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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #50423 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50423)
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-Project Gutenberg's Zachariah Chandler, by Detroit Post and Tribune
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Zachariah Chandler
-       An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services
-
-Author: Detroit Post and Tribune
-
-Release Date: November 13, 2015 [EBook #50423]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZACHARIAH CHANDLER ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Richard Tonsing, Andrew Sly, Mark C. Orton and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
-Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                          ZACHARIAH CHANDLER:
-
-                           AN OUTLINE SKETCH
-
-                                  OF
-
-                     His Life and Public Services.
-
-
-                                  BY
-
-                     THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE.
-
-                      WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER
-
-                                 FROM
-
-                      JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE.
-
-    O iron nerve to true occasion true,
-    O fall'n at length that tower of strength
-    Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
-                                           --_Tennyson._
-
-                               DETROIT:
-
-               THE POST AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
-
-  R. D. S. TYLER & CO., DETROIT.
-  CHARLES DREW, NEW YORK.
-  J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS.
-  TYLER & CO., CHICAGO.
-  WM. H. THOMPSON & CO., BOSTON.
-
-                                 1880.
-
-      ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1879, BY
-
-                     THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE,
-
-      IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON.
-
-                            Electrotyped by
-                        A. W. HABBIN, Detroit.
-
-                               PRESS OF
-                            WRIGHTON & CO.,
-                            CINCINNATI, O.
-
-                                  TO
-
-                     THE REPUBLICANS OF MICHIGAN,
-
-        WHO SO LONG UPHELD, AND WHO WERE IMPLICITLY TRUSTED BY,
-
-                          ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
-
-                      THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE IS
-
-                              DEDICATED.
-
-It is stated elsewhere that this work is written "BY THE DETROIT
-POST AND TRIBUNE." Unusual as this form of announcement is on the
-title-pages of books, there certainly may be an authorial as well
-as an editorial impersonality; in this case the phrase succinctly
-expresses the fact, namely, that the volume represents the joint labors
-of the staff of THE POST AND TRIBUNE, alike in the collection and the
-treatment of its material.
-
-While its preparation has been almost wholly a matter of original
-research, such use as was necessary has been made of historical data
-contained in "The Centennial History of Bedford, N. H.," published in
-1851, in Horace Greeley's "American Conflict," and in Henry Wilson's
-"History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power."
-
-Needed information has been furnished by those intimately connected
-with Mr. CHANDLER, but the work has not been submitted to their
-revision, and they are not responsible for the form of the narrative,
-nor for the personal estimate it embodies.
-
-This book presents a sketch of the life and the public services of a
-remarkable man. It has been written from the standpoint of political
-sympathy, and with the hope of deepening the wholesome influences so
-powerfully exerted upon public sentiment in his lifetime by ZACHARIAH
-CHANDLER. The aim has been to make it accurate in statement, and to see
-that its chapters should fairly draw, in outline at least, the picture
-of the career of a genuine leader of men.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
-
-
-  TO THE EDITORS OF THE POST AND TRIBUNE:
-
-I am unable to give any personal or special incidents in the life of
-Mr. Chandler not open to his biographers from other sources. I was not
-so intimate in my relations with him as were some others, nor did I
-know him better than many others who like myself were associated with
-him in public life for a long period. I knew him well, however, both on
-the side of his private life and his public life, and in every phase he
-was a man of strong character.
-
-The time in which a man lives, and the circumstances by which he is
-surrounded, control his fate even more largely than his personal and
-inherent qualities. Mr. Chandler was fortunate in the time of his
-removal to the West, fortunate in the era which brought him into
-public life. When he became a citizen of Michigan the days of hard
-pioneer life were ending, extensive cultivation of the soil had begun,
-products for shipment were large and rapidly increasing. Facilities
-for transportation were already great. The Erie Canal had been open
-for several years, and steamers had multiplied on the Great Lakes.
-Everything was in readiness for a strong-minded, energetic, competent
-man of business, and Mr. Chandler had the good fortune to settle in
-Detroit at the precise point of time when the elements of success were
-within his grasp. For a quarter of a century thereafter his career was
-that of a business man intensely devoted to his private interests,
-and participating in public affairs only as an incident and with no
-effort to secure advancement. The result of this steady devotion to
-business was that Mr. Chandler found himself at forty-four years of age
-possessed of a large property, constantly and rapidly increasing in
-value.
-
-Coincident with this condition in his financial fortunes came a
-crisis in the political affairs of the country, involving the class
-of questions which took deep hold on the mind and the heart of Mr.
-Chandler. The curbing of the slave power, the assertion and maintenance
-of freedom on free soil, undying devotion to the Union of the States,
-and the bold defense of the rights of the citizen--these were the
-issues which in various phases absorbed the public mind from the repeal
-of the Missouri compromise in 1854 down to the close of Mr. Chandler's
-life. And on all the issues presented for consideration for twenty-five
-years Mr. Chandler never halted, never wearied, never grew timid, never
-was willing to compromise. On these great questions he became the
-leader of Michigan, and Michigan kept Mr. Chandler at the front during
-the prolonged struggle which has wrought such mighty changes in the
-history of the American people.
-
-It is a noteworthy fact, not infrequently adverted to, that the
-political opinions of Michigan both as Territory and State, for a
-period of sixty years, were represented, and indeed in no small degree
-formed, by two men of New Hampshire birth. From 1819 to 1854 General
-Cass was the accepted political leader of Michigan, and only once
-in all that long period of thirty-five years did her people fail to
-follow him. That was in 1840, when the old pioneers and the soldiers of
-1812--generally the friends of Cass--refused his leadership, and voted
-for the older pioneer and the more illustrious chieftain, William Henry
-Harrison. From 1854 till Mr. Chandler's death the dominant opinion
-of Michigan was with him; and her people followed him, trusted him,
-believed in him. During that quarter of a century the population of the
-State more than trebled in number, but the strength of Chandler with
-the newcomers seemed as great as with the older population with whom
-he had begun the struggle of life in the Territory of Michigan. The
-old men stood firmly by him in the faith and confidence of an ancient
-friendship, and the young men followed with an enthusiasm which grew
-into affection, and with an affection which ripened into reverence.
-
-Mr. Chandler's life in Washington, apart from his public service, was
-a notable event in the history of the capital. His wealth enabled him
-to be generous and hospitable, and his elegant mansion was a center of
-attraction for many years. Nor were the guests confined to one party.
-Mr. Chandler was personally popular with his political opponents,
-and the leading men of the Democratic party often sat at his table
-and forgot in the genial host, and the frank, sincere man, all the
-bitterness that might have come from conflict in the partisan arena.
-
-It is fitting that Mr. Chandler's life be written. It is due, first of
-all, to his memory. It is due to those who come after him. It is due
-to the great State whose Senator he was, whose interests he served,
-whose honor he upheld. I am glad the work is committed to competent
-friends, who can discriminate between honest approval and inconsiderate
-praise, and who with strict adherence to truth can find in his career
-so much that is honorable, so much that is admirable, so little that is
-censurable, and nothing that is mean.
-
-                           Very sincerely yours,
-
-                                                         JAMES G. BLAINE.
-
-  WASHINGTON, February 15, 1880.
-
-
-
-
-TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAPTER I.
-
-  BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
-
-                                                                   PAGE.
-
-  The town of Bedford, N. H.--King Phillip's War--Land grants to
-  surviving soldiers--Souhegan-East--Grant of a charter--Naming
-  the town--The early settlers--The thirst for civil and religious
-  liberty--Records of the church--The thrift of the people--Native
-  humor--A patriotic record--Services in three wars.                  19
-
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-
-  PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
-
-  The Chandlers of New England--The first Zechariah
-  and his possessions--Settlement in the intervale of
-  the Merrimack--Genealogy of the family--Noted family
-  connections--Prominence in church and State--The family
-  residences--Birthplace of Zachariah--Inherited traits--A strong,
-  self-reliant boy--His school-days--One term as teacher--Work on
-  the farm--Military experience--Clerk in a store--His journey
-  Westward--Affection for the old town--Some of Bedford's emigrants.
-                                                                      31
-
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-
-  REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN--MERCANTILE SUCCESS--BUSINESS INVESTMENTS.
-
-  Business start in Detroit--The cholera epidemic--Caring for
-  the sick--Characteristics of the young business man--Nearest
-  approach to an assignment--Pushing his business--Visits
-  to the interior--Strong friendships--His young clerk and
-  successor--Commercial integrity and sagacity--Accumulation of
-  property--Helping the Government credit--Incorruptibility as a
-  Legislator.                                                         44
-
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-
-  THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.
-
-  Early explorations of the Lakes--A mission at the Sault--Passage
-  of the Strait--First settlement at Detroit--Steam navigation
-  upon the Lakes--Organization of the Territory--An imperial
-  domain--Detroit in 1833--Marvelous development of a great City and
-  State--Statistics of 1879.                                          54
-
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-
-  THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY--RECORD AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY
-  WHIG.
-
-  A conspicuous figure in politics--Lewis Cass, his career and
-  characteristics--A strong contrast--Mr. Chandler as a Whig--A
-  sinewy worker at the polls--The Crosswhite case--Making a
-  firm friend--Nomination and election for Mayor--A sharp
-  campaign--Invitation to Kossuth--Nominated for Governor--An
-  energetic but unsuccessful canvass--First nomination for the
-  Senate.                                                             71
-
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-
-  THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
-
-  The Compromises of 1820 and 1850--Annexation of Texas--Calhoun's
-  farewell--Profound Northern indignation--Memorable debates in
-  Congress--"Free Democrat" action in Michigan--Public anti-slavery
-  meetings and private conferences--The Whig Convention at
-  Kalamazoo--Steps toward union--A stirring address--"Under the Oaks"
-  at Jackson--A notable convention--Formation of the Republican
-  party--A ringing platform--The first of a series of uninterrupted
-  successes--Work of Mr. Chandler in the campaign.                    89
-
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-
-  THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
-
-  Work in the campaign of 1856--The National Conventions--Aid in
-  making Michigan radical--Republican success in that State--An
-  earnest Senatorial canvass--Mr. Chandler nominated over Mr.
-  Christiancy and others--His election--Composition of the
-  Thirty-fifth Congress--Subsequent career of his associates.        119
-
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY--THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM
-  LINCOLN.
-
-  Preparations for Disunion--Imbecility of the Administration--Gloomy
-  forebodings--Mr. Chandler's first prepared address--A vigorous
-  and unanswerable speech--The Dred Scott decision--The John Brown
-  raid--A warning to traitors--Denunciation of treason--Personal
-  peril--Giving "satisfaction" to Southern "gentlemen"--Mr. Chandler
-  not to be bullied--The Chandler, Cameron and Wade compact.         133
-
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-
-  SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY.
-
-  Beneficence of "The American System"--Reply to the "mud-sill"
-  speech--Defense of free Northern labor--Review of the tariff
-  controversy--The Morrill tariff of 1861--Modifications proposed in
-  1867--The priceless value of the skilled mechanic.                 151
-
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-
-  SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF
-  INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
-
-  The Committee on Commerce as first organized--Unavailing
-  protests--Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate--The St. Clair
-  Flats improvement--A defeat and significant prophecy--The work,
-  its cost and value--Mr. Chandler a member and then Chairman of
-  the Committee on Commerce--The wide scope of that committee's
-  labors--One-half of the entire amount expended by the United
-  States for rivers and harbors appropriated during Mr. Chandler's
-  chairmanship.                                                      164
-
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-
-  THE OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION--NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITUTIONAL
-  RIGHTS.
