard; and accordingly, at the +appointed hour, I repaired to the court house, where I found a +small crowd assembled, with restless countenances, and a gang of +ruffians outside, armed with stones and brickbats. The audience +gradually increased, and as I began to speak I noticed that the +roughs themselves began to listen, which they continued to do during +the hour and a half I devoted to the most unmistakable utterances +on the slavery question. The ringleader of the mob, for some +reason, failed to give the signal of attack, and free speech was +vindicated. Timid men grew brave, and boasted of the love of order +that had prompted the people of the town to stand by my rights; +yet the mob would probably have triumphed but for the presence of +Joseph O. Jones, the post-master of the city, himself a Kentuckian, +but a believer in the right of free speech and the duty of defending +it at all hazards. + +The result of this Presidential canvass was a surprise to all +parties. The triumph of the Democrats was anticipated, but it was +far more signal than they expected. Pierce received two hundred +and fifty-four electoral votes, and Scott only forty-two, representing +only four States of the Union. So far as the Whig party was +concerned, the result was overwhelming and final. The party was +buried forever in the grave it had dug for itself. Hale received +a little more than one hundred and fifty-six thousand votes, being +about one-twentieth of the entire popular vote cast at this election; +so that nineteen-twentieths of the people of the United States in +1852, and only a little more than a dozen years before slavery was +swept from the land, voted themselves bound and dumb before this +Moloch of American politics, while only one-twentieth had the +courage to claim their souls as their own. These were very startling +facts after more than a quarter of a century of anti-slavery agitation, +and they were naturally interpreted by the victorious party everywhere +as clearly foreshadowing the complete triumph of the "final +settlement" made by Congress in 1850. Certainly they seemed very +disheartening to anti-slavery men; for, however confidently they +might believe in the final success of their struggle, they could +not fail to see the immense odds and fearful obstacles against +which they would have to contend. The debauched masses who had +been molded and kneaded by the plastic touch of slavery into such +base uses, were the only possible material from which recruits +could be drawn for a great party of the future, which should +regenerate our politics and re-enthrone the love of liberty; and +this should be remembered in estimating the courage and faith of +the men who in that dark hour held aloft the banner of freedom, in +spite of all temptations to go with the multitude. + +But there was another view of the situation which thoughtful anti- +slavery men did not fail to enforce. The overwhelming triumph of +Pierce was not an unmixed victory for slavery. It had another +explanation. It was to be remembered, to the credit of the Whig +party, that thousands of its members, notwithstanding their dislike +of Pierce and their admiration of Gen. Scott as a man and a soldier, +and despite the attempted drill of their leaders and the influence +of Greeley and Seward, could not be induced to support the ticket, +and were now ready for further acts of independence. It was likewise +to be remembered that in the complete rout and ruin of the party +a great obstacle to anti-slavery progress had been removed. The +slave-holders at once recognized this fact. They had aimed to +defeat the party, not to annihilate it. They saw clearly what +slavery needed was two pretty evenly divided parties, pitted against +each other on economic issues, so that under cover of their strife +it could be allowed to have its way; and they were justly alarmed +at the prospect of a new movement, having its action upon moral +grounds, and gathering into its ranks the unshackled conscience +and intelligence of the Northern States. The "Washington Union," +then the national organ of the Democracy, deplored the death of +the Whig party, and earnestly hoped for its resurrection. The fact +had always been patent to anti-slavery men that these parties were +alike the bulwarks of slavery, since the Southern wing of each gave +law to the whole body, and that until one or the other could be +totally destroyed, a really formidable anti-slavery party was +impossible. There was also great cause for encouragement in the +evident signs of a growing anti-slavery public opinion. "Uncle +Tom's Cabin" had found its way to the millions on both sides of the +Atlantic, and the rage for it among all classes was without parallel +in the history of literature. It was served up for the masses in +sixpenny editions, dramatized and acted on the stage, and coined +into poetry and song. Slave-holders were alarmed at its wonderful +success, because they saw the grand part it was playing in creating +that "public opinion of the civilized world" which Mr. Webster had +declared to be "the mightiest power on earth." The replies to this +wonderful book, and the anti-slavery and pro-slavery literature to +which it gave birth, largely contributed to the progress of freedom, +and the final repudiation of the "finality" which the great parties +had combined to establish. + +Nor was the small vote for Hale a matter of serious discouragement. +It was much smaller than that cast for Van Buren in 1848; but that +was a deceptive epoch. Multitudes, and especially in the State of +New York, then voted the Free Soil ticket who had never before +shown any interest in the slavery question, and did not manifest +it afterward. They were not Free Soil men, but Van Buren men, who +hated Gen. Cass. The vote for Hale represented the _bona fide_ +strength of our cause after this element had been eliminated, and +its quality went far to atone for its quantity. The proper test +of anti-slavery progress was a comparison of the anti-slavery vote +of 1844 with that of 1852, and this showed an increase of nearly +three-fold in the intervening space of eight years. This steady +evolution of anti-slavery opinion from the deadening materialism +and moral inertia of the times could not go backward, but in the +very nature of things would repeat itself, and gather fresh momentum +from every effort put forth to stay its advance. + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (CONTINUED). +A notable fugitive slave case--Inauguration of Pierce--Repeal of +the Missouri compromise--Its effect upon the parties--The Free Soil +position--Know-Nothingism--The situation--First steps in the +formation of the Republican party--Movements of the Know-Nothings +--Mistake of the Free Soilers--Anti-slavery progress--Election of +Banks as Speaker--Call for a Republican National Convention at +Pittsburg--Organization of the party--The Philadelphia convention +and its platform--Nomination of Fremont--Know-Nothing and Whig +nominations--Democratic nomination and platform--The grand issue +of the campaign--The Democratic canvass--The splendid fight for +Fremont--Triumph of Buchanan--Its causes and results--The teaching +of events. + +It was early in the year 1853 that a notable fugitive slave case +occurred in Indiana. The alleged fugitive was John Freeman, who +had once resided in Georgia, but for many years had been a resident +of Indianapolis and had never been a slave. The marshal of the +State, though he had voted against the passage of the Fugitive Act +of 1850, entered upon the service of Ellington, the claimant, with +a zeal and alacrity which made him exceedingly odious to anti- +slavery men. He accompanied Ellington into the jail in which +Freeman was confined, and compelled him to expose his shoulders +and legs, so that the witnesses could identify him by certain marks, +and swear according to the pattern, which they did. The case became +critical for Freeman; but the feeling in Indianapolis was so strong +in his favor that a continuance of the hearing was granted to enable +him to prepare his proofs. He hired friends to go to Georgia, who +succeeded in bringing back with them several men who had known him +there many years before, and testified that he was a free man. On +the day of the trial Ellington became the fugitive, while Freeman +was preparing his papers for a prosecution for false imprisonment. +The large crowd in attendance was quite naturally turned into an +anti-slavery meeting, which was made to do good service in the way +of "agitation." The men from Georgia were on the platform, and +while they were complimented by the speakers on their love of +justice and humanity in coming to the rescue of Freeman, no quarter +was given to the Northern serviles and flunkeys who had made haste +to serve the perjured villains who had undertaken to kidnap a +citizen of the State under the forms of an atrocious law. The +meeting was very enthusiastic, and the tables completely turned on +the slave-catching faction. + +When President Pierce was inaugurated, on the fourth of March, +1853, the pride and power of the Democratic party seemed to be at +their flood. In his inaugural message he expressed the fervent +hope that the slavery question was "forever at rest," and he +doubtless fully believed that this hope would be realized. In his +annual message, in December following, he lauded the Compromise +measures with great emphasis, and declared that the repose which +they had brought to the country should receive no shock during his +term of office if he could avert it. The anti-slavery element in +the Thirty-third Congress was scarcely as formidable as in the +preceding one, though there were some accessions. Benjamin F. Wade +was now in the Senate, and De Witt of Massachusetts, Gerrit Smith +of New York, and Edward Wade of Ohio, were members of the House. +In the beginning the session gave promise of a quiet one, but on +the twenty-third of January the precious repose of the country, to +which the President had so lovingly referred in his message, was +rudely shocked by the proposition of Senator Douglas to repeal the +Missouri compromise. This surprising demonstration from a leading +friend of the Administration and a champion of the compromise +measures marked a new epoch in the career of slavery, and rekindled +the fires of sectional strife. After a very exciting debate in +both houses, which lasted four months, the measure finally became +a law on the thirtieth of May, 1854. It was a sprout from the +grave of the Wilmot proviso; for if, under the Constitution, it +was the duty of Congress to abandon the policy of restriction in +1850, and provide that Utah and New Mexico should be received into +the Union, with or without slavery, according to the choice of +their people, the Missouri compromise line should never have been +established, and was a rock of offense to the slave-holders. The +Compromise Acts of 1850 had not abrogated that line, and related +only to our Mexican acquisitions; but they had affirmed a principle, +and if that principle was sound, the Missouri restriction was +indefensible. The whole question of slavery was thus reopened, +for the sacredness of the compact of 1820 and the wickedness of +its violation depended largely upon the character of slavery itself, +and our constitutional relations to it. + +On all sides the situation was exceedingly critical and peculiar. +The Whigs, in their now practically disbanded condition, were free +to act as they saw fit, and were very indignant at this new +demonstration in the interest of slavery, while they were yet in +no mood to countenance any form of "abolitionism." Multitudes of +Democrats were equally indignant, and were quite ready to join +hands with the Whigs in branding slavery with the violation of its +plighted faith. Both made the sacredness of the bargain of 1820 +and the crime of its violation the sole basis of their hostility. +Their hatred of slavery was geographical, spending its force north +of the Missouri restriction. They talked far more eloquently about +the duty of keeping covenants, and the wickedness of reviving +sectional agitation, than the evils of slavery, and the cold-blooded +conspiracy to spread it over an empire of free soil. Their watch- +word and rallying cry was "the restoration of the Missouri compromise"; +but this demand was not made merely as a preliminary to other +measures, which would restore the free States to the complete +assertion of their constitutional rights, but as a means of +propitiating the _spirit_ of compromise, and a convenient retreat +to the adjustment acts of 1850 and the "finality" platforms of +1852. In some States and localities the anti-slavery position of +these parties was somewhat broader; but as a general rule the ground +on which they marshaled their forces was substantially what I have +stated. + +The position of the Free Soilers was radically different. They +opposed slavery upon principle, and irrespective of any compact or +compromise. They did not demand the restoration of the Missouri +compromise; and although they rejoiced at the popular condemnation +of the perfidy which had repealed it, they regarded it as a false +issue. It was an instrument on which different tunes could be +played. To restore this compromise would prevent the spread of +slavery over soil that was free; but it would re-affirm the binding +obligation of a compact that should never have been made, and from +which we were now offered a favorable opportunity of deliverance. +It would be to recognize slavery as an equal and honorable contracting +party, waiving its violated faith, and thus precluding us from +pleading its perfidy in discharge of all compromises. It would +degrade our cause to the level of those who washed their hands of +all taint of abolitionism, and only waged war against the Administration +because it broke up the blessed reign of peace which descended upon +the country in the year 1850. These Free Soilers insisted that +the breach of this compact was only a single link in a great chain +of measures aiming at the absolute supremacy of slavery in the +Government, and thus inviting a resistance commensurate with that +policy; and that this breach should be made the exodus of the people +from the bondage of all compromises. They argued that to cut down +the issue between slavery and freedom to so narrow, equivocal, and +half-hearted a measure, at a time when every consideration pleaded +for radical and thorough work, was practical infidelity to the +cause and the crisis. It was sporting with humanity, and giving +to the winds a glorious victory for the right when it was within +our grasp. + +The situation was complicated by two other political elements. +One of these was Temperance, which now, for the first time, had +become a most absorbing political issue. The "Maine Law" agitation +had reached the West, and the demand of the temperance leaders was +"search, seizure, confiscation, and destruction of liquors kept +for illegal sale." Keenly alive to the evils of drunkenness, and +too impatient to wait for the inevitable conditions of progress, +they thought the great work could be accomplished by a legislative +short-cut. They insisted that the "accursed poison" of the +"rumseller," wherever it could be found, should be poured into the +gutter along with other filth, while he should be marched off to +answer to the charge of a crime against society, and take his rank +among other great offenders. Instead of directing their chief +attack against the appetite for drink and seeking to lessen the +demand, their effort was to destroy the supply. They had evidently +given no thought to the function of civil government in dealing +with the problem, nor did they perceive that the vice of drunkenness +is an effect, quite as much as a cause, having its genesis in the +unequal laws, in the domination of wealth over the poor, in the +lack of general education, in inherited infirmities, physical and +mental, in neglected household training; in a word, in untoward +social conditions which must be radically dealt with before we can +strike with effect at the root of the evil. They did not see that +the temperance question is thus a many-sided one, involving the +general uplifting of society, and that no legislation can avail +much which loses sight of this truth. For these very reasons the +agitation for a time swept everything before it. Its current was +resistless, because it was narrow and impetuous. If the leaders +had comprehended the logic of their work and its unavoidable +limitations, and had only looked forward to the overthrow of the +fabric of intemperance by undermining its foundations, the regular +current of politics would not have been perceptibly affected, while +the way would have been left open for a more perfect union on the +really vital and overshadowing issue of slavery. + +The other element referred to made its appearance in the closing +months of 1853, and took the name of the Know-Nothing party. It +was a secret oath-bound political order, and its demand was the +proscription of Catholics and a probation of twenty-one years for +the foreigner as a qualification for the right of suffrage. Its +career was as remarkable as it was disgraceful. Thousands were +made to believe that the Romish hierarchy was about to overthrow +our liberties, and that the evils of "foreignism" had become so +alarming as to justify the extraordinary measures by which it was +proposed to counteract them. Thousands, misled by political knaves +through the arts of the Jesuits believed that the cause of freedom +was to be sanctified and saved by this new thing under the sun. +Thousands, through their unbridled credulity, were persuaded that +political hacks and charlatans were to lose their occupation under +the reign of the new Order, and that our debauched politics were +to be thoroughly purified by the lustration which it promised +forthwith to perform. Thousands, eager to bolt from the old parties, +but fearful of being shot down on the way as deserters, gladly +availed themselves of this newly devised "underground railroad" in +escaping from the service of their old masters. Under these various +influences the Whigs generally, and a large proportion of the Free +Soilers and Democrats, were enlisted in the service of this remarkable +movement. Pretending to herald a new era in our politics in which +the people were to take the helm and expel demagogues and traders +from the ship, it reduced political swindling to the certainty and +system of a science. It drew to itself, as the great festering +centre of corruption, all the known rascalities of the previous +generation, and assigned them to active duty in its service. It +was an embodied lie of the first magnitude, a horrid conspiracy +against decency, the rights of man, and the principle of human +brotherhood. + +Its birth, simultaneously with the repeal of the Missouri compromise, +was not an accident, as any one could see who had studied the +tactics of the slave-holders. It was a well-timed scheme to divide +the people of the free States upon trifles and side issues, while +the South remained a unit in defense of its great interest. It +was the cunning attempt to balk and divert the indignation aroused +by the repeal of the Missouri restriction, which else would spend +its force upon the aggressions of slavery; for by thus kindling +the Protestant jealousy of our people against the Pope, and enlisting +them in a crusade against the foreigner, the South could all the +more successfully push forward its schemes. + +On this ground, as an anti-slavery man, I opposed it with all my +might from the beginning to the end of its life. For a time it +carried everything with a high hand. It was not only irresistible +in numbers, but it fought in the dark. It pretended to act openly +and in friendly conference with its enemies as to questions which +it had already settled in secret conclave. Its opponents did not +know how to wage war against it, because they did not know who were +their friends. If a meeting was called to expose and denounce its +schemes, it was drowned in the Know-Nothing flood which, at the +appointed time, completely overwhelmed the helpless minority. This +happened in my own county and town, where thousands of men, including +many of my old Free Soil brethren, assembled as an organized mob +to suppress the freedom of speech; and they succeeded by brute +force in taking possession of every building in which their opponents +could meet, and silencing them by savage yells. At one time I +think I had less than a dozen political friends in the State, and +I could see in the glad smile which lighted up the faces of my old- +time enemies that they considered me beyond the reach of political +resurrection. But I never for a moment intermitted my warfare, or +doubted that in the end the truth would be vindicated, although I +did not dream that in less than two years I would be the recognized +leader of the men composing this mob, who would be found denying +their membership of this secret order, or confessing it with shame. +It was a strange dispensation; and no record of independent journalism +was ever more honorable than that of the "New York Tribune" and +"National Era," during their heroic and self-sacrificing fight +against this organized scheme of bigotry and proscription, which +can only be remembered as the crowning and indelible shame of our +politics. It admits of neither defense or palliation, and I am +sorry to find Henry Wilson's "History of the Rise and Fall of the +Slave Power" disfigured by his elaborate efforts to whitewash it +into respectability, and give it a decent place in the records of +the past. + +Such were the elements which mingled and commingled in the political +ferment of 1854, and out of which an anti-slavery party was to be +evolved capable of trying conclusions with the perfectly disciplined +power of slavery. The problem was exceedingly difficult, and could +not be solved in a day. The necessary conditions of progress could +not be slighted, and the element of time must necessarily be a +large one in the grand movement which was to come. The dispersion +of the old parties was one thing, but the organization of their +fragments into a new one on a just basis was quite a different +thing. The honor of taking the first step in the formation of the +Republican party belongs to Michigan, where the Whigs and Free +Soilers met in State convention on the sixth of July, formed a +complete fusion into one party, and adopted the name Republican. +This action was followed soon after by like movements in the States +of Wisconsin and Vermont. In Indiana a State "fusion" convention +was held on the thirteenth of July, which adopted a platform, +nominated a ticket, and called the new movement the "People's +Party." The platform, however, was narrow and equivocal, and the +ticket nominated had been agreed on the day before by the Know- +Nothings, in secret conclave, as the outside world afterward learned. +The ticket was elected, but it was done by combining opposite and +irreconcilable elements, and was not only barren of good fruits +but prolific of bad ones, through its demoralizing example; for +the same dishonest game was attempted the year following, and was +overwhelmingly defeated by the Democrats. In New York the Whigs +refused to disband, and the attempt to form a new party failed. +The same was true of Massachusetts and Ohio. The latter State, +however, in 1855, fell into the Republican column, and nominated +Mr. Chase for Governor, who was elected by a large majority. A +Republican movement was attempted this year in Massachusetts, where +conservative Whiggery and Know-Nothingism blocked the way of +progress, as they did also in the State of New York. In November +of the year 1854 the Know-Nothing party held a National Convention +in Cincinnati, in which the hand of slavery was clearly revealed, +and the "Third Degree" or pro-slavery obligation of the order, was +adopted; and it was estimated that at least a million and a half +of men afterward bound themselves by this obligation. In June of +the following year another National Convention of the order was +held in Philadelphia, and at this convention the party was finally +disrupted on the issue of slavery, and its errand of mischief +henceforward prosecuted by fragmentary and irregular methods; but +even the Northern wing of this Order was untrustworthy on the +slavery issue, having proposed, as a condition of union, to limit +its anti-slavery demand to the restoration of the Missouri restriction +and the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as free States. + +Indeed, the outlook as to the formation of a triumphant anti-slavery +party was not so promising towards the close of the year 1855 as +it had seemed in the spring of the preceding year. If the Free +Soilers had been clear-sighted enough to distinguish between that +which was transient and that which was permanent in the forces +which had roused the people of the free States, and, availing +themselves of the repeal of the Missouri restriction as a God-send +to their cause, had summoned the manhood of the country to their +help, a powerful impulse would have been given in the right direction. +But in the general confusion and bewilderment of the times many of +them lost their way, and were found mustering with the mongrel +hordes of Know-Nothingism, and under captains who were utterly +unworthy to lead them. Instead of inflexibly maintaining their +ground and beckoning the people to come up and possess it, they +meanly deserted it themselves, while vainly expecting others to +occupy it. The Whigs were totally powerless to render any service +without first disbanding their party, and this, in many localities, +they declined to do. Both wings of the Know-Nothing movement were +organized obstacles to the formation of a new party, while the +bolters from the Democrats were as unprepared for radical anti- +slavery work as the Whigs or Know-Nothings. But notwithstanding +all these drawbacks, real progress had been made. In the Thirty- +fourth Congress, Wilson, Foster, Harlan, Trumbull, and Durkee were +chosen senators. In the House were Burlingame, Buffington, Banks, +Hickman, Grow, Covode, Sherman, Bliss, Galloway, Bingham, Harlan, +Stanton, Colfax, Washburn, and many others. These were great gains, +and clearly pointed to still larger accessions, and the final +subordination of minor issues to the grand one on which the people +of the free States were to take their stand. An unprecedented +struggle for the Speakership began with the opening of the Thirty- +fourth Congress, and lasted till the second day of February, when +the free States finally achieved their first victory in the election +of Banks. Northern manhood at last was at a premium, and this was +largely the fruit of the "border ruffian" attempts to make Kansas +a slave State, which had stirred the blood of the people during +the year 1855. In the meantime, the arbitrary enforcement of the +Fugitive Slave Act still further contributed to the growth of an +anti-slavery opinion. The famous case of Anthony Burns in Boston, +the prosecution of S. M. Booth in Wisconsin, and the decision of +the Supreme Court of that State, the imprisonment of Passmore +Williamson in Philadelphia, and the outrageous rulings of Judge +Kane, and the case of Margaret Garner in Ohio, all played their +part in preparing the people of the free States for organized +political action against the aggressions of slavery. + +Near the close of the year 1855, the chairmen of the Republican +State Committees of Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, +and Wisconsin, issued a call for a National Republican Convention +to be held at Pittsburg, on the 22d of February, 1856, for the +purpose of organizing a National Republican party, and making +provision for a subsequent convention to nominate candidates for +President and Vice President. It was very largely attended, and +bore witness to the spirit and courage which the desperate measures +of the slave oligarchy had awakened throughout the Northern States. +All the free States were represented, and eight of the slave-holding, +namely: Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, +North Carolina, and Texas. The convention assembled in Lafayette +Hall, and the Hon. John A. King, of New York, a son of Rufus King, +was made temporary chairman, and Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, +the intimate friend of President Jackson, was made its permanent +president. He was most enthusiastically greeted on taking the +chair, and began his address with the remark that this was the +first time he had ever been called on to make a speech. His views +were too conservative in tone to satisfy the demands of the crisis, +but he was most cordially welcomed as a distinguished delegate from +a slave State. The convention was opened by a prayer from Owen +Lovejoy, and there was a suppressed murmur of applause when he +asked God to enlighten the mind of the President of the United +States, and turn him from his evil ways, and if this was not +possible, to take him away, so that an honest and God-fearing man +might fill his place. Horace Greeley was seen in the audience, +and was loudly and unitedly called on for a speech. He spoke +briefly, saying that he had been in Washington several weeks, and +friends there "counseled extreme caution in our movements." This +was the burden of his exhortation. At the close of his remarks +Mr. Giddings was tumultuously called for, and responded by saying +that Washington was the last place in the world to look for counsel +or redress, and related an anecdote of two pious brothers, named +Joseph and John, who in early times had begun a settlement in the +West. Joseph prayed to the Lord: "O, Lord! we have begun a good +work; we pray thee to carry it on thus,"--giving specific directions. +But John prayed: "O, Lord, we have begun a good work; carry it on +as you think best, and don't mind what Joe says." Mr. Giddings +then introduced the Rev. Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois,--"not Joe, but +John." Mr. Lovejoy delighted the audience, and was followed by +Preston King and other speakers; and it was quite manifest that +this was a _Republican_ convention, and not a mere aggregation of +Whigs, Know-Nothings, and dissatisfied Democrats. It contained a +considerable Know-Nothing element, but it made no attempt at +leadership, while Charles Remelin and other speakers were +enthusiastically applauded when they denounced Know-Nothingism as +a mischievous side issue in our politics, which the new movement +should openly repudiate. The convention was in session two days, +and was singularly harmonious throughout. Its resolutions and +address to the people did not fitly echo the feeling and purpose +of its members, but this was a preliminary movement, and it was +evident that nothing could stay the progress of the cause. As +chairman of the committee on organization, I had the honor to report +the plan of action through which the new party took life, providing +for the appointment of a National Executive Committee, the holding +of a National Convention in Philadelphia on the 17th of June, for +the nomination of candidates for President and Vice President, and +the organization of the party in counties and districts throughout +the States. + +The Philadelphia convention was very large, and marked by unbounded +enthusiasm. The spirit of liberty was up, and side issues forgotten. +If Know-Nothingism was present, it prudently accepted an attitude +of subordination. The platform reasserted the self-evident truths +of the Declaration of Independence, and denied that Congress, the +people of a Territory, or any other authority, could give legal +existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. It +asserted the sovereign power of Congress over the Territories, and +its right and duty to prohibit it therein. Know-Nothingism received +no recognition, and the double-faced issue of the restoration of +the Missouri compromise was disowned, while the freedom of Kansas +was dealt with as a mere incident of the conflict between liberty +and slavery. On this broad platform John C. Fremont was nominated +for President on the first ballot, and Wm. L. Dayton was unanimously +nominated for Vice-President. The National Republican party was +thus splendidly launched, and nothing seemed to stand in the way +of its triumph but the mischievous action of the Know-Nothing party, +and a surviving faction of pro-slavery Whigs. The former party +met in National Convention in Philadelphia, on the twenty-second +of February, and nominated Millard Fillmore for President and Andrew +J. Donelson for Vice President. Some bolters from this convention +subsequently nominated Nathaniel P. Banks and William F. Johnson +as their candidates, and a remnant of the Whig party held a convention +at Baltimore on the seventeenth of September, and endorsed Fillmore +and Donelson; but a dissatisfied portion of the convention afterward +nominated Commodore Stockton and Kenneth Raynor. All these factions +were destined soon to political extinction, but in a hand-to-hand +fight with the slave power they yet formed a considerable obstacle +to that union and harmony in the free States which were necessary +to success. + +The Democratic National Convention met at Cincinnati on the second +of June. The candidates were Buchanan, Pierce, and Douglas. On +the seventeenth ballot Buchanan was unanimously nominated for +President, and on the second ballot John C. Breckenridge was +nominated for Vice President. The platform re-affirmed the action +of Congress respecting the repeal of the Missouri compromise and +the compromises of 1850, and recognized the right of the people of +all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, whenever the +number of their inhabitants justified it, to form a Constitution +with or without domestic slavery, and to be admitted into the Union +upon terms of equality with the other States. These declarations, +together with the express denial to Congress of the right to +interfere with slavery in the Territories, were accepted as +satisfactory to the South, and were fairly interpreted to mean that +the people of the Territories, pending their territorial condition, +had no power to exclude slavery therefrom. In Mr. Buchanan's letter +of acceptance, he completely buried his personality in the platform, +and Albert G. Brown of Mississippi, and Governor Wise of Virginia, +pronounced him as true to the South as Mr. Calhoun himself. These +were the tickets for 1856, but the real contest was between Buchanan +and Fremont. It was pre-eminently a conflict of principles. The +issues could hardly have been better defined, and they were vital. +It was a struggle between two civilizations, between reason and +brute force, between the principles of Democracy and the creed of +Absolutism; and the case was argued with a force, earnestness, and +fervor, never before known. No Presidential contest had ever so +touched the popular heart, or so lifted up and ennobled the people +by the contagion of a great and pervading moral enthusiasm. The +campaign for Buchanan, however, was not particularly animated, at +least in the Northern States. It illustrated the power of party +machinery, and the desperate purpose to press forward along a path +which had been followed too far to call a halt. It was a struggle +for party ascendancy by continual and most humiliating concessions +to the ever-multiplying demands of slavery; and the ardor of the +struggle must have been cooled by many troublesome misgivings as +to the final effect of these concessions, and the policy of purchasing +a victory at such a price. + +The excitement of the canvass was aggravated by very exasperating +circumstances. The brutal and cowardly assault of Brooks upon +Sumner was the counterpart of border ruffianism in Kansas, and +perhaps did more to stir the blood of the people of the Northern +States than any of the wholesale outrages thus far perpetrated in +that distant border. These outrages, however, were now multiplied +in all directions, and took on new shapes. They were legislative, +executive, and judicial, cropping out in private pillage and +assassination, in organized marauding and murder, and in armed +violence; and these horrid demonstrations enlivened the canvass to +the end. Republican enthusiasm reached its white heat, borrowing +the self-forgetting devotion and dedicated zeal of a religious +conversion. Banks and tariffs and methods of administration were +completely forgotten, while thousands of Democrats who had been +trained in the school of slavery, and hundreds of thousands of +conservative Whigs, caught the spirit of liberty which animated +the followers of Fremont and Dayton. The canvass had no parallel +in the history of American politics. No such mass-meetings had +ever assembled. They were not only immense in numbers, but seemed +to come together spontaneously, and wholly independent of machinery. +The processions, banners, and devices were admirable in all their +appointments, and no political campaign had ever been inspired by +such charming and soul-stirring music, or cheered by such a following +of orderly, intelligent, conscientious and thoroughly devoted men +and women. To me the memory of this first great national struggle +for liberty is a delight, as the part I played in it was a real +jubilee of the heart. I was welcomed by the Republican masses +everywhere, and the fact was as gratifying to me as it proved +mortifying to the party chiefs who, a little while before, had +found such comfort in the assurance that henceforward they were +rid of me. With many wry faces they submitted, after all sorts of +manoeuvers early in the canvass to keep me in the background, varied +by occasional threats to drive me out of the party. As their own +party standing became somewhat precarious they completely changed +their base, and often amused the public by super-serviceable displays +of their personal friendship. Even the ring-leader of the Know- +Nothing mob of two years before, standing up to his full height of +"six feet six," used to introduce me at mass meetings as "Your +honored representative in Congress, and war-worn veteran in the +cause of liberty." + +But Buchanan triumphed. The baleful interposition of Know-Nothingism +stood in the way of that union of forces which the situation +demanded, and was thus chiefly responsible for the Republican +defeat. The old Whigs who had so recently stepped from their +"finality" platform, could not be unitedly rallied, and the Democratic +bolters were only half converted. In my own State the opposition +to the Democracy repudiated even the name Republican, and entered +the field as "the People's party." It was a combination of +weaknesses, instead of a union of forces. All the Fillmore Know- +Nothings and Silver-Grey Whigs of the State were recognized as +brethren. At least one man on the State ticket, of which Oliver +P. Morton was the head, was a Fillmore man, while both Fillmore +and anti-Fillmore men had been chosen as delegates to Philadelphia +and electors for the State. The political managers even went so +far as to suppress their own electoral ticket during the canvass, +as a peace-offering to old Whiggery and Know-Nothingism, while the +admission of Kansas as a free State was dealt with as the sole +issue, and border ruffian outrages and elaborate disclaimers of +"abolitionism" were the regular staple of our orators, who openly +declared that the Republican party was a "white man's party." Anti- +slavery speakers like Clay and Burlingame were studiously kept out +of Southern Indiana, where the teachings of Republicanism were +especially needed, and Richard W. Thompson, then the professed +champion of Fillmore, but in reality the stipendary of the Democrats, +traversed that region on the stump, denounced the Republicans as +"Abolitionists," "disunionists," and "incendiaries," and was +everywhere unchallenged in his course. Similar tactics, though +not so deplorably despicable, prevailed in several of the other +States, giving unmistakable evidence of the need of a still further +and more thorough enlightenment of the people as to the spirit and +aims of slavery. In the light of these facts, I was not at all +cast down by the defeat of Fremont. He was known as an explorer, +and not as a statesman. If he had succeeded, with mere politicians +in his cabinet, a Congress against him, and only a partially +developed anti-slavery sentiment behind him, the cause of freedom +would have been in fearful peril. The revolution so hopefully +begun might have been arrested by half-way measures, promoting the +slumber rather than the agitation of the truth, while the irritating +nostrums of Buchanan Democracy, so necessary to display the +abominations of slavery, would have been lost to us. The moral +power of the canvass for Fremont was itself a great gain, +notwithstanding the cowardice of some of its leaders. The Republican +movement could not now go backward, and with a probation of four +years to prepare for the next conflict, unembarrassed by the +responsibilities of power, and free to profit by the blunders and +misdeeds of its foe, it was pretty sure of a triumph in 1860. +Fremont had received a popular vote of one million three hundred +and forty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, carrying eleven +States and one hundred and fourteen electoral votes; while only +four years before, John P. Hale, standing on substantially the same +platform, had received only a little more than one hundred and +fifty-seven thousand, and not a single electoral vote. This showed +a marvelous anti-slavery progress, considering the age of the +movement, the elements it forced into combination, and the difficulties +under which it struggled into life; and no one could misinterpret +its significance. + + +CHAPTER VIII. +PROGRESS OF REPUBLICANISM. +The Dred Scott decision--The struggle for freedom in Kansas-- +Instructive debates in Congress--Republican gains in the Thirty- +fifth Congress--The English bill--Its defeat and the effect-- +Defection of Douglas--Its advantages and its perils--Strange course +of the New-York Tribune and other Republican papers--Republican +retreat in Indiana--Illinois Republicans stand firm, and hold the +party to its position--Gains in the Thirty-sixth Congress--Southern +barbarism and extravagance--John Brown's raid--Cuba and the slave +trade--Oregon and Kansas--Aids to anti-slavery progress--The +Speakership and Helper's book--Southern insolence and extravagance +--Degradation of Douglas--Slave code for the Territories--Outrages +in the South--Campaign of 1860--Charleston convention and division +of the Democrats--Madness of the factions--Bell and Everett-- +Republican National Convention and its platform--Lincoln and Seward +--Canvass of Douglas--The campaign for Lincoln--Conduct of Seward +--Republican concessions and slave-holding madness. + +The Republicans, however, were sorely disappointed by their defeat; +but this second great victory of slavery did not at all check the +progress of the anti-slavery cause. It had constantly gathered +strength from the audacity and recklessness of slave-holding +fanaticism, and it continued to do so. On the 6th of March, 1857, +the Supreme Court of the United States harnessed itself to the car +of slavery by its memorable decision in the case of Dred Scott, +affirming that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the +Territories, and, inferentially, that the Constitution carried with +it the right to hold slaves there, even against the will of their +people. The point was not before the court, and the opinion of +Chief Justice Taney was therefore purely extra-judicial. It was +simply a political harangue in defense of slavery. It created a +profound impression throughout the free States, and became a powerful +weapon in the hands of Republicans. It was against the whole +current of adjudications on the subject, and they denounced it as +a vile caricature of American jurisprudence. They characterized +it as the distilled diabolism of two hundred years of slavery, +stealthily aiming at the overthrow of our Republican institutions, +while seeking to hide its nakedness under the fig-leaves of judicial +fairness and dignity. They branded it as the desperate attempt of +slave-breeding Democracy to crown itself king, by debauching the +Federal judiciary and waging war against the advance of civilization. +Their denunciations of the Chief Justice were unsparing and +remorseless; and they described him as "pouring out the hoarded +villainies of a life-time into a political opinion which he tried +to coin into law." When Senator Douglas sought to ridicule their +clamor by inquiring whether they would take an appeal from the +Supreme Court of the United States to a town meeting, they answered: +"Yes, we appeal from the court to the people, who made the +Constitution, and have the right, as the tribunal of last resort, +to define its meaning." Nothing could more clearly have marked +the degradation to which the power of slavery had reduced the +country than this decision, and no other single event could have +so prepared the people for resistance to its aggressions. It was +thoroughly cold-blooded in its letter and spirit, and no Spanish +Inquisitor ever showed less sympathy for his victim than did the +Chief Justice for the slave. + +But the Dred Scott iniquity did not stand alone. It had been +procured for the purpose of fastening slavery upon all the Territories, +and it had, of course, a special meaning when applied to the +desperate struggle then in progress to make Kansas a slave State. +The conduct of the Administration during this year, in its treatment +of the free State men of that Territory, forms one of the blackest +pages in the history of slavery. The facts respecting their labors, +trials, and sufferings, and the methods employed to force upon them +the Lecompton Constitution, including wholesale ballot-stuffing +and every form of ruffianism, pillage, and murder, need not be +recalled; but all these were but the outcroppings and counterpart +of the Dred Scott decision, and the horrid travesty of the principle +of popular sovereignty in the Territories. The whole power of the +Administration, acting as the hired man of slavery, was ruthlessly +employed for the purpose of spreading the curse over Kansas, and +establishing it there as an irreversible fact; and all the departments +of the Government now stood as a unit on the side of this devilish +conspiracy. Everybody knew the Lecompton constitution was the work +of outside ruffians, and not of the people of the Territory, whose +Legislature in February, 1858, solemnly protested against their +admission under that Constitution, and whose protest was totally +unheeded. The Congressional debates during this period greatly +contributed to the anti-slavery education of the people, by more +clearly unmasking the real spirit and designs of the slaveholders. +We were treated to the kind of talk then becoming current about +"Northern mud-sills," "filthy operatives," the "ownership of labor +by capital," and the beauties and beatitudes of slavery. Such +maddened extremists as Hammond and Keitt of South Carolina, and such +blatant doughfaces as Petit of Indiana, became capital missionaries +in the cause of freedom. Their words were caught up by the press +of the free States, and added their beneficent help to the work so +splendidly going forward through the providential agency of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." + +In the meantime, freedom had made large gains in the composition +of the Thirty-fifth Congress, which now had charge of the Lecompton +swindle. The Senate contained twenty Republican members and the +House ninety-two. Kansas had not been forced into the Union as a +slave State, but she was helpless at the feet of the Executive. +In the midst of the angry debate a new proposition was brought +forward, on the twenty-third of April, which was even more detestable +than the Lecompton bill itself. This was known as the "English +bill," which offered Kansas a very large and tempting land grant, +if she would come into the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, +but provided that if she voted to reject the land grant she should +neither receive the land nor be admitted as a State until the +Territory acquired a population sufficient to elect a representative +to the House. The infamy of this proposition was heightened by +the fact that these long-suffering pioneers, weary and harassed by +their protracted struggle and longing for peace, were naturally +tempted to purchase it at any price. It was a proposition of +gigantic bribery, after bluster and bullying had been exhausted. +It was, in fact, both a bribe and a menace, and measured at once +the political morality of the men who favored it, and the extremity +to which the slave-holders were driven in the prosecution of their +desperate enterprise. After a protracted debate in both Houses, +and at the end of a struggle of five months, the bill was passed +and received the Executive approval; but the rejoicing of the slave- +holders and their allies was short-lived. The people of Kansas +were not in the market. They had suffered too much and too long +in the battle for freedom to make merchandise of their convictions +and sacrifice the future of a great commonwealth. They spurned +the bribe, and took the chances of triumph through an indefinitely +prolonged conflict, while recruits to the ranks of freedom were +naturally falling into line throughout the Northern States. + +In December of this year I attended another fugitive slave case in +Indianapolis. The claimant was one Vallandingham, of Kentucky, +whose agent caught the alleged fugitive in Illinois, and was passing +through Indianapolis on his way home. The counsel for the negro, +Ellsworth, Coburn, Colley, and myself, brought the case before +Judge Wallace, on _habeas corpus_, and had him discharged. The +claimant immediately had him arrested and taken before Commissioner +Rea, for trial. We asked for the continuance of the case on the +affidavit of the negro that he was free, and could prove it if +allowed three weeks' time in which to procure his witnesses; but +the Commissioner ruled that the proceeding was a summary _ex-parte_ +one, and that the defendant had no right to any testimony. Of +course we were forced into trial, and after allowing secondary +proof where the highest was attainable, and permitting hearsay +evidence and mere rumor, the Commissioner granted his certificate +for the removal of the adjudged fugitive. We again brought the +case before Judge Wallace, on _habeas corpus_, when the negro denied +all the material facts of the marshal's return, under oath, and +asked to be allowed to prove his denial; but the Judge refused +this, and he was handed over to the marshal for transportation +South. On the trial he was shown to have been free by the act of +his master in sending him into a free State; but under cover of an +infamous law, and by the help of truculent officials, he was remanded +into slavery. The counsel for the negro, with a dozen or more who +joined them, resolved upon one further effort to save him. The +project was that two or three men selected for the purpose were to +ask of the jailer the privilege of seeing him the next morning and +giving him good-bye; and while one of the party engaged the jailer +in conversation, the negro was to make for the door, mount a horse +hitched near by, and effect his escape. The enterprise had a +favorable beginning. The negro got out, mounted a horse, and might +have escaped if he had been a good horseman; but he was awkward +and clumsy, and unfortunately mounted the wrong horse, and a very +poor traveler; and when he saw the jailer in pursuit, and heard +the report of his revolver, he surrendered, and was at once escorted +South. Walpole and his brother were for the claimant. This is +the only felony in which I was ever involved, but none of the +parties to it had any disposition whatever to confess it at the +time. + +The Republican party gathered fresh courage and strength in the +year 1858 from the defection of Douglas. His unmistakable ability +and hitherto unquestioned devotion to slavery had singled him out +as the great leader and coming man of his party. He was ambitious, +and by no means scrupulous in his political methods. The moral +character of slavery gave him not the slightest concern, ostentatiously +declaring that he did not care whether it was "voted up or voted +down" in the Territories, and always lavishing his contempt upon +the negro. He was the great champion of popular sovereignty, but +at the same time fully committed himself to the decision of the +Supreme Court of the United States, whatever it might be; and after +that decision had been given, and, in effect, against his particular +hobby, he defended it, while vainly striving to vindicate his +consistency. But the Lecompton swindle was so revolting a mockery +of the right of the people of Kansas, that his own Democratic +constituents would not endorse it, and he was obliged, contrary to +his strong party inclinations, to take his stand against it. It +was an event of very great significance, both North and South, and +gave great comfort to anti-slavery men of all shades of opinion; +but it brought with it, at the same time, a serious peril to the +Republican party. + +His accession to the Anti-Lecompton ranks was deemed so important +that many leading Republicans, of different States, thought he +should be welcomed and honored by the withdrawal of all party +opposition to his re-election to the Senate. They argued that in +no other way could the despotic power of the Democratic power be +so effectually broken, and the real interests of republicanism +advanced. This feeling, for a time, prevailed extensively, and +threatened to put in abeyance or completely supersede the principles +so broadly laid down in the national platform of 1856. The "New +York Tribune" took the lead in beating this retreat. It sympathized +with Douglas to the end of his canvass, and in connection with +kindred agencies probably saved him from defeat. It urged the +disbanding of the Republican party, and the formation of a new +combination against the Democrats, composed of Republicans, Douglas +Democrats, Know-Nothings, and old Whigs, but without any avowal of +principles. It proposed that by the common consent of these parties +the Republicans should be allowed to name the next candidate for +the Presidency, and the other parties the candidate for the Vice +Presidency; or that this proposition should be reversed, if found +advisable, with a view to harmony. The different wings of this +combination were to call themselves by such names and proclaim such +principles in different States and localities as might seem to them +most conducive to local success and united ascendancy. This +abandonment of republicanism was likewise favored by such papers +as the "Cincinnati Gazette," which pronounced the policy of +Congressional prohibition worthless as a means of excluding slavery +from the Territories, and openly committed itself to the admission +of more slave States, whenever demanded by a popular majority in +any Territory. "The Indianapolis Journal" and other leading +Republican organs spoke of Congressional prohibition as "murdered +by Dred Scott," and as having no longer any practical value. In +the spring of this year the Republicans of Indiana, in their State +convention, not only surrendered the policy of Congressional +prohibition, and adopted the principle of popular sovereignty, but +made opposition to the Lecompton Constitution the sole issue of +the canvass. Under such leaders as Oliver P. Morton and his Whig +and Know-Nothing associates, Republicanism simply meant opposition +to the latest outrage of slavery, and acquiescence in all preceding +ones; but this shameful surrender of the cause to its enemies was +deservedly condemned in the election which followed. The Legislature +of the State, however, at its ensuing session, overwhelmingly +endorsed the Douglas dogma, and even the better class of Republican +papers urged the abandonment of the Republican creed. But, very +fortunately for the cause, the Republicans of Illinois could not +be persuaded to take Mr. Douglas into their embrace on the score +of a single worthy act, and forget, if not forgive, his long career +of effective and untiring hostility to the principles they cherished; +and his nomination by the Democrats, on a platform very offensive +to Republicans, fully justified their course. The result was the +nomination of Mr. Lincoln as a candidate for the succession to Mr. +Douglas, and the great joint debate which did so much to educate +the mind of the free States and prepare the way for Mr. Lincoln's +nomination the following year, while revealing the moral unworthiness +of his great rival, and justifying the policy which made necessary +this memorable contest in Illinois. + +The steady march of the Republican party toward ascendancy was +shown in the Thirty-sixth Congress, which met in December, 1859. +There were now twenty-four Republican senators, and one hundred +and nine representatives. Early in the first session of this +Congress an interesting debate occurred in the Senate on a proposition +to provide for the education of the colored children of the District +of Columbia. Mr. Mason condemned the proposition, and said it was +wise to prohibit the education of the colored race. Jefferson +Davis declared that the Government was not made for them, and that +"we have no right to tax our people to educate the barbarians of +Africa." These and kindred utterances were very well calculated +to aid the work of anti-slavery progress. John Brown's raid into +Virginia kindled the ire of the slave-holders to a degree as yet +unprecedented, and although his act found few defenders in the +Northern States, the heroism with which he met his fate, the pithy +correspondence between Gov. Wise and Mrs. Child, the language of +Southern senators in dealing with the subject, and the efforts made +to ferret out Brown's associates, all tended to strengthen the +growing hostility to slavery and prepare the way for the final +conflict. The designs of the slaveholders upon Cuba, which were +avowed in this Congress, and their purpose to acquire it for the +extension of slavery, by purchase if they could, but if not by war, +served the same purpose. The growing demand for the revival of +the African slave trade, as shown by the avowals of leading men in +both houses of Congress, and their cold-blooded utterances on the +subject, produced a profound impression on the country, and called +forth the startling fact that the city of New York was then one of +the greatest slave-trading marts in the world, and that from thirty +to sixty thousand persons a year were taken from Africa to Cuba by +vessels from that single port. Such facts as these, and that the +laws of the Union for the suppression of the traffic were not only +a dead letter but that the slave masters and their allies sullenly +refused to take any steps whatever for the remedy of this organized +inhumanity, were capital arguments for the Republicans, which they +employed with telling effect. The refusal to admit Oregon as a +State without a constitutional provision excluding people of color, +the rejection of Kansas on her application with a Constitution +fairly adopted by her people, and the great speech of Sumner on +"The Barbarism of Slavery," which this last application called +forth, all served their purpose in the growth of anti-slavery +opinion. So did the attempt to divide California for the purpose +of introducing slavery into the southern portion; the veto of an +Act of the Territorial Legislature of Kansas abolishing slavery, +and of a similar act in Nebraska; the acts of several Southern +States permitting free colored persons to sell themselves as slaves +if they chose to do so in preference to expulsion from the land of +their birth and their homes; the decision of the courts of Virginia +that slaves had no social or civil rights, and no legal capacity +to choose between being emancipated or sold as slaves; the refusal +of the Government to give a passport to a colored physician of +Massachusetts, for the reason that such privileges were never +conferred upon persons of color; and the revolutionary sentiments +uttered by governors and legislatures of various Southern States, +some of which declared that the election of a Republican President +would be sufficient cause for withdrawal from the Union. That +these were important aids to the progress of freedom was shown by +the passage of laws in various Northern States for the protection +of personal liberty, forbidding the use of local jails for the +detention of persons claimed as fugitive slaves, and securing for +them the right of trial by jury and the benefit of the writ of +_habeas corpus_. This healthy reaction was still further shown in +wholesome judicial decisions in several Northern States affirming +the citizenship of negroes, and denying the right of transit of +slave-holders with their slaves over their soil. + +The struggle for the Speakership in this Congress, which lasted +eight weeks, was also a first-rate training school for Republicanism. +Helper's famous book, "The Impending Crisis," had made a decided +sensation throughout the country, and John Sherman, the principal +candidate of the Republicans for Speaker, had endorsed it, though +he now denied the fact. Mr. Millson of Virginia, declared that +the man who "consciously, deliberately, and of purpose, lends his +name and influence to the propagation of such writings, is not only +not fit to be Speaker, but he is not fit to live." De Jarnette, +of the same State, said that Mr. Seward was "a perjured traitor, +whom no Southerner could consistently support or even obey, should +the nation elect him President." Mr. Pryor said that eight million +Southern freemen could not be subjugated by any combination whatever, +"least of all by a miscellaneous mob of crazy fanatics and conscience- +stricken traitors." Mr. Keitt said that "should the Republican +party succeed in the next Presidential election, my advice to the +South is to snap the cords of the Union at once and forever." Mr. +Crawford of Georgia said, "we will never submit to the inauguration +of a black Republican President"; and these and like utterances +were applauded by the galleries. The growing madness and desperation +in the Senate were equally noteworthy. This was shown by the +removal of Mr. Douglas from the chairmanship of the Committee on +Territories, and the determined purpose to read him out of the +party for refusing to violate the principle of popular sovereignty +in the Territory of Kansas. The attempt to hunt down a man who +had done the South such signal service in dragooning the Northern +Democracy into its support could not fail to divide the party, and +at the same time completely unmask the extreme and startling designs +which the slave power had been stealthily maturing. But that power +was now absolutely bent upon its purpose, and morally incapable of +pausing in its work. Its demand was a slave code for the Territories, +and it would accept nothing less. Jefferson Davis was the champion +of this policy, which he embodied in a series of resolutions and +made them the text of an elaborate argument; and Mr. Douglas replied +in a speech which at once vindicated himself and overwhelmingly +condemned the party with which he had so long acted. The resolutions, +however, were adopted by the Senate, which thus proclaimed its +purpose to nationalize slavery. + +In the meantime these remarkable legislative proceedings had their +counterpart in increasing lawlessness and violence throughout the +South. This was illustrated in such facts as the expulsion of +members of the Methodist Church North from Texas, the imprisonment +of Rev. Daniel Worth, in North Carolina, for circulating Helper's +"Impending Crisis"; the exile from Kentucky of the Rev. John G. +Fee and his colony of peaceable and law-abiding people, on account +of their anti-slavery opinions; and the espionage of the mails by +every Southern postmaster, who under local laws had the power to +condemn and "burn publicly" whatever he deemed unfit for circulation, +which laws had been pronounced constitutional by Caleb Cushing, +while Attorney General of the United States under Mr. Pierce, and +were "cheerfully acquiesced in" by Judge Holt, Postmaster General +under Buchanan. In Virginia the spirit of lawlessness became such +a rage that one of her leading newspapers offered a reward of fifty +thousand dollars for the head of Wm. H. Seward, while another paper +offered ten thousand dollars for the kidnapping and delivery in +Richmond of Joshua R. Giddings, or five thousand dollars for his +head. In short, the reign of barbarism was at last fully ushered +in, and the whole nation was beginning to realize the truth of Mr. +Lincoln's declaration, which he borrowed from St. Mark, that "a +house divided against itself can not stand." The people of the +free States were at school, with the slaveholders as their masters; +and the dullest scholars were now beginning to get their lessons. +Even the Know-Nothings and Silver-Grey Whigs were coming up to the +anxious seat, under the enlightening influence and saving-grace of +slaveholding madness and crime. The hour was ripe for action, and +the dawn of freedom in the South was seen in the coming emancipation +of the North. + +The Presidential Campaign of 1860 was a very singular commentary +on the Compromise measures of 1850 and the "finality" platforms of +1852. The sectional agitation which now stirred the country +outstripped all precedent, and completely demonstrated the folly +of all schemes of compromise. The Democratic National Convention +met in the city of Charleston on the twenty-third day of May. Its +action now seems astounding, although it was the inevitable result +of antecedent facts. The Democratic party had the control of every +department of the Government, and a formidable popular majority +behind it. It had the complete command of its own fortunes, and +there was no cause or even excuse for the division which threatened +its life. The difference between the Southern Democrats and the +followers of Douglas was purely metaphysical, eluding entirely the +practical common sense of the people. Both wings of the party now +stood committed to the Dred Scott decision, and that surrendered +everything which the extreme men of the South demanded. It was "a +quarrel about goats' wool," and yet the Southern Democrats were +maddened at the thought of submitting to the nomination of Douglas +for the Presidency. His sin in the Lecompton affair was counted +unpardonable, and they seemed to hate him even more intensely than +they hated the Abolitionists. A committee on resolutions was +appointed, which submitted majority and minority, or Douglas and +anti-Douglas, reports. These were hotly debated, but the Douglas +platform was adopted, which led to the secession of the Southern +delegates. On the fifty-seventh ballot Mr. Douglas received a +clear majority of the Electoral College, but the Convention then +adjourned till the eighteenth of June, in the hope that harmony +might in some way be restored. On reassembling this was found +impossible, and the balloting was resumed, which finally gave Mr. +Douglas all the votes cast but thirteen, and he was declared the +Democratic nominee. The Convention then nominated for the Vice +Presidency Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, a disciple of Calhoun, +whose extreme opinions were well known. He was unequivocally +committed to the doctrine that neither the General Government nor +a Territorial Government can impair the right of slave property in +the common Territories. This illustration of the political profligacy +of the Douglas managers, and burlesque upon popular sovereignty, +was as remarkable as the madness of the seceders in fighting him +for his supposed anti-slavery prejudices. The bolters from this +convention afterward nominated John C. Breckenridge as their +candidate for President and Joseph Lane for Vice President. The +Democratic canvass was thus inaugurated, and the overthrow of the +party provided for in the mere wantonness of political folly. + +On the ninth of May what was called the Constitutional Union Party +held its convention at Baltimore, and nominated John Bell for +President and Edward Everett for Vice President. It adopted no +platform, and owing to its neutrality of tint, its action had no +significance aside from its possible effect on the result of the +struggle between the Democrats and Republicans. + +The Republican National Convention met at Chicago on the sixteenth +of May. It was attended by immense numbers, and its action was +regarded with profound and universal solicitude. The platform of +the Convention affirmed the devotion of the party to the union of +the States and the rights of the States; denounced the new dogma +that the Constitution carried slavery into the Territories; declared +freedom to be their normal condition; denied the power of Congress +or of a Territorial Legislature to give legal existence to slavery +in any territory; branded as a crime the reopening of the African +slave trade; condemned the heresy of Know-Nothingism, and demanded +the passage of a Homestead law. The principles of the party were +thus broadly stated and fully re-affirmed, and the issues of the +canvass very clearly presented. The leading candidates were Seward +and Lincoln, who pretty evenly divided the Convention, and thus +created the liveliest interest in the result. The friends of Mr. +Seward had unbounded confidence in his nomination, and their devotion +to his fortunes was intense and absolute. The radical anti-slavery +element in the party idolized him, and longed for his success as +for a great and coveted national blessing. The delegates from New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, representing a +superficial and only half-developed Republicanism, labored with +untiring and exhaustless zeal for the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, +fervently pleading for "Success rather than Seward." Henry S. Lane +and Andrew G. Curtin, then candidates for Governor in the States +of Indiana and Pennsylvania, respectively, were especially active +and persistent, and their appeals were undoubtedly effective. When +Seward was defeated many an anti-slavery man poured out his tears +over the result, while deploring or denouncing the conservatism of +old fossil Whiggery, which thus sacrificed the ablest man in the +party, and the real hero of its principles. Time, however, led +these men to reconsider their estimate both of Seward and Lincoln, +and convinced them that the action of the convention, after all, +was for the best. On the second ballot Hamlin was nominated for +Vice President over Clay, Banks, Hickman, and others, and the +Republican campaign thus auspiciously inaugurated. + +The canvass for Douglas was prosecuted with remarkable energy and +zeal. He was himself the great leader of his party on the stump, +and his efforts evinced singular courage, audacity, and will. It +soon became evident, however, that his election was impossible; +but this did not cool his ardor or relax his efforts. He kept up +the fight to the end; and after his defeat, and when he saw the +power that had destroyed him organizing its forces for the destruction +of the Union, he espoused the side of his country, and never faltered +in his course. But as to slavery he seemed to have no conscience, +regarding it as a matter of total moral indifference, and thus +completely confounding the distinction between right and wrong. +During the closing hours of his life he probably saw and lamented +this strange infatuation; and he must, at all events, have deplored +the obsequious and studied devotion of a life-time to the service +of a power which at last demanded both the sacrifice of his country +and himself. The canvass for Lincoln was conducted by the ablest +men in the party, and was marked by great earnestness and enthusiasm. +It was a repetition of the Fremont campaign, with the added difference +of a little more contrivance and spectacular display in its +demonstrations, as witnessed in the famous organization known as +the "Wide-Awakes." The doctrines of the Chicago platform were very +thoroughly discussed, and powerfully contributed to the further +political education of the people. The speeches of Mr. Seward were +singularly able, effective and inspiring, and he was the acknowledged +leader of his party and the idol of the Republican masses everywhere. +This was the day of his glory, and nothing yet foreshadowed the +political eclipse which awaited him in the near future. The triumph +of the Republicans in this struggle was not, however, final. A +great work yet remained to be done. A powerful anti-slavery party +had at last appeared, as the slow creation of events and the fruit +of patient toil and endeavor; but it had against it a popular +majority of nearly a million. Both Houses of Congress and the +Supreme Court of the United States disputed its authority and +opposed its advance. The President-elect could not form his cabinet +without the leave of the Senate, which was controlled by slavery, +nor could he set the machinery of his Administration in motion, at +home or abroad, through the exercise of his appointing power, +without the consent of his political opponents. As Mr. Seward +declared in the Senate, "he could not appoint a minister or even +a police agent, negotiate a treaty or procure the passage of a law, +and could hardly draw a musket from the public arsenal to defend +his own person." The champions of slavery had no dream of surrender, +and no excuse whatever for extreme measures; and with moderate +counsels and the prudent economy of their advantages, they were +the undoubted masters of their own fortunes for indefinite years +to come. But their extravagant and exasperating demands, and the +splendid madness of their latter day tactics as illustrated in +their warfare against Douglas, were the sure presages of their +overthrow. There was method in their madness, but it was the method +of self-destruction. This was made still more strikingly manifest +during the months immediately preceding the inauguration of Mr. +Lincoln. The Republicans, notwithstanding their great victory, so +recoiled from the thought of sectional strife that for the sake of +peace they were ready to forego their demand for the Congressional +prohibition of slavery in the Territories. They were willing to +abide by the Dred Scott decision and the enforcement of the Fugitive +Slave law. They even proposed a Constitutional amendment which +would have made slavery perpetual in the Republic; but the pampered +frenzy of the slave oligarchy defied all remedies, and hurried it +headlong into the bloody conspiracy which was to close forever its +career of besotted lawlessness and crime. + + +CHAPTER IX. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR. +Visit to Mr. Lincoln--Closing months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration +--Efforts to avoid war--Character of Buchanan--Lincoln's Inauguration +--His war policy--The grand army of office seekers--The July session +of Congress--The atmosphere of Washington--Battle of Bull Run-- +Apologetic resolve of Congress--First confiscation act--Regular +session of Congress--Secretary Cameron--Committee on the conduct +of the war--Its conference with the President and his Cabinet-- +Secretary Stanton and General McClellan--Order to march upon +Manassas. + +Early in January, 1861, I paid a visit to Mr. Lincoln at his home +in Springfield. I had a curiosity to see the famous "rail splitter," +as he was then familiarly called, and as a member-elect of the +Thirty-seventh Congress I desired to form some acquaintance with +the man who was to play so conspicuous a part in the impending +national crisis. Although I had zealously supported him in the +canvass, and was strongly impressed by the grasp of thought and +aptness of expression which marked his great debate with Douglas, +yet as a through-going Free Soiler and a member of the radical wing +of Republicanism, my prepossessions were against him. He was a +Kentuckian, and a conservative Whig, who had supported General +Taylor in 1848, and General Scott four years later, when the Whig +party finally sacrificed both its character and its life on the +altar of slavery. His nomination, moreover, had been secured +through the diplomacy of conservative Republicans, whose morbid +dread of "abolitionism" unfitted them, as I believed, for leadership +in the battle with slavery which had now become inevitable, while +the defeat of Mr. Seward had been to me a severe disappointment +and a real personal grief. The rumor was also current, and generally +credited, that Simon Cameron and Caleb B. Smith were to be made +Cabinet Ministers, in recognition of the important services rendered +by the friends of these gentlemen in the Chicago Convention. Still, +I did not wish to do Mr. Lincoln the slightest injustice, while I +hoped and believed his courage and firmness would prove equal to +the emergency. + +On meeting him I found him far better looking than the campaign +pictures had represented. His face, when lighted up in conversation, +was not unhandsome, and the kindly and winning tones of his voice +pleaded for him like the smile which played about his rugged +features. He was full of anecdote and humor, and readily found +his way to the hearts of those who enjoyed a welcome to his fireside. +His face, however, was sometimes marked by that touching expression +of sadness which became so generally noticeable in the following +years. On the subject of slavery I was gratified to find him less +reserved and more emphatic than I expected. The Cabinet rumor +referred to was true. He felt bound by the pledges which his +leading friends had made in his name pending the National Convention; +and the policy on which he acted in these and many other appointments +was forcibly illustrated on a subsequent occasion, when I earnestly +protested against the appointment of an incompetent and unworthy +man as Commissioner of Patents. "There is much force in what you +say," said he, "but, in the balancing of matters, I guess I shall +have to appoint him." This "balancing of matters" was a source of +infinite vexation during his administration, as it has been to +every one of his successors; and its most deplorable results have +been witnessed in the assassination of a president. Upon the whole, +however, I was much pleased with our first Republican Executive, +and I returned home more fully inspired than ever with the purpose +to sustain him to the utmost in facing the duties of his great +office. + +The closing months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration were dismal +and full of apprehension. One by one the slaveholding States were +seceding from the Union. The President, in repeated messages, +denied their right to secede, but denied also the right of the +Government to coerce them into obedience. It should be remembered, +to his credit, that he did insist upon the right to enforce the +execution of the laws in all the States, and earnestly urged upon +Congress the duty of arming him with the power to do this; but +Congress, much to its discredit, paid no attention to his wishes, +leaving the new Administration wholly unprepared for the impending +emergency, while strangely upbraiding the retiring President for +his non-action. For this there could be no valid excuse. The +people of the Northern States, now that the movement in the South +was seen to be something more than mere bluster, were equally +alarmed and bewildered. The "New York Herald" declared that +"coercion, if it were possible, is out of the question." The +"Albany Argus" condemned it as "madness." The "Albany Evening +Journal" and many other leading organs of Republicanism, East and +West, disowned it, and counseled conciliation and further concessions +to the demands of slavery. The "New York Tribune" emphatically +condemned the policy of coercion, and even after the cotton States +had formed their Confederacy and adopted a provisional Government, +it declared that "whenever it shall be clear that the great body +of the Southern people have become conclusively alienated from the +Union and anxious to escape from it, we will do our best to forward +their views." The "Tribune" had before declared that "whenever a +considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go +out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. +We hope never to live in a Republic whereof one section is pinned +to the other by bayonets." It is true, that it justified the +secession of the Southern States as a revolutionary right; but +although these States defended it as a constitutional one, the +broader and higher ground of Mr. Greeley necessarily gave powerful +aid and comfort to their movement. In the meantime, great meetings +in Philadelphia and New York strongly condemned the Abolitionists, +and urged the most extravagant additional concessions to slavery +for the sake of peace. On the 12th of January Mr. Seward made his +great speech in the Senate, declaring that he could "afford to meet +prejudice with conciliation, exaction with concession which surrenders +no principle, and violence with the right hand of peace." He was +willing to give up Congressional prohibition of slavery in the +Territories, enforce the Fugitive Slave law, and perpetuate slavery +in our Republic by amending the Constitution for that purpose. +The Crittenden compromise, which practically surrendered everything +to slavery, only failed in the Senate by one vote, and this failure +resulted from the non-voting of six rebel senators, who were so +perfectly devil-bent upon the work of national dismemberment that +they would not listen to any terms of compromise, or permit their +adoption. The Peace Congress, assembled for the purpose of devising +some means of national pacification, agreed upon a series of measures +covering substantially the same ground as the Crittenden compromise, +while both Houses of Congress agreed to a constitutional amendment +denying any power to interfere with slavery "until every State in +the Union, by its individual State action, shall consent to its +exercise." The feverish dread of war which prevailed throughout +the Northern States was constantly aggravated by multiplying +evidences of slaveholding desperation. The general direction of +public opinion pointed to the Abolitionists as the authors of these +national troubles, while the innocent and greatly-abused slaveholders +were to be petted and placated by any measures which could possibly +serve their purpose. Indeed, the spirit of Northern submission +had never, in the entire history of the anti-slavery conflict, been +more strikingly exhibited than during the last days of the Thirty- +sixth Congress, when the Capital of the Republic was threatened by +armed treason, and the President-elect reached Washington in a +disguise which baffled the assassins who had conspired against his +life. To the very last the old medicine of compromise and conciliation +seemed to be the sovereign hope of the people of the free States; +and although it had failed utterly, and every offer of friendship +and peace had been promptly spurned as the evidence of weakness or +cowardice, they clung to it till the guns of Fort Sumter roused +them from their perilous dream. + +The inauguration of the President was awaited with great anxiety +and alarm. The capture of Washington by the rebels was seriously +apprehended, and had undoubtedly been meditated. The air was filled +with rumors respecting the assassination of the President, and the +stories told of the various methods of his taking off would have +been amusing if the crisis had not been so serious. General Scott +took all the precautions for the preservation of the peace which +the small force at his command, and the District militia, enabled +him to do. The day was beautiful, and the procession to the Capitol +quite imposing. Mr. Lincoln and ex-President Buchanan entered the +Senate chamber arm in arm; and the latter was so withered and bowed +with age that in contrast with the towering form of Mr. Lincoln he +seemed little more than half a man. The crowd which greeted the +President in front of the east portico of the Capitol was immense, +and has never been equaled on any similar occasion with the single +exception of General Garfield's inauguration. Mr. Lincoln's voice, +though not very strong or full-toned, rang out over the acres of +people before him with surprising distinctness, and was heard in +the remotest parts of his audience. The tone of moderation, +tenderness, and good-will, which marked his address, made an evident +impression, and the most heartfelt plaudits were called forth by +the closing passage: + +"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though +passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. +The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and +patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this +broad land, will yet swell the chorus of union, when again touched, +as they surely will be, by the better angels of their nature." + +But as an offering of friendship and fair dealing to the South, +this speech failed of its purpose as signally as all kindred +endeavors had done from the beginning. The "Richmond Enquirer" +and "Whig," the "Charleston Mercury," and other leading organs of +secession, denounced the inaugural, and seemed to be maddened by +the very kindliness of its tone and the moderation of its demands. +Their purpose was disunion and war, and every passing day multiplied +the proofs that no honorable escape from this fearful alternative +was possible. + +The policy of the new Administration prior to the attack upon Sumter +forms perhaps the most remarkable chapter in the history of the +war. All the troubles of the previous Administration were now +turned over to Mr. Lincoln, and while no measures had been provided +to aid him in their settlement the crisis was constantly becoming +more imminent. The country was perfectly at sea; and while all +hope of reconciliation was fading from day to day, Mr. Seward +insisted that peace would come within "sixty days." His optimism +would have been most amusing, if the salvation of the country had +not been at stake. The President himself not only still hoped, +but believed, that there would be no war; and notwithstanding all +the abuse that had been heaped upon Mr. Buchanan by the Republicans +for his feeble and vacillating course, and especially his denial +of the right of the government to coerce the recusant States, the +policy of the new Administration, up to the attack upon Sumter, +was identical with that of his predecessor. In Mr. Seward's official +letter to Mr. Adams, dated April 10, 1861, he says the President +"would not be disposed to reject a cardinal dogma of theirs (the +secessionists), namely, that the Federal Government could not reduce +the seceding States to obedience through conquest, even though he +were disposed to question that proposition. But in fact the +President willingly accepts it as true. Only and imperial and +despotic Government could subjugate thoroughly disaffected and +insurrectionary members of the State. * * * The President, on the +one hand, will not suffer the Federal authority to fall into +abeyance, nor will he, on the other hand, aggravate existing evils +by attempts at coercion, which must assume the direct form of war +against any of the revolutionary States." These are very remarkable +avowals, in the light of the absolute unavoidableness of the conflict +at the time they were made; and they naturally tended to precipitate +rather than avert the threatened catastrophe. It will not do to +say that Secretary Seward spoke only for himself, and not for the +Administration; for the fact has since been established by the +evidence of other members of the Cabinet that Mr. Lincoln, while +he had great faith in Mr. Seward at first, was always himself the +President. No member of it was his dictator. I do not say that +he endorsed all Mr. Seward's peculiar views, for the latter went +still further, as the country has since learned, and favored the +abandonment of Fort Sumter and other Southern forts, as a part of +a scheme of pacification looking to an amendment to the Constitution +in the interest of slavery. During this early period Mr. Chase +himself, with all his anti-slavery radicalism and devotion to the +Union, became so far the child of the hour as to deprecate the +policy of coercion and express his belief that if the rebel States +were allowed to go in peace they would soon return. But "war +legislates," and the time had now come when nothing else could +break the spell of irresolution and blindness which threatened the +Union even more seriously than armed treason itself. + +Notwithstanding this strange epoch of Republican feebleness and +indecision, the warfare against Mr. Buchanan was never intermitted. +It had been prosecuted with constantly increasing vigor since the +year 1856, and had now become so perfectly relentless and overwhelming +that he was totally submerged by the waves of popular wrath; and +for twenty odd years no political resurrection has been thought +possible. Although his personal integrity was as unquestionable +as that of John C. Calhoun or George III, and his private life as +stainless, yet his public character has received no quarter from +his enemies and but little defense from his friends. One of his +most formidable critics, writing long years after the war, describes +him as "hungry for regard, influence, and honor, but too diminutive +in intellect and character to feel the glow of true ambition--a +man made, so to speak, to be neither loved nor hated, esteemed nor +despised, slighted nor admired; intended to play an influential +part in the agitation of parties, and by history to be silently +numbered with the dead, because in all his doings there was not a +single deed; a man to whom fate could do nothing worse than place +him at the helm in an eventful period." While there is a measure +of truth in this picture, I believe any fair-minded man will +pronounce it over-drawn, one-sided, and unjust, after reading the +recently published life of Mr. Buchanan by George Ticknor Curtis, +dealing fully with his entire public career in the clear, cold +light of historic facts. The most pronounced political foe of Mr. +Buchanan can not go over the pages of this elaborate and long-delayed +defense without modifying some of his most decided opinions; but +one thing remains obviously true, and that is in dealing with the +question of slavery Mr. Buchanan was wholly without a conscience. +The thought seems never to have dawned upon him that the slave was +a man, and therefore entitled to his natural rights. In a public +speech on the ninth of July, 1860, defining his position, and +referring to the Dred Scott decision, he says: "It is to me the +most extraordinary thing in the world that this country should now +be distracted and divided because certain persons at the North will +not agree that their brethren at the South should have the same +rights in the Territories which they enjoy. What would I, as a +Pennsylvanian, say or do, supposing any one was to contend that the +Legislature of any Territory could outlaw iron or coal within the +Territory? The principle is precisely the same. The Supreme Court +of the United States has decided, what was known to us all to have +been the existing state of affairs for fifty years, that slaves +are property. Admit that fact, and you admit everything." + +In this passage, as in all that he has written on the subject of +slavery, humanity is totally ignored. The right of property in +man is just as sacred to him, "as a Pennsylvanian," as the right +of property in iron or coal. He unhesitatingly accepts the Dred +Scott decision as law, which the moral sense of the nation and its +ablest jurists pronounced a nullity. Mr. Jefferson, in speaking +of slavery, said he trembled for his country, and declared that +one hour of bondage is fraught with more misery than whole ages of +our colonial oppression. Such a sentiment in the mouth of Mr. +Buchanan would have been as unnatural as a voice from the dead. +He saw nothing morally offensive in slavery, or repugnant to the +principles of Democracy. He reverenced the Constitution, but always +forgot that its compromises were agreed to in the belief that the +institution was in a state of decay, and would soon wear out its +life under the pressure of public opinion and private interest. +Throughout his public life he never faltered in his devotion to +the South, joining hands with alacrity in every measure which sought +to nationalize her sectional interest. The growing anti-slavery +opinion of the free States, which no power could prevent, and the +great moral currents of the times, which were as resistless as the +tides of the sea, had no meaning for him, because the Democracy he +believed in had no foundation in the sacredness of human rights. + +Mr. Lincoln, in spite of the troubled state of the country, was +obliged to encounter an army of place-seekers at the very beginning +of his administration. I think there has been nothing like it in +the history of the Government. A Republican member of Congress +could form some idea of the President's troubles from his own +experience. I fled from my home in the later part of February, in +the hope of finding some relief from these importunities; but on +reaching Washington I found the business greatly aggravated. The +pressure was so great and constant that I could scarcely find time +for my meals, or to cross the street, and I was obliged to give my +days and nights wholly to the business, hoping in this way I should +be able in a while to finish it; but it constantly increased. I +met at every turn a swarm of miscellaneous people, many of them +looking as hungry and fierce as wolves, and ready to pounce upon +members as they passed, begging for personal intercession, letters +of recommendation, etc. During my stay in Washington through the +months of March and April, there was no pause in this business. +After Fort Sumter had been taken and the armory at Harper's Ferry +had been burned; after a Massachusetts regiment had been fired on +in passing through Baltimore, and thirty thousand men were in +Washington for defensive purposes; after the President had called +for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the whole land was in a +blaze of excitement, the scuffle for place was unabated, and the +pressure upon the strength and patience of the President unrelieved. +This was not very remarkable, considering the long-continued monopoly +of the offices by the Democrats; but it jarred upon the sentiment +of patriotism in such a crisis, and to those who were constantly +brought face to face with it, it sometimes appeared as if the love +of office alone constituted the animating principle of the party. + +When Congress assembled in special session on the Fourth of July, +the atmosphere of the Northern States had been greatly purified by +the attack on Fort Sumter. The unavoidableness of war was now +absolute, and the tone of the President's message was far bolder +and better than that of his inaugural. The policy of tenderness +towards slavery, however, still revealed itself, and called forth +the criticism of the more radical Republicans. They began to +distrust Mr. Seward, who no longer seemed to them the hero of +principle they had so long idolized, while his growing indifference +to the virtue of temperance was offensive to many. He impressed +his old anti-slavery friends as a deeply disappointed man, who was +in danger of being morally lost. Their faith was even a _little_ +shaken in Secretary Chase. Of course, they did not believe him +false to his long-cherished anti-slavery convictions, but he was +amazingly ambitious, and in the dispensation of his patronage he +seemed anxious to make fair weather with some of his old conservative +foes, while apparently forgetting the faithful friends who had +stood by him from the very beginning of his career, and were +considered eminently fit for the positions they sought. The rumor +was afloat that even Charles Sumner was urging the claims of Mr. +Crittenden to a place on the Supreme Bench, as a means of conciliating +the State of Kentucky. Washington was largely a city of secessionists, +and the departments of the Government were plentifully supplied by +sympathizers with treason, while the effort put forth at this +session to dislodge them was not responded to by the Administration. +What became known as the Border State policy was beginning to assert +itself everywhere, and was strikingly illustrated in the capture +of fugitive slaves and their return to their rebel masters by our +commanding generals, and by reiterated and gratuitous disavowals +of "abolitionism" by prominent Republicans. + +But the war spirit was fully aroused, and active preparations were +on foot for an advance upon the enemy. The confidence in General +Scott seemed to be unbounded, and I found everybody taking it for +granted that when the fight began our forces would prove triumphantly +victorious. On the day before the battle of Bull Run I obtained +a pass from General Scott, intending to witness the engagement, +believing I could do so, of course, with perfect safety, as our +army would undoubtedly triumph. I had a very strong curiosity to +see a great battle, and was now gratified with the prospect of +doing so; but a lucky accident detained me. The battle was on +Sunday, and about eleven o'clock at night I was roused from my +slumber by Col. Forney, who resided on Capitol Hill near my lodgings, +and who told me our army had been routed, and that the rebels were +marching upon the capital and would in all probability capture it +before morning. No unmiraculous event could have been more startling. +I was perfectly stunned and dumbfounded by the news; but I hastened +down to the Avenue as rapidly as possible, and found the space +between the Capitol and the Treasury Building a moving mass of +humanity. Every man seemed to be asking every man he met for the +latest news, while all sorts of rumors filled the air. A feeling +of mingled horror and despair appeared to possess everybody. The +event was so totally unlooked for, and the disappointment so +terrible, that people grew suddenly sick at heart, and felt as if +life itself, with all its interests and charms, had been snatched +from their grasp. The excitement, turmoil and consternation +continued during the night and through the following day; but no +one could adequately picture or describe it. Our soldiers came +straggling into the city, covered with dirt and many of them wounded, +while the panic which led to the disaster spread like a contagion +through all classes. + +On the day following this battle Congress met as usual, and +undoubtedly shared largely in the general feeling. A little before +the battle General Mansfield had issued an order declaring that +fugitive slaves would under no circumstances whatever be permitted +to reside or be harbored in the quarters and camps of the troops +serving in his department; and now, both Houses of Congress promptly +and with great unanimity and studious emphasis declared that the +purpose of the war was not the "conquest" or "subjugation" of the +conspirators who were striking at the Nation's life, or the overthrow +of their "established institutions," but to defend "the supremacy +of the Constitution," and to "preserve the Union"; and that "as +soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." +To through-going anti-slavery men this seemed like an apology for +the war, and a most ill-timed revival of the policy of conciliation, +which had been so uniformly and contemptuously spurned by the enemy. +It failed utterly of its purpose, and this historic resolve of +Congress was only useful to the rebels, who never failed to wield +it as a weapon against us, after the teaching of events had compelled +us to make slavery the point of attack. The Confiscation Act of +the 6th of August was regarded as a child of the same sickly +ancestry. The section of the Act making free the slaves employed +against us by the rebels in their military operations was criticised +as a bribe to them to fight us, rather than a temptation to espouse +our cause. If they engaged in the war at all, they were obliged +to do so as our enemies; but if they remained at home on their +plantations in the business of feeding the rebel armies, they would +have the protection of both the loyal and Confederate Governments. +The policy of both parties to the struggle was thus subordinated +to the protection of slavery. + +But on the 31st of August a new war policy was inaugurated by the +proclamation of General Fremont, giving freedom to the slaves of +rebels in his department. It was greeted by the people of the +Northern States with inexpressible gladness and thanksgiving. The +Republican press everywhere applauded it, and even such Democratic +and conservative papers as the "Boston Post," the "Detroit Free +Press," the "Chicago Times," and the "New York Herald" approved +it. During the ten days of its life all party lines seemed to be +obliterated in the fires of popular enthusiasm which it kindled, +and which was wholly unprecedented in my experience. I was then +on the stump in my own State, and I found the masses everywhere so +wild with joy, that I could scarcely be heard for their shouts. +As often as I mentioned the name of "Fremont," the prolonged hurrahs +of the multitude followed, and the feeling seemed to be universal +that the policy of "a war on peace principles" was abandoned, and +that slavery, the real cause of the war, was no longer to be the +chief obstacle to its prosecution. + +But in the midst of this great exultation and joy the President +annulled the proclamation because it went beyond the Confiscation +Act of the 6th of August, and was offensive to the Border States. +It was a terrible disappointment to the Republican masses, who +could not understand why loyal slaveholders in Kentucky should be +offended because the slaves of rebels in Missouri were declared +free. From this revocation of the new war policy, dated the pro- +slavery reaction which at once followed. It balked the popular +enthusiasm which was drawing along with it multitudes of conservative +men. It caused timid and halting men to become cowards outright. +It gave new life to slavery, and encouraged fiercer assaults upon +"abolitionism." It revived and stimulated Democratic sympathy for +treason wherever it had existed, and necessarily prolonged the +conflict and aggravated its sorrows; while it repeated the ineffable +folly of still relying upon a policy of moderation and conciliation +in dealing with men who had defiantly taken their stand outside of +the Constitution and laws, and could only be reached by the power +of war. + +When Congress met in December, the policy of deference to slavery +still continued. The message of the President was singularly +dispassionate, deprecating "radical and extreme measures," and +recommending some plan of colonization for the slaves made free by +the Confiscation Act. Secretary Cameron, however, surprised the +country by the avowal of a decidedly anti-slavery war policy in +his report; but in a discussion in the House early in December, on +General Halleck's "Order No. Three," I took occasion to expose his +insincerity by referring to his action a little while before in +restoring to her master a slave girl who had fled to the camp of +Colonel Brown, of the Twentieth Indiana regiment, who had refused +to give her up. On the nineteenth of December, a joint select +Committee on the Conduct of the War was appointed, composed of +three members of the Senate and four members of the House. The +Senators were B. F. Wade, of Ohio; Z. Chandler, of Michigan, and +Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee; and the House members were John +Covode, of Pennsylvania; M. F. Odell, of New York; D. W. Gooch, of +Massachusetts, and myself. The committee had its birth in the +popular demand for a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and less +tenderness toward slavery; and I was gratified with my position on +it because it afforded a very desirable opportunity to learn +something of the movements of our armies and the secrets of our +policy. + +On the sixth of January, by special request of the President, the +committee met him and his Cabinet at the Executive Mansion, to +confer about the military situation. The most striking fact revealed +by the discussion which took place was that neither the President +nor his advisers seemed to have any definite information respecting +the management of the war, or the failure of our forces to make +any forward movement. Not a man of them pretended to know anything +of General McClellan's plans. We were greatly surprised to learn +that Mr. Lincoln himself did not think he had any _right_ to know, +but that, as he was not a military man, it was his duty to defer +to General McClellan. Our grand armies were ready and eager to +march, and the whole country was anxiously waiting some decisive +movement; but during the delightful months of October, November +and December, they had been kept idle for some reason which no man +could explain, but which the President thought could be perfectly +accounted for by the General-in-Chief. Secretary Cameron said he +knew nothing of any plan for a forward movement. Secretary Seward +had entire confidence in General McClellan, and thought the demand +of the committee for a more vigorous policy uncalled for. The +Postmaster-General made no definite avowals, while the other members +of the Cabinet said nothing, except Secretary Chase, who very +decidedly sympathized with the committee in its desire for some +early and decisive movement of our forces. The spectacle seemed +to us very disheartening. The testimony of all the commanding +generals we had examined showed that our armies had been ready to +march for months; that the weather and roads had been most favorable +since October; and that the Army of the Potomac was in a fine state +of discipline, and nearly two hundred thousand strong, while only +about forty thousand men were needed to make Washington perfectly +safe. Not a general examined could tell why this vast force had +so long been kept idle, or what General McClellan intended to do. +The fate of the nation seemed committed to one man called a "General- +in-Chief," who communicated his secrets to no human being, and who +had neither age nor military experience to justify the extraordinary +deference of the President to his wishes. He had repeatedly appeared +before the committee, though not yet as a witness, and we could +see no evidence of his pre-eminence over other prominent commanders; +and it seemed like a betrayal of the country itself to allow him +to hold our grand armies for weeks and months in unexplained +idleness, on the naked assumption of his superior wisdom. Mr. +Wade, as Chairman of the committee, echoed its views in a remarkably +bold and vigorous speech, in which he gave a summary of the principal +facts which had come to the knowledge of the committee, arraigned +General McClellan for the unaccountable tardiness of his movements, +and urged upon the Administration, in the most undiplomatic plainness +of speech, an immediate and radical change in the policy of the +war. But the President and his advisers could not yet be disenchanted, +and the conference ended without results. + +When General McClellan was placed at the head of our armies the +country accepted him as its idol and hero. The people longed for +a great captain, and on very inadequate grounds they assumed that +they had found him, and that the business of war was to be carried +on in earnest. But they were doomed to disappointment, and the +popular feeling was at length completely reversed. The pendulum +vibrated to the other extreme, and it is not easy to realize the +wide-spread popular discontent which finally revealed itself +respecting the dilatory movements of our forces. The people became +inexpressibly weary of the reiterated bulletins that "all is quiet +on the Potomac"; and the fact that General McClellan was in full +sympathy with the Border State policy of the President aggravated +their unfriendly mood. A majority of the members of the committee +became morbidly sensitive, and were practically incapable of doing +General McClellan justice. They were thoroughly discouraged and +disgusted; but when Secretary Cameron left the Cabinet and Stanton +took his place, their despondency gave place to hope. He had faith +in the usefulness of the committee, and co-operated with it to the +utmost. He agreed with us fully in our estimate of General McClellan, +and as to the necessity of an early forward movement. We were +delighted with him, and had perfect confidence in his integrity, +sagacity and strong will. We worked from five to six hours per +day, including the holiday season, and not excepting the Sabbath, +going pretty thoroughly into the Bull Run disaster, the battle of +Ball's Bluff, and the management of the Western Department. + +During the months of January and February, the committee made +repeated visits to the President for the purpose of urging the +division of the Army of the Potomac and its organization into army +corps. We insisted upon this on the strength of the earnest +recommendations of our chief commanders, and with a view to greater +military efficiency; but the President said General McClellan was +opposed to it, and would, he believed, resign his command in the +alternative of being required to do it. Mr. Lincoln said he dreaded +"the moral effect of this"; but in the latter part of February, he +began to lose his faith in the General, and finally, after nearly +two months of perseverance by the committee, he gave his order +early in March, which General McClellan obeyed with evident hesitation +and very great reluctance. A few days later the long-tried patience +of the President became perfectly exhausted. He surprised and +delighted the committee by completely losing his temper, and on +the 11th relieved General McClellan from the command of all our +forces except the Army of the Potomac. The rebels, in the meantime, +had evacuated their works at Centreville and Manassas, and retreated +with their munitions in safety. A majority of the committee at +this time strongly suspected that General McClellan was a traitor, +and they felt strengthened in this suspicion by what they afterward +saw for themselves at Centreville and Manassas, which they visited +on the thirteenth of March. They were certain, at all events, that +his heart was not in the work. He had disregarded the President's +general order of the nineteenth of January, for a movement of all +our armies, which resulted in the series of victories of Fort Henry, +Fort Donelson, etc., which so electrified the country. He had +protested against the President's order of the thirty-first of +January, directing an expedition for the purpose of seizing a point +upon the railroad southwest of Manassas Junction. He had opposed +all forward movements of the Army of the Potomac, and resolutely +set his face against the division of our forces into army corps, +as urged by all our chief commanders. And he had again and again +refused to co-operate with the navy in breaking up the blockade of +the Potomac, while his order to move in the direction of the enemy +at Centreville and Manassas was given after the evacuation of these +points. + +Our journey to Manassas was full of interest and excitement. About +ten miles from Washington we came in sight of a large division of +the Grand Army of the Potomac, which had started toward the enemy +in obedience to the order of General McClellan. The forest on +either side of the road was alive with soldiers, and their white +tents were to be seen in all directions through the pine forests, +while in the adjacent fields vast bodies of soldiers in their +uniforms were marching and counter-marching, their bayonets glittering +in the sunlight. Large bodies of cavalry were also in motion, and +the air was filled with the sound of martial music and the blasts +of the bugle. Soldiers not on drill were running races, playing +ball, and enjoying themselves generally in every sort of sport. +The spectacle was delightfully exhilarating, and especially so to +men just released from the dreary confinement and drudgery of their +committee rooms. + + +CHAPTER X. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR (CONTINUED). +The wooden guns--Conference with Secretary Stanton--His relations +to Lincoln--Strife between Radicalism and Conservatism--Passage of +the Homestead Law--Visit to the President--The Confiscation Act +and rebel landowners--Greeley's "prayer of twenty millions," and +Lincoln's reply--Effort to disband the Republican party--The battle +of Fredericksburg and General Burnside--The Proclamation of +Emancipation--Visit to Mr. Lincoln--General Fremont--Report of the +War Committee--Visit to Philadelphia and New York--Gerrit Smith-- +The Morgan Raid. + +On approaching Centreville the first object that attracted our +attention was one of the huge earthworks of the enemy, with large +logs placed in the embrasures, the ends pointing toward us, and +painted black in imitation of cannon. The earthworks seemed very +imperfectly constructed, and from this fact, and the counterfeit +guns which surmounted them, it was evident that no fight had been +seriously counted on by the absconding forces. The substantial +character of their barracks, bake-ovens, stables, and other +improvements, confirmed this view; and on reaching Manassas we +found the same cheap defenses and the same evidences of security, +while the rebel forces were much less than half as great as ours, +and within a day's march from us. What was the explanation of all +this? Why had we not long before, driven in the rebel pickets, +and given battle to the enemy, or at least ascertained the facts +as to the weakness of his position? Could the commander be loyal +who had opposed all the previous forward movements of our forces, +and only made this advance after the enemy had evacuated? These +were the questions canvassed by the members of the committee in +their passionate impatience for decisive measures, and which they +afterward earnestly pressed upon the President as a reason for +relieving General McClellan of his command. They were also greatly +moved by the fact already referred to, that General McClellan had +neglected and repeatedly refused to co-operate with the navy in +breaking up the blockade of the Potomac, which could have been done +long before according to the testimony of our commanders, while he +had disobeyed the positive order of the President respecting the +defenses of Washington by reserving only nineteen thousand imperfectly +disciplined men for that service, through which the capital had +been placed at the mercy of the enemy. Meanwhile the flame of +popular discontent had found further fuel in the threats of McClellan +to put down slave insurrections "with an iron hand," and his order +expelling the Hutchinsons from the Army of the Potomac for singing +Whittier's songs of liberty. Of course I am not dealing with the +character and capacity of General McClellan as a commander, but +simply depicting the feeling which extensively prevailed at this +time, and which justified itself by hastily accepting merely apparent +facts as conclusive evidence against him. + +On the 24th day of March, Secretary Stanton sent for the committee +for the purpose of having a confidential conference as to military +affairs. He was thoroughly discouraged. He told us the President +had gone back to his first love as to General McClellan, and that +it was needless for him or for us to labor with him, although he +had finally been prevailed on to restrict McClellan's command to +the Army of the Potomac. The Secretary arraigned the General's +conduct in the severest terms, particularizing his blunders, and +branding them. He told us the President was so completely in the +power of McClellan that he had recently gone to Alexandria in person +to ask him for some troops from the Army of the Potomac for General +Fremont, which were refused. He said he believed there were traitors +among the commanders surrounding General McClellan, and if he had +had the power he would have dismissed eight commanders when the +wooden-gun discovery was made; and he fully agreed with us as to +the disgraceful fact that our generals had not long before discovered, +as they could have done, the real facts as to the rebel forces and +their defences. + +It was quite evident from these facts that Stanton, with all his +force of will, did not rule the President, as the public has +generally supposed. He would frequently overawe and sometimes +browbeat others, but he was never imperious in dealing with Mr. +Lincoln. This I have from Mr. Watson, for some time Assistant +Secretary of War, and Mr. Whiting, while Solicitor of the War +Department. Lincoln, however, had the highest opinion of Stanton, +and their relations were always most kindly, as the following +anecdote bears witness: A committee of Western men, headed by +Lovejoy, procured from the President an important order looking to +the exchange and transfer of Eastern and Western soldiers with a +view to more effective work. Repairing to the office of the +Secretary, Mr. Lovejoy explained the scheme, as he had before done +to the President, but was met with a flat refusal. + +"But we have the President's order, sir," said Lovejoy. + +"Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?" said Stanton. + +"He did, sir." + +"The he is a d----d fool," said the irate secretary. + +"Do you mean to say the President is a d----d fool?" asked Lovejoy, +in amazement. + +"Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that." + +The bewildered Illinoisan betook himself at once to the President, +and related the result of his conference. + +"Did Stanton say I was a d----d fool?" asked Lincoln at the close +of the recital. + +"He did, sir, and repeated it." + +After a moment's pause, and looking up, the President said, "If +Stanton said I was a d----d fool, then I must be one, for he is +nearly always right, and generally says what he means. I will step +over and see him." + +Whether this anecdote is literally true or not, it illustrates the +character of the two men. + +On Sunday, the thirteenth of April, we were again summoned to meet +Secretary Stanton, and he had also invited Thaddeus Stevens, of +the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Fessenden, of the Senate +Finance Committee, and Mr. Wilson and Colonel Blair, of the Senate +and House Military Committees. The business of this conference +was to consider the necessity of immediate measures for raising +thirty million dollars to pay the troops unwisely accepted by the +President in excess of the number called for by Congress, and the +proper action to be taken relative to the sale of Austrian guns by +a house in New York for shipment to the enemy. The Secretary was +this time in fine spirits, and I was much interested in the free +talk which occurred. Mr. Stevens indulged in his customary bluntness +of speech, including a little spice of profanity by way of emphasis +and embellishment. He declared that not a man in the Cabinet, the +present company excepted, was fit for his business. Mr. Fessenden +said he fully endorsed this, while sly glances were made to Colonel +Blair, whose brother was thus palpably hit. Mr. Stevens said he +was tired of hearing d----d Republican cowards talk about the +Constitution; that there _was_ no Constitution any longer so far +as the prosecution of the war was concerned; and that we should +strip the rebels of all their rights, and given them a reconstruction +on such terms as would end treason forever. Secretary Stanton +agreed to every word of this, and said it had been his policy from +the beginning. Fessenden denounced slave-catching in our army, +and referred to a recent case in which fugitives came to our lines +with most valuable information as to rebel movements, and were +ordered out of camp into the clutches of their hunters. Stanton +said that ten days before McClellan marched toward Manassas, +contrabands had come to him with the information that the rebels +were preparing to retreat, but that McClellan said he could not +trust them. Wade was now roused, and declared that he had heard +McClellan say he had uniformly found the statements of these people +reliable, and had got valuable information from them. But McClellan +was still king, and the country was a long way yet from that vigorous +war policy which alone could save it. + +In the meantime the strife between the radical and conservative +elements in the Republican party found expression in other directions. +Secretary Seward, in his letter to Mr. Dayton, of the 22d of April, +declared that "the rights of the States and the condition of every +human being in them will remain subject to exactly the same laws +and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed +of whether it shall fail." Secretary Smith had previously declared, +in a public speech, that "this is not a war upon the institution +of slavery, but a war for the restoration of the Union," and that +"there could not be found in South Carolina a man more anxious, +religiously and scrupulously, to observe all the features of the +Constitution, than Abraham Lincoln." He also opposed the arming +of the negroes, declaring that "it would be a disgrace to the people +of the free States to call upon four millions of blacks to aid in +putting down eight millions of whites." Similar avowals were made +by other members of the Cabinet. This persistent purpose of the +Administration to save the Union and save slavery with it, naturally +provoked criticism, and angered the anti-slavery feeling of the +loyal States. The business of slave-catching in the army continued +the order of the day, till the pressure of public opinion finally +compelled Congress to prohibit it by a new article of war, which +was approved by the President on the 13th of March. The repressive +power of the Administration, however, was very formidable, and +although the House of Representatives, as early as the 20th of +December, 1861, had adopted a resolution offered by myself, +instructing the Judiciary Committee to report a bill so amending +the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as to forbid the return of fugitives +without proof first made of the loyalty of the claimant, yet on +the 26th of May, 1862, the House, then overwhelmingly Republican, +voted down a bill declaring free the slaves of armed rebels, and +making proof of loyalty by the claimant of a fugitive necessary to +his recovery. This vote sorely disappointed the anti-slavery +sentiment of the country. On this measure I addressed the House +in a brief speech, the spirit of which was heartily responded to +by my constituents and the people of the loyal States generally. +They believed in a vigorous prosecution of the war, and were sick +of "the never-ending gabble about the sacredness of the Constitution." +"It will not be forgotten," I said, "that the red-handed murderers +and thieves who set this rebellion on foot went out of the Union +yelping for the Constitution which they had conspired to overthrow +by the blackest perjury and treason that ever confronted the +Almighty." This speech was the key-note of my approaching +Congressional canvass, and I was one of the very few men of decided +anti-slavery convictions who were able to stem the conservative +tide which swept over the Northern States during this dark and +dismal year. I had against me the general drift of events; the +intense hostility of Governor Morton and his friends throughout +the State; nearly all the politicians in the District, and nine of +its twelve Republican newspapers, and the desperate energy and +cunning of trained leaders in both political parties, who had +pursued me like vultures for a dozen years. My triumph had no +taint of compromise in it, and nothing saved me but perfect courage +and absolute defiance of my foes. + +One of the great compensations of the war was the passage of the +Homestead Act of the 20th of May. It finally passed the House and +Senate by overwhelming majorities. Among the last acts of Mr. +Buchanan's administration was the veto of a similar measure, at +the bidding of his Southern masters; and the friends of the policy +had learned in the struggle of a dozen years that its success was +not possible while slavery ruled the government. The beneficent +operation of this great and far-reaching measure, however, was +seriously crippled by some unfortunate facts. In the first place, +it provided no safeguards against speculation in the public domain, +which had so long scourged the Western States and Territories, and +was still extending its ravages. Our pioneer settlers were offered +homes of one hundred and sixty acres each on condition of occupancy +and improvement, but the speculator could throw himself across +their track by buying up large bodies of choice land to be held +back from settlement and tillage for a rise in price, and thus +force them further into the frontier, and on to less desirable +lands. + +In the next place, under the new and unguarded land-grant policy, +which was simultaneously inaugurated, millions of acres fell into +the clutches of monopolists, and are held by them to-day, which +would have gone to actual settlers under the Homestead law, and +the moderate land grant policy originated by Senator Douglas in +1850. This was not foreseen or intended. The nation was then +engaged in a struggle for its existence, and thus exposed to the +evils of hasty legislation. The value of the lands given away was +not then understood as it has been since, while the belief was +universal that the lands granted would be restored to the public +domain on failure to comply with the conditions of the grants. +The need of great highways to the Pacific was then regarded as +imperative, and unattainable without large grants of the public +lands. These are extenuating facts; but the mischiefs of this ill- +starred legislation are none the less to be deplored. + +In the third place, under our new Indian treaty policy, invented +about the same time, large bodies of land, when released by our +Indian tribes, were sold at low rates to individual speculators +and monopolists, or to railway corporations, instead of being +conveyed, as before, to the United States, and thus subjected to +general disposition, as other public land. These evils are now +remedied, but for nearly ten years they were unchecked. The title +to Indian lands was secured through treaties concocted by a ring +of speculators and monopolists outside of the Senate, and frequently +ratified by that body near the close of a long session, when less +than half a dozen members were in their seats, and the entire +business was supervised by a single Western senator acting as the +agent of his employers and the sharer in their plunder. These +fatal mistakes in our legislation have made the Homestead law a +half-way measure, instead of that complete reform in our land policy +which was demanded, and they furnish a remarkable commentary upon +the boasted friendship of the Republican party for the landless +poor. + +The conservative war-policy of the Administration continued to +assert itself. The action of the President in promptly revoking +the order of General Hunter, of the ninth of May, declaring free +the slaves of the States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, +aggravated the growing impatience of the people. On the ninth day +of June I submitted a resolution instructing the judiciary committee +to report a bill repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, which was laid +on the table by a vote of sixty-six to fifty-one, sixteen Republicans +voting in the affirmative. On the second of July I called to see +the President, and had a familiar talk about the war. He looked +thin and haggard, but seemed cheerful. Although our forces were +then engaged in a terrific conflict with the enemy near Richmond, +and everybody was anxious as to the result, he was quite as placid +as usual, and could not resist his "ruling passion" for anecdotes. +If I had judged him by appearances I should have pronounced him +incapable of any deep earnestness of feeling; but his manner was +so kindly, and so free from the ordinary crookedness of the politician +and the vanity and self-importance of official position, that +nothing but good-will was inspired by his presence. He was still +holding fast his faith in General McClellan, and this was steadily +widening the breach between him and Congress, and periling the +success of the war. The general gloom in Washington increased till +the adjournment, but Mr. Sumner still had faith in the President, +and prophesied good things as to his final action. + +The Confiscation Act of this session, which was approved by the +President on the seventeenth day of July, providing that slaves of +rebels coming into our lines should be made free, and that the +property of their owners, both real and personal, should be +confiscated, would have given great and wide-spread satisfaction; +but the President refused to sign the bill without a modification +first made exempting the fee of rebel land-owners from its operation, +thus powerfully aiding them in their deadly struggle against us. +This action was inexpressibly provoking; but Congress was obliged +to make the modification required, as the only means of securing +the important advantages of other features of the measure. This +anti-republican discrimination between real and personal property +when the nation was struggling for its life against a rebellious +aristocracy founded on the monopoly of land and the ownership of +negroes, roused a popular opposition which thus far was altogether +unprecedented. The feeling in Congress, however, was far more +intense than throughout the country. No one at a distance could +have formed any adequate conception of the hostility of Republican +members toward Mr. Lincoln at the final adjournment, while it was +the belief of many that our last session of Congress had been held +in Washington. Mr. Wade said the country was going to hell, and +that the scenes witnessed in the French Revolution were nothing in +comparison with what we should see here. + +Just before leaving Washington I called on the President again, +and told him I was going to take the stump, and to tell the people +that he would co-operate with Congress in vigorously carrying out +the measures we had inaugurated for the purpose of crushing the +rebellion, and that now the quickest and hardest blows were to be +dealt. He told me I was authorized to say so, but said that more +than half the popular clamor against the management of the war was +unwarranted; and when I referred to the movements of General +McClellan he made no committal in any way. + +On the nineteenth of August Horace Greeley wrote his famous anti- +slavery letter to the President, entitled "The Prayer of Twenty +Millions." It was one of the most powerful appeals ever made in +behalf of justice and the rights of man. In his reply Mr. Lincoln +said: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I +would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would +do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others +alone, I would do that." These words served as fresh fuel to the +fires of popular discontent, and they were responded to by Mr. +Greeley with admirable vigor and earnestness. The anti-slavery +critics of the President insisted that in thus dealing with slavery +as a matter of total indifference he likened himself to Douglas, +who had declared that he didn't care whether slavery was voted up +or voted down in the Territories. They argued that as slavery was +the cause of the war and the obstacle to peace, it was the duty of +the Government to lay hold of the conscience of the quarrel, and +strike at slavery as the grand rebel. Not to do so, they contended, +now that the opportunity was offered, was to make the contest a +mere struggle for power, and thus to degrade it to the level of +the wars of the Old World, which bring with them nothing for freedom +or the race. They insisted that the failure of the Government to +give freedom to our millions in bondage would be a crime only to +be measured by that of putting them in chains if they were free. +They reminded the President of his declaration that a house divided +against itself can not stand, and that the Republic can not +permanently exist half slave and half free; and they urged that +this baptism of fire and blood would be impious if the cause which +produced it should be spared to canker the heart of the nation +anew, and repeat its diabolical deeds. A Union with slavery spared +and reinstated would not be worth the cost of saving it. To argue +that we were fighting for a political abstraction called the Union, +and not for the destruction of slavery, was to affront common sense, +since nothing but slavery had brought the Union into peril, and +nothing could make sure the fruits of the war but the removal of +its cause. It was to delude ourselves with mere phrases, and +conduct the war on false pretenses. It was to rival the folly of +the rebels, who always asservated that they were not fighting for +slavery, but only for the right of local self government, when the +whole world knew the contrary. These ideas, variously presented +and illustrated, found manifold expression in innumerable Congressional +speeches and in the newspapers of the Northern States, and a month +later brought forth the President's proclamation of the twenty- +second of September, giving the insurgents notice that on the first +day of January following he would issue his proclamation of general +emancipation, if they did not in the meantime lay down their arms. +The course of events and the pressure of opinion were at last +forcing him to see that the nation was wrestling with slavery in +arms; that its destruction was not a debatable and distant alternative, +but a pressing and absolute necessity; and that his Border State +policy, through which he had so long tried to pet and please the +power that held the nation by the throat, was a cruel and fatal +mistake. This power, however, had so completely woven itself into +the whole fabric of American society and institutions, and had so +long fed upon the virtue of our public men, that the Administration +was not yet prepared to divorce itself entirely from the madness +that still enthralled the conservative element of the Republican +party. + +It was during this year that a formidable effort was made by the +old Whig element in the Republican party to disband the organization +and form a new one, called the "Union party." They were disposed +to blame the Abolitionists for the halting march of events, and to +run away from the real issues of the conflict. They were believers +in the Border State policy, and favored the colonization of the +negroes, while deprecating "radical and extreme measures." They +forgot that the Republican principle was as true in the midst of +war as in seasons of peace, and that instead of putting it in +abeyance when the storm came, we should cling to it with redoubled +energy and purpose. They forgot that the contest of 1860 was not +only a struggle between slavery and freedom, but a struggle of life +and death, inasmuch as the exclusion of slavery from all federal +territory would not only put the nation's brand upon it in the +States of the South, and condemn it as a public enemy, but virtually +sentence it to death. They forgot that the charge of "abolitionism," +which was incessantly hurled at the Republican party, was thus by +no means wanting in essential truth, and that when the slaveholders +were vanquished in the election of Mr. Lincoln, their appeal from +the ballot to the bullet was the logical result of their insane +devotion to slavery, and their conviction that nothing could save +it but the dismemberment of the Republic. They forgot that the +Rebellion was simply an advanced stage of slaveholding rapacity, +and that instead of tempting us to cower before it and surrender +our principles, it furnished an overwhelming argument for standing +by them to the death. This movement was fruitful of great mischief +throughout the loyal States, and on my return to Washington in the +fall of this year I was glad to find this fact generally admitted, +and my earnest opposition to it fully justified by the judgment of +Republican members of Congress. + +Immediately after the battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of +December, the Committee on the Conduct of the War visited that +place for the purpose of inquiring into the facts respecting that +fearful disaster. The country was greatly shocked and excited, +and eager to know who was to blame. We examined Burnside, Hooker, +Sumner, and Woodbury; but prior to this, in a personal interview +with General Burnside, he frankly told me that _he_ was responsible +for the attack. He seemed to be loaded down with a mountain of +trouble and anxiety, and I could see that he felt just as a patriotic +man naturally would, after sacrificing thousands of men by a mistaken +movement. He said he had no military ambition, and frankly confessed +his incapacity to command a large army, as he had done to the +President and Secretary of War, when they urged him to assume this +great responsibility; and that he was very sorry he had ever +consented to accept it. His conversation disarmed all criticism, +while his evident honesty decidedly pleased me. It was a sad +thought, while standing on the banks of the Rappahannock, that here +were more than a hundred thousand men on either side of a narrow +river, brethren and kindred, and naturally owing each other nothing +but good will, who were driven by negro slavery into the wholesale +slaughter of each other. But General Burnside told me our men did +not feel toward the rebels as they felt toward us, and he assured +me that this was the grand obstacle to our success. Our soldiers, +he said, were not sufficiently fired by resentment, and he exhorted +me, if I could, to breathe into our people at home the same spirit +toward our enemies which inspired them toward us. As I approached +one of the principal hospitals here, I was startled by a pile of +arms and legs of wounded soldiers, and on entering the building I +found scores of men in the last stages of life, stretched on the +floor with nothing under them but a thin covering of hay, and +nothing over them but a coarse blanket or quilt, and without a +spark of fire to warm them, though the weather was extremely cold +and they were literally freezing to death. Some of them were too +far gone to speak, and looked at me so pleadingly that I can never +forget the impression it made. Arrangements were made for their +comfort as soon as it was possible. + +On New Year's day I joined the immense throng of callers at the +White House, but did not enjoy the delay of the President in issuing +his Proclamation of Emancipation. It came late in the day, and +brought relief to multitudes of anxious people. Perhaps no subject +has ever been more widely misunderstood than the legal effect of +this famous document, and the circumstances under which it was +issued. Mr. Lincoln was himself opposed to the measure, and when +he very reluctantly issued his preliminary proclamation in September, +he wished it distinctly understood that the deportation of the +slaves was, in his mind, inseparably connected with the policy. +Like Mr. Clay and other prominent leaders of the old Whig party, +he believed in colonization, and that the separation of the two +races was necessary to the welfare of both. He was at that time +pressing upon the attention of Congress a scheme of colonization +in Chiriqui in Central America, which Senator Pomeroy espoused with +great zeal, and in which he had the favor of a majority of the +Cabinet, including Secretary Smith, who warmly endorsed the project. +Subsequent development, however, proved that it was simply an +organization for land-stealing and plunder, and it was abandoned; +but it is by no means certain that if the President had foreseen +this fact, his preliminary notice to the rebels would have been +given. There are strong reasons for saying that he doubted his +right to emancipate under the war power, and that he meant what he +said when he compared an executive order to that effect to the +"Pope's Bull against the Comet." + +But he saw no way of escape. The demand for such an edict was wide- +spread and rapidly extending in the Republican party. The power +to issue it was taken for granted. All doubts on the subject were +consumed in the burning desire of the people, or forgotten in the +travail of war. The anti-slavery element was becoming more and +more impatient and impetuous. Opposition to that element now +involved more serious consequences than offending the Border States. +Mr. Lincoln feared that enlistments would cease, and that Congress +would even refuse the necessary supplies to carry on the war, if +he declined any longer to place it on a clearly defined anti-slavery +basis. It was in yielding to this pressure that he finally became +the liberator of the slaves through the triumph of our arms which +it ensured. + +The authority to emancipate under the war power is well settled, +but it could only be asserted over territory occupied by our armies. +Each Commanding General, as fast as our flag advanced, could have +offered freedom to the slaves, as could the President himself. +This was the view of Secretary Chase. A paper proclamation of +freedom, as to States in the power of the enemy, could have no more +validity than a paper blockade of their coast. Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation did not apply to the Border States, which were loyal, +and in which slavery was of course untouched. It did not pretend +to operate upon the slaves in other large districts, in which it +would have been effective at once, but studiously excluded them, +while it applied mainly to States and parts of States within the +military occupation of the enemy, where it was necessarily void. +But even if the proclamation could have given freedom to the slaves +according to its scope, their permanent enfranchisement would not +have been secured, because the _status_ of slavery, as it existed +under the local laws of the States prior to the war, would have +remained after the re-establishment of peace. All emancipated +slaves found in those States, or returning to them, would have been +subject to slavery as before, for the simple reason that no military +proclamation could operate to abolish their municipal laws. Nothing +short of a Constitutional amendment could at once give freedom to +our black millions and make their re-enslavement impossible; and +"this," as Mr. Lincoln declared in earnestly urging its adoption, +"is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the whole thing up." +All this is now attested by high authorities on International and +Constitutional law, and while it takes nothing from the honor so +universally accorded to Mr. Lincoln as the great Emancipator, it +shows how wisely he employed a grand popular delusion in the salvation +of his country. His proclamation had no present legal effect within +territory not under the control of our arms; but as an expression +of the spirit of the people and the policy of the Administration, +it had become both a moral and a military necessity. + +During this month I called with the Indiana delegation to see the +President respecting the appointment of Judge Otto, of Indiana, as +Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He was afterward appointed, +but Mr. Lincoln then only responded to our application by treating +us to four anecdotes. Senator Lane told me that when the President +heard a story that pleased him he took a memorandum of it and filed +it away among his papers. This was probably true. At any rate, +by some method or other, his supply seemed inexhaustible, and always +aptly available. Early in February General Burnside came before +the War Committee, and gave the most startling testimony as to the +demoralization of the Army of the Potomac, the bickerings and +jealousies of the commanding generals, and the vexations of the +President in dealing with the situation. On the 18th of March I +called on Mr. Lincoln respecting the appointments I had recommended +under the conscription law, and took occasion to refer to the +failure of General Fremont to obtain a command. He said he did +not know where to place him, and that it reminded him of the old +man who advised his son to take a wife, to which the young man +responded, "Whose wife should I take?" The President proceeded to +point out the practical difficulties in the way by referring to a +number of important commands which might suit Fremont, but which +could only be reached by removals he did not wish to make. I +remarked that I was very sorry if this was true, and that it was +unfortunate for our cause, as I believed his restoration to duty +would stir the country as no other appointment could. He said, +"it would stir the country on one side, and stir it the other way +on the other. It would please Fremont's friends, and displease +the conservatives; and that is all I can see in the _stirring_ +argument." "My proclamation," he added, "was to stir the country; +but it has done about as much harm as good." These observations +were characteristic, and showed how reluctant he was to turn away +from the conservative counsels he had so long heeded. + +On the 3d day of April the final report of the Committee on the +Conduct of the War was completed, and the portion of it relating +to the Army of the Potomac was in the hands of the Associated Press, +and awaited by the public with a curiosity which it is not easy +now to realize. The formation of the committee, as already stated, +grew out of the popular demand for a more vigorous war policy, and +its action was thus exposed to the danger of hasty conclusions; +but the press and public opinion of the loyal States, with remarkable +unanimity, credited it with great usefulness to the country, through +its labors to rescue the control of the war from incompetent and +unworthy hands. + +I returned home by way of Philadelphia and New York, and had a +delightful visit in the former place with James and Lucretia Mott, +whom I had not seen since 1850. In New York I attended the great +"Sumter meeting" of the 13th, and spoke at one of the stands with +General Fremont and Roscoe Conkling. While in the city I met Mr. +Bryant, Phebe Carey, Mr. Beecher and other notables, and on my way +home tarried two days with Gerrit Smith, at his hospitable home in +Peterboro. According to his custom he invited a number of his +neighbors and friends to breakfast, and by special invitation I +addressed the people in the evening, at the "free church" of the +town, on topics connected with the war. I could see that Mr. Smith +did not approve the severity of my language, and that this was a +source of amusement to some of his neighbors, but the course of +events afterward radically changed his views, and he admitted that +in his public addresses he was greatly aided by the imprecatory +psalms. I had several delightful rambles with him, our conversation +turning chiefly upon reformatory and theological topics, and I +found myself more than ever in love with this venerable philanthropist +whom I had only met once before, on his visit to Washington the +previous year. + +On the night of the 8th of July the fire-bells of the town of +Centreville, in which I resided, roused the people, who rushed into +the streets to learn that General John Morgan, with six thousand +cavalry and four pieces of artillery, had crossed the Ohio, and +was moving upon the town of Corydon. The Governor had issued a +call for minute men for the defense of the State, and within forty- +eight hours sixty five thousand men tendered their services. +Messengers were at once dispatched to all parts of Wayne County +conveying the news of the invasion, and the next morning the people +came pouring in from all directions, while the greatest excitement +prevailed. The town had eighty muskets, belonging to its Home +Guard, and I took one of them, which I afterward exchanged for a +good French rifle; and having put on the military equipments, and +supplied myself with a blanket and canteen, I was ready for marching +orders. The volunteers who rallied at Centreville were shipped to +Indianapolis, and were about seven hours on the way. I was a member +of Company C, and the regiment to which I belonged was the One +Hundred and Sixth, and was commanded by Colonel Isaac P. Gray. Of +the force which responded to the call of the Governor, thirteen +regiments and one battalion were organized specially for the +emergency, and sent into the field in different directions, except +the One Hundred and Tenth and the One Hundred and Eleventh, which +remained at Indianapolis. The One Hundred and Sixth was shipped +by rail to Cincinnati, and but for a detention of several hours at +Indianapolis, caused by the drunkenness of an officer high in +command, it might possibly have encountered Morgan near Hamilton, +the next morning, on the way South. Our reception in Cincinnati +was not very flattering. The people there seemed to feel that Ohio +was able to take care of herself; and, in fact, nothing could have +been more unreasonable than sending a body of infantry one hundred +miles in pursuit of a cavalry force in that vicinity, where an +ample body of cavalry was in readiness, and the river well guarded +by gun-boats. + +We were re-shipped to Indianapolis by rail, where we were mustered +out of service and returned to our homes after a campaign of eight +days. This was the sum of my military experience, but it afforded +me some glimpses of the life of a soldier, and supplied me with +some startling facts respecting the curse of intemperance in our +armies. + + +CHAPTER XI. +INCIDENTS AND END OF THE WAR. +Campaigning in Ohio--Attempted repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law-- +Organized movement in favor of Chase for the Presidency--Confiscation +of rebel lands--Fort Pillow and the treatment of Union soldiers at +Richmond--Mr. Lincoln's letter to Hodges--Southern Homestead Bill +and controversy with Mr. Mallory--Nomination of Andrew Johnson-- +Enforcement of party discipline--Mr. Lincoln's change of opinion +as to confiscation of rebel lands--Opposition to him in Congress-- +General Fremont and Montgomery Blair--Visit to City Point--Adoption +of the XIII Constitutional Amendment--Trip to Richmond and incidents +--Assassination of the President--Inauguration of Johnson and +announcement of his policy--Feeling toward Mr. Lincoln--Capitulation +with Gen. Johnston. + +In the latter part of July of this year I addressed several meetings +in Ohio, in company with Gov. Brough, beginning at Toledo. His +speeches were too conservative for the times, as he soon discovered +by their effect upon the people; but I found him singularly genial +and companionable, and full of reminiscences of his early intimacy +with Jackson, Van Buren and Silas Wright. Early in September I +returned to Ohio to join Hon. John A. Bingham in canvassing Mr. +Ashley's district under the employment of the State Republican +Committee. Mr. Vallandigham, then temporarily colonized in Canada, +was the Democratic candidate for Governor, and the canvass was "red- +hot." At no time during the war did the _spirit_ of war more +completely sway the loyal masses. It was no time to mince the +truth, or "nullify damnation with a phrase," and I fully entered +into the spirit of General Burnside's advice already referred to, +to breathe into the hearts of the people a feeling of animosity +against the rebels akin to that which inspired their warfare against +us. I remember that at one of the mass-meetings I attended, where +Col. Gibson was one of the speakers, a Cincinnati reporter who had +prepared himself for his work dropped his pencil soon after the +oratorical fireworks began, and listened with open mouth and the +most rapt attention till the close of the speech; and he afterward +wrote to his employer an account of the meeting, in which he said +that reporting was simply impossible, and he could only say the +speaking was "beautifully terrible." As a stump-speaker Col. Gibson +was then without a rival in the West. His oratory was an irresistible +fascination, and no audience could ever grow tired of him. The +speeches of Mr. Bingham were always admirable. His rhetoric was +singularly charming. He was an artist in his work, but seldom +repeated himself, while gathering fresh inspiration, and following +some new line of thought at every meeting. After our work was done +in the Toledo district I accompanied Mr. Ashley to Jefferson, where +he and others were to address a mass-meeting, which we found +assembled in front of the court house. The day was rainy and +dismal, and the meeting had already been in session for hours; but +after additional speeches by Ashley and Hutchins I was so loudly +called for a little while before sunset, that I responded for about +three-quarters of an hour, when I proposed to conclude, the people +having been detained already over four hours while standing in a +cold drizzling rain; but the cry of "go on" was very emphatic, and +seemed to be unanimous. "Go ahead," said a farmer, "we'll hear +you; it's past milking time anyhow!" It seemed to me I had never +met such listeners. I was afterward informed that the test of +effective speaking on the Reserve is the ability to hold an audience +from their milking when the time for it comes, and I thought I +passed this test splendidly. After my return from Ohio I made a +brief canvass in Iowa, along with Senator Harlan and Governor +Stone, and spent the remainder of the fall on the stump in my own +State. + +In the 38th Congress, Speaker Colfax made me Chairman of the +Committee on Public Lands, which gratified me much. It opened a +coveted field of labor on which I entered with zeal. On the 14th +of December I introduced a bill for the repeal of the Fugitive +Slave Law, and in order to test the sense of the House on the +question, I offered a resolution instructing the Judiciary Committee +to report such a bill. Greatly to my astonishment it was laid on +the table by a vote of yeas eighty-two, nays seventy-four. Many +Republicans declined to vote, and we were evidently still under +the lingering spell of slavery. Early in January an organized +movement was set on foot in the interest of Mr. Chase for the +Presidency, and I was made a member of a Central Committee which +was appointed for the purpose of aiding the enterprise. I was a +decided friend of Mr. Chase, and as decidedly displeased with the +hesitating military policy of the Administration; but on reflection +I determined to withdraw from the committee and let the presidential +matter drift. I had no time to devote to the business, and I found +the committee inharmonious, and composed, in part, of men utterly +unfit and unworthy to lead in such a movement. It was fearfully +mismanaged. A confidential document known as the "Pomeroy circular," +assailing Mr. Lincoln and urging the claims of Mr. Chase, was sent +to numerous parties, and of course fell into the hands of Mr. +Lincoln's friends. They became greatly excited, and by vigorous +counter measures created a strong reaction. A serious estrangement +between the President and his Secretary was the result, which lasted +for several months. The Chase movement collapsed, and when the +Republican members of the Ohio Legislature indorsed the re-nomination +of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Chase withdrew from the contest. The opposition +to Mr. Lincoln, however, continued, and was secretly cherished by +many of the ablest and most patriotic men in the party. The extent +of their opposition in Congress can never be known, and it was +greatly aggravated by successive military failures; but it lacked +both courage and leadership, and culminated in the nomination of +General Fremont in the latter part of May. + +In this Congress a new joint select committee on the "conduct of +the war" was organized, armed with new powers, and authorized to +sit in vacation; and in common with most of the members of the +former committee I was re-appointed. During the latter part of +January I reported from the Committee on Public Lands a proposition +to extend the Homestead Law of 1862 to the forfeited and confiscated +lands of Rebels. It was a very radical proposition, proposing to +deal with these lands as _public_ lands, and parcel them out into +small homesteads among the poor of the South, black and white. +The subject was a large one, involving many important questions, +and I devoted much time and thought to the preparation of a speech +in support of the measure. In the month of April a portion of the +Committee on the Conduct of the War visited Fort Pillow, for the +purpose of taking testimony respecting the rebel atrocities at that +place; and this testimony and that taken at Annapolis, early in +May, respecting the treatment of our soldiers in the prisons at +Richmond was published, as a special instalment of our proceedings, +for popular use, accompanied by photographs of a number of prisoners +in their wasted and disfigured condition. The report produced a +powerful effect on the public mind, and caused unspeakable trouble +and vexation to the enemy. I assisted in the examination of our +prisoners at Annapolis, and never before had been so touched by +any spectacle of human suffering. They were in the last stages of +life, and could only answer our questions in a whisper. They were +living skeletons, and it seemed utterly incredible that life could +be supported in such wasted and attenuated shadows of themselves. +They looked at us, in attempting to tell their story, with an +expression of beseeching tenderness and submission which no words +could describe. Not one of them expressed any regret that he had +entered into the service of the country, and each declared that he +would do so again, if his life should be spared and the opportunity +should be offered. In examining one of these men I was perfectly +unmanned by my tears; and on retiring from the tent to give them +vent I encountered Senator Wade, who had fled from the work, and +was sobbing like a child. It was an altogether unprecedented +experience, and the impression it produced followed me night and +day for weeks. + +The conservative policy of the Administration found a new and +careful expression in Mr. Lincoln's letter to A. G. Hodges, of the +4th of April. It showed great progress as compared with previous +utterances, but his declaration that "I claim not to have controlled +events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me," was +displeasing to the more anti-slavery Republicans. They insisted +that the Administration had no right to become the foot-ball of +events. It had no right, they said, at such a time, to make itself +a negative expression or an unknown quantity in the Algebra which +was to work out the great problem. It had no right, they insisted, +to take shelter beneath a debauched and sickly public sentiment, +and plead it in bar of the great duty imposed upon it by the crisis. +It had no right, certainly, to lag behind that sentiment, to magnify +its extent and potency, and then to become its virtual ally, instead +of endeavoring to control it, and to indoctrinate the country with +ideas suited to the emergency. It was the duty of the President, +like John Bright and the English Liberals, to lead, not follow +public opinion. These criticisms found every variety of utterance +through Congressional speeches and the press, and met with a cordial +response from the people; and they undoubtedly played their part +in preparing the country and the Administration for the more vigorous +policy which was to follow. + +On the 12th of May the House passed my Southern Homestead Bill by +the strictly party vote of seventy-five to sixty-four. In my +closing speech on the subject I was frequently interrupted by Wood +of New York, and Mallory of Kentucky, and the debate ran into very +sharp personalities, but the opposition of these members only tended +to strengthen the measure. On the 19th I was drawn into an +exceedingly angry altercation with Mr. Mallory, who charged me with +forging some very personal remarks about himself, and interpolating +them into the "Congressional Globe" as a part of my speech of the +12th. He was exceedingly insolent and overbearing in his manner, +growing more and more so as he proceeded, and strikingly recalling +the old days of slavery. He summoned a number of friends as +witnesses, who testified that they did not _hear_ me use the language +in question, and several of them, like Kernan of New York, declared +that they had occupied positions very near me, had given particular +attention to my words, and would certainly have remembered them if +they had been uttered. I kept cool, but asserted very positively +that I did use the exact words reported, and in proof of my statement +I appealed to a number of my friends, who sustained me by their +distinct and positive recollections. Here was a conflict of +testimony in which every witness recollected the facts according +to his politics; but pending the proceedings I was fortunate enough +to find the notes of the "Globe" reporter, which perfectly vindicated +me from Mr. Mallory's charges, and suddenly put his bluster and +billingsgate to flight. He unconditionally retracted his charges, +while his swift witnesses were sufficiently rebuked and humiliated +by this unexpected catastrophe. I was heartily complimented on my +triumph, and my dialogue with Mr. Mallory was put in pamphlet as +a campaign document by his opponents and liberally scattered over +his district, where it did much service in defeating his re-election +to the House. + +The passage of the Southern Homestead Bill, however, could only +prove a very partial measure without an enactment reaching the fee +of rebel land owners, and I confidently anticipated the endorsement +of such a measure by the Republican National Convention, which was +to meet in Baltimore, on the seventh of June. I was much gratified +when the National Union League approved it, in its Convention in +that city the day before; and a resolution embodying it was also +reported favorably by the sub-committee on resolutions of the +National Republican Convention the next day. But the General +Committee, on the motion of McKee Dunn of Indiana, always an +incorrigible conservative, struck it out, much to the disappointment +of the Republican masses. To me it was particularly vexatious, as +the measure was a pet one of mine, having labored for it with much +zeal, and in the confidence that the National Convention would +approve it. Mr. Dunn was a Kentuckian of the Border State School, +and although a friend of mine, and an upright and very gentlemanly +man, he had a genius for being on the wrong side of vital questions +during the war. Speaker Colfax used to say, laughingly, that in +determining his own course he first made it a point to find out +where McKee Dunn stood; and then, having ascertained Julian's +position, he always took a middle ground, feeling perfectly sure +he was right. + +But to me the nomination of Andrew Johnson for Vice President was +a still greater disappointment. I knew he did not believe in the +principles embodied in the platform. I had become intimately +acquainted with him while we were fellow-members of the Committee +on the Conduct of the War, and he always scouted the idea that +slavery was the cause of our trouble, or that emancipation could +ever be tolerated without immediate colonization. In my early +acquaintance with him I had formed a different opinion; but he was, +at heart, as decided a hater of the negro and of everything savoring +of abolitionism, as the rebels from whom he had separated. His +nomination, however, like that of Mr. Lincoln, seemed to have been +preordained by the people, while the intelligent, sober men, in +Congress and out of Congress, who lamented the fact, were not +prepared to oppose the popular will. Mr. Lincoln's nomination was +nearly unanimous, only the State of Missouri opposing him; but of +the more earnest and through-going Republicans in both Houses of +Congress, probably not one in ten really favored it. It was not +only very distasteful to a large majority of Congress but to many +of the most prominent men of the party throughout the country. +During the month of June the feeling against Mr. Lincoln became +more and more bitter and intense, but its expression never found +its way to the people. + +Notwithstanding the divisions which existed in the Republican ranks, +party discipline was vigorous and absolute. "Civil Service Reform" +was in the distant future, and the attempt to inaugurate it would +have been counted next to treasonable. Loyalty to Republicanism +was not only accepted as the best evidence of loyalty to the country, +but of fitness for civil position. After my nomination for re- +election this year, Mr. Holloway, who was still holding the position +of Commissioner of Patents, and one of the editors of a Republican +newspaper in my district, refused to recognize me as the party +candidate, and kept the name of my defeated competitor standing in +his paper. It threatened discord and mischief, and I went to the +President with these facts, and on the strength of them demanded +his removal from office. He replied, "If I remove Mr. Holloway I +shall have a quarrel with Senator Lane on my hands." I replied +that Senator Lane would certainly not quarrel with him for turning +a man out of office who was fighting the Republican party and the +friends of the Administration. "Your nomination," said he, "is as +binding on Republicans as mine, and you can rest assured that Mr. +Holloway shall support you, openly and unconditionally, or lose +his head." This was entirely satisfactory, but after waiting a +week or two for the announcement of my name I returned to Mr. +Lincoln with the information that Mr. Holloway was still keeping +up his fight, and that I had come to ask of him decisive measures. +I saw in an instant that the President now meant business. He +dispatched a messenger at once, asking Mr. Holloway to report to +him forthwith, in person, and in a few days my name was announced +in his paper as the Republican candidate, and that of my competitor +withdrawn. + +Having understood that Mr. Lincoln had changed his position respecting +the power of Congress to confiscate the landed estates of rebels, +I called to see him on the subject on the 2d of July, and asked +him if I might say to the people that what I had learned on this +subject was true, assuring him that I could make a far better fight +for our cause if he would permit me to do so. He replied that when +he prepared his veto of our law on the subject two years before, +he had not examined the matter fully, but that on further reflection, +and on reading Solicitor Whiting's law argument, he had changed +his opinion, and thought he would now sign a bill striking at the +fee, if we would send it to him. I was much gratified by this +statement, which was of service to the cause in the canvass; but, +unfortunately, constitutional scruples respecting such legislation +gained ground, and although both Houses of Congress at different +times endorsed the principle, it never became a law, owing to +unavoidable differences between the President and Congress on the +question of reconstruction. The action of the President in dealing +with the rebel land owners was of the most serious character. It +paralyzed one of the most potent means of putting down the Rebellion, +prolonging the conflict and aggravating its cost, and at the same +time left the owners of large estates in full possession of their +lands at the end of the struggle, who naturally excluded from the +ownership of the soil the freedmen and poor whites who had been +friendly to the Union; while the confiscation of life estates as +a war measure was of no practical advantage to the Government or +disadvantage to the enemy. + +The refusal of the President to sign the Reconstruction Act which +passed near the close of the session, and his proclamation and +message giving his reasons therefor, still further exasperated a +formidable body of earnest and impatient Republicans. A scathing +criticism of the President's position by Henry Winter Davis, which +was signed by himself and Senator Wade, fitly echoed their feelings. +Mr. Davis was a man of genius. Among the famous men in the Thirty- +eighth Congress he had no superior as a writer, debater and orator. +He was a brilliant man, whose devotion to his country in this crisis +was a passion, while his hostility to the President's policy was +as sincere as it was intense; but the passage of the somewhat +incongruous bill vetoed by the President, would probably have proved +a stumbling-block in the way of the more radical measures which +afterward prevailed. This could not then be foreseen, and as the +measure was an advanced one, the feeling against Mr. Lincoln waxed +stronger and stronger among his opposers. They had so completely +lost their faith in him that when Congress adjourned they seriously +feared his veto of the bill just enacted, repealing the Fugitive +Slave law; while the independent movement in favor of General +Fremont threatened a serious division in the Republican ranks, and +the triumph of General McClellan. "These," as Mr. Lincoln said on +another occasion, "were dark and dismal days," and they were made +still more so by the course of military events. The capture of +Richmond, which General Grant had promised, had not been accomplished, +although he had been furnished with all the troops he wanted. Our +Grand Army of the Potomac made advances in that direction, but with +great slaughter and no actual results; while the Administration +was blamed for his failures. General Grant finally reached the +position occupied by McClellan in 1862, but with terrific losses, +and Richmond still in possession of the rebels. His delay and +inaction at this point created great popular discontent in the +North; but while Lincoln supplied him with ample reinforcements, +and he now had an army twice as large as that of General Lee, which +was costing the nation over a million dollars per day, he continued +idle during the summer. It was evident that nothing could save us +but military success; and most fortunately for the Republican cause +it came in due season, rallied and reunited its supporters, and +thus secured their triumph at the polls. + +Near the close of the canvass, while on a visit to Washington, I +learned how it happened that Montgomery Blair had finally been got +out of the Cabinet, and General Fremont induced to leave the track +as the candidate of the Cleveland Convention. The radical pressure +upon Mr. Lincoln for the removal of Blair was very formidable, and +the emergency seemed so critical that it finally resulted in a +compromise, by which Fremont agreed to retire from the race, if +Blair should be required to leave the Cabinet. This was carried +out, and thus, at last, the President was obliged to make terms +with the "Pathfinder," who achieved a long-coveted victory over an +old foe. The election of Mr. Lincoln was followed by a remarkable +measure of party union and harmony, and the tone of his message in +December was encouraging. The appointment and confirmation of Mr. +Chase as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court met the most cordial +approval of Republicans everywhere. As a healing measure, following +his retirement from the treasury for valid reasons, it was most +timely. + +During the month of December, the Committee on the Conduct of the +War visited City Point, for the purpose of taking testimony respecting +the explosion of the mine at Petersburg. General Grant spent +several hours with the Committee, speaking very freely and familiarly +of the faults and virtues of our various commanders, and impressing +every one by his strong common sense. While at dinner with us on +our steamer, he drank freely, and its effect became quite manifest. +It was a painful surprise to the Committee, and was spoken of with +bated breath; for he was the Lieutenant-General of all our forces, +and the great movements which finally strangled the Rebellion were +then in progress, and, for aught we knew, might possibly be deflected +from their purpose by his condition. + +In January, 1865, the Committee on the Conduct of the War investigated +the famous Fort Fisher expedition, in which three hundred tuns of +powder were to be exploded in the vicinity of the Fort as a means +of demolishing it, or paralyzing the enemy. The testimony of +General Butler in explanation and defense of the enterprise was +interesting and spicy, and he was subsequently contradicted by +General Grant on material points. On the last day of this month +one of the grandest events of the century was witnessed in the +House of Representatives in the final passage of the Constitutional +Amendment forever prohibiting slavery. Numerous propositions on +the subject had been submitted, but the honor of drafting the one +adopted belongs to Lyman Trumbull, who had introduced it early in +the first session of this Congress. It passed the Senate on the +8th of April, 1864, only six members voting against it, namely, +Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Riddle and Saulsbury, but +failed in the House on the 15th of June following. It now came up +on the motion of Mr. Ashley to reconsider this vote. Congress had +abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, and prohibited it +in all the Territories. It had repealed the Fugitive Slave law, +and declared free all negro soldiers in the Union armies and their +families; and the President had played his grand part in the +Proclamation of Emancipation. But the question now to be decided +completely overshadowed all others. The debate on the subject had +been protracted and very spirited, the opposition being led by +Pendleton, Fernando Wood, Voorhees, Mallory and Eldridge, who all +denied that the power to amend the Constitution conferred the right +to abolish slavery, as Garrett Davis and Saulsbury had done in the +Senate. The time for the momentous vote had now come, and no +language could describe the solemnity and impressiveness of the +spectacle pending the roll-call. The success of the measure had +been considered very doubtful, and depended upon certain negotiations, +the result of which was not fully assured, and the particulars of +which never reached the public. The anxiety and suspense during +the balloting produced a deathly stillness, but when it became +certainly known that the measure had prevailed the cheering in the +densely-packed hall and galleries surpassed all precedent and +beggared all description. Members joined in the general shouting, +which was kept up for several minutes, many embracing each other, +and others completely surrendering themselves to their tears of +joy. It seemed to me I had been born into a new life, and that +the world was overflowing with beauty and joy, while I was +inexpressibly thankful for the privilege of recording my name on +so glorious a page of the nation's history, and in testimony of an +event so long only dreamed of as possible in the distant future. +The champions of negro emancipation had merely hoped to speed their +grand cause a little by their faithful labors, and hand over to +coming generations the glory of crowning it with success; but they +now saw it triumphant, and they had abundant and unbounded cause +to rejoice. It has been aptly said that the greatest advantage of +a long life is the opportunity it gives of seeing moral experiments +worked out, of being present at the fructification of social causes, +and of thus gaining a kind of wisdom which in ordinary cases seems +reserved for a future life; but that an equivalent for this advantage +is possessed by such as live in those critical periods of society +when retribution is hastened, or displayed in clear connection with +the origin of events. It strengthens faith to observe the sure +operation of moral causes in ripening into great and beneficent +results. To be permitted to witness the final success of the +grandest movement of ancient or modern times was a blessed opportunity. +To have labored for it in the goodly fellowship of its confessors +and martyrs was cause for devout thanksgiving and joy. To be +accredited to share in the great historic act of its formal +consummation was a priceless privilege. A few days after the +ratification of this Amendment, on the motion of Mr. Sumner, Dr. +Rock, a colored lawyer of Boston, was admitted to practice in the +Supreme Court of the United States, which had pronounced the Dred +Scott decision only a few years before; and this was followed a +few days later by a sermon in the hall of the House by Rev. Mr. +Garnett, being the first ever preached in the Capitol by a colored +man. Evidently, the negro was coming to the front. + +In the latter part of March I visited New York, where I witnessed +the immense throngs of shouting people on Wall Street, called +together by the news of the fall of Richmond. Broadway, robed in +its innumerable banners, was one of the finest sights I had ever +beheld. On the tenth of April the Committee on the Conduct of the +War left Washington for South Carolina, for the purpose of taking +further testimony, and intending to be present at the great +anniversary of the thirteenth at Charleston. We reached Fortress +Monroe the next evening, where we learned that the "Alabama," which +the Navy Department had furnished us, would be detained twenty-four +hours to coal, by reason of which we proceeded directly to Richmond +on the "Baltimore." At City Point, Admiral Porter furnished us +with a pilot, as there was some danger of torpedoes up the James +River. Our steamer reached the city about bedtime, but we remained +on board till morning, lulled into a sweep sleep by the music of +the guitar and the singing of the negroes below. At eight o'clock +in the morning our party went out sight-seeing, some in carriages, +but most of us on horseback, with an orderly for each to show him +the way. The first notable place we visited was General Weitzel's +headquarters, just vacated by Jefferson Davis. The building was +a spacious three-story residence, with a large double parlor, a +ladies' parlor, and a small secluded library attached, in which +all sorts of treason were said to have been hatched. We next +visited the capitol, an ancient-looking edifice, which would bear +no comparison with our modern State Capitols in size or style of +architecture. The library made a respectable appearance, but I +think it contained few modern publications, especially of our own +authors. I noticed, however, a liberal supply of theological works +of the most approved orthodoxy. The view of the city from the top +of the building was admirable. We could see Libby Prison, Castle +Thunder and Belle Isle, the former of which we afterward visited. +After seeing the rebel fortifications we were glad to get back to +our steamer. Before starting the next morning we saw the "Richmond +Whig," containing an order signed by General Weitzel, inviting +Hunter, McMullen and other noted rebel leaders, including members +of the rebel legislature, to meet in Richmond on the twenty-fifth +to confer with our authorities on the restoration of peace, +transportation and safe conduct being ordered for the purpose. We +were all thunderstruck, and fully sympathized with the hot indignation +and wrathful words of the chairman of our committee. We soon +afterwards learned that the order had been directed by the President, +and while we were thoroughly disgusted by this display of misguided +magnanimity we saw rebel officers strutting around the streets in +full uniform, looking as independent as if they had been masters +of the city. We left on the afternoon of the twelfth, and were +interested in seeing Drury's Landing, Dutch-Gap Canal, Malvern +Hill and other points of historic interest. Before reaching +Fortress Monroe the next day, Senators Wade and Chandler changed +their minds respecting our journey to Charleston, which was abandoned, +and after spending a few hours very pleasantly at that place and +Point Lookout, we reached Washington on the evening of the +fourteenth. + +Soon after retiring I was roused from a deep sleep by loud raps at +my door. W. L. Woods, clerk of my committee, entered in the greatest +excitement, and told me that Lincoln had just been assassinated, +and Seward and son probably, and that rebel assassins were about +to take the town. Supposing all this to be true I grew suddenly +cold, heart-sick and almost helpless. It was a repetition of my +experience when the exaggerated stories about the Bull Run disaster +first reached me in the summer of 1861. I soon rallied, however, +and joined the throng on the street. The city was at once in a +tempest of excitement, consternation and rage. About seven and a +half o'clock in the morning the church bells tolled the President's +death. The weather was as gloomy as the mood of the people, while +all sorts of rumors filled the air as to the particulars of the +assassination and the fate of Booth. Johnson was inaugurated at +eleven o'clock on the morning of the 15th, and was at once surrounded +by radical and conservative politicians, who were alike anxious +about the situation. I spent most of the afternoon in a political +caucus, held for the purpose of considering the necessity of a new +Cabinet and a line of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr. +Lincoln; and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling +was nearly universal that the accession of Johnson to the Presidency +would prove a god-send to the country. Aside from Mr. Lincoln's +known policy of tenderness to the Rebels, which now so jarred upon +the feelings of the hour, his well-known views on the subject of +reconstruction were as distasteful as possible to radical Republicans. +In his last public utterance, only three days before his death, he +had declared his adherence to the plan of reconstruction announced +by him in December, 1863, which in the following year so stirred +the ire of Wade and Winter Davis as an attempt of the Executive to +usurp the powers of Congress. According to this plan the work of +reconstruction in the rebel States was to be inaugurated and carried +on by those only who were qualified to vote under the Constitution +and laws of these States as they existed prior to the Rebellion. +Of course the negroes of the South could have no voice in framing +the institutions under which they were to live, and the question +of negro suffrage would thus have been settled by the President, +if he had lived and been able to maintain this policy, while no +doubt was felt that this calamity had now been averted and the way +opened for the radical policy which afterward involved the impeachment +of Johnson, but finally prevailed. It was forgotten in the fever +and turbulence of the moment, that Mr. Lincoln, who was never an +obstinate man, and who in the matter of his Proclamation of +Emancipation had surrendered his own judgment under the pressure +of public opinion, would not have been likely to wrestle with +Congress and the country in a mad struggle for his own way. + +On the following day, in pursuance of a previous engagement, the +Committee on the Conduct of the War met the President at his quarters +in the Treasury Department. He received us with decided cordiality, +and Mr. Wade said to him: "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the +gods, there will be no trouble now in running the government!" +The President thanked him, and went on to define his well-remembered +policy at that time. "I hold," said he, "that robbery is a crime; +rape is a crime; murder is a crime; _treason_ is a crime, and +_crime_ must be punished. Treason must be made infamous, and +traitors must be impoverished." We were all cheered and encouraged +by this brave talk, and while we were rejoiced that the leading +conservatives of the country were not at Washington, we felt that +the presence and influence of the committee, of which Johnson had +been a member, would aid the Administration in getting on the right +track. We met him again the next day and found the symptoms of a +vigorous policy still favorable, and although I had some misgivings, +the general feeling was one of unbounded confidence in his sincerity +and firmness, and that he would act upon the advice of General +Butler by inaugurating a policy of his own, instead of administering +on the political estate of his predecessor. + +In the meantime the prevailing excitement was greatly aggravated +by the news of the capitulation between General Sherman and General +Johnston on the 16th of April. Its practical surrender of all the +fruits of the national triumph so soon after the murder of the +President, produced an effect on the public mind which can not be +described. General Sherman had heard of the assassination when +the capitulation was made, and could not have been ignorant of the +feeling it had aroused. On the face of the proceeding his action +seemed a wanton betrayal of the country to its enemies; but when +this betrayal followed so swiftly the frightful tragedy which was +then believed to have been instigated by the Confederate authorities, +the patience of the people became perfectly exhausted. For the +time being, all the glory of his great achievements in the war +seemed to be forgotten in the anathemas which were showered upon +him from every quarter of the land; but the prompt repudiation of +his stipulations by the Administration soon assuaged the popular +discontent, while it provoked an estrangement between Secretary +Stanton and himself which was never healed. + +The outpouring of the people at Mr. Lincoln's funeral was wholly +unprecedented, and every possible arrangement was made by which +they could manifest their grief for their murdered President; but +their solicitude for the state of the country was too profound to +be intermitted. What policy was now to be pursued? Mr. Lincoln's +last utterances had been far from assuring or satisfactory. The +question of reconstruction had found no logical solution, and all +was confusion respecting it. The question of negro suffrage was +slowly coming to the front, and could not be much longer evaded. +The adequate punishment of the rebel leaders was the demand of the +hour. What would the new President do? He had suddenly become +the central figure of American politics, and both radicals and +conservatives were as curious to know what line of policy he would +follow as they were anxious to point his way. His demeanor, at +first, seemed modest and commendable, but his egotism soon began +to assert itself, while his passion for stump-speaking was pampered +by the delegations which began to pour into the city from various +States and flatter him by formal addresses, to which he replied at +length. This business was kept up till the people became weary of +the din and clatter of words, and impatient for action. + + +CHAPTER XII. +RECONSTRUCTION AND SUFFRAGE--THE LAND QUESTION. +Visit of Indianans to the President--Gov. Morton and reconstruction +--Report of Committee on the Conduct of the War--Discussion of +negro suffrage and incidents--Personal matters--Suffrage in the +District of Columbia--The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment-- +Breach between the President and Congress--Blaine and Conkling-- +Land bounties and the Homestead Law. + +On the twenty-first of April I joined a large crowd of Indianans +in one of the calls on the President referred to at the close of +the last chapter. Gov. Morton headed the movement, which I now +found had a decidedly political significance. He read a lengthy +and labored address on "The Whole Duty of Man" respecting the +question of Reconstruction. He told the President that a State +could "neither secede nor by any possible means be taken out of +the Union"; and he supported and illustrated this proposition by +some very remarkable statements. He elaborated the proposition +that the loyal people of a State have the right to govern it; but +he did not explain what would become of the State if the people +were all disloyal, or the loyal so few as to be utterly helpless. +The lawful governments of the South were overthrown by treason; +and the Governor declared there was "no power in the Federal +Government to punish the people of a State collectively, by reducing +it to a territorial condition, since the crime of treason is +individual, and can only be treated individually." According to +this doctrine a rebellious State become independent. If the people +could rightfully be overpowered by the national authority, that +very fact would at once re-clothe them in all their rights, just +as if they had never rebelled. In framing their new governments +Congress would have no right to prescribe any conditions, or to +govern them in any way pending the work of State reconstruction, +since this would be to recognize the States as Territories, and +violate the principle of State rights. The Governor's theory of +reconstruction, in fact, made our war for the Union flagrantly +unconstitutional. The crime of treason being "individual," and +only to "be treated individually," we had no right to hold prisoners +of war, seize property, and capture and confiscate vessels, without +a regular indictment and trial; and this being so, every Rebel in +arms was in the full legal possession of his political rights, and +no power could prevent him from exercising them except through +judicial conviction of treason in the district in which the overt +act was committed. Singularly enough, he seemed entirely unaware +of the well-settled principle which made our war for the Union a +territorial conflict, like that of a war with Mexico or England; +that the Rebels, while still liable to be hung or otherwise dealt +with for treason, had taken upon themselves the further character +of public enemies; and that being now conquered they were conquered +enemies, having simply the rights of a conquered people. The +Governor further informed the President that if the revolted +districts should be dealt with as mere Territories, or conquered +provinces, the nation would be obliged to pay the debts contracted +by them prior to the war. These remarkable utterances, which he +repudiated in less than a year afterward, were emphatically endorsed +by the President, who entered upon the same theme at a dismal +length, freely indulging in his habit of bad English and incoherence +of thought. I was disgusted, and sorry that the confidence of so +many of my radical friends had been entirely misplaced. + +During the latter part of April and early part of May the Committee +on the Conduct of the War completed its final report, making eight +considerable volumes, and containing valuable material for any +trustworthy history of the great conflict. Its opinions were +sometimes colored by the passions of the hour, and this was especially +true in the case of General McClellan; but subsequent events have +justified its conclusions generally as to nearly every officer and +occurrence investigated, while its usefulness in exposing military +blunders and incompetence, and in finally inaugurating the vigorous +war policy which saved the country, will scarcely be questioned by +any man sufficiently well-informed and fair-minded to give an +opinion. + +On the 12th of May, a caucus of Republicans was held at the National +Hotel to consider the necessity of taking decisive measures for +saving the new Administration from the conservative control which +then threatened it. Senators Wade and Sumner both insisted that +the President was in no danger, and declared, furthermore, that he +was in favor of negro suffrage; and no action was taken because of +the general confidence in him which I was surprised to find still +prevailed. In the meantime, pending the general drift of events, +the suffrage question was constantly gaining in significance, and +demanding a settlement. It was neither morally nor logically +possible to escape it; and on my return to my constituents I prepared +for a thorough canvass of my district. The Republicans were +everywhere divided on the question, while the current of opinion +was strongly against the introduction of the issue as premature. +The politicians all opposed it on the plea that it would divide +the Republicans and restore the Democrats to power, and that we +must wait for the growth of a public opinion that would justify +its agitation. Governor Morton opposed the policy with inexpressible +bitterness, declaring, with an oath, that "negro suffrage must be +put down," while every possible effort was made to array the soldiers +against it. His hostility to the suffrage wing of his party seemed +to be quite as relentless as to the Rebels, while the great body +of the Republicans of the district deferred strongly to his views. +In the beginning of the canvass I even found a considerable portion +of my old anti-slavery friends unprepared to follow me; but feeling +perfectly sure I was right, and that I could revolutionize the +general opinion, I entered upon the work, and prosecuted it with +all my might for nearly four months. My task was an arduous one, +but I found the people steadily yielding up their prejudices, and +ready to lay hold of the truth when fairly and dispassionately +presented, while the soldiers were among the first to accept my +teachings. The tide was at length so evidently turning in my favor +that on the 28th of September Governor Morton was induced to make +his elaborate speech at Richmond, denouncing the whole theory of +Republican reconstruction as subsequently carried out, and opposing +the policy of negro suffrage by arguments which he seemed to regard +as overwhelming. He made a dismal picture of the ignorance and +degradation of the plantation negroes of the South, and scouted +the policy of arming them with political power. But their fitness +for the ballot was a subordinate question. A great national +emergency pleaded for their right to it on other and far more +imperative grounds. The question involved the welfare of both +races, and the issues of the war. It involved not merely the fate +of the negro, but the safety of society. It was, moreover, a +question of national honor and gratitude, from which no escape was +morally possible. To leave the ballot in the hands of the ex- +rebels, and withhold it from these helpless millions, would be to +turn them over to the unhindered tyranny and misrule of their +enemies, who were then smarting under the humiliation of their +failure, and making the condition of the freedmen more intolerable +than slavery itself, through local laws and police regulations. + +The Governor referred to the Constitution and laws of Indiana, +denying the ballot to her intelligent negroes, and subjecting +colored men to prosecution and fine for coming into the State; and +asked with what face her people could insist upon conferring the +suffrage upon the negroes of the Southern States? But this was an +evasion of the question. The people of Indiana had no right to +take advantage of their own wrong, or to sacrifice the welfare of +four million blacks on the altar of Northern consistency. He should +have preached the duty of practical repentance in Indiana, instead +of making the sins of her people an excuse for a far greater +inhumanity to the negroes of the South. + +He urged that the policy of negro suffrage would give the lie to +all the arguments that had ever been employed against slavery as +degrading and brutalizing to its victims. He said it was "to pay +the highest compliment to the institution of slavery," and "stultify +ourselves." But this was belittling a great national question, by +the side of which all considerations of party consistency were +utterly trivial and contemptible. The ballot for the negro was a +logical necessity, and it was a matter of the least possible +consequence whether the granting of it would "stultify ourselves" +or not. + +He insisted that the true policy was to give the Southern negroes +a probation of fifteen or twenty years to prepare for the ballot. +He would give them "time to acquire a little property; time to get +a little education; time to learn something about the simplest +forms of business, and to prepare themselves for the exercise of +political power." But he did not explain how all this was to be +done, under the circumstances of their condition. He declared that +not one of them in five hundred could read, or was worth five +dollars in property of any kind, owning nothing but their bodies, +and living on the plantations of white men upon whom they were +dependent for employment and subsistence. How could such men +acquire "education," and "property," under the absolute sway of a +people who regarded them with loathing and contempt? Who would +grant them this "probation," and help them turn it to good account? +Was some miracle to be wrought through which the slave-masters were +to be transfigured into negro apostles and devotees? Besides, +under Governor Morton's theory of reconstruction and State rights, +neither Congress nor the people of the loyal States had anything +to do with the question. It was no more their concern in South +Carolina than in Massachusetts. His suggestion of a probation for +Southern negroes was therefore an impertinence. If not, why did +he not recommend a "probation" for the hordes of "white trash" that +were as unfit for political power as the negroes? + +He was very earnest and eloquent in his condemnation of Mr. Sumner +for proposing to give the ballot to the negroes and disfranchise +the white Rebels, but his moral vision failed to discern anything +amiss in his own ghastly policy of arming the white Rebels with +the ballot and denying it to the loyal negroes. + +He argued that the right to vote carried with it the right to hold +office, and that negro suffrage would lead to the election of negro +Governors, negro judges, negro members of Congress, a negro balance +of power in our politics, and a war of races. He seemed to have +no faith at all in the beneficent measures designed to guard the +black race from outrage and wrong, while full of apprehension that +the heavens would fall if such measures were adopted. + +This speech was published in a large pamphlet edition and extensively +scattered throughout the country; but it proved a help rather than +a hindrance to my enterprise. I replied to it in several incisive +newspaper articles, and made its arguments a text for a still more +thorough discussion of the issue on the stump, and at the close of +my canvass the Republicans of the district were as nearly a unit +in my favor as a party can be made respecting any controverted +doctrine. + +I now extended my labors briefly outside of my district, and by +special invitation from citizens of Indianapolis and members of +the Legislature, then in session, I spoke in that city on the 17th +of November. Every possible effort was made by the Johnsonized +Republicans to prevent me from having an audience, but they failed +utterly; and I analyzed the positions of Governor Morton in a speech +of two hours, which was reported for the "Cincinnati Gazette" and +subsequently published in a large pamphlet edition. The political +rage and exasperation which now prevailed in the ranks of the Anti- +Suffrage faction can be more readily imagined than described. +Their organ, the "Indianapolis Journal," poured out upon me an +incredible deliverance of vituperation and venom for scattering my +heresies outside of my Congressional district, declaring that I +had "the temper of a hedgehog, the adhesiveness of a barnacle, the +vanity of a peacock, the vindictiveness of a Corsican, the hypocrisy +of Aminadab Sleek and the duplicity of the devil." I rather enjoyed +these paroxysms of malignity, which broke out all over the State +among the Governor's conservative satellites, since my only offense +was fidelity to my political opinions, the soundness of which I +was finding fully justified by events; for the friends of the +Governor, in a few short months, gathered together and cremated +all the copies of his famous speech which could be found. But the +disowned document was printed as a campaign tract by the Democrats +for a dozen successive years afterward, and circulated largely in +several of the Northern States, while the Governor himself, by a +sudden and splendid somersault, became the champion and exemplar +of the very heresies which had so furiously kindled his ire against +me. These performances are sufficiently remarkable to deserve +notice. They did much to make Indiana politics spicy and picturesque, +and showed how earnestly the radical and conservative wings of the +Republican party could wage war against the common enemy without +in the least impairing their ability or disposition to fight each +other. + +I have referred to these facts because they form a necessary part +of the story I am telling. The question of Negro Suffrage was a +very grave one, and the circumstances connected with its introduction +as a political issue are worthy of record; while Governor Morton +was a sort of phenomenal figure in American politics during the +war period, and played a very remarkable part in the affairs of +Indiana. It has aptly been said of him, and not by an enemy, that +his inconsistencies, in a study of his character, form the most +charming part of it, and that no man in public life ever brought +such magnificent resources to the support of both sides of a +question. His force of will was as matchless as his ambition for +power was boundless and unappeasable. He was made for revolutionary +times, and his singular energy of character was pre-eminently +destructive; but it can not be denied that his services to the +country in this crisis were great. Mr. Von Holst, in his +"Constitutional and Political History of the United States," has +a chapter on "The Reign of Andrew Jackson." When the history of +Indiana shall be written, it might fitly contain a chapter on "The +Reign of Oliver P. Morton." He made himself not merely the master +of the Democratic party of the State, and of its Rebel element, +but of his own party as well. His will, to a surprising extent, +had the force of law in matters of both civil and military +administration. His vigor in action and great personal magnetism +so rallied the people to his support, that with the rarest exceptions +the prominent leaders of his party quietly succumbed to his ambition, +and recoiled from the thought of confronting him, even where they +believed him in the wrong. + +His hostility to me began with my election to Congress in 1849, in +which, as a Free Soiler, I had the united support of the Democratic +party of my district, of which he was then a member. I never +obtained his forgiveness for my success in that contest, and his +unfriendliness was afterward aggravated by his failure as a Republican +leader to supplant me in the district, and it continued to the end. +I knew him from his boyhood. We resided in the same village nearly +twenty years, and began our acquaintance as members of the same +debating club. For years we were intimate and attached friends, +and I believe no man was before me in appreciating his talents and +predicting for him a career of political distinction and usefulness. +During the war, earnest efforts were made by his friends and mine +looking to a reconciliation, and the restoration of that harmony +in the party which good men on both sides greatly coveted; but all +such efforts necessarily failed. If I had been willing to subordinate +my political convictions and sense of duty to his ambition, peace +could at once have been restored; but as this was impossible, I +was obliged to accept the warfare which continued and increased, +and which I always regretted and deplored. I only make these +statements in justice to the truth. + +The bill providing for negro suffrage in the District of Columbia +was among the first important measures of the Thirty-ninth Congress. +The debate upon it in January, 1866, was singularly able and +thorough, and gave strong evidence of political progress. All +efforts to postpone the measure, or make the suffrage restrictive, +were voted down, and on the announcement of its passage the cheering +was tremendous. Beginning on the floor, it was quickly caught up +by the galleries, and the scene resembled that which followed the +passage of the Constitutional Amendment already referred to. The +majority was over two to one, thus clearly foreshadowing the +enfranchisement of the negro in the insurrectionary districts. I +believe only two of my colleagues voted with me for its passage. + +The question of reconstruction was brought directly before Congress +by the report of the joint select committee on that subject, +submitting the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment. The second +section of the Amendment was a measure of compromise, and attempted +to unite the radical and conservative wings of the party by +restricting the right of representation in the South to the basis +of suffrage, instead of extending that basis in conformity to the +right of representation. It was a proposition to the Rebels that +if they would agree that the negroes should not be counted in the +basis of representation, we would hand them over, unconditionally, +to the tender mercies of their old masters. It sanctioned the +barbarism of the Rebel State Governments in denying the right of +representation to their freedmen, simply because of their race and +color, and thus struck at the very principle of Democracy. It was +a scheme of cold-blooded treachery and ingratitude to a people who +had contributed nearly two hundred thousand soldiers to the armies +of the Union, and among whom no traitor had ever been found; and +it was urged as a means of securing equality of white representation +in the Government when that object could have been perfectly attained +by a constitutional amendment arming the negroes of the South with +the ballot, instead of leaving them in the absolute power of their +enemies. Of course, no man could afford to vote against the +proposition to cut down rebel representation to the basis of +suffrage; but to recognize the authority of these States to make +political outlaws of their colored citizens and incorporate this +principle into the Constitution of the United States, was a wanton +betrayal of justice and humanity. Congress, however, was unprepared +for more thorough work. The conservative party which had so long +sought to spare slavery was obliged, as usual, to feel its way +cautiously, and wait on the logic of events; while the negro, as +I shall show, was finally indebted for his franchise to the desperate +madness of his enemies in rejecting the dishonorable proposition +of his friends. + +As the question of reconstruction became more and more engrossing, +the signs of a breach between the President and Congress revealed +themselves. He had disappointed the hopes of his radical friends, +and begun to show his partiality for conservative and Democratic +ideas. His estrangement from his party probably had its genesis +in the unfortunate exhibition of himself at the inauguration of +Mr. Lincoln, and the condemnation of it by leading Republicans, +which he could not forget. Instead of keeping his promise to be +the "Moses" of the colored people he turned his back upon them in +a very offensive public speech. His veto of the Freedmen's Bureau +bill finally stripped him of all disguises, and placed him squarely +against Congress and the people, while the House met his defiance +by a concurrent resolution emphatically condemning his reconstruction +policy, and thus opening the way for the coming struggle between +Executive usurpation and the power of Congress. His maudlin speech +on the 22d of February to the political mob which called on him, +branding as traitors the leaders of the party which had elected +him, completely dishonored him in the opinion of all Republicans, +and awakened general alarm. Everybody could now see the mistake +of his nomination at Baltimore, and that he was simply a narrow- +minded dogmatist and a bull-dog in disposition, who would do +anything in his power to thwart the wishes of his former friends. + +During the month of March of this year, at the request of intelligent +working men in the employ of the Government, I introduced a bill +making eight hours a day's work in the navy yards of the United +States. This was the beginning of the eight hour agitation in +Congress. I had not given much thought to the necessity for such +legislation in this country, but the proposed measure seemed to me +an augury of good to the working classes, as the Ten Hour movement +had proved itself to be twenty years before. It could plead the +time laws of England as a precedent, enacted to protect humanity +against the "Lords of the Loom." These laws recognized labor as +capital endowed with human needs, and entitled to the special +guardianship of the State, and not as merchandise merely, to be +governed solely by the law of supply and demand. While I was a +believer in Free Trade, I was not willing to follow its logic in +all cases of conflict between capital and labor. My warfare against +chattel slavery and the monopoly of the soil had assumed the duty +of the Government to secure fair play and equal opportunities to +the laboring masses, and I was willing to embody that idea in a +specific legislative proposition, and thus invite its discussion +and the settlement of it upon its merits. + +In April of this year a notable passage at arms occurred in the +House between Mr. Conkling and Mr. Blaine, which has been made +historic by the subsequent career of these great Republican chiefs. +The altercation between them was protracted and very personal, and +grew out of the official conduct of Provost Marshal General Fry. +The animosity engendered between these rivals at this early day +seems never to have been intermitted, and it can best be appreciated +by referring to the closing passages of their remarkable war of +words on the 30th of this month. Mr. Conkling's language was very +contemptuous, and in concluding he said: + +"If the member from Maine had the least idea of how profoundly +indifferent I am to his opinion upon the subject which he has been +discussing, or upon any other subject personal to me, I think he +would hardly take the trouble to rise here and express his opinion. +And as it is a matter of entire indifference to me what that opinion +may be, I certainly will not detain the House by discussing the question +whether it is well or ill-founded, or by noticing what he says. +I submit the whole matter to the members of the House, making, as +I do, an apology (for I feel that it is due to the House) for the +length of time which I have been occupied in consequence of being +drawn into explanations, originally by an interruption which I +pronounced the other day ungentlemanly and impertinent, and having +nothing whatever to do with the question." + +Mr. Blaine, in reply, referred to Mr. Conkling's "grandiloquent +swell" and his "turkey gobbler strut," and concluded: + +"I know that within the last five weeks, as members of the House +will recollect, an extra strut has characterized the gentleman's +bearing. It is not his fault. It is the fault of another. That +gifted and satirical writer, Theodore Tilton, of the 'New York +Independent,' spent some weeks recently in this city. His letters +published in that paper, embraced, with many serious statements, +a little jocose satire, a part of which was the statement that the +mantle of the late Winter Davis had fallen upon the member from +New York. The gentleman took it seriously, and it has given his +strut additional pomposity. The resemblance is great. It is +striking. Hyperion to a satyr, Thersites to Hercules, mud to +marble, dung-hill to diamond, a singed cat to a Bengal tiger, a +whining puppy to a roaring lion. Shade of the mighty Davis, forgive +the almost profanation of that jocose satire!" + +This uncomely sparring match seemed to have no significance at the +time beyond the amusement it afforded and the personal discredit +it attached to the combatants; but in its later consequences it +has not only seriously involved the political fortunes of both +these ambitious men, but rent the Republican party itself into +warring factions. Still more, it has connected itself in the same +way, and not very remotely, with the nomination of General Garfield +in 1880, and his subsequent assassination. Such are the strange +political revenges of a personal quarrel. + +During this session of Congress the policy of Military Land Bounties +was very earnestly agitated, and threatened the most alarming +consequences. Probably no great question has been so imperfectly +understood by our public men as the land question, and the truth +of this is attested by the multiplied schemes of pillage and plunder +to which the public domain has been exposed within the past thirty +or forty years. Among these the project of Land Bounties to soldiers +has been conspicuous. Of the millions of acres disposed of by the +Government through assignable land-warrants in the pretended interest +of the soldiers of the Mexican War a very small fraction was +appropriated to their use. The great body of the land fell into +the hands of monopolists, who thus hindered the settlement and +productive wealth of the country, while the sum received by the +soldier for his warrant was in very many cases a mere mockery of +his just claims, and in no instance an adequate bounty. The policy, +however, had become traditional, and now, at the close of the +grandest of all our wars, it was quite natural for the country's +defenders to claim its supposed benefits. Congress was flooded +with their petitions, and it required uncommon political courage +to oppose their wishes. It was very plausibly urged that the +Nation, with its heavy load of debt, could not pay a bounty in +money, and that it should be done by drawing liberally upon the +thousand million acres of the public domain. Some of the advocates +of this policy openly favored the repeal of the Homestead law for +this purpose, just as Thurlow Weed, earlier in the war, had demanded +its repeal so that our public lands could be mortgaged to European +capitalists in security for the money we needed to carry on the +struggle. The situation became critical. Everybody was eager to +reward the soldier, and especially the politicians; and there seemed +to be no other way to do it than by bounties in land, for which +all our previous wars furnished precedents. The House Committee +on Public Lands considered the question with great care and anxiety, +and in the hope of check-mating that project made a report in +response to one of the many petitions for land bounty which had +been referred to it, embodying some very significant facts. It +showed that more than two millions and a quarter of soldiers would +be entitled to a bounty in land, and that it would require more +than one third of the public domain remaining undisposed of, and +cover nearly all of it that was really fit for agriculture; that +the warrants would undoubtedly be made assignable, as in the case +of previous bounties, and that land speculation would thus find +its new birth and have free course in its dreadful ravages; and +that it would prove the practical overthrow of the policy of our +pre-emption and homestead laws and turn back the current of American +civilization and progress. The report further insisted that the +Nation could not honorably plead poverty in bar of the great debt +it owed its defenders, and it was accompanied by a bill providing +a bounty in money at the rate of eight and one third dollars per +month for the time of their service, which was drawn after conferring +with intelligent men among them who fully appreciated the facts +and arguments of the committee. This report and its accompanying +bill had an almost magical effect. They not only perfectly satisfied +the soldiers everywhere, but revolutionized the opinion of both +Houses of Congress, and thus saved the public domain from the +wholesale spoilation that had threatened it. The bill was referred +to the Military Committee, and afterward became well known by its +title of "General Schenck's bill." It passed the House, but failed +in the Senate. It passed the House repeatedly at different session +of Congress afterward, although it never became a law; but it was +the timely and fortunate instrument through which the public domain +was saved from the wreck which menaced it in the hasty adoption of +a scheme which would have proved as worthless to our soldiers as +disastrous to the country. + + +CHAPTER XIII. +MINERAL LANDS AND THE RIGHT OF PRE-EMPTION. +The lead and copper lands of the Northwest--The gold-bearing regions +of the Pacific, and their disposition--A legislative reminiscence +--Mining Act of 1866, and how it was passed--Its deplorable failure, +and its lesson--Report of the Land Commission--The Right of Pre- +emption, and the "Dred Scott decision" of the settlers. + +The action of the Government in dealing with the mineral lands of +the United States forms one of the most curious chapters in the +history of legislation. It had its beginning in the famous +Congressional Ordinance of May 20, 1785, which reserved one third +part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines to be sold or +otherwise disposed of as Congress might direct. From this time +till the discovery of gold in California in 1848, the legislation +of Congress respecting mineral lands related exclusively to those +containing the base or merely useful metals, and applied only to +the regions now embraced by the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, +Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. The policy of reserving mineral lands +from sale was obviously of feudal origin, and naturally led to the +leasing of such lands by the Government, which was inaugurated by +the Act of Congress of March 3, 1807. The Act of Congress of March +3, 1829, provided for the sale of the reserved lead mines and +contiguous lands in Missouri, on six months' notice, but mineral +lands elsewhere remained reserved, and continued to be leased by +the Government. This policy was thoroughly and perseveringly tried, +and proved utterly unprofitable and ruinous. President Polk, in +his message of December 2, 1845, declared that the income derived +from the leasing system for the years 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1844 +was less than one fourth of its expense, and he recommended its +abolition, and that these lands be brought into market. The leasing +policy drew into the mining regions a population of vagrants, idlers +and gamblers, who resisted the payment of tax on the product of +the mines, and defied the agents of the Government. It excluded +sober and intelligent citizens, and hindered the establishment of +organized communities and the development of the mines. The miners +were violently opposed to the policy of sale, but the evils incident +to the leasing policy became so intolerable that the Government +was