-
-  First formal step of secession--Buchanan's "No coercion"
-  message--Organization of the Southern Confederacy--Mr.
-  Chandler opposes compromise--Thwarting the plots of rebel
-  leaders--Securing the appointment of Secretary Stanton--Unwritten
-  reminiscences--Denunciation of traitors and imbeciles--The proposed
-  Peace Congress--The "blood-letter" and its justification.          182
-
-
-  CHAPTER XII.
-
-  THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.
-
-  President Lincoln's arrival in Washington--Mr. Chandler's advice
-  as to the Cabinet--Conciliatory character of the inaugural--An
-  illustration of Southern perfidy--Surrender of Fort Sumter--A
-  Detroit meeting--"But one sentiment here"--Reception of Michigan
-  men in Washington--Visit to Fortress Monroe--Crossing the
-  Potomac--Proposed confiscation of rebel property--"Two parties in
-  the country, patriots and traitors"--Vindication of Michigan's
-  record--An advance movement urged.                                 201
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
-
-  The disaster at Ball's Bluff--A committee of inquiry proposed
-  by Mr. Chandler--Organization of the Committee on the Conduct
-  of the War--Opposition and subsequent co-operation of the
-  Administration--Confidential Relations with President Lincoln and
-  Secretaries Cameron and Stanton--Laying out work--Mr. Chandler's
-  great speech against McClellan--Distrust of McClellanism in
-  politics--The Fitz-John Porter case--Last work of the committee.   215
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIV.
-
-  THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
-
-  The political reverses of 1862--The "Union movement" in
-  Michigan--Re-election of Senator Chandler--Proposition to arm
-  the colored people--The Fremont proclamation and the Hunter
-  order--Opposition to the colonization schemes--Influence with the
-  Secretary of War--The Trent affair--Aid to Michigan soldiers in the
-  Washington hospitals--"We must accept no compromise."              250
-
-
-  CHAPTER XV.
-
-  THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
-
-  The political and military successes of 1863--The Cleveland
-  convention--Nomination of Fremont and Cochrane--Renomination
-  of Abraham Lincoln--Resignation of Secretary Chase--Peace
-  negotiations at Niagara Falls--The Wade-Davis manifesto--Nomination
-  of McClellan--Mr. Chandler's conferences with the disaffected
-  Republicans--Resignation of Postmaster-General Blair--Withdrawal of
-  the Fremont ticket--An overwhelming political triumph.             263
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVI.
-
-  THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON--RECONSTRUCTION AND
-  IMPEACHMENT.
-
-  The Assassination of President Lincoln--The War Committee
-  meet President Johnson--Revengeful disposition of the new
-  Executive--Legal questions in reference to the trial of
-  traitors--An important paper by Benjamin F. Butler--A practicable
-  method for prosecuting Jeff Davis--Change of sentiment in President
-  Johnson--He abandons the party that elected him--Development of his
-  "policy"--Hindrance to successful reconstruction--The impeachment
-  resolutions and trial--Disappointment of Mr. Chandler at the
-  failure to convict--General work in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth
-  Congresses.                                                        279
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVII.
-
-  THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT--THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL
-  COMMITTEE.
-
-  Work in the campaign of 1868--Mr. Chandler's re-election to the
-  Senate--The Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill--Edwin
-  M. Stanton's death and the fund for his family--Mr. Chandler's
-  opposition to Southern war claims--His purchase of the Confederate
-  archives--The value of these documents--Election of Senator
-  Ferry--Mr. Chandler's fidelity to his friends--His denunciation of
-  Southern outrages--His comparison of the two parties--His defense
-  of President Grant against Charles Sumner's attacks--The "Salary
-  Grab" opposed by Senator Chandler and his colleague--The Republican
-  Congressional Committee and its efficient work--Intimacy between
-  Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds--The latter's usefulness.        298
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-  THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH.
-
-  Condition of the government credit in 1861--The first issue of
-  "greenbacks"--Mr. Chandler's opposition to any increase in the
-  amount--Taxation recommended as a substitute--Opposition to the
-  taxation of national bonds--Arguments for payment in coin of the
-  "greenbacks" and bonds--Advocacy of the national bank system--The
-  panic of 1873--Resistance to every measure of inflation--Mr.
-  Chandler's speeches in January and February, 1874--The Resumption
-  act.                                                               319
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIX.
-
-  SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT.
-
-  Political reverses of 1874--The contest in Michigan a
-  complicated one--Republican success by a narrow margin--A close
-  Legislature--Resistance to Mr. Chandler's re-election--His
-  pronounced success in his party caucus--A combination of a few
-  Republicans with the Democrats elects Judge Christiancy--Like
-  results elsewhere--Mr. Chandler's confidence--"A candidate for
-  that seat"--Letter to the Republican members of the Legislature--A
-  seeming calamity proves to be a benefit--Appointment as Secretary
-  of the Interior--Changes in the _personnel_ of the Department--How
-  Alonzo Bell became Chief Clerk--The first blow falls--An entire
-  room closed as a measure of "practical reform"--Purification of
-  the Bureau of Indian Affairs--"The most valuable men" suddenly
-  dismissed--Order against the "Indian attorneys"--President
-  Grant's support--Changes in the Bureau of Pensions and the
-  General Land Office--Mr. Chandler's admirable executive
-  qualities recognized--Anecdotes of his Cabinet service--Fighting
-  the patronage-seekers--A cowardly informer--A head to the
-  Department--An investigation that failed--"Pumping a dry
-  well"--Close of Mr. Chandler's term--Tributes of Secretary Schurz
-  to the practical efficiency of his predecessor.                    337
-
-
-  CHAPTER XX.
-
-  THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876--AT HOME--THE MARSH FARM NEAR
-  LANSING.
-
-  Mr. Chandler made Chairman of the National Republican
-  Committee--His original confidence in the result--Apathy in the
-  West--Aid to Ohio--The closeness of the contest apparent--Measures
-  to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat--Mr. Chandler's
-  firm attitude during the remainder of the contest--Its great
-  value--Dissent from the "policy" of the new Administration--A
-  Cabinet anecdote--Mr. Chandler retires to private life--A visit
-  to the Pacific coast--Other extended trips--The marsh farm near
-  Lansing, Michigan--An important experiment in the reclamation
-  of wet lands--Mr. Chandler's "expensive theory"--The method
-  of drainage explained and illustrated in detail--Successful
-  results of the earlier experiments in cultivation--General farm
-  equipment--Houses, barns and stock--Relaxation at the farm--Mr.
-  Chandler's correspondence--The answering of every letter his
-  rule--The power of his oratory--Terse sentences, Saxon words, and
-  brief speeches his aim--The sincerity and honesty of the man--The
-  strength of his friendships--His hearty social qualities--His
-  Washington and Detroit residences described--Narrow escape from
-  a serious accident in 1858--Mr. Chandler's family--His domestic
-  happiness--His wife and daughter his sole heirs.                   356
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXI.
-
-  THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878--MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
-  SENATE--"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
-
-  Development of "Greenback" strength in the West--Resolute
-  resistance in Michigan to the spread of financial heresy--Mr.
-  Chandler leads the Republican battle--A great victory--It is
-  followed by his fourth election to the Senate--He takes his seat
-  in time to answer rebel eulogies in the Senate on Jeff. Davis--His
-  brief and telling response--It strikes the chord of patriotic
-  feeling--The popular response--The "extra session" of 1879--Mr.
-  Chandler's last Congressional speech.                              374
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXII.
-
-  THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879--MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS--DEATH AND FUNERAL.
-
-  Mr. Chandler at the front in the political contests of 1879--He is
-  greeted by a popular ovation--His name urged for the Republican
-  presidential nomination in 1880--Grant his own choice--Work affects
-  his strong constitution--His Chicago speech--Dead in his bed at the
-  Grand Pacific Hotel on Nov. 1, 1879!--The national grief--Funeral
-  and burial.                                                        386
-
-
-  APPENDIX.
-
-  ZACHARIAH CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH: DELIVERED IN MCCORMICK HALL, IN
-  THE CITY OF CHICAGO, ON OCTOBER 31, 1879.
-
-  THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN: A MEMORIAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED IN THE
-  FORT STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DETROIT, ON NOVEMBER 27, 1879, BY
-  THE REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-                                                                   PAGE.
-
-  STEEL PORTRAIT OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,                  _Frontispiece._
-
-  THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD AT BEDFORD, N. H.,                           33
-
-  THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,                               35
-
-  THE ENTRY OF THE BIRTH OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN THE FAMILY
-  BIBLE,                                                              37
-
-  THE SCHOOL HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H.,                                 39
-
-  THE CHANDLER BLOCK (Detroit),                                       49
-
-  DETROIT IN 1834,                                                    65
-
-  FAC-SIMILE OF THE "TEMPERANCE TICKET" OF 1852 IN MICHIGAN,          86
-
-  THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION--("Under the Oaks" at
-  Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854),                                     111
-
-  THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON,                                127
-
-  THE SHIP CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS,                             173
-
-  PORTRAIT OF SENATOR CHANDLER IN 1862,                              217
-
-  PORTRAIT OF THE LATE JAMES M. EDMUNDS,                             315
-
-  THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT AT WASHINGTON,                             341
-
-  THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT--1876-'77--(From a Sketch by
-  Mrs. C. Adele Fassett),                                            347
-
-  THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,                       353
-
-  PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM,                                            361
-
-  THE "BIG DITCH" OF THE MARSH FARM,                                 363
-
-  THE MAIN HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM,                                  365
-
-  THE LARGE BARN AT THE MARSH FARM,                                  367
-
-  MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT WASHINGTON,                            369
-
-  MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT DETROIT,                               371
-
-  THE STATE CAPITOL OF MICHIGAN,                                     377
-
-  SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON JEFF. DAVIS IN
-  THE SENATE CHAMBER AT 3 A. M. OF MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1879,            381
-
-  THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO,                                389
-
-  PROFILE BUST OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER--(A sketch from Leonard W.
-  Volk's Plaster Cast),                                              391
-
-  THE TRIBUTE OF GEN. U. S. GRANT (_fac-simile_),                    393
-
-                          ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
-
-
-In the valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from Boston,
-is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a community of thrifty
-farms, with striking characteristics, and almost a century and a half
-of entertaining history. Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of
-character prevail among its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock
-of its original settlers, the loftiness of their traditions, and the
-puritanism of its civilization have made it a nursery of strong men.
-
-King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the New England
-provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only accomplished when
-one in twenty of the men among the colonists had fallen and a like
-proportion of their families was houseless, and it left behind it what
-was in those days a heavy debt. More than half a century elapsed before
-there was any substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of
-that war and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous
-petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General Court
-of Massachusetts" granted land enough for two townships "to the
-soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narragansett War and to
-their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was subsequently enlarged to
-seven townships, as appears from the following record of proceedings in
-"the Great and General Court or Assembly for His Majestie's Province of
-the Massachusetts Bay," under date of April 26, 1733:
-
-  A Petition of a Committee for the Narragansett Soldiers, showing
-  that there are the number of Eight Hundred and Forty Persons
-  entered as officers and soldiers in the late Narragansett War,
-  Praying that there may be such an addition of Land granted to them,
-  as may allow a Tract of six miles Square to each one hundred and
-  twenty men so admitted.