at length obliged to provide for the sale of the lands in fee, +which it did by Acts of Congress of July 11, 1846, and March 1 and +3, 1847. The tracts occupied and worked by the miners under their +leases possessed every variety of shape and boundary, but there +were no difficulties which were not readily adjusted under the +rectangular system of surveys and the regulations of the Land +Department. A new class of men at once took possession of these +regions as owners of the soil, brought their families with them, +laid the foundations of social order, expelled the semi-barbarians +who had secured a temporary occupancy, and thus, at once promoted +their own welfare, the prosperity of the country, and the financial +interests of the Government. Under this reformed policy the lead +and copper lands of the regions named were disposed of in fee. + +But the gold-bearing regions covered by our Mexican acquisitions +created a new dispensation in mining, and invited the attention of +Congress to the consideration of a new and exceedingly important +question. How should these mineral lands be disposed of? They +covered an area of a million square miles, and their exploration +and development became a matter of the most vital moment, not only +in a financial point of view, but as a means of promoting the +settlement and tillage of the agricultural lands contiguous to the +mineral deposits. President Fillmore, in his message of December +2, 1849, recommended the sale of these lands in small parcels, and +Mr. Ewing, his Secretary of the Interior, urged upon Congress the +consideration of the subject, and recommended the policy of leasing +them; but no attention seems to have been given to these recommendations. +By Act of Congress of September 27, 1850, mineral lands in Oregon +were reserved from sale; and by Acts of March 3, 1853, and of July +22, 1854, they were reserved in California and New Mexico. This +was the extent of Congressional action. Early in the late war, +the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Caleb B. Smith, referred to +the question, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office +afterward repeatedly recommended the policy of leasing, but Congress +took no notice of the subject. My interest in the question was +first awakened in the fall of 1864, in carefully overhauling our +land policy. Our mineral lands for more than sixteen years had +been open to all comers from whatever quarter of the globe, during +which time more than a thousand million dollars had been extracted, +from which not a dollar of revenue reached the National Treasury +save the comparatively trifling amount derived from the Internal +Revenue tax on bullion. This fact was so remarkable that it was +difficult to accept it as true. The Government had no policy +whatever in dealing with these immense repositories of national +wealth, and declined to have any; for a policy implies that something +is to be done, and points out the method of doing it. It had +prohibited the sale of mineral lands, and then come to a dead halt. +The Constitution expressly provides that Congress shall have power +"to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory +or other property belonging to the United States"; but Congress, +in reserving these lands from sale and taking no measures whatever +respecting their products, simply abandoned them, and, as the +trustee of the Nation, became as recreant as the father who abandons +his minor child. + +The case was a very curious one, and the more I considered it, the +more astonished I became at the strange indifference of the +Government, and that no public man of any party had ever given the +subject the slightest attention. The Nation had been selling its +lands containing iron, copper and lead, and the policy of vesting +an absolute fee in individual proprietors had been accepted on +actual trial, and after the leasing policy had signally failed, +and I could see nothing in the distinction between the useful and +precious metals which required a different policy for the latter. +Some policy was absolutely demanded. The country, loaded down by +a great and continually increasing war debt, could not afford to +turn away from so tempting a source of revenue. To sleep over its +grand opportunity was as stupid as it was criminal. It was obvious +that if the Government continued to reserve these lands from sale, +some form of tax or royalty on their products must be resorted to +as a measure of financial policy; but this would have involved the +same political anomaly as the policy of leasing, and the same +failure. In principle it was the same. To retain the fee of the +lands in the Government and impose a rent upon their occupiers, +would make the Government a great landlord, and the miners its +tenants. Such a policy would not be American, but European. It +would not be Democratic, but Feudal. It would be to follow the +Governments of the Old World, which reserve their mineral lands +for the Crown, because they are esteemed too precious for the +people. It was at war with our theory of Democracy, which has +respect chiefly to the individual, and seeks to strengthen the +Government by guarding his rights and promoting his well-being. +These considerations convinced me that the time had come to abandon +the non-action course of the Government, and adopt a policy in +harmony with our general legislation; and that the survey and sale +of these lands in fee was the best and only method of promoting +security of titles, permanent settlements, and thorough development. +As early as December, 1864, I therefore introduced a bill embodying +this policy, which was followed by a similar measure, early in the +Thirty-ninth Congress, accompanied by an elaborate report, arguing +the question pretty fully, and combating all the objections to the +principle and policy of sale. My views were commended by Secretary +McCullough, as they had been by Mr. Chase, while I was glad to find +them supported by intelligent men from California, who spoke from +actual observation and extensive experience in mining. + +But although this measure fully protected all miners in the right +of exploration and discovery, and carefully guarded against any +interference with vested rights, the idea was in some way rapidly +and extensively propagated that it contemplated a sweeping confiscation +of all their claims, and the less informed among them became wild +with excitement. The politicians of California and Nevada, instead +of endeavoring to enlighten them and quiet this excitement, yielded +to it absolutely. They became as completely its instruments as +they have since been of the Anti-Mongolian feeling. They argued, +at first, that no Congressional legislation was necessary, and that +while the Government should retain the fee of these lands, the +miners should have the entire control of them under regulations +prescribed by themselves. This, it was believed, would placate +the miners and settle the question; but the introduction of the +measure referred to, and the agitation of the question, had made +some form of legislation inevitable, and the question now was to +determine what that legislation should be. Senators Conness of +California, and Stewart of Nevada, who were exceedingly hostile to +the bill I had introduced, and feared its passage, sought to avert +it by carrying through the Senate "a bill to regulate the occupation +of mineral lands and to extend the right of pre-emption thereto," +which they hoped would satisfy their constituents and prevent +further legislation. They supported it as the next best thing to +total non-action by Congress. It provided for giving title to the +miners, but it did this by practically abdicating the jurisdiction +of the National Government over these lands, with its recognized +and well-settled machinery for determining all questions of title +and boundary, and handing them over to "the local custom or rules +of the miners." These "local rules" were to govern the miner in +the location, extension and boundary of his claim, the manner of +developing it, and the survey also, which was not to be executed +with any reference to base lines as in the case of other public +lands, but in utter disregard of the same. The Surveyor General +was to make a plat or diagram of the claim, and transmit it to the +Commissioner of the General Land Office, who, as the mere agent +and clerk of the miner, with no judicial authority whatever, was +required to issue the patent. In case of any conflict between +claimants it was to be determined by the "local courts," without +any right of appeal to the local land offices, the General Land +Office, or to the Federal courts. The Government was thus required +to part with its lands by proceedings executed by officials wholly +outside of its jurisdiction, and irresponsible to its authority. +The act not only abolished our rectangular system of surveys, but +still further insulted the principles of mathematics and the dictates +of common sense by providing that the claimant should have the +right to follow his vein or lode, "with its dips, angles and +variations to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, +which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition"; a +right unknown to the mining codes of England, France or Prussia, +and not sanctioned by those of Spain or Mexico. Subject to this +novel principle the crudely extemporized rules of the miners were +to be recognized as law, and this system of instability and +uncertainty made the basis of title and the arbiter of all disputes, +instead of sweeping it away and ushering in a system of permanence +and peace through the well-appointed agency of the Land Department. +It was easy to see that this was an act to encourage litigation +and for the benefit of lawyers, and not to promote the real interest +of the miners or increase the product of the mines. + +This was made perfectly clear at the time, by the report of a Senate +committee of the Legislature of Nevada. In speaking of the local +laws of the miners, it says, "There never was confusion worse +confounded. More than two hundred districts within the limit of +a single State, each with its self-approved code; these codes +differing not alone each from the other, but presenting numberless +instances of contradiction in themselves. The law of one point is +not the law of another five miles distant, and a little further on +will be a code which is the law of neither of the former, and so +on, _ad inifitum;_ with the further disturbing fact superadded, +that the written laws themselves may be overrun by some peculiar +custom which can be found nowhere recorded, and the proof of which +will vary with the volume of interested affidavits which may be +brought on either side to establish it. Again, in one district +the work to be done to hold a claim is nominal, in another exorbitant, +in another abolished, in another adjourned from year to year. A +stranger, seeking to ascertain the law, is surprised to learn that +there is no satisfactory public record to which he can refer; no +public officer to whom he may apply, who is under any bond or +obligation to furnish him information, or guarantee its authenticity. +Often, in the new districts, he finds there is not even the semblance +of a code, but a simple resolution adopting the code of some other +district, which may be a hundred miles distant. What guarantee +has he for the investment of either capital or labor under such a +system?" The report proceeds to show that these regulations can +have no permanency. "A miners' meeting," it declares, "adopts a +code; it stands apparently as the law. Some time after, on a few +days' notice, a corporal's guard assembles, and, on simple motion, +radically changes the whole system by which claims may be held in +a district. Before a man may traverse the State, the laws of a +district, which by examination and study he may have mastered, may +be swept away, and no longer stand as the laws which govern the +interest he may have acquired; and the change has been one which +by no reasonable diligence could he be expected to have knowledge +of." Of course these facts thus officially stated in the interest +of the miners of Nevada, were applicable to California, and all +the mining States and Territories, and they fitly and very forcibly +rebuked the attempt to enact the Senate bill. + +When this bill reached the House it was properly referred to the +Committee on Public Lands, which then had under consideration the +bill I had reported providing for the survey and sale of mineral +lands through the regular machinery of the Land Department. The +House Committee subsequently reported it favorably, and could not +be persuaded by the delegations from California and Nevada to adopt +the Senate bill as a substitute. Senators Stewart and Conness, +finding their project thus baffled, and becoming impatient of delay +as the session neared its close, called up a House bill entitled +"An Act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over +the Public Lands in the States of California, Oregon and Nevada," +and succeeded, by sharp practice, in carrying a motion to strike +out the whole of the bill except the enacting clause, and insert +the bill which the Senate had already enacted and was then before +the House Committee. This maneuver succeeded, and the bill, thus +enacted by the Senate a second time, and now under a false title, +was sent to the House, where it found its place on the Speaker's +table, and was lying in wait for the sudden and unlooked-for movement +which was to follow. The title was misleading, and thus enabled +Mr. Ashley of Nevada, to obtain the floor when it was reached, and +under the gag, which of course would cut off all amendment and +debate, he attempted to force through a measure revolutionizing +the whole land policy of the Government so far as relates to the +Western side of the continent, and surrendering the national +authority over its vast magazines of mineral wealth to the legalized +jargon and bewilderment I have depicted. I succeeded in preventing +a vote by carrying an adjournment, but the question came up the +next day, and the Senators referred to, with their allies in the +House, had used such marvelous industry in organizing and drilling +their forces, and the majority of the members knew so little about +the question involved, that I found the chances decidedly against +me. I was obliged, also, to encounter a prevailing but perfectly +unwarranted presumption that the representatives of the mining +States were the best judges of the question in dispute, while it +was foolishly regarded as a local one, with which the old States +had no concern. The clumsy and next to incomprehensible bill thus +became a law, and by legislative methods as indefensible as the +measure itself. + +Such is the history of this remarkable experiment in legislation; +but it is an experiment no longer. Its character has been perfectly +established by time, and the logic of actual facts. It has been +extensively and thoroughly tried, and after repeated attempts to +amend it by supplementary legislation, its failure stands recorded +in the manifold evils it has wrought. The Land Commission, appointed +under the administration of President Hayes in pursuance of an Act +of Congress to classify the Public Lands and codify the laws relating +to their disposition, visited the mining States and Territories in +detail, and devoted ample time to the examination of witnesses and +experts in every important locality touching the policy and practical +operation of the laws in force relating to mineral lands. This +Commission condemned these laws on the strength of overwhelming +evidence, and recommended a thorough and radical reform, including +the reference of all disputed questions as to title and boundary +to the regular officials of the United States; the abolition of +the "local custom or rules of miners," with the "local courts" +provided for their adjudication; and the adoption of the United +States surveys as far as practicable, including the geodetical +principle of ownership in lieu of the policy of allowing the miner +to follow his vein, "with its dips, angles and variations under +the adjoining land of his neighbor," which policy is declared to +be the source of incalculable legislation. The Commission, in +short, urged the adoption of the principles of the Common Law and +the employment of the appropriate machinery of the Land Department, +as a substitute for the frontier regulations which Congress made +haste to nationalize in 1866. It declared that under these +regulations "title after title hangs on a local record which may +be defective, mutilated, stolen for blackmail, or destroyed to +accomplish fraud, and of which the grantor, the Government, has +neither knowledge nor control"; that in the evidence taken "it was +repeatedly shown that two or three prospectors, camped in the +wilderness, have organized a mining district, prescribed regulations +involving size of claims, mode of location and nature of record, +elected one of their number recorder, and that officer, on the back +of an envelope, or on the ace of spades grudgingly spared from his +pack, can make with the stump of a lead pencil an entry that the +Government recognizes as the inception of a title which may convey +millions of dollars; that even when the recorder is duly elected +he is not responsible to the United States, is neither bonded nor +under oath, may falsify or destroy his record, may vitiate the +title to millions of dollars, and snap his fingers in the face of +the Government; and that our present mining law might fitly be +entitled 'An Act to cause the Government to join, upon unknown +terms, with an unknown second party, to convey to a third party an +illusory title to an indefinite thing, and encourage the subsequent +robbery thereof.'" + +These strong statements are made by a Government commission composed +of able and impartial men, who were guided in their patient search +after the truth by the evidence of "a cloud of witnesses," who +spoke from personal knowledge and experience. The character of +our mining laws is therefore not a matter of theory, but of +demonstrated fact. They scourge the mining States and Territories +with the unspeakable curse of uncertainty of land titles, as +everywhere attested by incurable litigation and strife. They thus +undermine the morals of the people, and pave the way for violence +and crime. They cripple a great national industry and source of +wealth, and insult the principles of American jurisprudence. And +the misfortune of this legislation is heightened by the probability +of its continuance; for it is not easy to uproot a body of laws +once accepted by a people, however mischievous in their character. +Custom, and the faculty of adaptation, have a very reconciling +influence upon communities as well as individuals. Moreover, men +absorbed in a feverish and hazardous industry, and stimulated by +the hope of sudden wealth, are not disposed to consider the advantages +of permanent ownership and security of title. Their business is +to make their locations according to local custom, and sell out to +the capitalists; while the men who feel the burden of litigation +and the evil of uncertain titles, are not the men who control public +opinion and influence the course of legislation. It may thus happen +that a system of laws initiated by itinerant miners solely for the +protection of their transient posessory interests, and carried +through Congress at their behest by parliamentary roguery, may be +permanently engrafted upon half the continent. If California had +been contiguous to the older States, and her mining operations had +only kept pace with the progress of settlements, or if her +representatives had been less ready to sacrifice the enduring +interests of their constituents for temporary and selfish ends, +the wretched travesty of law which now afflicts the States and +Territories of the West would have been unknown, and the same code +and forms of administration would have prevailed from the lakes to +the Pacific. + +The lesson of this vital mistake is a pregnant one. The laws +regulating the ownership and disposition of landed property not +only affect the well-being but frequently the destiny of a people. +The system of primogeniture and entail adopted by the Southern +States of our Union favored the policy of great estates, and the +ruinous system of landlordism and slavery which finally laid waste +the fairest and most fertile section of the republic and threatened +its life; while the New England States, in adopting a different +system, laid the foundations of their prosperity in the soil itself, +and "took a bond of fate" for the welfare of unborn generations. +Their political institutions were the logical outcome of their laws +respecting landed property, which favored a great subdivision of +the land and great equality among the people, thus promoting +prosperous cultivation, compact communities, general education, a +healthy public opinion, democracy in managing the affairs of the +church, and that system of local self government which has since +prevailed over so many States. So intimate and vital are the +relations between a community and the soil it occupies that in the +nomenclature of politics the word "people" and "land" are convertible +terms; but no people can prosper under any system of land tenures +which tolerates a vexatious uncertainty of title, and thus prompts +every man to become the enemy of his neighbor in the scuffle for +his rights. Such a state of affairs is worse than pestilence or +famine; but the evil of uncertain titles puts on new and very +aggravated forms in our gold-bearing regions. The business of +mining naturally awakens the strongest passions. It sharpens the +faculties and dulls the conscience. It gives to cupidity its +keenest edge. Its prizes are often rich and suddenly gained, and +when they are sought through the forms of a law which compels a +man to choose between an expensive and hazardous litigation and +robbery, human nature is severely tried. No situation could well +be more deplorable than that which obliges a man to pay heavy black- +mail as the only means of saving his property from legal confiscation +by another; and the moral ravages of a code which allows this can +not be computed. It tempts civilized men to become savages and +savages to become devils. It is not a mistake merely, but a great +misfortune, that our laws touching so delicate and vital a question +as the ownership and transfer of mineral lands were not so framed +as to avert these frightful evils. As far as the past is concerned +they are without remedy, and there is no positive safeguard for +the future but in a return to the time-honored principles which +give to the owner of the surface all that may be found within his +lines, extended downward vertically, and refer all disputes to the +old-fashioned and familiar machinery of the General Land Office. +This system gave order and peace to the great lead and copper +regions of the Northwest, and it would bring with it the same +inestimable blessings to the harassed and sorely tried regions of +the Pacific slope. + +About the same time the action of Congress supplied another example +of hasty and slip-shod legislation, which has been perhaps equally +prolific of evil. The State of California, soon after her admission, +had assumed the right to dispose of the public lands within her +borders according to her own peculiar wishes, and in disregard of +the authority of the United States. This led to such serious +conflicts and complications, that a remedy was sought in a bill to +quiet land titles in that State. It was a very questionable measure, +inasmuch as the parties claiming title under the State could only +be relieved by recognizing her illegal acts as valid, and at the +expense of claimants under the laws of the United States. It +necessarily involved the right of pre-emption, and this was distinctly +presented in connection with what was known as the Suscol Ranch in +that State. It contained about ninety thousand acres, and was +covered by an old Spanish grant which the Supreme Court of the +United States in the year 1862 had pronounced void, soon after +which numerous settlers went upon the land as pre-emptors, as they +had a right to do. Their claims as such, being disputed by parties +asserting title under the void grant, the General Land Office, on +the reference of the question to that department, decided in favor +of the pre-emptors, upon which the opposing parties procured the +submission of the question to the Attorney-General. That officer +gave his opinion to the effect that a settler under the pre-emption +laws acquires no vested interest in the land he occupies by virtue +of his settlement, and can acquire no such interest, till he has +taken _all_ the legal steps necessary to perfect an entrance in +the Land Office, being, in the meantime, a mere tenant-at-will, +who may be ejected by the Government at any moment in favor of +another party. In pursuance of this opinion scores of _bona fide_ +settlers were driven from their pre-emptions, which the laws of +the United States had offered them, on certain prescribed conditions, +with which they were willing and anxious to comply, and their homes, +with the valuable improvements made upon them in good faith, were +handed over to speculators and monopolists. The proceeding was as +outrageous as the ruling which authorized it was surprising to the +whole country; and it naturally awakened uneasiness and alarm among +our pioneer settlers everywhere. It seemed to me very proper, +therefore, that in a bill to quiet land titles in California, these +troubles on this Ranch should be settled by a fitting amendment, +which should protect the rights of these pre-emptors against the +effect of the ruling referred to. The opinions of the Attorney- +General had completely overturned the whole policy of the Government +as popularly understood, and I simply proposed to restore it by a +proviso guarding the rights of _bona fide_ settlers who were claiming +title under the laws of the United States; but to my perfect +amazement I found the California delegation bitterly opposed to +this amendment. The reading of it threw them into a spasm of rage, +and showed that they were less anxious to quiet titles in their +State than to serve the monopolies and rings which had trampled on +the laws of the United States, and thus involved themselves in +trouble. The zeal and industry of the delegation in this opposition +could only be paralleled by their labors for the passage of their +mineral land bill; and the same appeals were made in both cases. +They said this was a "local measure," and that they understood the +interests of the Pacific coast better than men from the old States, +while they begged and button-holed members with a pertinacity very +rarely witnessed in any legislative body. They turned the business +of log-rolling to such account that the amendment was defeated by +a strong majority, while it proved the entering wedge to other and +greater outrages upon the rights of settlers which the country has +since witnessed, and was followed by a decision of the Supreme +Court of the United States, fully affirming the principle laid down +in the opinion of the Attorney General. This ruling, which has +been aptly styled "the Dred Scott decision of the American Pioneer," +has been repeatedly re-affirmed, while the claim of pre-emption, +once universally regarded as a substantial right, has faded away +into a glamour or myth. + + +CHAPTER XIV. +RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT. +Gov. Morton and his scheme of Gerrymandering--The XIV Amendment-- +Hasty reconstruction and the Territorial plan--The Military Bill-- +Impeachment--An amusing incident--Vote against impeachment--The +vote reversed--The popular feeling against the President--The trial +--Republican intolerance--Injustice to senators and to Chief Justice +Chase--Nomination of Gen. Grant--Re-nomination for Congress--Personal +--Squabble of place-hunters--XVI Amendment. + +The fall elections of this year were complicated by the hostile +influence of the Executive, but the popular current was strongly +on the side of Congress. A few prominent Republican members followed +the President, but the great body of them stood firm. In my own +Congressional district my majority was over 6,200, notwithstanding +the formidable conservative opposition in my own party, and its +extraordinary efforts to divide the Republicans through the patronage +of the Administration. Nearly all of my old opponents in the +district and State were now Johnsonized, except Gov. Morton, whose +temporary desertion the year before was atoned for by a prudent +and timely repentance. He was not, however, thoroughly reconstructed; +for in the Philadelphia Loyal Convention which met in September of +this year to consider the critical state of the country, he used +his influence with the delegates from the South to prevent their +espousal of Negro Suffrage, and begged Theodore Tilton to prevail +on Frederick Douglass to take the first train of cars for home, in +order to save the Republican party from detriment. He was still +under the shadow of his early Democratic training; and he and his +satellites, vividly remembering my campaign for Negro Suffrage the +year before, and finding me thoroughly intrenched in my Congressional +district, hit upon a new project for my political discomfiture. +This was the re-districting of the State at the ensuing session of +the Indiana Legislature, which they succeeded in accomplishing by +disguising their real purpose. There was neither reason nor excuse +for such a scheme at this time, apart from my political fortunes; +and by the most shameless Gerrymandering three counties of my +district, which gave me a majority of 5,000, were taken from me, +and four others added in which I was personally but little acquainted, +and which gave an aggregate Democratic majority of about 1,500. +This was preliminary to the next Congressional race, and the success +of the enterprise remained to be tested; but it furnished a curious +illustration of the state of Indiana Republicanism at that time. + +On the meeting of Congress in December the signs of political +progress since the adjournment were quite noticeable. The subject +of impeachment began to be talked about, and both houses seemed +ready for all necessary measures. Since mingling freely with their +constituents, very few Republican members insisted that the XIV +Constitutional Amendment should be accepted as a finality, or as +an adequate solution of the problem of reconstruction. The second +section of that amendment, proposing to abandon the colored race +in the South on condition that they should not be counted in the +basis of representation, was now generally condemned, and if the +question had been a new one it could not have been adopted. This +enlightenment of Northern representatives was largely due to the +prompt and contemptuous rejection by the rebellious States of the +XIV Amendment as a scheme of reconstruction, and their enactment +of black codes which made the condition of the freedmen more +deplorable than slavery itself. In this instance, as in that of +Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation, it was rebel desperation +which saved the negro; for if the XIV Amendment had been at first +accepted, the work of reconstruction would have ended without +conferring upon him the ballot. This will scarcely be denied by +any one, and has been frankly admitted by some of the most +distinguished leaders of the party. + +The policy of treating these States as Territories seemed now to +be rapidly gaining ground, and commended itself as the only logical +way out of the political dilemma in which the Government was placed. +But here again the old strife between radicalism and conservatism +cropped out. The former opposed all haste in the work of +reconstruction. It insisted that what the rebellious districts +needed was not an easy and speedy return to the places they had +lost by their treasonable conspiracy, but a probationary training, +looking to their restoration when they should prove their fitness +for civil government as independent States. It was insisted that +they were not prepared for this, and that with their large population +of ignorant negroes and equally ignorant whites, dominated by a +formidable oligarchy of educated land-owners who despised the power +that had conquered them, while they still had the sympathy of their +old allies in the North, the withdrawal of Federal intervention +and the unhindered operation of local supremacy would as fatally +hedge up the way of justice and equality as the rebel despotisms +then existing. The political and social forces of Southern society, +if unchecked from without, were sure to assert themselves, and the +more decided anti-slavery men in both houses of Congress so warned +the country, and foretold that no theories of Democracy could avail +unless adequately supported by a healthy and intelligent public +opinion. They saw that States must grow, and could not be suddenly +constructed where the materials were wanting, and that forms are +worthless in the hands of an ignorant mob. It was objected to the +territorial theory that it was arbitrary, and would lead to corruption +and tyranny like the pro-consular system of Rome; but it was simply +the territorial system to which we had been accustomed from the +beginning of the Government, and could not prove worse than the +hasty re-admission of ten conquered districts to the dignity of +States of the Union, involving, as it has done, the horrors of +carpet-bag government, Ku Klux outrages, and a system of pro-consular +tyranny as inconsistent with the rights of these States as it has +been disgraceful to the very idea of free government and fatal to +the best interests of the colored race. + +But the strange chaos of opinion which now prevailed was unfavorable +to sound thinking or wise acting. Great and far-reaching interests +were at stake, but they were made the sport of politicians, and +disposed of in the light of their supposed effect upon the ascendancy +of the Republican party. Statesmanship was sacrificed to party +management, and the final result was that the various territorial +bills which had been introduced in both Houses, and the somewhat +incongruous bills of Stevens and Ashley, were all superseded by +the passage of the "Military bill," which was vetoed by the President, +but re-enacted in the face of his objections. This bill was utterly +indefensible on principle. It was completely at war with the genius +and spirit of democratic government. Instead of furnishing the +Rebel districts with civil governments, and providing for a military +force adequate to sustain them, it abolished civil government +entirely, and installed the army in its place. It was a confession +of Congressional incompetence to deal with a problem which Congress +alone had the right to solve. Its provisions perfectly exposed it +to all the objections which could be urged to the plan of territorial +reconstruction, while they inaugurated a centralized military +despotism in the place of that system of well-understood local self- +government which the territorial policy offered as a preparation +for restoration. The measure was analyzed and exposed with great +ability by Henry J. Raymond, whose arguments were unanswered and +unanswerable; but nothing could stay the prevailing impatience of +Congress for speedy legislation looking to the early return of the +rebel districts to their places in the Union. The bill was a +legislative solecism. It did not abrogate the existing Rebel State +governments. It left the ballot in the hands of white Rebels, and +did not confer it upon the black loyalists. It sought to conciliate +the power it was endeavoring to coerce. It provided for negro +suffrage as one of the fundamental conditions on which the rebellious +States should be restored to their places in the Union, but left +the negro to the mercy of their black codes, pending the decision +of the question of their acceptance of the proposed conditions of +restoration. The freedmen were completely in the power of their +old masters, so long as the latter might refuse the terms of +reconstruction that were offered; and they had the option to refuse +them entirely, if they saw fit to prefer their own mad ascendancy +and its train of disorders to compulsory restoration. This perfectly +inexcusable abandonment of negro suffrage was zealously defended +by a small body of conservative Republicans who were still lingering +in the sunshine of executive favor, and of whom Mr. Blaine was the +chief; and it was through the timely action of Mr. Shellabarger, +of Ohio, which these conservatives opposed, that the scheme of +reconstruction was finally so amended as to make the Rebel State +governments provisional only, and secure the ballot to the negro +during the period, whether long or short, which might intervene +prior to the work of re-admission. This provision was absolutely +vital, because it took from the people of the insurrectionary +districts every motive for refusing the acceptance of the terms +proposed, and settled the work of reconstruction by this exercise +of absolute power by their conquerors. It was this provision which +secured the support of the Radical Republicans in Congress; but it +did not meet their objections to this scheme of hasty military +reconstruction, while these objections have been amply justified +by time. + +Thaddeus Stevens never appeared to such splendid advantage as a +parliamentary leader as in this protracted debate on reconstruction. +He was then nearly seventy-six, and was physically so feeble that +he could scarcely stand; but his intellectual resources seemed to +be perfectly unimpaired. Eloquence, irony, wit, and invective, +wre charmingly blended in the defense of his positions and his +attacks upon his opponents. In dealing with the views of Bingham, +Blaine, and Banks, he was by no means complimentary. He referred +to them in his closing speech on the bill, on the thirteenth of +February, when he said, in response to an interruption by Mr. +Blaine, "What I am speaking of is this proposed step toward universal +amnesty and universal Andy-Johnsonism. If this Congress so decides, +it will give me great pleasure to join in the _io triumphe_ of the +gentleman from Ohio in leading this House, possibly by forbidden +paths, into the sheep-fold or the goat-fold of the President." In +speaking of the amendment to the bill offered by General Banks, he +said, "It proposes to set up a contrivance at the mouth of the +Mississippi, and by hydraulic action to control all the States that +are washed by the waters of that great stream." He declared that, +"The amendment of the gentleman from Maine lets in a vast number +of Rebels, and shuts out nobody. All I ask is that when the House +comes to vote upon that amendment, it shall understand that the +adoption of it would be an entire surrender of those States into +the hands of the Rebels. * * * If, sir, I might presume upon my +age, without claiming any of the wisdom of Nestor, I would suggest +to the young gentlemen around me, that the deeds of this burning +crisis, of this solemn day, of this thrilling moment, will cast +their shadows far into the future, and will make their impress upon +the annals of our history; and that we shall appear upon the bright +pages of that history just in so far as we cordially, without guile, +without bickering, without small criticisms, lend our aid to promote +the great cause of humanity and universal liberty." + +As a precautionary measure against executive usurpation, the Fortieth +Congress was organized in March, 1867, immediately after the +adjournment of the Thirty-ninth. After a brief session it adjourned +till the third of July to await the further progress of events. +On re-assembling I found the feeling in favor of impeachment had +considerably increased, but was not yet strong enough to prevail. +All that could be done was the passage of a supplemental act on +the subject of reconstruction, which naturally provoked another +veto, in which the President re-affirmed the points of his message +vetoing the original bill, and arraigned the action of Congress as +high-handed and despotic. The message was construed by the +Republicans as an open defiance, and many of them felt that a great +duty had been slighted in failing to impeach him months before. +The feeling against him became perfectly relentless, as I distinctly +remember it, and shared in it myself; but on referring to the +message now, I am astonished at the comparative moderation of its +tone, and the strength of its positions. Its logic, in the main, +is impregnable, if it be granted that the Rebel districts were not +only States, but States _in the Union,_ and the Congress which was +now so enraged at the President had itself refused to deal with +them as Territories or outlying possessions, and thereby invited +the aggravating thrusts of the message at the consistency of his +assailants. + +Just before the adjournment of this brief session of Congress, an +amusing incident occurred in connection with the introduction of +the following resolution in the House: + +"_Resolved,_ That the doctrines avowed by the President of the +United States, in his message to Congress of the fifteenth instant, +to the effect that the abrogation of the governments of the Rebel +States binds the Nation to pay the debts incurred prior to the late +Rebellion, is at war with the principles of international law, a +deliberate stab at the national credit, abhorrent to every sentiment +of loyalty, and well-pleasing only to the vanquished traitors by +whose agency alone the governments of said States were overthrown +and destroyed." + +The resolution was adopted by yeas one hundred, nays eighteen, and +the announcement of the vote provoked the laughter of both sides +of the House. It gratified the Republicans, because it was a thrust +at Andrew Johnson, and perfectly accorded with their prevailing +political mood, which was constantly becoming more embittered toward +him. It equally gratified the Democrats, because they at once +accepted it as a telling shot at Gov. Morton, who had fathered the +condemned heresy nearly two years before in his famous Richmond +speech, which he and his friends had been doing their best to +forget. Party feeling had never before been more intense; but this +resolution performed its mediatorial office with such magical effect +in playing with two utterly diverse party animosities, that +Republicans and Democrats were alike surprised to find themselves +suddenly standing on common ground, and joyfully shaking hands in +token of this remarkable display of their good fellowship. + +Congress assembled again on the twenty-first of November, in +consequence of the extraordinary conduct of the President. The +popular feeling in favor of impeachment had now become formidable, +and on the twenty-fifth the Judiciary Committee of the House finally +reported in favor of the measure. The galleries were packed, and +the scene was one of great interest, while all the indications +seemed to point to success; but on the seventh of December, the +proposition was voted down by yeas fifty-seven, nays one hundred +and eight. The vote was a great surprise and disappointment to +the friends of impeachment, and was construed by them as a wanton +surrender by Congress, and the prelude to new acts of executive +lawlessness. These acts continued to be multiplied, and the removal +of Secretary Stanton finally so prepared the way that on the twenty- +fourth of February, 1868, the House, by a vote of one hundred and +twenty-six to forty-seven, declared in favor of impeachment. The +crowds in the galleries, in the lobbies, and on the floor were +unprecedented, and the excitement at high tide. The fifty-seven +who had voted for impeachment in December, were now happy. They +felt, at last, that the country was safe. The whole land seemed +to be electrified, as they believed it would have been at any +previous time if the House had had the nerve to go forward; and +they rejoiced that the madness of Johnson had at last compelled +Congress to face the great duty. A committee of seven was appointed +by the Speaker to prepare articles of impeachment, of whom Thaddeus +Stevens was chairman. He was now rapidly failling in strength, and +every morning had to be carried up stairs to his seat in the House; +but his humor never failed him, and on one of these occasions he +said to the young men who had him in charge, "I wonder, boys, who +will carry me when you are dead and gone." He was very thin, pale +and haggard. His eye was bright, but his face was "scarred by the +crooked autograph of pain." He was a constant sufferer, and during +the session of the Committee kept himself stimulated by sipping a +little wine or brandy; but he was its ruling spirit, and greatly +speeded its work by the clearness of his perceptions and the strength +of his will. His mental force seemed to defy the power of disease. +The articles of impeachment were ready for submission in a few +days, and adopted by the House, on the second of March, by a majority +of considerably more than two thirds, when the case was transferred +to the Senate. + +The popular feeling against the President was now rapidly nearing +its climax and becoming a sort of frenzy. Andrew Johnson was no +longer merely a "wrong-headed and obstinate man," but a "genius in +depravity," whose hoarded malignity and passion were unfathomable. +He was not simply "an irresolute mule," as General Schenck had +styled him, but was devil-bent upon the ruin of his country; and +his trial connected itself with all the memories of the war, and +involved the Nation in a new and final struggle for its life. Even +so sober and unimaginative a man as Mr. Boutwell, one of the managers +of the impeachment in the Senate, lost his wits and completely +surrendered himself to the passions of the hour in the following +passage of his speech in that body: + +"Travelers and astronomers inform us that in the Southern heavens, +near the Southern Cross, there is a vast space which the uneducated +call the 'hole in the sky,' where the eye of man, with the aid of +the powers of the telescope, has been unable to discover nebulae, +or asteroid, or comet, or plant, or star or sun. In that dreary, +cold, dark region of space, which is only known to be less than +infinite by the evidences of creation elsewhere, the great Author +of celestial mechanism has left the chaos which was in the beginning. +If this earth were capable of the sentiments and emotions of justice +and virtue, which in human mortal beings are the evidences and the +pledge of our divine origin and immortal destiny, it would heave +and throe with the energy of the elemental forces of nature, and +project this enemy of two races of men into that vast region, there +forever to exist, in a solitude as eternal as life, or as the +absence of life, emblematical of, if not really, that 'outer +darkness' of which the Savior of man spoke in warning to those who +are the enemies of themselves, of their race, and of their God." + +This fearful discharge of rhetorical fireworks at the President +fitly voiced the general sentiment of the Republicans. Party +madness was in the air, and quite naturally gave birth to the "hole +in the sky" in the agony of its effort to find expression. No +extravagance of speech or explosion of wrath was deemed out of +order during this strange dispensation in our politics. + +The trial proceeded with unabated interest, and on the afternoon +of the eleventh of May the excitement reached its highest point. +Reports came from the Senate, then in secret session, that Grimes, +Fessenden and Henderson were certainly for acquittal, and that +other senators were to follow them. An indescribable gloom now +prevailed among the friends of impeachment, which increased during +the afternoon, and at night when the Senate was again in session. +At the adjournment there was some hope of conviction, but it was +generally considered very doubtful. On meeting my old anti-slavery +friend, Dr. Brisbane, he told me he felt as if he were sitting up +with a sick friend who was expected to die. His face was the +picture of despair. To such men it seemed that all the trials of +the war were merged in this grand issue, and that it involved the +existence of Free Government on this continent. The final vote +was postponed till the sixteenth, owing to Senator Howard's illness, +and on the morning of that day the friends of impeachment felt more +confident. The vote was first taken on the eleventh article. The +galleries were packed, and an indescribable anxiety was written on +every face. Some of the members of the House near me grew pale +and sick under the burden of suspense. Such stillness prevailed +that the breathing in the galleries could be heard at the announcement +of each senator's vote. This was quite noticeable when any of the +doubtful senators voted, the people holding their breath as the +words "guilty" or "not guilty" were pronounced, and then giving it +simultaneous vent. Every heart throbbed more anxiously as the name +of Senator Fowler was reached, and the Chief Justice propounded to +him the prescribed question: "How say you, is the respondent, +Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, guilty or not guilty +of a high misdemeanor, as charged in this article of impeachment?" +The senator, in evident excitement, inadvertently answered "guilty," +and thus lent a momentary relief to the friends of impeachment; +but this was immediately dissipated by correcting his vote on the +statement of the Chief Justice that he did not understand the +senator's response to the question. Nearly all hope of conviction +fled when Senator Ross, of Kansas, voted "not guilty," and a long +breathing of disappointment and despair followed the like vote of +Van Winkle, which settled the case in favor of the President. + +It is impossible now to realize how perfectly overmastering was +the excitement of these days. The exercise of calm judgment was +simply out of the question. As I have already stated, passion +ruled the hour, and constantly strengthened the tendency to one- +sidedness and exaggeration. The attempt to impeach the President +was undoubtedly inspired, mainly, by patriotic motives; but the +spirit of intolerance among Republicans toward those who differed +with them in opinion set all moderation and common sense at defiance. +Patriotism and party animosity were so inextricably mingled and +confounded that the real merits of the controversy could only be +seen after the heat and turmoil of the strife had passed away. +Time has made this manifest. Andrew Johnson was not the Devil- +incarnate he was then painted, nor did he monopolize, entirely, +the "wrong-headedness" of the times. No one will now dispute that +the popular estimate of his character did him very great injustice. +It is equally certain that great injustice was done to Trumbull, +Fessenden, Grimes and other senators who voted to acquit the +President, and gave proof of their honesty and independence by +facing the wrath and scorn of the party with which they had so long +been identified. The idea of making the question of impeachment +a matter of party discipline was utterly indefensible and preposterous. +"Those senators," as Horace Greeley declared, "were sublimely in +the right who maintained their independent judgment--whether it +was correct or erroneous, in a matter of this kind, and who +indignantly refused all attempts to swerve them from their duty as +they had undertaken to perform it by solemn oaths." The Chief +Justice was also cruelly and inexcusably wronged by imputing corrupt +motives to his official action. His integrity and courage had been +amply demonstrated through many long years of thorough and severe +trial; and yet many of his Republican friends, both in the Senate +and House, who had known him throughout his political career, +denounced him as an apostate and a traitor, and even denied him +all social recognition. Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, was especially +abusive, and made himself perfectly ridiculous by the extravagance +and malignity of his assaults. The judicial spirit was everywhere +wanting, and the elevation of Senator Wade to the Presidency in +the midst of so much passion and tumult, and with the peculiar +political surroundings which the event foreshadowed, would have +been, to say the least, a very questionable experiment for the +country. + +The excitement attending the trial of the President soon subsided, +but the Republicans continued anxious about the state of the country. +The work of reconstruction was only fairly begun, and its completion +was involved in the approaching presidential election. Chase and +Seward had lost their standing in the party, and there was no longer +any civilian in its ranks whose popularity was especially commanding +or at all over-shadowing. Under these circumstances it was quite +natural to turn to the army, and to canvass the claims of Gen. +Grant. The idea of his nomination was exceedingly distasteful to +me. I personally knew him to be intemperate. In politics he was +a Democrat. He did not profess to be a Republican, and the only +vote he had ever given was cast for James Buchanan in 1856, when +the Republican party made its first grand struggle to rescue the +Government from the clutches of slavery. Moreover, he had had no +training whatever in civil administration, and no one thought of +him as a statesman. But the plea of his availability as a military +chieftain was urged with great effect, and was made irresistible +by the apprehension that if not nominated by the Republicans the +Democrats would appropriate him, and make him a formidable instrument +of mischief. His nomination, however, was only secured by cautious +and timely diplomacy, and potent appeals to his sordidness, in the +shape of assurances that he should have the office for a second +term. But as the nominee of his party, fairly committed to its +principles and measures touching the unsettled questions of +reconstruction and suffrage, I saw no other practicable alternative +than to give him my support. I was still further reconciled to +this by the action of the Democrats in the nomination of Seymour +and Blair, and the avowal of the latter in his famous "Brodhead +letter," that "we must have a President who will execute the will +of the people by trampling in the dust the usurpations of Congress +known as the Reconstruction Acts." + +In my new Congressional district I was unanimously re-nominated by +the Republicans, and entered at once upon the canvass, though +scarcely well enough to leave my bed. The issue was doubtful, and +my old-time enemies put forth their whole power against me at the +election. They were determined, this time, to win, and to make +sure of this they embarked in a desperate and shameless scheme of +ballot-stuffing in the city of Richmond, which was afterward fully +exposed; but in spite of this enterprise of "Ku Klux Republicans," +I was elected by a small majority. The result, however, foreshadowed +the close of my congressional labors, which followed two years +later, just as the XV Constitutional Amendment had made voters of +the colored men of the State; but it was only made possible by my +failing health, which had unfitted me for active leadership. In +my old district I had made myself absolutely invincible. For twenty- +one years in succession, that is to say, from the year 1848 to the +year 1868, both inclusive, I canvassed that district by townships +and neighborhoods annually on the stump. In the beginning, public +opinion was overwhelmingly and fiercely against me, but I resolved, +at whatever cost, to reconstruct it in conformity with my own +earnest convictions. I literally wore myself out in the work, and +am perfectly amazed when I recall the amount of it I performed, +and the complete abandon of myself to the task. From the beginning +to the end of this struggle the politicians of the district were +against me, and they were numerous and formidable, and in every +contest were reinforced by the politicians of the State. Although +the ranks of my supporters were constantly recruited and no man +ever had more devoted friends, I was obliged, during all these +years, to stand alone as the champion of my cause in debate. I +believe no Congressional district in the Union was ever the theatre +of so much hard toil by a single man; but although it involved the +serious abridgement of health and life, the ruinous neglect of my +private affairs, and the sacrifice of many precious friendships, +I was not without my reward. I succeeded in my work. Step by step +I saw my constituents march up to my position, and the district at +last completely disenthralled by the ceaseless and faithful +administration of anti-slavery truth. The tables were completely +turned. Almost everybody was an Abolitionist, and nobody any longer +made a business of swearing that he was not. In canvassing my +district it became the regular order of business for a caravan of +candidates for minor offices, who were sportively called the "side +show," to follow me from point to point, all vying with each other +as to which had served longest and most faithfully as my friends. +They had always been opposed to slavery, and men who had taken the +lead in mobbing Abolitionists in earlier days and gained a livelihood +by slave-catching, were now active and zealous leaders in the +Republican party. It was a marvelous change. Slavery itself, +greatly to the surprise and delight of its enemies, had perished; +but it was, after all, only one form of a world-wide evil. The +abolition of the chattel slavery of the Southern negro was simply +the introduction and prelude to the emancipation of all races from +all forms of servitude, and my Congressional record had been a +practical illustration of my faith in this truth. The rights of +man are sacred, whether trampled down by Southern slave-drivers, +the monopolists of the soil, the grinding power of corporate wealth, +the legalized robbery of a protective tariff, or the power of +concentrated capital in alliance with labor-saving machinery. + +During the winter preceding the inauguration of the President I +was besieged by place-hunters more than ever before. They thronged +about me constantly, while I generally wrote from twenty to thirty +letters per day in response to inquiries about appointments from +my district. The squabbles over post-office appointments were by +far the most vexatious and unmanageable. They were singularly +fierce, and I found it wholly impossible to avoid making enemies +of men who had supported me with zeal. I was tormented for months +about the post-office of a single small town in Franklin county, +where the rival parties pounced upon each other like cannibals, +and divided the whole community into two hostile camps. I was +obliged to give my days and nights to this wretched business, and +often received only curses for the sincerest endeavors to do what +I believed was right. The experience became absolutely sickening, +and could not be otherwise than seriously damaging to me politically. +Such matters were wholly foreign to the business of legislation, +and I wrote a very earnest letter to Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, +heartily commending his measure proposed in the preceding Congress +for the reform of our Civil Service, and for which, as the real +pioneer of this movement, he deserves a monument. + +It was on the eighth of December, 1868, that I submitted a proposed +amendment to the Constitution, declaring that "the right of suffrage +in the United States shall be based upon citizenship, and shall be +regulated by Congress"; and that "all citizens of the United States, +whether native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally, +without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on race, +color, or sex." This was prior to the ratification of the XV +Amendment, and I so numbered the proposition; but on further +reflection I preferred an amendment in the exact form of the +fifteenth, and early in the next Congress I submitted it, being +the first proposition offered for a sixteenth amendment to the +Constitution. My opinions about woman suffrage, however, date much +farther back. The subject was first brought to my attention in a +brief chapter on the "political non-existence of woman," in Miss +Martineau's book on "Society in America," which I read in 1847. +She there pithily states the substance of all that has since been +said respecting the logic of woman's right to the ballot, and +finding myself unable to answer it, I accepted it. On recently +referring to this chapter I find myself more impressed by its force +than when I first read it. "The most principled Democratic writers +on Government," she said, "have on this subject sunk into fallacies +as disgraceful as any advocate of despotism has adduced. In fact, +they have thus sunk, from being, for the moment, advocates of +despotism. Jefferson in America, and James Mill at home, subside, +for the occasion, to the level of the Emperor of Russia's catechism +for the young Poles." This she makes unanswerably clear; but my +interest in the slavery question was awakened about the same time. +I regarded it as the _previous_ question, and as less abstract and +far more immediately important and absorbing than that of suffrage +for woman. For the sake of the negro I accepted Mr. Lincoln's +philosophy of "one war at a time," though always ready to show my +hand; but when this was fairly out of the way, I was prepared to +enlist actively in the next grand movement in behalf of the sacredness +and equality of human rights. + + +CHAPTER XV. +GRANT AND GREELEY. +The new Cabinet--Seeds of party disaffection--Trip to California-- +Party degeneracy--The liberal Republican movement--Re-nomination +of Grant--The Cincinnati convention--Perplexities of the situation +--The canvass for Greeley--Its bitterness--Its peculiar features-- +The defeat--The vindication of Liberals--Visit to Chase and Sumner +--Death of Greeley. + +The inaugural speech of Gen. Grant was a feeble performance, and +very unsatisfactory to his friends. When he announced his Cabinet, +disappointment was universal among Republicans, and was greatly +increased when he asked Congress to relieve A. T. Stewart, his +nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, from the disability wisely +imposed by the Act of Congress of 1789, forbidding the appointment +to that position of any one engaged "in carrying on the business +of trade or commerce." Senator Sherman at once introduced a bill +to repeal this enactment, but Mr. Sumner vigorously opposed the +measure, and the President soon afterward sent a message to the +Senate asking leave to withdraw his request as to Mr. Stewart. It +was doubtless the prompt and decided stand taken by Mr. Sumner in +this matter which laid the foundation for the President's personal +hostility to him, which so remarkably developed itself during the +following years. The seeds of a party feud were thus planted, and +as the Administration continued to show its hand, bore witness to +a vigorous growth. + +In June of this year I made a trip to California in search of +health, which I had lost through overwork, and was now paying the +penalty in a very distressing form of insomnia. I took one of the +first through trains to the Pacific, and on reaching the State, I +found sight-seeing and travel so irresistible a temptation, that +I lost the rest and quiet I so absolutely needed. I was constantly +on the wing; and I encountered at every point, the "settler," who +was anxious to talk over the land squabbles of the State, with +which I had had much to do in Congress, but now needed for a season +to forget. I found that the half had not been told me respecting +the ravages of land-grabbing under the Swamp Land Act of 1850, and +the mal-administration of Mexican and Spanish grants. I was full +of the subject, and was obliged, also, to give particular attention +to the pre-emption of J. M. Hutchings, in the Yosemite Valley, for +the protection of which I had reported a bill which was then pending; +and I came near losing my life in the valley through the fatigue +I suffered in reaching it. After a stay of over two months in +California, and a trip by steamer to Oregon and Washington Territory, +I returned home early in September, but in no better health than +when I left; and a like experience attended a journey to Minnesota +soon afterward, where I was captured by leading railroad men who +belabored me over the land-grant to the St. Croix and Bayfield +railroad, the revival of which I had aided in defeating at the +previous session of Congress. + +I returned to Washington in December, but physically unfit for +labor, spending most of the session in New York under the care of +a physician. I deeply regretted this, for the railway lobby was +in Washington in full force, as it was during the closing session +of the Forty-first Congress, when I was equally unfit for business. +I was not, however, without consolation. Under the popular reaction +against the Land-grant system which I had done my part to create, +the huge pile of land bills on the Speaker's table failed, save +the Texas Pacific project, which was carried by the most questionable +methods, and against such a general protest as clearly indicated +the end of this policy. A vote of nearly two to one was carried +in the House in favor of a bill reported by the Land Committee +defining swamp and overflowed lands, and guarding against the +enormous swindles that had disgraced the Land Department and +afflicted honest settlers. A like vote was secured in favor of +the bill to prevent the further disposition of the public lands +save under the pre-emption and homestead laws, for which I had +labored for years. Many thousands of acres had been saved from +the clutches of monopolists by attaching to several important grants +the condition that the lands should be sold only to actual settlers, +in quantities not exceeding a quarter section, and for not more +than two dollars and fifty cents per acre. A very important reform, +already referred to, had been made in our Indian treaty policy, by +which lands relinquished by any tribe would henceforth fall under +the operation of our land laws, instead of being sold in a body to +some corporation or individual monopolist. The Southern Homestead +law had dedicated to actual settlement millions of acres of the +public domain in the land States of the South, while the Homestead +Act of 1862 was splendidly vindicating the wisdom of its policy. +Congress had declared forfeited and open to settlement a large +grant of lands in Louisiana for non-compliance with the conditions +on which it was made, and the public domain had been saved from +frightful spoilation by the fortunate defeat of a scheme of land +bounties that would completely have overturned the policy of the +pre-emption and homestead laws, while practically mocking the claims +of the soldiers. The opportunity, now and then, to strangle a +legislative monster like this, or to further the passage of beneficent +and far-reaching measures, is one of the real compensations of +public life. + +The final ratification of the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, +which was declared in force on the thirtieth of March, 1870, +perfectly consummated the mission of the Republican party, and left +its members untrammeled in dealing with new questions. In fact, +the Republican movement in the beginning was a political combination, +rather than a party. Its action was inspired less by a creed than +an object, and that object was to dedicate our National Territories +to freedom, and denationalize slavery. Aside from this object, +the members of the combination were hopelessly divided. The +organization was created to deal with this single question, and +would not have existed without it. It was now regarded by many as +a spent political force, although it had received a momentum which +threatened to outlast its mission; and if it did not keep the +promise made in its platform of 1868, to reform the corruptions of +the preceding Administration, and at the same time manfully wrestle +with the new problems of the time, it was morally certain to +degenerate into a faction, led by base men, and held together by +artful appeals to the memories of the past. Our tariff legislation +called for a thorough revision. Our Civil Service was becoming a +system of political prostitution. Roguery and plunder, born of +the multiplied temptations which the war furnished, had stealthily +crept into the management of public affairs, and claimed immunity +from the right of search. What the country needed was not a stricter +enforcement of party discipline, not military methods and the +fostering of sectional hate, but oblivion of the past, and an +earnest, intelligent, and catholic endeavor to grapple with the +questions of practical administration. + +But this, in the very nature of the case, was not to be expected. +The men who agreed to stand together in 1856, on a question which +was now out of the way, and had postponed their differences on +current party questions for that purpose, were comparatively unfitted +for the task of civil administration in a time of peace. They had +had no preparatory training, and the engrossing struggle through +which they had passed had, in fact, disqualified them for the work. +While the issues of the war were retreating into the past the +mercenary element of Republicanism had gradually secured the +ascendancy, and completely appropriated the President. The mischiefs +of war had crept into the conduct of civil affairs, and a thorough +schooling of the party in the use of power had familiarized it with +military ideas and habits, and committed it to loose and indefensible +opinions respecting the powers of the General Government. The +management of the Civil Service was an utter mockery of political +decency, while the animosities engendered by the war were nursed +and coddled as the appointed means of uniting the party and covering +up its misdeeds. The demand for reform, as often as made, was +instantly rebuked, and the men who uttered it branded as enemies +of the party and sympathizers with treason. It is needless to go +into details; but such was the drift of general demoralization that +the chief founders and pre-eminent representatives of the party, +Chase, Seward, Sumner and Greeley were obliged to desert it more +than a year before the end of Gen. Grant's first administration, +as the only means of maintaining their honor and self-respect. My +Congressional term expired a little after Grant and Babcock had +inaugurated the San Domingo project, and Sumner had been degraded +from the Chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to make +room for Simon Cameron. The "irrepressible conflict" had just +begun to develop itself between the element of honesty and reform +in the party, and the corrupt leadership which sought to make +merchandise of its good name, and hide its sins under the mantle +of its past achievements. + +After the adjournment of the Forty-first Congress in March, 1871, +I visited New York, where I called on Greeley. We took a drive +together, and spent the evening at the house of a mutual friend, +where we had a free political talk. He denounced the Administration +and the San Domingo project in a style which commanded my decided +approval, for my original dislike of Grant had been ripening into +disgust and contempt, and, like Greeley, I had fully made up my +mind that under no circumstance could I ever again give him my +support. After my return home I wrote several articles for the +Press in favor of a "new departure" in the principles of the party. +Mr. Vallandigham had just given currency to this phrase by employing +it to designate his proposed policy of Democratic acquiescence in +the XIV and XV Constitutional Amendments, which was seconded by +the "Missouri Republican," and accepted by the party the following +year. The "new departure" I commended to my own party was equally +thorough, proposing the radical reform of its Tariff and Land +Policy, and its emancipation from the rule of great corporations +and monopolies; a thorough reform of its Civil Service, beginning +with a declaration in favor of the "one-term principle," and +condemning the action of the President in employing the whole power +and patronage of his high office in securing his re-election for +a second term by hurling from office honest, capable and faithful +men, simply to make places for scalawags and thieves; and the +unqualified repudiation of his conduct in heaping honors and +emoluments upon his poor kin, while accepting presents of fine +houses and other tempting gifts from unworthy men, who were paid +off in fat places. I did not favor the disbanding of the party, +or ask that it should make war on Gen. Grant, but earnestly protested +against the policy that sought to Tammany-ize the organization +through his re-nomination. + +Returning to Washington on the meeting of Congress in December, I +conferred with Trumbull, Schurz and Sumner, respecting the situation, +and the duty of Republicans in facing the party crisis which was +evidently approaching. During the session, I listened to the great +debate in the Senate on Sumner's resolution of inquiry as to the +sale of arms to the French, and was delighted with the replies of +Schurz and Sumner to Conkling and Morton. My dislike of the +President steadily increased, and his disgraceful conduct towards +Sumner and alliance with Morton, Conkling, Cameron, and their +associates rendered it morally impossible for me any longer to +fight under his banner. The situation became painfully embarrassing, +since every indication seemed to point to his re-nomination as a +foregone conclusion. But I clung to the hope that events would in +some way order it otherwise. In February, I was strongly urged to +become a candidate for Congressman at large under the new Congressional +apportionment; and although failing health unfitted me for active +politics, to which I had no wish to return, I really wanted the +compliment of the nomination. The long-continued and wanton +opposition which had been waged against me in my own party led me +to covet it, and in the hope that General Grant's nomination might +yet be averted I allowed my friends to urge my claims, and to +believe I would accept the honor if tendered, which I meant to do +should this hope be realized. I saw that I could secure it. My +standing in my own party was better than ever before. The +"Indianapolis Journal," for the first time, espoused my cause, +along with other leading Republican papers in different sections +of the State. The impolicy and injustice of the warfare which had +long been carried on against me in Indiana were so generally felt +by all fair-minded Republicans that Senator Morton himself, though +personally quite as hostile as ever, was constrained to call off +his forces, and favor a policy of conciliation. It was evident +that my nomination was assured if I remained in the field; but as +time wore on I saw that the re-nomination of General Grant had +become absolutely inevitable; and, as I could not support him I +could not honorably accept a position which would commit me in his +favor. The convention was held on the 22d of February, and on the +day before I sent a telegram peremptorily refusing to stand as a +candidate; and I soon afterward formally committed myself to the +Liberal Republican movement. I could not aid in the re-election +of Grant without sinning against decency and my own self-respect. +I deplored the fact, but there was no other alternative. If it +had been morally possible, I would have supported him gladly. I +had no personal grievances to complain of, and most sincerely +regretted the necessity which compelled my withdrawal from political +associations in which I had labored many long years, and through +seasons of great national danger. If I had consulted my own selfish +ambition I would have chosen a different course, since I knew by +painful experience the cost of party desertion, while the fact was +well known that the prizes of politics were within my reach, if I +had sought them through the machinery of the Republican organization +and the support of General Grant. Had the party, having accomplished +the work which called it into being, applied itself to the living +questions of the times, and resolutely set its face against political +corruption and plunder, and had it freely tolerated honest differences +of opinion in its own ranks, treating the question of Grant's re- +nomination as an open one, instead of making it a test of Republicanism +and a cause for political excommunication, I could have avoided a +separation, at least at that time. I made it with many keen pangs +of regret, for the history of the party had been honorable and +glorious, and I had shared in its achievements. My revolt against +its discipline forcibly reminded me of the year 1848, and was by +far the severest political trial of my life. My new position not +only placed me in very strange relations to the Democrats, whose +misdeeds I had so earnestly denounced for years; but I could not +fail to see that the great body of my old friends would now become +my unrelenting foes. Their party intolerance would know no bounds, +and I was not unmindful of its power; but there was no way of +escape, and with a sad heart, but an unflinching purpose, I resolved +to face the consequences of my decision. My chief regret was that +impaired health deprived me of the strength and endurance I would +now sorely need in repelling wanton and very provoking assaults. + +I attended the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati on the +first of May, where I was delighted to meet troops of the old Free +Soilers of 1848 and 1852. It was a mass convention of Republicans, +suddenly called together without the power of money or the help of +party machinery, and prompted by a burning desire to rebuke the +scandals of Gen. Grant's administration, and rescue both the party +and the country from political corruption and misrule. It was a +spontaneous and independent movement, and its success necessarily +depended upon the wisdom of its action and not the force of party +obligation. There were doubtless political schemers and mercenaries +in attendance, but the rank and file were unquestionably conscientious +and patriotic, and profoundly in earnest. I never saw a finer +looking body assembled. It was a more formidable popular demonstration +than the famous Convention at Buffalo, in 1848, and gave promise +of more immediate and decisive results. There was a very widespread +feeling that the Cincinnati ticket would win, and the friends of +Gen. Grant could not disguise their apprehension. The thought +seemed to inspire every one that a way was now fortunately opened +for hastening the end of sectional strife and purifying the +administration of public affairs. The capital speech of Stanley +Matthews, on accepting the temporary chairmanship of the Convention, +was but the echo of the feeling of the Convention, and its confident +prophecy of victory. "Parties," said he, "can not live on their +reputations. It was remarked, I believe, by Sir Walter Raleigh, +in reference to the strife of ancestry, that those who boasted most +of their progenitors were like the plant he had discovered in +America, the best part was under ground." He declared that "the +time has come when it is the voice of an exceedingly large and +influential portion of the American people that they will no longer +be dogs to wear the collar of a party." All that now seemed wanting +was wise leadership, and a fair expression of the real wish and +purpose of the Convention. + +The principal candidates were Charles Francis Adams, Horace Greeley, +Lyman Trumbull, David Davis, and B. Gratz Brown. Mr. Chase still +had a lingering form of the Presidential fever, and his particular +friends were lying in wait for a timely opportunity to bring him +forward; but his claims were not seriously considered. The friends +of Judge Davis did him much damage by furnishing transportation +and supplies for large Western delegations, who very noisily pressed +his claims in the Convention. With prudent leadership his chances +for the nomination would have been good, and he would have been a +very formidable candidate; but he was "smothered by his friends." +The really formidable candidates were Adams and Greeley, and during +the first and second days the chances were decidedly in favor of +the former. On the evening of the second day Mr. Brown and Gen. +Blair arrived in the city, pretending that they had come for the +purpose of arranging a trouble in the Missouri delegation; but +their real purpose was to throw the strength of Brown, who was +found to have no chance for the first place, in favor of Greeley, +who had said some very flattering words of Brown some time before +in a letter published in a Missouri newspaper. This new movement +further included the nomination of Brown for the second place on +the ticket, and was largely aimed at Carl Schurz, who was an Adams +man, and had refused, though personally very friendly to Brown, to +back his claims for the Presidential nomination. It seemed to be +a lucky hit for Greeley, who secured the nomination; but the real +cause of Mr. Adams' defeat, after all, was the folly of Trumbull's +friends, who preferred Adams to Greeley, in holding on to their +man in the vain hope of his nomination. They could have nominated +Adams on the fourth or fifth ballot, if they had given him their +votes, as they saw when it was too late. Greeley regretted Brown's +nomination, and afterward expressed his preference for another +gentleman from the West; and he had, of course, nothing to do with +the movement which placed him on the ticket. + +I was woefully disappointed in the work of the Convention, having +little faith in the success of Greeley, and being entirely confident +that Adams could be elected if nominated. I still think he would +have been, and that the work of reform would thus have been thoroughly +inaugurated, and the whole current of American politics radically +changed. The time was ripe for it. His defeat was a wet blanket +upon many of the leading spirits of the Convention and their +followers. The disappointment of some of these was unspeakably +bitter and agonizing. Stanley Matthews, illustrating his proverbial +instability in politics, and forgetting his brave resolve no longer +"to wear the collar of a party," abruptly deserted to the enemy. +The "New York Nation" also suddenly changed front, giving its feeble +support to General Grant, and its malignant hostility to Greeley. +The leading Free Traders in the Convention who had enlisted zealously +for Adams became indifferent or hostile. Many of the best informed +of the Liberal leaders felt that a magnificent opportunity to launch +the work of reform and crown it with success had been madly thrown +away. With the zealous friends of Mr. Adams it was a season of +infinite vexation; but for me there was no backward step. The +newborn movement had blundered, but Republicanism under the lead +of Grant remained as odious as ever. It was still the duty of its +enemies to oppose it, and no other method of doing this was left +them than through the organization just formed. That a movement +so suddenly extemporized should make mistakes was by no means +surprising, while there was a fairly implied obligation on the part +of those who had joined in its organization to abide by its action, +if not wantonly recreant to the principles that had inspired it. +The hearts of the liberal masses were for Greeley, and if he could +not be elected, which was by no means certain, his supporters could +at least make their organized protest against the mal-administration +of the party in power. + +I attended the Democratic State Convention of Indiana on the twelfth +of June, which was one of the largest and most enthusiastic ever +held in the State. The masses seemed to have completely broken +away from their old moorings, and to be rejoicing in their escape, +while their leaders, many of them reluctantly, accepted the situation. +Both were surprisingly friendly to me, and their purpose was to +nominate me as one of the candidates for Congressman-at-large, which +they would have done by acclamation if I had consented. I was much +cheered by such tokens of union and fraternity in facing the common +enemy. The State campaign was finely opened at Indianapolis on +the eleventh of July, where I presented the issues of the canvass +from the Liberal standpoint; and I continued almost constantly on +the stump till the State election in October, having splendid +audiences, and gathering strength and inspiration from the prevailing +enthusiasm of the canvass. The meetings toward the close were real +ovations, strikingly reminding me of the campaign of 1856. Up to +the time of the North Carolina election I had strong hopes of +victory; but owing to the alarm which had seized the Grant men on +account of Greeley's unexpected popularity, and the lavish expenditure +of their money which followed, the tide was turned, and was never +afterward checked in its course. They became unspeakably bitter +and venomous, and I never before encountered such torrents of abuse +and defamation, outstripping, as it seemed to me, even the rabidness +which confronted the Abolitionists in their early experience. At +one of my appointments a number of colored men came armed with +revolvers, and breathing the spirit of war which Senator Morton +was doing his utmost to kindle. He had been telling the people +everywhere that Greeley and his followers were all Rebels, seeking +to undo the work of the war, to re-enslave the negro, and saddle +upon the country the rebel debt; and these colored men, heeding +his logic, thought that killing Rebels now was as proper a business +as during the war, and would probably have begun their work of +murder if they had not been restrained by the more prudent counsel +of their white brethren. Even in one of the old towns in Eastern +Indiana which had been long known as the headquarters of Abolitionism, +a large supply of eggs was provided for my entertainment when I +went there to speak for Greeley; and they were not thrown at me +simply because the fear of a reaction against the party would be +the result. The Democrats in this canvass were rather handsomely +treated; but the fierceness and fury of the Grant men toward the +Liberal Republicans were unrelieved by a single element of honor +or fair play. + +This was pre-eminently true in Indiana, and especially so as to +myself. The leaders of Grant, borrowing the spirit of the campaign, +set all the canons of decency at defiance. "Sore head," "Renegade," +"Apostate," "Rebel," and "deadbeat," were the compliments constantly +lavished. Garbled extracts from my old war speeches were plentifully +scattered over the State, as if we had been still in the midst of +the bloody conflict, and I had suddenly betrayed the country to +its enemies. Garbled and forged letters were peddled and paraded +over the State by windy political blatherskites, who were hired to +propagate the calumnies of their employers. In fact, my previous +political experience supplied no precedent for this warfare of my +former Republican friends. But I was not unprepared for it, and +fully availed myself of the right of self-defense and counter +attack. I would not make myself a blackguard, but I met my assailants +in every encounter with the weapons of argument and invective, and +stretched them on the rack of my ridicule; while their prolonged +howl bore witness to the effectiveness of my work. My whole heart +was in it. The fervor and enthusiasm of earlier years came back +to me, and a kindred courage and faith armed me with the strength +which the work of the canvass demanded. + +The novelty of the canvass was indeed remarkable in all respects. +The Liberal Republicans had not changed any of their political +opinions, nor deserted any principle they had ever espoused, touching +the questions of slavery and the war; and yet they were now in the +fiercest antagonism with the men who had been politically associated +with them ever since the organization of the party, and who had +trusted and honored them through all the struggles of the past. +They were branded as "Apostates" from their anti-slavery faith; +but slavery had perished forever, and every man of them would have +been found fighting it as before, if it had been practicable to +call it back to life; while many of their assailants had distinguished +themselves by mobbing Abolitionism in the day of its weakness. +How could men apostatize from a cause which they had served with +unflinching fidelity until it was completely triumphant? And how +was it possible to fall from political grace by withdrawing from +the fellowship of the knaves and traders that formed the body-guard +of the President, and were using the Republican party as the +instrument of wholesale schemes of jobbery and pelf? To charge +the Liberal Republicans with apostasy because they had the moral +courage to disown and denounce these men was to invent a definition +of the term which would have made all the great apostates of history +"honorable men." + +They were called "Rebels"; but the war had been over seven years +and a half, and if the clock of our politics could have been set +back and the bloody conflict re-instated, every Liberal would have +been shouting, as before, for its vigorous prosecution. No man +doubted this who was capable of taking care of himself without the +help of a guardian. + +It was charged that "they changed sides" in politics; but the sides +themselves had been changed by events, and the substitution of new +issues for the old, and nobody could deny this who was not besotted +by party devil-worship or the density of his political ignorance. + +They were called "sore-heads" and "disappointed place-hunters;" +but the Liberal leaders, in rebelling against their party in the +noon-day of its power, and when honors were within their grasp, +were obliged to "put away ambition" and taste political death, and +thus courageously illustrate the truth that "the duties of life +are more than life." The charge was as glaringly stupid as it was +flagrantly false. + +But the novelty of this canvass was equally manifest in the political +fellowships it necessitated. While facing the savage warfare of +their former friends Liberal Republicans were suddenly brought into +the most friendly and intimate relations with the men whose recreancy +to humanity they had unsparingly denounced for years. They were +now working with these men because the subjects on which they had +been divided were withdrawn, and the country had entered upon a +new dispensation. The mollifying influence of peace, aided, no +doubt, by the organized roguery which in the name of Republicanism +held the Nation by the throat, unveiled to Liberals a new political +horizon, and they gladly exchanged the key-note of hate and war +for that of fraternity and reunion. They saw that the spirit of +wrath which had so moved the Northern States during the conflict +was no longer in order. The more they pondered the policy of +amnesty and followed up the work of the canvass the more thoroughly +they became reconstructed in heart. They discovered that the men +whom they had been denouncing with such hot indignation for so many +years were, after all, very much like other people. Personally +and socially they seemed quite as kindly and as estimable as the +men on the other side, while very many of them had undoubtedly +espoused the cause of slavery under a mistaken view of their +constitutional obligations, and as a phase of patriotism, while +sincerely condemning it on principle. Besides, Democrats had done +a very large and indispensable work in the war for the Union, and +they now stood upon common ground with the Republicans touching +the questions on which they had differed. On these questions the +party platforms were identical. If their position was accepted as +a necessity and not from choice, they were only a little behind +the Republicans, who, as a party, only espoused the cause of the +negro under the whip and spur of military necessity, and not the +promptings of humanity. In the light of such considerations it +was not strange that the Greeley men gladly accepted their deliverance +from the glamour which was blinding the eyes of their old associates +to the policy of reconciliation and peace, and blocking up the +pathway of greatly needed reforms. + +Soon after the State election I resumed my work on the stump, which +included a series of appointment in Kansas, where I addressed by +far the most enthusiastic meetings of the campaign. My welcome to +the State was made singularly cordial by the part I had played in +Congress in opposing enormous schemes of land monopoly and plunder, +which had been concocted by some of her own public servants in the +interest of railway corporations and Indian rings. On my return +to Indiana the signs of defeat in November became alarming, and +they were justified by the result. It was overwhelming and stunning. +Democrats and Liberals were completely dismayed and bewildered. +The cause of Mr. Greeley's defeat, speaking generally, was the +perfectly unscrupulous and desperate hostility of the party for +which he had done more than any other man, living or dead; but the +disaster resulted, more immediately, from the stupid and criminal +defection of the Bourbon element in the Democratic party, which +could not be rallied under the banner of an old anti-slavery chief. +Thousands of this class, who sincerely hated Abolitionism, and +loved negro slavery more than they loved their country, voted +directly for Grant, while still greater numbers declined to vote +at all. Mr. Greeley's own explanation of the result, which he gave +to a friend soon after the election, was as follows: "I was an +Abolitionist for years, when it was as much as one's life was worth +even here in New York, to be an Abolitionist; and the negroes have +all voted against me. Whatever of talents and energy I have +possessed I have freely contributed all my life long to Protection; +to the cause of our manufactures. And the manufacturers have +expended millions to defeat me. I even made myself ridiculous in +the opinion of many whose good wishes I desired by showing fair +play and giving a fair field in the 'Tribune' to Woman's Rights; +and the women have all gone against me!" + +Greeley, however, received nearly three million votes, being +considerably more than Governor Seymour had received four years +before; but General Grant, who had been unanimously nominated by +his party, was elected by two hundred and eighty-six electoral +votes, and a popular majority of nearly three quarters of a million, +carrying thirty-one of the thirty-seven States. To the sincere +friends of political reform the situation seemed hopeless. The +President was re-crowned our King, and political corruption had +now received so emphatic a premium that honesty was tempted to give +up the struggle in despair. His champions were already talking +about a "third term," while the Republican party had become the +representative and champion of great corporations, and the instrument +of organized political corruption and theft. + +And yet this fight of Liberals and Democrats was not in vain. They +planted the seed which ripened into a great popular victory four +years later, while the policy of reconciliation for which they +battled against overwhelming odds was hastened by their labors, +and has been finally accepted by the country. They were still +further and more completely vindicated by the misdeeds of the party +they had sought to defeat. The spectacle of our public affairs +became so revolting that before the middle of General Grant's second +term all the great Republican States in the North were lost to the +party, while leading Republicans began to agitate the question of +remanding the States of the South to territorial rule, on account +of their disordered condition. At the end of this term the Republican +majority in the Senate had dwindled from fifty-four to seventeen, +while in the House the majority of one hundred and four had been +wiped out to give place to a Democratic majority of seventy-seven. +No vindication of the maligned Liberals of 1872 could have been +more complete, while it summoned to the bar of history the party +whose action had thus brought shame upon the Nation and a stain +upon Republican institutions. + +After the presidential election I went to Washington, where I met +Chief Justice Chase in the Supreme Court and accepted an invitation +to dine with him. He looked so wasted and prematurely old that I +scarcely knew him. He was very genial, however, and our long +political talk was exceedingly enjoyable. It seemed to afford him +much satisfaction to show me a recently reported dissenting opinion +of his in which he re-asserted his favorite principle of State +rights. I only met him once afterward, and this was at the +inauguration of General Grant. I called on Mr. Sumner the same +evening, and found him in a wretched state of health, which was +aggravated by the free use of poisonous drugs. He seemed very much +depressed, politically. He had lost caste with the great party +that had so long idolized him, and which he had done so much to +create and inspire. He had been deserted by the colored race, to +whose service he had unselfishly dedicated his life. He had been +degraded from his honored place at the head of the Senate Committee +on Foreign Relations, and for no other reason than the faithful +and conscientious performance of his public duty. He had been +rebuked by the Legislature of his own State. His case strikingly +suggested that of John Quincy Adams in 1807, when the anathemas of +Massachusetts were showered upon him for leaving the Federalist +party when it had accomplished its mission and survived its character, +and joining the supporters of Jefferson. I sympathized with him +profoundly; but his case was not so infinitely sad as that of poor +Greeley, over whose death, however, the whole Nation seemed to be +in mourning. He had greatly overtaxed himself in his masterly and +brilliant campaign on the stump, in which he displayed unrivaled +intellectual resources and versatility. He had exhausted himself +in watching by the bedside of his dying wife. He had been assailed +as the enemy of his country by the party which he had done more +than any man in the Nation to organize. He had been hunted to his +grave by political assassins whose calumnies broke his heart. He +was scarcely less a martyr than Lincoln, or less honored after his +death, and his graceless defamers now seemed to think they could +atone for their crime by singing his praises. It is easy to speak +well of the dead. It is very easy, even for base and recreant +characters, to laud a man's virtues after he has gone to his grave +and can no longer stand in their path. It is far easier to praise +the dead than do justice to the living; and it was not strange, +therefore, that eminent clergymen and doctors of divinity who had +silently witnessed the peltings of Mr. Greeley by demagogues and +mercenaries during the canvass now poured out their eloquence at +his grave. What he had sorely needed and was religiously entitled +to was the sympathy and succor of good men while he lived, and +especially in his heroic struggle for political reconciliation and +reform. The circumstances of his death made it peculiarly touching +and sacramental, and I was inexpressibly glad that I had fought +his battle so unflinchingly, and defended him everywhere against +his conscienceless assailants. + + +CHAPTER XVI. +CONCLUDING NOTES. +Party changes caused by the slavery issue--Notable men in Congress +during the war--Sketches of prominent men in the Senate and House +--Scenes and incidents--Butler and Bingham--Cox and Butler--Judge +Kelley and Van Wyck--Lovejoy and Wickliffe--Washburne and Donnelly +--Oakes Ames--Abolitionism in Washington early in the war--Life at +the capital--The new dispensation and its problems. + +In the early part of the period covered by the preceding chapters +our political parties were divided on mere questions of policy and +methods of administration. Trade, Currency, Internal Improvements, +and the Public Lands were the absorbing issues, while both parties +took their stand against the humanitarian movement which subsequently +put those issues completely in abeyance, and compelled the country +to face a question involving not merely the policy of governing, +but the existence of the Government itself. When the slavery +question finally forced its way into recognition it naturally +brought to the front a new class of public men, and their numbers, +as I have shown, steadily increased in each Congress from the year +1845 till the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1861. The Congress +which came into power with Mr. Lincoln did not fully represent the +anti-slavery spirit of the Northern States, but it was a decided +improvement upon its predecessors. In the Senate were such men as +Collamer, Fessenden, Doolittle, Baker, Browning, Anthony, Grimes, +Hale, Harlan, Sherman, Trumbull, Sumner, Wade, Henry Wilson, +Chandler, Lane of Indiana, Harris of New York, Andrew Johnson, B. +Gratz Brown and Howard. In the House were Conkling, Bingham, +Colfax, Dawes, Grow, Hickman, Kelley, Potter, Lovejoy, Pike of +Maine, Ashley, Rollins of Missouri, Shellabarger, Thaddeus Stevens, +Elihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold and James F. Wilson. + +During the Rebellion and the years immediately following, Ferry of +Connecticut, Creswell, Edmonds, Conkling, Morgan, Morton, Yates, +Carpenter, Hamlin, Henderson, Morrill of Maine, and Schurz, were +added to the prominent men of the Senate and Boutwell, Blair, Henry +Winter Davis, Deming, Jenckes, Garfield, Schenck, Banks, Orth, +Raymond, Butler, Hoar, McCrary, to the list in the House. During +this period the Democrats had in the Senate such men as Bayard, +Garrett Davis, Hicks, Saulsbury, Buckalew, Hendricks, Bright, Reverdy +Johnson, Thurman, and F. P. Blair; and in the House, S. S. Cox, +Crittenden, Holman, Kerr, Pendleton, Richardson, Vallandigham, +Niblack, Voorhees, Brooks, Randall, and Woodward. The men who +controlled Congress during these years of trial were not the +intellectual equals of the famous leaders who figured in the great +crisis of 1850, but they were a different and generally a better +type. They were summoned to the public service to deal with +tremendous problems, and lifted up and ennobled by the great cause +they were commissioned to serve. It did more for them than it was +possible for them to do for it. It took hold on the very foundations +of the Government, and electrified all the springs of our national +life; and although great mistakes were made, and the fervor of this +period was followed by a sickening dispensation of demoralized +politics, it was a great privilege to be permitted to share in the +grand battle for the Nation's life, and the work of radical re- +adjustment which followed. + +I have already referred to several of the conspicuous characters +whose names I have grouped. Such men as Collamer, Fessenden, +Browning and Trumbull, were among the famous lawyers and conservatives +on the Republican side of the Senate. They were conscientious and +unflinching partisans, but were studiously anxious to save the +Union according to the Constitution, and deprecated all extreme +and doubtful measures. Opposed to them stood Sumner, Wade, Chandler, +and their radical associates, who believed in saving the Union at +all hazards, and that not even the Constitution should be allowed +to stay the arm of the Government in blasting the power of the +Rebels. It was perhaps fortunate for the country that these +divisions existed, and held each other in check. Mr. Collamer was +the impersonation of logical force and the beau ideal of a lawyer +and judge. There was a sort of majesty in the figure and brow of +Fessenden when addressing the Senate, and his sarcasm was as keen +as it was inimitable; but his nature was kindly, and his integrity +perfect. Trumbull was a less commanding figure, but he greatly +honored his position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the +Senate, and his memory will be held in perpetual remembrance as +the author of the Civil Rights Bill and of the XIII Amendment to +the Constitution. Sumner, I think, was the purest man in the +Senate, if not the ablest. He was pre-eminently the hero of duty, +and the servant of what he believed to be the truth. No man could +have made a more absolute surrender of himself to his country in +the great conflict which threatened its life. His weary and jaded +look always excited my sympathy, for he seemed to be sacrificing +all the joys of life, and life itself, in his zeal for the public +service. I knew Wade more intimately than any man in the Senate, +through my association with him as a member of the same Committee +for successive years, and was always interested in his personal +traits and peculiarities. He was "a man of uncommon downrightness." +There was even a sort of fascination about his profanity. It had +in it a spontaniety and heartiness which made it almost seem the +echo of a virtue. It was unlike the profane words of Thaddeus +Stevens, which were frequently carried on the shafts of his wit +and lost in the laughter it provoked. Edmunds, now so famous as +a lawyer, and leader in the Senate, and so well known by his reputed +resemblance to St. Jerome, was simply respectable on his first +appearance; but his ability, industry, and constant devotion to +his duties soon gave him rank among the prominent men in that body. +Grimes of Iowa was one of the really strong men of this period, +while Harlan, his colleague, possessed a vigor and grasp of mind +which I think the public never fully accorded him. Lane of Indiana +was full of patriotic ardor, and like Baker of Oregon, had the rare +gift of eloquent impromptu speech. Henry Wilson earned the gratitude +of his country by his unswerving loyalty to freedom, and his great +labors and invaluable services as chairman of the Military Committee. +Howard ranked among the first lawyers and most faithful men in the +body, and no man had a clearer grasp of the issues of the war. +Henderson was a strong man, whose integrity and political independence +were afterward abundantly proved. Doolittle was a man of vigor, +and made a good record as a Republican, but he naturally belonged +to the other side of the Senate, and finally found his way to it, +through the quarrel with Johnson. + +Garrett Davis was always an interesting figure. His volubility of +talk bordered on the miraculous; and whenever he began to swathe +the Senate in his interminable rhetoric it awakened the laughter +or the despair of everybody on the floor or in the galleries. +Bayard and Thurman were recognized as the strong men on their side +of the Senate in the Forty-first Congress. Buckalew was one of +the really sterling men of his party, but he was a modest man, and +only appreciated by those who knew him intimately. As a leading +Democrat, Hendricks stood well in the Senate. He was so cautious +and diplomatic in temper and so genial and conciliatory in his +manner that he glided smoothly through the rugged conflict of +opinions in which his side of the chamber was unavoidably involved. +B. Gratz Brown was known as an intense radical, but he made little +mark in this crisis. He wrote out elaborate and scholarly essays +which he read to the Senate, but they received slight attention +from members, and seemed to bear little fruit. Carpenter, Schurz +and Morton took their seats after the war, and were not long in +finding honorable recognition. Carpenter was as brilliant and +versatile in intellect as he was naturally eloquent in speech and +wayward in morals. Carl Schurz displayed ability in the famous +debate with Morton and Conkling on the sale of arms to the French, +and his political independence in 1872 gave him great prominence +as a Liberal Republican leader; but that virtue has been less +conspicuously illustrated in later years. Morton became famous +soon after he entered the Senate. The "logic of events" had +revolutionized the opinions so vigorously espoused by him only a +few months before, and his great speech on reconstruction, in which +he avowed and defended his change of base, brought him into great +prominence, and multiplied his friends in every section of the +country. + +In the House, Roscoe Conkling was recognized as a man of considerable +talent and great self-esteem. I have elsewhere referred to his +passage at arms with Blaine. He never linked his name with any +important principle or policy, and was singularly wanting in the +qualities of a party leader. No one questioned his personal +integrity, but in later years he was prompt and zealous in the +defense of the worst abuses which found shelter in his party. Mr. +Sherman was shrewd, wiry and diplomatic, but gave little promise +of the career he has since achieved through ambition, industry and +favoring conditions. Shellabarger was one of the ablest men in +the House, and was so rated. He was always faithful and vigilant, +and I have before given an instance of this in his timely action +on the question of reconstruction. Mr. Blaine, during the first +years of his service, showed little activity. He spoke but seldom +and briefly, but always with vigor and effect. He steadily grew +into favor with his party in the House as a man of force, but +without seeming to strive for it. I think his abilities were never +fully appreciated till he became speaker. His personal magnetism +was as remarkable as his readiness to serve a friend was unfailing; +but, like Mr. Conkling, he never identified himself with any great +legislative measure. + +Henry Winter Davis was the most formidable debater in the House. +He was full of resources, while the rapidity of his utterance and +the impetuosity of his speech bore down every thing before it. +The fire and force of his personality seemed to make him irresistible, +and can only be likened to the power displayed by Mr. Blaine in +the House, in his later and palmier years. When Gen. Garfield +entered the Thirty-eighth Congress there was a winning modesty in +his demeanor. I was interested in his first effort on the floor, +which was brief, and marked by evident diffidence. He was not +long, however, in recovering his self-possession, and soon engaged +actively in general debate. His oratory, at first, was the reverse +of winning, owing to the peculiar intonation of his voice, but +gradually improved, while his hunger for knowledge, unflagging +industry, and ambition for distinction, gradually revealed themselves +as very clearly defined traits. During the first years of his +service the singular grasp of his mind was not appreciated, but it +was easy to see that he was growing, and that a man of his political +ambition and great industry could not be satisfied with any position +of political mediocrity. His situation as a Representative of the +Nineteenth Ohio District was exceedingly favorable to his aspirations, +as it was the custom of that district to continue a man in its +service when once installed, and its overwhelming majority relieved +him of all concern about the result. He could thus give his whole +time and thought to the study of politics, and the mastery of those +historical and literary pursuits which he afterward made so available +in the finish and embellishment of his speeches. + +As a parliamentary leader, Mr. Stevens, of course, was always the +central figure in the House. No possible emergency could disconcert +him. Whether the attack came from friend or foe, or in whatever +form, he was ready, on the instant, to repel it and turn the tables +completely upon his assailant. He exercised the most absolute +freedom of speech, making his thrusts with the same coolness at +"unrighteous copperheads and self-righteous Republicans." In +referring to the moderate and deprecatory views of Colfax and Olin, +in January, 1863, he said he had always been fifteen years in +advance of his party, but never so far ahead that its members did +not overtake him. His keenest thrusts were frequently made in such +a tone and manner as to disarm them of their sting, and create +universal merriment. When Whaley of West Virginia begged him, +importunately, to yield the floor a moment for a brief statement, +while Mr. Stevens was much engrossed with an important discussion, +he finally gave way, saying, "Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman +from West Virginia for a few feeble remarks." When he lost his +temper and waged war in earnest his invective was absolutely +remorseless, as in the example I have given of it in a previous +chapter. + +I have before referred to the oratory of Bingham. He was a reader +of books and a master of English. He loved poetry, and was one of +the most genial and companionable of men, but he was irritable and +crispy in temper, and a formidable customer in debate. He had +several angry bouts with Butler, in one of which he spoke sneeringly +of the "hero of Fort Fisher," to which Butler replied that the +gentleman from Ohio had shown his prowess in the hanging of Mrs. +Surratt, an innocent woman, upon the scaffold. Bingham retorted +that such a charge was "only fit to come from a man who lives in +a bottle, and is fed with a spoon." He was often dogmatic and +lacking in coolness and balance, but in later years he showed +uncommon tact in extricating himself from the odium threatened by +his connection with the Credit Mobilier scheme. + +One of the really strong men in the House was John Hickman, of +Pennsylvania, who had been a prominent figure in Congress during +Buchanan's administration. He was a man of brains, courage, and +worth. Potter was a true and brave man, whose acceptance of a +challenge from Roger A. Pryor, and choice of butcher knives as the +weapons of warfare, had made him very popular at the North. Rollins +of Missouri was an eloquent man, of superior ability and attainments, +and large political experience. Pike of Maine was one of the first +men in the House, but too honest and independent to sacrifice his +convictions for the sake of success. Deming of Connecticut was a +man of real calibre, and on rare occasions electrified the House +by his speeches, but he lacked industry. One of the finest debaters +in the House was Henry J. Raymond. He displayed very decided power +in the debate on Reconstruction, and very effectively exposed the +weakness of the Republicans in practically dealing with the Rebel +States as if they were at once in and out of the Union. Among the +most striking figures in the House were Butler and Cox, whose +contests were greatly relished. They were well matched, and +alternately carried off the prize of victory. Butler, in the first +onset, achieved a decided triumph in his reply to a very personal +assault by Cox. "As to the vituperation of the member from New +York," said he, "he will hear my answer to him by every boy that +whistles it on the street, and every hand-organ, 'Shoo, fly, don't +bodder me'!" Cox, for the time, was extinguished, but patiently +watched his opportunity till he found his revenge, which Butler +afterward frankly acknowledged. For a time there was bad blood +between them, but they finally became friends, and I think so +continued. + +General Banks was always a notable personality. His erect figure, +military eye, and splendid voice secured for him the admiring +attention of the galleries whenever he addressed the House. Ashley +of Ohio who took the lead in the impeachment movement, in which he +was so zealous that he became known as "Impeachment Ashley," was +another picturesque figure. His fine _physique,_ frolicsome face, +and luxuriant suit of curly brown hair singled him out among the +bald heads of the body as one of its most attractive members. +Boutwell impressed the House as a man of solid qualities, and a +formidable debater. He acquitted himself admirably in his defense +of Butler against a savage attack by Brooks. Blair was a man of +ability, independence, and courage, of which his record in the +House gave ample proof. Wilson of Iowa was a young man when he +entered Congress, but soon gave proof of his ability, and took rank +as one of the best lawyers on the Judiciary Committee. Judge +Kelley, since known as the "Father of the House," and one of the +fathers of the Greenback movement, first attracted attention by +the wonderful volume and power of his voice. It filled the entire +Hall, and subdued all rival sounds; but to the surprise of everybody, +he met with more than his match when he was followed, one day, by +Van Wyck, of New York, who triumphantly carried off the palm. +Kelley's voice was little more than a zephyr, in comparison with +the roar and thunder that followed it and called forth shouts of +laughter, while Kelley quietly occupied his seat as if in dumb +amazement at what had happened. + +James Brooks was always a conspicuous figure on the Democratic side +of the House. I first knew him in the log cabin days of 1840, and +afterward served with him in the Congress of 1849. He was a man +of ability, a genuine hater of the negro, and a bitter partisan; +but I never saw any reason to doubt his personal integrity, and I +think the affair which threw so dark a cloud over his reputation +in later years was a surprise to all who knew him. Michael C. Kerr +was one of the very first men in the House, and a man of rare purity +and worth. Randall, like Garfield, was a growing man during the +war, and through his ambition, natural abilities, and Congressional +training, he became one of the chief magnates of his party. +Pendleton was counted an able man, and made his mark as a Bourbon +Democrat and the champion of hard money; but he subsequently spoiled +his financial record by his scheme for flooding the country with +greenbacks. Vallandigham was conspicuous for his intellectual +vigor, passionate earnestness, and hatred of Abolitionism. He had +the courage of his opinions. The Republicans hated him consumedly. +He was a member of the House Committee on Public Lands, which +reported the Homestead Bill, and I remember that no Republican +member, except the chairman, showed the slightest disposition to +recognize him. After the war was ended, however, and the work of +reconstruction was accomplished, his temper and qualities seemed +to have spent much of their force. He was among the very first to +plead for acquiescence and the policy of reconciliation; and if +his life had been spared I believe his catholic spirit and active +leadership in the "New Departure" would have re-instated him in +the sincere regard of men of all parties. Lovejoy was the most +impassioned orator in the House. His speeches were remarkable for +their pungency and wit, and when the question of slavery was under +discussion his soul took fire. He hated slavery with the animosity +of a regular Puritan, and when he talked about it everybody listened. +Wickliffe of Kentucky was one of the most offensive representatives +of the Border State policy, and whenever he spoke Lovejoy was sure +to follow. As often as Wickliffe got the floor it was noticed that +Lovejoy's brow was immediately darkened in token of the impending +strife, while his friends and enemies prepared themselves for the +scene. Wickliffe was a large, fierce-looking man, with a shrill +voice, and quite as belligerent as Lovejoy; and their contests were +frequent, and always enjoyed by the House, and for some time became +a regular feature of its business. + +Elihu B. Washburne was conspicuous as the champion of economy. He +rivaled Holman as the "watch-dog of the treasury" and the enemy of +land-grants. He was a man of force, and rendered valuable service +to the country, but he assumed such airs of superior virtue, and +frequently lectured the House in so magisterial a tone as to make +himself a little unpopular with members. This was strikingly +illustrated in 1868, in his controversy with Donnelly of Minnesota +against whom he had made some dishonorable charges through a +Minnesota newspaper. Donnelly was an Irishman, a wit, and an +exceedingly versatile genius, and when it became known that he was +to defend himself in the House against Washburne's charges, and make +a counter attack, every member was in his seat, although the weather +was intensely hot and no legislative business was to be transacted. +Donnelly had fully prepared himself, and such a castigation as he +administered, has rarely, if ever, been witnessed in a legislative +body. He kept a ceaseless and overwhelming fire of wit, irony, +and ridicule, for nearly two hours, during which the members +frequently laughed and sometimes applauded, while Washburne sat pale +and mute under the infliction. The tables were turned upon him, +although portions of Donnelly's tirade were unparliamentary, and +indefensible on the score of coarseness and bad taste. No member, +however, raised any point of order; but the friends of Mr. Washburne +afterward surrounded Donnelly, and by artful appeals to his good +nature prevailed upon him to suppress a portion of the speech, and +to proffer statements which tended to destroy its effect and to +restore to Washburne the ground he had lost. The House had its fun, +while Washburne deigned no reply except to re-affirm his charges, +and Donnelly's friends were vexed at his needless surrender of his +vantage-ground. It was an odd and unexpected _denouement_ of a +very remarkable exhibition. + +Oakes Ames was one of the members of the House with whom I was best +acquainted. I thought I knew him well, and I never had the slightest +reason to suspect his public or private integrity. Personally and +socially he was one of the kindliest men I ever knew, and I was +greatly surprised when I learned of his connection with the Credit +Mobilier project. It first found its way into politics through a +speech of Horace Greeley near the close of the canvass of 1872, +but it had been fully exposed by Washburn of Wisconsin in a speech +in Congress in the year 1868. The history of its connection with +American politics and politicians forms an exceedingly interesting +and curious chapter. The fate of the men involved in it seems like +a perfect travesty of justice and fair play. Some of them have +gone down under the waves of popular condemnation. Others, occupying +substantially the same position, according to the evidence, have +made their escape and even been honored and trusted by the public, +while still others are quietly whiling away their lives under the +shadow of suspicion. The case affords a strange commentary upon +the principle of historic justice. + +One of the most remarkable facts connected with the first years of +the war was the descent of the Abolitionists upon Washington. They +secured the hall of the Smithsonian Institute for their meetings, +which they held weekly, and at which the Rev. John Pierpont presided. +It was with much difficulty that the hall was procured, and one of +the conditions of granting it was that it should be distinctly +understood and announced that the Smithsonian Institute was to be +in no way responsible for anything that might be said by the +speakers. This was very emphatically insisted on by Professor +Henry, and was duly announced at the first meeting. At the following, +and each succeeding lecture, Mr. Pierpont regularly made the same +announcement. These gatherings were largely attended and very +enthusiastic; and as the anti-slavery tide constantly grew stronger, +the weekly announcement that "the Smithsonian Institute desires it +to be distinctly understood that it is not to be held responsible +for the utterances of the speakers," awakened the sense of the +ludicrous, and called forth rounds of applause and explosions of +laughter by the audience, in front of which Professor Henry was +seated. Each meeting thus began with a frolic of good humor, which +Mr. Pierpont evidently enjoyed, for he made his announcement with +a gravity which naturally provoked the mirth which followed. These +meetings were addressed by Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, Ralph +Waldo Emerson, Dr. Brownson, and other notable men, and were enjoyed +as a sort of jubilee by the men and women who attended them. + +The services in the Hall of Representatives each Sabbath formed +the fitting counterpart of these proceedings. The crowds in +attendance filled every part of the floor and galleries, and were +full of enthusiasm. The most terrific arraignment of slavery I +ever listened to was by Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, in the course +of these services. He was a man of great ability, unquenchable +zeal, fervid eloquence, and an Old Testament Christian who was +sometimes called the Prophet Isaiah of the anti-slavery cause. He +carried his religion courageously into politics, and while arraigning +slavery as the grand rebel, he also severely criticised the management +of the war and the Border State policy of the President. The most +pronounced anti-slavery sermons were also preached in the Capital +by Dr. Boynton, Mr. Channing and others, while the Hutchinson family +occasionally entertained the public with their anti-slavery songs. +All this must have been sufficiently shocking to the slave-holding +politics and theology of the city, whose slumbers were thus rudely +disturbed. + +There was a peculiar fascination about life in Washington during +the war. The city itself was unattractive. Its ragged appearance, +wretched streets, and sanitary condition were the reproach of its +citizens, who could have had no dream of the Washington of to-day; +but it was a great military as well as political center. Our troops +were pouring in from every loyal State, and the drum-beat was heard +night and day, while the political and social element hitherto in +the ascendant, was completely submerged by the great flood from +the North. The city was surrounded, and in part occupied by +hospitals, and for a time many of the principal churches were +surrendered to the use of our sick and wounded soldiers, whose +numbers were fearfully swelled after each great battle. The imminent +peril to which the Capital was repeatedly exposed, and the constantly +changing fortunes of the war, added greatly to the interest of the +crisis, and marked the alternations of hope and fear among the +friends and enemies of the Union. But notwithstanding the seriousness +of the times, there was a goodly measure of real social life. +Human nature demanded some relaxation from the dreadful strain and +burden of the great conflict, and this was partially found in the +levees of the President and Cabinet ministers, and the receptions +of the Speaker, which were largely attended and greatly enjoyed; +and this enjoyment was doubtless much enhanced by the peculiar bond +of union and feeling of brotherhood which the state of the country +awakened among its friends. The most pleasant of these occasions, +however, were the weekly receptions of the Speaker. Those of +Speaker Grow were somewhat marred, and sometimes interrupted, by +his failing health, but the receptions of Mr. Colfax were singularly +delightful. He discharged the duties of his great office with +marked ability and fairness, and was personally very popular; and +there always gathered about him on these occasions an assemblage +of charming and congenial people, whose genuine cordiality was a +rebuke to the insincerity so often witnessed in social life. + +But I need not further pursue these personal details, nor linger +over the by-gones of a grand epoch. We have entered upon a new +dispensation. The withdrawal of the slavery question from the +strife of parties has changed the face of our politics as completely +as did its introduction. The transition from an abnormal and +revolutionary period to the regular and orderly administration of +affairs, has been as remarkable as the intervention of the great +question which eclipsed every other till it compelled its own +solution. Although this transition has given birth to an era of +"slack-water politics," it has gradually brought the country face +to face with new problems, some of which are quite as vital to the +existence and welfare of the Republic as those which have taxed +the statesmanship of the past. The tyranny of industrial domination, +which borrows its life from the alliance of concentrated capital +with labor-saving machinery, must be overthrown. Commercial +feudalism, wielding its power through the machinery of great +corporations which are practically endowed with life officers and +the right of hereditary succession and control the makers and +expounders of our laws, must be subordinated to the will of the +people. The system of agricultural serfdom called Land Monopoly, +which is now putting on new forms of danger in the rapid multiplication +of great estates and the purchase of vast bodies of lands by foreign +capitalists, must be resisted as a still more formidable foe of +democratic Government. The legalized robbery now carried on in +the name of Protection to American labor must be overthrown. The +system of spoils and plunder must also be destroyed, in order that +freedom itself may be rescued from the perilous activities quickened +into life by its own spirit, and the conduct of public affairs +inspired by the great moralities which dignify public life. + +These are the problems which appeal to the present generation, and +especially to the honorable ambition of young men now entering upon +public life. Their solution is certain, because they are directly +in the path of progress, and progress is a law; but whether it +shall be heralded by the kindly agencies of peace or the harsh +power of war, must depend upon the wise and timely use of opportunities. +The result is certain, since justice can not finally be defeated; +but the circumstances of the struggle and the cost of its triumph +are committed to the people, who can scarcely fail to find both +instruction and warning in the story of the anti-slavery conflict. + + +INDEX. [omitted] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Recollections, by George W. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/22959-8.zip b/22959-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e994059 --- /dev/null +++ b/22959-8.zip diff --git a/22959.txt b/22959.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19e93dc --- /dev/null +++ b/22959.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9004 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Recollections, by George W. Julian + +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: Political Recollections + 1840 to 1872 + +Author: George W. Julian + +Release Date: October 11, 2007 [EBook #22959] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Ed Ferris + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Names have been corrected. "Indianians" changed to "Indianans". + + LoC call number: E415.7.J9 1969 + + +POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS + +1840 to 1872. + +BY +GEORGE W. JULIAN. + +MNEMOSYNE PUBLISHING CO., INC. +MIAMI, FLORIDA +1969 + + +Originally Published in Chicago 1884 + +COPYRIGHT +By JANSEN, McCLURG & CO., +A. D. 1883. + +First Mnemosyne reprinting 1969 +Reprinted from a copy in the +Fisk University Library Negro Collection +Copyright (C)1969 Mnemosyne Publishing Co., Inc. Miami, Florida +Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: +78-83885 + + +PREFACE. + +The following chapters are devoted mainly to facts and incidents +connected with the development of anti-slavery politics from the +year 1840 to the close of the work of Reconstruction which followed +the late civil war. Other topics, however, are occasionally noticed, +while I have deemed it proper to state my own attitude and course +of action respecting various public questions, and to refer more +particularly to the political strifes of my own State. In doing +this, I have spoken freely of conspicuous personalities in connection +with their public action, or their peculiar relations to myself; +but my aim has been to deal fairly and state only the truth, while +striving to weave into my story some reminiscences of the men and +events of by-gone times, which may interest the reader. In the +endeavor to elucidate the orderly progress of anti-slavery opinions +and their translation into organized action, I have summarized and +re-stated many of the familiar facts of current American politics +during the period embraced; but I hope I have also made a slight +contribution to the sources of history bearing upon a world-famous +movement, touching which we should "gather up the fragments that +nothing be lost." + + G. W. J. + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. +THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN--THE BEGINNING OF ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS. +The "Hard-cider" Frolic of 1840--The Issues--Swartwout and Political +Corruption--The Demand for a Change--Character of Gen. Harrison-- +Personal Defamation--Mass-meetings and Songs--Crushing Defeat of +the Democrats--First Appearance of the Slavery Issue in Politics-- +Pro-slavery Attitude of Harrison and Van Buren--Events favoring +the Growth of Anti-slavery Opinion--Clay and Mendenhall--Texas' +Annexation and John Tyler. + +CHAPTER II. +CAMPAIGN OF 1844--ANNEXATION AND SLAVERY. +The Nomination of Clay--His Position on the Slavery Question and +Annexation--Van Buren's Letter to Hammett, and its Effect upon the +South--His Repudiation, and the Nomination of Polk--The Surprise +of the Country--Unbounded Confidence of the Whigs--The Course of +the New York Democrats--The "Kane Letter"--Trouble among the Whigs +on the Annexation Question--Fierceness of the Contest, and singular +Ability of the Leaders--The Effect of Clay's Defeat upon the Whigs +--Causes of the Defeat--The Abolitionists, and the Abuse heaped +upon them--Cassius M. Clay--Mr. Hoar's Mission to South Carolina-- +Election of John P. Hale--Annexation, and War with Mexico--Polk's +Message, and the Wilmot Proviso--The Oregon Question, and Alex. H. +Stephens. + +CHAPTER III. +CAMPAIGN OF 1848--ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS. +Approach of another Presidential Campaign--Party Divisions threatened +by the Wilmot Proviso--Nomination of Gen. Cass--The "Nicholson +Letter"--Democratic Division in New York--Nomination of Gen. Taylor +--Whig Divisions--Birth of the Free Soil Party--Buffalo Convention +--Nomination of Van Buren and Adams--Difficulty of uniting on Van +Buren--Incidents--Rev. Joshua Leavitt--Work of the Campaign--Webster +and Free Soil--Greeley and Seward--Abuse of Whig Bolters--Remarkable +Results of the Canvass. + +CHAPTER IV. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. +Novel Political Complications--Compromise Measures--First Election +to Congress--Sketch of the "Immortal Nine"--The Speakership and +Wm. J. Brown--Gen. Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso--Slaveholding +Bluster--Compromise Resolutions of Clay and Retreat of Northern +Whigs--Visit to Gen. Taylor--To Mr. Clay--His Speeches--Webster's +Seventh of March Speech--Calhoun--Speech on the Slavery Question. + +CHAPTER V. +THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS (CONTINUED). +Fracas between Col. Benton and Senator Foster--Character of Benton +--Death of Gen. Taylor--The Funeral--Defeat of the "Omnibus Bill" +--Its Triumph in Detail--Celebration of the Victory--"Lower Law" +Sermons and "Union-Saving" Meetings--Slaveholding Literature-- +Mischievous Legislation--Visit to Philadelphia and Boston--Futile +Efforts to suppress Agitation--Andrew Johnson and the Homestead +Law--Effort to censure Mr. Webster--Political Morality in this +Congress--Temperance--Jefferson Davis--John P. Hale--Thaddeus +Stevens--Extracts from Speeches--Famous Men in both Houses--Free +Soilers and their Vindication. + +CHAPTER VI. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. +Pro-slavery Reaction--Indiana and Ohio--Race for Congress--Free +Soil Gains in other States--National Convention at Cleveland-- +National Canvass of 1852--Nomination of Pierce and Scott, and the +"finality" Platforms--Free Soil National Convention--Nomination of +Hale--Samuel Lewis--The Whig Canvass--Webster--Canvass of the +Democrats--Return of New York "Barnburners" to the Party--The Free +Soil Campaign--Stumping Kentucky with Clay--Rev. John G. Fee-- +Incidents--Mob Law in Indiana--Result of the Canvass--Ruin of the +Whigs--Disheartening Facts--The other Side of the Picture. + +CHAPTER VII. +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (CONTINUED). +A Notable Fugitive Slave Case--Inauguration of Pierce--Repeal of +the Missouri Compromise--Its Effects upon the Parties--The Free +Soil Position--Know-Nothingism--The Situation--First Steps in the +Formation of the Republican Party--Movements of the Know-Nothings +--Mistake of the Free Soilers--Anti-slavery Progress--Election of +Banks as Speaker--Call for a Republican National Convention at +Pittsburg--Organization of the Party--The Philadelphia Convention +and its Platform--Nomination of Fremont--Know-Nothing and Whig +Nominations--Democratic Nomination and Platform--The Grand Issue +of the Campaign--The Democratic Canvass--The splendid Fight for +Fremont--Triumph of Buchanan--Its Causes and Results--The Teaching +of Events. + +CHAPTER VIII. +PROGRESS OF REPUBLICANISM. +The Dred Scott Decision--Struggle for Freedom in Kansas--Instructive +Debates in Congress--Republican Gains in the Thirty-fifth Congress +--The English Bill--Its Defeat and the Effect--Defection of Douglas +--Its Advantages and its Perils--Strange Course of the New York +Tribune and other Papers--Republican Retreat in Indiana--Illinois +Republicans stand firm, and hold the Party to its Position--Gains +in the Thirty-sixth Congress--Southern Barbarism and Extravagance +--John Brown's Raid--Cuba and the Slave-trade--Oregon and Kansas-- +Aids to Anti-slavery Progress--The Speakership and Helper's Book-- +Southern Insolence and Extravagance--Degradation of Douglas--Slave- +code for the Territories--Outrages in the South--Campaign of 1860 +--Charleston Convention and Division of the Democrats--Madness of +the Factions--Bell and Everett--Republican Convention and its +Platform--Lincoln and Seward--Canvass of Douglas--Campaign for +Lincoln--Conduct of Seward--Republican Concessions and slave-holding +Madness. + +CHAPTER IX. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR. +Visit to Mr. Lincoln--Closing Months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration +--Efforts to avoid War--Character of Buchanan--Lincoln's Inauguration +--His War Policy--The Grand Army of Office-seekers--The July Session +of Congress--The Atmosphere of Washington--Battle of Bull Run-- +Apologetic Resolve of Congress--First Confiscation Act--Gen. +Fremont's Proclamation and its Effect--Its Revocation--Regular +Session of Congress--Secretary Cameron--Committee on the Conduct +of the War--Its Conference with the President and his Cabinet-- +Secretary Stanton and General McClellan--Order to march upon +Manassas. + +CHAPTER X. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR (CONTINUED). +The Wooden Guns--Conference with Secretary Stanton--His Relations +to Lincoln--Strife between Radicalism and Conservatism--Passage of +the Homestead Law--Visit to the President--The Confiscation Act +and Rebel Land owners--Greeley's "Prayer of Twenty Millions," and +Lincoln's Reply--Effort to disband the Republican Party--The Battle +of Fredericksburg and General Burnside--The Proclamation of +Emancipation--Visit to Mr. Lincoln--General Fremont--Report of the +War Committee--Visit to Philadelphia and New York--Gerrit Smith-- +The Morgan Raid. + +CHAPTER XI. +INCIDENTS AND END OF THE WAR. +Campaigning in Ohio--Attempted Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law-- +Organized Movement in Favor of Chase for the Presidency--Confiscation +of Rebel Lands--Fort Pillow, and the Treatment of Union Soldiers +at Richmond--Mr. Lincoln's Letter to Hodges--Southern Homestead +Bill, and Controversy with Mr. Mallory--Nomination of Andrew Johnson +--Enforcement of Party Discipline--Mr. Lincoln's Change of Opinion +as to Confiscation of Rebel Lands--Opposition to him in Congress-- +General Fremont and Montgomery Blair--Visit to City Point--Adoption +of the XIII Constitutional Amendment--Trip to Richmond, and Incidents +--Assassination of the President--Inauguration of Johnson and +Announcement of his Policy--Feeling toward Mr. Lincoln--Capitulation +of Gen. Johnston. + +CHAPTER XII. +RECONSTRUCTION AND SUFFRAGE--THE LAND QUESTION. +Visit of Indianans to the President--Gov. Morton and Reconstruction +--Report of Committee on the Conduct of the War--Discussion of +Negro Suffrage and Incidents--Personal Matters--Suffrage in the +District of Columbia--The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment-- +Breach between the President and Congress--Blaine and Conkling-- +Land Bounties and the Homestead Law. + +CHAPTER XIII. +MINERAL LANDS AND THE RIGHT OF PRE-EMPTION. +The Lead and Copper Lands of the Northwest--The gold-bearing Regions +of the Pacific, and their Disposition--A legislative Reminiscence +--Mining Act of 1866, and how it was passed--Its deplorable Failure, +and its Lesson--Report of the Land Commission--The Right of Pre- +emption, and the "Dred Scott Decision" of the Settlers. + +CHAPTER XIV. +RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT. +Gov. Morton and his Scheme of Gerrymandering--The XIV Amendment-- +Hasty Reconstruction and the Territorial Plan--The Military Bill-- +Impeachment--An amusing Incident--Vote against Impeachment--The +Vote reversed--The popular Feeling against the President--The Trial +--Republican Intolerance--Injustice to Senators and to Chief Justice +Chase--Nomination of Gen. Grant--Re-nomination for Congress--Personal +--Squabble of Place-hunters--XVI Amendment. + +CHAPTER XV. +GRANT AND GREELEY. +The new Cabinet--Seeds of Party Disaffection--Trip to California-- +Party Degeneracy--The liberal Republican Movement--Re-nomination +of Grant--The Cincinnati Convention--Perplexities of the Situation +--The Canvass for Greeley--Its Bitterness--Its peculiar Features-- +The Defeat--The Vindication of Liberals--Visit to Chase and Sumner +--Death of Greeley. + +CHAPTER XVI. +CONCLUDING NOTES. +Party Changes caused by the Slavery Issue--Notable Men in Congress +during the War--Sketches of prominent Men in the Senate and House +--Scenes and Incidents--Butler and Bingham--Cox and Butler--Judge +Kelley and Van Wyck--Lovejoy and Wickliffe--Washburn and Donnelly +--Oakes Ames--Abolitionism in Washington early in the War--Life at +the Capital--The new Dispensation and its Problems. + +INDEX + + +POLITICAL RECOLLECTIONS. + +CHAPTER I. +THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN--THE BEGINNING OF ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS. +The "hard-cider" frolic of 1840--The issues--Swartwout and political +corruption--The demand for a change--Character of Gen. Harrison-- +Personal defamation--Mass-meetings and songs--Crushing defeat of +the Democrats--First appearance of the slavery issue in politics-- +Pro-slavery attitude of Harrison and Van Buren--Events favoring +the growth of anti-slavery opinion--Clay and Mendenhall--Texas +annexation and John Tyler. + +Through the influence of early associations, I began my political +life as a Whig, casting my first presidential ballot for General +Harrison, in 1840. I knew next to nothing of our party politics; +but in the matter of attending mass-meetings, singing Whig songs +and drinking hard cider, I played a considerable part in the +memorable campaign of that year. So far as ideas entered into my +support of the Whig candidate, I simply regarded him as a poor man, +whose home was a log cabin, and who would in some way help the +people through their scuffle with poverty and the "hard times"; +while I was fully persuaded that Van Buren was not only a graceless +aristocrat and a dandy, but a cunning conspirator, seeking the +overthrow of his country's liberties by uniting the sword and the +purse in his own clutches, as he was often painted on the party +banners. In these impressions I was by no means singular. They +filled the air, and seemed to be wafted on every breeze. Horace +Greeley's famous campaign organ, "The Log Cabin," only gave them +voice and fitting pictorial effect, and he frankly admitted in +later years that his Whig appeals, with his music and wood engravings +of General Harrison's battle scenes, were more "vivid" than "sedately +argumentative." No one will now seriously pretend that this was +a campaign of ideas, or a struggle for political reform in any +sense. It was a grand national frolic, in which the imprisoned +mirth and fun of the people found such jubilant and uproarious +expression that anything like calmness of judgment or real seriousness +of purpose was out of the question in the Whig camp. + +As regards party issues, General Harrison, singularly enough, was +not a Whig, but an old fashioned States-Rights Democrat of the +Jeffersonian school. His letters to Harmar Denny and Sherrod +Williams committed him to none of the dogmas which defined a Whig. +No authentic utterance of his could be produced in which he had +ever expressed his agreement with the Whig party on the questions +of a protective tariff, internal improvements, or a national bank. +There was very high Whig authority for saying that the bank question +was not an issue of the canvass, while Van Buren's great measure +for separating the currency from the banks became a law pending +the Presidential struggle. In fact, it was because no proof of +General Harrison's party orthodoxy could be found, that he was +nominated; and the Whig managers of the Harrisburg Convention felt +obliged to sacrifice Henry Clay, which they did through the basest +double-dealing and treachery, for the reason that his right angled +character as a party leader would make him unavailable as a candidate. +As to John Tyler, he was not a Whig in any sense. It is true that +he had opposed the removal of the deposits, and voted against +Benton's expunging resolutions, but on all the regular and recognized +party issues he was fully committed as a Democrat, and was, moreover, +a nullifier. The sole proof of his Whiggery was the apocryphal +statement that he wept when Clay failed to receive the nomination, +while his political position was perfectly understood by the men +who nominated him. There was one policy only on which they were +perfectly agreed, and that was the policy of avowing no principles +whatever; and they tendered but one issue, and that was a change +of the national administration. On this issue they were perfectly +united and thoroughly in earnest, and it was idle to deny that on +their own showing the spoils alone divided them from the Democrats +and inspired their zeal. + +The demand of the Whigs for a change was well-founded. Samuel +Swartwout, the New York Collector of Customs, had disgraced the +Government by his defalcations; and, although he was a legacy of +Mr. Van Buren's "illustrious predecessor," and had been "vindicated" +by a Senate committee composed chiefly of his political opponents, +he was unquestionably a public swindler, and had found shelter +under Mr. Van Buren's administration. He was the most conspicuous +public rascal of his time, but was far from being alone in his +odious notoriety. The system of public plunder inaugurated by +Jackson was in full blast, and an organized effort to reform it +was the real need of the hour; but here was the weak point of the +Whigs. They proceeded upon the perfectly gratuitous assumption +that the shameless abuses against which they clamored would be +thoroughly reformed should they come into power. They took it for +granted that a change would be equivalent to a cure, and that the +people would follow them in thus begging the very question on which +some satisfactory assurance was reasonably required. They seemed +totally unconscious of the fact that human nature is essentially +the same in all parties, and that a mere change of men without any +change of system would be fruitless. They laid down no programme +looking to the reform of the civil service. They did not condemn +it, and their sole panacea for the startling frauds and defalcations +of Van Buren's administration was the imagined superior virtue and +patriotism of the Whigs. In the light of this fact alone, it is +impossible to account for the perfectly unbounded and irrepressible +enthusiasm which swept over the land during the campaign, and so +signally routed the forces of Democracy. Something more than empty +promises and windy declamation was necessary, and that something, +in an evil hour, was supplied by the Democrats themselves. + +General Harrison was a man of Revolutionary blood. He commanded +the confidence of the chief Fathers of the Republic. He was a man +of undoubted bravery, and had made a most honorable record, both +as a soldier and a civilian, upon ample trial in both capacities. +He was unquestionably honest and patriotic, and the fact that he +was a poor man, and a plain farmer of the West, could properly form +no objection to his character or his fitness for the Presidency. +But the Democratic orators and newspapers assailed him as an +"imbecile." They called him a "dotard" and a "granny." They said +he had distinguished himself in war by running away from the enemy. +One Democratic journalist spoke of him, contemptuously, as a man +who should be content with a log cabin and a barrel of hard cider, +without aspiring to the Presidency. The efforts to belittle his +merits and defile his good name became systematic, and degenerated +into the most unpardonable personal abuse and political defamation. +This was exactly what the Whigs needed to supplement their lack of +principles. It worked like a charm. It rallied the Whig masses +like a grand battle-cry. Mass-meetings of the people, such as had +never been dreamed of before, became the order of the day. The +people took the work of politics into their own keeping, and the +leaders became followers. The first monster meeting I attended +was held on the Tippecanoe battle-ground, on the 29th and 30th of +May. In order to attend it I rode on horseback through the mud +and swamps one hundred and fifty miles; but I considered myself +amply compensated for the journey in what I saw and enjoyed. The +gathering was simply immense; and I remember that James Brooks, +since conspicuous in our national politics, tried to address the +multitude from the top of a huge log cabin. Large shipments of +hard cider had been sent up the Wabash by steamer, and it was +liberally dealt out to the people in gourds, as more appropriate +and old-fashioned than glasses. The people seemed to be supremely +happy, and their faces were so uniformly radiant with smiles that +a man who was detected with a serious countenance was at once +suspected as an unrepentant "Loco-foco." But by far the largest +meeting of the campaign was that held at Dayton, on the 12th day +of September, where General Harrison spoke at length. He was the +first "great man" I had seen; and, while gazing into his face with +an awe which I have never since felt for any mortal, I was suddenly +recalled from my rapt condition by the exit of my pocket-book. +The number in attendance at this meeting was estimated at two +hundred thousand, and I think it could not have been far out of +the way. I am sure I have never seen it equaled, although I have +witnessed many great meetings within the past forty years. The +marked peculiarity of all the gatherings of this campaign was a +certain grotesque pomp and extravagance of representation suggestive +of a grand carnival. The banners, devices and pictures were +innumerable, while huge wagons were mounted with log cabins, cider +barrels, canoes, miniature ships, and raccoons. + +But the most distinguishing feature of the campaign was its music. +The spirit of song was everywhere, and made the whole land vocal. +The campaign was set to music, and the song seriously threatened +to drown the stump speech. Whiggery was translated into a tune, +and poured itself forth in doggerel rhymes which seemed to be born +of the hour, and exactly suited to the crisis. I give a few +specimens, partly from memory, and partly from "The Harrison and +Log Cabin Song Book" of 1840, a copy of which is before me: + + What has caused the great commotion, motion, motion, + Our country through? + It is the ball a-rolling on, on, + For Tippecanoe and Tyler too--Tippecanoe and Tyler too; + And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van; + Van is a used up man; + And with them we'll beat little Van. + + Like the rushing of mighty waters, waters, waters, + On it will go, + And in its course will clear the way + For Tippecanoe and Tyler too--Tippecanoe and Tyler too; + And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van; + Van is a used up man; + And with them we'll beat little Van. + +The famous "ball" alluded to in this song originated with the Whigs +of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and was sent by them to a Mass +Convention held at Baltimore. It was ten or twelve feet in diameter, +and upon the ends of it, on blue ground, were stars corresponding +in number with the States of the Union. On its wide spaces of red +and white stripes various inscriptions were made, including the +following, which belongs to the poetry and music of the campaign: + + With heart and soul + This ball we roll; + May times improve + As on we move. + + This Democratic ball + Set rolling first by Benton, + Is on another track + From that it first was sent on. + + Farewell, dear Van, + You're not our man; + To guide the ship, + We'll try old Tip. + +The following, sung to the tune of "Old Rosin the Bow," was quite +as popular: + + Come ye who, whatever betide her, + To Freedom have sworn to be true, + Prime up with a cup of hard cider, + And drink to old Tippecanoe. + + On top I've a cask of as good, sir, + As man from the tap ever drew; + No poison to cut up your blood, sir, + But liquor as pure as the dew. + + Parched corn men can't stand it much longer, + Enough is as much as we'll bear; + With Tip at our head, in October, + We'll tumble Van out of the chair. + + Then ho! for March fourth, forty-one, boys, + We'll shout till the heavens' arched blue + Shall echo hard cider and fun, boys, + Drink, drink, to old Tippecanoe. + +The following kindred verses will be familiar to everybody who +remembers the year 1840: + + Ye jolly young lads of Ohio, + And all ye sick Vanocrats, too, + Come out from among the foul party, + And vote for old Tippecanoe. + + Good men from the Van jacks are flying, + Which makes them look kinder askew, + For they see they are joining the standard + With the hero of Tippecanoe. + + They say that he lived in a cabin, + And lived on old cider, too; + Well, what if he did? I'm certain + He's the hero of Tippecanoe. + +I give the following verses of one of the best, which used to be +sung with tremendous effect: + + The times are bad, and want curing; + They are getting past all enduring; + Let us turn out Martin Van Buren, + And put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do, + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + + It's a business we all can take part in, + So let us give notice to Martin + That he must get ready for sartin', + For we'll put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + + We've had of their humbugs a plenty; + For now all our pockets are empty; + We've a dollar now where we had twenty, + So we'll put in old Tippecanoe. + The best thing we can do, + Is to put in old Tippecanoe. + +The following verses are perfectly characteristic: + + See the farmer to his meal + Joyfully repair; + Crackers, cheese and cider, too, + A hard but homely fare. + + Martin to his breakfast comes + At the hour of noon; + Sipping from a china cup, + With a golden spoon. + + Martin's steeds impatient wait + At the palace door; + Outriders behind the coach + And lackeys on before. + +After the State election in Maine, a new song appeared, which at +once became a favorite, and from which I quote the following: + + And have you heard the news from Maine, + And what old Maine can do? + She went hell bent for Governor Kent, + And Tippecanoe and Tyler too, + And Tippecanoe and Tyler too. + +Such was this most remarkable Whig campaign, with its monster +meetings and music, its infinite drolleries, its rollicking fun, +and its strong flavor of political lunacy. As to the canvass of +the Democrats, the story is soon told. In all points it was the +reverse of a success. The attempt to manufacture enthusiasm failed +signally. They had neither fun nor music in their service, and +the attempt to secure them would have been completely overwhelmed +by the flood on the other side. It was a melancholy struggle, and +constantly made more so by the provoking enthusiasm and unbounded +good humor of the Whigs. It ended as a campaign of despair, while +its humiliating catastrophe must have awakened inexpressible +disappointment and disgust both among the leaders and masses of +the party. + +This picture of party politics, forty-three years ago, is not very +flattering to our American pride, but it simply shows the working +of Democratic institutions in dealing with the "raw material" of +society and life at that time. The movement of 1840 was necessarily +transient and provisional, while underneath its clatter and nonsense +was a real issue. It was unrecognized by both parties, but it made +its advent, and the men who pointed its way quietly served notice +upon the country of their ulterior purposes. + +As long ago as the year 1817, Charles Osborn had established an +anti-slavery newspaper in Ohio, entitled "The Philanthropist," +which was followed in 1821 by the publication of Benjamin Lundy's +"Genius of Universal Emancipation." In 1831 the uprising of slaves +in Southampton County, Virginia, under the lead of Nat. Turner, +had startled the country and invited attention to the question of +slavery. In the same year Garrison had established "The Liberator," +and in 1835 was mobbed in Boston, and dragged through its streets +with a rope about his neck. In 1837 Lovejoy had been murdered in +Alton, Illinois, and his assassins compared by the Mayor of Boston +to the patriots of the Revolution. In 1838 a pro-slavery mob had +set fire to Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, and defied the city +authorities in this service of slavery. President Jackson and Amos +Kendall, his Postmaster General, had openly set the Constitution +at defiance by justifying the rifling of the mails and the suppression +of the circulation of anti-slavery newspapers in the South. The +"gag" resolutions had been introduced in the House of Representatives +in 1836, which provoked the splendid fights of Adams, Giddings and +Slade for the right of petition and the freedom of speech. Dr. +Channing had published his prophetic letter to Henry Clay, on the +annexation of Texas, in 1837, and awakened a profound interest in +the slavery question on both sides of the Atlantic. We had been +disgraced by two Florida wars, caused by the unconstitutional +espousal of slavery by the General Government. President Van Buren +had dishonored his administration and defied the moral sense of +the civilized world by his efforts to prostitute our foreign policy +to the service of slavery and the slave trade. In February, 1839, +Henry Clay had made his famous speech on "Abolitionism," and thus +recognized the bearing of the slavery question upon the presidential +election of the following year. The Abolitionists had laid siege +to the conscience and humanity of the people, and their moral +appeals were to be a well-spring of life to the nation in its final +struggle for self-preservation; but as yet they had agreed upon no +organized plan of action against the aggressions of an institution +which threatened the overthrow of the Union and the end of Republican +government. But now they were divided into two camps, the larger +of which favored political action, organized as a party, and +nominated, as its candidate for President, James G. Birney, who +received nearly seven thousand votes. + +This was a small beginning, but it was the beginning of the end. +That slavery was to be put down without political action in a +government carried on by the ballot was never a tenable proposition, +and the inevitable work was at last inaugurated. It was done +opportunely. Harrison and Van Buren were alike objectionable to +anti-slavery men who understood their record. To choose between +them was to betray the cause. Van Buren had attempted to shelter +the slave trade under the national flag. He had allied himself to +the enemies of the right of petition and the freedom of debate, as +the means of conciliating the South. He had taken sides with +Jackson in his lawless interference with the mails at the bidding +of slave-holders. In a word, he had fairly earned the description +of "a Northern man with Southern principles." General Harrison, +on the other hand, was a pro-slavery Virginian. While Governor of +Indiana Territory he had repeatedly sought the introduction of +slavery into that region through the suspension of the ordnance of +1787, which had forever dedicated it to freedom. He had taken +sides with the South in 1820 on the Missouri question. He had no +sympathy with the struggle of Adams and his associates, against +the gag and in favor of the right of petition, and regarded the +discussion of the slavery question as unconstitutional. The first +draft of his inaugural was so wantonly offensive to the anti-slavery +Whigs who had aided in his election, that even Mr. Clay condemned +it, and prevailed on the General to modify it. He had declared +that "the schemes of the Abolitionists were fraught with horrors, +upon which an incarnate devil only could look with approbation." +With such candidates the hour had fairly struck for anti-slavery +men, who believed in the use of the ballot, to launch the grand +movement which was finally to triumph over all opposition; while +to oppose this movement, however honestly, was to encourage men to +choose between parties equally untrustworthy, and by thus prolonging +their rule to defeat all practical anti-slavery work. It was the +singular mistake of the non-voting Abolitionists at this time, +that, while they looked forward to political action as the ultimate +result of their moral agitation, they vehemently opposed the +formation of an anti-slavery political party, and either withheld +their votes or divided them between these pro-slavery chieftains, +though giving by far the larger proportion to the Whig candidate. + +From this time forward anti-slavery progress was more marked. The +struggle over the right of petition in Congress continued, and was +characterized by a constantly increasing measure of fierceness on +the part of the South. This is vividly depicted in a passage from +the diary of Mr. Adams, in March, 1841, in which he declares that +"The world, the flesh, and all the devils in hell are arrayed +against any man who now, in this North American Union, shall dare +to join the standard of Almighty God to put down the African slave +trade; and what can I, upon the verge of my seventy-fourth birthday, +with a shaking hand, a darkening eye, a drowsy brain, and with all +my faculties dropping from me one by one as the teeth are dropping +from my head, what can I do for the cause of God and man, for the +progress of human emancipation, for the suppression of the African +slave-trade? Yet my conscience presses me on; let me but die upon +the breach." + +The celebrated trial of Mr. Adams the following year, for presenting +a petition from the citizens of Haverhill, requesting Congress to +take steps toward a peaceable dissolution of the Union, was a great +national event, and his triumph gave a new impulse to the cause of +freedom. The censure of Mr. Giddings which followed, for offering +resolutions in the House embodying the simplest truisms respecting +the relations of the General Government to slavery, and the elaborate +State paper of Mr. Webster, which provoked these resolutions, in +which he attempted to commit the Government to the protection of +slavery on the high seas, in accordance with the theories of Mr. +Calhoun, still further kept alive the anti-slavery agitation, and +awakened the interest of Northern men. A kindred aid, unwittingly +rendered the anti-slavery cause, was the infamous diplomacy of +General Cass, our Ambassador to France in 1842, in connection with +the Quintuple Treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade. +His monstrous effort to shield that trade under the flag of the +United States was characterized by Mr. Adams as "a compound of +Yankee cunning, of Italian perfidy, and of French _legerete_, +cemented by shameless profligacy unparalleled in American diplomacy." +In October, 1842, Henry Clay himself became an anti-slavery agitator +through his famous "Mendenhall Speech" at Richmond, Indiana. In +response to a petition asking him to emancipate his slaves, he told +the people "that whatever the law secures as property _is_ property," +and described his slaves as "being well fed and clad," and as +looking "sleek and hearty." "Go home, Mr. Mendenhall," said he, +"and mind your own business, and leave other people to take care +of theirs." Mr. Mendenhall was an anti-slavery Quaker; but Mr. +Clay, while rebuking him severely, took pains to compliment the +society itself on its practically pro-slavery attitude, and thus +stung into redoubled earnestness and zeal the men who had recently +been driven out of it on account of their "abolitionism." On the +day following this speech, which was the Sabbath, he was escorted +to the yearly meeting by Elijah Coffin, its clerk, seated in a very +conspicuous place, honored by every mark of the most obsequious +deference, and thus made the instrument of widening the breach +already formed in the society, while feeding the anti-slavery fires +which he was so anxious to assuage. + +The work of agitation was still further kept alive by conflicts +between the Northern and Southern States respecting the reclamation +of fugitives from crime. Virginia had demanded of New York the +surrender of three colored sailors who were charged with having +aided a slave to escape. Governor Seward refused to deliver them +up, for the reason that the Constitutional provision on the subject +must be so understood as that States would only be required to +surrender fugitives accused of an offense considered a crime in +the State called upon to make the surrender as well as in the State +asking for it. Similar controversies occurred between other States, +in all of which the South failed in her purpose. The anti-slavery +spirit found further expression in 1843 in Massachusetts, whose +Legislature resolved to move, through the Representatives of the +State in Congress, an Amendment to the Constitution, basing +representation on the free population only of the States; which +proposition gave rise to a most memorable debate in the national +House of Representatives. It was in the August of the same year +that the voting Abolitionists held a National Convention in Buffalo, +in which all the free States, except New Hampshire, were represented; +while in the following year the Methodist Episcopal Church was rent +in twain by the same unmanageable question, which had previously +divided other ecclesiastical communions. + +In the meanwhile, the question of Texan annexation had been steadily +advancing to the political front, and stirring the blood of the +people both North and South. This "robbery of a realm," as Dr. +Channing had styled it, was the unalterable purpose and unquenchable +desire of the slave-holding interest, and its accomplishment was +to be secured by openly espousing the principle that the end +justifies the means, and setting all consequences at defiance. +This is exactly what the Government did. The diplomacy through +which the plot was prosecuted was marked by a cunning, audacity, +and perfidy, which, in these particulars, leave the administration +of John Tyler unrivalled in its ugly pre-eminence, and form one of +the blackest pages in the history of the Republic. The momentous +question was now upon us; and on the dawning of the year 1844, all +parties saw that it was destined to be the overshadowing issue in +the ensuing presidential campaign. + + +CHAPTER II. +THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844--ANNEXATION AND SLAVERY. +The nomination of Clay--His position on the slavery question and +annexation--Van Buren's letter to Hammet, and its effect upon the +South--His repudiation, and the nomination of Polk--The surprise +of the country--Unbounded confidence of the Whigs--The course of +the New York Democrats--The "Kane Letter"--Trouble among the Whigs +on the annexation question--Fierceness of the contest, and singular +ability of the leaders--The effect of Clay's defeat upon the Whigs +--Causes of the defeat--The Abolitionists, and the abuse heaped +upon them--Cassius M. Clay--Mr. Hoar's mission to South Carolina-- +Election of John P. Hale--Annexation and war with Mexico--Polk's +message, and the Wilmot proviso--The Oregon question, and Alex. H. +Stephens. + +The times were serious. The fun and frolic of 1840 had borne no +fruit, and that part of our history could not be repeated. The +campaign of 1844 promised to be a struggle for principle; and among +the Whigs all eyes were turned for a standard-bearer to Mr. Clay, +who had been so shabbily treated four years before. He was +unanimously nominated on the first of May, with Theodore Frelinghuysen +as the candidate for Vice President. The party issues were not +very sharply defined, but this was scarcely necessary with a +candidate who was proverbially regarded as himself "the embodiment +of Whig principles." On the subject of annexation, he clearly +defined his position in his letter of the 17th of April to the +"National Intelligencer." He declared that annexation and war with +Mexico were identical, and placed himself squarely against it, +except upon conditions specified, which would make the project of +immediate annexation impossible. On the slavery question, he had +not yet seriously offended the anti-slavery element in his own +party, and was even trusted by some of the voting anti-slavery men. +In a speech at Raleigh, in April of this year, he declared it to +be "the duty of each State to sustain its own domestic institutions." +He had publicly said that the General Government had nothing to do +with slavery, save in the matters of taxation, representation, and +the return of fugitive slaves. He had condemned the censure of +Mr. Giddings in 1842 as an outrage, and indorsed the principles +laid down in his tract, signed "Pacificus," on the relations of +the Federal Government to slavery, and the rights and duties of +the people of the free States. In his earlier years, he had been +an outspoken emancipationist, and had always frankly expressed his +opinion that slavery was a great evil. These considerations, and +especially his unequivocal utterances against the annexation scheme, +were regarded as hopeful auguries of a thoroughly united party, +and its triumph at the polls; while Mr. Webster, always on the +presidential anxious-seat, and carefully watching the signs of the +political zodiac, now cordially lent his efforts to the Whig cause. + +With the Democracy, Mr. Van Buren was still a general favorite. +His friends felt that the wrong done him in 1840 should now be +righted, and a large majority of his party undoubtedly favored his +renomination. But his famous letter to Mr. Hammet, of Mississippi, +dated March 27th, on the annexation of Texas, placed a lion in his +path. In this lengthy and elaborate document he committed himself +against the project of immediate annexation, and the effect was at +once seen in the decidedly unfriendly tone of Democratic opinion +in the South. He had been faithful to the Slave oligarchy in many +things, but his failure in one was counted a breach of the whole +law. By many acts of patient and dutiful service he had earned +the gratitude of his Southern task-masters; but now, when driven +to the wall, he mustered the courage to say, "Thus far, no farther"; +and for this there was no forgiveness. General Jackson came to +his rescue, but it was in vain. The Southern heart was set upon +immediate annexation as the golden opportunity for rebuilding the +endangered edifice of slavery, and Mr. Van Buren's talk about +national obligations and the danger of a foreign war was treated +as the idle wind. The Southern Democrats were bent upon his +overthrow, and they went about it in the Baltimore Convention of +the 27th of May as if perfectly conscious of their power over the +Northern wing of the party. They moved and carried the "two-thirds +rule," which had been acted on in the National Convention of 1832, +and afterward in that of 1835, although this could not have been +done without the votes of a majority of the convention, which was +itself strongly for Van Buren. The rule was adopted by a considerable +majority, the South being nearly unanimous in its favor, while the +North largely "supplied the men who handed Van Buren over to his +enemies with a kiss." Even General Cass, the most gifted and +accomplished dough-face in the Northern States, failed to receive +a majority of the votes of the Convention on any ballot, and James +K. Polk was finally nominated as the champion of immediate annexation, +with George M. Dallas as the candidate for Vice President. + +The nomination was a perfect surprise to the country, because Mr. +Polk was wholly unknown to the people as a statesman. Like Governor +Hayes, when nominated in 1876, he belonged to the "illustrious +obscure." The astonished native who, on hearing the news, suddenly +inquired of a bystander, "Who the devil is Polk?" simply echoed +the common feeling, while his question provoked the general laughter +of the Whigs. For a time the nomination was somewhat disappointing +to the Democrats themselves; but they soon rallied, and finally +went into the canvass very earnestly, and with a united front. +The Whigs began the campaign in high hopes and in fact with unbounded +confidence in their success. Their great captain was in command, +and they took comfort in his favorite utterance that "truth is +omnipotent, and public justice certain." To pit him against such +a pigmy as Polk seemed to them a miserable burlesque, and they +counted their triumph as already perfectly assured. They claimed +the advantage on the question of annexation, and still more as to +the tariff, since the act of 1842 was popular, and Polk was known +to be a free-trader of the Calhoun school. As the canvass proceeded, +however, it became evident that the fight was to be fierce and +bitter to the last degree, and that the issue, after all, was not +so certain. Mr. Polk, notwithstanding his obscurity, was able to +rouse the enthusiasm of his party, North and South, to a very +remarkable degree. The annexation pill was swallowed by many +Democrats whose support of him had been deemed morally impossible. +In New York, where the opposition was strongest, leading Democrats, +with William Cullen Bryant as their head, denounced the annexation +scheme and repudiated the paragraph of the National platform which +favored it, and yet voted for Polk, who owed his nomination solely +to the fact that he had committed himself to the policy of immediate +and unconditional annexation, thus anticipating the sickly political +morality of 1852, when so many men of repute tried in vain to save +both their consciences and their party orthodoxy by "spitting upon +the platform and swallowing the candidate who stood upon it." +History will have to record that the action of these New York +Democrats saved the ticket in that State, and justly attaches to +them the responsibility for the very evils to the country against +which they so eloquently warned their brethren. The power of the +spoils came in as a tremendous make-weight, while the party lash +was vigorously flourished, and the "independent voter" was as +hateful to the party managers on both sides as we find him to-day. +Those who refused to wear the party collar were branded by the +"organs" as a "pestiferous and demoralizing brood," who deserved +"extermination." Discipline was rigorously enforced, and made to +take the place of argument. As regards the tariff question, Mr. +Polk's letter to Judge Kane, of Philadelphia, of the 19th of June, +enabled his friends completely to turn the tables on the Whigs of +Pennsylvania, where "Polk, Dallas, and the tariff of 1842," was +blazoned on the Democratic banners, and thousands of Democrats were +actually made to believe that Polk was even a better tariff man +than Clay. This letter, committing its free-trade author to the +principle of a revenue tariff, with "reasonable incidental protection +to our home industries," was translated into German and printed in +all the party papers; and as a triumphant effort to make the people +believe a lie, and a masterpiece of political duplicity employed +by the great party as a means of success, it had no precedent in +American politics. In later times, however, it has been completely +eclipsed by the scheme of "tissue ballots," and other wholesale +methods of balking the popular will in the South, by the successful +effort to cheat the nation out of the right to choose its Chief +Magistrate in 1876, and by the startling bribery of a great +commonwealth four years later, now unblushingly confessed by the +party leaders who accomplished it. + +In the meantime the spirit of discontent began to manifest itself +among the Whigs of the South respecting Mr. Clay's attitude on the +question of annexation, and in a moment of weakness he wrote his +unfortunate "Alabama letter," of the 27th of July. In that letter +he said: "I do not think the subject of slavery ought to affect +the question one way or the other. Whether Texas be independent +or incorporated into the United States, I do not believe it will +prolong or shorten the duration of that institution." He also +declared that he would be "glad to see it, without dishonor, without +war, with the common consent of the Union, and upon just and fair +terms." These words were perfectly chilling to his anti-slavery +supporters, who were utterly opposed to annexation on _any_ terms, +because the power of slavery would thus inevitably be extended and +strengthened in the United States. The letter was an irreparable +mistake. It was a fresh example of his besetting tendency to +mediate between opposing policies, and undoubtedly drove from his +support many who would otherwise have followed the Whig banner to +the end. + +But the Whigs kept up the fight. The issues were joined, and it +was too late to change front. The real question in dispute was +that of annexation, and the election of Polk was certain to secure +it, and to involve the nation in war. Clay was unquestionably +right in saying that annexation and war were identical; and, although +on the slavery question he might be feared as a compromiser, there +was no reason to doubt that, if elected, he would vigorously resist +the annexation scheme, except upon conditions already stated, which +could not fail to defeat it as a present measure and avoid the +calamities of war. I was inexpressibly disappointed and grieved +by his letter; but I agreed with Cassius M. Clay, that opposition +to annexation except "with the common consent of the Union" was +practically absolute opposition, and I therefore kept up the fight +in which I had enlisted in the beginning and made my first venture +as a stump speaker. I cared little about the old party issues. +I had outgrown the teachings of the Whigs on the subject of +protection, and especially their pet dogma of "the higher the duty +the lower the price of the protected article." As to a national +bank, I followed Webster, who had pronounced it "an obsolete idea"; +and I totally repudiated the land policy of the Whigs, having at +that early day espoused the principle that the public lands should +cease to be a source of revenue, and be granted in small homesteads +to the landless poor for actual settlement and tillage. But on +the subject of slavery, though it had escaped my attention in the +hurrah of 1840, I was thoroughly aroused. This came of my Quaker +training, the speeches of Adams and Giddings, the anti-slavery +newspapers, and the writings of Dr. Channing, all of which I had +been reading with profound interest since the Harrison Campaign. +Being perfectly sure that annexation would lead to slavery-extension +and war, I thought it my clear and unhesitating duty to resist the +election of Polk with all my might. This I did to the end, and in +doing it I employed substantially the same arguments on which I +justified my separation from the Whigs four years later. + +The contest proceeded with its variety of charges and counter- +charges, and was prosecuted on both sides with extraordinary vigor +and zeal in every part of the Union. I think it was everywhere +and pre-eminently a struggle between the men of brains on either +side. I am quite sure this was true in my own State. Indiana was +remarkable at that time, not only for her gifted stump orators, +but for her men of real calibre and power of argument. On the side +of the Whigs were such men as Oliver H. Smith, Joseph G. Marshall, +George G. Dunn, Joseph L. White, Richard W. Thompson, Caleb B. +Smith, George H. Proffit, Henry S. Lane, Samuel W. Parker, and +James H. Cravens. The Democrats could boast of Tilghman A. Howard, +James Whitcomb, Edward A. Hannegan, William W. Wick, John Law, +Joseph A. Wright, Jesse D. Bright, John W. Davis, Thomas J. Henly, +and John L. Robinson. The best talking talent of the nation was +called into service, including such Democratic giants as Thomas H. +Benton, William Allen, Silas Wright, Robert J. Walker, James +Buchanan, and Daniel S. Dickinson; and such Whigs to match them as +Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Thomas F. Marshall, Thomas Corwin, +S. S. Prentiss, Thomas Ewing, and W. C. Preston. The fight was +more ably if not more hotly contested than any preceding national +struggle, raging and blazing everywhere, while the forces marshaled +against each other were more evenly balanced than in any contest +since the year 1800. The race was so close that the result hung +in agonizing doubt and suspense up to the evening following the +election. Party feeling rose to a frenzy, and the consuming desire +of the Whigs to crown their great Chief with the laurels of victory +was only equaled by that of the Democrats for the triumph of the +unknown Tennessean whose nomination had provoked the aggravating +laughter of the enemy in the beginning. + +It is not possible to describe the effect of Mr. Clay's defeat upon +the Whigs. It was wholly unexpected, and Mr. Clay especially +remained sanguine as to his triumph up to the last moment. When +the result became known, it was accepted by his friends as a great +national calamity and humiliation. It shocked and paralyzed them +like a great tragedy. I remember very vividly one zealous Whig, +afterward a prominent Free Soiler and Republican leader, who was +so utterly overwhelmed that for a week he lost the power of sleep, +and gave himself up to political sorrow and despair. Letters of +the most heart-felt condolence poured in upon Mr. Clay from all +quarters, and the Whigs everywhere seemed to feel that no statesman +of real eminence could ever be made President. They insisted that +an overwhelming preponderance of the virtue, intelligence and +respectability of the country had supported their candidate, while +the larger element of ignorance and "unwashed" humanity, including +our foreign-born population, gave the victory to Mr. Polk. Their +faith in republican government was fearfully shaken, while the +causes of the great disaster were of course sought out, and made +the text of hasty but copious moralizings. One of these causes +was the Kane letter, which undoubtedly gave Mr. Polk the State of +Pennsylvania. Another was the baneful influence of "nativism," +which had just broken out in the great cities, and been made the +occasion of such frightful riot and bloodshed in Philadelphia as +to alarm our foreign-born citizens, and throw them almost unanimously +against the Whigs. The Abolitionists declared that Mr. Clay's +defeat was caused by his trimming on the annexation question, which +drew from him a sufficient number of conscientious anti-slavery +men to have turned the tide in his favor. The famous Plaquemine +frauds in Louisiana unquestionably lost that State to Mr. Clay. +This infamous conspiracy to strangle the voice of a sovereign State +was engineered by John Slidell, and it consisted of the shipment +from New Orleans to Plaquemine of two steamboats loaded with roughs +and villains, whose illegal votes were sufficient to turn the State +over to the Democrats. + +But the cause of Mr. Clay's defeat which was dwelt upon with most +emphasis and feeling was the action of the Liberty party. Birney, +its candidate for President, received 66,304 votes, and these, it +was alleged, came chiefly from the Whig party. The vote of these +men in New York and Michigan was greater than the Democratic +majority, so that if they had united with the Whigs, Clay would +have been elected in spite of all other opposition. Mr. Polk's +plurality over Clay in New York was only 5,106, while Birney received +in that State 15,812; and Horace Greeley insisted that if only one +third of this vote had been cast for Mr. Clay, he would have been +President. The feeling of the Whigs against these anti-slavery +men was bitter and damnatory to the last degree. The Plaquemine +frauds, the Kane letter, and everything else, were forgotten in +the general and abounding wrath against these "fanatics," who were +denounced as the betrayers of their country and of the cause which +a very great and critical opportunity had placed it in their power +to save. "The Abolitionists deserve to be damned, and they will +be," said a zealous Whig to an anti-slavery Quaker; and this was +simply the expression of the prevailing feeling at this time, at +least in the West. + +But this treatment of the Abolitionists was manifestly unjust. +Their organization four years before was neither untimely nor +unnecessary, but belonged to the inevitable logic of a great and +dominating idea. A party was absolutely necessary which should +make this idea paramount, and utterly refuse to be drawn away from +it by any party divisions upon subsidiary questions. It should be +remembered, too, that the Liberty party was made up of Democratic +as well as Whig deserters, and that if it had disbanded, or had +not been formed, the result of this election would have been the +same. The statement of Mr. Greeley, that one third of Birney's +vote in New York would have elected Clay, was unwarranted, unless +he was able to show what would have been the action of the other +two thirds. In justice to these Abolitionists it should also be +remembered and recorded, to say the very least, that Mr. Clay +himself divided with them the responsibility of his defeat by his +Alabama letter, and that now, in the clear perspective of history, +they stand vindicated against their Whig assailants, whose fevered +brains and party intolerance blinded their eyes to the truth. +Doubtless there were honest differences of opinion as to the best +method of serving the anti-slavery cause in this exasperating +campaign, and these differences may still survive as an inheritance; +but abolitionism, as a working force in our politics, had to have +a beginning, and no man who cherishes the memory of the old Free +Soil party, and of the larger one to which it gave birth, will +withhold the meed of his praise from the heroic little band of +sappers and miners who blazed the way for the armies which were to +follow, and whose voices, though but faintly heard in the whirlwind +of 1840, were made significantly audible in 1844. Although they +were everywhere totally misunderstood and grossly misrepresented, +they clearly comprehended their work and courageously entered upon +its performance. Their political creed was substantially identical +with that of the Free Soilers of 1848 and the Republicans of 1856 +and 1860. They were anything but political fanatics, and history +will record that their sole offense was the espousal of the truth +in advance of the multitude, which slowly and finally followed in +their footsteps. + +But the war against slavery was not at all intermitted by the +victory of the Democrats. Events are schoolmasters, and this +triumph only quickened their march toward the final catastrophe. +Cassius M. Clay, who had espoused the Whig cause in this canvass +with great vigor and zeal, and on anti-slavery grounds, re-enlisted +in the battle against slavery, and resolved to prosecute it by new +methods. He had been sorely tried by Mr. Clay's Alabama letter +and the Whig defeat, but he was now armed with fresh courage, and +resolved to "carry the war into Africa" by the establishment of +his newspaper, the "True American," in Lexington, in his own State. +His arraignment of slavery was so eloquent and masterly that a +large meeting of slave-holders appointed a committee to wait on +him, and request the discontinuance of his paper. His reply was: +"Go, tell your secret conclave of cowardly assassins that Cassius +M. Clay knows his rights, and how to defend them." These words +thrilled all lovers of liberty, and sounded to them like a trumpet +call to battle. Another fruitful event was the effort of Massachusetts, +in the fall of this year, to protect her colored seamen in the +ports of Charleston and New Orleans, where they were seized on +merchant ships and sold into slavery under local police regulations. +When Mr. Hoar visited Charleston as the accredited agent of his +State for the purpose of taking measures to test the constitutionality +of these regulations, the Legislature of South Carolina, by a vote +of one hundred and nineteen against one, passed a series of outrageous +resolutions culminating in a request to the Governor to expel him +from the State as a confessed disturber of the peace. He was +obliged summarily to depart, as the only means of escaping the +vengeance of the mob. This open and insolent defiance of the +national authority could not fail to strengthen anti-slavery opinion +in the Northern States. The same end was served by an unexpected +movement in New Hampshire. This State, like Massachusetts and +Vermont, had taken ground against annexation, but it wheeled into +line after Polk was nominated. John P. Hale, however, then a +Democratic member of Congress from that State, refused to follow +his party, and for this reason, after he had been formally declared +its choice for re-election, he was thrown overboard, and another +candidate nominated. No election, however, was effected, and his +seat remained vacant during the 29th Congress, but he obtained a +seat in the Legislature in 1846, and the following year was chosen +United States Senator, while Amos Tuck, afterward a prominent Free +Soiler, was elected to the Lower House of Congress. These were +pregnant events, and especially the triumph of Hale, who became a +very formidable champion of freedom, and a thorn in the side of +slavery till it perished. + +In the meantime the hunger for immediate annexation had been whetted +by the election of Mr. Polk, and its champions hurried up their +work, and pushed it by methods in open disregard of the Constitution +and of our treaty obligations with Mexico. In the last hours of +the administration of John Tyler the atrocious plot received its +finishing touch and the Executive approval, and, in the apt words +of the ablest and fairest historian of the transaction, "the bridal +dress in which Calhoun had led the beloved of the slaveocracy to +the Union was the torn and tattered Constitution of the United +States." War with Mexico, as prophesied by the Whigs, speedily +followed. As early as August, 1845, General Taylor was ordered by +President Polk to advance to a position on the Nueces. In March +of the following year, in pursuance of further orders, his army +again advanced, taking its position on the east bank of the Rio +Grande, and, of course, on the soil of Mexico. Hostilities naturally +followed, and after two battles the President, in his message to +Congress, declared that "American blood has been shed on American +soil." This robust Executive falsehood, with which the slave power +compelled him to face the civilized world, must always hold a very +high rank in the annals of public audacity and crime. It is what +Thomas Carlyle might have styled "the second power of a lie," and +is only rivaled by the parallel falsehood of Congress in declaring +that "by the act of the Republic of Mexico a state of war exists +between that Government and the United States." In the message of +the President referred to, he recommended that a considerable sum +of money be placed at his disposal for the purpose of negotiating +a peace, and it was on the consideration of this message that David +Wilmot fortunately obtained the floor, and moved his memorable +proviso for the interdiction of slavery in any territory which +might be wrested from Mexico by our arms. This was the session of +Congress for 1846-47, and the proposition passed the House with +great unanimity as to the Northern members. At the following +session of Congress, on the 28th of February, 1848, the proviso +again came before the House, and the motion to lay it on the table +failed, all the Whigs and a large majority of the Democrats from +the free States voting in the negative. It passed the House on +the 13th of December following, on a similar division of parties +and sections, but the Senate refused to concur, and the Thirtieth +Congress adjourned without any provisions whatever for the organization +or government of our recently acquired Territories. + +It is worth while to notice in passing that on the first introduction +of the Wilmot proviso, in August, 1846, General Cass was decidedly +in its favor, and regretted that it had been talked to death by +the long speech of John Davis; but on the 24th of December, 1847, +he wrote his famous "Nicholson letter," proclaiming his gospel of +"popular sovereignty" in the Territories, which proved the seed- +plot of immeasurable national trouble and disaster. "I am strongly +impressed with the opinion," said he, "that a great change is going +on in the public mind on this subject--in my own mind as well as +others"; and he had before declared, on the 19th of February, that +the passage of the Wilmot proviso "would be death to the war, death +to all hope of getting an acre of territory, death to the +administration, and death to the Democratic party." This was +thoroughly characteristic, and in perfect harmony with his action, +already referred to, respecting the Quintuple treaty; but it showed +how the political waters were being troubled by the slavery question, +and how impossible it was to accommodate the growing anti-slavery +feeling of the country by any shallow expedients. + +But another conspiracy against freedom was now hatched; and if the +Senate had strangled the Wilmot proviso, it was gratifying to find +the House ready to strangle this monster of senatorial birth. I +allude to the now almost forgotten "Clayton Compromise," which +passed the Senate by a decided majority on the 26th of July. By +submitting the whole question of slavery in all our Territories to +the Supreme Court of the United States, as then constituted, it +would almost certainly have spawned the curse in all of them, +including Oregon, which had long been exposed to peril and massacre +by the reckless opposition of our slave-masters to a government +there without the recognition of slavery. The defeat of this +nefarious proposition, which was happily followed by the passage +of a bill giving Oregon a territorial government, is largely due +to Alexander H. Stephens, whose motion to lay it on the table in +the House prevailed by a small majority. In this action he had +the courage to separate himself from the great body of the leading +men of his own section; but in doing so he was prompted by his +supreme devotion to slavery. This he has since denied and labored +to explain in his private correspondence and published works, but +the record is fatally against him. He was unwilling to trust the +interests of the South in the hands of the Supreme Court, and his +speech of August 7th, in the House of Representatives, in defense +of his motion, gave very plausible reasons for his apprehensions; +but the Dred Scott decision of a few years later showed how completely +he misjudged that tribunal, and how opportunely his blindness came +to the rescue of freedom. It seems now to have been providential; +for in this Continental plot against liberty the superior sagacity +of Calhoun and his associates was demonstrated by subsequent events, +while Mr. Stephens, with his great influence in the South, could +almost certainly have secured its triumph if he had become its +champion instead of its enemy. + + +CHAPTER III. +THE CAMPAIGN OF 1848--ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS. +The approach of another presidential campaign--Party divisions +threatened by the Wilmot proviso--Nomination of Gen. Cass--The +"Nicholson Letter"--Democratic division in New York--The nomination +of Gen. Taylor--Whig divisions--Birth of the Free Soil party--The +Buffalo Convention--Nomination of Van Buren and Adams--Difficulty +of uniting on Van Buren--Incidents--Rev. Joshua Leavitt--The work +of the campaign--Mr. Webster and Free Soil--Greeley and Seward-- +Abuse of Whig bolters--Remarkable results of the canvass. + +The approach of another presidential year was thus marked by a +steadily growing interest in the question of slavery. The conflict +with it seemed far more irrepressible than ever before. The Liberty +party had nominated John P. Hale as its candidate in 1847. The +Whigs in Massachusetts were threatened with an incurable division +into "Conscience Whigs" and "Cotton Whigs," growing out of the +question of annexation and the government of our new Territories. +The same causes were dividing the Democrats of New York, and the +feud was seriously aggravated by remembering the defeat of Mr. Van +Buren in 1844, for the one sin of opposing the immediate annexation +of Texas, while a large majority of the party favored his nomination. +The Van Buren element in the Democratic party threatened revolt in +other States, while both Whigs and Democrats in the North were +committed to the policy of the Wilmot proviso. This was to be the +great question of the ensuing national canvass, and the roused +spirit of the people of the free States seemed clearly to foreshadow +the triumph of freedom in the organization and government of our +Mexican acquisitions. + +But the virtue and courage of our politicians were now to be severely +tried. The power of party discipline and the tempting bait of the +spoils were to be employed as never before in swerving men from +their convictions. The South, of course, was a perfect unit, and +fully resolved upon the spread of slavery over our Territories. +It had always been the absolute master of the Northern Democracy, +and had no dream of anything less than the supremacy of its own +will. Its favorite candidate was now Gen. Cass, and he was nominated +by the Baltimore National Convention on the 22d day of May. It +was a fit nomination for the party of slavery. He had been thirsting +for it many years, and had earned it by multiplied acts of the most +obsequious and crouching servility to his Southern overseers. +Again and again he had crawled in the dust at their feet, and, if +they could not now reward him with the presidency, it seemed utterly +useless for any Northern man to hope for their favor. The "Nicholson +letter" was not all that the South wanted, but it was a very +important concession, and with Gen. Cass as its interpreter it +meant the nearest thing possible to a complete surrender. In this +National Convention the State of New York had two sets of delegates, +both of which were formally admitted, as a compromise; but the +members of the Van Buren or Free Soil wing refused to take their +seats, and thus held themselves in reserve for such revolutionary +work as should afterward seem to them advisable. + +The Whig National Convention met in Philadelphia on the 7th of +June. The party seemed completely demoralized by the defeat of +Mr. Clay in the previous canvass, and was now in search of "an +available candidate," and inspired by the same miserable policy of +expediency which had been so barren of results in 1840. The Northern +Whigs appeared to be unanimously and zealously committed to the +prohibition of slavery in our Territories, but equally unanimous +and zealous in the determination to succeed in the canvass. For +more than a year Gen. Taylor had been growing into favor with the +party as a candidate, and he had now become decidedly formidable. +The spectacle was a melancholy one, since it demonstrated the +readiness of this once respectable old party to make complete +shipwreck of everything wearing the semblance of principle, for +the sake of success. General Taylor had never identified himself +in any way with the Whig party. He had spent his life as a mere +soldier on the frontier, and had never given a vote. He had frankly +said he had not made up his mind upon the questions which divided +the parties. He not only refused to be the exponent of Whig +principles, but accepted the nomination of bodies of men not known +as Whigs, who scouted the idea of being bound by the acts of any +national convention. He was a very large slave-owner, and thus +identified in interest, and presumably in sympathy, with the South; +but he could not be induced to define his position. His active +supporters were chiefly from the slave-holding States and those +free States which had generally given Democratic majorities, while +the men most violent in their opposition to the Wilmot proviso were +his most conspicuous followers; but the Whigs from the free States +vouched for his soundness on the slavery issue. His letters +contained nothing but vague generalities, and he utterly declined +to commit himself on the question that was stirring the nation to +its depths. To the different sections of the Union he wore a +different face, and each section seemed confident that the other +would be duped, while cordially joining in a common struggle for +the spoils of office which constituted the sole bond of union. +His early letters, before he fell into the hands of the politicians, +were frank and unstudied, reflecting his character as a plain old +soldier without any political training; but his later letters were +diplomatic, not wanting in style and finish, and obviously written +by others. His second letter to Allison, on which the campaign +was finally fought, was written in the room of Alexander H. Stephens, +in Washington, after consulting with Toombs and Crittenden, and +afterward forwarded to Taylor, who gave it to the world as his own. +He had constantly about him a sort of political body-guard, or +"committee of safety," to direct his way during the canvass, and +no one could reasonably pretend that any principle whatever would +be settled by the election. He had whipped the Mexicans, and the +Whig platform was "Rough and Ready," "A little more Grape, Captain +Bragg," and political success. + +The nomination, moreover, was accomplished by methods which made +it exceedingly exasperating to Mr. Clay and his friends. The +treachery of the Whig managers to their great leader exceeded that +which had sacrificed him at the Harrisburg Convention of 1839. +The Whigs of Virginia nominated Taylor on the credit of a forged +dispatch, to the effect that Kentucky had decided in his favor, +and thus abandoned her favorite son. General Scott had expressed +his willingness to run for Vice President if Clay should be nominated +for President, but the member of Congress who had been authorized +to make this known kept it a secret. Clay allowed his name to go +before the Convention on the assurance of Governor Bebb that Ohio +would stand by him, but the delegation voted for Scott. On the +first ballot, even seven delegates from Kentucky voted for Taylor, +and he was nominated by 171 votes, with 63 for Scott, and only 32 +for Clay. Of the votes for Taylor, on the first ballot, 97 were +cast by States that had voted for Polk in 1844; and of the 94 Whig +delegates from the Free States he received the votes of only four. +He was nominated as the candidate of the Whigs who believed in the +extension of slavery, by a Convention which repeatedly and +contemptuously voted down the Wilmot proviso, already endorsed by +all the Whig Legislatures of the Free States, while no platform of +principles was adopted; and Horace Greeley was thus perfectly +justified in branding it as "the slaughter-house of Whig principles." +Such an exhibition of shameless political prostitution has rarely +been witnessed, and three of the leading Whigs of Massachusetts-- +Charles Allen, Henry Wilson, and Stephen C. Phillips--left the +Convention in disgust, and severed their connection with the party +forever. + +In this state of the country, and of the old parties, a new +organization and another nomination became inevitable. The followers +of Mr. Van Buren, in New York and other States, were aching for +the opportunity to make themselves felt in avenging the wrong done +to their chief in 1844, and were quite ready to strike hands with +the members of the Liberty party. The members of that party were +generally ready to withdraw their candidate for President and unite +with the anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats of the Northern States, +if an honorable basis of action could be agreed upon. The "Conscience +Whigs" of Massachusetts, and thousands of Whigs in other States, +who regarded the freedom of our Territories as a vital issue, and +were thoroughly soured by the nomination of General Taylor, were +equally anxious to fuse with the other elements of political +discontent, and make their voices heard in a new and independent +organization. There was little time for delay, and as soon as the +troubled political elements would permit, a call was issued for a +National Free Soil Convention, at Buffalo, on the 9th of August. + +The Convention was historic. It marked a new and significant +departure in party politics, and was a conspicuous milestone in +the anti-slavery journey. It met in a spacious pavilion, and was +one of the largest political gatherings ever assembled in the +country, and animated by unbounded earnestness and enthusiasm. +Its leading spirits were men of character and undisputed ability. +The "Barnburners" of New York were largely in attendance, including +such veteran leaders as Preston King, Benjamin F. Butler, David +Dudley Field, Samuel J. Tilden, and James W. Nye. Ohio sent a +formidable force headed by Joshua R. Giddings, Salmon Chase, and +Samuel Lewis. The "Conscience Whigs" of Massachusetts were well +represented, with Charles Francis Adams, Stephen C. Phillips, and +Francis W. Bird, in the front. The Liberty party sent its delegates, +including such men as the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, Samuel Lewis, and +Henry B. Stanton. The disappointed Clay Whigs were there, led by +such representative men as Joseph L. White, who were eager to lay +hold of any weapon by which they could hope to strike down the +betrayers of the Whig cause. The "Land Reformers" and "Workingmen" +of New York were represented, as also the special advocates of +"Cheap postage for the people," who longed to be rid of the tariff +of twenty-five cents on the privilege of sending a single letter +through the mails, and whose wishes afterward found expression in +the platform. + +Could these elements be harmonized? Could the bolters from the +Whig party overcome their traditional hatred of Martin Van Buren? +If so, could the Liberty party men be prevailed upon to give up +their chosen candidate, and labor for the election of the "foxy +old politician" whose reputation for tricky and ambidextrous +political methods had become proverbial? If not, could the +Barnburners, with their large following, be united on the candidate +of the Liberty party, or some new man? These questions had to be +met; but preliminary to the nomination was the construction of a +platform. This was accomplished without serious difficulty, and, +considering the circumstances of the country, it was perhaps the +most admirable declaration of principles ever promulgated by any +party. It was chiefly the work of Mr. Chase, assisted by Charles +Francis Adams, Benjamin F. Butler, and others, and it declared, +among its pregnant and telling sentences, that "Congress has no +more power to make a slave than to make a king," and that "it is +the duty of the Federal Government to relieve itself of all +responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery wherever +that Government possesses authority to legislate and is thus +responsible for its existence." The reading of these declarations +called forth thunders of applause, while the last plank in the +platform "resolved, that we inscribe on our banner free soil, free +speech, free labor, and free men, and under it we will fight on +and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our +exertions." + +The nominating Convention assembled in the large Universalist Church +in Buffalo. Mr. Van Buren was not understood as desiring the +nomination, but it was now authoritatively stated that he would +accept it if tendered, and that he would, without hesitation or +evasions, accept the platform of the Convention. The different +elements of this movement had been in conference, and the time for +action was at hand. In common with my Whig associates, I had all +along felt that I could not support Mr. Van Buren under any +circumstances; but the pervading tone of earnestness in the +Convention, and the growing spirit of political fraternity, had +modified our views. We saw that several of the great leaders of +the Liberty party were quite ready to meet the "Barnburners" on +common ground. It seemed very desirable to combine with so large +a body of helpers, and to profit by their experience and training +in the school of practical politics. Mr. Van Buren had certainly +gone great lengths as the servant of the slave power, but there +was _one_ great and vital issue to freedom on which he had taken +the right side, and maintained it without flinching in the presence +of a great temptation; and for this he had been anathematized by +the South, and driven into retirement. If nominated by the anti- +slavery men of the free States, and squarely committed to their +principles, it was altogether improbable, if not morally impossible, +that he would again lend himself to the service of slavery. Besides, +the whole country had been so demoralized by this evil that it was +not easy to find any public man of eminence whose record had been +spotless; and it was a part of the work of earnest anti-slavery +men to forget party memories and prejudices for the sake of the +cause, and to cultivate the virtues of hope and trust, rather than +the spirit of doubt and suspicion, in dealing with a man who was +now ready to unfurl the flag of freedom, and had been stricken down +by her foes. The nomination of Mr. Van Buren would undoubtedly +mean the freedom of our Territories and the denationalization of +slavery, and this was the great point. In this movement there was +no element of compromise. It was wholly unhampered by a Southern +wing; and even should the nominee betray the men who now trusted +him, their choice of him, as their standard bearer, would be +vindicated by the circumstances of the hour. + +Mr. Chase, then in the prime of his manhood, and a splendid figure, +was the president of this nominating Convention, and its work +proceeded. There was a feeling of intense anxiety about the result, +and an earnestness and real seriousness which I have never witnessed +in any other Convention. There were leading Whigs and Liberty +party men, whose action in respect to Mr. Van Buren was not yet +generally known. Several delegates remarked, "I want to know what +Samuel Lewis will do before I decide," or, "I want to hear from +Joshua Leavitt." After the nomination of Mr. Van Buren had been +moved, Mr. Leavitt rose from his seat, and all eyes were instantly +turned upon him. He was then in middle life, and his tall and +erect form and fine physiognomy were singularly striking. He was +full of emotion, and seemed at first to lack the power of utterance, +while the stillness of death prevailed in the Convention. He began +by saying: "Mr. Chairman, this is the most solemn experience of +my life. I feel as if in the immediate presence of the Divine +Spirit." He paused here for a few moments, while there did not +seem to be a dry eye in the Convention; but he proceeded grandly +with his speech, defined his position, and seconded the motion for +Mr. Van Buren's nomination, upon which the mingled political +enthusiasm and religious fervor of the Convention broke over all +bounds, and utterly defied description. Men laughed and cried at +the same time, and gave themselves up to the perfect abandon of +their feelings. All divisions had completely died away, and the +nomination of Mr. Van Buren by acclamation became a matter of +course. Charles Francis Adams was then nominated for Vice President, +when the Convention adjourned, and its members returned to their +homes to prepare for the coming canvass under the banner of "Van +Buren and Free Soil--Adams and Liberty." + +The new national party was now launched, and the work of the +presidential canvass began in earnest. John A. Dix, then one of +the United States Senators from New York, was nominated for Governor, +with Seth M. Gates, the anti-slavery colleague of Adams and Giddings +in Congress, for Lieutenant-Governor. The Free Soil State Convention +of Ohio set the ball in motion in that State, and the new party, +by securing the balance of power in the Legislature, was able to +place Mr. Chase in the Senate of the United States. Stephen C. +Phillips was nominated for Governor in Massachusetts, where the +movement was very formidable, and exceedingly annoying to the +"Cotton Whigs." Like conventions were held in Indiana and other +free States, organizations effected, and candidates nominated, +while the movement extended to the border slave states, in which +it afterward did excellent service. The canvass of the Democrats +was not remarkably enthusiastic. The division of the party and +the probable loss of the State of New York had a very depressing +influence. The Whig canvass was perhaps marked by still less +earnestness and spirit. It was hollow and false, and the best men +in the party felt it. The only enthusiasm of the campaign was in +the new party, and it was perfectly spontaneous and fervid. The +most remarkable feature of this contest was the bitterness of the +Whigs toward the Free Soilers, and especially those who had deserted +from the Whig ranks. They seemed to be maddened by the imputation +that they were not perfectly sound on the Free Soil issue. This +was particularly true of Mr. Webster, who had been branded by Mr. +Adams as a "Traitor to freedom," as far back as the year 1843, and +who afterward justified these strong words in his "Seventh of March +Speech." In the Whig State Convention of Massachusetts, held at +Springfield, in 1847, Mr. Webster, speaking of the Wilmot proviso, +had said: "Did I not commit myself to that in the year 1838, fully, +entirely? I do not consent that more recent discoverers shall take +out a patent for the discovery. Allow me to say, sir, it is not +their thunder." He then claimed Free Soil as a distinctive Whig +doctrine, and in a speech at Abingdon, he now said: "The gentlemen +who have joined this new party, from among the Whigs, pretend that +they are greater lovers of liberty and greater haters of slavery +than those they leave behind them. I do not admit it. I do not +admit any such thing. I think we are as good Free Soil men as they +are." The same ground was urged by Washington Hunt, James Brooks, +and other leading Whigs; and Mr. Greeley declared that "at no time +previously had Whig inculcations throughout the free States been +so decidedly and strongly hostile to the extension of slavery, and +so determined in requiring its inhibition by Congress, as during +the canvass of 1848." These statements appear very remarkable, +when it is remembered that the Whig nominee was a Louisiana planter, +and that he was nominated at the bidding of the slave-holding wing +of the party, and by a convention which not only contemptuously +voted down the Wilmot proviso, but treated its advocates as +"fanatics." But even Governor Seward strangely clung to the old +party after the death and burial of its conscience, and seriously +brought his personal integrity into question by urging the support +of General Taylor upon those who favored the abolition of slavery. +In a speech at Cleveland, Ohio, in October of that year, he said: +"Freedom insists on the emancipation and development of labor; +slavery demands a soil moistened with tears and blood--freedom a +soil that exults under the elastic tread of man in his native +majesty. These elements divide and classify the American people +into two parties," and he proceeded to argue as if the Whigs and +Democrats were thus divided, when he knew that both were in the +absolute control of the slave power. + +The Free Soilers, of course, did not particularly relish these +moral lectures on slavery by men who had sold their principles at +public auction for the chance of office and plunder through the +elevation of a mere military chieftain to the Presidency. But the +Whigs were not content with claiming the complete monopoly of anti- +slavery virtue, and parading it before the country; they became +abusive and insulting to the full measure of their insincerity. +Their talk about "renegades" and "apostates" anticipated the abuse +heaped upon the Greeley men of 1872, when the Republican party had +so completely triumphed over the integrity of its earlier life. +The course of the Whigs in Indiana supplies a striking illustration. +After the presidential election of 1844, I resolved that I would +never vote for another slaveholder, and the course of events and +my own reflections had constantly strengthened this purpose. I +saw no honorable way of escape, and my position was well known to +my Whig brethren; but, as soon as General Taylor was nominated, +the policy of browbeating and threats was invoked. I had no taste +for politics, and had determined to devote myself entirely to my +profession. I was especially anxious to avoid any strife with the +Whigs, who were overwhelmingly in the ascendant in Eastern Indiana, +and in whose ranks were most of my clients and best friends. But +the party leaders talked to me in the imperative mood. They saw +my embarrassment, and seemed determined to coerce me into submission +by the supposed extremity of my situation; and I was obliged to +offer them open defiance. I was made an elector for Van Buren and +Adams in the Fourth Indiana District, and entered upon the contest +with a will; and from that time forth I was subjected to a torrent +of billingsgate which rivalled the fish market. Words were neither +minced nor mollified, but made the vehicles of political wrath and +the explosions of personal malice. The charge of "abolitionism" +was flung at me everywhere, and it is impossible now to realize +the odium then attaching to that term by the general opinion. I +was an "amalgamationist" and a "woolly-head." I was branded as +the "apostle of disunion" and "the orator of free-dirt." It was +a standing charge of the Whigs that I carried in my pocket a lock +of the hair of Frederick Douglass, to regale my senses with its +aroma when I grew faint. They declared that my audiences consisted +of "eleven men, three boys, and a negro," and sometimes I could +not deny this inventory was not very far from the truth. I was +threatened with mob violence by my own neighbors, and treated as +if slavery had been an established institution of the State, with +its machinery of overseers and background of pauperized whites; +while these same Whigs, as if utterly unconscious of the irony of +their professions, uniformly resolved, in their conventions, that +"the Whig party is the only true Free Soil party." + +I was not, of course, a non-resistant in the warfare, and for two +months I gave myself up to the work absolutely. I was seriously +embarrassed in the outset by the question of transportation, having +neither horse nor carriage, nor the financial ability to procure +either; but an anti-slavery Quaker, and personal friend, named +Jonathan Macy, came to my rescue. He furnished me an old white +horse, fully seventeen hands high, and rather thin in flesh, but +which served my purpose pretty well. I named him "Old Whitey," in +honor of General Taylor's famous war steed, and sallied forth in +the work of the campaign. Having a first-class pair of lungs and +much physical endurance, I frequently spoke as often as three times +a day, and generally from two to three hours at each meeting. I +spoke at cross-roads, in barns, in pork houses, in saw-mills, in +any place in which a few or many people would hear me; but I was +rarely permitted to enter any of the churches. I was so perfectly +swallowed up in my work and dominated by the singleness of my +purpose, that I took no thought of anything else; and the vigor of +my invective in dealing with the scurrilous attacks of my assailants +was very keenly realized, and, I believe, universally acknowledged. +With the truth on my side, I was delighted to find myself perfectly +able, single-handed, to fight my battle against the advantages of +superior talent and the trained leadership of men of established +reputations on the stump. But the fight, as I have said, was +unspeakably relentless, vitriolic and exhausting, and nothing could +redeem it but an overmastering sense of duty and self-respect. +The worst passions of humanity were set on fire among the Whigs by +this provoking insurrection against their party as the mere tool +of slavery, while animosities were engendered that still survive, +and which many men have carried to their graves. This is only a +single illustration of the spirit of the canvass, for similar +conflicts marked the struggle in Ohio, Massachusetts and other +States, and they were made inevitable by the desperation of a party +already dead in its trespasses, and which deserved a funeral instead +of a triumph. + +The results of this contest were most remarkable. General Taylor +was elected but his triumph was the death of the Whig party. The +long-coveted prize of the presidency was snatched from General +Cass, and the Democratic party divided and humiliated by its struggle +to serve two masters, while the friends of Mr. Van Buren had their +longed-for revenge. The Free Soil ticket received a little less +than three hundred thousand votes, and failed to carry the electoral +vote of a single State; but the effect of the movement was inestimably +important. It seated Chase in the United States Senate from Ohio, +and sent to the lower branch of Congress a sufficient number of +anti-slavery men from different States to hold the balance of power +in that body. It was very savingly felt in Congress in July of +this year, on the vote by which Oregon, with a territory nearly +equal to that of the thirteen original States, narrowly escaped +the damnation of slavery. It emphasized the demand of the million +for "cheap postage," and the freedom of the public domain, and thus +helped stereotype these great measures into law; and it played its +part in creating the public opinion which compelled the admission +of California as a free State. These were great achievements, but +they were mere preliminaries to the magnificent and far-reaching +work of succeeding years, of which the revolt of 1848 was the +promise and pledge. + + +CHAPTER IV. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. +Novel political complications--The Compromise Measures--First +election to Congress--Sketch of the "immortal nine"--The speakership +and Wm. J. Brown--Gen. Taylor and the Wilmot proviso--Slave-holding +banter--Compromise resolutions of Clay, and retreat of Northern +Whigs--Visit to Gen. Taylor--To Mr. Clay--His speeches--Webster's +seventh of March speech--Character of Calhoun--Speech on the slavery +question. + +The scheme of "pacification" and "final settlement," which was +launched in 1850, under the leadership of Henry Clay, constitutes +one of the chief landmarks in the history of the great conflict +between freedom and slavery. It was the futile attempt of legislative +diplomacy to escape the fatal logic of antecedent facts. The war +with Mexico, like the annexation of Texas which paved the way for +it, was inspired by the lust for slave territory. No sophistry +could disguise this fact, nor could its significance be overstated. +The prophets of slavery saw clearly that restriction meant destruction. +They girded themselves for battle on this issue, and were not at +all placated by Northern disclaimers of "abolitionism," and reiterated +disavowals of any right or purpose to intermeddle with slavery as +the creature of State law. Its existence was menaced by the policy +of confinement and ultimate suffocation; and therefore no compromise +of the pending strife over its prohibition in New Mexico, Utah and +California was possible. + +This strife was aggravated by its peculiar relations to the dominant +political parties. The sacrifice of Martin Van Buren in 1844, +because of his manly letter on the annexation of Texas, had been +a sore trial to his devoted friends. They could neither forgive +nor forget it; and when the opportunity for revenge finally came +in 1848, they laid hold of it with the sincerest and most heartfelt +satisfaction. As we have seen, they bolted from their party, threw +themselves into the Free Soil movement, and thus made the defeat +of Gen. Cass inevitable by the election of Gen. Taylor. Thousands +of these bolting Democrats, particularly in the State of New York, +cared more for the personal and political fortunes of Mr. Van Buren +than for the slavery question, as their subsequent return to their +party allegiance made manifest; but their action was none the less +decisive in the emergency which called it forth. The trouble in +the Whig camp was also serious. The last hopes of Mr. Clay and +his worshipers had perished forever in the nomination of the hero +of the Mexican war and the owner of two hundred slaves, by a +Convention which became famous as "the slaughter house of Whig +principles." Very many of these Clay Whigs, like the devotees of +Mr. Van Buren, would have been satisfied with almost any dispensation +of the slavery issue if their chief had been nominated, but they +were now enlisted in the anti-slavery army, and, like Joseph L. +White, of Indiana, vociferously shouted for "liberty and revenge." +Mr. Webster and his friends were also profoundly disgusted, and +lent a strong hand to the work of party insubordination, while the +election of Gen. Taylor was quite naturally followed by formidable +party coalitions. One of these, as already stated, made Salmon P. +Chase a senator of the United States from Ohio, as John P. Hale +had been chosen from New Hampshire some time before, and Charles +Sumner came in a little later from Massachusetts; and the House of +Representatives now contained nine distinctly anti-slavery men, +chosen from different States by kindred combinations, who had +completely renounced their allegiance to the old parties, and were +able to wield the balance of power in that body. Such were the +complications of the great problem which confronted the Thirty- +first Congress at the opening of its first session, on the third +day of December, 1849. + +In this Congress I was a representative, for the first time, of +the Fourth Indiana District. This district contained a large Quaker +population, and in the matter of liberality and progress was in +advance of all other portions of the State; and yet the immeasurable +wrath and scorn which were lavished upon the men who deserted the +Whig party on account of the nomination of General Taylor can +scarcely be conceived. The friends of a life-time were suddenly +turned to enemies, and their words were often dipped in venom. It +seemed as if a section of Kentucky or Virginia had in some way +usurped the geography of Eastern Indiana, bringing with it the +discipline of the slave-master, and a considerable importation of +"white trash." The contest was bitter beyond all precedent; but +after a hard fight, and by a union of Free Soilers, Democrats, and +Independent Whigs, I was elected by a small majority. Owing to +serious illness, resulting from the excitement and overwork of the +canvass, I did not reach Washington till the 19th of December--just +in time to cast my vote for speaker on the fifty-sixth ballot in +this first important "dead-lock" in the organization of the House. +With the exception of two Indiana members, I had no personal +acquaintance in either branch of Congress, and, on entering the +old Hall of Representatives, my first thought was to find the Free +Soil members, whose political fortunes and experience had been so +similar to my own. The seat of Mr. Giddings was pointed out to me +in the northwest corner of the Hall, where I found the stalwart +champion of free speech busy with his pen. He received me with +evident cordiality, and at once sent a page for the other Free Soil +members. Soon the "immortal nine," as we were often sportively +styled, were all together: David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, then +famous as the author of the "Provsio," short and corpulent in +person, and emphatic in speech; Preston King, of New York, with +his still more remarkable rotundity of belt, and a face beaming +with good humor; the eccentric and witty "Jo Root," of Ohio, always +ready to break a lance with the slave-holders; Charles Allen, of +Massachusetts, the quiet, dignified, clear-headed and genial +gentleman, but a good fighter and the unflinching enemy of slavery; +Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin, the fine-looking and large-hearted +philanthropist, whose enthusiasm never cooled; Amos Tuck, of New +Hampshire, amiable and somewhat feminine in appearance, but firm +in purpose; John W. Howe, of Pennsylvania, with a face radiant with +smiles and good will, and full of anti-slavery fervor; and Joshua +R. Giddings, of Ohio, with his broad shoulders, giant frame, +unquenchable love of freedom, and almost as familiar with the +slavery question, in all its aspects, as he was with the alphabet. +These, all now gone to their reckoning, were the elect of freedom +in the lower branch of this memorable Congress. They all greeted +me warmly, and the more so, perhaps, because my reported illness +and doubtful recovery had awakened a peculiar interest in my fortunes +at that time, on account of the political situation, and the possible +significance of a single vote. John P. Hale happened to enter the +hall during these congratulations, and still further lighted up +the scene by his jolly presence; while Dr. Bailey, of the "National +Era," also joined in the general welcome, and at once confirmed +all the good opinions I had formed of this courageous and single- +minded friend of the slave. I was delighted with all my brethren, +and at once entered fully into their plans and counsels. + +An incident connected with the organization of the House, which +caused intense excitement at the time, seems to deserve some notice. +It occurred on the 12th of December, while William J. Brown, of +Indiana, was being voted for as the Democratic candidate for Speaker. +He was a pro-slavery Democrat, through and through, and commanded +the entire and unhesitating confidence of Southern members; and +yet, on the last ballot for him, he received the votes of Allen, +Durkee, Giddings, King, and Wilmot, and came within two votes of +an election. The support of Mr. Brown by the leading Free Soilers +was a great surprise to both sides of the House, and the suspicion +that some secret arrangement had been made gave birth to a rumor +to that effect. After the balloting, while Mr. Bailey, of Virginia, +was on the floor, Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, asked him whether +a secret correspondence had not taken place between some member of +the Free Soil party and Mr. Brown, by which the latter had agreed +to constitute the Committees on the Judiciary, on Territories, and +on the District of Columbia, in a manner satisfactory to that party. +Mr. Bailey scouted the idea, and asked Mr. Ashmun what authority +he had for the statement. Mr. Ashmun replied, "Common rumor"; to +which Mr. Bailey rejoined, "Does not the gentleman know that common +rumor is a common liar?" Turning to Mr. Brown, he said, "Has any +such correspondence taken place?" Mr. Brown shook his head, and +Mr. Bailey became more emphatic than ever in his denial. But the +fever was now up, and the Southern members scented treason. Several +of them withheld their votes from Mr. Brown because of his Free +Soil support, and thus prevented his election. He was in a very +trying dilemma with his Southern friends, while the Free Soilers +who had supported him were also placed in a novel predicament, and +subjected to catechism. The fact was finally revealed in the course +of a long and exciting debate, that Mr. Wilmot _had_ entered into +a correspondence with Mr. Brown on the subject of the organization +of the Committees named, and that the latter _had_ promised in +writing to constitute them as stated in Mr. Ashumn's inquiry-- +declaring that he had "always been opposed to the extension of +slavery," and believed that "the Federal Government should be +relieved from the responsibility of slavery where it had the +constitutional right to abolish it." This, in substance, was the +whole Free Soil gospel; and the disappointment and rage of Southern +members, when the letter was produced, can be more easily imagined +than described. Mr. Brown labored very painfully to explain his +letter and pacify his Southern friends, but the effort was utterly +vain. He was branded with treachery and duplicity by Bailey, +Harris, Burt, Venable, Stanton, and McMullen, while no man from +the South pretended to excuse him. In the midst of great excitement +he withdrew from the contest for Speaker, and the catastrophe of +his secret maneuver was so unspeakably humiliating that even his +enemies pitied him. But he was unjustly dealt with by his Southern +brethren, whose fear of betrayal and morbid sensitiveness made all +coolness of judgment impossible. While he possessed very social +and kindly personal traits of character, no man in this Congress +was more inflexibly true to slavery, as his subsequent career amply +demonstrated. If he had been chosen Speaker he would doubtless +have placed some of the Free Soil members on the Committees specified, +but the whole power of his office would have been studiously +subservient to the behests of the slave oligarchy; and nothing +could excuse the conduct of Mr. Wilmot and his associates but their +entire ignorance of his political character and antecedents. I +regretted this affair most sincerely, for I knew Mr. Brown well, +and could undoubtedly have prevented the negotiation if I had been +present. + +The Speakership was obviously the first question on which the slave +power must be met in the Thirty-first Congress. No question could +more completely have presented the entire controversy between the +free and slave States which had so stirred the country during the +previous eighteen months. In view of the well-nigh autocratic +power of the Speaker over legislative measures, no honest Free +Soiler could vote for a candidate who was not known to be sound on +the great issue. We could not support Howell Cobb, of Georgia, +the nominee of the Democratic party, however anxious our Democratic +constituents might be to have us do so; nor could we vote for Robert +C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, to please the Whigs and semi-Free +Soilers who affiliated with them, since Giddings, Palfrey and others +had demonstrated that he was wholly untrustworthy in facing the +ragged issue of slavery. This had been proved by his acts as +Speaker in the preceding Congress. We therefore united in the +determination to vote for neither of these candidates. The contest +was protracted till December 22d, when, on the sixty third ballot, +Mr. Cobb was chosen. The result was effected, by adopting, at the +instigation of the Whigs, what was called the "plurality rule," +the operation of which enabled a minority to choose the speaker. +The Whigs, when they entered upon this proceeding, well knew that +the Free Soilers were willing and anxious to vote for Thaddeus +Stevens, or any other reliable member of the party. They well knew +that none of us would vote for Mr. Winthrop, under any circumstances, +and for excellent reasons which we had announced. Further, they +well knew that without Free Soil votes Mr. Cobb would certainly be +chosen; and yet the angry cry went up from the Whigs in Congress +and throughout the Northern States that the Free Soilers had elected +a slave-holder to be speaker of the House! For a time the ridiculous +charge served the purpose of its authors, but the subsequent career +of Mr. Winthrop finally and entirely vindicated the sagacity of +the men whose resolute opposition had thwarted his ambition. + +In the further organization of the House Mr. Campbell, a Tennessee +slave-holder, was chosen clerk on the twentieth ballot, by the help +of Southern Democrats, over John W. Forney, who was then the +particular friend of James Buchanan, and who had made himself so +conspicuous by his abuse of anti-slavery men that the Free Soil +members could not give him their support. On the eighth ballot +Mr. Glossbrenner, of Pennsylvania, the nominee of the Democrats, +was chosen sergeant-at-arms, and after fourteen ineffectual ballots +for doorkeeper, Mr. Horner, the Whig incumbent in the preceding +Congress, was continued by resolution of the House. This was on +January 18th, and the organization of the House was not yet completed, +but further proceedings in this direction were now postponed till +the first of March. + +In the meantime the slavery question had been receiving daily +attention. The strife over the Speakership had necessarily involved +it, and constantly provoked its animated discussion. The great +issue was the Congressional prohibition of slavery in the Territories, +then popularly known as the "Wilmot proviso"; and the first vote +on it was taken December 31st, upon the motion to lay on the table +Mr. Root's resolution which embodied it. The yeas were 83, nays +101; being a majority of only 18 in its favor. The Southern men +seemed to gather hope and courage from this vote. On January 4th, +the President sent in his special message relative to California +and New Mexico, announcing his famous "Non-action" policy, which +was simply another name for the "Non-intervention" dogma of Gen. +Cass. A year before he had declared that the new Territories must +not be "surrendered to the pistol and the bowie-knife"; but a new +light now dawned upon him, and he advised Congress to leave the +Territories to themselves till their people should be prepared to +ask admission into the Union as States. He talked glibly about +"geographical parties" and the "operation of natural causes" as +any trained Whig politician, and seemed to have totally forgotten +his repeated pledges not to interfere with the action of Congress +respecting "domestic questions." While the hand of the Executive +was thus at work, extreme men in both Houses led the way in violent +and inflammatory speeches. "When we ask for justice, and to be +let alone," said Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, "we are met by +the senseless and insane cry of Union, Union! Sir, I am disgusted +with it. When it comes from Northern gentlemen who are attacking +us, it falls on my ear as it would do if a band of robbers had +surrounded a dwelling, and when the inmates attempted to resist, +the assailants should raise the cry of peace, union, harmony!" He +gave out the threat, that unless the slave-holders were allowed to +extend their system over the virgin soil of our Territories, they +would block the wheels of Government, and involve the nation in +the horrors of civil war. He charged that the free States "keep +up and foster in the bosoms Abolition Societies, whose main purpose +is to scatter fire-brands throughout the South, to incite servile +insurrections, and stimulate by licentious pictures our negroes to +invade the persons of our white women." Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, +said he regarded slavery "as a great moral, social and _religious_ +blessing,--a blessing to the slave, and a blessing to the master." +He graciously admitted that Northern people thought slavery an +evil; but he added, "Very well, think so; _but keep your thoughts +to yourselves_." Jefferson Davis, then as ever afterward, the +apostle of disunion, declared that "slavery existed in the tents +of the patriarchs, and in the households of His own chosen people"; +that "it was established by the decree of Almighty God," and +"sanctioned in the Bible--in both Testaments--from Genesis to +Revelations." Southern members pointed to the battle-fields of +the Revolution, and warned the people of the free States to beware; +while the menace was uttered that if the representatives of the +Northern States should vote California into the Union as a free +State, without some compensating measures to the South, their +numbers would be decimated by violence. Mr. Toombs, in referring +to the exclusion of slavery from the common territory, said "I will +then, if I can, bring my children and my constituents to the altar +of liberty, and like Hamilcar, I will swear them to eternal hostility +to your foul domination." On January 29th, Mr. Clay introduced +his eight resolutions of compromise, which still further weakened +the anti-slavery policy of Northern Whigs; and when, on February +4th, another vote was taken on the Wilmot proviso, it was laid on +the table by yeas 104, noes 75;--showing a majority of 29, and a +change of 47 votes in a little more than one month! Thus began +the sickening career of political apostacy, which so gathered +momentum during the spring and summer months that it became impossible +to admit the free State of California into the Union until the +passage of the Texas Boundary Bill and the new Fugitive Slave Act +had been made certain. + +Early in the session I called on President Taylor with Mr. Giddings +and Judge Allen. I had a very strong curiosity to see the man +whose name I had used so freely in two exasperating political +campaigns, and desired to stand corrected in my estimate of his +character, if I should find such correction to be demanded by the +truth. Our interview with the old soldier was exceedingly interesting +and amusing. I decidedly liked his kindly, honest, farmer-like +face, and his old-fashioned simplicity of dress and manners. His +conversation was awkward and labored, and evinced a lack of self- +possession; while his whole demeanor suggested his frontier life, +and that he had reached a position for which he was singularly +unfitted by training and experience, or any natural aptitude. In +the few remarks he addressed to me about farming in the West, he +greatly amused us by saying, "I would like to visit Indiana, and +see your plows, hoes--and other reaping implements"; failing, as +he often did, to find the word he wanted. He frequently mispronounced +his words, hesitated and stammered, and sometimes made a breakdown +in the middle of a sentence. But although he seemed to be in the +hands of the slave-holders, and was about to proclaim his policy +of non-intervention with slavery in the Territories, he impressed +me as being personally honest and patriotic. In this impression +I was fully confirmed later in the session, when he sorrowfully +but manfully resisted the attempt of Senator Davis, his son-in-law, +and other extreme men, to bully him into their measures, and avowed +his sympathy with the anti-slavery sentiment of the country. I +believe his dying words in July, "I have tried to do my duty," were +the key-note of his life, and that in the Presidential campaign of +1848, I did him much, though unintentional, injustice. + +It was about the same time that I called with other Western members +to see Mr. Clay, at the National Hotel. He received us with the +most gracious cordiality, and perfectly captivated us all by the +peculiar and proverbial charm of his manners and conversation. I +remember nothing like it in the social intercourse of my life. +One of our party was Hon. L. D. Campbell, then a prominent Whig +politician of Ohio, and an old friend of Mr. Clay, who seemed +anxious to explain his action in supporting Gen. Scott in the +National Convention of 1848. He failed to satisfy Mr. Clay, whose +eye kindled during the conversation, and who had desired and counted +on the nomination himself. Mr. Clay, addressing him, but turning +to me, said: "I can readily understand the position of our friend +from Indiana, whose strong opinions on the slavery question governed +his action; but your position was different, and, besides, General +Scott had no chance for the nomination, and you were under no +obligation to support him." He spoke in kindly terms of the Free +Soil men; said they acted consistently in supporting Van Buren in +preference to Taylor, and that the election of the latter would +prove the ruin of the Whigs. I heard Mr. Clay's great speech in +the Senate on the Compromise Measures, and although I believed him +to be radically wrong, I felt myself at times drawn toward him by +that peculiar spell which years before had bound me to him as my +idolized political leader. I witnessed his principal encounters +with Col. Benton during this session, in which I thought the latter +had the better of the argument; but his reply to Mr. Barnwell, of +South Carolina, on July 22d, in which he said: "I owe a paramount +allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my State," and +denounced the treasonable utterances of Mr. Rhett, was altogether +inimitable and unsurpassed. In the same speech he showed as little +quarter to the Abolitionists. Turning to Mr. Hale, he said, "They +live by agitation. It is their meat, their bread, the air which +they breathe; and if they saw in its incipient state, a measure +giving them more of that food, and meat, and bread, and air, do +you believe they would oppose themselves to its adoption? Do you +not believe that they would _hail_ [Hale] it as a blessing? * * * +They see their doom as certain as there is a God in heaven, who +sends his providential dispensations to calm the threatening storm, +and to tranquilize agitated men. As certain as God exists in +heaven, your business, your vocation, is gone." His devotion to +the Union was his ruling passion, and in one of his numerous speeches +during this session he held up a fragment of Washington's coffin, +and with much dramatic effect pleaded for reconciliation and peace +between the warring sections. + +His scheme of compromise, or "omnibus bill," was the darling child +of his political ambition and old age; and when, after lovingly +nursing it and gallantly fighting for it through seven or eight +weary months, he saw it cruelly dismembered on July 31st, and his +sovereign remedy for our national troubles insulted by the separate +passage of the bill providing a Territorial Government for Utah, +I could not help feeling a profound personal sympathy with him. +Beaten at last on every point, deserted by some senators in whom +he had trusted implicitly, crushed and exhausted by labors which +few young and vigorous men could have endured, he bowed to the +inevitable, and retired from the Senate Chamber. But in the next +morning, prior to his departure for the sea-shore, he was in his +seat; and with lightning in his eye, and figure erect as ever, he +paid his respects to the men whose work of political havoc he +deplored. His impassioned arraignment of the disunionists was +loudly applauded by the galleries, and clearly indicated the part +he would have played in the late Rebellion had his life been spared +to witness that direful event. "So long," said he, "as it pleases +God to give me a voice to express my sentiments, or an arm, weak +and enfeebled as it may be by age, that voice and that arm will be +on the side of my country, for the support of the general authority, +and for the maintenance of the powers of this Union." + +I heard the famous "Seventh of March Speech" of Mr. Webster. To +me his oratory was a perfect surprise and curiosity. He not only +spoke with very unusual deliberation, but with pauses having no +relation whatever to the sense. His sentences were broken into +the oddest fragments, and the hearer was perplexed in the endeavor +to gather his meaning. In declaring, for example, that he "would +put in no Wilmot proviso for the purpose of a taunt," etc., he made +a long pause at "Wilmot," perhaps half a minute, and finally, having +apparently recovered his breath, added the word "proviso"; and +then, after another considerable pause, went on with his sentence. +His speaking seemed painfully laborious. Great drops of perspiration +stood upon his forehead and face, notwithstanding the slowness of +his utterance, suggesting, as a possible explanation, a very recent +and heavy dinner, or a greatly troubled conscience over his final +act of apostasy from his early New England faith. The latter was +probably the truth, since he is known to have long and seriously +pondered the question of his ultimate decision; and with his +naturally great and noble traits of character he could not have +announced it without manifest tokens of uneasiness. I was greatly +interested in the brief dialogue between him and Mr. Calhoun, which +followed this speech. Reference was made to their famous passage- +at-arms twenty years before; and Mr. Calhoun, while taking exception +to some of Mr. Webster's positions, congratulated him on his strong +deliverance in the interest of slavery. The great Carolinian was +then wrestling with the disease which soon afterward terminated +his life, and was thin, pale, and feeble of step; but his singularly +intellectual face, and the peculiar light which flashed from his +eye while speaking, made him the most strikingly picturesque figure +in the Senate. No man can compute the evils wrought by his political +theories; but in private life he was thoroughly upright and pure, +and no suspicion of political jobbery was ever whispered in connection +with his name. In his social relations he was most genial and +kindly, while he always welcomed the society of young men who sought +the aid of his friendly counsel. Politically, he has been singularly +misunderstood. He was not, as has been so generally thought, a +disunionist. He was the champion of State Sovereignty, but he +believed that this was the sure basis and bond of Union. He thought +the right of State nullification, if recognized, would hold the +central power in check, and thus cement the Union; while his devotion +to African slavery as a defensible form of society, and a solution +of the conflict between capital and labor, was doubtless as sincere +as it was fanciful. + +During the first months of this session my spare time was devoted +to the preparation of a speech on the slavery question. My +constituents expected this, and so did my anti-slavery and Free +Soil friends generally. It was my darling purpose, and I resolved +to do my best upon it. I not only meant that they should not be +ashamed of it, but that, if possible, it should stand the test of +criticism, both as to matter and diction. I re-examined the question +in its various aspects, and more thoroughly than I had been able +to do before, giving special attention to the speeches of Southern +members in both Houses, and carefully noting their vulnerable +points. I overhauled the question of "Northern aggression" pretty +thoroughly, and endeavored to expose the absurdity of that complaint, +while crowding into my task such facts and arguments as would help +educate the people in right thinking. I had my task completed in +March, and now anxiously waited the opportunity for its delivery. +I was very curious to know how it would sound, and what would be +thought of it, while my constitutional self-distrust made me dread +the experiment unspeakably. My scuffle for the floor was a sore +trial of patience, and it was not until the fourteenth of May that +the competitive contest was ended. I got through with the work +better than I anticipated, was handsomely listened to, and went +home in triumph. A great burden of anxiety had been lifted, while +I received letters from the leading Abolitionists of New England +and elsewhere, very cordially complimenting the speech, which was +copied into the principal anti-slavery newspapers, and quite +favorably noticed. I was flattered beyond measure, and found my +self-esteem germinating into new life under these fertilizing dews. + + +CHAPTER V. +REMINISCENCES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS (CONTINUED). +Fracas between Col. Benton and Senator Foote--Character of Benton +--Death of Gen. Taylor--The funeral--Defeat of the "Omnibus Bill" +--Its triumph in detail--Celebration of the victory--"Lower law" +sermons and "Union-saving" meetings--Slave-holding literature-- +Mischievous legislation--Visit to Philadelphia and Boston--Futile +efforts to suppress agitation--Andrew Johnson and the homestead +law--Effort to censure Mr. Webster--Political morality in this +Congress--Temperance--Jefferson Davis and other notable men--John +P. Hale--Thaddeus Stevens--Extracts from speeches--The famous men +in both Houses--The Free Soilers and their vindication. + +I happened to be in the Senate on April 17th, just before the +memorable fracas between Foote, of Mississippi, and Col. Benton. +They had had an unfriendly encounter not long before, and it was +well understood that Benton had made up his mind that Foote should +not henceforward name him or allude to him in debate. Foote had +said: "I do not denounce him as a _coward_--such language is +unfitted for this audience--but if he wishes to be blackguarded in +the discharge of his duty, and the culprit go unpunished? Is +language to be used here which would not be permitted to be used +in the lowest pot-house, tavern, or oyster cellar, and for the use +of which he would be turned out of any tavern by a decent landlord?" +Benton's wrath had not in the least cooled since this altercation. +Foote was on the floor, and in speaking of the late "Southern +address," referred to Benton in terms which everybody understood. +In an indirect way he became more and more personal as he proceeded. +Col. Benton finally arose from his seat with every appearance of +intense passion, and with a quick pace moved toward Foote, who was +addressing the Senate from his desk near the main aisle. The Vice +President demanded "order," and several senators tried to hold +Benton back, but he broke loose from his keepers, and was moving +rapidly upon his foe. When he saw Benton nearing him, Foote sprang +into the main aisle, and retreated toward the Vice President, +presenting a pistol as he fled, or, as he afterward expressed it, +"advanced backward." In the meantime Benton had been so obstructed +by the sergeant-at-arms and others that Foote, if disposed to shoot, +could not have done so without firing through the crowd. But +Benton, with several senators hanging to him, now proceeded round +the lobby so as to meet Foote at the opposite side of the Chamber. +Tearing himself away from those who sought to hold him, and throwing +open his bosom, he said: "Let him shoot me! The cowardly assassin +has come here to shoot me; let him shoot me if he dares! I never +carry arms, and he knows it; let the assassin fire!" He was an +embodied fury, and raged and raved, the helpless victim of his +passions. I had never seen such an uproar in a legislative body; +but the sergeant-at-arms at last restored order, when Mr. Clay +suggested that both parties should voluntarily enter into bonds to +keep the peace, upon which Benton instantly rose and said: "I'll +rot in jail, sir, before I will do it! No, sir! I'll rot in jail +first. I'll rot, sir!" and he poured forth a fresh torrent of +bitter words upon the man who was then so well known throughout +the Northern States as "Hangman Foote."* Benton was not only a +man of tremendous passion, but unrivalled as a hater. Nor did his +hatred spend itself entirely upon injustice and meanness. It was +largely personal and unreasoning. He was pre-eminently unforgiving. +He hated Calhoun with a real vengeance, styling him "John Cataline +Calhoun," and branding him as a "coward cur that sneaked to his +kennel when the Master of the Hermitage blew his bugle horn." He +seemed to relent a little, however, when he saw the life of the +great Carolinian rapidly ebbing away, and on one occasion declared +that, "When God lays his hand on a man, I take mine off." His wit +was sometimes as pungent as his invective. In his famous speech +on the Compromise measures, he gave Mr. Clay a telling hit by +comparing the boasted panacea of his "Omnibus Bill," or "five old +bills tacked together," to "old Dr. Jacob Townsend's sarsaparilla," +and contrasting it with the alleged worthlessness of the same +measures when separately proposed, which he likened to "young Dr. +Samuel Townsend's" extract from the same vegetable. "Sarsaparilla" +was thus more widely advertised than ever before, but it aided the +triumph of the "young Dr.," and the defeat of Mr. Clay's pet scheme. + +[* So named because of his declaration in the Senate the year +before, that if John P. Hale would come to Mississippi he would be +hung to "one of the tallest trees of the forest," and that he +(Foote) would himself "assist in the operation."] + +The sudden death of Gen. Taylor, July 9, 1850, produced a very +profound impression. The shock to the people of the Northern States +was felt the more keenly because of the peculiarly threatening +aspect of public affairs, and of the unexpectedly manly course of +the President in withstanding the imperious and insolent demands +of the extreme men of his own section. Millard Fillmore then stood +well before the country, and was quite as emphatically committed +to the growing anti-slavery sentiment of the Free States as Gov. +Seward himself; but he was now to be severely tried, and no one +could tell whether he would be true to the policy of his predecessor +in resisting the ultra demands of the South, or repeat the perfidy +of John Tyler by flagrantly turning his back on his past life. +For the time, however, the national bereavement seemed too absorbing +for any political speculations. The funeral pageant, which took +place on the 13th, was very imposing. The funeral car was a long- +coupled running gear, with wheels carved from solid blocks of wood. +Over this was raised a canopy covered with broadcloth, and surmounted +by a magnificent eagle. Curtains of black and white silk in +alternating festoons hung from the canopy, with rosettes, fringes, +and tassels. The car was drawn by eight white horses, richly +caparisoned, and led by as many grooms, who were all white men. +"Old Whitey," the venerable war steed of the President, followed +immediately behind the remains of his master, and attracted universal +attention. The procession was accompanied by the tolling of bells, +the firing of heavy ordnance, and plaintive strains of music; and +the whole affair exceeded anything of the kind that had ever taken +place in Washington, although the outpouring of the people would +bear no comparison with that of several notable funerals of later +years. + +The dreadful heat of the summer months, and the monotonous "ding- +dong" of the debate on the Compromise measures, made life dreary +enough. The "rump-session," as it was then called, became more +and more dismal as it dragged its slow length into the fall months. +Members grew pale and thin, and sighed for their homes; but the +Congressional mill had to be kept running till the grists of the +slave-power could be got fully ready for the hopper, and ground in +their regular order. Mr. Clay's Omnibus Bill having gone to pieces, +the "five gaping wounds" of the country, about which he had talked +so eloquently, called for treatment in detail; and by far the most +threatening of these was the dispute between Texas and New Mexico. +The remedy was the Texas Boundary Bill, which surrendered a large +belt of country to Texas and slavery, and gave her ten million +dollars besides. It was vehemently opposed in the House, and its +fate seemed to hang in doubt up to the final vote upon it; but +its passage was really assured from the beginning by the corrupt +appliances of its friends. Texas bonds, which were then worth ten +cents on the dollar, would be lifted nearly to par by this measure, +and its success was undoubtedly secured by the bribery of members. +The territorial question was disposed of by the legislative covenant +that new States might be admitted from our Mexican acquisitions, +either with or without slavery, as their people might determine. +This was not only an open abandonment of the Wilmot proviso, but +a legislative condemnation of the Missouri compromise line, as a +violation of the principle of "popular sovereignty," and was sure +to breed the mischiefs which followed four years later. But of +the several compromise or "healing measures" of this session, the +Fugitive Slave Bill was by far the most atrocious. It made the +_ex parte_ interested oath of the slave-hunter final and conclusive +evidence of the fact of escape, and of the identity of the party +pursued, while the simplest duties of humanity were punished as +felonies by fine and imprisonment. The method of its enactment +perfectly accorded with its character. It was reached on the +Speaker's table on September 12th, and on motion of Mr. Thompson, +of Pennsylvania, who served as the parliamentary hangman of his +employers, the previous question was seconded on its passage; and +thus, without reference to any committee, without even being printed, +and with no opportunity whatever for debate, it became a law. It +is needless to say that these pretended measures of final adjustment +paved the way for the repeal of the Missouri restriction, the bloody +raid into Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and the final chapter +of the Civil War; while they completely vindicated the little party +of Independents in this Congress in standing aloof from the Whig +and Democratic organizations, and warning the country against +further submission to their rule. One hundred guns were fired in +Washington over the final triumph of slavery in this memorable +struggle; and Congress adjourned, at last, on September 30th, the +session having lasted nearly ten months, and being considerably +the longest thus far since the formation of the Government. + +The adjournment was followed by great "Union-saving" meetings +throughout the country, which denounced "abolitionism" in the +severest terms, and endorsed the action of Congress. Multitudes +of "lower law" sermons by conservative Doctors of Divinity were +scattered over the Northern States through the mails, and a regular +system of agitation to _suppress_ agitation was inaugurated. The +sickly air of compromise filled the land, and for a time the deluded +masses were made to believe that the Free Soilers had brought the +country to the verge of ruin. Both clergy and laity zealously +dedicated themselves to the great work of sectional pacification. +The labors of Dr. Nehemiah Adams and Dr. Lord in this direction +will not be forgotten. The Rev. Moses Stuart, of Andover Theological +Seminary, in a work in the interest of peace, spoke of the "blessings +and comforts" of slavery, and declared that "Christ doubtless felt +that slavery might be made a very tolerable condition--aye, even +a blessing, to such as were shiftless and helpless." Another book, +entitled "Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or Southern Life as it is," was +issued from the press, in which it was said that slavery was +"authorized by God, permitted by Jesus Christ, sanctioned by the +Apostles, and maintained by good men in all ages." A very remarkable +book made its appearance, entitled "A Choice of Evils; or Thirteen +Years in the South. By a Northern man." Its author was a Mr. +Hooker, of Philadelphia. In this work he announced the discovery +that slavery is not only an unspeakable blessing, but a great +"missionary institution for the conversion of the heathen." One +of the chapters of this book is on "The Pleasures of Slavery." He +declared that the Southern slave is not merely contented, but a +"joyous fellow"; and that "in willing and faithful subjection to +a benignant and protecting power, and that visible to his senses, +he leans upon it in complete and sure confidence, as a trusting +child holds on to the hand of his Father, and passes joyously along +the thronged and jostling way, where he would not dare to be left +alone." Mr. Hooker declared that "his are the thoughts that make +glad the cared-for child, led by paternal hand"; and that "of all +the people in the world, the pleasures of the Southern slaves seem, +as they really are, most unalloyed." The press teemed with kindred +publications, while "Graham's Magazine," Harper's "Journal of +Civilization," the "Literary World," "Godey's Ladies' Book," and +other periodicals, joined in the united effort to shout the anti- +slavery agitation into silence. + +During this session some laws were passed having no connection with +the slavery question, which were pregnant with very great mischief, +and have only yielded up their meaning as they have been practically +applied and extended. The act of September 28th, granting land +bounties to the soldiers of the Mexican war, opened the way for +the monopoly of many millions of acres of the public domain by +sharks and speculators, while proving a wretched mockery of the +just claims of the men in whose name it was urged. The Swamp Land +Act of the same date, owing to its loose and unguarded provisions +and shameful mal-administration, has been still more fruitful of +wide-spread spoilation and plunder. The act of September 20th, +granting alternate sections of land in aid of the Illinois Central +Railway, inaugurated our famous land-grant policy, which, becoming +more and more reckless and improvident in its exactions, and +cunningly combining the power of great corporations with vast +monopolies of the public domain, has signally eclipsed all other +schemes of commercial feudalism, and left to coming generations a +problem involving the very life of our popular institutions. The +fruits of this legislation were not foreseen at the time, but the +legislation itself fitly belongs to the extraordinary work of this +Congress. + +The events of this session formed a new band of union among anti- +slavery men everywhere, and naturally strengthened the wish I had +long cherished to meet some of the famous people with whose names +I had been most familiar. Accordingly, I paid a visit to James +and Lucretia Mott in Philadelphia, which I greatly enjoyed, meeting +there Dr. Elder, J. Miller McKim, Dr. Furness, and other well known +friends of freedom. Oddly enough, I was invited to dine with Judge +Kane, then conspicuous through his remarkable rulings in fugitive +slave cases, and I found his manners and hospitality as charming +as his opinions about slavery were detestable. From Philadelphia +I went to Boston, and attended the Free Soil State Convention which +met there early in October, 1850, where Sumner and Burlingame were +the principal speakers. The latter was extremely boyish in +appearance, but was counted a marvel in native eloquence. Mr. +Sumner was then comparatively a young man, apparently somewhat +fastidious, with a winning face, commanding figure, and a voice +singularly musical. At this time he was only famous through his +orations, and I think knew relatively little of American life and +society outside of Boston and his books. He told me he had recently +been lecturing at several points out of the city, and had been +delighted to find the people so intelligent and so capable of +understanding him. He seemed much surprised when I told him how +many admirers he had in Indiana, and I found that others shared +his unflattering impressions respecting the general intelligence +of the West. At this convention I met Dr. Palfrey, then actively +interested in anti-slavery politics, and Charles Francis Adams, +the Free Soil nominee for Vice President in 1848, with whom I dined +at the old Adams mansion in Quincy a few days later. I enjoyed +the honor of a call from Theodore Parker while in the city, but +failed to meet Mr. Garrison, who was absent. At the "Liberator" +office, however, I met Stephen S. Foster, who entertained me with +his views on "non-resistance." I attended a spirited anti-fugitive- +slave-law meeting in Lynn, where I first met Wendell Phillips, and +enjoyed the long-coveted pleasure of hearing him speak. The music +of his voice so charmed me that I became completely his captive. +From Boston I went to Worcester, and after a delightful visit with +my excellent friend, Judge Allen, returned to my home in the West. + +After a vacation of two months, the work of the Thirty-first Congress +was resumed at the opening of its second session. Members returned +so refreshed and invigorated that they did not appear like the same +men. All parties seemed more friendly, but the agitation of the +slavery question had not been suppressed. Thousands of fugitive +slaves had fled to Canada or to remote sections of the Northern +States, through the fear of recapture under the harsh features of +the new Fugitive Slave Act. The method of enforcing it in different +States, involving the intervention of the army and navy, had stirred +the blood of thousands who had else remained unmoved by the slavery +issue. The effort of the National Government to make the harboring +of a fugitive constructive treason, was the farthest thing possible +from a peace-offering to the Abolitionists, but the friends of the +Compromise measures failed to see that their scheme had proved +entirely abortive, and made one further effort to silence the voice +of humanity. They entered into a solemn compact in writing to +support no man for President or Vice President of the United States, +or for senator or representative in Congress, or member of a State +legislature, who was not known to be opposed to disturbing their +"final settlement" of the slavery question. The signature of Henry +Clay was the first on this document, and was followed by those of +various prominent men of the free and slave States, and of different +political parties. But the extreme men of the South and most of +the moderate men of the North refused to assume this obligation, +while the Free Soilers felt perfectly sure that their cause would +be advanced by the very measures which had been taken to defeat +it. In this they were not mistaken. "Uncle Tom's Cabin," born of +the Fugitive Slave Act, was then making its first appearance in +weekly numbers of Dr. Bailey's "National Era." Hildreth's "White +Slave" and Sumner's "White Slavery in the Barbary States" were +widely circulated, and exerted a powerful influence. The writings +of Judge Jay and William Goodell on the slavery question found more +readers than ever before, while the pro-slavery literature and +"south side" theology, already referred to, called forth replies +from various writers, and contributed largely to the general ferment +which the friends of the Compromise measures were so anxious to +tranquilize. Indeed, while the champions of slavery were exerting +themselves as never before to stifle the anti-slavery spirit of +the free States, the Abolitionists were delighted with the tokens +of progress which everywhere saluted their vision and animated them +with new courage and hope. + +It was early in the first session of this Congress that several +members of the House introduced bills providing homesteads of one +hundred and sixty acres each to actual landless settlers, without +cost, on prescribed conditions of occupancy and improvement. The +first of these bills in the order of time was that of Andrew Johnson, +which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and subsequently +reported favorably, and debated at different times. Similar +propositions were offered in the Senate by Mr. Webster, and by +Senator Walker, of Wisconsin. The fact is also worthy of note, +that Horace Greeley, during his short term of service in the previous +Congress, had offered a bill giving landless men the right to pre- +empt one hundred and sixty acres for seven years, and, on condition +of occupancy and improvement, the "right of unlimited occupancy" +to forty acres of the same, without price, by a single man, or +eighty acres by the married head of a family. But the legislative +initiation of the Homestead law, substantially as we now have it, +belongs to the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Congress, +and its policy was borrowed from the Free Soil platform of 1848 +and the Land Reformers of New York. This measure completely reversed +the early policy of the Government, when settlers on the public +lands were dealt with as trespassers, while its triumph, years +afterward, marked an epoch in our legislation, and has done more +to make the American name honored and loved at home and abroad than +any single enactment since the year 1789. Having earnestly espoused +this policy years before, I sought the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson +for the purpose of co-operating with him in urging it, and found +him its sincere friend. Although loyal to his party, he seemed to +have little sympathy with the extreme men among its leaders, and +no unfriendliness to me on account of my decided anti-slavery +opinions. When my homestead speech was ready for delivery, although +the slave-holders hated its doctrines as heartily as they hated +"abolitionism" itself, and it was through his friendly tactics that +I finally obtained the floor, in opposition to the earnest wish +and determined purpose of Speaker Cobb. + +Near the close of this session, at the instance of Charles Allen, +of Massachusetts, a man of real ability and stainless life, a +preamble and resolutions were offered by myself calling for a +committee to inquire into the alleged corrupt conduct of Daniel +Webster in accepting the office of Secretary of State as the +stipendary of Eastern capitalists. On the motion to suspend the +rules to allow this to be done, the yeas were only thirty-five; +but this vote was quite as large as could have been expected, +considering the excellent standing of Mr. Webster at that time with +the pro-slavery sentiment of the country. I think it is not doubted +that, being then poor, he accepted office, as he had done before, +on condition of pecuniary indemnity by his rich friends in Wall +street and State street; but in the light of the far greater +immoralities and profligacies of later times, it now seems a +relatively small matter. + +Political morality was at a very low ebb during the period covered +by the Thirty-first Congress. The Whigs, now that they were in +power, saw nothing amiss in the spoils system inaugurated by Gen. +Jackson, which was in full blast. The President had declared that +he had "no friends to reward and no enemies to punish," but under +the party pressure he totally lost sight of these words, and seemed +almost as powerless to withstand it as did Gen. Grant in later +years. Thousands of officials were turned adrift for no other than +party reasons, while political nepotism was the order of the day. +Under the brief administration of Gen. Taylor, unprecedented +political jobbery prevailed, both in the legislative and executive +departments of the Government, and these evils seemed to be aggravated +by the accession of Mr. Fillmore, and to gather strength as the +spirit of liberty declined. Nor was the personal morality of +members more to be commended than their political. The vice of +intemperance was not, as now, restricted to a few exceptional cases, +but was fearfully prevalent. A glass of wine could sometimes be +seen on the desk of a senator while engaged in debate, and the free +use of intoxicating drinks by senators was too common to provoke +remark. It was still more common in the House; and the scenes of +drunkenness and disorder in that body on the last night of the last +session beggared description. Much of the most important legislation +of the session, involving the expenditure of many millions, remained +to be disposed of at that sitting; and, as a preparation for the +work, a large supply of whisky had been deposited in a room +immediately connected with the Hall of Representatives, which was +thronged by members at all hours of the night. The chairman of +the Ways and Means Committee became so exhilarated that he had to +be retired from his post; and some of his brethren, who had been +calling him to order in a most disorderly manner, were quite as +incapable of business as himself, while order had sought her +worshipers elsewhere. The exhibition was most humiliating, but it +now pleasantly reminds us of the wonderful changes which have been +wrought by thirty years. + +In this Congress, the men who afterward became the chief leaders +of the Rebellion were conspicuous, and foreshadowed their future +course. Jefferson Davis had a military and magisterial look. His +estimate of himself was so exalted that his ordinary demeanor toward +others seemed like a personal condescension, if not an insinuation +of contempt. One of the most striking personalities in the Senate +was A. P. Butler, the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, and uncle of Preston +S. Brooks, of infamous memory. His robust physique, florid +complexion, sparkling eye, heavy bushy suit of snow-white hair, +and a certain indefinable expression of mischievous audacity, made +him a very attractive figure. In his eulogy upon Calhoun he marred +the solemnity of the occasion by pronouncing the world "always" as +if written "allers," and by kindred evidences of "life among the +lowly." The wit of John P. Hale was effective and unfailing, and +gave him a decided advantage over Mr. Chase, who had nothing but +his dignity and power of argument with which to confront the +tremendous odds against him. This was happily illustrated early +in the first session of this Congress, in his reply to Mr. Clemens, +of Alabama, who, in a furious tirade against the Abolitionists, +had pronounced the Union dissolved already. "There are many timid +people at the North," said Hale, "who have looked forward with +excited nerves and trembling fears at the 'wreck of matter and the +crush of worlds' which they believed would be the result of the +dissolution of this Union. I think they will be exceedingly quiet +now, when they find it has already taken place and they did not +know it, for the honorable senator from Alabama tells us it is +already dissolved. If it is not a matter too serious for pleasant +illustration, let me give you one. Once in my life, in the capacity +of a justice of the peace--for I held that office before I was a +senator--I was called on to officiate in uniting a couple in the +bonds of matrimony. They came up, and I made short work of it. +I asked the man if he would take the woman whom he held by the hand +to be his wedded wife; he replied, 'To be sure I will, I came here +to do that very thing.' I then put the question to the lady, +whether she would have the man for her husband. And when she +answered in the affirmative, I told them they were man and wife. +She looked up with apparent astonishment, and inquired 'Is that +all?' 'Yes,' I said, 'that is all.' 'Well,' said she, 'it is not +such a mighty affair as I expected it to be, after all.'" + +Some of the finest of Mr. Seward's speeches were delivered during +the first session of this Congress, but in the same husky voice +which marked his later efforts. Decidedly the finest looking man +in the Senate was General Shields, of Illinois, then in his prime, +and crowned with the laurels he had won in the Mexican War. The +appearance of Mr. Douglas, familiarly known as the "little giant," +was in striking contrast with that of his colleague. He cared +nothing about dignity and refinement, and had a slovenly and +"unwashed" appearance. The towering and erect form of General +Houston always commanded attention in the Senate, and he added to +his attractiveness by wearing an old-fashioned knit cap, and always +devoting a portion of his time to whittling a pine board. The most +fascinating member of the Senate was Soule, of Louisiana. There +was a tropical charm about his oratory, which was heightened by +his foreign accent and his singularly striking presence and +physiognomy. Winthrop was the most accomplished gentleman in the +House. Edward D. Baker, since so famous, was a member from Illinois, +but made no mark. Stephens, of Georgia, looked like a corpse, but +his clear and ringing voice always commanded attention, and his +words went directly to the mark. Toombs was recognized as a leader +of Southern opinion, but disfigured his speeches by his swagger +and defiance. Among the notable men from the Northern States, +Hannibal Hamlin, lately retired from public life, was in the Senate. +He was then a young man, erect, fine looking, a thorough Democrat, +but not the tool of slavery. Thaddeus Stevens was in the House, +and just at the beginning of his remarkable congressional life; +but the slave power, then in full sweep of its despotism, took good +care to keep him in the background in the organization of the +committees. He made several speeches, in which he displayed his +rare powers of invective, irony, and sarcasm, in dealing with the +Southern leaders; and no one who listened to his speech of Feb. +20, 1850, could ever forget his withering reply to Mr. Mead, of +Virginia, who had argued against the prohibition of slavery in the +Territories because it would conflict with the interests of Virginia +as a breeder of slaves. I quote the following: + +"Let us pause for a moment over this humiliating confession. In +plain English, what does it mean? That Virginia is now only fit +to be the breeder, not the employer, of slaves! That she is reduced +to the condition that her proud chivalry are compelled to turn +slave-traders for a livelihood! Instead of attempting to renovate +the soil, and by their own honest labor compelling the earth to +yield her abundance; instead of seeking for the best breed of cattle +and horses to feed on her hills and valleys, and fertilize the +land, the sons of that great State must devote their time to +selecting and grooming the most lusty sires and the most fruitful +wenches, to supply the slave barracoons of the South! And the +learned gentleman pathetically laments that the profits of this +genteel traffic will be greatly lessened by the circumscription of +slavery! This is his picture, not mine." + +Mr. Stevens was equally merciless in dealing with the tribe of +"dough-faces." This was illustrated in a speech later in the +session, in which he alluded to his colleague from Bucks County, +Mr. Ross, who had attacked him in a violent pro-slavery harangue: + +"There is," said Mr. Stevens, "in the natural world, a little, +spotted, contemptible animal, which is armed by nature with a fetid, +volatile, penetrating _virus_, which so pollutes whoever attacks +it as to make him offensive to himself and all around him for a +long time. Indeed, he is almost incapable of purification. Nothing, +sir, no insult, shall provoke me to crush so filthy a beast." As +these words were being uttered, Mr. Ross was seen precipitately +making his way out of the hall under the return fire of his foe. +But Mr. Stevens then gave no clear promise of the wonderful career +as a parliamentary leader which awaited him in later years, when +perfectly unshackled by the power that at first held him in check. + +The Thirty-first Congress was not alone remarkable for the great +questions it confronted and its shameless recreancy to humanity +and justice; it was equally remarkable for its able and eminent +men. In the Senate, the great triumvirate of Webster, Clay, and +Calhoun, appeared in public life for the last time. With them were +associated Benton, Cass, Douglas, Seward, Chase, Bell, Berrien, +Soule, Davis of Mississippi, Dayton, Hale, Ewing, Corwin, Hamlin, +Butler, Houston, and Mason. In the House were Thaddeus Stevens, +Winthrop, Ashmun, Allen, Cobb of Georgia, McDowell, Giddings, +Preston King, Horace Mann, Marshall, Orr, Schenck, Stanley, Toombs, +Alexander H. Stephens, and Vinton. If mere talent could have +supplemented the lack of conscience, the slave power might have +been overborne in 1850, and the current of American history turned +into the channels of liberty and peace. But the better days of +the Republic, when high integrity and unselfish devotion to the +country inspired our statesmen, were past, and we had entered upon +the era of mean ambitions and huckstering politics. "The bulk of +the nation," as Harriet Martineau said, a little later, "was below +its institutions," and our fathers "had laid down a loftier program +than their successors were able to fulfill." It was not strange, +therefore, that the little band of Free Soilers in this Congress +encountered popular obloquy and social outlawry at the Capital. +Their position was offensive, because it rebuked the ruling influences +of the times, and summoned the real manhood of the country to its +rescue. They were treated as pestilent fanatics because they +bravely held up the ideal of the Republic, and sought to make it +real. But they pressed forward along the path of their aspirations. +They found a solace for their social ostracism in delightful +gatherings which assembled weekly at the residence of Dr. Bailey, +where they met philanthropists, reformers, and literary notables. +They had the courage of their opinions, and the genuine satisfaction +which accompanies manliness of character; and they lived to see +their principles vindicated, and the political and social tables +turned upon the men who had honored them by their scorn and contempt. +The anti-slavery revolt of 1848, which they represented, saved +Oregon from slavery, made California a free State, and launched +the policy of free homes on the public domain which finally prevailed +in 1862; and it was the prophecy and parent of the larger movement +which rallied under Fremont in 1856, elected Lincoln in 1860, and +played its grand part in saving the nation from destruction by the +armed insurgents whom it had vanquished at the ballot-box. This +will be the sure award of history; but history will find another +parentage for the party despotism and political corruption which +have since disgraced the administration of the Government. + + +CHAPTER VI. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. +Pro-slavery reaction--Indiana and Ohio--Race for Congress--Free +Soil gains in other States--National Convention at Cleveland-- +National canvass of 1852--Nomination of Pierce and Scott, and the +"finality" platforms--Free Soil National Convention--Nomination of +Hale--Samuel Lewis--The Whig canvass--Webster--Canvass of the +Democrats--Return of New York "Barnburners" to the party--The Free +Soil campaign--Stumping Kentucky with Clay--Rev. John G. Fee-- +Incidents--Mob law in Indiana--Result of the canvass--Ruin of the +Whigs--Disheartening facts--The other side of the picture. + +The reaction which followed the passage of the compromise acts of +1850 was quite as remarkable as the anti-slavery revolt of 1848, +which frightened the champions of slavery into the espousal of +these desperate measures. Immense meetings were held in Philadelphia, +New York, Boston, and other cities and towns throughout the country, +in which leading Whigs and Democrats united in pledging themselves +to make the suppression of abolitionism paramount to any question +of party allegiance. These demonstrations were vigorously seconded +by leading clergymen and doctors of divinity, whose sermons were +plentifully scattered over the land under the frank of members of +Congress and otherwise. The press put forth its whole power on +the side of anti-slavery submission and peace, while the Executive +and Judicial departments of the Government made haste to abase +themselves by their super-serviceable zeal in the enforcement of +the new Fugitive Slave law. The tables seemed to be completely +turned, and the time-honored rule of our slave-masters impregnably +re-established. The anti-slavery commotion which a little while +before had rocked the country from one end of the Union to the +other was hushed in the restored order which succeeded, and gave +promise of that longed-for "finality" for which the two great +parties had so ardently labored. + +In no section of the non-slaveholding States was this reaction more +strikingly felt than in the West, and especially in Illinois and +Indiana. These States were outlying provinces of the empire of +slavery. Their black codes and large Southern population bore +witness to their perfect loyalty to slave-holding traditions. +Indiana, while a Territory, had repeatedly sought the introduction +of slavery into her borders. Her black laws had disfigured her +legislation from the beginning, and in 1850 were made still blacker +by her new Constitution, the 13th article of which, forbidding +negroes from coming into the State and white men from encouraging +them to remain, was submitted to the people separately, and ratified +by a popular majority of nearly ninety thousand votes. Ten years +before, in the Harrison campaign, Mr. Bigger, the Whig candidate +for Governor, made himself very popular by proving that Van Buren +had favored negro suffrage in New York. In 1842, four of the +Indiana delegation in Congress--namely, Lane, Wallace, Thompson, +and Kennedy--voted for the censure of Mr. Giddings, which Mr. Clay +indignantly denounced at the time, and two only--namely, White and +Cravens--voted in the negative. Although the execution of the +Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was a matter of Federal cognizance +exclusively, yet the State code made the harboring of a fugitive +an offense against its peace and dignity, punishable by fine and +imprisonment. The colored people were denied any share in the +school fund, but were taxed for its support; and under the law +forbidding them to testify in cases where white men were parties, +they were at the mercy of any white villain who might take the +precaution of perpetrate an outrage upon them in the absence of +white witnesses. Of course, the organization of an anti-slavery +party strong enough to rule such States as these, was to be the +work of time, toil, and patience. It was only possible to lay the +foundation, and build as the material could be commanded; but the +Free Soilers, whether in the east or in the West, were undismayed +by the crisis, and fully resolved upon keeping up the fight. In +compliance with the wishes of my anti-slavery friends, and by way +of doing my part in the work, I decided to stand for a re-election +from the Fourth Indiana District in the spring of 1851. The Wilmot +proviso Democrats who had been chosen with me two years before on +the strength of their Free Soil pledges, including such men as +Joseph E. McDonald and Graham N. Fitch, now stood squarely on the +Compromise measures. + +The Whigs of the State, following the lead of Webster and Clay, +and including Edward W. McGaughey, their only delegate in Congress, +had also completely changed their base. My competitor, Samuel W. +Parker, whom I had defeated two years before, and who had then +insisted that the Whigs were better anti-slavery men than the Free +Soilers themselves, now made a complete somersault, fully committing +himself to the Compromise acts, and especially the Fugitive Slave +law, which he declared he approved without changing the dotting of +an _i_ or the crossing of a _t_. Foote, Cass, and Webster were +now the oracles of the Whig faith; but, oddly enough, the Democrats, +who had formed by far the larger portion of my support two years +before, now stood firm, and I would undoubtedly have been re-elected +but for very vigorous outside interference. Wm. J. Brown, who had +intrigued with the leading Free Soilers for the Speakership in +1849, as I have already shown, and favored the passage of the Wilmot +proviso in order to "stick it at old Zach," was now the editor of +the "Sentinel," the State organ of the Democracy, which was +sufficiently orthodox on the slavery question to pass muster in +South Carolina. It was this organ which afterward insisted that +my abolitionism entitled me to at least five years service at hard +labor in the penitentiary. Mr. Brown's dread of this fearful heresy +seemed as intense as it was unbounded, and he resolved at all +hazards to avert any further alliance with it by Democrats in any +portion of the State. By very hard work and the most unscrupulous +expedients he succeeded in enlisting a few ambitious local magnates +of his party in the district, who were fully in sympathy with his +spirit and aims, and of whom Oliver P. Morton was the chief; and +by thus drawing away from the democracy from two to three hundred +pro-slavery malcontents and turning them over to my Whig competitor, +my defeat was accomplished. + +But the effort to stem the tide of slavery fared better elsewhere. +While Mr. Webster was publicly ridiculing the "higher law," and +blurting his contempt upon one of the noted anti-slavery strongholds +of the country as "a laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and treason," +Massachusetts sent Charles Sumner to the Senate of the United +States, and elected Horace Mann, Charles Allen and Robert Rantoul +as members of the House. Amos Tuck was returned from New Hampshire, +Preston King from New York, Thaddeus Stevens and John W. Howe from +Pennsylvania, Charles Durkee from Wisconsin, and Giddings and +Townsend from Ohio. These events were exceedingly gratifying, and +lent new life to the cause throughout the Northern States. During +the summer of this year Mr. Sumner moved the repeal of the Fugitive +Slave Act, and although it received but ten votes, it led to an +angry and protracted discussion, which showed how signally the +attempt to suppress anti-slavery agitation had failed. In the +latter part of September of this year a Free Soil National Convention +met at Cleveland, to take into consideration the state of the country +and the duty of anti-slavery men. It was large and enthusiastic. +It adopted a series of spirited resolutions and a timely public +address, and admirable speeches were made by Cassius M. Clay, Joshua +R. Giddings, Samuel Lewis, George Bradburn, and others. The only +drawback to the prevailing spirit of hopefulness and courage was +the absence of Mr. Chase, who had just withdrawn from the Free Soil +party and united his fortunes with the Democrats of Ohio, who had +adopted a platform which admitted an interpretation covering, +substantially, the principles of the Free Soil creed. + +As the time for another Presidential election drew near, Whigs and +Democrats were alike engrossed with the consideration of their +"final settlement" of the slavery question, and their attitude +respecting it in the impending struggle. Among the latter there +was substantially no division. Their experience in 1848 with Gen. +Cass and his "Nicholson letter," had convinced them that nothing +was to be gained by mincing matters, and that a hearty, complete +and unhesitating surrender to slavery was the surest means of +success. The Democrats in Congress, both North and South, had very +generally favored this "settlement," and there was now no division +in the party except as to men. The candidates were Cass, Buchanan, +Douglas, and Marcy; and the National Convention assembled on the +first of June. The platform of the party began with the declaration +of its "trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the +discriminating justice of the American people"; and then, in the +fourth and fifth resolutions, pronounced the Fugitive Slave Act +equally sacred with the Constitution, and pledged the party to +"resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the +agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color +the attempt may be made." So far as slavery was concerned it thus +became a recognized and authoritative principle of American Democracy +to muzzle the press and crush out the freedom of speech, as the +means of upholding and perpetuating its power. On this platform +Franklin Pierce was nominated on the forty-ninth ballot; and in +his letter of acceptance he declared that "the principles it embraces +command the approbation of my judgment, and with them I believe I +can safely say that no word nor act of my life is in conflict." +It is difficult to conceive of any words by which he could more +completely have abdicated his manhood and self-respect, and sounded +the knell of his own conscience. There was no lower deep, and he +was evidently the right man in the right place. + +The Whig National Convention assembled on the sixteenth of June, +with Scott, Fillmore and Webster as the candidates. There was yet +a considerable anti-slavery element in the party, but it was +paralyzed and powerless. It had made a fatal mistake in submitting +to the nomination of Gen. Taylor, and became still more completely +demoralized by the accession of Fillmore, who turned his back upon +his past life, and threw himself into the arms of the slave-holders. +The old party had gone astray too long and too far to return, and +now determined to seek its fortunes in the desperate effort to +outdo the Democrats in cringing servility to the South. The platform +of the Convention expressed the reliance of the Whigs "upon the +intelligence of the American people," but in its eighth resolution +declared their acquiescence in the Compromise Acts of 1850 "as a +final settlement, in principle and substance, of the subjects to +which they relate"; and it deprecated "all further agitation of +the questions thus settled, as dangerous to our peace," and pledged +the party "to discountenance all efforts to continue or renew such +agitation, whenever, wherever, or however made." On this platform, +which is well understood to have been the work of Mr. Webster, Gen. +Scott was nominated on the fifty-ninth ballot by a vote of two +hundred and twenty-seven to sixty-six, while the highest vote +received by Mr. Webster was twenty-nine. Here at last, the Whig +party had made a complete surrender of its integrity, and verified +all that had ever been said by Free Soilers as to its treachery to +freedom; and here, finally, these rival parties were tumbled together +into the ditch of slavery, and wallowing in the mire of their +degradation and shame. The only issue of the canvass was slavery, +and on this they were perfectly agreed, while each, for the sake +of the spoils of office, was trying to surpass the other in the +damning proofs of its treason to humanity and contempt for the +fundamental truths of republican government. + +The spectacle was most pitiably humiliating, but I counted it an +omen of progress. The old parties were now unequivocally committed +to the policy of nationalizing the sectional interest of slavery, +and the way thus opened for a fair fight. The lines were clearly +drawn, and the issue unmistakably made between freedom and free +speech on the one side, and slavery and the gag on the other. I +thought we should have no more anti-slavery professions from Whigs +and Democrats, no further courting of Free-Soilers, and no more +mutual upbraidings of servility to the South; and that thus the +way would be smoothed for intelligent and effective anti-slavery +work. + +The Free Soil National Convention met in Pittsburg on the eleventh +of August, and I believe an assemblage of purer men never convened +for any political purpose. All the compromising and trading elements +that had drifted into the movement in 1848 had now gravitated back +to the old parties, leaving a residuum of permanent adherents of +the cause, who were perfectly ready to brave the frowns of public +opinion and the proscription and wrath of the old parties. Henry +Wilson was made president of the convention, and the platform +adopted was substantially that of 1848. A few additional resolves, +however, were added, including the declaration "that emigrants and +exiles from the old world should find a cordial welcome to homes +of comfort and fields of enterprise in the new," and that "every +attempt to abridge their privilege of becoming citizens and owners +of the soil among us ought to be resisted with inflexible +determination." It was also declared "that the Free Democratic +party was not organized to aid either the Whig or Democratic wing +of the great Slave Compromise party of the Nation, but to defeat +them both; and that, repudiating and renouncing both as hopelessly +corrupt and utterly unworthy of confidence, the purpose of the Free +Democracy is to take possession of the Federal Government, and +administer it for the better protection of the rights and interests +of the whole people." On this platform John P. Hale was nominated +for the Presidency. My own nomination for the second place on the +ticket was to me a complete surprise. I fully expected this honor +would fall upon Samuel Lewis, of Ohio, and the delegation from my +own State was unitedly for him. He coveted the nomination, and so +did his many devoted friends, simply as a fitting recognition of +his faithful service in the cause of freedom, to which he had been +unselfishly devoted since the year 1841. He had made himself a +public benefactor by his long and powerful championship of the +cause of education in Ohio. He was a man of brains, and enthusiastically +devoted to every work of practical philanthropy and reform. As an +impassioned, eloquent, and effective popular orator, he had no +equal in the country. His profound earnestness, perfect sincerity, +and religious fervor conquered all hearts, and made his anti-slavery +appeals irresistible. He was a strong and brave old man, who richly +deserved whatever distinction his nomination could confer; but for +reasons unknown to me he encountered in the convention the formidable +opposition of Mr. Chase, and he wrote me very touchingly a few days +afterward that "among the thousands who have given their lives and +fortunes to this cause, my name will be forgotten, while those who +have coolly stood by and watched the signs of the times, and filled +their sails with the wind that others have raised, will go down to +history as heroes and martyrs in a cause for which they never fought +a battle nor suffered a sacrifice." + +The canvass of the Whigs was totally without heart or enthusiasm. +The Southern wing of the party had dictated the platform, but did +not like Gen. Scott. Stephens and Toombs, of Georgia, and Jones +and Gentry, of Tennessee, refused to support him. The Northern +Whigs were greatly embarrassed, and while they felt constrained to +support the candidate, tried to relieve their consciences by +"spitting upon the platform" on which he stood. Mr. Webster did +not disguise his hostility to the ticket, and predicted the speedy +dissolution of the party. The Democrats were united in this contest. +Notwithstanding their atrocious platform they succeeded in persuading +the leading Barnburners of 1848 to return to the party and muster +again in the army of slavery. Dix, the Van Burens, David Dudley +Field, Tilden, and a host of others, including even Robert Rantoul +and Preston King, were now fighting for Pierce, while Bryant's +"Evening Post" and Greeley's "Tribune" cravenly submitted to the +shackles of slavery. In the light of such facts as these it was +easy to forecast the result of the contest. + +The real enthusiasm of this campaign was in the ranks of the Free +Soilers. They had, of course, no dream of success, or even of +carrying a single electoral vote; but they were profoundly in +earnest, and united as one man against the combination of the old +parties in behalf of slavery. I took the stump, and early in the +campaign accepted an invitation to join Cassius M. Clay in the +canvass of the counties of Lewis, Bracken, and Mason, in Kentucky. +On my way to our first appointment I stopped at Maysville, where +I found myself in the midst of a considerable excitement about some +thirty or forty slaves who had just crossed the Ohio on their way +to Canada. I met Mr. Clay at the residence of the Rev. John G. +Fee, some eight miles distant in Lewis county, where we talked over +the plan of our campaign. Mr. Fee was the founder of an anti- +slavery colony, a free school, and a free church, in that region, +and was a scholar, philanthropist, and reformer. His whole heart +was in the anti-slavery cause, and his courage had never failed +him in facing the ruffianism and brutality which slavery employed +in its service; but I would not have felt very safe in this enterprise +without the presence of Mr. Clay, who was known in Kentucky, and +everywhere else, as "a fighting Christian," who would defend the +freedom of speech at any hazard. Our first meeting was in Mr. +Fee's church, in the rocky and mountainous region of the county, +where we had perfect order and an attentive and sympathetic audience. +From this point we proceeded the next day to our appointment in +Maysville, finding a good deal of excitement in the city as to the +propriety of allowing us to speak in the court house. It was +finally thrown open to us, and in the afternoon I was handsomely +introduced by Mr. Clay to a fine audience, speaking at length, and +with great plainness, on the issues of the canvass, and being +frequently applauded. Mr. Clay spoke at night to a still larger +audience, while perfect order prevailed. So far our success seemed +gratifying, and Mr. Fee was delighted; and we proceeded the following +morning to our next appointment at Brooksville, in Bracken county. +Here we found assembled a large crowd of that brutalized rabble +element which formed the background of slavery everywhere. The +aboriginal creatures gazed at us like so many wild animals, but +showed not the slightest disposition to enter the house in which +we were to speak. Mr. Clay remarked that they must be Whigs, since +they did not seemed inclined to "resist," but only to "discountenance" +our agitation; but we had come to speak, and with Mr. Fee's family +and a few friends who had come with us for an audience, we spoke +about an hour and a half each, just as if the house had been filled. +A few straggled in during the speaking, and several hung about the +windows and listened, though they tried to seem not to do so; but +the most remarkable and praiseworthy thing about this congregation +of Yahoos was that they did not mob us. It must have seemed to +them a strange waste of power to spare such notorious disturbers +of the peace, and return to their homes without any laurels. This +ended our work in Kentucky, where we could boast that the "finality" +platform had been openly set at defiance, and I returned to my work +on the other side of the Ohio. + +Later in the canvass, on my return from Wisconsin and Illinois, I +learned that Andrew L. Robinson, the Free Soil candidate for Governor +of Indiana, had been mobbed in the city of Terre Haute, and prevented +from making an anti-slavery speech. This was not surprising, as +this section of the State was largely settled by people from +Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, who were as intolerant of +abolitionism as those of Bracken county already described. I +immediately sent a telegram making an appointment to speak in that +city, and on the day appointed reported for duty. I found my +friends uneasy and apprehensive. They evidently regretted my +coming, and some of them advised me quietly to return home. The +town was full of rumors that I was not to be allowed to speak, and +was to be "wabashed," as the rowdies phrased it. But I had no +thought of returning without being heard; and accordingly, at the +appointed hour, I repaired to the court house, where I found a +small crowd assembled, with restless countenances, and a gang of +ruffians outside, armed with stones and brickbats. The audience +gradually increased, and as I began to speak I noticed that the +roughs themselves began to listen, which they continued to do during +the hour and a half I devoted to the most unmistakable utterances +on the slavery question. The ringleader of the mob, for some +reason, failed to give the signal of attack, and free speech was +vindicated. Timid men grew brave, and boasted of the love of order +that had prompted the people of the town to stand by my rights; +yet the mob would probably have triumphed but for the presence of +Joseph O. Jones, the post-master of the city, himself a Kentuckian, +but a believer in the right of free speech and the duty of defending +it at all hazards. + +The result of this Presidential canvass was a surprise to all +parties. The triumph of the Democrats was anticipated, but it was +far more signal than they expected. Pierce received two hundred +and fifty-four electoral votes, and Scott only forty-two, representing +only four States of the Union. So far as the Whig party was +concerned, the result was overwhelming and final. The party was +buried forever in the grave it had dug for itself. Hale received +a little more than one hundred and fifty-six thousand votes, being +about one-twentieth of the entire popular vote cast at this election; +so that nineteen-twentieths of the people of the United States in +1852, and only a little more than a dozen years before slavery was +swept from the land, voted themselves bound and dumb before this +Moloch of American politics, while only one-twentieth had the +courage to claim their souls as their own. These were very startling +facts after more than a quarter of a century of anti-slavery agitation, +and they were naturally interpreted by the victorious party everywhere +as clearly foreshadowing the complete triumph of the "final +settlement" made by Congress in 1850. Certainly they seemed very +disheartening to anti-slavery men; for, however confidently they +might believe in the final success of their struggle, they could +not fail to see the immense odds and fearful obstacles against +which they would have to contend. The debauched masses who had +been molded and kneaded by the plastic touch of slavery into such +base uses, were the only possible material from which recruits +could be drawn for a great party of the future, which should +regenerate our politics and re-enthrone the love of liberty; and +this should be remembered in estimating the courage and faith of +the men who in that dark hour held aloft the banner of freedom, in +spite of all temptations to go with the multitude. + +But there was another view of the situation which thoughtful anti- +slavery men did not fail to enforce. The overwhelming triumph of +Pierce was not an unmixed victory for slavery. It had another +explanation. It was to be remembered, to the credit of the Whig +party, that thousands of its members, notwithstanding their dislike +of Pierce and their admiration of Gen. Scott as a man and a soldier, +and despite the attempted drill of their leaders and the influence +of Greeley and Seward, could not be induced to support the ticket, +and were now ready for further acts of independence. It was likewise +to be remembered that in the complete rout and ruin of the party +a great obstacle to anti-slavery progress had been removed. The +slave-holders at once recognized this fact. They had aimed to +defeat the party, not to annihilate it. They saw clearly what +slavery needed was two pretty evenly divided parties, pitted against +each other on economic issues, so that under cover of their strife +it could be allowed to have its way; and they were justly alarmed +at the prospect of a new movement, having its action upon moral +grounds, and gathering into its ranks the unshackled conscience +and intelligence of the Northern States. The "Washington Union," +then the national organ of the Democracy, deplored the death of +the Whig party, and earnestly hoped for its resurrection. The fact +had always been patent to anti-slavery men that these parties were +alike the bulwarks of slavery, since the Southern wing of each gave +law to the whole body, and that until one or the other could be +totally destroyed, a really formidable anti-slavery party was +impossible. There was also great cause for encouragement in the +evident signs of a growing anti-slavery public opinion. "Uncle +Tom's Cabin" had found its way to the millions on both sides of the +Atlantic, and the rage for it among all classes was without parallel +in the history of literature. It was served up for the masses in +sixpenny editions, dramatized and acted on the stage, and coined +into poetry and song. Slave-holders were alarmed at its wonderful +success, because they saw the grand part it was playing in creating +that "public opinion of the civilized world" which Mr. Webster had +declared to be "the mightiest power on earth." The replies to this +wonderful book, and the anti-slavery and pro-slavery literature to +which it gave birth, largely contributed to the progress of freedom, +and the final repudiation of the "finality" which the great parties +had combined to establish. + +Nor was the small vote for Hale a matter of serious discouragement. +It was much smaller than that cast for Van Buren in 1848; but that +was a deceptive epoch. Multitudes, and especially in the State of +New York, then voted the Free Soil ticket who had never before +shown any interest in the slavery question, and did not manifest +it afterward. They were not Free Soil men, but Van Buren men, who +hated Gen. Cass. The vote for Hale represented the _bona fide_ +strength of our cause after this element had been eliminated, and +its quality went far to atone for its quantity. The proper test +of anti-slavery progress was a comparison of the anti-slavery vote +of 1844 with that of 1852, and this showed an increase of nearly +three-fold in the intervening space of eight years. This steady +evolution of anti-slavery opinion from the deadening materialism +and moral inertia of the times could not go backward, but in the +very nature of things would repeat itself, and gather fresh momentum +from every effort put forth to stay its advance. + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE EVOLUTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (CONTINUED). +A notable fugitive slave case--Inauguration of Pierce--Repeal of +the Missouri compromise--Its effect upon the parties--The Free Soil +position--Know-Nothingism--The situation--First steps in the +formation of the Republican party--Movements of the Know-Nothings +--Mistake of the Free Soilers--Anti-slavery progress--Election of +Banks as Speaker--Call for a Republican National Convention at +Pittsburg--Organization of the party--The Philadelphia convention +and its platform--Nomination of Fremont--Know-Nothing and Whig +nominations--Democratic nomination and platform--The grand issue +of the campaign--The Democratic canvass--The splendid fight for +Fremont--Triumph of Buchanan--Its causes and results--The teaching +of events. + +It was early in the year 1853 that a notable fugitive slave case +occurred in Indiana. The alleged fugitive was John Freeman, who +had once resided in Georgia, but for many years had been a resident +of Indianapolis and had never been a slave. The marshal of the +State, though he had voted against the passage of the Fugitive Act +of 1850, entered upon the service of Ellington, the claimant, with +a zeal and alacrity which made him exceedingly odious to anti- +slavery men. He accompanied Ellington into the jail in which +Freeman was confined, and compelled him to expose his shoulders +and legs, so that the witnesses could identify him by certain marks, +and swear according to the pattern, which they did. The case became +critical for Freeman; but the feeling in Indianapolis was so strong +in his favor that a continuance of the hearing was granted to enable +him to prepare his proofs. He hired friends to go to Georgia, who +succeeded in bringing back with them several men who had known him +there many years before, and testified that he was a free man. On +the day of the trial Ellington became the fugitive, while Freeman +was preparing his papers for a prosecution for false imprisonment. +The large crowd in attendance was quite naturally turned into an +anti-slavery meeting, which was made to do good service in the way +of "agitation." The men from Georgia were on the platform, and +while they were complimented by the speakers on their love of +justice and humanity in coming to the rescue of Freeman, no quarter +was given to the Northern serviles and flunkeys who had made haste +to serve the perjured villains who had undertaken to kidnap a +citizen of the State under the forms of an atrocious law. The +meeting was very enthusiastic, and the tables completely turned on +the slave-catching faction. + +When President Pierce was inaugurated, on the fourth of March, +1853, the pride and power of the Democratic party seemed to be at +their flood. In his inaugural message he expressed the fervent +hope that the slavery question was "forever at rest," and he +doubtless fully believed that this hope would be realized. In his +annual message, in December following, he lauded the Compromise +measures with great emphasis, and declared that the repose which +they had brought to the country should receive no shock during his +term of office if he could avert it. The anti-slavery element in +the Thirty-third Congress was scarcely as formidable as in the +preceding one, though there were some accessions. Benjamin F. Wade +was now in the Senate, and De Witt of Massachusetts, Gerrit Smith +of New York, and Edward Wade of Ohio, were members of the House. +In the beginning the session gave promise of a quiet one, but on +the twenty-third of January the precious repose of the country, to +which the President had so lovingly referred in his message, was +rudely shocked by the proposition of Senator Douglas to repeal the +Missouri compromise. This surprising demonstration from a leading +friend of the Administration and a champion of the compromise +measures marked a new epoch in the career of slavery, and rekindled +the fires of sectional strife. After a very exciting debate in +both houses, which lasted four months, the measure finally became +a law on the thirtieth of May, 1854. It was a sprout from the +grave of the Wilmot proviso; for if, under the Constitution, it +was the duty of Congress to abandon the policy of restriction in +1850, and provide that Utah and New Mexico should be received into +the Union, with or without slavery, according to the choice of +their people, the Missouri compromise line should never have been +established, and was a rock of offense to the slave-holders. The +Compromise Acts of 1850 had not abrogated that line, and related +only to our Mexican acquisitions; but they had affirmed a principle, +and if that principle was sound, the Missouri restriction was +indefensible. The whole question of slavery was thus reopened, +for the sacredness of the compact of 1820 and the wickedness of +its violation depended largely upon the character of slavery itself, +and our constitutional relations to it. + +On all sides the situation was exceedingly critical and peculiar. +The Whigs, in their now practically disbanded condition, were free +to act as they saw fit, and were very indignant at this new +demonstration in the interest of slavery, while they were yet in +no mood to countenance any form of "abolitionism." Multitudes of +Democrats were equally indignant, and were quite ready to join +hands with the Whigs in branding slavery with the violation of its +plighted faith. Both made the sacredness of the bargain of 1820 +and the crime of its violation the sole basis of their hostility. +Their hatred of slavery was geographical, spending its force north +of the Missouri restriction. They talked far more eloquently about +the duty of keeping covenants, and the wickedness of reviving +sectional agitation, than the evils of slavery, and the cold-blooded +conspiracy to spread it over an empire of free soil. Their watch- +word and rallying cry was "the restoration of the Missouri compromise"; +but this demand was not made merely as a preliminary to other +measures, which would restore the free States to the complete +assertion of their constitutional rights, but as a means of +propitiating the _spirit_ of compromise, and a convenient retreat +to the adjustment acts of 1850 and the "finality" platforms of +1852. In some States and localities the anti-slavery position of +these parties was somewhat broader; but as a general rule the ground +on which they marshaled their forces was substantially what I have +stated. + +The position of the Free Soilers was radically different. They +opposed slavery upon principle, and irrespective of any compact or +compromise. They did not demand the restoration of the Missouri +compromise; and although they rejoiced at the popular condemnation +of the perfidy which had repealed it, they regarded it as a false +issue. It was an instrument on which different tunes could be +played. To restore this compromise would prevent the spread of +slavery over soil that was free; but it would re-affirm the binding +obligation of a compact that should never have been made, and from +which we were now offered a favorable opportunity of deliverance. +It would be to recognize slavery as an equal and honorable contracting +party, waiving its violated faith, and thus precluding us from +pleading its perfidy in discharge of all compromises. It would +degrade our cause to the level of those who washed their hands of +all taint of abolitionism, and only waged war against the Administration +because it broke up the blessed reign of peace which descended upon +the country in the year 1850. These Free Soilers insisted that +the breach of this compact was only a single link in a great chain +of measures aiming at the absolute supremacy of slavery in the +Government, and thus inviting a resistance commensurate with that +policy; and that this breach should be made the exodus of the people +from the bondage of all compromises. They argued that to cut down +the issue between slavery and freedom to so narrow, equivocal, and +half-hearted a measure, at a time when every consideration pleaded +for radical and thorough work, was practical infidelity to the +cause and the crisis. It was sporting with humanity, and giving +to the winds a glorious victory for the right when it was within +our grasp. + +The situation was complicated by two other political elements. +One of these was Temperance, which now, for the first time, had +become a most absorbing political issue. The "Maine Law" agitation +had reached the West, and the demand of the temperance leaders was +"search, seizure, confiscation, and destruction of liquors kept +for illegal sale." Keenly alive to the evils of drunkenness, and +too impatient to wait for the inevitable conditions of progress, +they thought the great work could be accomplished by a legislative +short-cut. They insisted that the "accursed poison" of the +"rumseller," wherever it could be found, should be poured into the +gutter along with other filth, while he should be marched off to +answer to the charge of a crime against society, and take his rank +among other great offenders. Instead of directing their chief +attack against the appetite for drink and seeking to lessen the +demand, their effort was to destroy the supply. They had evidently +given no thought to the function of civil government in dealing +with the problem, nor did they perceive that the vice of drunkenness +is an effect, quite as much as a cause, having its genesis in the +unequal laws, in the domination of wealth over the poor, in the +lack of general education, in inherited infirmities, physical and +mental, in neglected household training; in a word, in untoward +social conditions which must be radically dealt with before we can +strike with effect at the root of the evil. They did not see that +the temperance question is thus a many-sided one, involving the +general uplifting of society, and that no legislation can avail +much which loses sight of this truth. For these very reasons the +agitation for a time swept everything before it. Its current was +resistless, because it was narrow and impetuous. If the leaders +had comprehended the logic of their work and its unavoidable +limitations, and had only looked forward to the overthrow of the +fabric of intemperance by undermining its foundations, the regular +current of politics would not have been perceptibly affected, while +the way would have been left open for a more perfect union on the +really vital and overshadowing issue of slavery. + +The other element referred to made its appearance in the closing +months of 1853, and took the name of the Know-Nothing party. It +was a secret oath-bound political order, and its demand was the +proscription of Catholics and a probation of twenty-one years for +the foreigner as a qualification for the right of suffrage. Its +career was as remarkable as it was disgraceful. Thousands were +made to believe that the Romish hierarchy was about to overthrow +our liberties, and that the evils of "foreignism" had become so +alarming as to justify the extraordinary measures by which it was +proposed to counteract them. Thousands, misled by political knaves +through the arts of the Jesuits believed that the cause of freedom +was to be sanctified and saved by this new thing under the sun. +Thousands, through their unbridled credulity, were persuaded that +political hacks and charlatans were to lose their occupation under +the reign of the new Order, and that our debauched politics were +to be thoroughly purified by the lustration which it promised +forthwith to perform. Thousands, eager to bolt from the old parties, +but fearful of being shot down on the way as deserters, gladly +availed themselves of this newly devised "underground railroad" in +escaping from the service of their old masters. Under these various +influences the Whigs generally, and a large proportion of the Free +Soilers and Democrats, were enlisted in the service of this remarkable +movement. Pretending to herald a new era in our politics in which +the people were to take the helm and expel demagogues and traders +from the ship, it reduced political swindling to the certainty and +system of a science. It drew to itself, as the great festering +centre of corruption, all the known rascalities of the previous +generation, and assigned them to active duty in its service. It +was an embodied lie of the first magnitude, a horrid conspiracy +against decency, the rights of man, and the principle of human +brotherhood. + +Its birth, simultaneously with the repeal of the Missouri compromise, +was not an accident, as any one could see who had studied the +tactics of the slave-holders. It was a well-timed scheme to divide +the people of the free States upon trifles and side issues, while +the South remained a unit in defense of its great interest. It +was the cunning attempt to balk and divert the indignation aroused +by the repeal of the Missouri restriction, which else would spend +its force upon the aggressions of slavery; for by thus kindling +the Protestant jealousy of our people against the Pope, and enlisting +them in a crusade against the foreigner, the South could all the +more successfully push forward its schemes. + +On this ground, as an anti-slavery man, I opposed it with all my +might from the beginning to the end of its life. For a time it +carried everything with a high hand. It was not only irresistible +in numbers, but it fought in the dark. It pretended to act openly +and in friendly conference with its enemies as to questions which +it had already settled in secret conclave. Its opponents did not +know how to wage war against it, because they did not know who were +their friends. If a meeting was called to expose and denounce its +schemes, it was drowned in the Know-Nothing flood which, at the +appointed time, completely overwhelmed the helpless minority. This +happened in my own county and town, where thousands of men, including +many of my old Free Soil brethren, assembled as an organized mob +to suppress the freedom of speech; and they succeeded by brute +force in taking possession of every building in which their opponents +could meet, and silencing them by savage yells. At one time I +think I had less than a dozen political friends in the State, and +I could see in the glad smile which lighted up the faces of my old- +time enemies that they considered me beyond the reach of political +resurrection. But I never for a moment intermitted my warfare, or +doubted that in the end the truth would be vindicated, although I +did not dream that in less than two years I would be the recognized +leader of the men composing this mob, who would be found denying +their membership of this secret order, or confessing it with shame. +It was a strange dispensation; and no record of independent journalism +was ever more honorable than that of the "New York Tribune" and +"National Era," during their heroic and self-sacrificing fight +against this organized scheme of bigotry and proscription, which +can only be remembered as the crowning and indelible shame of our +politics. It admits of neither defense or palliation, and I am +sorry to find Henry Wilson's "History of the Rise and Fall of the +Slave Power" disfigured by his elaborate efforts to whitewash it +into respectability, and give it a decent place in the records of +the past. + +Such were the elements which mingled and commingled in the political +ferment of 1854, and out of which an anti-slavery party was to be +evolved capable of trying conclusions with the perfectly disciplined +power of slavery. The problem was exceedingly difficult, and could +not be solved in a day. The necessary conditions of progress could +not be slighted, and the element of time must necessarily be a +large one in the grand movement which was to come. The dispersion +of the old parties was one thing, but the organization of their +fragments into a new one on a just basis was quite a different +thing. The honor of taking the first step in the formation of the +Republican party belongs to Michigan, where the Whigs and Free +Soilers met in State convention on the sixth of July, formed a +complete fusion into one party, and adopted the name Republican. +This action was followed soon after by like movements in the States +of Wisconsin and Vermont. In Indiana a State "fusion" convention +was held on the thirteenth of July, which adopted a platform, +nominated a ticket, and called the new movement the "People's +Party." The platform, however, was narrow and equivocal, and the +ticket nominated had been agreed on the day before by the Know- +Nothings, in secret conclave, as the outside world afterward learned. +The ticket was elected, but it was done by combining opposite and +irreconcilable elements, and was not only barren of good fruits +but prolific of bad ones, through its demoralizing example; for +the same dishonest game was attempted the year following, and was +overwhelmingly defeated by the Democrats. In New York the Whigs +refused to disband, and the attempt to form a new party failed. +The same was true of Massachusetts and Ohio. The latter State, +however, in 1855, fell into the Republican column, and nominated +Mr. Chase for Governor, who was elected by a large majority. A +Republican movement was attempted this year in Massachusetts, where +conservative Whiggery and Know-Nothingism blocked the way of +progress, as they did also in the State of New York. In November +of the year 1854 the Know-Nothing party held a National Convention +in Cincinnati, in which the hand of slavery was clearly revealed, +and the "Third Degree" or pro-slavery obligation of the order, was +adopted; and it was estimated that at least a million and a half +of men afterward bound themselves by this obligation. In June of +the following year another National Convention of the order was +held in Philadelphia, and at this convention the party was finally +disrupted on the issue of slavery, and its errand of mischief +henceforward prosecuted by fragmentary and irregular methods; but +even the Northern wing of this Order was untrustworthy on the +slavery issue, having proposed, as a condition of union, to limit +its anti-slavery demand to the restoration of the Missouri restriction +and the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as free States. + +Indeed, the outlook as to the formation of a triumphant anti-slavery +party was not so promising towards the close of the year 1855 as +it had seemed in the spring of the preceding year. If the Free +Soilers had been clear-sighted enough to distinguish between that +which was transient and that which was permanent in the forces +which had roused the people of the free States, and, availing +themselves of the repeal of the Missouri restriction as a God-send +to their cause, had summoned the manhood of the country to their +help, a powerful impulse would have been given in the right direction. +But in the general confusion and bewilderment of the times many of +them lost their way, and were found mustering with the mongrel +hordes of Know-Nothingism, and under captains who were utterly +unworthy to lead them. Instead of inflexibly maintaining their +ground and beckoning the people to come up and possess it, they +meanly deserted it themselves, while vainly expecting others to +occupy it. The Whigs were totally powerless to render any service +without first disbanding their party, and this, in many localities, +they declined to do. Both wings of the Know-Nothing movement were +organized obstacles to the formation of a new party, while the +bolters from the Democrats were as unprepared for radical anti- +slavery work as the Whigs or Know-Nothings. But notwithstanding +all these drawbacks, real progress had been made. In the Thirty- +fourth Congress, Wilson, Foster, Harlan, Trumbull, and Durkee were +chosen senators. In the House were Burlingame, Buffington, Banks, +Hickman, Grow, Covode, Sherman, Bliss, Galloway, Bingham, Harlan, +Stanton, Colfax, Washburn, and many others. These were great gains, +and clearly pointed to still larger accessions, and the final +subordination of minor issues to the grand one on which the people +of the free States were to take their stand. An unprecedented +struggle for the Speakership began with the opening of the Thirty- +fourth Congress, and lasted till the second day of February, when +the free States finally achieved their first victory in the election +of Banks. Northern manhood at last was at a premium, and this was +largely the fruit of the "border ruffian" attempts to make Kansas +a slave State, which had stirred the blood of the people during +the year 1855. In the meantime, the arbitrary enforcement of the +Fugitive Slave Act still further contributed to the growth of an +anti-slavery opinion. The famous case of Anthony Burns in Boston, +the prosecution of S. M. Booth in Wisconsin, and the decision of +the Supreme Court of that State, the imprisonment of Passmore +Williamson in Philadelphia, and the outrageous rulings of Judge +Kane, and the case of Margaret Garner in Ohio, all played their +part in preparing the people of the free States for organized +political action against the aggressions of slavery. + +Near the close of the year 1855, the chairmen of the Republican +State Committees of Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, +and Wisconsin, issued a call for a National Republican Convention +to be held at Pittsburg, on the 22d of February, 1856, for the +purpose of organizing a National Republican party, and making +provision for a subsequent convention to nominate candidates for +President and Vice President. It was very largely attended, and +bore witness to the spirit and courage which the desperate measures +of the slave oligarchy had awakened throughout the Northern States. +All the free States were represented, and eight of the slave-holding, +namely: Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, +North Carolina, and Texas. The convention assembled in Lafayette +Hall, and the Hon. John A. King, of New York, a son of Rufus King, +was made temporary chairman, and Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, +the intimate friend of President Jackson, was made its permanent +president. He was most enthusiastically greeted on taking the +chair, and began his address with the remark that this was the +first time he had ever been called on to make a speech. His views +were too conservative in tone to satisfy the demands of the crisis, +but he was most cordially welcomed as a distinguished delegate from +a slave State. The convention was opened by a prayer from Owen +Lovejoy, and there was a suppressed murmur of applause when he +asked God to enlighten the mind of the President of the United +States, and turn him from his evil ways, and if this was not +possible, to take him away, so that an honest and God-fearing man +might fill his place. Horace Greeley was seen in the audience, +and was loudly and unitedly called on for a speech. He spoke +briefly, saying that he had been in Washington several weeks, and +friends there "counseled extreme caution in our movements." This +was the burden of his exhortation. At the close of his remarks +Mr. Giddings was tumultuously called for, and responded by saying +that Washington was the last place in the world to look for counsel +or redress, and related an anecdote of two pious brothers, named +Joseph and John, who in early times had begun a settlement in the +West. Joseph prayed to the Lord: "O, Lord! we have begun a good +work; we pray thee to carry it on thus,"--giving specific directions. +But John prayed: "O, Lord, we have begun a good work; carry it on +as you think best, and don't mind what Joe says." Mr. Giddings +then introduced the Rev. Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois,--"not Joe, but +John." Mr. Lovejoy delighted the audience, and was followed by +Preston King and other speakers; and it was quite manifest that +this was a _Republican_ convention, and not a mere aggregation of +Whigs, Know-Nothings, and dissatisfied Democrats. It contained a +considerable Know-Nothing element, but it made no attempt at +leadership, while Charles Remelin and other speakers were +enthusiastically applauded when they denounced Know-Nothingism as +a mischievous side issue in our politics, which the new movement +should openly repudiate. The convention was in session two days, +and was singularly harmonious throughout. Its resolutions and +address to the people did not fitly echo the feeling and purpose +of its members, but this was a preliminary movement, and it was +evident that nothing could stay the progress of the cause. As +chairman of the committee on organization, I had the honor to report +the plan of action through which the new party took life, providing +for the appointment of a National Executive Committee, the holding +of a National Convention in Philadelphia on the 17th of June, for +the nomination of candidates for President and Vice President, and +the organization of the party in counties and districts throughout +the States. + +The Philadelphia convention was very large, and marked by unbounded +enthusiasm. The spirit of liberty was up, and side issues forgotten. +If Know-Nothingism was present, it prudently accepted an attitude +of subordination. The platform reasserted the self-evident truths +of the Declaration of Independence, and denied that Congress, the +people of a Territory, or any other authority, could give legal +existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. It +asserted the sovereign power of Congress over the Territories, and +its right and duty to prohibit it therein. Know-Nothingism received +no recognition, and the double-faced issue of the restoration of +the Missouri compromise was disowned, while the freedom of Kansas +was dealt with as a mere incident of the conflict between liberty +and slavery. On this broad platform John C. Fremont was nominated +for President on the first ballot, and Wm. L. Dayton was unanimously +nominated for Vice-President. The National Republican party was +thus splendidly launched, and nothing seemed to stand in the way +of its triumph but the mischievous action of the Know-Nothing party, +and a surviving faction of pro-slavery Whigs. The former party +met in National Convention in Philadelphia, on the twenty-second +of February, and nominated Millard Fillmore for President and Andrew +J. Donelson for Vice President. Some bolters from this convention +subsequently nominated Nathaniel P. Banks and William F. Johnson +as their candidates, and a remnant of the Whig party held a convention +at Baltimore on the seventeenth of September, and endorsed Fillmore +and Donelson; but a dissatisfied portion of the convention afterward +nominated Commodore Stockton and Kenneth Raynor. All these factions +were destined soon to political extinction, but in a hand-to-hand +fight with the slave power they yet formed a considerable obstacle +to that union and harmony in the free States which were necessary +to success. + +The Democratic National Convention met at Cincinnati on the second +of June. The candidates were Buchanan, Pierce, and Douglas. On +the seventeenth ballot Buchanan was unanimously nominated for +President, and on the second ballot John C. Breckenridge was +nominated for Vice President. The platform re-affirmed the action +of Congress respecting the repeal of the Missouri compromise and +the compromises of 1850, and recognized the right of the people of +all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, whenever the +number of their inhabitants justified it, to form a Constitution +with or without domestic slavery, and to be admitted into the Union +upon terms of equality with the other States. These declarations, +together with the express denial to Congress of the right to +interfere with slavery in the Territories, were accepted as +satisfactory to the South, and were fairly interpreted to mean that +the people of the Territories, pending their territorial condition, +had no power to exclude slavery therefrom. In Mr. Buchanan's letter +of acceptance, he completely buried his personality in the platform, +and Albert G. Brown of Mississippi, and Governor Wise of Virginia, +pronounced him as true to the South as Mr. Calhoun himself. These +were the tickets for 1856, but the real contest was between Buchanan +and Fremont. It was pre-eminently a conflict of principles. The +issues could hardly have been better defined, and they were vital. +It was a struggle between two civilizations, between reason and +brute force, between the principles of Democracy and the creed of +Absolutism; and the case was argued with a force, earnestness, and +fervor, never before known. No Presidential contest had ever so +touched the popular heart, or so lifted up and ennobled the people +by the contagion of a great and pervading moral enthusiasm. The +campaign for Buchanan, however, was not particularly animated, at +least in the Northern States. It illustrated the power of party +machinery, and the desperate purpose to press forward along a path +which had been followed too far to call a halt. It was a struggle +for party ascendancy by continual and most humiliating concessions +to the ever-multiplying demands of slavery; and the ardor of the +struggle must have been cooled by many troublesome misgivings as +to the final effect of these concessions, and the policy of purchasing +a victory at such a price. + +The excitement of the canvass was aggravated by very exasperating +circumstances. The brutal and cowardly assault of Brooks upon +Sumner was the counterpart of border ruffianism in Kansas, and +perhaps did more to stir the blood of the people of the Northern +States than any of the wholesale outrages thus far perpetrated in +that distant border. These outrages, however, were now multiplied +in all directions, and took on new shapes. They were legislative, +executive, and judicial, cropping out in private pillage and +assassination, in organized marauding and murder, and in armed +violence; and these horrid demonstrations enlivened the canvass to +the end. Republican enthusiasm reached its white heat, borrowing +the self-forgetting devotion and dedicated zeal of a religious +conversion. Banks and tariffs and methods of administration were +completely forgotten, while thousands of Democrats who had been +trained in the school of slavery, and hundreds of thousands of +conservative Whigs, caught the spirit of liberty which animated +the followers of Fremont and Dayton. The canvass had no parallel +in the history of American politics. No such mass-meetings had +ever assembled. They were not only immense in numbers, but seemed +to come together spontaneously, and wholly independent of machinery. +The processions, banners, and devices were admirable in all their +appointments, and no political campaign had ever been inspired by +such charming and soul-stirring music, or cheered by such a following +of orderly, intelligent, conscientious and thoroughly devoted men +and women. To me the memory of this first great national struggle +for liberty is a delight, as the part I played in it was a real +jubilee of the heart. I was welcomed by the Republican masses +everywhere, and the fact was as gratifying to me as it proved +mortifying to the party chiefs who, a little while before, had +found such comfort in the assurance that henceforward they were +rid of me. With many wry faces they submitted, after all sorts of +manoeuvers early in the canvass to keep me in the background, varied +by occasional threats to drive me out of the party. As their own +party standing became somewhat precarious they completely changed +their base, and often amused the public by super-serviceable displays +of their personal friendship. Even the ring-leader of the Know- +Nothing mob of two years before, standing up to his full height of +"six feet six," used to introduce me at mass meetings as "Your +honored representative in Congress, and war-worn veteran in the +cause of liberty." + +But Buchanan triumphed. The baleful interposition of Know-Nothingism +stood in the way of that union of forces which the situation +demanded, and was thus chiefly responsible for the Republican +defeat. The old Whigs who had so recently stepped from their +"finality" platform, could not be unitedly rallied, and the Democratic +bolters were only half converted. In my own State the opposition +to the Democracy repudiated even the name Republican, and entered +the field as "the People's party." It was a combination of +weaknesses, instead of a union of forces. All the Fillmore Know- +Nothings and Silver-Grey Whigs of the State were recognized as +brethren. At least one man on the State ticket, of which Oliver +P. Morton was the head, was a Fillmore man, while both Fillmore +and anti-Fillmore men had been chosen as delegates to Philadelphia +and electors for the State. The political managers even went so +far as to suppress their own electoral ticket during the canvass, +as a peace-offering to old Whiggery and Know-Nothingism, while the +admission of Kansas as a free State was dealt with as the sole +issue, and border ruffian outrages and elaborate disclaimers of +"abolitionism" were the regular staple of our orators, who openly +declared that the Republican party was a "white man's party." Anti- +slavery speakers like Clay and Burlingame were studiously kept out +of Southern Indiana, where the teachings of Republicanism were +especially needed, and Richard W. Thompson, then the professed +champion of Fillmore, but in reality the stipendary of the Democrats, +traversed that region on the stump, denounced the Republicans as +"Abolitionists," "disunionists," and "incendiaries," and was +everywhere unchallenged in his course. Similar tactics, though +not so deplorably despicable, prevailed in several of the other +States, giving unmistakable evidence of the need of a still further +and more thorough enlightenment of the people as to the spirit and +aims of slavery. In the light of these facts, I was not at all +cast down by the defeat of Fremont. He was known as an explorer, +and not as a statesman. If he had succeeded, with mere politicians +in his cabinet, a Congress against him, and only a partially +developed anti-slavery sentiment behind him, the cause of freedom +would have been in fearful peril. The revolution so hopefully +begun might have been arrested by half-way measures, promoting the +slumber rather than the agitation of the truth, while the irritating +nostrums of Buchanan Democracy, so necessary to display the +abominations of slavery, would have been lost to us. The moral +power of the canvass for Fremont was itself a great gain, +notwithstanding the cowardice of some of its leaders. The Republican +movement could not now go backward, and with a probation of four +years to prepare for the next conflict, unembarrassed by the +responsibilities of power, and free to profit by the blunders and +misdeeds of its foe, it was pretty sure of a triumph in 1860. +Fremont had received a popular vote of one million three hundred +and forty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, carrying eleven +States and one hundred and fourteen electoral votes; while only +four years before, John P. Hale, standing on substantially the same +platform, had received only a little more than one hundred and +fifty-seven thousand, and not a single electoral vote. This showed +a marvelous anti-slavery progress, considering the age of the +movement, the elements it forced into combination, and the difficulties +under which it struggled into life; and no one could misinterpret +its significance. + + +CHAPTER VIII. +PROGRESS OF REPUBLICANISM. +The Dred Scott decision--The struggle for freedom in Kansas-- +Instructive debates in Congress--Republican gains in the Thirty- +fifth Congress--The English bill--Its defeat and the effect-- +Defection of Douglas--Its advantages and its perils--Strange course +of the New-York Tribune and other Republican papers--Republican +retreat in Indiana--Illinois Republicans stand firm, and hold the +party to its position--Gains in the Thirty-sixth Congress--Southern +barbarism and extravagance--John Brown's raid--Cuba and the slave +trade--Oregon and Kansas--Aids to anti-slavery progress--The +Speakership and Helper's book--Southern insolence and extravagance +--Degradation of Douglas--Slave code for the Territories--Outrages +in the South--Campaign of 1860--Charleston convention and division +of the Democrats--Madness of the factions--Bell and Everett-- +Republican National Convention and its platform--Lincoln and Seward +--Canvass of Douglas--The campaign for Lincoln--Conduct of Seward +--Republican concessions and slave-holding madness. + +The Republicans, however, were sorely disappointed by their defeat; +but this second great victory of slavery did not at all check the +progress of the anti-slavery cause. It had constantly gathered +strength from the audacity and recklessness of slave-holding +fanaticism, and it continued to do so. On the 6th of March, 1857, +the Supreme Court of the United States harnessed itself to the car +of slavery by its memorable decision in the case of Dred Scott, +affirming that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the +Territories, and, inferentially, that the Constitution carried with +it the right to hold slaves there, even against the will of their +people. The point was not before the court, and the opinion of +Chief Justice Taney was therefore purely extra-judicial. It was +simply a political harangue in defense of slavery. It created a +profound impression throughout the free States, and became a powerful +weapon in the hands of Republicans. It was against the whole +current of adjudications on the subject, and they denounced it as +a vile caricature of American jurisprudence. They characterized +it as the distilled diabolism of two hundred years of slavery, +stealthily aiming at the overthrow of our Republican institutions, +while seeking to hide its nakedness under the fig-leaves of judicial +fairness and dignity. They branded it as the desperate attempt of +slave-breeding Democracy to crown itself king, by debauching the +Federal judiciary and waging war against the advance of civilization. +Their denunciations of the Chief Justice were unsparing and +remorseless; and they described him as "pouring out the hoarded +villainies of a life-time into a political opinion which he tried +to coin into law." When Senator Douglas sought to ridicule their +clamor by inquiring whether they would take an appeal from the +Supreme Court of the United States to a town meeting, they answered: +"Yes, we appeal from the court to the people, who made the +Constitution, and have the right, as the tribunal of last resort, +to define its meaning." Nothing could more clearly have marked +the degradation to which the power of slavery had reduced the +country than this decision, and no other single event could have +so prepared the people for resistance to its aggressions. It was +thoroughly cold-blooded in its letter and spirit, and no Spanish +Inquisitor ever showed less sympathy for his victim than did the +Chief Justice for the slave. + +But the Dred Scott iniquity did not stand alone. It had been +procured for the purpose of fastening slavery upon all the Territories, +and it had, of course, a special meaning when applied to the +desperate struggle then in progress to make Kansas a slave State. +The conduct of the Administration during this year, in its treatment +of the free State men of that Territory, forms one of the blackest +pages in the history of slavery. The facts respecting their labors, +trials, and sufferings, and the methods employed to force upon them +the Lecompton Constitution, including wholesale ballot-stuffing +and every form of ruffianism, pillage, and murder, need not be +recalled; but all these were but the outcroppings and counterpart +of the Dred Scott decision, and the horrid travesty of the principle +of popular sovereignty in the Territories. The whole power of the +Administration, acting as the hired man of slavery, was ruthlessly +employed for the purpose of spreading the curse over Kansas, and +establishing it there as an irreversible fact; and all the departments +of the Government now stood as a unit on the side of this devilish +conspiracy. Everybody knew the Lecompton constitution was the work +of outside ruffians, and not of the people of the Territory, whose +Legislature in February, 1858, solemnly protested against their +admission under that Constitution, and whose protest was totally +unheeded. The Congressional debates during this period greatly +contributed to the anti-slavery education of the people, by more +clearly unmasking the real spirit and designs of the slaveholders. +We were treated to the kind of talk then becoming current about +"Northern mud-sills," "filthy operatives," the "ownership of labor +by capital," and the beauties and beatitudes of slavery. Such +maddened extremists as Hammond and Keitt of South Carolina, and such +blatant doughfaces as Petit of Indiana, became capital missionaries +in the cause of freedom. Their words were caught up by the press +of the free States, and added their beneficent help to the work so +splendidly going forward through the providential agency of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." + +In the meantime, freedom had made large gains in the composition +of the Thirty-fifth Congress, which now had charge of the Lecompton +swindle. The Senate contained twenty Republican members and the +House ninety-two. Kansas had not been forced into the Union as a +slave State, but she was helpless at the feet of the Executive. +In the midst of the angry debate a new proposition was brought +forward, on the twenty-third of April, which was even more detestable +than the Lecompton bill itself. This was known as the "English +bill," which offered Kansas a very large and tempting land grant, +if she would come into the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, +but provided that if she voted to reject the land grant she should +neither receive the land nor be admitted as a State until the +Territory acquired a population sufficient to elect a representative +to the House. The infamy of this proposition was heightened by +the fact that these long-suffering pioneers, weary and harassed by +their protracted struggle and longing for peace, were naturally +tempted to purchase it at any price. It was a proposition of +gigantic bribery, after bluster and bullying had been exhausted. +It was, in fact, both a bribe and a menace, and measured at once +the political morality of the men who favored it, and the extremity +to which the slave-holders were driven in the prosecution of their +desperate enterprise. After a protracted debate in both Houses, +and at the end of a struggle of five months, the bill was passed +and received the Executive approval; but the rejoicing of the slave- +holders and their allies was short-lived. The people of Kansas +were not in the market. They had suffered too much and too long +in the battle for freedom to make merchandise of their convictions +and sacrifice the future of a great commonwealth. They spurned +the bribe, and took the chances of triumph through an indefinitely +prolonged conflict, while recruits to the ranks of freedom were +naturally falling into line throughout the Northern States. + +In December of this year I attended another fugitive slave case in +Indianapolis. The claimant was one Vallandingham, of Kentucky, +whose agent caught the alleged fugitive in Illinois, and was passing +through Indianapolis on his way home. The counsel for the negro, +Ellsworth, Coburn, Colley, and myself, brought the case before +Judge Wallace, on _habeas corpus_, and had him discharged. The +claimant immediately had him arrested and taken before Commissioner +Rea, for trial. We asked for the continuance of the case on the +affidavit of the negro that he was free, and could prove it if +allowed three weeks' time in which to procure his witnesses; but +the Commissioner ruled that the proceeding was a summary _ex-parte_ +one, and that the defendant had no right to any testimony. Of +course we were forced into trial, and after allowing secondary +proof where the highest was attainable, and permitting hearsay +evidence and mere rumor, the Commissioner granted his certificate +for the removal of the adjudged fugitive. We again brought the +case before Judge Wallace, on _habeas corpus_, when the negro denied +all the material facts of the marshal's return, under oath, and +asked to be allowed to prove his denial; but the Judge refused +this, and he was handed over to the marshal for transportation +South. On the trial he was shown to have been free by the act of +his master in sending him into a free State; but under cover of an +infamous law, and by the help of truculent officials, he was remanded +into slavery. The counsel for the negro, with a dozen or more who +joined them, resolved upon one further effort to save him. The +project was that two or three men selected for the purpose were to +ask of the jailer the privilege of seeing him the next morning and +giving him good-bye; and while one of the party engaged the jailer +in conversation, the negro was to make for the door, mount a horse +hitched near by, and effect his escape. The enterprise had a +favorable beginning. The negro got out, mounted a horse, and might +have escaped if he had been a good horseman; but he was awkward +and clumsy, and unfortunately mounted the wrong horse, and a very +poor traveler; and when he saw the jailer in pursuit, and heard +the report of his revolver, he surrendered, and was at once escorted +South. Walpole and his brother were for the claimant. This is +the only felony in which I was ever involved, but none of the +parties to it had any disposition whatever to confess it at the +time. + +The Republican party gathered fresh courage and strength in the +year 1858 from the defection of Douglas. His unmistakable ability +and hitherto unquestioned devotion to slavery had singled him out +as the great leader and coming man of his party. He was ambitious, +and by no means scrupulous in his political methods. The moral +character of slavery gave him not the slightest concern, ostentatiously +declaring that he did not care whether it was "voted up or voted +down" in the Territories, and always lavishing his contempt upon +the negro. He was the great champion of popular sovereignty, but +at the same time fully committed himself to the decision of the +Supreme Court of the United States, whatever it might be; and after +that decision had been given, and, in effect, against his particular +hobby, he defended it, while vainly striving to vindicate his +consistency. But the Lecompton swindle was so revolting a mockery +of the right of the people of Kansas, that his own Democratic +constituents would not endorse it, and he was obliged, contrary to +his strong party inclinations, to take his stand against it. It +was an event of very great significance, both North and South, and +gave great comfort to anti-slavery men of all shades of opinion; +but it brought with it, at the same time, a serious peril to the +Republican party. + +His accession to the Anti-Lecompton ranks was deemed so important +that many leading Republicans, of different States, thought he +should be welcomed and honored by the withdrawal of all party +opposition to his re-election to the Senate. They argued that in +no other way could the despotic power of the Democratic power be +so effectually broken, and the real interests of republicanism +advanced. This feeling, for a time, prevailed extensively, and +threatened to put in abeyance or completely supersede the principles +so broadly laid down in the national platform of 1856. The "New +York Tribune" took the lead in beating this retreat. It sympathized +with Douglas to the end of his canvass, and in connection with +kindred agencies probably saved him from defeat. It urged the +disbanding of the Republican party, and the formation of a new +combination against the Democrats, composed of Republicans, Douglas +Democrats, Know-Nothings, and old Whigs, but without any avowal of +principles. It proposed that by the common consent of these parties +the Republicans should be allowed to name the next candidate for +the Presidency, and the other parties the candidate for the Vice +Presidency; or that this proposition should be reversed, if found +advisable, with a view to harmony. The different wings of this +combination were to call themselves by such names and proclaim such +principles in different States and localities as might seem to them +most conducive to local success and united ascendancy. This +abandonment of republicanism was likewise favored by such papers +as the "Cincinnati Gazette," which pronounced the policy of +Congressional prohibition worthless as a means of excluding slavery +from the Territories, and openly committed itself to the admission +of more slave States, whenever demanded by a popular majority in +any Territory. "The Indianapolis Journal" and other leading +Republican organs spoke of Congressional prohibition as "murdered +by Dred Scott," and as having no longer any practical value. In +the spring of this year the Republicans of Indiana, in their State +convention, not only surrendered the policy of Congressional +prohibition, and adopted the principle of popular sovereignty, but +made opposition to the Lecompton Constitution the sole issue of +the canvass. Under such leaders as Oliver P. Morton and his Whig +and Know-Nothing associates, Republicanism simply meant opposition +to the latest outrage of slavery, and acquiescence in all preceding +ones; but this shameful surrender of the cause to its enemies was +deservedly condemned in the election which followed. The Legislature +of the State, however, at its ensuing session, overwhelmingly +endorsed the Douglas dogma, and even the better class of Republican +papers urged the abandonment of the Republican creed. But, very +fortunately for the cause, the Republicans of Illinois could not +be persuaded to take Mr. Douglas into their embrace on the score +of a single worthy act, and forget, if not forgive, his long career +of effective and untiring hostility to the principles they cherished; +and his nomination by the Democrats, on a platform very offensive +to Republicans, fully justified their course. The result was the +nomination of Mr. Lincoln as a candidate for the succession to Mr. +Douglas, and the great joint debate which did so much to educate +the mind of the free States and prepare the way for Mr. Lincoln's +nomination the following year, while revealing the moral unworthiness +of his great rival, and justifying the policy which made necessary +this memorable contest in Illinois. + +The steady march of the Republican party toward ascendancy was +shown in the Thirty-sixth Congress, which met in December, 1859. +There were now twenty-four Republican senators, and one hundred +and nine representatives. Early in the first session of this +Congress an interesting debate occurred in the Senate on a proposition +to provide for the education of the colored children of the District +of Columbia. Mr. Mason condemned the proposition, and said it was +wise to prohibit the education of the colored race. Jefferson +Davis declared that the Government was not made for them, and that +"we have no right to tax our people to educate the barbarians of +Africa." These and kindred utterances were very well calculated +to aid the work of anti-slavery progress. John Brown's raid into +Virginia kindled the ire of the slave-holders to a degree as yet +unprecedented, and although his act found few defenders in the +Northern States, the heroism with which he met his fate, the pithy +correspondence between Gov. Wise and Mrs. Child, the language of +Southern senators in dealing with the subject, and the efforts made +to ferret out Brown's associates, all tended to strengthen the +growing hostility to slavery and prepare the way for the final +conflict. The designs of the slaveholders upon Cuba, which were +avowed in this Congress, and their purpose to acquire it for the +extension of slavery, by purchase if they could, but if not by war, +served the same purpose. The growing demand for the revival of +the African slave trade, as shown by the avowals of leading men in +both houses of Congress, and their cold-blooded utterances on the +subject, produced a profound impression on the country, and called +forth the startling fact that the city of New York was then one of +the greatest slave-trading marts in the world, and that from thirty +to sixty thousand persons a year were taken from Africa to Cuba by +vessels from that single port. Such facts as these, and that the +laws of the Union for the suppression of the traffic were not only +a dead letter but that the slave masters and their allies sullenly +refused to take any steps whatever for the remedy of this organized +inhumanity, were capital arguments for the Republicans, which they +employed with telling effect. The refusal to admit Oregon as a +State without a constitutional provision excluding people of color, +the rejection of Kansas on her application with a Constitution +fairly adopted by her people, and the great speech of Sumner on +"The Barbarism of Slavery," which this last application called +forth, all served their purpose in the growth of anti-slavery +opinion. So did the attempt to divide California for the purpose +of introducing slavery into the southern portion; the veto of an +Act of the Territorial Legislature of Kansas abolishing slavery, +and of a similar act in Nebraska; the acts of several Southern +States permitting free colored persons to sell themselves as slaves +if they chose to do so in preference to expulsion from the land of +their birth and their homes; the decision of the courts of Virginia +that slaves had no social or civil rights, and no legal capacity +to choose between being emancipated or sold as slaves; the refusal +of the Government to give a passport to a colored physician of +Massachusetts, for the reason that such privileges were never +conferred upon persons of color; and the revolutionary sentiments +uttered by governors and legislatures of various Southern States, +some of which declared that the election of a Republican President +would be sufficient cause for withdrawal from the Union. That +these were important aids to the progress of freedom was shown by +the passage of laws in various Northern States for the protection +of personal liberty, forbidding the use of local jails for the +detention of persons claimed as fugitive slaves, and securing for +them the right of trial by jury and the benefit of the writ of +_habeas corpus_. This healthy reaction was still further shown in +wholesome judicial decisions in several Northern States affirming +the citizenship of negroes, and denying the right of transit of +slave-holders with their slaves over their soil. + +The struggle for the Speakership in this Congress, which lasted +eight weeks, was also a first-rate training school for Republicanism. +Helper's famous book, "The Impending Crisis," had made a decided +sensation throughout the country, and John Sherman, the principal +candidate of the Republicans for Speaker, had endorsed it, though +he now denied the fact. Mr. Millson of Virginia, declared that +the man who "consciously, deliberately, and of purpose, lends his +name and influence to the propagation of such writings, is not only +not fit to be Speaker, but he is not fit to live." De Jarnette, +of the same State, said that Mr. Seward was "a perjured traitor, +whom no Southerner could consistently support or even obey, should +the nation elect him President." Mr. Pryor said that eight million +Southern freemen could not be subjugated by any combination whatever, +"least of all by a miscellaneous mob of crazy fanatics and conscience- +stricken traitors." Mr. Keitt said that "should the Republican +party succeed in the next Presidential election, my advice to the +South is to snap the cords of the Union at once and forever." Mr. +Crawford of Georgia said, "we will never submit to the inauguration +of a black Republican President"; and these and like utterances +were applauded by the galleries. The growing madness and desperation +in the Senate were equally noteworthy. This was shown by the +removal of Mr. Douglas from the chairmanship of the Committee on +Territories, and the determined purpose to read him out of the +party for refusing to violate the principle of popular sovereignty +in the Territory of Kansas. The attempt to hunt down a man who +had done the South such signal service in dragooning the Northern +Democracy into its support could not fail to divide the party, and +at the same time completely unmask the extreme and startling designs +which the slave power had been stealthily maturing. But that power +was now absolutely bent upon its purpose, and morally incapable of +pausing in its work. Its demand was a slave code for the Territories, +and it would accept nothing less. Jefferson Davis was the champion +of this policy, which he embodied in a series of resolutions and +made them the text of an elaborate argument; and Mr. Douglas replied +in a speech which at once vindicated himself and overwhelmingly +condemned the party with which he had so long acted. The resolutions, +however, were adopted by the Senate, which thus proclaimed its +purpose to nationalize slavery. + +In the meantime these remarkable legislative proceedings had their +counterpart in increasing lawlessness and violence throughout the +South. This was illustrated in such facts as the expulsion of +members of the Methodist Church North from Texas, the imprisonment +of Rev. Daniel Worth, in North Carolina, for circulating Helper's +"Impending Crisis"; the exile from Kentucky of the Rev. John G. +Fee and his colony of peaceable and law-abiding people, on account +of their anti-slavery opinions; and the espionage of the mails by +every Southern postmaster, who under local laws had the power to +condemn and "burn publicly" whatever he deemed unfit for circulation, +which laws had been pronounced constitutional by Caleb Cushing, +while Attorney General of the United States under Mr. Pierce, and +were "cheerfully acquiesced in" by Judge Holt, Postmaster General +under Buchanan. In Virginia the spirit of lawlessness became such +a rage that one of her leading newspapers offered a reward of fifty +thousand dollars for the head of Wm. H. Seward, while another paper +offered ten thousand dollars for the kidnapping and delivery in +Richmond of Joshua R. Giddings, or five thousand dollars for his +head. In short, the reign of barbarism was at last fully ushered +in, and the whole nation was beginning to realize the truth of Mr. +Lincoln's declaration, which he borrowed from St. Mark, that "a +house divided against itself can not stand." The people of the +free States were at school, with the slaveholders as their masters; +and the dullest scholars were now beginning to get their lessons. +Even the Know-Nothings and Silver-Grey Whigs were coming up to the +anxious seat, under the enlightening influence and saving-grace of +slaveholding madness and crime. The hour was ripe for action, and +the dawn of freedom in the South was seen in the coming emancipation +of the North. + +The Presidential Campaign of 1860 was a very singular commentary +on the Compromise measures of 1850 and the "finality" platforms of +1852. The sectional agitation which now stirred the country +outstripped all precedent, and completely demonstrated the folly +of all schemes of compromise. The Democratic National Convention +met in the city of Charleston on the twenty-third day of May. Its +action now seems astounding, although it was the inevitable result +of antecedent facts. The Democratic party had the control of every +department of the Government, and a formidable popular majority +behind it. It had the complete command of its own fortunes, and +there was no cause or even excuse for the division which threatened +its life. The difference between the Southern Democrats and the +followers of Douglas was purely metaphysical, eluding entirely the +practical common sense of the people. Both wings of the party now +stood committed to the Dred Scott decision, and that surrendered +everything which the extreme men of the South demanded. It was "a +quarrel about goats' wool," and yet the Southern Democrats were +maddened at the thought of submitting to the nomination of Douglas +for the Presidency. His sin in the Lecompton affair was counted +unpardonable, and they seemed to hate him even more intensely than +they hated the Abolitionists. A committee on resolutions was +appointed, which submitted majority and minority, or Douglas and +anti-Douglas, reports. These were hotly debated, but the Douglas +platform was adopted, which led to the secession of the Southern +delegates. On the fifty-seventh ballot Mr. Douglas received a +clear majority of the Electoral College, but the Convention then +adjourned till the eighteenth of June, in the hope that harmony +might in some way be restored. On reassembling this was found +impossible, and the balloting was resumed, which finally gave Mr. +Douglas all the votes cast but thirteen, and he was declared the +Democratic nominee. The Convention then nominated for the Vice +Presidency Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, a disciple of Calhoun, +whose extreme opinions were well known. He was unequivocally +committed to the doctrine that neither the General Government nor +a Territorial Government can impair the right of slave property in +the common Territories. This illustration of the political profligacy +of the Douglas managers, and burlesque upon popular sovereignty, +was as remarkable as the madness of the seceders in fighting him +for his supposed anti-slavery prejudices. The bolters from this +convention afterward nominated John C. Breckenridge as their +candidate for President and Joseph Lane for Vice President. The +Democratic canvass was thus inaugurated, and the overthrow of the +party provided for in the mere wantonness of political folly. + +On the ninth of May what was called the Constitutional Union Party +held its convention at Baltimore, and nominated John Bell for +President and Edward Everett for Vice President. It adopted no +platform, and owing to its neutrality of tint, its action had no +significance aside from its possible effect on the result of the +struggle between the Democrats and Republicans. + +The Republican National Convention met at Chicago on the sixteenth +of May. It was attended by immense numbers, and its action was +regarded with profound and universal solicitude. The platform of +the Convention affirmed the devotion of the party to the union of +the States and the rights of the States; denounced the new dogma +that the Constitution carried slavery into the Territories; declared +freedom to be their normal condition; denied the power of Congress +or of a Territorial Legislature to give legal existence to slavery +in any territory; branded as a crime the reopening of the African +slave trade; condemned the heresy of Know-Nothingism, and demanded +the passage of a Homestead law. The principles of the party were +thus broadly stated and fully re-affirmed, and the issues of the +canvass very clearly presented. The leading candidates were Seward +and Lincoln, who pretty evenly divided the Convention, and thus +created the liveliest interest in the result. The friends of Mr. +Seward had unbounded confidence in his nomination, and their devotion +to his fortunes was intense and absolute. The radical anti-slavery +element in the party idolized him, and longed for his success as +for a great and coveted national blessing. The delegates from New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, representing a +superficial and only half-developed Republicanism, labored with +untiring and exhaustless zeal for the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, +fervently pleading for "Success rather than Seward." Henry S. Lane +and Andrew G. Curtin, then candidates for Governor in the States +of Indiana and Pennsylvania, respectively, were especially active +and persistent, and their appeals were undoubtedly effective. When +Seward was defeated many an anti-slavery man poured out his tears +over the result, while deploring or denouncing the conservatism of +old fossil Whiggery, which thus sacrificed the ablest man in the +party, and the real hero of its principles. Time, however, led +these men to reconsider their estimate both of Seward and Lincoln, +and convinced them that the action of the convention, after all, +was for the best. On the second ballot Hamlin was nominated for +Vice President over Clay, Banks, Hickman, and others, and the +Republican campaign thus auspiciously inaugurated. + +The canvass for Douglas was prosecuted with remarkable energy and +zeal. He was himself the great leader of his party on the stump, +and his efforts evinced singular courage, audacity, and will. It +soon became evident, however, that his election was impossible; +but this did not cool his ardor or relax his efforts. He kept up +the fight to the end; and after his defeat, and when he saw the +power that had destroyed him organizing its forces for the destruction +of the Union, he espoused the side of his country, and never faltered +in his course. But as to slavery he seemed to have no conscience, +regarding it as a matter of total moral indifference, and thus +completely confounding the distinction between right and wrong. +During the closing hours of his life he probably saw and lamented +this strange infatuation; and he must, at all events, have deplored +the obsequious and studied devotion of a life-time to the service +of a power which at last demanded both the sacrifice of his country +and himself. The canvass for Lincoln was conducted by the ablest +men in the party, and was marked by great earnestness and enthusiasm. +It was a repetition of the Fremont campaign, with the added difference +of a little more contrivance and spectacular display in its +demonstrations, as witnessed in the famous organization known as +the "Wide-Awakes." The doctrines of the Chicago platform were very +thoroughly discussed, and powerfully contributed to the further +political education of the people. The speeches of Mr. Seward were +singularly able, effective and inspiring, and he was the acknowledged +leader of his party and the idol of the Republican masses everywhere. +This was the day of his glory, and nothing yet foreshadowed the +political eclipse which awaited him in the near future. The triumph +of the Republicans in this struggle was not, however, final. A +great work yet remained to be done. A powerful anti-slavery party +had at last appeared, as the slow creation of events and the fruit +of patient toil and endeavor; but it had against it a popular +majority of nearly a million. Both Houses of Congress and the +Supreme Court of the United States disputed its authority and +opposed its advance. The President-elect could not form his cabinet +without the leave of the Senate, which was controlled by slavery, +nor could he set the machinery of his Administration in motion, at +home or abroad, through the exercise of his appointing power, +without the consent of his political opponents. As Mr. Seward +declared in the Senate, "he could not appoint a minister or even +a police agent, negotiate a treaty or procure the passage of a law, +and could hardly draw a musket from the public arsenal to defend +his own person." The champions of slavery had no dream of surrender, +and no excuse whatever for extreme measures; and with moderate +counsels and the prudent economy of their advantages, they were +the undoubted masters of their own fortunes for indefinite years +to come. But their extravagant and exasperating demands, and the +splendid madness of their latter day tactics as illustrated in +their warfare against Douglas, were the sure presages of their +overthrow. There was method in their madness, but it was the method +of self-destruction. This was made still more strikingly manifest +during the months immediately preceding the inauguration of Mr. +Lincoln. The Republicans, notwithstanding their great victory, so +recoiled from the thought of sectional strife that for the sake of +peace they were ready to forego their demand for the Congressional +prohibition of slavery in the Territories. They were willing to +abide by the Dred Scott decision and the enforcement of the Fugitive +Slave law. They even proposed a Constitutional amendment which +would have made slavery perpetual in the Republic; but the pampered +frenzy of the slave oligarchy defied all remedies, and hurried it +headlong into the bloody conspiracy which was to close forever its +career of besotted lawlessness and crime. + + +CHAPTER IX. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR. +Visit to Mr. Lincoln--Closing months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration +--Efforts to avoid war--Character of Buchanan--Lincoln's Inauguration +--His war policy--The grand army of office seekers--The July session +of Congress--The atmosphere of Washington--Battle of Bull Run-- +Apologetic resolve of Congress--First confiscation act--Regular +session of Congress--Secretary Cameron--Committee on the conduct +of the war--Its conference with the President and his Cabinet-- +Secretary Stanton and General McClellan--Order to march upon +Manassas. + +Early in January, 1861, I paid a visit to Mr. Lincoln at his home +in Springfield. I had a curiosity to see the famous "rail splitter," +as he was then familiarly called, and as a member-elect of the +Thirty-seventh Congress I desired to form some acquaintance with +the man who was to play so conspicuous a part in the impending +national crisis. Although I had zealously supported him in the +canvass, and was strongly impressed by the grasp of thought and +aptness of expression which marked his great debate with Douglas, +yet as a through-going Free Soiler and a member of the radical wing +of Republicanism, my prepossessions were against him. He was a +Kentuckian, and a conservative Whig, who had supported General +Taylor in 1848, and General Scott four years later, when the Whig +party finally sacrificed both its character and its life on the +altar of slavery. His nomination, moreover, had been secured +through the diplomacy of conservative Republicans, whose morbid +dread of "abolitionism" unfitted them, as I believed, for leadership +in the battle with slavery which had now become inevitable, while +the defeat of Mr. Seward had been to me a severe disappointment +and a real personal grief. The rumor was also current, and generally +credited, that Simon Cameron and Caleb B. Smith were to be made +Cabinet Ministers, in recognition of the important services rendered +by the friends of these gentlemen in the Chicago Convention. Still, +I did not wish to do Mr. Lincoln the slightest injustice, while I +hoped and believed his courage and firmness would prove equal to +the emergency. + +On meeting him I found him far better looking than the campaign +pictures had represented. His face, when lighted up in conversation, +was not unhandsome, and the kindly and winning tones of his voice +pleaded for him like the smile which played about his rugged +features. He was full of anecdote and humor, and readily found +his way to the hearts of those who enjoyed a welcome to his fireside. +His face, however, was sometimes marked by that touching expression +of sadness which became so generally noticeable in the following +years. On the subject of slavery I was gratified to find him less +reserved and more emphatic than I expected. The Cabinet rumor +referred to was true. He felt bound by the pledges which his +leading friends had made in his name pending the National Convention; +and the policy on which he acted in these and many other appointments +was forcibly illustrated on a subsequent occasion, when I earnestly +protested against the appointment of an incompetent and unworthy +man as Commissioner of Patents. "There is much force in what you +say," said he, "but, in the balancing of matters, I guess I shall +have to appoint him." This "balancing of matters" was a source of +infinite vexation during his administration, as it has been to +every one of his successors; and its most deplorable results have +been witnessed in the assassination of a president. Upon the whole, +however, I was much pleased with our first Republican Executive, +and I returned home more fully inspired than ever with the purpose +to sustain him to the utmost in facing the duties of his great +office. + +The closing months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration were dismal +and full of apprehension. One by one the slaveholding States were +seceding from the Union. The President, in repeated messages, +denied their right to secede, but denied also the right of the +Government to coerce them into obedience. It should be remembered, +to his credit, that he did insist upon the right to enforce the +execution of the laws in all the States, and earnestly urged upon +Congress the duty of arming him with the power to do this; but +Congress, much to its discredit, paid no attention to his wishes, +leaving the new Administration wholly unprepared for the impending +emergency, while strangely upbraiding the retiring President for +his non-action. For this there could be no valid excuse. The +people of the Northern States, now that the movement in the South +was seen to be something more than mere bluster, were equally +alarmed and bewildered. The "New York Herald" declared that +"coercion, if it were possible, is out of the question." The +"Albany Argus" condemned it as "madness." The "Albany Evening +Journal" and many other leading organs of Republicanism, East and +West, disowned it, and counseled conciliation and further concessions +to the demands of slavery. The "New York Tribune" emphatically +condemned the policy of coercion, and even after the cotton States +had formed their Confederacy and adopted a provisional Government, +it declared that "whenever it shall be clear that the great body +of the Southern people have become conclusively alienated from the +Union and anxious to escape from it, we will do our best to forward +their views." The "Tribune" had before declared that "whenever a +considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go +out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. +We hope never to live in a Republic whereof one section is pinned +to the other by bayonets." It is true, that it justified the +secession of the Southern States as a revolutionary right; but +although these States defended it as a constitutional one, the +broader and higher ground of Mr. Greeley necessarily gave powerful +aid and comfort to their movement. In the meantime, great meetings +in Philadelphia and New York strongly condemned the Abolitionists, +and urged the most extravagant additional concessions to slavery +for the sake of peace. On the 12th of January Mr. Seward made his +great speech in the Senate, declaring that he could "afford to meet +prejudice with conciliation, exaction with concession which surrenders +no principle, and violence with the right hand of peace." He was +willing to give up Congressional prohibition of slavery in the +Territories, enforce the Fugitive Slave law, and perpetuate slavery +in our Republic by amending the Constitution for that purpose. +The Crittenden compromise, which practically surrendered everything +to slavery, only failed in the Senate by one vote, and this failure +resulted from the non-voting of six rebel senators, who were so +perfectly devil-bent upon the work of national dismemberment that +they would not listen to any terms of compromise, or permit their +adoption. The Peace Congress, assembled for the purpose of devising +some means of national pacification, agreed upon a series of measures +covering substantially the same ground as the Crittenden compromise, +while both Houses of Congress agreed to a constitutional amendment +denying any power to interfere with slavery "until every State in +the Union, by its individual State action, shall consent to its +exercise." The feverish dread of war which prevailed throughout +the Northern States was constantly aggravated by multiplying +evidences of slaveholding desperation. The general direction of +public opinion pointed to the Abolitionists as the authors of these +national troubles, while the innocent and greatly-abused slaveholders +were to be petted and placated by any measures which could possibly +serve their purpose. Indeed, the spirit of Northern submission +had never, in the entire history of the anti-slavery conflict, been +more strikingly exhibited than during the last days of the Thirty- +sixth Congress, when the Capital of the Republic was threatened by +armed treason, and the President-elect reached Washington in a +disguise which baffled the assassins who had conspired against his +life. To the very last the old medicine of compromise and conciliation +seemed to be the sovereign hope of the people of the free States; +and although it had failed utterly, and every offer of friendship +and peace had been promptly spurned as the evidence of weakness or +cowardice, they clung to it till the guns of Fort Sumter roused +them from their perilous dream. + +The inauguration of the President was awaited with great anxiety +and alarm. The capture of Washington by the rebels was seriously +apprehended, and had undoubtedly been meditated. The air was filled +with rumors respecting the assassination of the President, and the +stories told of the various methods of his taking off would have +been amusing if the crisis had not been so serious. General Scott +took all the precautions for the preservation of the peace which +the small force at his command, and the District militia, enabled +him to do. The day was beautiful, and the procession to the Capitol +quite imposing. Mr. Lincoln and ex-President Buchanan entered the +Senate chamber arm in arm; and the latter was so withered and bowed +with age that in contrast with the towering form of Mr. Lincoln he +seemed little more than half a man. The crowd which greeted the +President in front of the east portico of the Capitol was immense, +and has never been equaled on any similar occasion with the single +exception of General Garfield's inauguration. Mr. Lincoln's voice, +though not very strong or full-toned, rang out over the acres of +people before him with surprising distinctness, and was heard in +the remotest parts of his audience. The tone of moderation, +tenderness, and good-will, which marked his address, made an evident +impression, and the most heartfelt plaudits were called forth by +the closing passage: + +"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though +passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. +The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and +patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this +broad land, will yet swell the chorus of union, when again touched, +as they surely will be, by the better angels of their nature." + +But as an offering of friendship and fair dealing to the South, +this speech failed of its purpose as signally as all kindred +endeavors had done from the beginning. The "Richmond Enquirer" +and "Whig," the "Charleston Mercury," and other leading organs of +secession, denounced the inaugural, and seemed to be maddened by +the very kindliness of its tone and the moderation of its demands. +Their purpose was disunion and war, and every passing day multiplied +the proofs that no honorable escape from this fearful alternative +was possible. + +The policy of the new Administration prior to the attack upon Sumter +forms perhaps the most remarkable chapter in the history of the +war. All the troubles of the previous Administration were now +turned over to Mr. Lincoln, and while no measures had been provided +to aid him in their settlement the crisis was constantly becoming +more imminent. The country was perfectly at sea; and while all +hope of reconciliation was fading from day to day, Mr. Seward +insisted that peace would come within "sixty days." His optimism +would have been most amusing, if the salvation of the country had +not been at stake. The President himself not only still hoped, +but believed, that there would be no war; and notwithstanding all +the abuse that had been heaped upon Mr. Buchanan by the Republicans +for his feeble and vacillating course, and especially his denial +of the right of the government to coerce the recusant States, the +policy of the new Administration, up to the attack upon Sumter, +was identical with that of his predecessor. In Mr. Seward's official +letter to Mr. Adams, dated April 10, 1861, he says the President +"would not be disposed to reject a cardinal dogma of theirs (the +secessionists), namely, that the Federal Government could not reduce +the seceding States to obedience through conquest, even though he +were disposed to question that proposition. But in fact the +President willingly accepts it as true. Only and imperial and +despotic Government could subjugate thoroughly disaffected and +insurrectionary members of the State. * * * The President, on the +one hand, will not suffer the Federal authority to fall into +abeyance, nor will he, on the other hand, aggravate existing evils +by attempts at coercion, which must assume the direct form of war +against any of the revolutionary States." These are very remarkable +avowals, in the light of the absolute unavoidableness of the conflict +at the time they were made; and they naturally tended to precipitate +rather than avert the threatened catastrophe. It will not do to +say that Secretary Seward spoke only for himself, and not for the +Administration; for the fact has since been established by the +evidence of other members of the Cabinet that Mr. Lincoln, while +he had great faith in Mr. Seward at first, was always himself the +President. No member of it was his dictator. I do not say that +he endorsed all Mr. Seward's peculiar views, for the latter went +still further, as the country has since learned, and favored the +abandonment of Fort Sumter and other Southern forts, as a part of +a scheme of pacification looking to an amendment to the Constitution +in the interest of slavery. During this early period Mr. Chase +himself, with all his anti-slavery radicalism and devotion to the +Union, became so far the child of the hour as to deprecate the +policy of coercion and express his belief that if the rebel States +were allowed to go in peace they would soon return. But "war +legislates," and the time had now come when nothing else could +break the spell of irresolution and blindness which threatened the +Union even more seriously than armed treason itself. + +Notwithstanding this strange epoch of Republican feebleness and +indecision, the warfare against Mr. Buchanan was never intermitted. +It had been prosecuted with constantly increasing vigor since the +year 1856, and had now become so perfectly relentless and overwhelming +that he was totally submerged by the waves of popular wrath; and +for twenty odd years no political resurrection has been thought +possible. Although his personal integrity was as unquestionable +as that of John C. Calhoun or George III, and his private life as +stainless, yet his public character has received no quarter from +his enemies and but little defense from his friends. One of his +most formidable critics, writing long years after the war, describes +him as "hungry for regard, influence, and honor, but too diminutive +in intellect and character to feel the glow of true ambition--a +man made, so to speak, to be neither loved nor hated, esteemed nor +despised, slighted nor admired; intended to play an influential +part in the agitation of parties, and by history to be silently +numbered with the dead, because in all his doings there was not a +single deed; a man to whom fate could do nothing worse than place +him at the helm in an eventful period." While there is a measure +of truth in this picture, I believe any fair-minded man will +pronounce it over-drawn, one-sided, and unjust, after reading the +recently published life of Mr. Buchanan by George Ticknor Curtis, +dealing fully with his entire public career in the clear, cold +light of historic facts. The most pronounced political foe of Mr. +Buchanan can not go over the pages of this elaborate and long-delayed +defense without modifying some of his most decided opinions; but +one thing remains obviously true, and that is in dealing with the +question of slavery Mr. Buchanan was wholly without a conscience. +The thought seems never to have dawned upon him that the slave was +a man, and therefore entitled to his natural rights. In a public +speech on the ninth of July, 1860, defining his position, and +referring to the Dred Scott decision, he says: "It is to me the +most extraordinary thing in the world that this country should now +be distracted and divided because certain persons at the North will +not agree that their brethren at the South should have the same +rights in the Territories which they enjoy. What would I, as a +Pennsylvanian, say or do, supposing any one was to contend that the +Legislature of any Territory could outlaw iron or coal within the +Territory? The principle is precisely the same. The Supreme Court +of the United States has decided, what was known to us all to have +been the existing state of affairs for fifty years, that slaves +are property. Admit that fact, and you admit everything." + +In this passage, as in all that he has written on the subject of +slavery, humanity is totally ignored. The right of property in +man is just as sacred to him, "as a Pennsylvanian," as the right +of property in iron or coal. He unhesitatingly accepts the Dred +Scott decision as law, which the moral sense of the nation and its +ablest jurists pronounced a nullity. Mr. Jefferson, in speaking +of slavery, said he trembled for his country, and declared that +one hour of bondage is fraught with more misery than whole ages of +our colonial oppression. Such a sentiment in the mouth of Mr. +Buchanan would have been as unnatural as a voice from the dead. +He saw nothing morally offensive in slavery, or repugnant to the +principles of Democracy. He reverenced the Constitution, but always +forgot that its compromises were agreed to in the belief that the +institution was in a state of decay, and would soon wear out its +life under the pressure of public opinion and private interest. +Throughout his public life he never faltered in his devotion to +the South, joining hands with alacrity in every measure which sought +to nationalize her sectional interest. The growing anti-slavery +opinion of the free States, which no power could prevent, and the +great moral currents of the times, which were as resistless as the +tides of the sea, had no meaning for him, because the Democracy he +believed in had no foundation in the sacredness of human rights. + +Mr. Lincoln, in spite of the troubled state of the country, was +obliged to encounter an army of place-seekers at the very beginning +of his administration. I think there has been nothing like it in +the history of the Government. A Republican member of Congress +could form some idea of the President's troubles from his own +experience. I fled from my home in the later part of February, in +the hope of finding some relief from these importunities; but on +reaching Washington I found the business greatly aggravated. The +pressure was so great and constant that I could scarcely find time +for my meals, or to cross the street, and I was obliged to give my +days and nights wholly to the business, hoping in this way I should +be able in a while to finish it; but it constantly increased. I +met at every turn a swarm of miscellaneous people, many of them +looking as hungry and fierce as wolves, and ready to pounce upon +members as they passed, begging for personal intercession, letters +of recommendation, etc. During my stay in Washington through the +months of March and April, there was no pause in this business. +After Fort Sumter had been taken and the armory at Harper's Ferry +had been burned; after a Massachusetts regiment had been fired on +in passing through Baltimore, and thirty thousand men were in +Washington for defensive purposes; after the President had called +for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the whole land was in a +blaze of excitement, the scuffle for place was unabated, and the +pressure upon the strength and patience of the President unrelieved. +This was not very remarkable, considering the long-continued monopoly +of the offices by the Democrats; but it jarred upon the sentiment +of patriotism in such a crisis, and to those who were constantly +brought face to face with it, it sometimes appeared as if the love +of office alone constituted the animating principle of the party. + +When Congress assembled in special session on the Fourth of July, +the atmosphere of the Northern States had been greatly purified by +the attack on Fort Sumter. The unavoidableness of war was now +absolute, and the tone of the President's message was far bolder +and better than that of his inaugural. The policy of tenderness +towards slavery, however, still revealed itself, and called forth +the criticism of the more radical Republicans. They began to +distrust Mr. Seward, who no longer seemed to them the hero of +principle they had so long idolized, while his growing indifference +to the virtue of temperance was offensive to many. He impressed +his old anti-slavery friends as a deeply disappointed man, who was +in danger of being morally lost. Their faith was even a _little_ +shaken in Secretary Chase. Of course, they did not believe him +false to his long-cherished anti-slavery convictions, but he was +amazingly ambitious, and in the dispensation of his patronage he +seemed anxious to make fair weather with some of his old conservative +foes, while apparently forgetting the faithful friends who had +stood by him from the very beginning of his career, and were +considered eminently fit for the positions they sought. The rumor +was afloat that even Charles Sumner was urging the claims of Mr. +Crittenden to a place on the Supreme Bench, as a means of conciliating +the State of Kentucky. Washington was largely a city of secessionists, +and the departments of the Government were plentifully supplied by +sympathizers with treason, while the effort put forth at this +session to dislodge them was not responded to by the Administration. +What became known as the Border State policy was beginning to assert +itself everywhere, and was strikingly illustrated in the capture +of fugitive slaves and their return to their rebel masters by our +commanding generals, and by reiterated and gratuitous disavowals +of "abolitionism" by prominent Republicans. + +But the war spirit was fully aroused, and active preparations were +on foot for an advance upon the enemy. The confidence in General +Scott seemed to be unbounded, and I found everybody taking it for +granted that when the fight began our forces would prove triumphantly +victorious. On the day before the battle of Bull Run I obtained +a pass from General Scott, intending to witness the engagement, +believing I could do so, of course, with perfect safety, as our +army would undoubtedly triumph. I had a very strong curiosity to +see a great battle, and was now gratified with the prospect of +doing so; but a lucky accident detained me. The battle was on +Sunday, and about eleven o'clock at night I was roused from my +slumber by Col. Forney, who resided on Capitol Hill near my lodgings, +and who told me our army had been routed, and that the rebels were +marching upon the capital and would in all probability capture it +before morning. No unmiraculous event could have been more startling. +I was perfectly stunned and dumbfounded by the news; but I hastened +down to the Avenue as rapidly as possible, and found the space +between the Capitol and the Treasury Building a moving mass of +humanity. Every man seemed to be asking every man he met for the +latest news, while all sorts of rumors filled the air. A feeling +of mingled horror and despair appeared to possess everybody. The +event was so totally unlooked for, and the disappointment so +terrible, that people grew suddenly sick at heart, and felt as if +life itself, with all its interests and charms, had been snatched +from their grasp. The excitement, turmoil and consternation +continued during the night and through the following day; but no +one could adequately picture or describe it. Our soldiers came +straggling into the city, covered with dirt and many of them wounded, +while the panic which led to the disaster spread like a contagion +through all classes. + +On the day following this battle Congress met as usual, and +undoubtedly shared largely in the general feeling. A little before +the battle General Mansfield had issued an order declaring that +fugitive slaves would under no circumstances whatever be permitted +to reside or be harbored in the quarters and camps of the troops +serving in his department; and now, both Houses of Congress promptly +and with great unanimity and studious emphasis declared that the +purpose of the war was not the "conquest" or "subjugation" of the +conspirators who were striking at the Nation's life, or the overthrow +of their "established institutions," but to defend "the supremacy +of the Constitution," and to "preserve the Union"; and that "as +soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." +To through-going anti-slavery men this seemed like an apology for +the war, and a most ill-timed revival of the policy of conciliation, +which had been so uniformly and contemptuously spurned by the enemy. +It failed utterly of its purpose, and this historic resolve of +Congress was only useful to the rebels, who never failed to wield +it as a weapon against us, after the teaching of events had compelled +us to make slavery the point of attack. The Confiscation Act of +the 6th of August was regarded as a child of the same sickly +ancestry. The section of the Act making free the slaves employed +against us by the rebels in their military operations was criticised +as a bribe to them to fight us, rather than a temptation to espouse +our cause. If they engaged in the war at all, they were obliged +to do so as our enemies; but if they remained at home on their +plantations in the business of feeding the rebel armies, they would +have the protection of both the loyal and Confederate Governments. +The policy of both parties to the struggle was thus subordinated +to the protection of slavery. + +But on the 31st of August a new war policy was inaugurated by the +proclamation of General Fremont, giving freedom to the slaves of +rebels in his department. It was greeted by the people of the +Northern States with inexpressible gladness and thanksgiving. The +Republican press everywhere applauded it, and even such Democratic +and conservative papers as the "Boston Post," the "Detroit Free +Press," the "Chicago Times," and the "New York Herald" approved +it. During the ten days of its life all party lines seemed to be +obliterated in the fires of popular enthusiasm which it kindled, +and which was wholly unprecedented in my experience. I was then +on the stump in my own State, and I found the masses everywhere so +wild with joy, that I could scarcely be heard for their shouts. +As often as I mentioned the name of "Fremont," the prolonged hurrahs +of the multitude followed, and the feeling seemed to be universal +that the policy of "a war on peace principles" was abandoned, and +that slavery, the real cause of the war, was no longer to be the +chief obstacle to its prosecution. + +But in the midst of this great exultation and joy the President +annulled the proclamation because it went beyond the Confiscation +Act of the 6th of August, and was offensive to the Border States. +It was a terrible disappointment to the Republican masses, who +could not understand why loyal slaveholders in Kentucky should be +offended because the slaves of rebels in Missouri were declared +free. From this revocation of the new war policy, dated the pro- +slavery reaction which at once followed. It balked the popular +enthusiasm which was drawing along with it multitudes of conservative +men. It caused timid and halting men to become cowards outright. +It gave new life to slavery, and encouraged fiercer assaults upon +"abolitionism." It revived and stimulated Democratic sympathy for +treason wherever it had existed, and necessarily prolonged the +conflict and aggravated its sorrows; while it repeated the ineffable +folly of still relying upon a policy of moderation and conciliation +in dealing with men who had defiantly taken their stand outside of +the Constitution and laws, and could only be reached by the power +of war. + +When Congress met in December, the policy of deference to slavery +still continued. The message of the President was singularly +dispassionate, deprecating "radical and extreme measures," and +recommending some plan of colonization for the slaves made free by +the Confiscation Act. Secretary Cameron, however, surprised the +country by the avowal of a decidedly anti-slavery war policy in +his report; but in a discussion in the House early in December, on +General Halleck's "Order No. Three," I took occasion to expose his +insincerity by referring to his action a little while before in +restoring to her master a slave girl who had fled to the camp of +Colonel Brown, of the Twentieth Indiana regiment, who had refused +to give her up. On the nineteenth of December, a joint select +Committee on the Conduct of the War was appointed, composed of +three members of the Senate and four members of the House. The +Senators were B. F. Wade, of Ohio; Z. Chandler, of Michigan, and +Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee; and the House members were John +Covode, of Pennsylvania; M. F. Odell, of New York; D. W. Gooch, of +Massachusetts, and myself. The committee had its birth in the +popular demand for a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and less +tenderness toward slavery; and I was gratified with my position on +it because it afforded a very desirable opportunity to learn +something of the movements of our armies and the secrets of our +policy. + +On the sixth of January, by special request of the President, the +committee met him and his Cabinet at the Executive Mansion, to +confer about the military situation. The most striking fact revealed +by the discussion which took place was that neither the President +nor his advisers seemed to have any definite information respecting +the management of the war, or the failure of our forces to make +any forward movement. Not a man of them pretended to know anything +of General McClellan's plans. We were greatly surprised to learn +that Mr. Lincoln himself did not think he had any _right_ to know, +but that, as he was not a military man, it was his duty to defer +to General McClellan. Our grand armies were ready and eager to +march, and the whole country was anxiously waiting some decisive +movement; but during the delightful months of October, November +and December, they had been kept idle for some reason which no man +could explain, but which the President thought could be perfectly +accounted for by the General-in-Chief. Secretary Cameron said he +knew nothing of any plan for a forward movement. Secretary Seward +had entire confidence in General McClellan, and thought the demand +of the committee for a more vigorous policy uncalled for. The +Postmaster-General made no definite avowals, while the other members +of the Cabinet said nothing, except Secretary Chase, who very +decidedly sympathized with the committee in its desire for some +early and decisive movement of our forces. The spectacle seemed +to us very disheartening. The testimony of all the commanding +generals we had examined showed that our armies had been ready to +march for months; that the weather and roads had been most favorable +since October; and that the Army of the Potomac was in a fine state +of discipline, and nearly two hundred thousand strong, while only +about forty thousand men were needed to make Washington perfectly +safe. Not a general examined could tell why this vast force had +so long been kept idle, or what General McClellan intended to do. +The fate of the nation seemed committed to one man called a "General- +in-Chief," who communicated his secrets to no human being, and who +had neither age nor military experience to justify the extraordinary +deference of the President to his wishes. He had repeatedly appeared +before the committee, though not yet as a witness, and we could +see no evidence of his pre-eminence over other prominent commanders; +and it seemed like a betrayal of the country itself to allow him +to hold our grand armies for weeks and months in unexplained +idleness, on the naked assumption of his superior wisdom. Mr. +Wade, as Chairman of the committee, echoed its views in a remarkably +bold and vigorous speech, in which he gave a summary of the principal +facts which had come to the knowledge of the committee, arraigned +General McClellan for the unaccountable tardiness of his movements, +and urged upon the Administration, in the most undiplomatic plainness +of speech, an immediate and radical change in the policy of the +war. But the President and his advisers could not yet be disenchanted, +and the conference ended without results. + +When General McClellan was placed at the head of our armies the +country accepted him as its idol and hero. The people longed for +a great captain, and on very inadequate grounds they assumed that +they had found him, and that the business of war was to be carried +on in earnest. But they were doomed to disappointment, and the +popular feeling was at length completely reversed. The pendulum +vibrated to the other extreme, and it is not easy to realize the +wide-spread popular discontent which finally revealed itself +respecting the dilatory movements of our forces. The people became +inexpressibly weary of the reiterated bulletins that "all is quiet +on the Potomac"; and the fact that General McClellan was in full +sympathy with the Border State policy of the President aggravated +their unfriendly mood. A majority of the members of the committee +became morbidly sensitive, and were practically incapable of doing +General McClellan justice. They were thoroughly discouraged and +disgusted; but when Secretary Cameron left the Cabinet and Stanton +took his place, their despondency gave place to hope. He had faith +in the usefulness of the committee, and co-operated with it to the +utmost. He agreed with us fully in our estimate of General McClellan, +and as to the necessity of an early forward movement. We were +delighted with him, and had perfect confidence in his integrity, +sagacity and strong will. We worked from five to six hours per +day, including the holiday season, and not excepting the Sabbath, +going pretty thoroughly into the Bull Run disaster, the battle of +Ball's Bluff, and the management of the Western Department. + +During the months of January and February, the committee made +repeated visits to the President for the purpose of urging the +division of the Army of the Potomac and its organization into army +corps. We insisted upon this on the strength of the earnest +recommendations of our chief commanders, and with a view to greater +military efficiency; but the President said General McClellan was +opposed to it, and would, he believed, resign his command in the +alternative of being required to do it. Mr. Lincoln said he dreaded +"the moral effect of this"; but in the latter part of February, he +began to lose his faith in the General, and finally, after nearly +two months of perseverance by the committee, he gave his order +early in March, which General McClellan obeyed with evident hesitation +and very great reluctance. A few days later the long-tried patience +of the President became perfectly exhausted. He surprised and +delighted the committee by completely losing his temper, and on +the 11th relieved General McClellan from the command of all our +forces except the Army of the Potomac. The rebels, in the meantime, +had evacuated their works at Centreville and Manassas, and retreated +with their munitions in safety. A majority of the committee at +this time strongly suspected that General McClellan was a traitor, +and they felt strengthened in this suspicion by what they afterward +saw for themselves at Centreville and Manassas, which they visited +on the thirteenth of March. They were certain, at all events, that +his heart was not in the work. He had disregarded the President's +general order of the nineteenth of January, for a movement of all +our armies, which resulted in the series of victories of Fort Henry, +Fort Donelson, etc., which so electrified the country. He had +protested against the President's order of the thirty-first of +January, directing an expedition for the purpose of seizing a point +upon the railroad southwest of Manassas Junction. He had opposed +all forward movements of the Army of the Potomac, and resolutely +set his face against the division of our forces into army corps, +as urged by all our chief commanders. And he had again and again +refused to co-operate with the navy in breaking up the blockade of +the Potomac, while his order to move in the direction of the enemy +at Centreville and Manassas was given after the evacuation of these +points. + +Our journey to Manassas was full of interest and excitement. About +ten miles from Washington we came in sight of a large division of +the Grand Army of the Potomac, which had started toward the enemy +in obedience to the order of General McClellan. The forest on +either side of the road was alive with soldiers, and their white +tents were to be seen in all directions through the pine forests, +while in the adjacent fields vast bodies of soldiers in their +uniforms were marching and counter-marching, their bayonets glittering +in the sunlight. Large bodies of cavalry were also in motion, and +the air was filled with the sound of martial music and the blasts +of the bugle. Soldiers not on drill were running races, playing +ball, and enjoying themselves generally in every sort of sport. +The spectacle was delightfully exhilarating, and especially so to +men just released from the dreary confinement and drudgery of their +committee rooms. + + +CHAPTER X. +THE NEW ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR (CONTINUED). +The wooden guns--Conference with Secretary Stanton--His relations +to Lincoln--Strife between Radicalism and Conservatism--Passage of +the Homestead Law--Visit to the President--The Confiscation Act +and rebel landowners--Greeley's "prayer of twenty millions," and +Lincoln's reply--Effort to disband the Republican party--The battle +of Fredericksburg and General Burnside--The Proclamation of +Emancipation--Visit to Mr. Lincoln--General Fremont--Report of the +War Committee--Visit to Philadelphia and New York--Gerrit Smith-- +The Morgan Raid. + +On approaching Centreville the first object that attracted our +attention was one of the huge earthworks of the enemy, with large +logs placed in the embrasures, the ends pointing toward us, and +painted black in imitation of cannon. The earthworks seemed very +imperfectly constructed, and from this fact, and the counterfeit +guns which surmounted them, it was evident that no fight had been +seriously counted on by the absconding forces. The substantial +character of their barracks, bake-ovens, stables, and other +improvements, confirmed this view; and on reaching Manassas we +found the same cheap defenses and the same evidences of security, +while the rebel forces were much less than half as great as ours, +and within a day's march from us. What was the explanation of all +this? Why had we not long before, driven in the rebel pickets, +and given battle to the enemy, or at least ascertained the facts +as to the weakness of his position? Could the commander be loyal +who had opposed all the previous forward movements of our forces, +and only made this advance after the enemy had evacuated? These +were the questions canvassed by the members of the committee in +their passionate impatience for decisive measures, and which they +afterward earnestly pressed upon the President as a reason for +relieving General McClellan of his command. They were also greatly +moved by the fact already referred to, that General McClellan had +neglected and repeatedly refused to co-operate with the navy in +breaking up the blockade of the Potomac, which could have been done +long before according to the testimony of our commanders, while he +had disobeyed the positive order of the President respecting the +defenses of Washington by reserving only nineteen thousand imperfectly +disciplined men for that service, through which the capital had +been placed at the mercy of the enemy. Meanwhile the flame of +popular discontent had found further fuel in the threats of McClellan +to put down slave insurrections "with an iron hand," and his order +expelling the Hutchinsons from the Army of the Potomac for singing +Whittier's songs of liberty. Of course I am not dealing with the +character and capacity of General McClellan as a commander, but +simply depicting the feeling which extensively prevailed at this +time, and which justified itself by hastily accepting merely apparent +facts as conclusive evidence against him. + +On the 24th day of March, Secretary Stanton sent for the committee +for the purpose of having a confidential conference as to military +affairs. He was thoroughly discouraged. He told us the President +had gone back to his first love as to General McClellan, and that +it was needless for him or for us to labor with him, although he +had finally been prevailed on to restrict McClellan's command to +the Army of the Potomac. The Secretary arraigned the General's +conduct in the severest terms, particularizing his blunders, and +branding them. He told us the President was so completely in the +power of McClellan that he had recently gone to Alexandria in person +to ask him for some troops from the Army of the Potomac for General +Fremont, which were refused. He said he believed there were traitors +among the commanders surrounding General McClellan, and if he had +had the power he would have dismissed eight commanders when the +wooden-gun discovery was made; and he fully agreed with us as to +the disgraceful fact that our generals had not long before discovered, +as they could have done, the real facts as to the rebel forces and +their defences. + +It was quite evident from these facts that Stanton, with all his +force of will, did not rule the President, as the public has +generally supposed. He would frequently overawe and sometimes +browbeat others, but he was never imperious in dealing with Mr. +Lincoln. This I have from Mr. Watson, for some time Assistant +Secretary of War, and Mr. Whiting, while Solicitor of the War +Department. Lincoln, however, had the highest opinion of Stanton, +and their relations were always most kindly, as the following +anecdote bears witness: A committee of Western men, headed by +Lovejoy, procured from the President an important order looking to +the exchange and transfer of Eastern and Western soldiers with a +view to more effective work. Repairing to the office of the +Secretary, Mr. Lovejoy explained the scheme, as he had before done +to the President, but was met with a flat refusal. + +"But we have the President's order, sir," said Lovejoy. + +"Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?" said Stanton. + +"He did, sir." + +"The he is a d----d fool," said the irate secretary. + +"Do you mean to say the President is a d----d fool?" asked Lovejoy, +in amazement. + +"Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that." + +The bewildered Illinoisan betook himself at once to the President, +and related the result of his conference. + +"Did Stanton say I was a d----d fool?" asked Lincoln at the close +of the recital. + +"He did, sir, and repeated it." + +After a moment's pause, and looking up, the President said, "If +Stanton said I was a d----d fool, then I must be one, for he is +nearly always right, and generally says what he means. I will step +over and see him." + +Whether this anecdote is literally true or not, it illustrates the +character of the two men. + +On Sunday, the thirteenth of April, we were again summoned to meet +Secretary Stanton, and he had also invited Thaddeus Stevens, of +the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Fessenden, of the Senate +Finance Committee, and Mr. Wilson and Colonel Blair, of the Senate +and House Military Committees. The business of this conference +was to consider the necessity of immediate measures for raising +thirty million dollars to pay the troops unwisely accepted by the +President in excess of the number called for by Congress, and the +proper action to be taken relative to the sale of Austrian guns by +a house in New York for shipment to the enemy. The Secretary was +this time in fine spirits, and I was much interested in the free +talk which occurred. Mr. Stevens indulged in his customary bluntness +of speech, including a little spice of profanity by way of emphasis +and embellishment. He declared that not a man in the Cabinet, the +present company excepted, was fit for his business. Mr. Fessenden +said he fully endorsed this, while sly glances were made to Colonel +Blair, whose brother was thus palpably hit. Mr. Stevens said he +was tired of hearing d----d Republican cowards talk about the +Constitution; that there _was_ no Constitution any longer so far +as the prosecution of the war was concerned; and that we should +strip the rebels of all their rights, and given them a reconstruction +on such terms as would end treason forever. Secretary Stanton +agreed to every word of this, and said it had been his policy from +the beginning. Fessenden denounced slave-catching in our army, +and referred to a recent case in which fugitives came to our lines +with most valuable information as to rebel movements, and were +ordered out of camp into the clutches of their hunters. Stanton +said that ten days before McClellan marched toward Manassas, +contrabands had come to him with the information that the rebels +were preparing to retreat, but that McClellan said he could not +trust them. Wade was now roused, and declared that he had heard +McClellan say he had uniformly found the statements of these people +reliable, and had got valuable information from them. But McClellan +was still king, and the country was a long way yet from that vigorous +war policy which alone could save it. + +In the meantime the strife between the radical and conservative +elements in the Republican party found expression in other directions. +Secretary Seward, in his letter to Mr. Dayton, of the 22d of April, +declared that "the rights of the States and the condition of every +human being in them will remain subject to exactly the same laws +and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed +of whether it shall fail." Secretary Smith had previously declared, +in a public speech, that "this is not a war upon the institution +of slavery, but a war for the restoration of the Union," and that +"there could not be found in South Carolina a man more anxious, +religiously and scrupulously, to observe all the features of the +Constitution, than Abraham Lincoln." He also opposed the arming +of the negroes, declaring that "it would be a disgrace to the people +of the free States to call upon four millions of blacks to aid in +putting down eight millions of whites." Similar avowals were made +by other members of the Cabinet. This persistent purpose of the +Administration to save the Union and save slavery with it, naturally +provoked criticism, and angered the anti-slavery feeling of the +loyal States. The business of slave-catching in the army continued +the order of the day, till the pressure of public opinion finally +compelled Congress to prohibit it by a new article of war, which +was approved by the President on the 13th of March. The repressive +power of the Administration, however, was very formidable, and +although the House of Representatives, as early as the 20th of +December, 1861, had adopted a resolution offered by myself, +instructing the Judiciary Committee to report a bill so amending +the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as to forbid the return of fugitives +without proof first made of the loyalty of the claimant, yet on +the 26th of May, 1862, the House, then overwhelmingly Republican, +voted down a bill declaring free the slaves of armed rebels, and +making proof of loyalty by the claimant of a fugitive necessary to +his recovery. This vote sorely disappointed the anti-slavery +sentiment of the country. On this measure I addressed the House +in a brief speech, the spirit of which was heartily responded to +by my constituents and the people of the loyal States generally. +They believed in a vigorous prosecution of the war, and were sick +of "the never-ending gabble about the sacredness of the Constitution." +"It will not be forgotten," I said, "that the red-handed murderers +and thieves who set this rebellion on foot went out of the Union +yelping for the Constitution which they had conspired to overthrow +by the blackest perjury and treason that ever confronted the +Almighty." This speech was the key-note of my approaching +Congressional canvass, and I was one of the very few men of decided +anti-slavery convictions who were able to stem the conservative +tide which swept over the Northern States during this dark and +dismal year. I had against me the general drift of events; the +intense hostility of Governor Morton and his friends throughout +the State; nearly all the politicians in the District, and nine of +its twelve Republican newspapers, and the desperate energy and +cunning of trained leaders in both political parties, who had +pursued me like vultures for a dozen years. My triumph had no +taint of compromise in it, and nothing saved me but perfect courage +and absolute defiance of my foes. + +One of the great compensations of the war was the passage of the +Homestead Act of the 20th of May. It finally passed the House and +Senate by overwhelming majorities. Among the last acts of Mr. +Buchanan's administration was the veto of a similar measure, at +the bidding of his Southern masters; and the friends of the policy +had learned in the struggle of a dozen years that its success was +not possible while slavery ruled the government. The beneficent +operation of this great and far-reaching measure, however, was +seriously crippled by some unfortunate facts. In the first place, +it provided no safeguards against speculation in the public domain, +which had so long scourged the Western States and Territories, and +was still extending its ravages. Our pioneer settlers were offered +homes of one hundred and sixty acres each on condition of occupancy +and improvement, but the speculator could throw himself across +their track by buying up large bodies of choice land to be held +back from settlement and tillage for a rise in price, and thus +force them further into the frontier, and on to less desirable +lands. + +In the next place, under the new and unguarded land-grant policy, +which was simultaneously inaugurated, millions of acres fell into +the clutches of monopolists, and are held by them to-day, which +would have gone to actual settlers under the Homestead law, and +the moderate land grant policy originated by Senator Douglas in +1850. This was not foreseen or intended. The nation was then +engaged in a struggle for its existence, and thus exposed to the +evils of hasty legislation. The value of the lands given away was +not then understood as it has been since, while the belief was +universal that the lands granted would be restored to the public +domain on failure to comply with the conditions of the grants. +The need of great highways to the Pacific was then regarded as +imperative, and unattainable without large grants of the public +lands. These are extenuating facts; but the mischiefs of this ill- +starred legislation are none the less to be deplored. + +In the third place, under our new Indian treaty policy, invented +about the same time, large bodies of land, when released by our +Indian tribes, were sold at low rates to individual speculators +and monopolists, or to railway corporations, instead of being +conveyed, as before, to the United States, and thus subjected to +general disposition, as other public land. These evils are now +remedied, but for nearly ten years they were unchecked. The title +to Indian lands was secured through treaties concocted by a ring +of speculators and monopolists outside of the Senate, and frequently +ratified by that body near the close of a long session, when less +than half a dozen members were in their seats, and the entire +business was supervised by a single Western senator acting as the +agent of his employers and the sharer in their plunder. These +fatal mistakes in our legislation have made the Homestead law a +half-way measure, instead of that complete reform in our land policy +which was demanded, and they furnish a remarkable commentary upon +the boasted friendship of the Republican party for the landless +poor. + +The conservative war-policy of the Administration continued to +assert itself. The action of the President in promptly revoking +the order of General Hunter, of the ninth of May, declaring free +the slaves of the States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, +aggravated the growing impatience of the people. On the ninth day +of June I submitted a resolution instructing the judiciary committee +to report a bill repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, which was laid +on the table by a vote of sixty-six to fifty-one, sixteen Republicans +voting in the affirmative. On the second of July I called to see +the President, and had a familiar talk about the war. He looked +thin and haggard, but seemed cheerful. Although our forces were +then engaged in a terrific conflict with the enemy near Richmond, +and everybody was anxious as to the result, he was quite as placid +as usual, and could not resist his "ruling passion" for anecdotes. +If I had judged him by appearances I should have pronounced him +incapable of any deep earnestness of feeling; but his manner was +so kindly, and so free from the ordinary crookedness of the politician +and the vanity and self-importance of official position, that +nothing but good-will was inspired by his presence. He was still +holding fast his faith in General McClellan, and this was steadily +widening the breach between him and Congress, and periling the +success of the war. The general gloom in Washington increased till +the adjournment, but Mr. Sumner still had faith in the President, +and prophesied good things as to his final action. + +The Confiscation Act of this session, which was approved by the +President on the seventeenth day of July, providing that slaves of +rebels coming into our lines should be made free, and that the +property of their owners, both real and personal, should be +confiscated, would have given great and wide-spread satisfaction; +but the President refused to sign the bill without a modification +first made exempting the fee of rebel land-owners from its operation, +thus powerfully aiding them in their deadly struggle against us. +This action was inexpressibly provoking; but Congress was obliged +to make the modification required, as the only means of securing +the important advantages of other features of the measure. This +anti-republican discrimination between real and personal property +when the nation was struggling for its life against a rebellious +aristocracy founded on the monopoly of land and the ownership of +negroes, roused a popular opposition which thus far was altogether +unprecedented. The feeling in Congress, however, was far more +intense than throughout the country. No one at a distance could +have formed any adequate conception of the hostility of Republican +members toward Mr. Lincoln at the final adjournment, while it was +the belief of many that our last session of Congress had been held +in Washington. Mr. Wade said the country was going to hell, and +that the scenes witnessed in the French Revolution were nothing in +comparison with what we should see here. + +Just before leaving Washington I called on the President again, +and told him I was going to take the stump, and to tell the people +that he would co-operate with Congress in vigorously carrying out +the measures we had inaugurated for the purpose of crushing the +rebellion, and that now the quickest and hardest blows were to be +dealt. He told me I was authorized to say so, but said that more +than half the popular clamor against the management of the war was +unwarranted; and when I referred to the movements of General +McClellan he made no committal in any way. + +On the nineteenth of August Horace Greeley wrote his famous anti- +slavery letter to the President, entitled "The Prayer of Twenty +Millions." It was one of the most powerful appeals ever made in +behalf of justice and the rights of man. In his reply Mr. Lincoln +said: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I +would do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would +do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others +alone, I would do that." These words served as fresh fuel to the +fires of popular discontent, and they were responded to by Mr. +Greeley with admirable vigor and earnestness. The anti-slavery +critics of the President insisted that in thus dealing with slavery +as a matter of total indifference he likened himself to Douglas, +who had declared that he didn't care whether slavery was voted up +or voted down in the Territories. They argued that as slavery was +the cause of the war and the obstacle to peace, it was the duty of +the Government to lay hold of the conscience of the quarrel, and +strike at slavery as the grand rebel. Not to do so, they contended, +now that the opportunity was offered, was to make the contest a +mere struggle for power, and thus to degrade it to the level of +the wars of the Old World, which bring with them nothing for freedom +or the race. They insisted that the failure of the Government to +give freedom to our millions in bondage would be a crime only to +be measured by that of putting them in chains if they were free. +They reminded the President of his declaration that a house divided +against itself can not stand, and that the Republic can not +permanently exist half slave and half free; and they urged that +this baptism of fire and blood would be impious if the cause which +produced it should be spared to canker the heart of the nation +anew, and repeat its diabolical deeds. A Union with slavery spared +and reinstated would not be worth the cost of saving it. To argue +that we were fighting for a political abstraction called the Union, +and not for the destruction of slavery, was to affront common sense, +since nothing but slavery had brought the Union into peril, and +nothing could make sure the fruits of the war but the removal of +its cause. It was to delude ourselves with mere phrases, and +conduct the war on false pretenses. It was to rival the folly of +the rebels, who always asservated that they were not fighting for +slavery, but only for the right of local self government, when the +whole world knew the contrary. These ideas, variously presented +and illustrated, found manifold expression in innumerable Congressional +speeches and in the newspapers of the Northern States, and a month +later brought forth the President's proclamation of the twenty- +second of September, giving the insurgents notice that on the first +day of January following he would issue his proclamation of general +emancipation, if they did not in the meantime lay down their arms. +The course of events and the pressure of opinion were at last +forcing him to see that the nation was wrestling with slavery in +arms; that its destruction was not a debatable and distant alternative, +but a pressing and absolute necessity; and that his Border State +policy, through which he had so long tried to pet and please the +power that held the nation by the throat, was a cruel and fatal +mistake. This power, however, had so completely woven itself into +the whole fabric of American society and institutions, and had so +long fed upon the virtue of our public men, that the Administration +was not yet prepared to divorce itself entirely from the madness +that still enthralled the conservative element of the Republican +party. + +It was during this year that a formidable effort was made by the +old Whig element in the Republican party to disband the organization +and form a new one, called the "Union party." They were disposed +to blame the Abolitionists for the halting march of events, and to +run away from the real issues of the conflict. They were believers +in the Border State policy, and favored the colonization of the +negroes, while deprecating "radical and extreme measures." They +forgot that the Republican principle was as true in the midst of +war as in seasons of peace, and that instead of putting it in +abeyance when the storm came, we should cling to it with redoubled +energy and purpose. They forgot that the contest of 1860 was not +only a struggle between slavery and freedom, but a struggle of life +and death, inasmuch as the exclusion of slavery from all federal +territory would not only put the nation's brand upon it in the +States of the South, and condemn it as a public enemy, but virtually +sentence it to death. They forgot that the charge of "abolitionism," +which was incessantly hurled at the Republican party, was thus by +no means wanting in essential truth, and that when the slaveholders +were vanquished in the election of Mr. Lincoln, their appeal from +the ballot to the bullet was the logical result of their insane +devotion to slavery, and their conviction that nothing could save +it but the dismemberment of the Republic. They forgot that the +Rebellion was simply an advanced stage of slaveholding rapacity, +and that instead of tempting us to cower before it and surrender +our principles, it furnished an overwhelming argument for standing +by them to the death. This movement was fruitful of great mischief +throughout the loyal States, and on my return to Washington in the +fall of this year I was glad to find this fact generally admitted, +and my earnest opposition to it fully justified by the judgment of +Republican members of Congress. + +Immediately after the battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of +December, the Committee on the Conduct of the War visited that +place for the purpose of inquiring into the facts respecting that +fearful disaster. The country was greatly shocked and excited, +and eager to know who was to blame. We examined Burnside, Hooker, +Sumner, and Woodbury; but prior to this, in a personal interview +with General Burnside, he frankly told me that _he_ was responsible +for the attack. He seemed to be loaded down with a mountain of +trouble and anxiety, and I could see that he felt just as a patriotic +man naturally would, after sacrificing thousands of men by a mistaken +movement. He said he had no military ambition, and frankly confessed +his incapacity to command a large army, as he had done to the +President and Secretary of War, when they urged him to assume this +great responsibility; and that he was very sorry he had ever +consented to accept it. His conversation disarmed all criticism, +while his evident honesty decidedly pleased me. It was a sad +thought, while standing on the banks of the Rappahannock, that here +were more than a hundred thousand men on either side of a narrow +river, brethren and kindred, and naturally owing each other nothing +but good will, who were driven by negro slavery into the wholesale +slaughter of each other. But General Burnside told me our men did +not feel toward the rebels as they felt toward us, and he assured +me that this was the grand obstacle to our success. Our soldiers, +he said, were not sufficiently fired by resentment, and he exhorted +me, if I could, to breathe into our people at home the same spirit +toward our enemies which inspired them toward us. As I approached +one of the principal hospitals here, I was startled by a pile of +arms and legs of wounded soldiers, and on entering the building I +found scores of men in the last stages of life, stretched on the +floor with nothing under them but a thin covering of hay, and +nothing over them but a coarse blanket or quilt, and without a +spark of fire to warm them, though the weather was extremely cold +and they were literally freezing to death. Some of them were too +far gone to speak, and looked at me so pleadingly that I can never +forget the impression it made. Arrangements were made for their +comfort as soon as it was possible. + +On New Year's day I joined the immense throng of callers at the +White House, but did not enjoy the delay of the President in issuing +his Proclamation of Emancipation. It came late in the day, and +brought relief to multitudes of anxious people. Perhaps no subject +has ever been more widely misunderstood than the legal effect of +this famous document, and the circumstances under which it was +issued. Mr. Lincoln was himself opposed to the measure, and when +he very reluctantly issued his preliminary proclamation in September, +he wished it distinctly understood that the deportation of the +slaves was, in his mind, inseparably connected with the policy. +Like Mr. Clay and other prominent leaders of the old Whig party, +he believed in colonization, and that the separation of the two +races was necessary to the welfare of both. He was at that time +pressing upon the attention of Congress a scheme of colonization +in Chiriqui in Central America, which Senator Pomeroy espoused with +great zeal, and in which he had the favor of a majority of the +Cabinet, including Secretary Smith, who warmly endorsed the project. +Subsequent development, however, proved that it was simply an +organization for land-stealing and plunder, and it was abandoned; +but it is by no means certain that if the President had foreseen +this fact, his preliminary notice to the rebels would have been +given. There are strong reasons for saying that he doubted his +right to emancipate under the war power, and that he meant what he +said when he compared an executive order to that effect to the +"Pope's Bull against the Comet." + +But he saw no way of escape. The demand for such an edict was wide- +spread and rapidly extending in the Republican party. The power +to issue it was taken for granted. All doubts on the subject were +consumed in the burning desire of the people, or forgotten in the +travail of war. The anti-slavery element was becoming more and +more impatient and impetuous. Opposition to that element now +involved more serious consequences than offending the Border States. +Mr. Lincoln feared that enlistments would cease, and that Congress +would even refuse the necessary supplies to carry on the war, if +he declined any longer to place it on a clearly defined anti-slavery +basis. It was in yielding to this pressure that he finally became +the liberator of the slaves through the triumph of our arms which +it ensured. + +The authority to emancipate under the war power is well settled, +but it could only be asserted over territory occupied by our armies. +Each Commanding General, as fast as our flag advanced, could have +offered freedom to the slaves, as could the President himself. +This was the view of Secretary Chase. A paper proclamation of +freedom, as to States in the power of the enemy, could have no more +validity than a paper blockade of their coast. Mr. Lincoln's +proclamation did not apply to the Border States, which were loyal, +and in which slavery was of course untouched. It did not pretend +to operate upon the slaves in other large districts, in which it +would have been effective at once, but studiously excluded them, +while it applied mainly to States and parts of States within the +military occupation of the enemy, where it was necessarily void. +But even if the proclamation could have given freedom to the slaves +according to its scope, their permanent enfranchisement would not +have been secured, because the _status_ of slavery, as it existed +under the local laws of the States prior to the war, would have +remained after the re-establishment of peace. All emancipated +slaves found in those States, or returning to them, would have been +subject to slavery as before, for the simple reason that no military +proclamation could operate to abolish their municipal laws. Nothing +short of a Constitutional amendment could at once give freedom to +our black millions and make their re-enslavement impossible; and +"this," as Mr. Lincoln declared in earnestly urging its adoption, +"is a king's cure for all evils. It winds the whole thing up." +All this is now attested by high authorities on International and +Constitutional law, and while it takes nothing from the honor so +universally accorded to Mr. Lincoln as the great Emancipator, it +shows how wisely he employed a grand popular delusion in the salvation +of his country. His proclamation had no present legal effect within +territory not under the control of our arms; but as an expression +of the spirit of the people and the policy of the Administration, +it had become both a moral and a military necessity. + +During this month I called with the Indiana delegation to see the +President respecting the appointment of Judge Otto, of Indiana, as +Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He was afterward appointed, +but Mr. Lincoln then only responded to our application by treating +us to four anecdotes. Senator Lane told me that when the President +heard a story that pleased him he took a memorandum of it and filed +it away among his papers. This was probably true. At any rate, +by some method or other, his supply seemed inexhaustible, and always +aptly available. Early in February General Burnside came before +the War Committee, and gave the most startling testimony as to the +demoralization of the Army of the Potomac, the bickerings and +jealousies of the commanding generals, and the vexations of the +President in dealing with the situation. On the 18th of March I +called on Mr. Lincoln respecting the appointments I had recommended +under the conscription law, and took occasion to refer to the +failure of General Fremont to obtain a command. He said he did +not know where to place him, and that it reminded him of the old +man who advised his son to take a wife, to which the young man +responded, "Whose wife should I take?" The President proceeded to +point out the practical difficulties in the way by referring to a +number of important commands which might suit Fremont, but which +could only be reached by removals he did not wish to make. I +remarked that I was very sorry if this was true, and that it was +unfortunate for our cause, as I believed his restoration to duty +would stir the country as no other appointment could. He said, +"it would stir the country on one side, and stir it the other way +on the other. It would please Fremont's friends, and displease +the conservatives; and that is all I can see in the _stirring_ +argument." "My proclamation," he added, "was to stir the country; +but it has done about as much harm as good." These observations +were characteristic, and showed how reluctant he was to turn away +from the conservative counsels he had so long heeded. + +On the 3d day of April the final report of the Committee on the +Conduct of the War was completed, and the portion of it relating +to the Army of the Potomac was in the hands of the Associated Press, +and awaited by the public with a curiosity which it is not easy +now to realize. The formation of the committee, as already stated, +grew out of the popular demand for a more vigorous war policy, and +its action was thus exposed to the danger of hasty conclusions; +but the press and public opinion of the loyal States, with remarkable +unanimity, credited it with great usefulness to the country, through +its labors to rescue the control of the war from incompetent and +unworthy hands. + +I returned home by way of Philadelphia and New York, and had a +delightful visit in the former place with James and Lucretia Mott, +whom I had not seen since 1850. In New York I attended the great +"Sumter meeting" of the 13th, and spoke at one of the stands with +General Fremont and Roscoe Conkling. While in the city I met Mr. +Bryant, Phebe Carey, Mr. Beecher and other notables, and on my way +home tarried two days with Gerrit Smith, at his hospitable home in +Peterboro. According to his custom he invited a number of his +neighbors and friends to breakfast, and by special invitation I +addressed the people in the evening, at the "free church" of the +town, on topics connected with the war. I could see that Mr. Smith +did not approve the severity of my language, and that this was a +source of amusement to some of his neighbors, but the course of +events afterward radically changed his views, and he admitted that +in his public addresses he was greatly aided by the imprecatory +psalms. I had several delightful rambles with him, our conversation +turning chiefly upon reformatory and theological topics, and I +found myself more than ever in love with this venerable philanthropist +whom I had only met once before, on his visit to Washington the +previous year. + +On the night of the 8th of July the fire-bells of the town of +Centreville, in which I resided, roused the people, who rushed into +the streets to learn that General John Morgan, with six thousand +cavalry and four pieces of artillery, had crossed the Ohio, and +was moving upon the town of Corydon. The Governor had issued a +call for minute men for the defense of the State, and within forty- +eight hours sixty five thousand men tendered their services. +Messengers were at once dispatched to all parts of Wayne County +conveying the news of the invasion, and the next morning the people +came pouring in from all directions, while the greatest excitement +prevailed. The town had eighty muskets, belonging to its Home +Guard, and I took one of them, which I afterward exchanged for a +good French rifle; and having put on the military equipments, and +supplied myself with a blanket and canteen, I was ready for marching +orders. The volunteers who rallied at Centreville were shipped to +Indianapolis, and were about seven hours on the way. I was a member +of Company C, and the regiment to which I belonged was the One +Hundred and Sixth, and was commanded by Colonel Isaac P. Gray. Of +the force which responded to the call of the Governor, thirteen +regiments and one battalion were organized specially for the +emergency, and sent into the field in different directions, except +the One Hundred and Tenth and the One Hundred and Eleventh, which +remained at Indianapolis. The One Hundred and Sixth was shipped +by rail to Cincinnati, and but for a detention of several hours at +Indianapolis, caused by the drunkenness of an officer high in +command, it might possibly have encountered Morgan near Hamilton, +the next morning, on the way South. Our reception in Cincinnati +was not very flattering. The people there seemed to feel that Ohio +was able to take care of herself; and, in fact, nothing could have +been more unreasonable than sending a body of infantry one hundred +miles in pursuit of a cavalry force in that vicinity, where an +ample body of cavalry was in readiness, and the river well guarded +by gun-boats. + +We were re-shipped to Indianapolis by rail, where we were mustered +out of service and returned to our homes after a campaign of eight +days. This was the sum of my military experience, but it afforded +me some glimpses of the life of a soldier, and supplied me with +some startling facts respecting the curse of intemperance in our +armies. + + +CHAPTER XI. +INCIDENTS AND END OF THE WAR. +Campaigning in Ohio--Attempted repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law-- +Organized movement in favor of Chase for the Presidency--Confiscation +of rebel lands--Fort Pillow and the treatment of Union soldiers at +Richmond--Mr. Lincoln's letter to Hodges--Southern Homestead Bill +and controversy with Mr. Mallory--Nomination of Andrew Johnson-- +Enforcement of party discipline--Mr. Lincoln's change of opinion +as to confiscation of rebel lands--Opposition to him in Congress-- +General Fremont and Montgomery Blair--Visit to City Point--Adoption +of the XIII Constitutional Amendment--Trip to Richmond and incidents +--Assassination of the President--Inauguration of Johnson and +announcement of his policy--Feeling toward Mr. Lincoln--Capitulation +with Gen. Johnston. + +In the latter part of July of this year I addressed several meetings +in Ohio, in company with Gov. Brough, beginning at Toledo. His +speeches were too conservative for the times, as he soon discovered +by their effect upon the people; but I found him singularly genial +and companionable, and full of reminiscences of his early intimacy +with Jackson, Van Buren and Silas Wright. Early in September I +returned to Ohio to join Hon. John A. Bingham in canvassing Mr. +Ashley's district under the employment of the State Republican +Committee. Mr. Vallandigham, then temporarily colonized in Canada, +was the Democratic candidate for Governor, and the canvass was "red- +hot." At no time during the war did the _spirit_ of war more +completely sway the loyal masses. It was no time to mince the +truth, or "nullify damnation with a phrase," and I fully entered +into the spirit of General Burnside's advice already referred to, +to breathe into the hearts of the people a feeling of animosity +against the rebels akin to that which inspired their warfare against +us. I remember that at one of the mass-meetings I attended, where +Col. Gibson was one of the speakers, a Cincinnati reporter who had +prepared himself for his work dropped his pencil soon after the +oratorical fireworks began, and listened with open mouth and the +most rapt attention till the close of the speech; and he afterward +wrote to his employer an account of the meeting, in which he said +that reporting was simply impossible, and he could only say the +speaking was "beautifully terrible." As a stump-speaker Col. Gibson +was then without a rival in the West. His oratory was an irresistible +fascination, and no audience could ever grow tired of him. The +speeches of Mr. Bingham were always admirable. His rhetoric was +singularly charming. He was an artist in his work, but seldom +repeated himself, while gathering fresh inspiration, and following +some new line of thought at every meeting. After our work was done +in the Toledo district I accompanied Mr. Ashley to Jefferson, where +he and others were to address a mass-meeting, which we found +assembled in front of the court house. The day was rainy and +dismal, and the meeting had already been in session for hours; but +after additional speeches by Ashley and Hutchins I was so loudly +called for a little while before sunset, that I responded for about +three-quarters of an hour, when I proposed to conclude, the people +having been detained already over four hours while standing in a +cold drizzling rain; but the cry of "go on" was very emphatic, and +seemed to be unanimous. "Go ahead," said a farmer, "we'll hear +you; it's past milking time anyhow!" It seemed to me I had never +met such listeners. I was afterward informed that the test of +effective speaking on the Reserve is the ability to hold an audience +from their milking when the time for it comes, and I thought I +passed this test splendidly. After my return from Ohio I made a +brief canvass in Iowa, along with Senator Harlan and Governor +Stone, and spent the remainder of the fall on the stump in my own +State. + +In the 38th Congress, Speaker Colfax made me Chairman of the +Committee on Public Lands, which gratified me much. It opened a +coveted field of labor on which I entered with zeal. On the 14th +of December I introduced a bill for the repeal of the Fugitive +Slave Law, and in order to test the sense of the House on the +question, I offered a resolution instructing the Judiciary Committee +to report such a bill. Greatly to my astonishment it was laid on +the table by a vote of yeas eighty-two, nays seventy-four. Many +Republicans declined to vote, and we were evidently still under +the lingering spell of slavery. Early in January an organized +movement was set on foot in the interest of Mr. Chase for the +Presidency, and I was made a member of a Central Committee which +was appointed for the purpose of aiding the enterprise. I was a +decided friend of Mr. Chase, and as decidedly displeased with the +hesitating military policy of the Administration; but on reflection +I determined to withdraw from the committee and let the presidential +matter drift. I had no time to devote to the business, and I found +the committee inharmonious, and composed, in part, of men utterly +unfit and unworthy to lead in such a movement. It was fearfully +mismanaged. A confidential document known as the "Pomeroy circular," +assailing Mr. Lincoln and urging the claims of Mr. Chase, was sent +to numerous parties, and of course fell into the hands of Mr. +Lincoln's friends. They became greatly excited, and by vigorous +counter measures created a strong reaction. A serious estrangement +between the President and his Secretary was the result, which lasted +for several months. The Chase movement collapsed, and when the +Republican members of the Ohio Legislature indorsed the re-nomination +of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Chase withdrew from the contest. The opposition +to Mr. Lincoln, however, continued, and was secretly cherished by +many of the ablest and most patriotic men in the party. The extent +of their opposition in Congress can never be known, and it was +greatly aggravated by successive military failures; but it lacked +both courage and leadership, and culminated in the nomination of +General Fremont in the latter part of May. + +In this Congress a new joint select committee on the "conduct of +the war" was organized, armed with new powers, and authorized to +sit in vacation; and in common with most of the members of the +former committee I was re-appointed. During the latter part of +January I reported from the Committee on Public Lands a proposition +to extend the Homestead Law of 1862 to the forfeited and confiscated +lands of Rebels. It was a very radical proposition, proposing to +deal with these lands as _public_ lands, and parcel them out into +small homesteads among the poor of the South, black and white. +The subject was a large one, involving many important questions, +and I devoted much time and thought to the preparation of a speech +in support of the measure. In the month of April a portion of the +Committee on the Conduct of the War visited Fort Pillow, for the +purpose of taking testimony respecting the rebel atrocities at that +place; and this testimony and that taken at Annapolis, early in +May, respecting the treatment of our soldiers in the prisons at +Richmond was published, as a special instalment of our proceedings, +for popular use, accompanied by photographs of a number of prisoners +in their wasted and disfigured condition. The report produced a +powerful effect on the public mind, and caused unspeakable trouble +and vexation to the enemy. I assisted in the examination of our +prisoners at Annapolis, and never before had been so touched by +any spectacle of human suffering. They were in the last stages of +life, and could only answer our questions in a whisper. They were +living skeletons, and it seemed utterly incredible that life could +be supported in such wasted and attenuated shadows of themselves. +They looked at us, in attempting to tell their story, with an +expression of beseeching tenderness and submission which no words +could describe. Not one of them expressed any regret that he had +entered into the service of the country, and each declared that he +would do so again, if his life should be spared and the opportunity +should be offered. In examining one of these men I was perfectly +unmanned by my tears; and on retiring from the tent to give them +vent I encountered Senator Wade, who had fled from the work, and +was sobbing like a child. It was an altogether unprecedented +experience, and the impression it produced followed me night and +day for weeks. + +The conservative policy of the Administration found a new and +careful expression in Mr. Lincoln's letter to A. G. Hodges, of the +4th of April. It showed great progress as compared with previous +utterances, but his declaration that "I claim not to have controlled +events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me," was +displeasing to the more anti-slavery Republicans. They insisted +that the Administration had no right to become the foot-ball of +events. It had no right, they said, at such a time, to make itself +a negative expression or an unknown quantity in the Algebra which +was to work out the great problem. It had no right, they insisted, +to take shelter beneath a debauched and sickly public sentiment, +and plead it in bar of the great duty imposed upon it by the crisis. +It had no right, certainly, to lag behind that sentiment, to magnify +its extent and potency, and then to become its virtual ally, instead +of endeavoring to control it, and to indoctrinate the country with +ideas suited to the emergency. It was the duty of the President, +like John Bright and the English Liberals, to lead, not follow +public opinion. These criticisms found every variety of utterance +through Congressional speeches and the press, and met with a cordial +response from the people; and they undoubtedly played their part +in preparing the country and the Administration for the more vigorous +policy which was to follow. + +On the 12th of May the House passed my Southern Homestead Bill by +the strictly party vote of seventy-five to sixty-four. In my +closing speech on the subject I was frequently interrupted by Wood +of New York, and Mallory of Kentucky, and the debate ran into very +sharp personalities, but the opposition of these members only tended +to strengthen the measure. On the 19th I was drawn into an +exceedingly angry altercation with Mr. Mallory, who charged me with +forging some very personal remarks about himself, and interpolating +them into the "Congressional Globe" as a part of my speech of the +12th. He was exceedingly insolent and overbearing in his manner, +growing more and more so as he proceeded, and strikingly recalling +the old days of slavery. He summoned a number of friends as +witnesses, who testified that they did not _hear_ me use the language +in question, and several of them, like Kernan of New York, declared +that they had occupied positions very near me, had given particular +attention to my words, and would certainly have remembered them if +they had been uttered. I kept cool, but asserted very positively +that I did use the exact words reported, and in proof of my statement +I appealed to a number of my friends, who sustained me by their +distinct and positive recollections. Here was a conflict of +testimony in which every witness recollected the facts according +to his politics; but pending the proceedings I was fortunate enough +to find the notes of the "Globe" reporter, which perfectly vindicated +me from Mr. Mallory's charges, and suddenly put his bluster and +billingsgate to flight. He unconditionally retracted his charges, +while his swift witnesses were sufficiently rebuked and humiliated +by this unexpected catastrophe. I was heartily complimented on my +triumph, and my dialogue with Mr. Mallory was put in pamphlet as +a campaign document by his opponents and liberally scattered over +his district, where it did much service in defeating his re-election +to the House. + +The passage of the Southern Homestead Bill, however, could only +prove a very partial measure without an enactment reaching the fee +of rebel land owners, and I confidently anticipated the endorsement +of such a measure by the Republican National Convention, which was +to meet in Baltimore, on the seventh of June. I was much gratified +when the National Union League approved it, in its Convention in +that city the day before; and a resolution embodying it was also +reported favorably by the sub-committee on resolutions of the +National Republican Convention the next day. But the General +Committee, on the motion of McKee Dunn of Indiana, always an +incorrigible conservative, struck it out, much to the disappointment +of the Republican masses. To me it was particularly vexatious, as +the measure was a pet one of mine, having labored for it with much +zeal, and in the confidence that the National Convention would +approve it. Mr. Dunn was a Kentuckian of the Border State School, +and although a friend of mine, and an upright and very gentlemanly +man, he had a genius for being on the wrong side of vital questions +during the war. Speaker Colfax used to say, laughingly, that in +determining his own course he first made it a point to find out +where McKee Dunn stood; and then, having ascertained Julian's +position, he always took a middle ground, feeling perfectly sure +he was right. + +But to me the nomination of Andrew Johnson for Vice President was +a still greater disappointment. I knew he did not believe in the +principles embodied in the platform. I had become intimately +acquainted with him while we were fellow-members of the Committee +on the Conduct of the War, and he always scouted the idea that +slavery was the cause of our trouble, or that emancipation could +ever be tolerated without immediate colonization. In my early +acquaintance with him I had formed a different opinion; but he was, +at heart, as decided a hater of the negro and of everything savoring +of abolitionism, as the rebels from whom he had separated. His +nomination, however, like that of Mr. Lincoln, seemed to have been +preordained by the people, while the intelligent, sober men, in +Congress and out of Congress, who lamented the fact, were not +prepared to oppose the popular will. Mr. Lincoln's nomination was +nearly unanimous, only the State of Missouri opposing him; but of +the more earnest and through-going Republicans in both Houses of +Congress, probably not one in ten really favored it. It was not +only very distasteful to a large majority of Congress but to many +of the most prominent men of the party throughout the country. +During the month of June the feeling against Mr. Lincoln became +more and more bitter and intense, but its expression never found +its way to the people. + +Notwithstanding the divisions which existed in the Republican ranks, +party discipline was vigorous and absolute. "Civil Service Reform" +was in the distant future, and the attempt to inaugurate it would +have been counted next to treasonable. Loyalty to Republicanism +was not only accepted as the best evidence of loyalty to the country, +but of fitness for civil position. After my nomination for re- +election this year, Mr. Holloway, who was still holding the position +of Commissioner of Patents, and one of the editors of a Republican +newspaper in my district, refused to recognize me as the party +candidate, and kept the name of my defeated competitor standing in +his paper. It threatened discord and mischief, and I went to the +President with these facts, and on the strength of them demanded +his removal from office. He replied, "If I remove Mr. Holloway I +shall have a quarrel with Senator Lane on my hands." I replied +that Senator Lane would certainly not quarrel with him for turning +a man out of office who was fighting the Republican party and the +friends of the Administration. "Your nomination," said he, "is as +binding on Republicans as mine, and you can rest assured that Mr. +Holloway shall support you, openly and unconditionally, or lose +his head." This was entirely satisfactory, but after waiting a +week or two for the announcement of my name I returned to Mr. +Lincoln with the information that Mr. Holloway was still keeping +up his fight, and that I had come to ask of him decisive measures. +I saw in an instant that the President now meant business. He +dispatched a messenger at once, asking Mr. Holloway to report to +him forthwith, in person, and in a few days my name was announced +in his paper as the Republican candidate, and that of my competitor +withdrawn. + +Having understood that Mr. Lincoln had changed his position respecting +the power of Congress to confiscate the landed estates of rebels, +I called to see him on the subject on the 2d of July, and asked +him if I might say to the people that what I had learned on this +subject was true, assuring him that I could make a far better fight +for our cause if he would permit me to do so. He replied that when +he prepared his veto of our law on the subject two years before, +he had not examined the matter fully, but that on further reflection, +and on reading Solicitor Whiting's law argument, he had changed +his opinion, and thought he would now sign a bill striking at the +fee, if we would send it to him. I was much gratified by this +statement, which was of service to the cause in the canvass; but, +unfortunately, constitutional scruples respecting such legislation +gained ground, and although both Houses of Congress at different +times endorsed the principle, it never became a law, owing to +unavoidable differences between the President and Congress on the +question of reconstruction. The action of the President in dealing +with the rebel land owners was of the most serious character. It +paralyzed one of the most potent means of putting down the Rebellion, +prolonging the conflict and aggravating its cost, and at the same +time left the owners of large estates in full possession of their +lands at the end of the struggle, who naturally excluded from the +ownership of the soil the freedmen and poor whites who had been +friendly to the Union; while the confiscation of life estates as +a war measure was of no practical advantage to the Government or +disadvantage to the enemy. + +The refusal of the President to sign the Reconstruction Act which +passed near the close of the session, and his proclamation and +message giving his reasons therefor, still further exasperated a +formidable body of earnest and impatient Republicans. A scathing +criticism of the President's position by Henry Winter Davis, which +was signed by himself and Senator Wade, fitly echoed their feelings. +Mr. Davis was a man of genius. Among the famous men in the Thirty- +eighth Congress he had no superior as a writer, debater and orator. +He was a brilliant man, whose devotion to his country in this crisis +was a passion, while his hostility to the President's policy was +as sincere as it was intense; but the passage of the somewhat +incongruous bill vetoed by the President, would probably have proved +a stumbling-block in the way of the more radical measures which +afterward prevailed. This could not then be foreseen, and as the +measure was an advanced one, the feeling against Mr. Lincoln waxed +stronger and stronger among his opposers. They had so completely +lost their faith in him that when Congress adjourned they seriously +feared his veto of the bill just enacted, repealing the Fugitive +Slave law; while the independent movement in favor of General +Fremont threatened a serious division in the Republican ranks, and +the triumph of General McClellan. "These," as Mr. Lincoln said on +another occasion, "were dark and dismal days," and they were made +still more so by the course of military events. The capture of +Richmond, which General Grant had promised, had not been accomplished, +although he had been furnished with all the troops he wanted. Our +Grand Army of the Potomac made advances in that direction, but with +great slaughter and no actual results; while the Administration +was blamed for his failures. General Grant finally reached the +position occupied by McClellan in 1862, but with terrific losses, +and Richmond still in possession of the rebels. His delay and +inaction at this point created great popular discontent in the +North; but while Lincoln supplied him with ample reinforcements, +and he now had an army twice as large as that of General Lee, which +was costing the nation over a million dollars per day, he continued +idle during the summer. It was evident that nothing could save us +but military success; and most fortunately for the Republican cause +it came in due season, rallied and reunited its supporters, and +thus secured their triumph at the polls. + +Near the close of the canvass, while on a visit to Washington, I +learned how it happened that Montgomery Blair had finally been got +out of the Cabinet, and General Fremont induced to leave the track +as the candidate of the Cleveland Convention. The radical pressure +upon Mr. Lincoln for the removal of Blair was very formidable, and +the emergency seemed so critical that it finally resulted in a +compromise, by which Fremont agreed to retire from the race, if +Blair should be required to leave the Cabinet. This was carried +out, and thus, at last, the President was obliged to make terms +with the "Pathfinder," who achieved a long-coveted victory over an +old foe. The election of Mr. Lincoln was followed by a remarkable +measure of party union and harmony, and the tone of his message in +December was encouraging. The appointment and confirmation of Mr. +Chase as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court met the most cordial +approval of Republicans everywhere. As a healing measure, following +his retirement from the treasury for valid reasons, it was most +timely. + +During the month of December, the Committee on the Conduct of the +War visited City Point, for the purpose of taking testimony respecting +the explosion of the mine at Petersburg. General Grant spent +several hours with the Committee, speaking very freely and familiarly +of the faults and virtues of our various commanders, and impressing +every one by his strong common sense. While at dinner with us on +our steamer, he drank freely, and its effect became quite manifest. +It was a painful surprise to the Committee, and was spoken of with +bated breath; for he was the Lieutenant-General of all our forces, +and the great movements which finally strangled the Rebellion were +then in progress, and, for aught we knew, might possibly be deflected +from their purpose by his condition. + +In January, 1865, the Committee on the Conduct of the War investigated +the famous Fort Fisher expedition, in which three hundred tuns of +powder were to be exploded in the vicinity of the Fort as a means +of demolishing it, or paralyzing the enemy. The testimony of +General Butler in explanation and defense of the enterprise was +interesting and spicy, and he was subsequently contradicted by +General Grant on material points. On the last day of this month +one of the grandest events of the century was witnessed in the +House of Representatives in the final passage of the Constitutional +Amendment forever prohibiting slavery. Numerous propositions on +the subject had been submitted, but the honor of drafting the one +adopted belongs to Lyman Trumbull, who had introduced it early in +the first session of this Congress. It passed the Senate on the +8th of April, 1864, only six members voting against it, namely, +Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Riddle and Saulsbury, but +failed in the House on the 15th of June following. It now came up +on the motion of Mr. Ashley to reconsider this vote. Congress had +abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, and prohibited it +in all the Territories. It had repealed the Fugitive Slave law, +and declared free all negro soldiers in the Union armies and their +families; and the President had played his grand part in the +Proclamation of Emancipation. But the question now to be decided +completely overshadowed all others. The debate on the subject had +been protracted and very spirited, the opposition being led by +Pendleton, Fernando Wood, Voorhees, Mallory and Eldridge, who all +denied that the power to amend the Constitution conferred the right +to abolish slavery, as Garrett Davis and Saulsbury had done in the +Senate. The time for the momentous vote had now come, and no +language could describe the solemnity and impressiveness of the +spectacle pending the roll-call. The success of the measure had +been considered very doubtful, and depended upon certain negotiations, +the result of which was not fully assured, and the particulars of +which never reached the public. The anxiety and suspense during +the balloting produced a deathly stillness, but when it became +certainly known that the measure had prevailed the cheering in the +densely-packed hall and galleries surpassed all precedent and +beggared all description. Members joined in the general shouting, +which was kept up for several minutes, many embracing each other, +and others completely surrendering themselves to their tears of +joy. It seemed to me I had been born into a new life, and that +the world was overflowing with beauty and joy, while I was +inexpressibly thankful for the privilege of recording my name on +so glorious a page of the nation's history, and in testimony of an +event so long only dreamed of as possible in the distant future. +The champions of negro emancipation had merely hoped to speed their +grand cause a little by their faithful labors, and hand over to +coming generations the glory of crowning it with success; but they +now saw it triumphant, and they had abundant and unbounded cause +to rejoice. It has been aptly said that the greatest advantage of +a long life is the opportunity it gives of seeing moral experiments +worked out, of being present at the fructification of social causes, +and of thus gaining a kind of wisdom which in ordinary cases seems +reserved for a future life; but that an equivalent for this advantage +is possessed by such as live in those critical periods of society +when retribution is hastened, or displayed in clear connection with +the origin of events. It strengthens faith to observe the sure +operation of moral causes in ripening into great and beneficent +results. To be permitted to witness the final success of the +grandest movement of ancient or modern times was a blessed opportunity. +To have labored for it in the goodly fellowship of its confessors +and martyrs was cause for devout thanksgiving and joy. To be +accredited to share in the great historic act of its formal +consummation was a priceless privilege. A few days after the +ratification of this Amendment, on the motion of Mr. Sumner, Dr. +Rock, a colored lawyer of Boston, was admitted to practice in the +Supreme Court of the United States, which had pronounced the Dred +Scott decision only a few years before; and this was followed a +few days later by a sermon in the hall of the House by Rev. Mr. +Garnett, being the first ever preached in the Capitol by a colored +man. Evidently, the negro was coming to the front. + +In the latter part of March I visited New York, where I witnessed +the immense throngs of shouting people on Wall Street, called +together by the news of the fall of Richmond. Broadway, robed in +its innumerable banners, was one of the finest sights I had ever +beheld. On the tenth of April the Committee on the Conduct of the +War left Washington for South Carolina, for the purpose of taking +further testimony, and intending to be present at the great +anniversary of the thirteenth at Charleston. We reached Fortress +Monroe the next evening, where we learned that the "Alabama," which +the Navy Department had furnished us, would be detained twenty-four +hours to coal, by reason of which we proceeded directly to Richmond +on the "Baltimore." At City Point, Admiral Porter furnished us +with a pilot, as there was some danger of torpedoes up the James +River. Our steamer reached the city about bedtime, but we remained +on board till morning, lulled into a sweep sleep by the music of +the guitar and the singing of the negroes below. At eight o'clock +in the morning our party went out sight-seeing, some in carriages, +but most of us on horseback, with an orderly for each to show him +the way. The first notable place we visited was General Weitzel's +headquarters, just vacated by Jefferson Davis. The building was +a spacious three-story residence, with a large double parlor, a +ladies' parlor, and a small secluded library attached, in which +all sorts of treason were said to have been hatched. We next +visited the capitol, an ancient-looking edifice, which would bear +no comparison with our modern State Capitols in size or style of +architecture. The library made a respectable appearance, but I +think it contained few modern publications, especially of our own +authors. I noticed, however, a liberal supply of theological works +of the most approved orthodoxy. The view of the city from the top +of the building was admirable. We could see Libby Prison, Castle +Thunder and Belle Isle, the former of which we afterward visited. +After seeing the rebel fortifications we were glad to get back to +our steamer. Before starting the next morning we saw the "Richmond +Whig," containing an order signed by General Weitzel, inviting +Hunter, McMullen and other noted rebel leaders, including members +of the rebel legislature, to meet in Richmond on the twenty-fifth +to confer with our authorities on the restoration of peace, +transportation and safe conduct being ordered for the purpose. We +were all thunderstruck, and fully sympathized with the hot indignation +and wrathful words of the chairman of our committee. We soon +afterwards learned that the order had been directed by the President, +and while we were thoroughly disgusted by this display of misguided +magnanimity we saw rebel officers strutting around the streets in +full uniform, looking as independent as if they had been masters +of the city. We left on the afternoon of the twelfth, and were +interested in seeing Drury's Landing, Dutch-Gap Canal, Malvern +Hill and other points of historic interest. Before reaching +Fortress Monroe the next day, Senators Wade and Chandler changed +their minds respecting our journey to Charleston, which was abandoned, +and after spending a few hours very pleasantly at that place and +Point Lookout, we reached Washington on the evening of the +fourteenth. + +Soon after retiring I was roused from a deep sleep by loud raps at +my door. W. L. Woods, clerk of my committee, entered in the greatest +excitement, and told me that Lincoln had just been assassinated, +and Seward and son probably, and that rebel assassins were about +to take the town. Supposing all this to be true I grew suddenly +cold, heart-sick and almost helpless. It was a repetition of my +experience when the exaggerated stories about the Bull Run disaster +first reached me in the summer of 1861. I soon rallied, however, +and joined the throng on the street. The city was at once in a +tempest of excitement, consternation and rage. About seven and a +half o'clock in the morning the church bells tolled the President's +death. The weather was as gloomy as the mood of the people, while +all sorts of rumors filled the air as to the particulars of the +assassination and the fate of Booth. Johnson was inaugurated at +eleven o'clock on the morning of the 15th, and was at once surrounded +by radical and conservative politicians, who were alike anxious +about the situation. I spent most of the afternoon in a political +caucus, held for the purpose of considering the necessity of a new +Cabinet and a line of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr. +Lincoln; and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling +was nearly universal that the accession of Johnson to the Presidency +would prove a god-send to the country. Aside from Mr. Lincoln's +known policy of tenderness to the Rebels, which now so jarred upon +the feelings of the hour, his well-known views on the subject of +reconstruction were as distasteful as possible to radical Republicans. +In his last public utterance, only three days before his death, he +had declared his adherence to the plan of reconstruction announced +by him in December, 1863, which in the following year so stirred +the ire of Wade and Winter Davis as an attempt of the Executive to +usurp the powers of Congress. According to this plan the work of +reconstruction in the rebel States was to be inaugurated and carried +on by those only who were qualified to vote under the Constitution +and laws of these States as they existed prior to the Rebellion. +Of course the negroes of the South could have no voice in framing +the institutions under which they were to live, and the question +of negro suffrage would thus have been settled by the President, +if he had lived and been able to maintain this policy, while no +doubt was felt that this calamity had now been averted and the way +opened for the radical policy which afterward involved the impeachment +of Johnson, but finally prevailed. It was forgotten in the fever +and turbulence of the moment, that Mr. Lincoln, who was never an +obstinate man, and who in the matter of his Proclamation of +Emancipation had surrendered his own judgment under the pressure +of public opinion, would not have been likely to wrestle with +Congress and the country in a mad struggle for his own way. + +On the following day, in pursuance of a previous engagement, the +Committee on the Conduct of the War met the President at his quarters +in the Treasury Department. He received us with decided cordiality, +and Mr. Wade said to him: "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the +gods, there will be no trouble now in running the government!" +The President thanked him, and went on to define his well-remembered +policy at that time. "I hold," said he, "that robbery is a crime; +rape is a crime; murder is a crime; _treason_ is a crime, and +_crime_ must be punished. Treason must be made infamous, and +traitors must be impoverished." We were all cheered and encouraged +by this brave talk, and while we were rejoiced that the leading +conservatives of the country were not at Washington, we felt that +the presence and influence of the committee, of which Johnson had +been a member, would aid the Administration in getting on the right +track. We met him again the next day and found the symptoms of a +vigorous policy still favorable, and although I had some misgivings, +the general feeling was one of unbounded confidence in his sincerity +and firmness, and that he would act upon the advice of General +Butler by inaugurating a policy of his own, instead of administering +on the political estate of his predecessor. + +In the meantime the prevailing excitement was greatly aggravated +by the news of the capitulation between General Sherman and General +Johnston on the 16th of April. Its practical surrender of all the +fruits of the national triumph so soon after the murder of the +President, produced an effect on the public mind which can not be +described. General Sherman had heard of the assassination when +the capitulation was made, and could not have been ignorant of the +feeling it had aroused. On the face of the proceeding his action +seemed a wanton betrayal of the country to its enemies; but when +this betrayal followed so swiftly the frightful tragedy which was +then believed to have been instigated by the Confederate authorities, +the patience of the people became perfectly exhausted. For the +time being, all the glory of his great achievements in the war +seemed to be forgotten in the anathemas which were showered upon +him from every quarter of the land; but the prompt repudiation of +his stipulations by the Administration soon assuaged the popular +discontent, while it provoked an estrangement between Secretary +Stanton and himself which was never healed. + +The outpouring of the people at Mr. Lincoln's funeral was wholly +unprecedented, and every possible arrangement was made by which +they could manifest their grief for their murdered President; but +their solicitude for the state of the country was too profound to +be intermitted. What policy was now to be pursued? Mr. Lincoln's +last utterances had been far from assuring or satisfactory. The +question of reconstruction had found no logical solution, and all +was confusion respecting it. The question of negro suffrage was +slowly coming to the front, and could not be much longer evaded. +The adequate punishment of the rebel leaders was the demand of the +hour. What would the new President do? He had suddenly become +the central figure of American politics, and both radicals and +conservatives were as curious to know what line of policy he would +follow as they were anxious to point his way. His demeanor, at +first, seemed modest and commendable, but his egotism soon began +to assert itself, while his passion for stump-speaking was pampered +by the delegations which began to pour into the city from various +States and flatter him by formal addresses, to which he replied at +length. This business was kept up till the people became weary of +the din and clatter of words, and impatient for action. + + +CHAPTER XII. +RECONSTRUCTION AND SUFFRAGE--THE LAND QUESTION. +Visit of Indianans to the President--Gov. Morton and reconstruction +--Report of Committee on the Conduct of the War--Discussion of +negro suffrage and incidents--Personal matters--Suffrage in the +District of Columbia--The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment-- +Breach between the President and Congress--Blaine and Conkling-- +Land bounties and the Homestead Law. + +On the twenty-first of April I joined a large crowd of Indianans +in one of the calls on the President referred to at the close of +the last chapter. Gov. Morton headed the movement, which I now +found had a decidedly political significance. He read a lengthy +and labored address on "The Whole Duty of Man" respecting the +question of Reconstruction. He told the President that a State +could "neither secede nor by any possible means be taken out of +the Union"; and he supported and illustrated this proposition by +some very remarkable statements. He elaborated the proposition +that the loyal people of a State have the right to govern it; but +he did not explain what would become of the State if the people +were all disloyal, or the loyal so few as to be utterly helpless. +The lawful governments of the South were overthrown by treason; +and the Governor declared there was "no power in the Federal +Government to punish the people of a State collectively, by reducing +it to a territorial condition, since the crime of treason is +individual, and can only be treated individually." According to +this doctrine a rebellious State become independent. If the people +could rightfully be overpowered by the national authority, that +very fact would at once re-clothe them in all their rights, just +as if they had never rebelled. In framing their new governments +Congress would have no right to prescribe any conditions, or to +govern them in any way pending the work of State reconstruction, +since this would be to recognize the States as Territories, and +violate the principle of State rights. The Governor's theory of +reconstruction, in fact, made our war for the Union flagrantly +unconstitutional. The crime of treason being "individual," and +only to "be treated individually," we had no right to hold prisoners +of war, seize property, and capture and confiscate vessels, without +a regular indictment and trial; and this being so, every Rebel in +arms was in the full legal possession of his political rights, and +no power could prevent him from exercising them except through +judicial conviction of treason in the district in which the overt +act was committed. Singularly enough, he seemed entirely unaware +of the well-settled principle which made our war for the Union a +territorial conflict, like that of a war with Mexico or England; +that the Rebels, while still liable to be hung or otherwise dealt +with for treason, had taken upon themselves the further character +of public enemies; and that being now conquered they were conquered +enemies, having simply the rights of a conquered people. The +Governor further informed the President that if the revolted +districts should be dealt with as mere Territories, or conquered +provinces, the nation would be obliged to pay the debts contracted +by them prior to the war. These remarkable utterances, which he +repudiated in less than a year afterward, were emphatically endorsed +by the President, who entered upon the same theme at a dismal +length, freely indulging in his habit of bad English and incoherence +of thought. I was disgusted, and sorry that the confidence of so +many of my radical friends had been entirely misplaced. + +During the latter part of April and early part of May the Committee +on the Conduct of the War completed its final report, making eight +considerable volumes, and containing valuable material for any +trustworthy history of the great conflict. Its opinions were +sometimes colored by the passions of the hour, and this was especially +true in the case of General McClellan; but subsequent events have +justified its conclusions generally as to nearly every officer and +occurrence investigated, while its usefulness in exposing military +blunders and incompetence, and in finally inaugurating the vigorous +war policy which saved the country, will scarcely be questioned by +any man sufficiently well-informed and fair-minded to give an +opinion. + +On the 12th of May, a caucus of Republicans was held at the National +Hotel to consider the necessity of taking decisive measures for +saving the new Administration from the conservative control which +then threatened it. Senators Wade and Sumner both insisted that +the President was in no danger, and declared, furthermore, that he +was in favor of negro suffrage; and no action was taken because of +the general confidence in him which I was surprised to find still +prevailed. In the meantime, pending the general drift of events, +the suffrage question was constantly gaining in significance, and +demanding a settlement. It was neither morally nor logically +possible to escape it; and on my return to my constituents I prepared +for a thorough canvass of my district. The Republicans were +everywhere divided on the question, while the current of opinion +was strongly against the introduction of the issue as premature. +The politicians all opposed it on the plea that it would divide +the Republicans and restore the Democrats to power, and that we +must wait for the growth of a public opinion that would justify +its agitation. Governor Morton opposed the policy with inexpressible +bitterness, declaring, with an oath, that "negro suffrage must be +put down," while every possible effort was made to array the soldiers +against it. His hostility to the suffrage wing of his party seemed +to be quite as relentless as to the Rebels, while the great body +of the Republicans of the district deferred strongly to his views. +In the beginning of the canvass I even found a considerable portion +of my old anti-slavery friends unprepared to follow me; but feeling +perfectly sure I was right, and that I could revolutionize the +general opinion, I entered upon the work, and prosecuted it with +all my might for nearly four months. My task was an arduous one, +but I found the people steadily yielding up their prejudices, and +ready to lay hold of the truth when fairly and dispassionately +presented, while the soldiers were among the first to accept my +teachings. The tide was at length so evidently turning in my favor +that on the 28th of September Governor Morton was induced to make +his elaborate speech at Richmond, denouncing the whole theory of +Republican reconstruction as subsequently carried out, and opposing +the policy of negro suffrage by arguments which he seemed to regard +as overwhelming. He made a dismal picture of the ignorance and +degradation of the plantation negroes of the South, and scouted +the policy of arming them with political power. But their fitness +for the ballot was a subordinate question. A great national +emergency pleaded for their right to it on other and far more +imperative grounds. The question involved the welfare of both +races, and the issues of the war. It involved not merely the fate +of the negro, but the safety of society. It was, moreover, a +question of national honor and gratitude, from which no escape was +morally possible. To leave the ballot in the hands of the ex- +rebels, and withhold it from these helpless millions, would be to +turn them over to the unhindered tyranny and misrule of their +enemies, who were then smarting under the humiliation of their +failure, and making the condition of the freedmen more intolerable +than slavery itself, through local laws and police regulations. + +The Governor referred to the Constitution and laws of Indiana, +denying the ballot to her intelligent negroes, and subjecting +colored men to prosecution and fine for coming into the State; and +asked with what face her people could insist upon conferring the +suffrage upon the negroes of the Southern States? But this was an +evasion of the question. The people of Indiana had no right to +take advantage of their own wrong, or to sacrifice the welfare of +four million blacks on the altar of Northern consistency. He should +have preached the duty of practical repentance in Indiana, instead +of making the sins of her people an excuse for a far greater +inhumanity to the negroes of the South. + +He urged that the policy of negro suffrage would give the lie to +all the arguments that had ever been employed against slavery as +degrading and brutalizing to its victims. He said it was "to pay +the highest compliment to the institution of slavery," and "stultify +ourselves." But this was belittling a great national question, by +the side of which all considerations of party consistency were +utterly trivial and contemptible. The ballot for the negro was a +logical necessity, and it was a matter of the least possible +consequence whether the granting of it would "stultify ourselves" +or not. + +He insisted that the true policy was to give the Southern negroes +a probation of fifteen or twenty years to prepare for the ballot. +He would give them "time to acquire a little property; time to get +a little education; time to learn something about the simplest +forms of business, and to prepare themselves for the exercise of +political power." But he did not explain how all this was to be +done, under the circumstances of their condition. He declared that +not one of them in five hundred could read, or was worth five +dollars in property of any kind, owning nothing but their bodies, +and living on the plantations of white men upon whom they were +dependent for employment and subsistence. How could such men +acquire "education," and "property," under the absolute sway of a +people who regarded them with loathing and contempt? Who would +grant them this "probation," and help them turn it to good account? +Was some miracle to be wrought through which the slave-masters were +to be transfigured into negro apostles and devotees? Besides, +under Governor Morton's theory of reconstruction and State rights, +neither Congress nor the people of the loyal States had anything +to do with the question. It was no more their concern in South +Carolina than in Massachusetts. His suggestion of a probation for +Southern negroes was therefore an impertinence. If not, why did +he not recommend a "probation" for the hordes of "white trash" that +were as unfit for political power as the negroes? + +He was very earnest and eloquent in his condemnation of Mr. Sumner +for proposing to give the ballot to the negroes and disfranchise +the white Rebels, but his moral vision failed to discern anything +amiss in his own ghastly policy of arming the white Rebels with +the ballot and denying it to the loyal negroes. + +He argued that the right to vote carried with it the right to hold +office, and that negro suffrage would lead to the election of negro +Governors, negro judges, negro members of Congress, a negro balance +of power in our politics, and a war of races. He seemed to have +no faith at all in the beneficent measures designed to guard the +black race from outrage and wrong, while full of apprehension that +the heavens would fall if such measures were adopted. + +This speech was published in a large pamphlet edition and extensively +scattered throughout the country; but it proved a help rather than +a hindrance to my enterprise. I replied to it in several incisive +newspaper articles, and made its arguments a text for a still more +thorough discussion of the issue on the stump, and at the close of +my canvass the Republicans of the district were as nearly a unit +in my favor as a party can be made respecting any controverted +doctrine. + +I now extended my labors briefly outside of my district, and by +special invitation from citizens of Indianapolis and members of +the Legislature, then in session, I spoke in that city on the 17th +of November. Every possible effort was made by the Johnsonized +Republicans to prevent me from having an audience, but they failed +utterly; and I analyzed the positions of Governor Morton in a speech +of two hours, which was reported for the "Cincinnati Gazette" and +subsequently published in a large pamphlet edition. The political +rage and exasperation which now prevailed in the ranks of the Anti- +Suffrage faction can be more readily imagined than described. +Their organ, the "Indianapolis Journal," poured out upon me an +incredible deliverance of vituperation and venom for scattering my +heresies outside of my Congressional district, declaring that I +had "the temper of a hedgehog, the adhesiveness of a barnacle, the +vanity of a peacock, the vindictiveness of a Corsican, the hypocrisy +of Aminadab Sleek and the duplicity of the devil." I rather enjoyed +these paroxysms of malignity, which broke out all over the State +among the Governor's conservative satellites, since my only offense +was fidelity to my political opinions, the soundness of which I +was finding fully justified by events; for the friends of the +Governor, in a few short months, gathered together and cremated +all the copies of his famous speech which could be found. But the +disowned document was printed as a campaign tract by the Democrats +for a dozen successive years afterward, and circulated largely in +several of the Northern States, while the Governor himself, by a +sudden and splendid somersault, became the champion and exemplar +of the very heresies which had so furiously kindled his ire against +me. These performances are sufficiently remarkable to deserve +notice. They did much to make Indiana politics spicy and picturesque, +and showed how earnestly the radical and conservative wings of the +Republican party could wage war against the common enemy without +in the least impairing their ability or disposition to fight each +other. + +I have referred to these facts because they form a necessary part +of the story I am telling. The question of Negro Suffrage was a +very grave one, and the circumstances connected with its introduction +as a political issue are worthy of record; while Governor Morton +was a sort of phenomenal figure in American politics during the +war period, and played a very remarkable part in the affairs of +Indiana. It has aptly been said of him, and not by an enemy, that +his inconsistencies, in a study of his character, form the most +charming part of it, and that no man in public life ever brought +such magnificent resources to the support of both sides of a +question. His force of will was as matchless as his ambition for +power was boundless and unappeasable. He was made for revolutionary +times, and his singular energy of character was pre-eminently +destructive; but it can not be denied that his services to the +country in this crisis were great. Mr. Von Holst, in his +"Constitutional and Political History of the United States," has +a chapter on "The Reign of Andrew Jackson." When the history of +Indiana shall be written, it might fitly contain a chapter on "The +Reign of Oliver P. Morton." He made himself not merely the master +of the Democratic party of the State, and of its Rebel element, +but of his own party as well. His will, to a surprising extent, +had the force of law in matters of both civil and military +administration. His vigor in action and great personal magnetism +so rallied the people to his support, that with the rarest exceptions +the prominent leaders of his party quietly succumbed to his ambition, +and recoiled from the thought of confronting him, even where they +believed him in the wrong. + +His hostility to me began with my election to Congress in 1849, in +which, as a Free Soiler, I had the united support of the Democratic +party of my district, of which he was then a member. I never +obtained his forgiveness for my success in that contest, and his +unfriendliness was afterward aggravated by his failure as a Republican +leader to supplant me in the district, and it continued to the end. +I knew him from his boyhood. We resided in the same village nearly +twenty years, and began our acquaintance as members of the same +debating club. For years we were intimate and attached friends, +and I believe no man was before me in appreciating his talents and +predicting for him a career of political distinction and usefulness. +During the war, earnest efforts were made by his friends and mine +looking to a reconciliation, and the restoration of that harmony +in the party which good men on both sides greatly coveted; but all +such efforts necessarily failed. If I had been willing to subordinate +my political convictions and sense of duty to his ambition, peace +could at once have been restored; but as this was impossible, I +was obliged to accept the warfare which continued and increased, +and which I always regretted and deplored. I only make these +statements in justice to the truth. + +The bill providing for negro suffrage in the District of Columbia +was among the first important measures of the Thirty-ninth Congress. +The debate upon it in January, 1866, was singularly able and +thorough, and gave strong evidence of political progress. All +efforts to postpone the measure, or make the suffrage restrictive, +were voted down, and on the announcement of its passage the cheering +was tremendous. Beginning on the floor, it was quickly caught up +by the galleries, and the scene resembled that which followed the +passage of the Constitutional Amendment already referred to. The +majority was over two to one, thus clearly foreshadowing the +enfranchisement of the negro in the insurrectionary districts. I +believe only two of my colleagues voted with me for its passage. + +The question of reconstruction was brought directly before Congress +by the report of the joint select committee on that subject, +submitting the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment. The second +section of the Amendment was a measure of compromise, and attempted +to unite the radical and conservative wings of the party by +restricting the right of representation in the South to the basis +of suffrage, instead of extending that basis in conformity to the +right of representation. It was a proposition to the Rebels that +if they would agree that the negroes should not be counted in the +basis of representation, we would hand them over, unconditionally, +to the tender mercies of their old masters. It sanctioned the +barbarism of the Rebel State Governments in denying the right of +representation to their freedmen, simply because of their race and +color, and thus struck at the very principle of Democracy. It was +a scheme of cold-blooded treachery and ingratitude to a people who +had contributed nearly two hundred thousand soldiers to the armies +of the Union, and among whom no traitor had ever been found; and +it was urged as a means of securing equality of white representation +in the Government when that object could have been perfectly attained +by a constitutional amendment arming the negroes of the South with +the ballot, instead of leaving them in the absolute power of their +enemies. Of course, no man could afford to vote against the +proposition to cut down rebel representation to the basis of +suffrage; but to recognize the authority of these States to make +political outlaws of their colored citizens and incorporate this +principle into the Constitution of the United States, was a wanton +betrayal of justice and humanity. Congress, however, was unprepared +for more thorough work. The conservative party which had so long +sought to spare slavery was obliged, as usual, to feel its way +cautiously, and wait on the logic of events; while the negro, as +I shall show, was finally indebted for his franchise to the desperate +madness of his enemies in rejecting the dishonorable proposition +of his friends. + +As the question of reconstruction became more and more engrossing, +the signs of a breach between the President and Congress revealed +themselves. He had disappointed the hopes of his radical friends, +and begun to show his partiality for conservative and Democratic +ideas. His estrangement from his party probably had its genesis +in the unfortunate exhibition of himself at the inauguration of +Mr. Lincoln, and the condemnation of it by leading Republicans, +which he could not forget. Instead of keeping his promise to be +the "Moses" of the colored people he turned his back upon them in +a very offensive public speech. His veto of the Freedmen's Bureau +bill finally stripped him of all disguises, and placed him squarely +against Congress and the people, while the House met his defiance +by a concurrent resolution emphatically condemning his reconstruction +policy, and thus opening the way for the coming struggle between +Executive usurpation and the power of Congress. His maudlin speech +on the 22d of February to the political mob which called on him, +branding as traitors the leaders of the party which had elected +him, completely dishonored him in the opinion of all Republicans, +and awakened general alarm. Everybody could now see the mistake +of his nomination at Baltimore, and that he was simply a narrow- +minded dogmatist and a bull-dog in disposition, who would do +anything in his power to thwart the wishes of his former friends. + +During the month of March of this year, at the request of intelligent +working men in the employ of the Government, I introduced a bill +making eight hours a day's work in the navy yards of the United +States. This was the beginning of the eight hour agitation in +Congress. I had not given much thought to the necessity for such +legislation in this country, but the proposed measure seemed to me +an augury of good to the working classes, as the Ten Hour movement +had proved itself to be twenty years before. It could plead the +time laws of England as a precedent, enacted to protect humanity +against the "Lords of the Loom." These laws recognized labor as +capital endowed with human needs, and entitled to the special +guardianship of the State, and not as merchandise merely, to be +governed solely by the law of supply and demand. While I was a +believer in Free Trade, I was not willing to follow its logic in +all cases of conflict between capital and labor. My warfare against +chattel slavery and the monopoly of the soil had assumed the duty +of the Government to secure fair play and equal opportunities to +the laboring masses, and I was willing to embody that idea in a +specific legislative proposition, and thus invite its discussion +and the settlement of it upon its merits. + +In April of this year a notable passage at arms occurred in the +House between Mr. Conkling and Mr. Blaine, which has been made +historic by the subsequent career of these great Republican chiefs. +The altercation between them was protracted and very personal, and +grew out of the official conduct of Provost Marshal General Fry. +The animosity engendered between these rivals at this early day +seems never to have been intermitted, and it can best be appreciated +by referring to the closing passages of their remarkable war of +words on the 30th of this month. Mr. Conkling's language was very +contemptuous, and in concluding he said: + +"If the member from Maine had the least idea of how profoundly +indifferent I am to his opinion upon the subject which he has been +discussing, or upon any other subject personal to me, I think he +would hardly take the trouble to rise here and express his opinion. +And as it is a matter of entire indifference to me what that opinion +may be, I certainly will not detain the House by discussing the question +whether it is well or ill-founded, or by noticing what he says. +I submit the whole matter to the members of the House, making, as +I do, an apology (for I feel that it is due to the House) for the +length of time which I have been occupied in consequence of being +drawn into explanations, originally by an interruption which I +pronounced the other day ungentlemanly and impertinent, and having +nothing whatever to do with the question." + +Mr. Blaine, in reply, referred to Mr. Conkling's "grandiloquent +swell" and his "turkey gobbler strut," and concluded: + +"I know that within the last five weeks, as members of the House +will recollect, an extra strut has characterized the gentleman's +bearing. It is not his fault. It is the fault of another. That +gifted and satirical writer, Theodore Tilton, of the 'New York +Independent,' spent some weeks recently in this city. His letters +published in that paper, embraced, with many serious statements, +a little jocose satire, a part of which was the statement that the +mantle of the late Winter Davis had fallen upon the member from +New York. The gentleman took it seriously, and it has given his +strut additional pomposity. The resemblance is great. It is +striking. Hyperion to a satyr, Thersites to Hercules, mud to +marble, dung-hill to diamond, a singed cat to a Bengal tiger, a +whining puppy to a roaring lion. Shade of the mighty Davis, forgive +the almost profanation of that jocose satire!" + +This uncomely sparring match seemed to have no significance at the +time beyond the amusement it afforded and the personal discredit +it attached to the combatants; but in its later consequences it +has not only seriously involved the political fortunes of both +these ambitious men, but rent the Republican party itself into +warring factions. Still more, it has connected itself in the same +way, and not very remotely, with the nomination of General Garfield +in 1880, and his subsequent assassination. Such are the strange +political revenges of a personal quarrel. + +During this session of Congress the policy of Military Land Bounties +was very earnestly agitated, and threatened the most alarming +consequences. Probably no great question has been so imperfectly +understood by our public men as the land question, and the truth +of this is attested by the multiplied schemes of pillage and plunder +to which the public domain has been exposed within the past thirty +or forty years. Among these the project of Land Bounties to soldiers +has been conspicuous. Of the millions of acres disposed of by the +Government through assignable land-warrants in the pretended interest +of the soldiers of the Mexican War a very small fraction was +appropriated to their use. The great body of the land fell into +the hands of monopolists, who thus hindered the settlement and +productive wealth of the country, while the sum received by the +soldier for his warrant was in very many cases a mere mockery of +his just claims, and in no instance an adequate bounty. The policy, +however, had become traditional, and now, at the close of the +grandest of all our wars, it was quite natural for the country's +defenders to claim its supposed benefits. Congress was flooded +with their petitions, and it required uncommon political courage +to oppose their wishes. It was very plausibly urged that the +Nation, with its heavy load of debt, could not pay a bounty in +money, and that it should be done by drawing liberally upon the +thousand million acres of the public domain. Some of the advocates +of this policy openly favored the repeal of the Homestead law for +this purpose, just as Thurlow Weed, earlier in the war, had demanded +its repeal so that our public lands could be mortgaged to European +capitalists in security for the money we needed to carry on the +struggle. The situation became critical. Everybody was eager to +reward the soldier, and especially the politicians; and there seemed +to be no other way to do it than by bounties in land, for which +all our previous wars furnished precedents. The House Committee +on Public Lands considered the question with great care and anxiety, +and in the hope of check-mating that project made a report in +response to one of the many petitions for land bounty which had +been referred to it, embodying some very significant facts. It +showed that more than two millions and a quarter of soldiers would +be entitled to a bounty in land, and that it would require more +than one third of the public domain remaining undisposed of, and +cover nearly all of it that was really fit for agriculture; that +the warrants would undoubtedly be made assignable, as in the case +of previous bounties, and that land speculation would thus find +its new birth and have free course in its dreadful ravages; and +that it would prove the practical overthrow of the policy of our +pre-emption and homestead laws and turn back the current of American +civilization and progress. The report further insisted that the +Nation could not honorably plead poverty in bar of the great debt +it owed its defenders, and it was accompanied by a bill providing +a bounty in money at the rate of eight and one third dollars per +month for the time of their service, which was drawn after conferring +with intelligent men among them who fully appreciated the facts +and arguments of the committee. This report and its accompanying +bill had an almost magical effect. They not only perfectly satisfied +the soldiers everywhere, but revolutionized the opinion of both +Houses of Congress, and thus saved the public domain from the +wholesale spoilation that had threatened it. The bill was referred +to the Military Committee, and afterward became well known by its +title of "General Schenck's bill." It passed the House, but failed +in the Senate. It passed the House repeatedly at different session +of Congress afterward, although it never became a law; but it was +the timely and fortunate instrument through which the public domain +was saved from the wreck which menaced it in the hasty adoption of +a scheme which would have proved as worthless to our soldiers as +disastrous to the country. + + +CHAPTER XIII. +MINERAL LANDS AND THE RIGHT OF PRE-EMPTION. +The lead and copper lands of the Northwest--The gold-bearing regions +of the Pacific, and their disposition--A legislative reminiscence +--Mining Act of 1866, and how it was passed--Its deplorable failure, +and its lesson--Report of the Land Commission--The Right of Pre- +emption, and the "Dred Scott decision" of the settlers. + +The action of the Government in dealing with the mineral lands of +the United States forms one of the most curious chapters in the +history of legislation. It had its beginning in the famous +Congressional Ordinance of May 20, 1785, which reserved one third +part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines to be sold or +otherwise disposed of as Congress might direct. From this time +till the discovery of gold in California in 1848, the legislation +of Congress respecting mineral lands related exclusively to those +containing the base or merely useful metals, and applied only to +the regions now embraced by the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, +Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. The policy of reserving mineral lands +from sale was obviously of feudal origin, and naturally led to the +leasing of such lands by the Government, which was inaugurated by +the Act of Congress of March 3, 1807. The Act of Congress of March +3, 1829, provided for the sale of the reserved lead mines and +contiguous lands in Missouri, on six months' notice, but mineral +lands elsewhere remained reserved, and continued to be leased by +the Government. This policy was thoroughly and perseveringly tried, +and proved utterly unprofitable and ruinous. President Polk, in +his message of December 2, 1845, declared that the income derived +from the leasing system for the years 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1844 +was less than one fourth of its expense, and he recommended its +abolition, and that these lands be brought into market. The leasing +policy drew into the mining regions a population of vagrants, idlers +and gamblers, who resisted the payment of tax on the product of +the mines, and defied the agents of the Government. It excluded +sober and intelligent citizens, and hindered the establishment of +organized communities and the development of the mines. The miners +were violently opposed to the policy of sale, but the evils incident +to the leasing policy became so intolerable that the Government +was at length obliged to provide for the sale of the lands in fee, +which it did by Acts of Congress of July 11, 1846, and March 1 and +3, 1847. The tracts occupied and worked by the miners under their +leases possessed every variety of shape and boundary, but there +were no difficulties which were not readily adjusted under the +rectangular system of surveys and the regulations of the Land +Department. A new class of men at once took possession of these +regions as owners of the soil, brought their families with them, +laid the foundations of social order, expelled the semi-barbarians +who had secured a temporary occupancy, and thus, at once promoted +their own welfare, the prosperity of the country, and the financial +interests of the Government. Under this reformed policy the lead +and copper lands of the regions named were disposed of in fee. + +But the gold-bearing regions covered by our Mexican acquisitions +created a new dispensation in mining, and invited the attention of +Congress to the consideration of a new and exceedingly important +question. How should these mineral lands be disposed of? They +covered an area of a million square miles, and their exploration +and development became a matter of the most vital moment, not only +in a financial point of view, but as a means of promoting the +settlement and tillage of the agricultural lands contiguous to the +mineral deposits. President Fillmore, in his message of December +2, 1849, recommended the sale of these lands in small parcels, and +Mr. Ewing, his Secretary of the Interior, urged upon Congress the +consideration of the subject, and recommended the policy of leasing +them; but no attention seems to have been given to these recommendations. +By Act of Congress of September 27, 1850, mineral lands in Oregon +were reserved from sale; and by Acts of March 3, 1853, and of July +22, 1854, they were reserved in California and New Mexico. This +was the extent of Congressional action. Early in the late war, +the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Caleb B. Smith, referred to +the question, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office +afterward repeatedly recommended the policy of leasing, but Congress +took no notice of the subject. My interest in the question was +first awakened in the fall of 1864, in carefully overhauling our +land policy. Our mineral lands for more than sixteen years had +been open to all comers from whatever quarter of the globe, during +which time more than a thousand million dollars had been extracted, +from which not a dollar of revenue reached the National Treasury +save the comparatively trifling amount derived from the Internal +Revenue tax on bullion. This fact was so remarkable that it was +difficult to accept it as true. The Government had no policy +whatever in dealing with these immense repositories of national +wealth, and declined to have any; for a policy implies that something +is to be done, and points out the method of doing it. It had +prohibited the sale of mineral lands, and then come to a dead halt. +The Constitution expressly provides that Congress shall have power +"to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory +or other property belonging to the United States"; but Congress, +in reserving these lands from sale and taking no measures whatever +respecting their products, simply abandoned them, and, as the +trustee of the Nation, became as recreant as the father who abandons +his minor child. + +The case was a very curious one, and the more I considered it, the +more astonished I became at the strange indifference of the +Government, and that no public man of any party had ever given the +subject the slightest attention. The Nation had been selling its +lands containing iron, copper and lead, and the policy of vesting +an absolute fee in individual proprietors had been accepted on +actual trial, and after the leasing policy had signally failed, +and I could see nothing in the distinction between the useful and +precious metals which required a different policy for the latter. +Some policy was absolutely demanded. The country, loaded down by +a great and continually increasing war debt, could not afford to +turn away from so tempting a source of revenue. To sleep over its +grand opportunity was as stupid as it was criminal. It was obvious +that if the Government continued to reserve these lands from sale, +some form of tax or royalty on their products must be resorted to +as a measure of financial policy; but this would have involved the +same political anomaly as the policy of leasing, and the same +failure. In principle it was the same. To retain the fee of the +lands in the Government and impose a rent upon their occupiers, +would make the Government a great landlord, and the miners its +tenants. Such a policy would not be American, but European. It +would not be Democratic, but Feudal. It would be to follow the +Governments of the Old World, which reserve their mineral lands +for the Crown, because they are esteemed too precious for the +people. It was at war with our theory of Democracy, which has +respect chiefly to the individual, and seeks to strengthen the +Government by guarding his rights and promoting his well-being. +These considerations convinced me that the time had come to abandon +the non-action course of the Government, and adopt a policy in +harmony with our general legislation; and that the survey and sale +of these lands in fee was the best and only method of promoting +security of titles, permanent settlements, and thorough development. +As early as December, 1864, I therefore introduced a bill embodying +this policy, which was followed by a similar measure, early in the +Thirty-ninth Congress, accompanied by an elaborate report, arguing +the question pretty fully, and combating all the objections to the +principle and policy of sale. My views were commended by Secretary +McCullough, as they had been by Mr. Chase, while I was glad to find +them supported by intelligent men from California, who spoke from +actual observation and extensive experience in mining. + +But although this measure fully protected all miners in the right +of exploration and discovery, and carefully guarded against any +interference with vested rights, the idea was in some way rapidly +and extensively propagated that it contemplated a sweeping confiscation +of all their claims, and the less informed among them became wild +with excitement. The politicians of California and Nevada, instead +of endeavoring to enlighten them and quiet this excitement, yielded +to it absolutely. They became as completely its instruments as +they have since been of the Anti-Mongolian feeling. They argued, +at first, that no Congressional legislation was necessary, and that +while the Government should retain the fee of these lands, the +miners should have the entire control of them under regulations +prescribed by themselves. This, it was believed, would placate +the miners and settle the question; but the introduction of the +measure referred to, and the agitation of the question, had made +some form of legislation inevitable, and the question now was to +determine what that legislation should be. Senators Conness of +California, and Stewart of Nevada, who were exceedingly hostile to +the bill I had introduced, and feared its passage, sought to avert +it by carrying through the Senate "a bill to regulate the occupation +of mineral lands and to extend the right of pre-emption thereto," +which they hoped would satisfy their constituents and prevent +further legislation. They supported it as the next best thing to +total non-action by Congress. It provided for giving title to the +miners, but it did this by practically abdicating the jurisdiction +of the National Government over these lands, with its recognized +and well-settled machinery for determining all questions of title +and boundary, and handing them over to "the local custom or rules +of the miners." These "local rules" were to govern the miner in +the location, extension and boundary of his claim, the manner of +developing it, and the survey also, which was not to be executed +with any reference to base lines as in the case of other public +lands, but in utter disregard of the same. The Surveyor General +was to make a plat or diagram of the claim, and transmit it to the +Commissioner of the General Land Office, who, as the mere agent +and clerk of the miner, with no judicial authority whatever, was +required to issue the patent. In case of any conflict between +claimants it was to be determined by the "local courts," without +any right of appeal to the local land offices, the General Land +Office, or to the Federal courts. The Government was thus required +to part with its lands by proceedings executed by officials wholly +outside of its jurisdiction, and irresponsible to its authority. +The act not only abolished our rectangular system of surveys, but +still further insulted the principles of mathematics and the dictates +of common sense by providing that the claimant should have the +right to follow his vein or lode, "with its dips, angles and +variations to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, +which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition"; a +right unknown to the mining codes of England, France or Prussia, +and not sanctioned by those of Spain or Mexico. Subject to this +novel principle the crudely extemporized rules of the miners were +to be recognized as law, and this system of instability and +uncertainty made the basis of title and the arbiter of all disputes, +instead of sweeping it away and ushering in a system of permanence +and peace through the well-appointed agency of the Land Department. +It was easy to see that this was an act to encourage litigation +and for the benefit of lawyers, and not to promote the real interest +of the miners or increase the product of the mines. + +This was made perfectly clear at the time, by the report of a Senate +committee of the Legislature of Nevada. In speaking of the local +laws of the miners, it says, "There never was confusion worse +confounded. More than two hundred districts within the limit of +a single State, each with its self-approved code; these codes +differing not alone each from the other, but presenting numberless +instances of contradiction in themselves. The law of one point is +not the law of another five miles distant, and a little further on +will be a code which is the law of neither of the former, and so +on, _ad inifitum;_ with the further disturbing fact superadded, +that the written laws themselves may be overrun by some peculiar +custom which can be found nowhere recorded, and the proof of which +will vary with the volume of interested affidavits which may be +brought on either side to establish it. Again, in one district +the work to be done to hold a claim is nominal, in another exorbitant, +in another abolished, in another adjourned from year to year. A +stranger, seeking to ascertain the law, is surprised to learn that +there is no satisfactory public record to which he can refer; no +public officer to whom he may apply, who is under any bond or +obligation to furnish him information, or guarantee its authenticity. +Often, in the new districts, he finds there is not even the semblance +of a code, but a simple resolution adopting the code of some other +district, which may be a hundred miles distant. What guarantee +has he for the investment of either capital or labor under such a +system?" The report proceeds to show that these regulations can +have no permanency. "A miners' meeting," it declares, "adopts a +code; it stands apparently as the law. Some time after, on a few +days' notice, a corporal's guard assembles, and, on simple motion, +radically changes the whole system by which claims may be held in +a district. Before a man may traverse the State, the laws of a +district, which by examination and study he may have mastered, may +be swept away, and no longer stand as the laws which govern the +interest he may have acquired; and the change has been one which +by no reasonable diligence could he be expected to have knowledge +of." Of course these facts thus officially stated in the interest +of the miners of Nevada, were applicable to California, and all +the mining States and Territories, and they fitly and very forcibly +rebuked the attempt to enact the Senate bill. + +When this bill reached the House it was properly referred to the +Committee on Public Lands, which then had under consideration the +bill I had reported providing for the survey and sale of mineral +lands through the regular machinery of the Land Department. The +House Committee subsequently reported it favorably, and could not +be persuaded by the delegations from California and Nevada to adopt +the Senate bill as a substitute. Senators Stewart and Conness, +finding their project thus baffled, and becoming impatient of delay +as the session neared its close, called up a House bill entitled +"An Act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over +the Public Lands in the States of California, Oregon and Nevada," +and succeeded, by sharp practice, in carrying a motion to strike +out the whole of the bill except the enacting clause, and insert +the bill which the Senate had already enacted and was then before +the House Committee. This maneuver succeeded, and the bill, thus +enacted by the Senate a second time, and now under a false title, +was sent to the House, where it found its place on the Speaker's +table, and was lying in wait for the sudden and unlooked-for movement +which was to follow. The title was misleading, and thus enabled +Mr. Ashley of Nevada, to obtain the floor when it was reached, and +under the gag, which of course would cut off all amendment and +debate, he attempted to force through a measure revolutionizing +the whole land policy of the Government so far as relates to the +Western side of the continent, and surrendering the national +authority over its vast magazines of mineral wealth to the legalized +jargon and bewilderment I have depicted. I succeeded in preventing +a vote by carrying an adjournment, but the question came up the +next day, and the Senators referred to, with their allies in the +House, had used such marvelous industry in organizing and drilling +their forces, and the majority of the members knew so little about +the question involved, that I found the chances decidedly against +me. I was obliged, also, to encounter a prevailing but perfectly +unwarranted presumption that the representatives of the mining +States were the best judges of the question in dispute, while it +was foolishly regarded as a local one, with which the old States +had no concern. The clumsy and next to incomprehensible bill thus +became a law, and by legislative methods as indefensible as the +measure itself. + +Such is the history of this remarkable experiment in legislation; +but it is an experiment no longer. Its character has been perfectly +established by time, and the logic of actual facts. It has been +extensively and thoroughly tried, and after repeated attempts to +amend it by supplementary legislation, its failure stands recorded +in the manifold evils it has wrought. The Land Commission, appointed +under the administration of President Hayes in pursuance of an Act +of Congress to classify the Public Lands and codify the laws relating +to their disposition, visited the mining States and Territories in +detail, and devoted ample time to the examination of witnesses and +experts in every important locality touching the policy and practical +operation of the laws in force relating to mineral lands. This +Commission condemned these laws on the strength of overwhelming +evidence, and recommended a thorough and radical reform, including +the reference of all disputed questions as to title and boundary +to the regular officials of the United States; the abolition of +the "local custom or rules of miners," with the "local courts" +provided for their adjudication; and the adoption of the United +States surveys as far as practicable, including the geodetical +principle of ownership in lieu of the policy of allowing the miner +to follow his vein, "with its dips, angles and variations under +the adjoining land of his neighbor," which policy is declared to +be the source of incalculable legislation. The Commission, in +short, urged the adoption of the principles of the Common Law and +the employment of the appropriate machinery of the Land Department, +as a substitute for the frontier regulations which Congress made +haste to nationalize in 1866. It declared that under these +regulations "title after title hangs on a local record which may +be defective, mutilated, stolen for blackmail, or destroyed to +accomplish fraud, and of which the grantor, the Government, has +neither knowledge nor control"; that in the evidence taken "it was +repeatedly shown that two or three prospectors, camped in the +wilderness, have organized a mining district, prescribed regulations +involving size of claims, mode of location and nature of record, +elected one of their number recorder, and that officer, on the back +of an envelope, or on the ace of spades grudgingly spared from his +pack, can make with the stump of a lead pencil an entry that the +Government recognizes as the inception of a title which may convey +millions of dollars; that even when the recorder is duly elected +he is not responsible to the United States, is neither bonded nor +under oath, may falsify or destroy his record, may vitiate the +title to millions of dollars, and snap his fingers in the face of +the Government; and that our present mining law might fitly be +entitled 'An Act to cause the Government to join, upon unknown +terms, with an unknown second party, to convey to a third party an +illusory title to an indefinite thing, and encourage the subsequent +robbery thereof.'" + +These strong statements are made by a Government commission composed +of able and impartial men, who were guided in their patient search +after the truth by the evidence of "a cloud of witnesses," who +spoke from personal knowledge and experience. The character of +our mining laws is therefore not a matter of theory, but of +demonstrated fact. They scourge the mining States and Territories +with the unspeakable curse of uncertainty of land titles, as +everywhere attested by incurable litigation and strife. They thus +undermine the morals of the people, and pave the way for violence +and crime. They cripple a great national industry and source of +wealth, and insult the principles of American jurisprudence. And +the misfortune of this legislation is heightened by the probability +of its continuance; for it is not easy to uproot a body of laws +once accepted by a people, however mischievous in their character. +Custom, and the faculty of adaptation, have a very reconciling +influence upon communities as well as individuals. Moreover, men +absorbed in a feverish and hazardous industry, and stimulated by +the hope of sudden wealth, are not disposed to consider the advantages +of permanent ownership and security of title. Their business is +to make their locations according to local custom, and sell out to +the capitalists; while the men who feel the burden of litigation +and the evil of uncertain titles, are not the men who control public +opinion and influence the course of legislation. It may thus happen +that a system of laws initiated by itinerant miners solely for the +protection of their transient posessory interests, and carried +through Congress at their behest by parliamentary roguery, may be +permanently engrafted upon half the continent. If California had +been contiguous to the older States, and her mining operations had +only kept pace with the progress of settlements, or if her +representatives had been less ready to sacrifice the enduring +interests of their constituents for temporary and selfish ends, +the wretched travesty of law which now afflicts the States and +Territories of the West would have been unknown, and the same code +and forms of administration would have prevailed from the lakes to +the Pacific. + +The lesson of this vital mistake is a pregnant one. The laws +regulating the ownership and disposition of landed property not +only affect the well-being but frequently the destiny of a people. +The system of primogeniture and entail adopted by the Southern +States of our Union favored the policy of great estates, and the +ruinous system of landlordism and slavery which finally laid waste +the fairest and most fertile section of the republic and threatened +its life; while the New England States, in adopting a different +system, laid the foundations