-
-  In the House of Representatives, Read, and Ordered that the Prayer
-  of the Petition be granted, and that Major Chandler, Mr. Edward
-  Shove, Col. Thomas Tileston, Mr. John Hobson and Mr. Samuel
-  Chandler (or any three of them,) be a Committee fully authorized
-  and empowered to survey and lay out five more Tracts of Land for
-  Townships, of the Contents of Six miles Square each, in some of
-  the unappropriated lands of this Province; and that the said land,
-  together with the two towns before granted, be granted and disposed
-  of to the officers and soldiers or their lawful Representatives, as
-  they are or have been allowed by this Court, being eight hundred
-  and forty in number, in the whole, and in full satisfaction of the
-  Grant formerly made them by the General Court, as a reward for
-  their public service. And the Grantees shall be obliged to assemble
-  within as short time as they can conveniently, not exceeding the
-  space of two months, and proceed to the choice of Committees,
-  respectively, to regulate each Propriety or Township which is to
-  be held and enjoyed by one hundred and twenty of the Grantees,
-  each in equal Proportion, who shall pass such orders and rules as
-  will effectually oblige them to settle Sixty families, at least,
-  within each Township, with a learned, orthodox ministry, within the
-  space of seven years of the date of this Grant. Provided, always,
-  that if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle the said
-  number of families in each Township, and also lay out a lot for
-  the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the
-  school, in each of the said townships, they shall have no advantage
-  of, but forfeit their respective grants, anything to the contrary
-  contained notwithstanding. The Charge of the Survey to be paid by
-  the Province.
-
-  In Council read and concur'd.
-
-                                                             J. BELCHER.
-
-In June of 1733 these grantees met on Boston Common for the purpose of
-making a division of the lands thus appropriated, but twenty veterans
-of the Narragansett War being then living. They organized into seven
-societies, each representing one hundred and twenty persons, and each
-represented by an executive committee of three. These committees
-convened in Boston on the 17th of October, 1733, and, by drawing
-numbers from a hat, apportioned to their societies the following
-seven townships set apart from the public domain under the grant:
-No. 1, in Maine, now called Buxton; No. 2, Westminster, Mass.; No.
-3, Souhegan-West, now Amherst, N. H.; No. 4, originally at the Falls
-of the Amoskeag, where Goffstown now is (subsequently exchanged for
-lands in Hampden county, Mass.); No. 5, Souhegan-East, N. H.; No. 6,
-Templeton, Mass.; No. 7, Gorham, Me. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester,
-drew "Number 5, Souhegan-East;" of the one hundred and twenty grantees
-whom he represented, fifty-seven belonged to Boston, fifteen to
-Roxbury, seven to Dorchester, two to Milton, five to Braintree, four
-to Weymouth, thirteen to Hingham, four to Dedham, two to Hull, one to
-Medfield, five to Scituate, and one to Newport, R. I. In the fifteen
-Roxbury grantees was Zechariah Chandler, who was one of the few who
-personally took up land under the grant and settled upon it one of his
-own family. As a rule the grantees sold their claims to others. On the
-town records Zechariah Chandler's name is signed in the right of his
-wife's father, Thomas Bishop, who served against King Philip. His son,
-Thomas Chandler, took possession of the land and was among the pioneers
-of the town. To-day the Chandler family is believed to be the only
-representative in Bedford of the original grantees. It was in 1737,
-1738, and 1739 that systematic settlement practically began in this
-part of the Merrimack valley.
-
-In 1741 New Hampshire became a separate province, and in 1748 the
-farmers of Souhegan-East, finding themselves without any township
-organization and without the power to legally transact corporate
-business, called upon the government for relief. As a result, it is
-recorded that on the 11th of April in that year Gov. Benning Wentworth
-informed the Council of New Hampshire "of the situation of a number of
-persons inhabiting a place called Souhegan-East, within this Province,
-that were without any township or District, and had not the privilege
-of a town in choosing officers for regulating their affairs, such as
-raising money for the ministry," etc. Thereupon a provisional township
-organization was authorized, under which the municipality was managed
-until 1750, when, on the 10th of May, the following petition was sent
-to the Governor, signed by thirty-eight citizens, among them Thomas
-Chandler:
-
-  To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and
-    Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire,
-    and to the Honorable, his Majesty's Council, assembled at
-    Portsmouth, May 10, 1750.
-
-  The humble Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of
-  Souhegan-East, so-called, sheweth, That your Petitioners are major
-  part of said Souhegan; that your petitioners, as to our particular
-  persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian
-  denomination; that your petitioners, through a variety of causes,
-  having long been destitute of the gospel, are now desirous of
-  taking proper steps in order to have it settled among us in that
-  way of discipline which we judge to tend most to our edification;
-  that your petitioners, not being incorporated by civil authority,
-  are in no capacity to raise those sums of money, which may be
-  needful in order to our proceeding in the above important affair.
-  May it therefore please your Excellency, and Honors, to take the
-  case of your petitioners under consideration, and to incorporate
-  us into a town or district, or in case any part of our inhabitants
-  should be taken off by any neighboring district, to grant that
-  those of our persuasion, who are desirous of adhering to us, may
-  be excused from supporting any other parish charge, than where
-  they conscientiously adhere, we desiring the same liberty to those
-  within our bounds, if any there be, and your petitioners shall ever
-  pray, &c.
-
-This petition was presented on May 18, 1750, to the Council, which
-unanimously advised the granting of a charter, and this the Governor
-did upon the following day. The name of the town was changed by
-Governor Wentworth from Souhegan-East to Bedford, it is said in honor
-of the fourth Duke of Bedford, then Secretary of State in the ministry
-of George II. This was the formal organization of the present town,
-which has a territorial extent of about twenty thousand acres of land.
-
-Of the early population of this and neighboring towns "The Centennial
-History of Bedford" (published in 1851) says:
-
-  With few exceptions the early inhabitants of the town were from
-  the North of Ireland or from the then infant settlement of
-  Londonderry, N. H., to which they had recently emigrated from
-  Ireland. Their ancestors were of Scotch origin. About the middle
-  of the seventeenth century they went in considerable numbers
-  from Argylshire, in the West of Scotland, to the counties of
-  Londonderry and Antrim, in the North of Ireland, from which in
-  1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived
-  at Boston, and some at Casco Bay near Portland, which last were
-  the settlers of Londonderry. Many towns in this vicinity were
-  settled from this colony. Windham, Chester, Litchfield, Manchester,
-  Bedford, Goffstown, New Boston, Antrim, Peterborough and Acworth
-  derived from Londonderry a considerable proportion of their first
-  inhabitants.
-
-  Many of their descendants have risen to high respectability, among
-  whom are numbered four Governors of New Hampshire, one of the
-  signers of the Declaration of Independence, several distinguished
-  officers in the Revolutionary War and in the last war with Great
-  Britain, including Stark, Reid, Miller, and McNeil, a President
-  of Bowdoin College, some Members of Congress, and several
-  distinguished ministers of the gospel.
-
-It was a Scottish stock, with an Irish preceding the American
-transplanting, that peopled Bedford. There were among its original
-settlers a few families of English and fewer still of pure Milesian
-extraction, but the Scotch descent was overwhelmingly predominant,
-and the austere theology and noble traditions of the Kirk of Scotland
-formed the leaven of the community. Their religious history dated back
-to John Knox. Their immediate ancestors were the sturdy Presbyterians
-with whom James I. colonized depopulated Ulster after he had crushed
-the Catholic uprisings. Those involuntary colonists made that the
-most prosperous of the Irish provinces, and at a critical moment for
-the cause of Protestantism added to the annals of heroic endurance
-the defense of Londonderry against the army of James II. But to their
-simple and tenacious faith the tithes and rents of the Anglican Church
-were scarcely less abhorrent than Catholic persecution, and the
-example of Puritan emigration ultimately led them by thousands to
-American shores. Much of this tide of settlement was diverted by the
-Puritan pre-occupation of New England soil to the Middle and Southern
-States, but a strong current set up into northern New England and
-occupied (with much other territory) the valley of the Merrimack. It
-was to these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that the greater number of
-the grantees of Bedford--as a rule the descendants of Massachusetts
-Puritans--sold their claims, and the community became what their labors
-and influence made it. The Chandler (representing an original grantee)
-was one of the few Bedford families which sprang from English stock and
-possessed Puritan antecedents.
-
-The settlement of Bedford was thus the outgrowth of an unquenchable
-thirst for civil and religious liberty. A profound conscientiousness
-added these simple, devout, frugal, and industrious people to the
-pioneer assailants of the North American wilderness. The ancient
-records and the published annals of the town afford a quaintly
-interesting picture of early New England civilization. Its background
-is the rock of religious faith, and to repeat the chronicles of the
-Bedford church for the eighteenth century is to write the history
-of the township for that period. The original grant required the
-maintenance of "a learned, orthodox ministry." The petition for
-the charter of Bedford set forth that "your petitioners, as to
-our particular persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the
-Presbyterian denomination," and assigned as the chief reason for asking
-incorporation that they "having been long destitute of the gospel, are
-now desirous of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled
-among us," but "not being incorporated by civil authority are in no
-capacity to raise those sums of money which may be needful." The
-official records of formal township proceedings abound in such entries
-as these:
-
-  _Feb. 15. 1748._ _Voted_--That one third of the time, Preaching
-  shall be to accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the
-  town; one other third part, at the lower end of the town; the last
-  third, about Strawberrie hill.
-
-  _July 26, 1750._ _Voted_, There be a call given to the Rev. Mr.
-  Alexander Boyd, to the work of the ministry in this town.
-
-  _March 28, 1753._ _Voted_, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr.
-  Alexander McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the
-  ministry in this town.
-
-  _March 13, 1757._ _Voted_,--That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker,
-  and Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the
-  meeting-house.
-
-  _March, 1767._ _Voted_,--That the same committee who built the
-  pulpit, paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr.
-  McGregor's pulpit is, in Londonderry.
-
-  _June, 1768._ The meeting-house glass lent out[1]; Matthew Little's
-  account of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six
-  squares of the meeting-house glass; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of
-  the same, Dea. Gilmore had of the same, 24 squares. _November 20,
-  1768_, the Rev. Mr. John Houston, had 24 squares of the same; Hugh
-  Campbell had 12 squares of the same; Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield
-  Gilmore 6 squares of the same; James Wallace had 15 squares of the
-  same; John Bell had 9 squares of the same; Joseph Scobey, one quart
-  of oil.
-
-  A true record.
-
-                                    Attest, WILLIAM WHITE, _Town Clerk_.
-
-  [Extract from the "town meeting warrant" (call) for 1779]: As for
-  some time past, the Sabbath has been greatly profaned, by persons
-  traveling with burthens upon the same, when there is no necessity
-  for it,--to see whether the town will not try to provide some
-  remedy for the same, for the future.
-
-The Bedford church has been ever the center of all public activity.
-Its officers have been the officers of the town. From its pulpit
-have been made all formal announcements. Within its walls have been
-inspired every important home measure, and its influence has stimulated
-each wise public action. In the early records the school-house also
-shares prominence with the meeting-house, and the later generations of
-Bedford's inhabitants were men and women of solid primary education and
-thorough religious training. Thrift and industry made them prosperous,
-and they raised large families of powerful men and vigorous women.
-The mothers and daughters shared in the field work, and even carried
-on foot to Boston the linen thread from their busy spinning wheels.
-Physical and moral strength characterized the race, and they built up
-a community of comfortable homes, severe virtues, strong religious
-instincts, a stern morality, and long lives. Neither poverty nor riches
-were to be found among them, and the simplest habits prevailed. Silks
-were unknown, and homemade linen was the choicest fabric. Brown bread
-was the staple of life, and wheat flour a luxury. Tea and coffee were
-rarely seen, but barley broth was on all tables. Shoes were only worn
-in winter, except to church on Sundays when they were carried in the
-hand to the neighborhood of the meeting-house. The saddle and pillion
-were used in journeys. Splinters and knots of pitch pine furnished
-lights. The hymns were "deaconed out" by the line at the meeting-house,
-and at the appearance of the first bass-viol in the gallery (about
-1790) there was a fierce rebellion among the more austere of the
-worshipers. There was community of effort in all important enterprises,
-and no man needed aught if his neighbor could supply it.
-
-But this frontier picture is not wholly stern in its lines. Along with
-this simplicity of life and severity of religious doctrine there was no
-lack of frolic and rough joking, and the other rugged characteristics
-were relieved by shrewd wit and native humor. The annals of Bedford
-are entertaining and abound in such anecdotes as these: Deacon John
-Orr (the grandfather of the mother of Zachariah Chandler) was a sturdy
-Irish-Scotchman, whose temper under extreme provocation once got
-the better of his devoutness and led him into a vigorous profanity
-of speech. This glaring dereliction in a church officer called for
-reprimand, and he was waited upon by the minister and a delegation of
-his brethren who asked, "How could you suffer yourself to speak so?"
-"Why, what was it?" His offending language was repeated to him. "And
-what o' that!" said he, "D'ye expect me to be a' spirit and nae flesh?"
-Late in life Deacon Orr visited Boston with a load of produce and
-put up at a house of entertainment where, after he had drunk several
-cups of tea, and refused a final invitation, the landlady said that
-it was customary to turn the cup upside down to show that no more
-was wanted. He apologized and promised to remember the injunction.
-The next morning he partook of a huge bowl of bread and milk for
-breakfast, and not wanting the whole laid down his spoon and turned
-the dish upside down with its contents on the table. The hostess was
-naturally angry, but was met with the statement that he had merely
-followed her own direction. The answer of a brother deacon to one of
-the congregation who complained, "I could na' mak yesterday's preaching
-come together," was a compend of practical Christianity: "Trouble
-yourself na' about that, man--a' ye have to do, man, is to fear God
-and keep His commandments." It is also told that the objections of one
-of the staunch Scotch Presbyterians of Bedford to the marriage of his
-daughter with an urgent suitor of Catholic parentage were overcome by
-the apt query, "If a man happened to be born in a stable would that
-make him a horse?" And to one of the rural theologians of the town
-is credited this contribution to ecclesiastical distinctions: "The
-difference between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists is this:
-The Congregationalist goes home and eats a regular dinner between
-services, but the Presbyterian postpones his until after meeting."
-After a most vigorous quarrel between the minister and one of the flock
-over a boundary line dispute, the wrathful member of the congregation
-was prompt at service on Sunday with the following explanation: "I'd
-have ye to know, if I did quarrel with the minister, I did not quarrel
-with the Gospel."
-
-That this was a community of uncompromising patriotism follows from its
-character. In the French and Indian war the New England forces were at
-one time under command of Col. John Goffe, of Bedford, and the number
-of privates enlisted from that town was large. The New Hampshire
-regiment which joined the expedition of General Amherst against Canada,
-commanded by Colonel Goffe, was raised largely among the Scotch-Irish
-emigrants of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, and had in its ranks
-many Bedford men. In the Revolutionary War a large portion of its
-able-bodied citizens were in the first American army that beleaguered
-Boston and fought at Bunker Hill; nearly or quite half of all who
-could handle a musket were with Stark at Bennington, and with Gates at
-Saratoga. General Stark lived but a few rods from the town line on the
-north, and one of his most trusted officers was Lieutenant, afterwards
-Colonel, John Orr, of Bedford. The town records abound with votes taken
-to carry out the measures proposed by the Continental Congress, and
-also chronicle one case of semi-Toryism and its punishment. In 1776
-Congress advised the disarming of all who were disaffected towards the
-American cause, and the selectmen of the New Hampshire towns circulated
-this pledge among their people:
-
-  In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental Congress,
-  and to show our determination in joining our American brethren, in
-  defending the lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants
-  of the United Colonies, We, the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly
-  engage and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at
-  the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile
-  proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United
-  American Colonies.
-
-Among its Bedford signers were John Orr, Zachariah Chandler, and Samuel
-Patten (all ancestors of Zachariah Chandler,) and the report made from
-that town was this:
-
-  To the honorable, the Council and House of Representatives, for
-    the Colony of New Hampshire, to be convened in Exeter, in said
-    Colony, on Wednesday, 5th inst.
-
-  Pursuant to the within precept, we have taken pains to know the
-  minds of the inhabitants of the town of Bedford, with respect to
-  the within obligation, and find none unwilling to sign the same,
-  except _the Rev. John Houston_, who declines signing the said
-  obligation, for the following reasons: Firstly, Because he did
-  not apprehend that the honorable Committee meant that Ministers
-  should take up arms, as being inconsistent with their ministerial
-  charge. Secondly, Because he was already confined to the County of
-  Hillsborough, therefore, he thinks he ought to be set at liberty
-  before he should sign the said obligation. Thirdly, Because there
-  are three men belonging to his family already enlisted in the
-  Continental Army.
-
-Mr. Houston, who was thus officially reported as the only Bedford Tory,
-had occupied the town pulpit for over fifteen years, and was a man of
-scholarship and purity, but he had become a loyalist in sympathy at
-the outbreak of the Revolutionary troubles, and was as inflexible in
-conviction as his neighbors. Originally (in 1756) the town had voted
-that his salary should be at the rate of forty pounds sterling a year
-for such Sundays as they desired his services. When they felt unable to
-pay they voted him one or more Sundays for himself, and then deducted
-from his salary proportionately. In 1775, after prolonged controversy
-with him, his case was brought before town-meeting (on June 15th), and
-he was unanimously dismissed by the adoption of a vote setting off for
-his own use all the Sabbaths remaining in the calendar year. The town
-records contain this explanation of the action:
-
-  _June 15, 1775._ _Voted_--Whereas, we find that the Rev'd Mr. John
-  Houston, after a great deal of tenderness and pains taken with
-  him, both in public and private, and toward him, relating to his
-  speeches, frequently made both in public and private, against the
-  rights and privileges of America, and his vindicating of King and
-  Parliament in their present proceedings against the Americans; and
-  having not been able hitherto to bring him to a sense of his error,
-  and he has thereby rendered himself despised by people in general,
-  and by us in particular, and that he has endeavored to intimidate
-  us against maintaining the just rights of America: Therefore, we
-  think it not our duty as men or Christians, to have him preach any
-  longer with us as our minister.
-
-The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly resented
-and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the people had been
-accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested on all occasions. This
-is a document of later date, signed by a Bedford committee, which seems
-not to have been suggested by any outside action, but to have resulted
-from the impulses of the citizens themselves:
-
-                                                _Bedford, May 31, 1783._
-
-  To Lieut. John Orr, Representative at the General Court of the
-    State of New Hampshire:--
-
-  Sir:--Although we have full confidence in your fidelity and public
-  virtue, and conceive that you would at all times pursue such
-  measures only as tend to the public good, yet upon the particular
-  occasion of our instructing you, we conceive that it will be an
-  advantage to have your sentiments fortified by those of your
-  constituents.
-
-  The occasion is this; the return of those persons to this country,
-  who are known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in
-  America, by those of conspirators, absentees, and tories;
-
-  We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not
-  receive the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they
-  not deserving favor, as they left us in the righteous cause we were
-  engaged in, fighting for our undoubted rights and liberties, and as
-  many of them acted the part of the most inveterate enemies.
-
-  And further,--that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we
-  esteem them as persons not deserving it, but the contrary.
-
-  You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are
-  already returned, be treated according to their deserts.
-
-In the War of 1812 there were more than two hundred men in Bedford
-armed and in readiness to march whenever called upon, and in this two
-hundred was one company of about sixty men over forty years of age
-and therefore exempt from military duty. In the War of the Rebellion
-Bedford invariably filled its quota without draft and without high
-bounties, and it paid its war debt promptly.
-
-It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom-loving,
-sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and women, that
-Zachariah Chandler was born and that the foundations of his character
-were durably laid.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building
-was ready for it, and it was loaned to different members; the careful
-record kept shows how scarce and costly an article it then was.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
-
-
-The Chandlers of New England are the descendants of William Chandler,
-who came from England in the days of the Puritan immigration--about
-1637--and settled in Roxbury, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
-The Chandlers of Bedford, N. H., are the posterity of one of his
-descendants, Zechariah Chandler of Roxbury, who was among the grantees
-of Souhegan-East in the right of his wife, the daughter of a soldier
-in King Philip's War. They were the conspicuous English family in that
-Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlement, and their farm is the only one in
-that town which is still in possession of the lineal descendants of an
-original grantee. That Zechariah Chandler was a man of some means is
-shown by this document, which is still on record and reads curiously
-enough in the biography of a most inveterate and powerful opponent of
-slavery and the slave power:
-
-                                              BOSTON, November 11, 1740.
-
-  Received of Mr. Zechariah Chandler, one hundred and ten pounds, in
-  full, for a Negro Boy, sold and delivered him for my master, John
-  Jones.
-
-  £110                                            WM. MERCHANT, Jun'r.
-
-This slave was taken to Bedford, but soon freed by his owner, when he
-assumed the name of Primas Chandler. Although past the usual military
-age, in 1775 he enlisted as a private in the service of the colonies,
-was captured by the British at "The Cedars" and was never afterwards
-heard from by his friends. He left a wife and two sons in Bedford, but
-his family has since become extinct.
-
-The first settlers in Bedford located chiefly on the rocky and hilly
-territory which is now the central and most thickly inhabited portion
-of the town. East of this, in the smooth and fertile intervale of
-the Merrimack, judging by the names on the most ancient maps, the
-settlers were chiefly of English descent, and among them was Thomas
-Chandler, the son of Zechariah, and the first actual occupant of the
-land granted to his father. He married Hannah, a daughter of Col. John
-Goffe, by whom he had four children--three daughters and a son named
-also Zachariah, who married Sarah Patten, the second daughter of Capt.
-Samuel Patten. This Zachariah, the grandfather of his namesake, the
-Senator, died on April 20, 1830, at the age of 79, and his widow died
-in 1842, aged nearly 94. From them were descended the two families of
-Chandlers, who in the present generation have been prominent in Bedford.
-
-The oldest son of Zachariah was named Thomas, and was born August 10,
-1772. He had four children--Asenath, who married Stephen Kendrick, of
-Nashville; Sarah, who married Caleb Kendrick; Hannah, who married Rufus
-Kendrick, a well-known citizen of Boston; and Adam, who now lives in
-Manchester, where also reside his three sons, Henry and Byron, who are
-connected with the Amoskeag National Bank, and John, who is a prominent
-merchant of that city. The only daughter of Zachariah, Sarah, remained
-single, and lived at the old homestead, which had become her property,
-until her death in 1852. Throughout that whole region she was known for
-years as "Aunt Sarah."
-
-[Illustration: THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD, AT BEDFORD, N. H.]