of their prosperity in the soil itself, +and "took a bond of fate" for the welfare of unborn generations. +Their political institutions were the logical outcome of their laws +respecting landed property, which favored a great subdivision of +the land and great equality among the people, thus promoting +prosperous cultivation, compact communities, general education, a +healthy public opinion, democracy in managing the affairs of the +church, and that system of local self government which has since +prevailed over so many States. So intimate and vital are the +relations between a community and the soil it occupies that in the +nomenclature of politics the word "people" and "land" are convertible +terms; but no people can prosper under any system of land tenures +which tolerates a vexatious uncertainty of title, and thus prompts +every man to become the enemy of his neighbor in the scuffle for +his rights. Such a state of affairs is worse than pestilence or +famine; but the evil of uncertain titles puts on new and very +aggravated forms in our gold-bearing regions. The business of +mining naturally awakens the strongest passions. It sharpens the +faculties and dulls the conscience. It gives to cupidity its +keenest edge. Its prizes are often rich and suddenly gained, and +when they are sought through the forms of a law which compels a +man to choose between an expensive and hazardous litigation and +robbery, human nature is severely tried. No situation could well +be more deplorable than that which obliges a man to pay heavy black- +mail as the only means of saving his property from legal confiscation +by another; and the moral ravages of a code which allows this can +not be computed. It tempts civilized men to become savages and +savages to become devils. It is not a mistake merely, but a great +misfortune, that our laws touching so delicate and vital a question +as the ownership and transfer of mineral lands were not so framed +as to avert these frightful evils. As far as the past is concerned +they are without remedy, and there is no positive safeguard for +the future but in a return to the time-honored principles which +give to the owner of the surface all that may be found within his +lines, extended downward vertically, and refer all disputes to the +old-fashioned and familiar machinery of the General Land Office. +This system gave order and peace to the great lead and copper +regions of the Northwest, and it would bring with it the same +inestimable blessings to the harassed and sorely tried regions of +the Pacific slope. + +About the same time the action of Congress supplied another example +of hasty and slip-shod legislation, which has been perhaps equally +prolific of evil. The State of California, soon after her admission, +had assumed the right to dispose of the public lands within her +borders according to her own peculiar wishes, and in disregard of +the authority of the United States. This led to such serious +conflicts and complications, that a remedy was sought in a bill to +quiet land titles in that State. It was a very questionable measure, +inasmuch as the parties claiming title under the State could only +be relieved by recognizing her illegal acts as valid, and at the +expense of claimants under the laws of the United States. It +necessarily involved the right of pre-emption, and this was distinctly +presented in connection with what was known as the Suscol Ranch in +that State. It contained about ninety thousand acres, and was +covered by an old Spanish grant which the Supreme Court of the +United States in the year 1862 had pronounced void, soon after +which numerous settlers went upon the land as pre-emptors, as they +had a right to do. Their claims as such, being disputed by parties +asserting title under the void grant, the General Land Office, on +the reference of the question to that department, decided in favor +of the pre-emptors, upon which the opposing parties procured the +submission of the question to the Attorney-General. That officer +gave his opinion to the effect that a settler under the pre-emption +laws acquires no vested interest in the land he occupies by virtue +of his settlement, and can acquire no such interest, till he has +taken _all_ the legal steps necessary to perfect an entrance in +the Land Office, being, in the meantime, a mere tenant-at-will, +who may be ejected by the Government at any moment in favor of +another party. In pursuance of this opinion scores of _bona fide_ +settlers were driven from their pre-emptions, which the laws of +the United States had offered them, on certain prescribed conditions, +with which they were willing and anxious to comply, and their homes, +with the valuable improvements made upon them in good faith, were +handed over to speculators and monopolists. The proceeding was as +outrageous as the ruling which authorized it was surprising to the +whole country; and it naturally awakened uneasiness and alarm among +our pioneer settlers everywhere. It seemed to me very proper, +therefore, that in a bill to quiet land titles in California, these +troubles on this Ranch should be settled by a fitting amendment, +which should protect the rights of these pre-emptors against the +effect of the ruling referred to. The opinions of the Attorney- +General had completely overturned the whole policy of the Government +as popularly understood, and I simply proposed to restore it by a +proviso guarding the rights of _bona fide_ settlers who were claiming +title under the laws of the United States; but to my perfect +amazement I found the California delegation bitterly opposed to +this amendment. The reading of it threw them into a spasm of rage, +and showed that they were less anxious to quiet titles in their +State than to serve the monopolies and rings which had trampled on +the laws of the United States, and thus involved themselves in +trouble. The zeal and industry of the delegation in this opposition +could only be paralleled by their labors for the passage of their +mineral land bill; and the same appeals were made in both cases. +They said this was a "local measure," and that they understood the +interests of the Pacific coast better than men from the old States, +while they begged and button-holed members with a pertinacity very +rarely witnessed in any legislative body. They turned the business +of log-rolling to such account that the amendment was defeated by +a strong majority, while it proved the entering wedge to other and +greater outrages upon the rights of settlers which the country has +since witnessed, and was followed by a decision of the Supreme +Court of the United States, fully affirming the principle laid down +in the opinion of the Attorney General. This ruling, which has +been aptly styled "the Dred Scott decision of the American Pioneer," +has been repeatedly re-affirmed, while the claim of pre-emption, +once universally regarded as a substantial right, has faded away +into a glamour or myth. + + +CHAPTER XIV. +RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT. +Gov. Morton and his scheme of Gerrymandering--The XIV Amendment-- +Hasty reconstruction and the Territorial plan--The Military Bill-- +Impeachment--An amusing incident--Vote against impeachment--The +vote reversed--The popular feeling against the President--The trial +--Republican intolerance--Injustice to senators and to Chief Justice +Chase--Nomination of Gen. Grant--Re-nomination for Congress--Personal +--Squabble of place-hunters--XVI Amendment. + +The fall elections of this year were complicated by the hostile +influence of the Executive, but the popular current was strongly +on the side of Congress. A few prominent Republican members followed +the President, but the great body of them stood firm. In my own +Congressional district my majority was over 6,200, notwithstanding +the formidable conservative opposition in my own party, and its +extraordinary efforts to divide the Republicans through the patronage +of the Administration. Nearly all of my old opponents in the +district and State were now Johnsonized, except Gov. Morton, whose +temporary desertion the year before was atoned for by a prudent +and timely repentance. He was not, however, thoroughly reconstructed; +for in the Philadelphia Loyal Convention which met in September of +this year to consider the critical state of the country, he used +his influence with the delegates from the South to prevent their +espousal of Negro Suffrage, and begged Theodore Tilton to prevail +on Frederick Douglass to take the first train of cars for home, in +order to save the Republican party from detriment. He was still +under the shadow of his early Democratic training; and he and his +satellites, vividly remembering my campaign for Negro Suffrage the +year before, and finding me thoroughly intrenched in my Congressional +district, hit upon a new project for my political discomfiture. +This was the re-districting of the State at the ensuing session of +the Indiana Legislature, which they succeeded in accomplishing by +disguising their real purpose. There was neither reason nor excuse +for such a scheme at this time, apart from my political fortunes; +and by the most shameless Gerrymandering three counties of my +district, which gave me a majority of 5,000, were taken from me, +and four others added in which I was personally but little acquainted, +and which gave an aggregate Democratic majority of about 1,500. +This was preliminary to the next Congressional race, and the success +of the enterprise remained to be tested; but it furnished a curious +illustration of the state of Indiana Republicanism at that time. + +On the meeting of Congress in December the signs of political +progress since the adjournment were quite noticeable. The subject +of impeachment began to be talked about, and both houses seemed +ready for all necessary measures. Since mingling freely with their +constituents, very few Republican members insisted that the XIV +Constitutional Amendment should be accepted as a finality, or as +an adequate solution of the problem of reconstruction. The second +section of that amendment, proposing to abandon the colored race +in the South on condition that they should not be counted in the +basis of representation, was now generally condemned, and if the +question had been a new one it could not have been adopted. This +enlightenment of Northern representatives was largely due to the +prompt and contemptuous rejection by the rebellious States of the +XIV Amendment as a scheme of reconstruction, and their enactment +of black codes which made the condition of the freedmen more +deplorable than slavery itself. In this instance, as in that of +Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation, it was rebel desperation +which saved the negro; for if the XIV Amendment had been at first +accepted, the work of reconstruction would have ended without +conferring upon him the ballot. This will scarcely be denied by +any one, and has been frankly admitted by some of the most +distinguished leaders of the party. + +The policy of treating these States as Territories seemed now to +be rapidly gaining ground, and commended itself as the only logical +way out of the political dilemma in which the Government was placed. +But here again the old strife between radicalism and conservatism +cropped out. The former opposed all haste in the work of +reconstruction. It insisted that what the rebellious districts +needed was not an easy and speedy return to the places they had +lost by their treasonable conspiracy, but a probationary training, +looking to their restoration when they should prove their fitness +for civil government as independent States. It was insisted that +they were not prepared for this, and that with their large population +of ignorant negroes and equally ignorant whites, dominated by a +formidable oligarchy of educated land-owners who despised the power +that had conquered them, while they still had the sympathy of their +old allies in the North, the withdrawal of Federal intervention +and the unhindered operation of local supremacy would as fatally +hedge up the way of justice and equality as the rebel despotisms +then existing. The political and social forces of Southern society, +if unchecked from without, were sure to assert themselves, and the +more decided anti-slavery men in both houses of Congress so warned +the country, and foretold that no theories of Democracy could avail +unless adequately supported by a healthy and intelligent public +opinion. They saw that States must grow, and could not be suddenly +constructed where the materials were wanting, and that forms are +worthless in the hands of an ignorant mob. It was objected to the +territorial theory that it was arbitrary, and would lead to corruption +and tyranny like the pro-consular system of Rome; but it was simply +the territorial system to which we had been accustomed from the +beginning of the Government, and could not prove worse than the +hasty re-admission of ten conquered districts to the dignity of +States of the Union, involving, as it has done, the horrors of +carpet-bag government, Ku Klux outrages, and a system of pro-consular +tyranny as inconsistent with the rights of these States as it has +been disgraceful to the very idea of free government and fatal to +the best interests of the colored race. + +But the strange chaos of opinion which now prevailed was unfavorable +to sound thinking or wise acting. Great and far-reaching interests +were at stake, but they were made the sport of politicians, and +disposed of in the light of their supposed effect upon the ascendancy +of the Republican party. Statesmanship was sacrificed to party +management, and the final result was that the various territorial +bills which had been introduced in both Houses, and the somewhat +incongruous bills of Stevens and Ashley, were all superseded by +the passage of the "Military bill," which was vetoed by the President, +but re-enacted in the face of his objections. This bill was utterly +indefensible on principle. It was completely at war with the genius +and spirit of democratic government. Instead of furnishing the +Rebel districts with civil governments, and providing for a military +force adequate to sustain them, it abolished civil government +entirely, and installed the army in its place. It was a confession +of Congressional incompetence to deal with a problem which Congress +alone had the right to solve. Its provisions perfectly exposed it +to all the objections which could be urged to the plan of territorial +reconstruction, while they inaugurated a centralized military +despotism in the place of that system of well-understood local self- +government which the territorial policy offered as a preparation +for restoration. The measure was analyzed and exposed with great +ability by Henry J. Raymond, whose arguments were unanswered and +unanswerable; but nothing could stay the prevailing impatience of +Congress for speedy legislation looking to the early return of the +rebel districts to their places in the Union. The bill was a +legislative solecism. It did not abrogate the existing Rebel State +governments. It left the ballot in the hands of white Rebels, and +did not confer it upon the black loyalists. It sought to conciliate +the power it was endeavoring to coerce. It provided for negro +suffrage as one of the fundamental conditions on which the rebellious +States should be restored to their places in the Union, but left +the negro to the mercy of their black codes, pending the decision +of the question of their acceptance of the proposed conditions of +restoration. The freedmen were completely in the power of their +old masters, so long as the latter might refuse the terms of +reconstruction that were offered; and they had the option to refuse +them entirely, if they saw fit to prefer their own mad ascendancy +and its train of disorders to compulsory restoration. This perfectly +inexcusable abandonment of negro suffrage was zealously defended +by a small body of conservative Republicans who were still lingering +in the sunshine of executive favor, and of whom Mr. Blaine was the +chief; and it was through the timely action of Mr. Shellabarger, +of Ohio, which these conservatives opposed, that the scheme of +reconstruction was finally so amended as to make the Rebel State +governments provisional only, and secure the ballot to the negro +during the period, whether long or short, which might intervene +prior to the work of re-admission. This provision was absolutely +vital, because it took from the people of the insurrectionary +districts every motive for refusing the acceptance of the terms +proposed, and settled the work of reconstruction by this exercise +of absolute power by their conquerors. It was this provision which +secured the support of the Radical Republicans in Congress; but it +did not meet their objections to this scheme of hasty military +reconstruction, while these objections have been amply justified +by time. + +Thaddeus Stevens never appeared to such splendid advantage as a +parliamentary leader as in this protracted debate on reconstruction. +He was then nearly seventy-six, and was physically so feeble that +he could scarcely stand; but his intellectual resources seemed to +be perfectly unimpaired. Eloquence, irony, wit, and invective, +wre charmingly blended in the defense of his positions and his +attacks upon his opponents. In dealing with the views of Bingham, +Blaine, and Banks, he was by no means complimentary. He referred +to them in his closing speech on the bill, on the thirteenth of +February, when he said, in response to an interruption by Mr. +Blaine, "What I am speaking of is this proposed step toward universal +amnesty and universal Andy-Johnsonism. If this Congress so decides, +it will give me great pleasure to join in the _io triumphe_ of the +gentleman from Ohio in leading this House, possibly by forbidden +paths, into the sheep-fold or the goat-fold of the President." In +speaking of the amendment to the bill offered by General Banks, he +said, "It proposes to set up a contrivance at the mouth of the +Mississippi, and by hydraulic action to control all the States that +are washed by the waters of that great stream." He declared that, +"The amendment of the gentleman from Maine lets in a vast number +of Rebels, and shuts out nobody. All I ask is that when the House +comes to vote upon that amendment, it shall understand that the +adoption of it would be an entire surrender of those States into +the hands of the Rebels. * * * If, sir, I might presume upon my +age, without claiming any of the wisdom of Nestor, I would suggest +to the young gentlemen around me, that the deeds of this burning +crisis, of this solemn day, of this thrilling moment, will cast +their shadows far into the future, and will make their impress upon +the annals of our history; and that we shall appear upon the bright +pages of that history just in so far as we cordially, without guile, +without bickering, without small criticisms, lend our aid to promote +the great cause of humanity and universal liberty." + +As a precautionary measure against executive usurpation, the Fortieth +Congress was organized in March, 1867, immediately after the +adjournment of the Thirty-ninth. After a brief session it adjourned +till the third of July to await the further progress of events. +On re-assembling I found the feeling in favor of impeachment had +considerably increased, but was not yet strong enough to prevail. +All that could be done was the passage of a supplemental act on +the subject of reconstruction, which naturally provoked another +veto, in which the President re-affirmed the points of his message +vetoing the original bill, and arraigned the action of Congress as +high-handed and despotic. The message was construed by the +Republicans as an open defiance, and many of them felt that a great +duty had been slighted in failing to impeach him months before. +The feeling against him became perfectly relentless, as I distinctly +remember it, and shared in it myself; but on referring to the +message now, I am astonished at the comparative moderation of its +tone, and the strength of its positions. Its logic, in the main, +is impregnable, if it be granted that the Rebel districts were not +only States, but States _in the Union,_ and the Congress which was +now so enraged at the President had itself refused to deal with +them as Territories or outlying possessions, and thereby invited +the aggravating thrusts of the message at the consistency of his +assailants. + +Just before the adjournment of this brief session of Congress, an +amusing incident occurred in connection with the introduction of +the following resolution in the House: + +"_Resolved,_ That the doctrines avowed by the President of the +United States, in his message to Congress of the fifteenth instant, +to the effect that the abrogation of the governments of the Rebel +States binds the Nation to pay the debts incurred prior to the late +Rebellion, is at war with the principles of international law, a +deliberate stab at the national credit, abhorrent to every sentiment +of loyalty, and well-pleasing only to the vanquished traitors by +whose agency alone the governments of said States were overthrown +and destroyed." + +The resolution was adopted by yeas one hundred, nays eighteen, and +the announcement of the vote provoked the laughter of both sides +of the House. It gratified the Republicans, because it was a thrust +at Andrew Johnson, and perfectly accorded with their prevailing +political mood, which was constantly becoming more embittered toward +him. It equally gratified the Democrats, because they at once +accepted it as a telling shot at Gov. Morton, who had fathered the +condemned heresy nearly two years before in his famous Richmond +speech, which he and his friends had been doing their best to +forget. Party feeling had never before been more intense; but this +resolution performed its mediatorial office with such magical effect +in playing with two utterly diverse party animosities, that +Republicans and Democrats were alike surprised to find themselves +suddenly standing on common ground, and joyfully shaking hands in +token of this remarkable display of their good fellowship. + +Congress assembled again on the twenty-first of November, in +consequence of the extraordinary conduct of the President. The +popular feeling in favor of impeachment had now become formidable, +and on the twenty-fifth the Judiciary Committee of the House finally +reported in favor of the measure. The galleries were packed, and +the scene was one of great interest, while all the indications +seemed to point to success; but on the seventh of December, the +proposition was voted down by yeas fifty-seven, nays one hundred +and eight. The vote was a great surprise and disappointment to +the friends of impeachment, and was construed by them as a wanton +surrender by Congress, and the prelude to new acts of executive +lawlessness. These acts continued to be multiplied, and the removal +of Secretary Stanton finally so prepared the way that on the twenty- +fourth of February, 1868, the House, by a vote of one hundred and +twenty-six to forty-seven, declared in favor of impeachment. The +crowds in the galleries, in the lobbies, and on the floor were +unprecedented, and the excitement at high tide. The fifty-seven +who had voted for impeachment in December, were now happy. They +felt, at last, that the country was safe. The whole land seemed +to be electrified, as they believed it would have been at any +previous time if the House had had the nerve to go forward; and +they rejoiced that the madness of Johnson had at last compelled +Congress to face the great duty. A committee of seven was appointed +by the Speaker to prepare articles of impeachment, of whom Thaddeus +Stevens was chairman. He was now rapidly failling in strength, and +every morning had to be carried up stairs to his seat in the House; +but his humor never failed him, and on one of these occasions he +said to the young men who had him in charge, "I wonder, boys, who +will carry me when you are dead and gone." He was very thin, pale +and haggard. His eye was bright, but his face was "scarred by the +crooked autograph of pain." He was a constant sufferer, and during +the session of the Committee kept himself stimulated by sipping a +little wine or brandy; but he was its ruling spirit, and greatly +speeded its work by the clearness of his perceptions and the strength +of his will. His mental force seemed to defy the power of disease. +The articles of impeachment were ready for submission in a few +days, and adopted by the House, on the second of March, by a majority +of considerably more than two thirds, when the case was transferred +to the Senate. + +The popular feeling against the President was now rapidly nearing +its climax and becoming a sort of frenzy. Andrew Johnson was no +longer merely a "wrong-headed and obstinate man," but a "genius in +depravity," whose hoarded malignity and passion were unfathomable. +He was not simply "an irresolute mule," as General Schenck had +styled him, but was devil-bent upon the ruin of his country; and +his trial connected itself with all the memories of the war, and +involved the Nation in a new and final struggle for its life. Even +so sober and unimaginative a man as Mr. Boutwell, one of the managers +of the impeachment in the Senate, lost his wits and completely +surrendered himself to the passions of the hour in the following +passage of his speech in that body: + +"Travelers and astronomers inform us that in the Southern heavens, +near the Southern Cross, there is a vast space which the uneducated +call the 'hole in the sky,' where the eye of man, with the aid of +the powers of the telescope, has been unable to discover nebulae, +or asteroid, or comet, or plant, or star or sun. In that dreary, +cold, dark region of space, which is only known to be less than +infinite by the evidences of creation elsewhere, the great Author +of celestial mechanism has left the chaos which was in the beginning. +If this earth were capable of the sentiments and emotions of justice +and virtue, which in human mortal beings are the evidences and the +pledge of our divine origin and immortal destiny, it would heave +and throe with the energy of the elemental forces of nature, and +project this enemy of two races of men into that vast region, there +forever to exist, in a solitude as eternal as life, or as the +absence of life, emblematical of, if not really, that 'outer +darkness' of which the Savior of man spoke in warning to those who +are the enemies of themselves, of their race, and of their God." + +This fearful discharge of rhetorical fireworks at the President +fitly voiced the general sentiment of the Republicans. Party +madness was in the air, and quite naturally gave birth to the "hole +in the sky" in the agony of its effort to find expression. No +extravagance of speech or explosion of wrath was deemed out of +order during this strange dispensation in our politics. + +The trial proceeded with unabated interest, and on the afternoon +of the eleventh of May the excitement reached its highest point. +Reports came from the Senate, then in secret session, that Grimes, +Fessenden and Henderson were certainly for acquittal, and that +other senators were to follow them. An indescribable gloom now +prevailed among the friends of impeachment, which increased during +the afternoon, and at night when the Senate was again in session. +At the adjournment there was some hope of conviction, but it was +generally considered very doubtful. On meeting my old anti-slavery +friend, Dr. Brisbane, he told me he felt as if he were sitting up +with a sick friend who was expected to die. His face was the +picture of despair. To such men it seemed that all the trials of +the war were merged in this grand issue, and that it involved the +existence of Free Government on this continent. The final vote +was postponed till the sixteenth, owing to Senator Howard's illness, +and on the morning of that day the friends of impeachment felt more +confident. The vote was first taken on the eleventh article. The +galleries were packed, and an indescribable anxiety was written on +every face. Some of the members of the House near me grew pale +and sick under the burden of suspense. Such stillness prevailed +that the breathing in the galleries could be heard at the announcement +of each senator's vote. This was quite noticeable when any of the +doubtful senators voted, the people holding their breath as the +words "guilty" or "not guilty" were pronounced, and then giving it +simultaneous vent. Every heart throbbed more anxiously as the name +of Senator Fowler was reached, and the Chief Justice propounded to +him the prescribed question: "How say you, is the respondent, +Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, guilty or not guilty +of a high misdemeanor, as charged in this article of impeachment?" +The senator, in evident excitement, inadvertently answered "guilty," +and thus lent a momentary relief to the friends of impeachment; +but this was immediately dissipated by correcting his vote on the +statement of the Chief Justice that he did not understand the +senator's response to the question. Nearly all hope of conviction +fled when Senator Ross, of Kansas, voted "not guilty," and a long +breathing of disappointment and despair followed the like vote of +Van Winkle, which settled the case in favor of the President. + +It is impossible now to realize how perfectly overmastering was +the excitement of these days. The exercise of calm judgment was +simply out of the question. As I have already stated, passion +ruled the hour, and constantly strengthened the tendency to one- +sidedness and exaggeration. The attempt to impeach the President +was undoubtedly inspired, mainly, by patriotic motives; but the +spirit of intolerance among Republicans toward those who differed +with them in opinion set all moderation and common sense at defiance. +Patriotism and party animosity were so inextricably mingled and +confounded that the real merits of the controversy could only be +seen after the heat and turmoil of the strife had passed away. +Time has made this manifest. Andrew Johnson was not the Devil- +incarnate he was then painted, nor did he monopolize, entirely, +the "wrong-headedness" of the times. No one will now dispute that +the popular estimate of his character did him very great injustice. +It is equally certain that great injustice was done to Trumbull, +Fessenden, Grimes and other senators who voted to acquit the +President, and gave proof of their honesty and independence by +facing the wrath and scorn of the party with which they had so long +been identified. The idea of making the question of impeachment +a matter of party discipline was utterly indefensible and preposterous. +"Those senators," as Horace Greeley declared, "were sublimely in +the right who maintained their independent judgment--whether it +was correct or erroneous, in a matter of this kind, and who +indignantly refused all attempts to swerve them from their duty as +they had undertaken to perform it by solemn oaths." The Chief +Justice was also cruelly and inexcusably wronged by imputing corrupt +motives to his official action. His integrity and courage had been +amply demonstrated through many long years of thorough and severe +trial; and yet many of his Republican friends, both in the Senate +and House, who had known him throughout his political career, +denounced him as an apostate and a traitor, and even denied him +all social recognition. Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, was especially +abusive, and made himself perfectly ridiculous by the extravagance +and malignity of his assaults. The judicial spirit was everywhere +wanting, and the elevation of Senator Wade to the Presidency in +the midst of so much passion and tumult, and with the peculiar +political surroundings which the event foreshadowed, would have +been, to say the least, a very questionable experiment for the +country. + +The excitement attending the trial of the President soon subsided, +but the Republicans continued anxious about the state of the country. +The work of reconstruction was only fairly begun, and its completion +was involved in the approaching presidential election. Chase and +Seward had lost their standing in the party, and there was no longer +any civilian in its ranks whose popularity was especially commanding +or at all over-shadowing. Under these circumstances it was quite +natural to turn to the army, and to canvass the claims of Gen. +Grant. The idea of his nomination was exceedingly distasteful to +me. I personally knew him to be intemperate. In politics he was +a Democrat. He did not profess to be a Republican, and the only +vote he had ever given was cast for James Buchanan in 1856, when +the Republican party made its first grand struggle to rescue the +Government from the clutches of slavery. Moreover, he had had no +training whatever in civil administration, and no one thought of +him as a statesman. But the plea of his availability as a military +chieftain was urged with great effect, and was made irresistible +by the apprehension that if not nominated by the Republicans the +Democrats would appropriate him, and make him a formidable instrument +of mischief. His nomination, however, was only secured by cautious +and timely diplomacy, and potent appeals to his sordidness, in the +shape of assurances that he should have the office for a second +term. But as the nominee of his party, fairly committed to its +principles and measures touching the unsettled questions of +reconstruction and suffrage, I saw no other practicable alternative +than to give him my support. I was still further reconciled to +this by the action of the Democrats in the nomination of Seymour +and Blair, and the avowal of the latter in his famous "Brodhead +letter," that "we must have a President who will execute the will +of the people by trampling in the dust the usurpations of Congress +known as the Reconstruction Acts." + +In my new Congressional district I was unanimously re-nominated by +the Republicans, and entered at once upon the canvass, though +scarcely well enough to leave my bed. The issue was doubtful, and +my old-time enemies put forth their whole power against me at the +election. They were determined, this time, to win, and to make +sure of this they embarked in a desperate and shameless scheme of +ballot-stuffing in the city of Richmond, which was afterward fully +exposed; but in spite of this enterprise of "Ku Klux Republicans," +I was elected by a small majority. The result, however, foreshadowed +the close of my congressional labors, which followed two years +later, just as the XV Constitutional Amendment had made voters of +the colored men of the State; but it was only made possible by my +failing health, which had unfitted me for active leadership. In +my old district I had made myself absolutely invincible. For twenty- +one years in succession, that is to say, from the year 1848 to the +year 1868, both inclusive, I canvassed that district by townships +and neighborhoods annually on the stump. In the beginning, public +opinion was overwhelmingly and fiercely against me, but I resolved, +at whatever cost, to reconstruct it in conformity with my own +earnest convictions. I literally wore myself out in the work, and +am perfectly amazed when I recall the amount of it I performed, +and the complete abandon of myself to the task. From the beginning +to the end of this struggle the politicians of the district were +against me, and they were numerous and formidable, and in every +contest were reinforced by the politicians of the State. Although +the ranks of my supporters were constantly recruited and no man +ever had more devoted friends, I was obliged, during all these +years, to stand alone as the champion of my cause in debate. I +believe no Congressional district in the Union was ever the theatre +of so much hard toil by a single man; but although it involved the +serious abridgement of health and life, the ruinous neglect of my +private affairs, and the sacrifice of many precious friendships, +I was not without my reward. I succeeded in my work. Step by step +I saw my constituents march up to my position, and the district at +last completely disenthralled by the ceaseless and faithful +administration of anti-slavery truth. The tables were completely +turned. Almost everybody was an Abolitionist, and nobody any longer +made a business of swearing that he was not. In canvassing my +district it became the regular order of business for a caravan of +candidates for minor offices, who were sportively called the "side +show," to follow me from point to point, all vying with each other +as to which had served longest and most faithfully as my friends. +They had always been opposed to slavery, and men who had taken the +lead in mobbing Abolitionists in earlier days and gained a livelihood +by slave-catching, were now active and zealous leaders in the +Republican party. It was a marvelous change. Slavery itself, +greatly to the surprise and delight of its enemies, had perished; +but it was, after all, only one form of a world-wide evil. The +abolition of the chattel slavery of the Southern negro was simply +the introduction and prelude to the emancipation of all races from +all forms of servitude, and my Congressional record had been a +practical illustration of my faith in this truth. The rights of +man are sacred, whether trampled down by Southern slave-drivers, +the monopolists of the soil, the grinding power of corporate wealth, +the legalized robbery of a protective tariff, or the power of +concentrated capital in alliance with labor-saving machinery. + +During the winter preceding the inauguration of the President I +was besieged by place-hunters more than ever before. They thronged +about me constantly, while I generally wrote from twenty to thirty +letters per day in response to inquiries about appointments from +my district. The squabbles over post-office appointments were by +far the most vexatious and unmanageable. They were singularly +fierce, and I found it wholly impossible to avoid making enemies +of men who had supported me with zeal. I was tormented for months +about the post-office of a single small town in Franklin county, +where the rival parties pounced upon each other like cannibals, +and divided the whole community into two hostile camps. I was +obliged to give my days and nights to this wretched business, and +often received only curses for the sincerest endeavors to do what +I believed was right. The experience became absolutely sickening, +and could not be otherwise than seriously damaging to me politically. +Such matters were wholly foreign to the business of legislation, +and I wrote a very earnest letter to Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, +heartily commending his measure proposed in the preceding Congress +for the reform of our Civil Service, and for which, as the real +pioneer of this movement, he deserves a monument. + +It was on the eighth of December, 1868, that I submitted a proposed +amendment to the Constitution, declaring that "the right of suffrage +in the United States shall be based upon citizenship, and shall be +regulated by Congress"; and that "all citizens of the United States, +whether native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally, +without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on race, +color, or sex." This was prior to the ratification of the XV +Amendment, and I so numbered the proposition; but on further +reflection I preferred an amendment in the exact form of the +fifteenth, and early in the next Congress I submitted it, being +the first proposition offered for a sixteenth amendment to the +Constitution. My opinions about woman suffrage, however, date much +farther back. The subject was first brought to my attention in a +brief chapter on the "political non-existence of woman," in Miss +Martineau's book on "Society in America," which I read in 1847. +She there pithily states the substance of all that has since been +said respecting the logic of woman's right to the ballot, and +finding myself unable to answer it, I accepted it. On recently +referring to this chapter I find myself more impressed by its force +than when I first read it. "The most principled Democratic writers +on Government," she said, "have on this subject sunk into fallacies +as disgraceful as any advocate of despotism has adduced. In fact, +they have thus sunk, from being, for the moment, advocates of +despotism. Jefferson in America, and James Mill at home, subside, +for the occasion, to the level of the Emperor of Russia's catechism +for the young Poles." This she makes unanswerably clear; but my +interest in the slavery question was awakened about the same time. +I regarded it as the _previous_ question, and as less abstract and +far more immediately important and absorbing than that of suffrage +for woman. For the sake of the negro I accepted Mr. Lincoln's +philosophy of "one war at a time," though always ready to show my +hand; but when this was fairly out of the way, I was prepared to +enlist actively in the next grand movement in behalf of the sacredness +and equality of human rights. + + +CHAPTER XV. +GRANT AND GREELEY. +The new Cabinet--Seeds of party disaffection--Trip to California-- +Party degeneracy--The liberal Republican movement--Re-nomination +of Grant--The Cincinnati convention--Perplexities of the situation +--The canvass for Greeley--Its bitterness--Its peculiar features-- +The defeat--The vindication of Liberals--Visit to Chase and Sumner +--Death of Greeley. + +The inaugural speech of Gen. Grant was a feeble performance, and +very unsatisfactory to his friends. When he announced his Cabinet, +disappointment was universal among Republicans, and was greatly +increased when he asked Congress to relieve A. T. Stewart, his +nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, from the disability wisely +imposed by the Act of Congress of 1789, forbidding the appointment +to that position of any one engaged "in carrying on the business +of trade or commerce." Senator Sherman at once introduced a bill +to repeal this enactment, but Mr. Sumner vigorously opposed the +measure, and the President soon afterward sent a message to the +Senate asking leave to withdraw his request as to Mr. Stewart. It +was doubtless the prompt and decided stand taken by Mr. Sumner in +this matter which laid the foundation for the President's personal +hostility to him, which so remarkably developed itself during the +following years. The seeds of a party feud were thus planted, and +as the Administration continued to show its hand, bore witness to +a vigorous growth. + +In June of this year I made a trip to California in search of +health, which I had lost through overwork, and was now paying the +penalty in a very distressing form of insomnia. I took one of the +first through trains to the Pacific, and on reaching the State, I +found sight-seeing and travel so irresistible a temptation, that +I lost the rest and quiet I so absolutely needed. I was constantly +on the wing; and I encountered at every point, the "settler," who +was anxious to talk over the land squabbles of the State, with +which I had had much to do in Congress, but now needed for a season +to forget. I found that the half had not been told me respecting +the ravages of land-grabbing under the Swamp Land Act of 1850, and +the mal-administration of Mexican and Spanish grants. I was full +of the subject, and was obliged, also, to give particular attention +to the pre-emption of J. M. Hutchings, in the Yosemite Valley, for +the protection of which I had reported a bill which was then pending; +and I came near losing my life in the valley through the fatigue +I suffered in reaching it. After a stay of over two months in +California, and a trip by steamer to Oregon and Washington Territory, +I returned home early in September, but in no better health than +when I left; and a like experience attended a journey to Minnesota +soon afterward, where I was captured by leading railroad men who +belabored me over the land-grant to the St. Croix and Bayfield +railroad, the revival of which I had aided in defeating at the +previous session of Congress. + +I returned to Washington in December, but physically unfit for +labor, spending most of the session in New York under the care of +a physician. I deeply regretted this, for the railway lobby was +in Washington in full force, as it was during the closing session +of the Forty-first Congress, when I was equally unfit for business. +I was not, however, without consolation. Under the popular reaction +against the Land-grant system which I had done my part to create, +the huge pile of land bills on the Speaker's table failed, save +the Texas Pacific project, which was carried by the most questionable +methods, and against such a general protest as clearly indicated +the end of this policy. A vote of nearly two to one was carried +in the House in favor of a bill reported by the Land Committee +defining swamp and overflowed lands, and guarding against the +enormous swindles that had disgraced the Land Department and +afflicted honest settlers. A like vote was secured in favor of +the bill to prevent the further disposition of the public lands +save under the pre-emption and homestead laws, for which I had +labored for years. Many thousands of acres had been saved from +the clutches of monopolists by attaching to several important grants +the condition that the lands should be sold only to actual settlers, +in quantities not exceeding a quarter section, and for not more +than two dollars and fifty cents per acre. A very important reform, +already referred to, had been made in our Indian treaty policy, by +which lands relinquished by any tribe would henceforth fall under +the operation of our land laws, instead of being sold in a body to +some corporation or individual monopolist. The Southern Homestead +law had dedicated to actual settlement millions of acres of the +public domain in the land States of the South, while the Homestead +Act of 1862 was splendidly vindicating the wisdom of its policy. +Congress had declared forfeited and open to settlement a large +grant of lands in Louisiana for non-compliance with the conditions +on which it was made, and the public domain had been saved from +frightful spoilation by the fortunate defeat of a scheme of land +bounties that would completely have overturned the policy of the +pre-emption and homestead laws, while practically mocking the claims +of the soldiers. The opportunity, now and then, to strangle a +legislative monster like this, or to further the passage of beneficent +and far-reaching measures, is one of the real compensations of +public life. + +The final ratification of the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, +which was declared in force on the thirtieth of March, 1870, +perfectly consummated the mission of the Republican party, and left +its members untrammeled in dealing with new questions. In fact, +the Republican movement in the beginning was a political combination, +rather than a party. Its action was inspired less by a creed than +an object, and that object was to dedicate our National Territories +to freedom, and denationalize slavery. Aside from this object, +the members of the combination were hopelessly divided. The +organization was created to deal with this single question, and +would not have existed without it. It was now regarded by many as +a spent political force, although it had received a momentum which +threatened to outlast its mission; and if it did not keep the +promise made in its platform of 1868, to reform the corruptions of +the preceding Administration, and at the same time manfully wrestle +with the new problems of the time, it was morally certain to +degenerate into a faction, led by base men, and held together by +artful appeals to the memories of the past. Our tariff legislation +called for a thorough revision. Our Civil Service was becoming a +system of political prostitution. Roguery and plunder, born of +the multiplied temptations which the war furnished, had stealthily +crept into the management of public affairs, and claimed immunity +from the right of search. What the country needed was not a stricter +enforcement of party discipline, not military methods and the +fostering of sectional hate, but oblivion of the past, and an +earnest, intelligent, and catholic endeavor to grapple with the +questions of practical administration. + +But this, in the very nature of the case, was not to be expected. +The men who agreed to stand together in 1856, on a question which +was now out of the way, and had postponed their differences on +current party questions for that purpose, were comparatively unfitted +for the task of civil administration in a time of peace. They had +had no preparatory training, and the engrossing struggle through +which they had passed had, in fact, disqualified them for the work. +While the issues of the war were retreating into the past the +mercenary element of Republicanism had gradually secured the +ascendancy, and completely appropriated the President. The mischiefs +of war had crept into the conduct of civil affairs, and a thorough +schooling of the party in the use of power had familiarized it with +military ideas and habits, and committed it to loose and indefensible +opinions respecting the powers of the General Government. The +management of the Civil Service was an utter mockery of political +decency, while the animosities engendered by the war were nursed +and coddled as the appointed means of uniting the party and covering +up its misdeeds. The demand for reform, as often as made, was +instantly rebuked, and the men who uttered it branded as enemies +of the party and sympathizers with treason. It is needless to go +into details; but such was the drift of general demoralization that +the chief founders and pre-eminent representatives of the party, +Chase, Seward, Sumner and Greeley were obliged to desert it more +than a year before the end of Gen. Grant's first administration, +as the only means of maintaining their honor and self-respect. My +Congressional term expired a little after Grant and Babcock had +inaugurated the San Domingo project, and Sumner had been degraded +from the Chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to make +room for Simon Cameron. The "irrepressible conflict" had just +begun to develop itself between the element of honesty and reform +in the party, and the corrupt leadership which sought to make +merchandise of its good name, and hide its sins under the mantle +of its past achievements. + +After the adjournment of the Forty-first Congress in March, 1871, +I visited New York, where I called on Greeley. We took a drive +together, and spent the evening at the house of a mutual friend, +where we had a free political talk. He denounced the Administration +and the San Domingo project in a style which commanded my decided +approval, for my original dislike of Grant had been ripening into +disgust and contempt, and, like Greeley, I had fully made up my +mind that under no circumstance could I ever again give him my +support. After my return home I wrote several articles for the +Press in favor of a "new departure" in the principles of the party. +Mr. Vallandigham had just given currency to this phrase by employing +it to designate his proposed policy of Democratic acquiescence in +the XIV and XV Constitutional Amendments, which was seconded by +the "Missouri Republican," and accepted by the party the following +year. The "new departure" I commended to my own party was equally +thorough, proposing the radical reform of its Tariff and Land +Policy, and its emancipation from the rule of great corporations +and monopolies; a thorough reform of its Civil Service, beginning +with a declaration in favor of the "one-term principle," and +condemning the action of the President in employing the whole power +and patronage of his high office in securing his re-election for +a second term by hurling from office honest, capable and faithful +men, simply to make places for scalawags and thieves; and the +unqualified repudiation of his conduct in heaping honors and +emoluments upon his poor kin, while accepting presents of fine +houses and other tempting gifts from unworthy men, who were paid +off in fat places. I did not favor the disbanding of the party, +or ask that it should make war on Gen. Grant, but earnestly protested +against the policy that sought to Tammany-ize the organization +through his re-nomination. + +Returning to Washington on the meeting of Congress in December, I +conferred with Trumbull, Schurz and Sumner, respecting the situation, +and the duty of Republicans in facing the party crisis which was +evidently approaching. During the session, I listened to the great +debate in the Senate on Sumner's resolution of inquiry as to the +sale of arms to the French, and was delighted with the replies of +Schurz and Sumner to Conkling and Morton. My dislike of the +President steadily increased, and his disgraceful conduct towards +Sumner and alliance with Morton, Conkling, Cameron, and their +associates rendered it morally impossible for me any longer to +fight under his banner. The situation became painfully embarrassing, +since every indication seemed to point to his re-nomination as a +foregone conclusion. But I clung to the hope that events would in +some way order it otherwise. In February, I was strongly urged to +become a candidate for Congressman at large under the new Congressional +apportionment; and although failing health unfitted me for active +politics, to which I had no wish to return, I really wanted the +compliment of the nomination. The long-continued and wanton +opposition which had been waged against me in my own party led me +to covet it, and in the hope that General Grant's nomination might +yet be averted I allowed my friends to urge my claims, and to +believe I would accept the honor if tendered, which I meant to do +should this hope be realized. I saw that I could secure it. My +standing in my own party was better than ever before. The +"Indianapolis Journal," for the first time, espoused my cause, +along with other leading Republican papers in different sections +of the State. The impolicy and injustice of the warfare which had +long been carried on against me in Indiana were so generally felt +by all fair-minded Republicans that Senator Morton himself, though +personally quite as hostile as ever, was constrained to call off +his forces, and favor a policy of conciliation. It was evident +that my nomination was assured if I remained in the field; but as +time wore on I saw that the re-nomination of General Grant had +become absolutely inevitable; and, as I could not support him I +could not honorably accept a position which would commit me in his +favor. The convention was held on the 22d of February, and on the +day before I sent a telegram peremptorily refusing to stand as a +candidate; and I soon afterward formally committed myself to the +Liberal Republican movement. I could not aid in the re-election +of Grant without sinning against decency and my own self-respect. +I deplored the fact, but there was no other alternative. If it +had been morally possible, I would have supported him gladly. I +had no personal grievances to complain of, and most sincerely +regretted the necessity which compelled my withdrawal from political +associations in which I had labored many long years, and through +seasons of great national danger. If I had consulted my own selfish +ambition I would have chosen a different course, since I knew by +painful experience the cost of party desertion, while the fact was +well known that the prizes of politics were within my reach, if I +had sought them through the machinery of the Republican organization +and the support of General Grant. Had the party, having accomplished +the work which called it into being, applied itself to the living +questions of the times, and resolutely set its face against political +corruption and plunder, and had it freely tolerated honest differences +of opinion in its own ranks, treating the question of Grant's re- +nomination as an open one, instead of making it a test of Republicanism +and a cause for political excommunication, I could have avoided a +separation, at least at that time. I made it with many keen pangs +of regret, for the history of the party had been honorable and +glorious, and I had shared in its achievements. My revolt against +its discipline forcibly reminded me of the year 1848, and was by +far the severest political trial of my life. My new position not +only placed me in very strange relations to the Democrats, whose +misdeeds I had so earnestly denounced for years; but I could not +fail to see that the great body of my old friends would now become +my unrelenting foes. Their party intolerance would know no bounds, +and I was not unmindful of its power; but there was no way of +escape, and with a sad heart, but an unflinching purpose, I resolved +to face the consequences of my decision. My chief regret was that +impaired health deprived me of the strength and endurance I would +now sorely need in repelling wanton and very provoking assaults. + +I attended the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati on the +first of May, where I was delighted to meet troops of the old Free +Soilers of 1848 and 1852. It was a mass convention of Republicans, +suddenly called together without the power of money or the help of +party machinery, and prompted by a burning desire to rebuke the +scandals of Gen. Grant's administration, and rescue both the party +and the country from political corruption and misrule. It was a +spontaneous and independent movement, and its success necessarily +depended upon the wisdom of its action and not the force of party +obligation. There were doubtless political schemers and mercenaries +in attendance, but the rank and file were unquestionably conscientious +and patriotic, and profoundly in earnest. I never saw a finer +looking body assembled. It was a more formidable popular demonstration +than the famous Convention at Buffalo, in 1848, and gave promise +of more immediate and decisive results. There was a very widespread +feeling that the Cincinnati ticket would win, and the friends of +Gen. Grant could not disguise their apprehension. The thought +seemed to inspire every one that a way was now fortunately opened +for hastening the end of sectional strife and purifying the +administration of public affairs. The capital speech of Stanley +Matthews, on accepting the temporary chairmanship of the Convention, +was but the echo of the feeling of the Convention, and its confident +prophecy of victory. "Parties," said he, "can not live on their +reputations. It was remarked, I believe, by Sir Walter Raleigh, +in reference to the strife of ancestry, that those who boasted most +of their progenitors were like the plant he had discovered in +America, the best part was under ground." He declared that "the +time has come when it is the voice of an exceedingly large and +influential portion of the American people that they will no longer +be dogs to wear the collar of a party." All that now seemed wanting +was wise leadership, and a fair expression of the real wish and +purpose of the Convention. + +The principal candidates were Charles Francis Adams, Horace Greeley, +Lyman Trumbull, David Davis, and B. Gratz Brown. Mr. Chase still +had a lingering form of the Presidential fever, and his particular +friends were lying in wait for a timely opportunity to bring him +forward; but his claims were not seriously considered. The friends +of Judge Davis did him much damage by furnishing transportation +and supplies for large Western delegations, who very noisily pressed +his claims in the Convention. With prudent leadership his chances +for the nomination would have been good, and he would have been a +very formidable candidate; but he was "smothered by his friends." +The really formidable candidates were Adams and Greeley, and during +the first and second days the chances were decidedly in favor of +the former. On the evening of the second day Mr. Brown and Gen. +Blair arrived in the city, pretending that they had come for the +purpose of arranging a trouble in the Missouri delegation; but +their real purpose was to throw the strength of Brown, who was +found to have no chance for the first place, in favor of Greeley, +who had said some very flattering words of Brown some time before +in a letter published in a Missouri newspaper. This new movement +further included the nomination of Brown for the second place on +the ticket, and was largely aimed at Carl Schurz, who was an Adams +man, and had refused, though personally very friendly to Brown, to +back his claims for the Presidential nomination. It seemed to be +a lucky hit for Greeley, who secured the nomination; but the real +cause of Mr. Adams' defeat, after all, was the folly of Trumbull's +friends, who preferred Adams to Greeley, in holding on to their +man in the vain hope of his nomination. They could have nominated +Adams on the fourth or fifth ballot, if they had given him their +votes, as they saw when it was too late. Greeley regretted Brown's +nomination, and afterward expressed his preference for another +gentleman from the West; and he had, of course, nothing to do with +the movement which placed him on the ticket. + +I was woefully disappointed in the work of the Convention, having +little faith in the success of Greeley, and being entirely confident +that Adams could be elected if nominated. I still think he would +have been, and that the work of reform would thus have been thoroughly +inaugurated, and the whole current of American politics radically +changed. The time was ripe for it. His defeat was a wet blanket +upon many of the leading spirits of the Convention and their +followers. The disappointment of some of these was unspeakably +bitter and agonizing. Stanley Matthews, illustrating his proverbial +instability in politics, and forgetting his brave resolve no longer +"to wear the collar of a party," abruptly deserted to the enemy. +The "New York Nation" also suddenly changed front, giving its feeble +support to General Grant, and its malignant hostility to Greeley. +The leading Free Traders in the Convention who had enlisted zealously +for Adams became indifferent or hostile. Many of the best informed +of the Liberal leaders felt that a magnificent opportunity to launch +the work of reform and crown it with success had been madly thrown +away. With the zealous friends of Mr. Adams it was a season of +infinite vexation; but for me there was no backward step. The +newborn movement had blundered, but Republicanism under the lead +of Grant remained as odious as ever. It was still the duty of its +enemies to oppose it, and no other method of doing this was left +them than through the organization just formed. That a movement +so suddenly extemporized should make mistakes was by no means +surprising, while there was a fairly implied obligation on the part +of those who had joined in its organization to abide by its action, +if not wantonly recreant to the principles that had inspired it. +The hearts of the liberal masses were for Greeley, and if he could +not be elected, which was by no means certain, his supporters could +at least make their organized protest against the mal-administration +of the party in power. + +I attended the Democratic State Convention of Indiana on the twelfth +of June, which was one of the largest and most enthusiastic ever +held in the State. The masses seemed to have completely broken +away from their old moorings, and to be rejoicing in their escape, +while their leaders, many of them reluctantly, accepted the situation. +Both were surprisingly friendly to me, and their purpose was to +nominate me as one of the candidates for Congressman-at-large, which +they would have done by acclamation if I had consented. I was much +cheered by such tokens of union and fraternity in facing the common +enemy. The State campaign was finely opened at Indianapolis on +the eleventh of July, where I presented the issues of the canvass +from the Liberal standpoint; and I continued almost constantly on +the stump till the State election in October, having splendid +audiences, and gathering strength and inspiration from the prevailing +enthusiasm of the canvass. The meetings toward the close were real +ovations, strikingly reminding me of the campaign of 1856. Up to +the time of the North Carolina election I had strong hopes of +victory; but owing to the alarm which had seized the Grant men on +account of Greeley's unexpected popularity, and the lavish expenditure +of their money which followed, the tide was turned, and was never +afterward checked in its course. They became unspeakably bitter +and venomous, and I never before encountered such torrents of abuse +and defamation, outstripping, as it seemed to me, even the rabidness +which confronted the Abolitionists in their early experience. At +one of my appointments a number of colored men came armed with +revolvers, and breathing the spirit of war which Senator Morton +was doing his utmost to kindle. He had been telling the people +everywhere that Greeley and his followers were all Rebels, seeking +to undo the work of the war, to re-enslave the negro, and saddle +upon the country the rebel debt; and these colored men, heeding +his logic, thought that killing Rebels now was as proper a business +as during the war, and would probably have begun their work of +murder if they had not been restrained by the more prudent counsel +of their white brethren. Even in one of the old towns in Eastern +Indiana which had been long known as the headquarters of Abolitionism, +a large supply of eggs was provided for my entertainment when I +went there to speak for Greeley; and they were not thrown at me +simply because the fear of a reaction against the party would be +the result. The Democrats in this canvass were rather handsomely +treated; but the fierceness and fury of the Grant men toward the +Liberal Republicans were unrelieved by a single element of honor +or fair play. + +This was pre-eminently true in Indiana, and especially so as to +myself. The leaders of Grant, borrowing the spirit of the campaign, +set all the canons of decency at defiance. "Sore head," "Renegade," +"Apostate," "Rebel," and "deadbeat," were the compliments constantly +lavished. Garbled extracts from my old war speeches were plentifully +scattered over the State, as if we had been still in the midst of +the bloody conflict, and I had suddenly betrayed the country to +its enemies. Garbled and forged letters were peddled and paraded +over the State by windy political blatherskites, who were hired to +propagate the calumnies of their employers. In fact, my previous +political experience supplied no precedent for this warfare of my +former Republican friends. But I was not unprepared for it, and +fully availed myself of the right of self-defense and counter +attack. I would not make myself a blackguard, but I met my assailants +in every encounter with the weapons of argument and invective, and +stretched them on the rack of my ridicule; while their prolonged +howl bore witness to the effectiveness of my work. My whole heart +was in it. The fervor and enthusiasm of earlier years came back +to me, and a kindred courage and faith armed me with the strength +which the work of the canvass demanded. + +The novelty of the canvass was indeed remarkable in all respects. +The Liberal Republicans had not changed any of their political +opinions, nor deserted any principle they had ever espoused, touching +the questions of slavery and the war; and yet they were now in the +fiercest antagonism with the men who had been politically associated +with them ever since the organization of the party, and who had +trusted and honored them through all the struggles of the past. +They were branded as "Apostates" from their anti-slavery faith; +but slavery had perished forever, and every man of them would have +been found fighting it as before, if it had been practicable to +call it back to life; while many of their assailants had distinguished +themselves by mobbing Abolitionism in the day of its weakness. +How could men apostatize from a cause which they had served with +unflinching fidelity until it was completely triumphant? And how +was it possible to fall from political grace by withdrawing from +the fellowship of the knaves and traders that formed the body-guard +of the President, and were using the Republican party as the +instrument of wholesale schemes of jobbery and pelf? To charge +the Liberal Republicans with apostasy because they had the moral +courage to disown and denounce these men was to invent a definition +of the term which would have made all the great apostates of history +"honorable men." + +They were called "Rebels"; but the war had been over seven years +and a half, and if the clock of our politics could have been set +back and the bloody conflict re-instated, every Liberal would have +been shouting, as before, for its vigorous prosecution. No man +doubted this who was capable of taking care of himself without the +help of a guardian. + +It was charged that "they changed sides" in politics; but the sides +themselves had been changed by events, and the substitution of new +issues for the old, and nobody could deny this who was not besotted +by party devil-worship or the density of his political ignorance. + +They were called "sore-heads" and "disappointed place-hunters;" +but the Liberal leaders, in rebelling against their party in the +noon-day of its power, and when honors were within their grasp, +were obliged to "put away ambition" and taste political death, and +thus courageously illustrate the truth that "the duties of life +are more than life." The charge was as glaringly stupid as it was +flagrantly false. + +But the novelty of this canvass was equally manifest in the political +fellowships it necessitated. While facing the savage warfare of +their former friends Liberal Republicans were suddenly brought into +the most friendly and intimate relations with the men whose recreancy +to humanity they had unsparingly denounced for years. They were +now working with these men because the subjects on which they had +been divided were withdrawn, and the country had entered upon a +new dispensation. The mollifying influence of peace, aided, no +doubt, by the organized roguery which in the name of Republicanism +held the Nation by the throat, unveiled to Liberals a new political +horizon, and they gladly exchanged the key-note of hate and war +for that of fraternity and reunion. They saw that the spirit of +wrath which had so moved the Northern States during the conflict +was no longer in order. The more they pondered the policy of +amnesty and followed up the work of the canvass the more thoroughly +they became reconstructed in heart. They discovered that the men +whom they had been denouncing with such hot indignation for so many +years were, after all, very much like other people. Personally +and socially they seemed quite as kindly and as estimable as the +men on the other side, while very many of them had undoubtedly +espoused the cause of slavery under a mistaken view of their +constitutional obligations, and as a phase of patriotism, while +sincerely condemning it on principle. Besides, Democrats had done +a very large and indispensable work in the war for the Union, and +they now stood upon common ground with the Republicans touching +the questions on which they had differed. On these questions the +party platforms were identical. If their position was accepted as +a necessity and not from choice, they were only a little behind +the Republicans, who, as a party, only espoused the cause of the +negro under the whip and spur of military necessity, and not the +promptings of humanity. In the light of such considerations it +was not strange that the Greeley men gladly accepted their deliverance +from the glamour which was blinding the eyes of their old associates +to the policy of reconciliation and peace, and blocking up the +pathway of greatly needed reforms. + +Soon after the State election I resumed my work on the stump, which +included a series of appointment in Kansas, where I addressed by +far the most enthusiastic meetings of the campaign. My welcome to +the State was made singularly cordial by the part I had played in +Congress in opposing enormous schemes of land monopoly and plunder, +which had been concocted by some of her own public servants in the +interest of railway corporations and Indian rings. On my return +to Indiana the signs of defeat in November became alarming, and +they were justified by the result. It was overwhelming and stunning. +Democrats and Liberals were completely dismayed and bewildered. +The cause of Mr. Greeley's defeat, speaking generally, was the +perfectly unscrupulous and desperate hostility of the party for +which he had done more than any other man, living or dead; but the +disaster resulted, more immediately, from the stupid and criminal +defection of the Bourbon element in the Democratic party, which +could not be rallied under the banner of an old anti-slavery chief. +Thousands of this class, who sincerely hated Abolitionism, and +loved negro slavery more than they loved their country, voted +directly for Grant, while still greater numbers declined to vote +at all. Mr. Greeley's own explanation of the result, which he gave +to a friend soon after the election, was as follows: "I was an +Abolitionist for years, when it was as much as one's life was worth +even here in New York, to be an Abolitionist; and the negroes have +all voted against me. Whatever of talents and energy I have +possessed I have freely contributed all my life long to Protection; +to the cause of our manufactures. And the manufacturers have +expended millions to defeat me. I even made myself ridiculous in +the opinion of many whose good wishes I desired by showing fair +play and giving a fair field in the 'Tribune' to Woman's Rights; +and the women have all gone against me!" + +Greeley, however, received nearly three million votes, being +considerably more than Governor Seymour had received four years +before; but General Grant, who had been unanimously nominated by +his party, was elected by two hundred and eighty-six electoral +votes, and a popular majority of nearly three quarters of a million, +carrying thirty-one of the thirty-seven States. To the sincere +friends of political reform the situation seemed hopeless. The +President was re-crowned our King, and political corruption had +now received so emphatic a premium that honesty was tempted to give +up the struggle in despair. His champions were already talking +about a "third term," while the Republican party had become the +representative and champion of great corporations, and the instrument +of organized political corruption and theft. + +And yet this fight of Liberals and Democrats was not in vain. They +planted the seed which ripened into a great popular victory four +years later, while the policy of reconciliation for which they +battled against overwhelming odds was hastened by their labors, +and has been finally accepted by the country. They were still +further and more completely vindicated by the misdeeds of the party +they had sought to defeat. The spectacle of our public affairs +became so revolting that before the middle of General Grant's second +term all the great Republican States in the North were lost to the +party, while leading Republicans began to agitate the question of +remanding the States of the South to territorial rule, on account +of their disordered condition. At the end of this term the Republican +majority in the Senate had dwindled from fifty-four to seventeen, +while in the House the majority of one hundred and four had been +wiped out to give place to a Democratic majority of seventy-seven. +No vindication of the maligned Liberals of 1872 could have been +more complete, while it summoned to the bar of history the party +whose action had thus brought shame upon the Nation and a stain +upon Republican institutions. + +After the presidential election I went to Washington, where I met +Chief Justice Chase in the Supreme Court and accepted an invitation +to dine with him. He looked so wasted and prematurely old that I +scarcely knew him. He was very genial, however, and our long +political talk was exceedingly enjoyable. It seemed to afford him +much satisfaction to show me a recently reported dissenting opinion +of his in which he re-asserted his favorite principle of State +rights. I only met him once afterward, and this was at the +inauguration of General Grant. I called on Mr. Sumner the same +evening, and found him in a wretched state of health, which was +aggravated by the free use of poisonous drugs. He seemed very much +depressed, politically. He had lost caste with the great party +that had so long idolized him, and which he had done so much to +create and inspire. He had been deserted by the colored race, to +whose service he had unselfishly dedicated his life. He had been +degraded from his honored place at the head of the Senate Committee +on Foreign Relations, and for no other reason than the faithful +and conscientious performance of his public duty. He had been +rebuked by the Legislature of his own State. His case strikingly +suggested that of John Quincy Adams in 1807, when the anathemas of +Massachusetts were showered upon him for leaving the Federalist +party when it had accomplished its mission and survived its character, +and joining the supporters of Jefferson. I sympathized with him +profoundly; but his case was not so infinitely sad as that of poor +Greeley, over whose death, however, the whole Nation seemed to be +in mourning. He had greatly overtaxed himself in his masterly and +brilliant campaign on the stump, in which he displayed unrivaled +intellectual resources and versatility. He had exhausted himself +in watching by the bedside of his dying wife. He had been assailed +as the enemy of his country by the party which he had done more +than any man in the Nation to organize. He had been hunted to his +grave by political assassins whose calumnies broke his heart. He +was scarcely less a martyr than Lincoln, or less honored after his +death, and his graceless defamers now seemed to think they could +atone for their crime by singing his praises. It is easy to speak +well of the dead. It is very easy, even for base and recreant +characters, to laud a man's virtues after he has gone to his grave +and can no longer stand in their path. It is far easier to praise +the dead than do justice to the living; and it was not strange, +therefore, that eminent clergymen and doctors of divinity who had +silently witnessed the peltings of Mr. Greeley by demagogues and +mercenaries during the canvass now poured out their eloquence at +his grave. What he had sorely needed and was religiously entitled +to was the sympathy and succor of good men while he lived, and +especially in his heroic struggle for political reconciliation and +reform. The circumstances of his death made it peculiarly touching +and sacramental, and I was inexpressibly glad that I had fought +his battle so unflinchingly, and defended him everywhere against +his conscienceless assailants. + + +CHAPTER XVI. +CONCLUDING NOTES. +Party changes caused by the slavery issue--Notable men in Congress +during the war--Sketches of prominent men in the Senate and House +--Scenes and incidents--Butler and Bingham--Cox and Butler--Judge +Kelley and Van Wyck--Lovejoy and Wickliffe--Washburne and Donnelly +--Oakes Ames--Abolitionism in Washington early in the war--Life at +the capital--The new dispensation and its problems. + +In the early part of the period covered by the preceding chapters +our political parties were divided on mere questions of policy and +methods of administration. Trade, Currency, Internal Improvements, +and the Public Lands were the absorbing issues, while both parties +took their stand against the humanitarian movement which subsequently +put those issues completely in abeyance, and compelled the country +to face a question involving not merely the policy of governing, +but the existence of the Government itself. When the slavery +question finally forced its way into recognition it naturally +brought to the front a new class of public men, and their numbers, +as I have shown, steadily increased in each Congress from the year +1845 till the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1861. The Congress +which came into power with Mr. Lincoln did not fully represent the +anti-slavery spirit of the Northern States, but it was a decided +improvement upon its predecessors. In the Senate were such men as +Collamer, Fessenden, Doolittle, Baker, Browning, Anthony, Grimes, +Hale, Harlan, Sherman, Trumbull, Sumner, Wade, Henry Wilson, +Chandler, Lane of Indiana, Harris of New York, Andrew Johnson, B. +Gratz Brown and Howard. In the House were Conkling, Bingham, +Colfax, Dawes, Grow, Hickman, Kelley, Potter, Lovejoy, Pike of +Maine, Ashley, Rollins of Missouri, Shellabarger, Thaddeus Stevens, +Elihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold and James F. Wilson. + +During the Rebellion and the years immediately following, Ferry of +Connecticut, Creswell, Edmonds, Conkling, Morgan, Morton, Yates, +Carpenter, Hamlin, Henderson, Morrill of Maine, and Schurz, were +added to the prominent men of the Senate and Boutwell, Blair, Henry +Winter Davis, Deming, Jenckes, Garfield, Schenck, Banks, Orth, +Raymond, Butler, Hoar, McCrary, to the list in the House. During +this period the Democrats had in the Senate such men as Bayard, +Garrett Davis, Hicks, Saulsbury, Buckalew, Hendricks, Bright, Reverdy +Johnson, Thurman, and F. P. Blair; and in the House, S. S. Cox, +Crittenden, Holman, Kerr, Pendleton, Richardson, Vallandigham, +Niblack, Voorhees, Brooks, Randall, and Woodward. The men who +controlled Congress during these years of trial were not the +intellectual equals of the famous leaders who figured in the great +crisis of 1850, but they were a different and generally a better +type. They were summoned to the public service to deal with +tremendous problems, and lifted up and ennobled by the great cause +they were commissioned to serve. It did more for them than it was +possible for them to do for it. It took hold on the very foundations +of the Government, and electrified all the springs of our national +life; and although great mistakes were made, and the fervor of this +period was followed by a sickening dispensation of demoralized +politics, it was a great privilege to be permitted to share in the +grand battle for the Nation's life, and the work of radical re- +adjustment which followed. + +I have already referred to several of the conspicuous characters +whose names I have grouped. Such men as Collamer, Fessenden, +Browning and Trumbull, were among the famous lawyers and conservatives +on the Republican side of the Senate. They were conscientious and +unflinching partisans, but were studiously anxious to save the +Union according to the Constitution, and deprecated all extreme +and doubtful measures. Opposed to them stood Sumner, Wade, Chandler, +and their radical associates, who believed in saving the Union at +all hazards, and that not even the Constitution should be allowed +to stay the arm of the Government in blasting the power of the +Rebels. It was perhaps fortunate for the country that these +divisions existed, and held each other in check. Mr. Collamer was +the impersonation of logical force and the beau ideal of a lawyer +and judge. There was a sort of majesty in the figure and brow of +Fessenden when addressing the Senate, and his sarcasm was as keen +as it was inimitable; but his nature was kindly, and his integrity +perfect. Trumbull was a less commanding figure, but he greatly +honored his position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the +Senate, and his memory will be held in perpetual remembrance as +the author of the Civil Rights Bill and of the XIII Amendment to +the Constitution. Sumner, I think, was the purest man in the +Senate, if not the ablest. He was pre-eminently the hero of duty, +and the servant of what he believed to be the truth. No man could +have made a more absolute surrender of himself to his country in +the great conflict which threatened its life. His weary and jaded +look always excited my sympathy, for he seemed to be sacrificing +all the joys of life, and life itself, in his zeal for the public +service. I knew Wade more intimately than any man in the Senate, +through my association with him as a member of the same Committee +for successive years, and was always interested in his personal +traits and peculiarities. He was "a man of uncommon downrightness." +There was even a sort of fascination about his profanity. It had +in it a spontaniety and heartiness which made it almost seem the +echo of a virtue. It was unlike the profane words of Thaddeus +Stevens, which were frequently carried on the shafts of his wit +and lost in the laughter it provoked. Edmunds, now so famous as +a lawyer, and leader in the Senate, and so well known by his reputed +resemblance to St. Jerome, was simply respectable on his first +appearance; but his ability, industry, and constant devotion to +his duties soon gave him rank among the prominent men in that body. +Grimes of Iowa was one of the really strong men of this period, +while Harlan, his colleague, possessed a vigor and grasp of mind +which I think the public never fully accorded him. Lane of Indiana +was full of patriotic ardor, and like Baker of Oregon, had the rare +gift of eloquent impromptu speech. Henry Wilson earned the gratitude +of his country by his unswerving loyalty to freedom, and his great +labors and invaluable services as chairman of the Military Committee. +Howard ranked among the first lawyers and most faithful men in the +body, and no man had a clearer grasp of the issues of the war. +Henderson was a strong man, whose integrity and political independence +were afterward abundantly proved. Doolittle was a man of vigor, +and made a good record as a Republican, but he naturally belonged +to the other side of the Senate, and finally found his way to it, +through the quarrel with Johnson. + +Garrett Davis was always an interesting figure. His volubility of +talk bordered on the miraculous; and whenever he began to swathe +the Senate in his interminable rhetoric it awakened the laughter +or the despair of everybody on the floor or in the galleries. +Bayard and Thurman were recognized as the strong men on their side +of the Senate in the Forty-first Congress. Buckalew was one of +the really sterling men of his party, but he was a modest man, and +only appreciated by those who knew him intimately. As a leading +Democrat, Hendricks stood well in the Senate. He was so cautious +and diplomatic in temper and so genial and conciliatory in his +manner that he glided smoothly through the rugged conflict of +opinions in which his side of the chamber was unavoidably involved. +B. Gratz Brown was known as an intense radical, but he made little +mark in this crisis. He wrote out elaborate and scholarly essays +which he read to the Senate, but they received slight attention +from members, and seemed to bear little fruit. Carpenter, Schurz +and Morton took their seats after the war, and were not long in +finding honorable recognition. Carpenter was as brilliant and +versatile in intellect as he was naturally eloquent in speech and +wayward in morals. Carl Schurz displayed ability in the famous +debate with Morton and Conkling on the sale of arms to the French, +and his political independence in 1872 gave him great prominence +as a Liberal Republican leader; but that virtue has been less +conspicuously illustrated in later years. Morton became famous +soon after he entered the Senate. The "logic of events" had +revolutionized the opinions so vigorously espoused by him only a +few months before, and his great speech on reconstruction, in which +he avowed and defended his change of base, brought him into great +prominence, and multiplied his friends in every section of the +country. + +In the House, Roscoe Conkling was recognized as a man of considerable +talent and great self-esteem. I have elsewhere referred to his +passage at arms with Blaine. He never linked his name with any +important principle or policy, and was singularly wanting in the +qualities of a party leader. No one questioned his personal +integrity, but in later years he was prompt and zealous in the +defense of the worst abuses which found shelter in his party. Mr. +Sherman was shrewd, wiry and diplomatic, but gave little promise +of the career he has since achieved through ambition, industry and +favoring conditions. Shellabarger was one of the ablest men in +the House, and was so rated. He was always faithful and vigilant, +and I have before given an instance of this in his timely action +on the question of reconstruction. Mr. Blaine, during the first +years of his service, showed little activity. He spoke but seldom +and briefly, but always with vigor and effect. He steadily grew +into favor with his party in the House as a man of force, but +without seeming to strive for it. I think his abilities were never +fully appreciated till he became speaker. His personal magnetism +was as remarkable as his readiness to serve a friend was unfailing; +but, like Mr. Conkling, he never identified himself with any great +legislative measure. + +Henry Winter Davis was the most formidable debater in the House. +He was full of resources, while the rapidity of his utterance and +the impetuosity of his speech bore down every thing before it. +The fire and force of his personality seemed to make him irresistible, +and can only be likened to the power displayed by Mr. Blaine in +the House, in his later and palmier years. When Gen. Garfield +entered the Thirty-eighth Congress there was a winning modesty in +his demeanor. I was interested in his first effort on the floor, +which was brief, and marked by evident diffidence. He was not +long, however, in recovering his self-possession, and soon engaged +actively in general debate. His oratory, at first, was the reverse +of winning, owing to the peculiar intonation of his voice, but +gradually improved, while his hunger for knowledge, unflagging +industry, and ambition for distinction, gradually revealed themselves +as very clearly defined traits. During the first years of his +service the singular grasp of his mind was not appreciated, but it +was easy to see that he was growing, and that a man of his political +ambition and great industry could not be satisfied with any position +of political mediocrity. His situation as a Representative of the +Nineteenth Ohio District was exceedingly favorable to his aspirations, +as it was the custom of that district to continue a man in its +service when once installed, and its overwhelming majority relieved +him of all concern about the result. He could thus give his whole +time and thought to the study of politics, and the mastery of those +historical and literary pursuits which he afterward made so available +in the finish and embellishment of his speeches. + +As a parliamentary leader, Mr. Stevens, of course, was always the +central figure in the House. No possible emergency could disconcert +him. Whether the attack came from friend or foe, or in whatever +form, he was ready, on the instant, to repel it and turn the tables +completely upon his assailant. He exercised the most absolute +freedom of speech, making his thrusts with the same coolness at +"unrighteous copperheads and self-righteous Republicans." In +referring to the moderate and deprecatory views of Colfax and Olin, +in January, 1863, he said he had always been fifteen years in +advance of his party, but never so far ahead that its members did +not overtake him. His keenest thrusts were frequently made in such +a tone and manner as to disarm them of their sting, and create +universal merriment. When Whaley of West Virginia begged him, +importunately, to yield the floor a moment for a brief statement, +while Mr. Stevens was much engrossed with an important discussion, +he finally gave way, saying, "Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman +from West Virginia for a few feeble remarks." When he lost his +temper and waged war in earnest his invective was absolutely +remorseless, as in the example I have given of it in a previous +chapter. + +I have before referred to the oratory of Bingham. He was a reader +of books and a master of English. He loved poetry, and was one of +the most genial and companionable of men, but he was irritable and +crispy in temper, and a formidable customer in debate. He had +several angry bouts with Butler, in one of which he spoke sneeringly +of the "hero of Fort Fisher," to which Butler replied that the +gentleman from Ohio had shown his prowess in the hanging of Mrs. +Surratt, an innocent woman, upon the scaffold. Bingham retorted +that such a charge was "only fit to come from a man who lives in +a bottle, and is fed with a spoon." He was often dogmatic and +lacking in coolness and balance, but in later years he showed +uncommon tact in extricating himself from the odium threatened by +his connection with the Credit Mobilier scheme. + +One of the really strong men in the House was John Hickman, of +Pennsylvania, who had been a prominent figure in Congress during +Buchanan's administration. He was a man of brains, courage, and +worth. Potter was a true and brave man, whose acceptance of a +challenge from Roger A. Pryor, and choice of butcher knives as the +weapons of warfare, had made him very popular at the North. Rollins +of Missouri was an eloquent man, of superior ability and attainments, +and large political experience. Pike of Maine was one of the first +men in the House, but too honest and independent to sacrifice his +convictions for the sake of success. Deming of Connecticut was a +man of real calibre, and on rare occasions electrified the House +by his speeches, but he lacked industry. One of the finest debaters +in the House was Henry J. Raymond. He displayed very decided power +in the debate on Reconstruction, and very effectively exposed the +weakness of the Republicans in practically dealing with the Rebel +States as if they were at once in and out of the Union. Among the +most striking figures in the House were Butler and Cox, whose +contests were greatly relished. They were well matched, and +alternately carried off the prize of victory. Butler, in the first +onset, achieved a decided triumph in his reply to a very personal +assault by Cox. "As to the vituperation of the member from New +York," said he, "he will hear my answer to him by every boy that +whistles it on the street, and every hand-organ, 'Shoo, fly, don't +bodder me'!" Cox, for the time, was extinguished, but patiently +watched his opportunity till he found his revenge, which Butler +afterward frankly acknowledged. For a time there was bad blood +between them, but they finally became friends, and I think so +continued. + +General Banks was always a notable personality. His erect figure, +military eye, and splendid voice secured for him the admiring +attention of the galleries whenever he addressed the House. Ashley +of Ohio who took the lead in the impeachment movement, in which he +was so zealous that he became known as "Impeachment Ashley," was +another picturesque figure. His fine _physique,_ frolicsome face, +and luxuriant suit of curly brown hair singled him out among the +bald heads of the body as one of its most attractive members. +Boutwell impressed the House as a man of solid qualities, and a +formidable debater. He acquitted himself admirably in his defense +of Butler against a savage attack by Brooks. Blair was a man of +ability, independence, and courage, of which his record in the +House gave ample proof. Wilson of Iowa was a young man when he +entered Congress, but soon gave proof of his ability, and took rank +as one of the best lawyers on the Judiciary Committee. Judge +Kelley, since known as the "Father of the House," and one of the +fathers of the Greenback movement, first attracted attention by +the wonderful volume and power of his voice. It filled the entire +Hall, and subdued all rival sounds; but to the surprise of everybody, +he met with more than his match when he was followed, one day, by +Van Wyck, of New York, who triumphantly carried off the palm. +Kelley's voice was little more than a zephyr, in comparison with +the roar and thunder that followed it and called forth shouts of +laughter, while Kelley quietly occupied his seat as if in dumb +amazement at what had happened. + +James Brooks was always a conspicuous figure on the Democratic side +of the House. I first knew him in the log cabin days of 1840, and +afterward served with him in the Congress of 1849. He was a man +of ability, a genuine hater of the negro, and a bitter partisan; +but I never saw any reason to doubt his personal integrity, and I +think the affair which threw so dark a cloud over his reputation +in later years was a surprise to all who knew him. Michael C. Kerr +was one of the very first men in the House, and a man of rare purity +and worth. Randall, like Garfield, was a growing man during the +war, and through his ambition, natural abilities, and Congressional +training, he became one of the chief magnates of his party. +Pendleton was counted an able man, and made his mark as a Bourbon +Democrat and the champion of hard money; but he subsequently spoiled +his financial record by his scheme for flooding the country with +greenbacks. Vallandigham was conspicuous for his intellectual +vigor, passionate earnestness, and hatred of Abolitionism. He had +the courage of his opinions. The Republicans hated him consumedly. +He was a member of the House Committee on Public Lands, which +reported the Homestead Bill, and I remember that no Republican +member, except the chairman, showed the slightest disposition to +recognize him. After the war was ended, however, and the work of +reconstruction was accomplished, his temper and qualities seemed +to have spent much of their force. He was among the very first to +plead for acquiescence and the policy of reconciliation; and if +his life had been spared I believe his catholic spirit and active +leadership in the "New Departure" would have re-instated him in +the sincere regard of men of all parties. Lovejoy was the most +impassioned orator in the House. His speeches were remarkable for +their pungency and wit, and when the question of slavery was under +discussion his soul took fire. He hated slavery with the animosity +of a regular Puritan, and when he talked about it everybody listened. +Wickliffe of Kentucky was one of the most offensive representatives +of the Border State policy, and whenever he spoke Lovejoy was sure +to follow. As often as Wickliffe got the floor it was noticed that +Lovejoy's brow was immediately darkened in token of the impending +strife, while his friends and enemies prepared themselves for the +scene. Wickliffe was a large, fierce-looking man, with a shrill +voice, and quite as belligerent as Lovejoy; and their contests were +frequent, and always enjoyed by the House, and for some time became +a regular feature of its business. + +Elihu B. Washburne was conspicuous as the champion of economy. He +rivaled Holman as the "watch-dog of the treasury" and the enemy of +land-grants. He was a man of force, and rendered valuable service +to the country, but he assumed such airs of superior virtue, and +frequently lectured the House in so magisterial a tone as to make +himself a little unpopular with members. This was strikingly +illustrated in 1868, in his controversy with Donnelly of Minnesota +against whom he had made some dishonorable charges through a +Minnesota newspaper. Donnelly was an Irishman, a wit, and an +exceedingly versatile genius, and when it became known that he was +to defend himself in the House against Washburne's charges, and make +a counter attack, every member was in his seat, although the weather +was intensely hot and no legislative business was to be transacted. +Donnelly had fully prepared himself, and such a castigation as he +administered, has rarely, if ever, been witnessed in a legislative +body. He kept a ceaseless and overwhelming fire of wit, irony, +and ridicule, for nearly two hours, during which the members +frequently laughed and sometimes applauded, while Washburne sat pale +and mute under the infliction. The tables were turned upon him, +although portions of Donnelly's tirade were unparliamentary, and +indefensible on the score of coarseness and bad taste. No member, +however, raised any point of order; but the friends of Mr. Washburne +afterward surrounded Donnelly, and by artful appeals to his good +nature prevailed upon him to suppress a portion of the speech, and +to proffer statements which tended to destroy its effect and to +restore to Washburne the ground he had lost. The House had its fun, +while Washburne deigned no reply except to re-affirm his charges, +and Donnelly's friends were vexed at his needless surrender of his +vantage-ground. It was an odd and unexpected _denouement_ of a +very remarkable exhibition. + +Oakes Ames was one of the members of the House with whom I was best +acquainted. I thought I knew him well, and I never had the slightest +reason to suspect his public or private integrity. Personally and +socially he was one of the kindliest men I ever knew, and I was +greatly surprised when I learned of his connection with the Credit +Mobilier project. It first found its way into politics through a +speech of Horace Greeley near the close of the canvass of 1872, +but it had been fully exposed by Washburn of Wisconsin in a speech +in Congress in the year 1868. The history of its connection with +American politics and politicians forms an exceedingly interesting +and curious chapter. The fate of the men involved in it seems like +a perfect travesty of justice and fair play. Some of them have +gone down under the waves of popular condemnation. Others, occupying +substantially the same position, according to the evidence, have +made their escape and even been honored and trusted by the public, +while still others are quietly whiling away their lives under the +shadow of suspicion. The case affords a strange commentary upon +the principle of historic justice. + +One of the most remarkable facts connected with the first years of +the war was the descent of the Abolitionists upon Washington. They +secured the hall of the Smithsonian Institute for their meetings, +which they held weekly, and at which the Rev. John Pierpont presided. +It was with much difficulty that the hall was procured, and one of +the conditions of granting it was that it should be distinctly +understood and announced that the Smithsonian Institute was to be +in no way responsible for anything that might be said by the +speakers. This was very emphatically insisted on by Professor +Henry, and was duly announced at the first meeting. At the following, +and each succeeding lecture, Mr. Pierpont regularly made the same +announcement. These gatherings were largely attended and very +enthusiastic; and as the anti-slavery tide constantly grew stronger, +the weekly announcement that "the Smithsonian Institute desires it +to be distinctly understood that it is not to be held responsible +for the utterances of the speakers," awakened the sense of the +ludicrous, and called forth rounds of applause and explosions of +laughter by the audience, in front of which Professor Henry was +seated. Each meeting thus began with a frolic of good humor, which +Mr. Pierpont evidently enjoyed, for he made his announcement with +a gravity which naturally provoked the mirth which followed. These +meetings were addressed by Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, Ralph +Waldo Emerson, Dr. Brownson, and other notable men, and were enjoyed +as a sort of jubilee by the men and women who attended them. + +The services in the Hall of Representatives each Sabbath formed +the fitting counterpart of these proceedings. The crowds in +attendance filled every part of the floor and galleries, and were +full of enthusiasm. The most terrific arraignment of slavery I +ever listened to was by Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, in the course +of these services. He was a man of great ability, unquenchable +zeal, fervid eloquence, and an Old Testament Christian who was +sometimes called the Prophet Isaiah of the anti-slavery cause. He +carried his religion courageously into politics, and while arraigning +slavery as the grand rebel, he also severely criticised the management +of the war and the Border State policy of the President. The most +pronounced anti-slavery sermons were also preached in the Capital +by Dr. Boynton, Mr. Channing and others, while the Hutchinson family +occasionally entertained the public with their anti-slavery songs. +All this must have been sufficiently shocking to the slave-holding +politics and theology of the city, whose slumbers were thus rudely +disturbed. + +There was a peculiar fascination about life in Washington during +the war. The city itself was unattractive. Its ragged appearance, +wretched streets, and sanitary condition were the reproach of its +citizens, who could have had no dream of the Washington of to-day; +but it was a great military as well as political center. Our troops +were pouring in from every loyal State, and the drum-beat was heard +night and day, while the political and social element hitherto in +the ascendant, was completely submerged by the great flood from +the North. The city was surrounded, and in part occupied by +hospitals, and for a time many of the principal churches were +surrendered to the use of our sick and wounded soldiers, whose +numbers were fearfully swelled after each great battle. The imminent +peril to which the Capital was repeatedly exposed, and the constantly +changing fortunes of the war, added greatly to the interest of the +crisis, and marked the alternations of hope and fear among the +friends and enemies of the Union. But notwithstanding the seriousness +of the times, there was a goodly measure of real social life. +Human nature demanded some relaxation from the dreadful strain and +burden of the great conflict, and this was partially found in the +levees of the President and Cabinet ministers, and the receptions +of the Speaker, which were largely attended and greatly enjoyed; +and this enjoyment was doubtless much enhanced by the peculiar bond +of union and feeling of brotherhood which the state of the country +awakened among its friends. The most pleasant of these occasions, +however, were the weekly receptions of the Speaker. Those of +Speaker Grow were somewhat marred, and sometimes interrupted, by +his failing health, but the receptions of Mr. Colfax were singularly +delightful. He discharged the duties of his great office with +marked ability and fairness, and was personally very popular; and +there always gathered about him on these occasions an assemblage +of charming and congenial people, whose genuine cordiality was a +rebuke to the insincerity so often witnessed in social life. + +But I need not further pursue these personal details, nor linger +over the by-gones of a grand epoch. We have entered upon a new +dispensation. The withdrawal of the slavery question from the +strife of parties has changed the face of our politics as completely +as did its introduction. The transition from an abnormal and +revolutionary period to the regular and orderly administration of +affairs, has been as remarkable as the intervention of the great +question which eclipsed every other till it compelled its own +solution. Although this transition has given birth to an era of +"slack-water politics," it has gradually brought the country face +to face with new problems, some of which are quite as vital to the +existence and welfare of the Republic as those which have taxed +the statesmanship of the past. The tyranny of industrial domination, +which borrows its life from the alliance of concentrated capital +with labor-saving machinery, must be overthrown. Commercial +feudalism, wielding its power through the machinery of great +corporations which are practically endowed with life officers and +the right of hereditary succession and control the makers and +expounders of our laws, must be subordinated to the will of the +people. The system of agricultural serfdom called Land Monopoly, +which is now putting on new forms of danger in the rapid multiplication +of great estates and the purchase of vast bodies of lands by foreign +capitalists, must be resisted as a still more formidable foe of +democratic Government. The legalized robbery now carried on in +the name of Protection to American labor must be overthrown. The +system of spoils and plunder must also be destroyed, in order that +freedom itself may be rescued from the perilous activities quickened +into life by its own spirit, and the conduct of public affairs +inspired by the great moralities which dignify public life. + +These are the problems which appeal to the present generation, and +especially to the honorable ambition of young men now entering upon +public life. Their solution is certain, because they are directly +in the path of progress, and progress is a law; but whether it +shall be heralded by the kindly agencies of peace or the harsh +power of war, must depend upon the wise and timely use of opportunities. +The result is certain, since justice can not finally be defeated; +but the circumstances of the struggle and the cost of its triumph +are committed to the people, who can scarcely fail to find both +instruction and warning in the story of the anti-slavery conflict. + + +INDEX. [omitted] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Recollections, by George W. 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