-
-Samuel, the second son of Zachariah, was born May 28, 1774, and
-married Margaret Orr, the oldest daughter of General Stark's most
-trusted officer, Col. John Orr. They had seven children, one of whom
-died in infancy. Those who reached maturity were Mary Jane, who was
-successively married to the Rev. Cyrus Downs, the Rev. David P. Smith,
-and the Rev. Samuel Lee, and who is still living, the last surviving
-member of the seven, at the present homestead; Annis, who married
-Franklin Moore and became a resident of Detroit; Samuel, Jr., who,
-after four years at Dartmouth and Union colleges, lost his health
-and died in Detroit in 1835; Zachariah, the subject of this memorial
-volume; and John Orr, who, after graduating at Dartmouth, spent one
-year in Andover Theological Seminary, came in feeble health to Detroit
-where he was tenderly cared for by his brother, and finally went by way
-of New Orleans to Cuba, where he died in January, 1839, his remains
-being subsequently removed to the Bedford burying-ground. The father,
-Samuel, died in Bedford on January 11, 1870, at the age of 95, and the
-mother in 1855, at the age of 81.
-
-The Chandlers during the three generations from Thomas to Samuel were
-thus allied by marriage to three of the most noted families, not only
-in Bedford but in New Hampshire, the Goffes, Pattens and Orrs. They
-were generally long-lived, although consumption developed in different
-generations, and were always prominent in town and church matters. The
-Thomas Chandler who first settled in Bedford was one of the signers
-of the petition for incorporation in 1750, and was conspicuously
-connected with all local movements at that time. His grandson Thomas,
-the Senator's uncle, was in the Legislature several terms, and in
-Congress from 1829 to 1833, being elected as a Jackson Democrat. His
-name is frequently mentioned in the records of the church where he was
-choir-leader and where he formed a class for instruction in sacred
-music. He was also selectman for many years, and held other positions
-in connection with the town government. He as well as his father "kept
-tavern" on one of the main New England thoroughfares of those days, and
-both were widely known through that region. Samuel, the father of the
-Senator, played the first bass-viol ever used in the church choir, and
-helped to stem the tide of indignation with which the introduction of
-this "ungodly" instrument was met by the more rigid members of that
-orthodox Presbyterian body. His name often appears in the records
-as clerk of the church, selectman, and town clerk. He was for over
-twenty years consecutively a justice of the peace, and in his hands
-was usually placed such business as the settlement of estates. In the
-list of town officers the name of Chandler appears almost every year,
-and in almost all church and public gatherings for over a century some
-member of this family was present among the active and public-spirited
-citizens.
-
-[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.]
-
-The first house built on the Chandler farm was on the east side of
-the river road, and not far from the present homestead. It was torn
-down many years ago, but the cellar was visible until within a
-comparatively recent period. The second house was built before the
-Revolutionary War, by the grandfather of the Senator, and this is
-still standing, though it has been remodeled and modernized. It was
-used as a tavern and court-house during that war. In this the second
-Zachariah and his wife lived for many years, and in this they and their
-daughter Sarah died. During their declining years they were cared for
-there by the mother of Rodney M. Rollins, the present occupant and
-owner of the place, and the house, with forty acres of land, was willed
-to Mrs. Rollins by "Aunt Sarah" previous to her death. This was the
-first alienation from the possession of the family of any part of the
-Chandler farm. Although the house has been remodeled, it retains many
-of its old features, and one apartment at the northwest corner has been
-preserved nearly as it was at the time of the Revolution. It is called
-the Revolutionary room, and has still in its furniture some of the
-chairs that were there a hundred years ago, and among its fixtures an
-ancient buffet, carved by hand and unchanged except by paint since 1776.
-
-On the opposite side of the road, fronting the east, and in sight of
-the Merrimack, where it takes its broad sweep above Goff's Falls, is
-the present Chandler homestead, which was built by Samuel Chandler in
-1800, before his marriage. It remains to-day almost precisely as first
-constructed, and seems good for half a century more. Its rooms are
-large, and the ceilings unusually high for a farm-house of the earlier
-times. The front portion contains four large apartments on the lower
-floor, and in the rear are the dining-room, the kitchen, the pantry,
-and store-rooms. In the second story are five bed-rooms, with closets
-and additional store-room, and above these is a spacious attic. Among
-the furniture are chairs and chests of drawers of pro-revolutionary
-times, one of the ancient four-post bedsteads common a hundred years
-ago, and brass andirons which would delight the eyes of a lover of
-antique relics. Here still lives the Senator's oldest sister, and here
-the family of seven were born.
-
-In the ancient family bible, printed in 1803 and preserved by Mrs. Lee,
-is an entry of a birth, of which this is a fac-simile:
-
-[Illustration: Zacharias Chandler
-
-Born Decʳ. 10ᵗʰ 1813]
-
-It will be noticed that the given name is written Zacharias. Mrs. Lee
-still speaks of her brother as Zacharias, and his name is also so
-printed in the Chandler genealogy in the centennial history of Bedford.
-The Senator in his signatures simply used the initial of his first
-name, but he ultimately adopted the ancestral Zachariah, and that was
-the name which he made famous, and by which he will be known in this
-biography.
-
-Zachariah Chandler's father and paternal grandfather, Samuel and
-Zachariah, are described as spare men of medium stature, but energetic
-and full of endurance. His mother, Margaret Orr, was tall and powerful;
-her distinguished son resembled her in face, and inherited from her
-many of his most vigorous traits. She was a woman of great strength
-of character and robust sense, and exercised a large influence over
-her children. Her family was a remarkable one; her father was the
-conspicuous man of his day in his part of New Hampshire; her brother,
-Benjamin Orr, became the foremost lawyer of Maine early in the
-present century, and served one term from that State in Congress; her
-half-brother, the Rev. Isaac Orr, was a man of many accomplishments
-and a diverse scholarship, a prolific writer on scientific and
-philosophical topics, and with a claim on the general gratitude as the
-inventor of the application of the air-tight principle to the common
-stove.
-
-The boy Zachariah was healthy, strong, quick-tempered, and
-self-reliant, and the contrast was marked between his sturdiness
-and the constitutional feebleness of his short-lived brothers. The
-traditions of his childhood, still fondly cherished by his surviving
-sister, all show that from his cradle he was ready to fight his own
-battles, and that his "pluckiness" was innate. One juvenile anecdote
-related by Mrs. Lee will illustrate scores that might be repeated: His
-father's poultry-yard was ruled by a large and ill-tempered gander, the
-strokes of whose horny beak were the dread of the smaller children. The
-oldest brother was one day driven back by this fowl while attempting to
-cross the road, when the young "Zach.," then three years old, called
-out "Do, Sammy, do, I'll keep e' dander off," and rushed into a pitched
-and victorious battle with the "dander," during which his brother made
-good his escape.
-
-His rudimentary education was obtained in the little brick school-house
-at Bedford, which remains substantially unchanged and is still used.
-Here he attended school regularly from the age of five or six until he
-was fourteen or fifteen. He had an excellent memory, and was a good
-scholar, standing well with others of his age. He was a leader in the
-boys' sports, always active, and entering with zest into every frolic.
-Of these days, one of his early playmates--now the Rev. S. G. Abbott,
-of Stamford, Conn.--thus writes: "The death of Mr. Chandler revives
-the memories of half a century ago. The old brick school-house where
-we were taught together the rudiments of our education; the country
-store where his father sold such a wonderful variety of merchandise
-for the wants of the inner and outer man; the broad acres of field
-and forest in the ancestral domain where we used to rove and hunt;
-his uncle's 'tavern,' the cheerful home of the traveler when there
-were no railroads, situated on a great thoroughfare, constantly alive
-with stages, teams, cattle, sheep, swine, turkeys, and pedestrian
-immigrants--all these form a picture as distinct to the mind's eye as
-if a scene of the present. No unimportant feature of that picture in
-my boyish memory was a rough-built, overgrown, awkward, good-natured,
-popular boy, who went by the never-forgotten, familiar sobriquet of
-'Zach.' He never forgot it. After more than forty years' separation,
-when I called on him in the capitol, and apologized for calling him
-Zach., in his old, rollicking way he said 'Oh, you can call me _old_
-Zach., that's what they all call me out West.'"
-
-[Illustration: THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H.]
-
-In his fifteenth and sixteenth years he attended the academies at
-Pembroke and Derry, with his older brother, who was fitting for
-college. In the winter following he taught school one term in the
-Piscataquog or "Squog" district. As is the rule in country schools,
-many of the pupils were about as large as the teacher, and the "Squog"
-boys had the reputation of being especially unruly. The usual disorders
-commenced, but after some trouble the energetic young man from the
-Chandler farm established his supremacy, and the scholars recognized
-the fact that there was a head to the school. Mr. Chandler always spoke
-with interest of his brief experience in teaching, although he never
-claimed any particular success in that calling. While he was thus
-employed the teacher of the brick school, in which he had been so long
-a pupil, was a Dartmouth sophomore who in his "boarding around" was
-especially welcome at the house of Samuel Chandler. This was James F.
-Joy, who then formed with the young Zachariah an intimacy, which ranked
-among the causes that determined Mr. Joy's own selection of Detroit as
-a home, and lasted through life.
-
-In the latter years of his school life young Chandler worked on the
-farm through the summer, and the last season that he was home he took
-entire charge, employing the help and superintending the labor. Thomas
-Kendall, who was with him during three summers, and who is still living
-in Bedford, says, "Zach. was a good man to work and a good man to
-work for." He was just in his dealings with the men, but vigorous as
-an overseer, and himself as good a "farm hand" as there was. Stories
-are still told of his achievements in mowing contests with the men.
-He had no liking, as had many of his fellows, for hunting or fishing,
-but he was fond of athletic sports, and was the best wrestler in town.
-"Whoever took hold of Zach.," says Mr. Kendall, "had to go down."
-
-During one of the last years of his residence at Bedford, Mr. Chandler
-was enrolled in the local militia company and turned out at the
-"general muster." He did not, however, succeed in bringing himself
-to perfect obedience to the orders of the young captain, whom he
-knew he could easily out-wrestle and out-mow, and was arrested for
-insubordination. He was kept under arrest through one afternoon, but
-the court-martial which had been ordered for his trial was recalled
-and he was released. He was afterwards for a short time on the staff
-of the commanding officer, General Riddle, but his removal from New
-Hampshire took place at about this time. After his Janesville, Wis.,
-speech, two days before his death, Mr. Chandler was called upon by
-the Captain Colley who had placed him under arrest nearly fifty years
-before. Mr. Colley is now a resident of Rock county, Wis., and had
-driven a long distance to listen to his old-time subordinate, or rather
-insubordinate, and to revive with him old memories.
-
-In the year 1833 Zachariah Chandler entered the store of Kendrick
-& Foster of Nashua, and in September of that year, moved by the
-same impulse that has sent so many New Englanders into the growing
-territories, turned his face Westward, and in company with his
-brother-in-law, the late Franklin Moore, came to the city, which from
-that time to his death was his home. He had not then shown in any
-marked degree the qualities which made his future success so eminent,
-and was apparently simply a good specimen out of thousands of the
-energetic, determined, and sagacious young men, who, leaving more
-sterile New England, have subdued the forests, moulded the politics and
-conducted the business of half a dozen Western States.
-
-For the old homestead and its occupants, and for the town of Bedford,
-Mr. Chandler always entertained a warm affection. He was a good
-correspondent, and his home letters, which until his entrance into
-public life were frequent and long, breathed a genuine feeling of
-filial and brotherly affection. After his election to the Senate, with
-the voluminous correspondence which his official position involved,
-his letters to the old home became less frequent, but to the last
-he kept up occasional communication with the surviving friends at
-his birthplace. During his father's life he visited Bedford twice
-or more each year, and after his father's death made at least one
-annual journey there. In 1850, when the centennial celebration of the
-incorporation of the township occurred, Mr. Chandler was among those
-invited to be present, and sent the following letter of regret:
-
-                                                  DETROIT, May 16, 1850.
-
-  GENTLEMEN:--I regret exceedingly my inability to accept your kind
-  invitation to be present at your Centennial Celebration of the
-  settlement of the good old town of Bedford. It would have afforded
-  me great pleasure to meet my old friends upon that occasion, but
-  circumstances beyond my own control will prevent. The ashes of the
-  dead, as well as the loved faces of the living, attract me strongly
-  to my native town, and that attachment I find increasing each day
-  of my life. Permit me, in conclusion, to offer: "_The town of
-  Bedford_--May her descendants (widely scattered through the land)
-  never dishonor their paternity."
-
-  Be pleased to accept, for yourselves and associates, my kind
-  regards, and believe me,
-
-  Truly yours,
-                                Z. CHANDLER.
-
-His later visits were looked forward to with much interest, not only by
-his relatives, but by the neighbors, to whom a talk with him was one of
-the events of the year. He was there always genial and friendly, kept
-up his acquaintance with the old residents, and thoroughly enjoyed his
-association with them. His last visit to the homestead was after the
-close of his campaign in Maine, in August, 1879. He then met many of
-his boyhood friends, and enjoyed a ramble over the undulating fields
-which stretch from the central hills toward the banks of the Merrimack.
-And as he drove for the last time down the road from the house of his
-birth toward Manchester, he pointed to a pine grove which skirts the
-northern border of the Chandler farm, and said to his companion, "That,
-to me, is the most beautiful grove in the world."
-
-New Hampshire has been prolific in strong men with the granite of
-its hills in the fibres of their characters. Bedford itself has been
-the birthplace of scores of the leading men of the thriving city of
-Manchester; of Joseph E. Worcester, the lexicographer; of Benjamin
-Orr, of Maine; of David Aiken, Isaac O. Barnes, and Jacob Bell, of the
-Massachusetts bar; of the Hon. David Atwood, of Wisconsin; of Judge
-A. S. Thurston, of Elmira, N. Y.; of Hugh Riddle, of the Rock Island
-Railroad, and Gen. George Stark, of the Northern Pacific; of the Rev.
-Silas Aiken, of the Boston pulpit; and of others of large influence in
-their generations. But upon no one of its sons was the impress of its
-peculiar history so indelibly stamped as upon the young man who left
-it to aid in founding a powerful State amid the Great Lakes, and who
-became the foremost representative of that State's vigorous political
-conviction and purpose.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN--MERCANTILE SUCCESS--BUSINESS INVESTMENTS.
-
-
-In 1833 Zachariah Chandler, then still a minor, joined the current of
-Western emigration from New York and New England which had sprung up
-with the completion of the Erie canal, and in the fall of that year
-entered into the retail dry-goods business at Detroit. Franklin Moore
-(the husband of his sister Annis), who had already visited Michigan,
-came with him as a partner in the enterprise, and the original firm
-name was Moore & Chandler. At the outset the young merchant had some
-assistance from his father, who, the tradition is, offered him $1,000
-in cash or the collegiate education which his brothers received, the
-money being chosen. Samuel Chandler also subsequently bought a store
-for his son's use, but it is understood that all such advances were
-speedily and fully repaid. The building in which the future Senator
-first laid the foundation of his ample fortune was located where the
-Biddle House now stands; it adjoined the mansion of Governor Hull, and
-was subsequently transformed into the American House. Upon its shelves
-Moore & Chandler displayed a small general stock, representing the
-ample assortment usual in frontier stores, and saw a promising business
-answer their invitations. In the following spring they removed to a
-brick store (on the site now occupied by S. P. Wilcox & Co.), near the
-main corner of the town (where Woodward and Jefferson avenues meet).
-In the summer of 1834 Detroit was visited by the Asiatic cholera,
-which appeared in malignant form, and was attended by an appalling
-death rate, and an almost entire suspension of general traffic. Mr.
-Chandler did not yield to the prevalent panic, but remained at his
-business and was indefatigable in his efforts to relieve the universal
-distress. His vigorous constitution and plain habits guarded his own
-health, and he cared for the sick and buried the dead without faltering
-amid the dreadful scenes of the pestilence. For weeks he and a clerk
-(Mr. William N. Carpenter, of Detroit) alternated in watching by sick
-beds, and, with others of like strength and courage, brightened with
-unassuming heroism the gloomy picture of a season of dreadful mortality.
-
-On August 16, 1836, the firm of Moore & Chandler was dissolved, and the
-junior partner retained the established business, and continued its
-vigorous prosecution. Those who knew him then describe a fair-haired,
-awkward, tall, gaunt and wiry youth, blunt in his ways, simple in
-habits, diffident with others, but shrewd, tireless in labor, and of
-unlimited energy. He worked day and night, slept in the store, often
-on the counter or a bale of goods, acted as proprietor, salesman,
-or porter as was needed, lived on $300 a year, avoided society, and
-allowed only the Presbyterian church to divide his attention with
-business. He kept a good stock, especially strong in the staples,
-bought prudently, and there was no better salesman in the West. His
-trade became especially large with the farmers who used Detroit as a
-market, and the unaffected manners and homely good sense of the rising
-merchant soon gave him a popularity with his rural customers that
-foreshadowed the strong hold of his later life on the affectionate
-confidence of the yeomanry of the State.
-
-The training which this intense application added to native vigor of
-judgment early made him a thorough business man, exact in dealings,
-strong in an intuitive knowledge of men, sound in his judgment of
-values, prudent in ventures, and of an unflagging energy which pushed
-his trade wherever an opening could be found. As interior Michigan
-developed he added jobbing to his retail department, and became known
-as a close and prudent buyer, a shrewd judge of credits, and a most
-successful collector. A business established at the commencement of an
-era of marvelous growth, pushed with such industry, drawn upon only for
-the meagre expenses of a young man living with the closest economy,
-and unembarrassed by speculation, meant a fortune, and at twenty-seven
-years of age Mr. Chandler found himself with success assured and wealth
-only a matter of patience. His nearest approach to financial disaster
-was in the ruinous crash which swept "the wild-cat banks" and so many
-mercantile enterprises out of existence in Michigan in the year 1838.
-Like others he found it almost impossible at that time to obtain money,
-and the Bank of Michigan which had promised him accommodations was
-compelled by its own straitened condition to decline his paper. Thus
-it happened that a note for about $5,000 given to Arthur Tappan & Co.
-of New York fell due and went to protest. Mr. Chandler, accustomed to
-New England strictness in business and exceedingly sensitive on the
-point of meeting all engagements, was inclined to treat the protest as
-bankruptcy itself, and called upon his Bedford friend, James F. Joy,
-then a young lawyer in Detroit and for years afterwards Mr. Chandler's
-counsel, to have a formal assignment drawn up. What followed is given
-in Mr. Joy's language: "I looked carefully into his affairs, and found
-them in what I believed to be a sound and healthy condition. I then
-said: 'I won't draw an assignment for you, Chandler; there is no need
-of it.' 'What shall I do?' was his answer, 'I can't pay that note.'
-My reply was, 'Write to Tappan & Co. and say that you cannot get the
-discounts that have been promised, but that if they will renew the note
-you will be able to pay it when it next falls due.' He took my advice
-and went through, and never had any trouble with his finances after
-that. I reminded Mr. Chandler of that occurrence about two months
-before his death, when he said he remembered it perfectly, and added
-that if it had not been for that advice he might have been a clerk on a
-salary to this day."
-
-Mr. Chandler's was the first business in Detroit whose sales aggregated
-$50,000 in a single year, and the reaching of that limit was hailed
-by the community as a great mercantile triumph. He showed increasing
-commercial sagacity at every stage of his active business life. He
-pushed his jobbing trade in all directions and made his interior
-customers his personal friends. He invested his surplus profits in
-productive real estate which grew rapidly in value. He was never
-tempted into speculation, and he was very reluctant to incur debt. As
-a result, ten years after he landed at Detroit he had a reputation
-throughout the new Northwest as a merchant of ample means, personal
-honesty, large connections, and remarkable enterprise.
-
-Between 1840 and 1850 Mr. Chandler reduced his business to a purely
-wholesale basis and made himself independently and permanently rich. He
-had opportunities and they were improved to the full. [And it may be
-here said without exaggeration that every dollar of the fortune with
-which he closed his career as an active merchant represented legitimate
-business enterprise; it was the product of personal industry and good
-judgment put forth in a field wisely selected and with only slight aid
-at the outset.] The wiry stripling had become a stalwart man, despite a
-family consumptive tendency which at times caused alarm. Prosperity did
-not affect the plainness of his manners and speech, nor the simplicity
-of his character, and maturity added method to, without impairing, his
-powers of personal application. He was a man alive with energy and
-thoroughly in earnest. He was active and influential in all public
-matters in Detroit. Every year he drove through the State, visited its
-cross-roads and its clearings, saw its pioneer merchants at their homes
-and in their stores, made up his estimate of men and their means,
-studied the growth of the State, and marked the course of the budding
-of its resources. He thus kept himself thoroughly informed as to the
-material development of Michigan, and acquired that intimate knowledge
-of the State and its representative men which formed such an important
-part of his equipment for public life. His companion in these numerous
-commercial journeys was the man who succeeded him in the Senate, the
-Hon. Henry P. Baldwin of Detroit, who came to Michigan largely through
-his solicitations, was engaged in business for years by his side,
-and remained his intimate associate through life. This part of Mr.
-Chandler's career abounded in the making of friendships which endured
-until death. While strict in all his dealings, he was considerate and
-his sympathy was quick with struggling industry and honesty. He aided
-when they needed it many who afterwards rose to position and wealth,
-and these men became the most firmly attached of his supporters in his
-public career.
-
-[Illustration: THE CHANDLER BLOCK.]
-
-Shortly after 1850 political affairs commenced to receive Mr.
-Chandler's attention, and he gradually entrusted more and more of the
-actual management of his large business to others, though he still for
-some years directed in a general way the operations of the house. He
-had been already absent one winter on a trip to the West Indies for his
-health, and had made a brief and not wholly satisfactory experiment
-(about 1846) at establishing a jobbing fancy-goods trade in New York.
-With these exceptions he had made his Detroit dry-goods business his
-personal charge. The firm name had generally been Z. Chandler & Co.,
-although it was for some time Chandler & Bradford, and some of his
-relatives had been and were associated with him in business. From his
-second location he had moved his stock to more commodious quarters on
-the site now occupied by the Chandler Block, and in 1852 he again moved
-to the stores built jointly by himself and Mr. Baldwin on the southwest
-corner of Woodward avenue and Woodbridge street. In 1855, as outside
-matters commenced to press constantly upon Mr. Chandler's attention,
-there came into his employment as a clerk a young man of twenty-three
-from Kinderhook, N.Y., Allan Shelden. He showed an aptitude for
-business and a capacity for work that recalled to the head of the
-house his own earlier days, and Mr. Shelden's rise in his employer's
-confidence was rapid and permanent. On Feb. 1, 1857, just before Mr.
-Chandler took his seat as the successor of Lewis Cass in the Senate,
-the firm name was changed to Orr, Town & Smith, with Mr. Chandler as a
-special partner, with an interest of $50,000. In the fall of that year,
-it became Town, Smith & Shelden; in the fall of 1859 it was changed to
-Town & Shelden; on Feb. 1, 1866, it was again changed to the present
-name of Allan Shelden & Co. Three years later Mr. Chandler ceased to
-be a special partner, and thus finally sundered his formal connection
-with the business he had established. The mercantile pre-eminence in
-Michigan of his house in its line of trade has been maintained by his
-successors, and it now occupies the magnificent Chandler Block, built
-for its accommodation by its founder in 1878 on Jefferson avenue in
-Detroit. Mr. Shelden himself continued in confidential relations with
-his predecessor, and was entrusted in later years with the management
-of a large share of his private affairs.
-
-During his active business life no Northwestern merchant surpassed
-Mr. Chandler in credit, in enterprise, or in success, and he left the
-counter and office of his store with wealth and with an unsullied
-mercantile character. His commercial integrity and sagacity always
-remained among his marked characteristics. He made profitable
-investments, became interested in remunerative enterprises, and, while
-he lived generously after his income warranted it, saw his riches
-steadily increase under prudent and shrewd management. At the time of
-his death, his estate which was absolutely unincumbered was roughly
-estimated as exceeding, at the least, two millions, representing
-valuable business property in Detroit, several farms, large tracts of
-timbered lands, the marsh farm at Lansing, residences in Washington and
-Detroit, bank stock, government and other securities, and investments
-in railroad and like enterprises. His business habits remained in full
-vigor to the last. He was punctuality itself in all appointments; he
-was rigid in his adherence to his engagements; he hated debt, and never
-permitted the second presentation of an account; he did business on
-business principles and with business exactitude; he spent money freely
-but knew where and for what it went; and always his counsel was sought
-and prized by men engaged in enterprises of the largest magnitude.
-Without being ostentatious or profuse in his charities he was a large
-giver, rarely refusing a meritorious application for aid, but he
-invariably satisfied himself that the object was worthy, and put a
-heartiness into his "no" when a refusal seemed to him to be in order.
-
-His business instincts he never relaxed except for well-considered
-reasons. The ditching of the marsh farm he regarded as an experiment
-of far-reaching public importance, and he paid its cost cheerfully for
-the sake of settling the question of the possibility of reclaiming such
-lands. Some of his "imprudences" of this deliberate and well-weighed
-sort proved profitable. During the war and when the credit of the
-United States was at an alarmingly low ebb as shown in the ruling
-prices of its bonds, he visited the city of New York in company
-with Representative Rowland E. Trowbridge, of his State. On the way
-there he spoke, in private, in a tone of unusual depression of the
-financial difficulties of the government, and lamented the absence of
-any available remedy. The next day there was a decided improvement in
-the rates for "governments" on Wall street, and the firmer feeling
-it created never wholly disappeared but was followed by a gradual
-appreciation in this class of securities. Mr. Trowbridge called
-his attention to the advance on the day following, and the Senator
-answered, "I know all about it. I gave my broker orders to buy heavily
-and the street, finding that out, said 'Chandler is just over from
-Washington and knows something,' and so they followed my lead, and
-there was a rush which sent the market up." Years afterwards, Mr.
-Chandler was reminded by Mr. Trowbridge of the permanent character
-of the improvement in the government's credit which attended his
-speculation and of his own profit in the matter. He replied that while
-he had sold many of his bonds bought during the war, he still held
-those which came into his possession at that time, cherishing them
-for their associations with an investment which he made at some risk
-to help the treasury in its difficulties and which had proved very
-remunerative.
-
-During his public life information legitimately acquired and the
-broadening of his judgment by contact with men undoubtedly helped his
-investments, and thus added to his wealth, but individual pecuniary
-advantage he resolutely ignored in shaping his public career. And his
-sturdy incorruptibility as a legislator was proverbial at the capital.
-An illustration of this fact was shown in his strenuous resistance to
-and emphatic denunciation of the bills to remonetize and coin without
-limit the old silver dollar. While these measures were pending he had
-considerable investments in silver mining stocks, which would have been
-greatly increased in value by the proposed policy, but, showing one
-day to a friend a large draft representing a silver-mine dividend, he
-said, "I ought for personal reasons to favor these bills, but I can't
-consent to make money at the expense of the people." Another incident
-exemplifies this phase of his character: In February, 1873, the city
-of Manistee, on the shore of Lake Michigan, sent Gen. B. M. Cutcheon
-to Washington to secure an increased appropriation for the improvement
-of its harbor. Senator Chandler, as the chairman of the Committee on
-Commerce and with a reputation for vigilance in caring for Michigan
-interests, was naturally relied upon for valuable assistance. He
-received General Cutcheon cordially, gave his personal attention to the
-matter of introducing the representative of Manistee to influential
-Congressmen and to department officials, and then made an appointment
-for the consideration of what his own share in the work should be.
-At that private meeting he expressed to General Cutcheon his cordial
-sympathy with his errand, but added, "My hands are tied; the fact is
-that I am interested in large tracts of pine on the Manistee river,
-and, if I should take charge of your appropriation, it would be said,
-'Chandler is feathering his own nest;' and if I am going to retain my
-influence for good here, I must keep clear of even the suspicion of a
-job."
-
-The great multitude who knew Mr. Chandler as a public man knew
-nothing of this early chapter of business life. It wholly ante-dated
-his appearance at Washington, and the channels in which his strong
-energies made themselves felt there and in his younger days were widely
-distinct. But it is a fact that he was a remarkable man of business and
-as thorough a merchant as ever developed in the West a great trade from
-small beginnings. His was a doubly successful career. Before he had
-reached middle age he had won success in business and a fortune. Then
-he entered public life and made himself a leader of men in a historic
-era.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.
-
-
-The forty-six years of Zachariah Chandler's life in Michigan saw a vast
-material empire supplant an almost unbroken wilderness. His commercial
-enterprise and success and his labors as a legislator were among the
-influential agents in this marvelous development and give its story a
-title to a place in his biography.
-
-As early as 1634 Jesuits Brebuef, Daniel and Davost, following a route
-explored by Samuel Champlain eighteen years before, passed up the
-River Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, down French river and along the
-lonely shores of the great Georgian bay to the dark forests bordering
-Lake Huron. Brebuef reached there first; Daniel came later, weary and
-worn; Davost came last of all, half dead with famine and fatigue.[2]
-Champlain had been before them, and other explorers preceded Champlain,
-but these three were the first Europeans who made a habitation by the
-shores of the great lakes which roll their tireless flood down through
-the gateway of Detroit. They erected a hut, and daily rang a bell to
-call the surrounding savages to prayers. Behind them was the tangled
-forest they had penetrated; at their feet were the broad waters of
-Lake Huron; beyond--toward the setting sun--was an abyss so soundless
-that no echo had ever come from it. And these three soldiers of the
-cross, converters of the heathen, unarmed and alone amid a multitude
-of savages, were the advance ripples of the mighty wave that two
-centuries later was to break across the lake at their feet and the
-rivers below them and surge over the trackless wilderness beyond.
-
-Seven years later (September, 1641,) Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jaques
-embarked in a frail birch-bark canoe, paddling northwest from Georgian
-bay among the countless islands of the St. Marie river, amid scenery
-that filled them with delight. After seventeen days the Sault de St.
-Marie burst upon their enraptured vision. There they were welcomed
-"as brothers" by the Chippewas and there began the first known white
-settlement in Michigan.
-
-On the 28th of August, 1660, Rene Mesnard left Quebec, resolved to
-make greater progress in the exploration of the Northwest. He ascended
-the Sault in a canoe, coasted along the northern shore of the upper
-peninsula of Michigan, and on the 15th of October of that year reached
-the head of Keweenaw bay to which he gave the name of St. Theresa.
-Eight years later (1668) a permanent mission was established at the
-Sault. In the autumn of 1678 occurred an event forever memorable in the
-annals of Michigan. There was then laid on the Niagara river the keel
-of the first large vessel built on the shores of the great lakes. It
-was completed and launched early in the following summer, and on the
-7th of August, 1679 (200 years ago), amid the discharges of arquebuses
-and the sound of swelling _Te Deums_ it began the first voyage ever
-made by Europeans upon the upper inland seas of North America. This was
-the "Griffin," sixty tons burden, carrying five guns, with La Salle
-commander, Hennepin missionary and journalist, and a crew of Canadian
-fur traders. Three days later (August 10), after many soundings, they
-reached the islands grouped at the entrance of Detroit river. They
-thus knew the lake was navigable by vessels of large size--this was
-one step toward solving the destiny of the West. Ascending the river,
-the explorers passed by a large number of Indian villages; these had
-been visited years before by Jesuit missionaries and _coureurs des
-bois_. Some fix the date as early as 1610, but others make it later,
-no names being given in either case. Louis Hennepin gives the earliest
-description of the river: "The strait (De troit) is finer than Niagara,
-being one league broad, excepting that part which forms the lake that
-we have called St. Clair." The strait once voyaged and understood, its
-value was quickly appreciated by the French as a means of resisting the
-inroads of the persevering English (who from New York and New England
-were pressing upon their possessions in the East), and of preventing
-British interference with the valuable hunting privileges or with
-the Indian tribes dwelling upon the borders of the Northern lakes.
-With this in view the Marquis de Nonville, Governor-General of the
-Canadas, ordered (June 6, 1686) M. Du Lhut, who had been commandant at
-Michilimackinac, "to establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie,
-with a garrison of fifty men," and the order added, "I desire you to
-choose an advantageous place to secure the passage, which may protect
-our savages who go to the chase, and serve them as an asylum against
-their enemies and ours." In obedience to these instructions, M. Du Lhut
-proceeded to the entrance of the strait from Lake Huron, where he built
-a fort and established a trading post (on the site of the present Fort
-Gratiot) which he called Fort St. Joseph. Thus (1686) was made the
-first settlement by Europeans in the lower peninsula of Michigan.
-
-The misfortunes of the war with England which terminated with the peace
-of Ryswick (Sept. 1, 1697,) still further convinced the most sagacious
-of the leading French colonists of the importance of a fort on the
-Detroit river which would command this channel of communication with
-the great lakes above. Impressed with this fact, Antoine de la Mothe
-Cadillac, a Gascon sailor who amid a career of romantic adventure came
-to be commandant at Michilimackinac, crossed the Atlantic in person,
-and earnestly and repeatedly pressed upon the colonial minister, Count
-Ponchartrain, the necessity of the prompt establishment of a permanent
-post on the Detroit, where it would bring the French forces in closer
-proximity to the Iroquois and would give them command of the waters
-of the upper lakes and of the great fur trading regions about them.
-Cadillac did not urge this as a missionary enterprise but for its
-commercial and military advantages, and the force and vigor of his
-representations prevailed at the palace. He sailed from France with the
-royal order, "Take prompt possession of Detroit," with this supplement
-from Ponchartrain: "Prosecute vigorously; if the Jesuits obstruct,
-return and report." Cadillac arrived in Quebec early in the first year
-of the eighteenth century (March 8). Three months later (June 5) his
-preparations were made, and on that day he took his departure from La
-Chine. With him were Captain Tonti, Lieutenants Dugue and Chacornacle,
-fifty soldiers, and fifty Canadian traders and artisans. Nineteen days
-later he arrived upon the site of the present city of Detroit. In his
-memoir Cadillac wrote: "I arrived at Detroit, July 24 (1701), and
-fortified myself there immediately. I had the necessary huts made and
-cleared up the ground preparatory to its being sowed in the autumn."
-When he touched the shore of Michigan, with pomp and ceremony he
-erected a cross, a cedar post beside it; then with a sword in one hand
-and a sod in the other he made solemn proclamation with many words of
-"possession taken" of all the country round about, from the great lakes
-to the south seas, in the name of the King of France.
-
-Thus French Michigan began, and so it remained until Wolfe's victory
-gave new rulers to Canada and to all the French possessions beyond.
-On Nov. 29, 1760, the French flag floated for the last time over
-Detroit, as a part of the dominion of France. On that day Maj. Robert
-Rogers, an English provincial officer, native of New Hampshire, took
-possession in the name of another king, ran up the Cross of St. George,
-fired a salute, gave some round British cheers, and (the Treaty of
-Paris confirming this occupation) Michigan was English. It so remained
-until the Revolution and the treaty of 1783 made it American. But
-it was not until thirteen years after (1796) that it was evacuated
-by the British garrison; in June of that year Captain Porter with a
-detachment of American troops entered the fort and hoisted the Union
-flag for the first time, and took formal possession in the name of the
-United States. The Hull surrender again swept Detroit and that part of
-Michigan lying within its command under the Cross of St. George (Aug.
-16, 1812,) to remain until Perry's victory and the subsequent military
-successes of General Harrison expelled the English and restored it
-permanently to the Union, on Sept. 28, 1813. During the Revolution
-Detroit was the headquarters of British power in the Northwest, and
-from it were sent out the expeditions which ravaged the frontiers of
-Pennsylvania and Virginia.
-
-The British captain, Rogers, who took possession in 1760, afterwards
-reported the population (1765) as: Able-bodied men, 243; women, 164;
-children, 294--total, 701. This was exclusive of the garrison, who
-were sent away as prisoners of war, and included the 60 men, women and
-children who were slaves. He also reported that of the French families
-remaining in the settlement there were 23 men able to bear arms, 24
-women, and 41 children. The others were probably English who had
-followed upon the track of the troops. Captain Rogers's report gives
-strength to this supposition. It says: "There are in the fort many
-English merchants, several of whom have bought houses." Then it gives
-this insight into the industrial condition of the settlement: "Of farms
-there are 40, and some fourscore acres in depth with a frontage on
-the river; of these several farms are at present in cultivation." The
-number of acres under cultivation is given as 404; number of bushels
-of wheat raised the preceding year, 670; bushels of corn, 1,884. The
-report quaintly adds: "The Indian corn would have been in greater
-abundance, had proper care been taken of it; the most part has been
-devoured by birds."
-
-Here remote from the world, with the joyous sparkling of the great
-river at their feet, the luxuriance of the forest about them, the
-cottages of the settlers peeping out from the green foliage in which
-they were half hidden, these simple colonists lived uneventful lives,
-surrounded by the beauty and the bounties of nature. The forests teemed
-with game, the marshes with wild fowl, and the rivers with fish. The
-long winters were seasons of enjoyment. In summer and autumn traders,
-voyageurs, _coureurs des bois_, and half-breeds gathered from the
-distant Northwest, and the settlement was boisterous with rude frolic
-and gaiety. This was Detroit and Michigan in 1765.[3]
-
-Between the French surrender and American occupancy, little was done
-toward the development of the peninsulas. In 1796 there were a few
-straggling settlements on the Detroit river, as also on Otter creek
-and on the rivers Rouge, Pointe aux Tremble, and other small streams
-flowing into Lake Erie. The French Canadians had extended their farms
-to a considerable distance along the banks of the St. Clair. Detroit
-was a small cluster of rude wooden houses, defended by a fort, and
-surrounded by pickets. Villages of the Ottawas and Pottawatamies stood
-on the present site of the city of Monroe, and near them were a few
-primitive cabins constructed of logs, erected by the French on either
-bank of the river Raisin; this was called Frenchtown, and is now part
-of Monroe. On the upper lakes there were the posts on the island of
-Mackinac, at St. Marie, and at St. Joseph (on the St. Joseph river).
-The transition from France to England  had given the monopoly of the
-fur trade to the Hudson Bay Company, thus changing the direction of
-its profits; otherwise the effect upon Michigan had been a change of
-masters, flag and garrison, and little else. And the shifting from
-England to the United States also meant only new faces and new colors
-in the fort; otherwise it was for the time effectless.
-
-The interior of the country was but little known except to those
-engaged in the fur trade, and they were interested in depreciating
-its value. Even as late as 1807 the Indian titles had only been
-partially extinguished, and no portion of the public domain had been
-brought into the market. The opposite shore was occupied by a vigilant
-and jealous foreign power. The interior of the future State swarmed
-with the savages who yet made it their home, and an Indian war was
-threatening. These things repelled the tide of immigration that was
-already surging over Ohio and the country bordering on the Ohio river.
-Fourteen years after American possession the population of Michigan
-was given as: Whites, 4,384; free blacks, 120; slaves, 24--total,
-4,528. Five years before the number of householders in the lower
-peninsula was officially given as 525. There are antecedent estimates
-of population and assertions, but no facts that can be relied on. It
-is, however, probable that at the time of the British evacuation (1796)
-the population did not exceed 2,500 souls, for two years afterwards
-(1798) Wayne county, then co-extensive with the present State of
-Michigan, sent a representative to Chillicothe, where it was claimed
-that the Northwest Territory was entitled to a delegate in Congress
-because there were then 5,000 inhabitants within its boundaries. It can
-scarcely be possible that half of that aggregate was in Michigan alone,
-and that its settlers then equaled in numbers those scattered over
-the inviting and fertile region which now includes the powerful and
-populous States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
-
-The growth of the decade succeeding 1810 was trifling. In 1820 the
-census showed but 9,048 souls in Michigan Territory, which included
-the present State and the region beyond the lakes north of Illinois.
-The war was over. Indian depredations had ceased and the Indian titles
-had been quieted. The perils of settlement were removed. The seeming
-obstacles of the toil and privations of frontier existence were mere
-cobwebs in the way of the hardy and adventurous. But there yet remained
-serious impediments to Michigan's growth. Distance was one, for the
-State was still difficult of access, and canals and railroads were yet
-in the future. A more serious impediment was a blunder. On May 6, 1812,
-Congress passed an act requiring that 2,000,000 acres of land should
-be surveyed in Michigan Territory. The surveyors went into the forest
-with their chains and poles, and the result was a report to Congress
-which may be thus summarized: "Many lakes of great extent; marshes
-on their margins; marshes between; other places covered with coarse
-high grass; this grass covered with water from six inches to three
-feet; lakes and swamps over half the country; the intermediate space
-poor, barren and sandy; the dry land composed of sand-hills, with deep
-basins between and more water; the margins of many of the streams and
-lakes literally afloat, or thinly covered with a sward of grass with
-water and mud underneath; the country altogether so bad that there
-would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be
-one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultivation."
-Official stupidity had its effect on Congress, and in 1816 (April 29)
-that body cancelled the survey order, and abandoned Michigan to the
-hunters and trappers and their game. For two years this continued;
-but the adventurous would plunge into the wilderness and would come
-back and talk of beautiful valleys, broad prairies and fertile soils.
-Explorations widened and a multitude of witnesses came with their facts
-to prove that the curtain of forest concealed something more inviting
-than marsh and barren and sand-hill. Then the government (1818) ordered
-a new survey and out of all this came part of the truth, namely: There
-was in this wilderness an immense variety of forest trees--oak, maple,
-ash, elm, sycamore, locust, butternut, walnut, poplar, whitewood,
-beech, hemlock, spruce, tamarack, chestnut, white, yellow, and Norway
-pine. There were plains and natural parks; there were level prairies
-and hills rising with gradual swell away to the center of the State.
-Of soils there were deep sandy loams mixed with limestone pebbles,
-deep vegetable moulds mingled with clay producing dense and luxuriant
-vegetation, brown loams mingled with clay, deep vegetable moulds with a
-surface covering of black sands. There was water in abundance, rivers
-and streams and creeks and beautiful lakes. All these reports and more,
-confirmed and re-confirmed by pioneers and surveyors, came back from
-the interior, until the exceeding richness and great agricultural value
-of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was established.
-
-But another event was to exercise a most important influence upon the
-future State. In 1817 the first steamer upon the Northern lakes, the
-"Ontario," was launched, and, amid bonfires, illuminations and most
-lively demonstrations of joy, made her first trip upon Lake Ontario.
-This heralded the dawn of a material revolution. One year later, on the
-27th day of August, 1818, the "Walk-in-the-water," the first steamer
-launched above Niagara Falls, came up to the wharves of Detroit after
-a passage of forty-four hours from Buffalo. This vessel, of only 340
-tons, and lost three years later, was a puny affair, but wise men
-saw in her advent the promise of a future which time has more than
-realized. Then in the wake of the steamer, Congress (1819) ordered
-the public lands of Michigan placed in the market for sale. At this
-time Detroit contained 250 houses, 1,415 inhabitants, and the entire
-territory a population of 8,896. In 1825 the Erie canal was completed,
-and its far-sighted projector, De Witt Clinton, sailed amid national
-acclamations from Lake Erie to tide-water. It completed the link of
-direct water communication with Michigan, and the stream of Western
-emigration was quickly swollen to a torrent.
-
-Mr. Chandler first came to Michigan in 1833. Three years before (1830)
-the census of the entire territory, as it was constituted when Illinois
-was admitted to the Union, was 32,531. The growth during the preceding
-decade had been steady, not immense; that was to come after. It was
-in the year of 1833 that the first settlement was made in the present
-State of Iowa. And in that fall (September) the people of Detroit were
-rejoicing that "arrangements were in train for the establishment of a
-new stage-line route to Chicago, by which travelers can go from one
-place to the other in five days." There was not then a mile of railroad
-in the territory, and not until five years after (1838) was the first
-twenty-nine miles completed to Ypsilanti. Detroit was still a frontier
-post numbering less than 4,000 inhabitants. On all the Western lakes at
-the beginning of that year there were but eighteen steamers, ranging
-from fifty to 395 tons in burden, and aggregating but 3,710 tons, and
-with the best of these a voyage of thirty-nine hours from Buffalo to
-Detroit was a remarkable passage. All this was improvement; yet the
-Detroit merchant in that year could not expect to receive his purchases
-made in New York within less than from three to six months after the
-time of setting out to procure them. During the winter steamboats and
-river craft were ice-bound, and the settlements at Detroit, the River
-Raisin and elsewhere throughout the broad peninsula, were shut out from
-the Eastern world, except as travelers braved the tedious and painful
-staging through Canada to Buffalo, with its week of continuous day and
-night journeying.
-
-A year later (1834) Congress defined the boundaries of Michigan
-Territory. Let the finger trace on the atlas the northern borders
-of Ohio and Indiana, follow around the south shore of Lake Michigan
-to the boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois, pursue that line to
-the Mississippi river, then down its stream to the north line of the
-State of Missouri, along that westward to the Missouri, and up that
-river until between the 25th and 26th degrees of west longitude the
-finger reaches the faint line, coming down into the Missouri from the
-north, of the White Earth river--all the land and lakes between the
-Detroit straits and this little White Earth river and between the
-line so traced and the British possessions, was Michigan Territory in
-1834 and until Michigan was admitted as a State into the Union. It
-was an imperial domain, larger than Sweden and Norway united; nearly
-three times greater than England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the
-Channel islands; surpassing the united territories of France, Belgium,
-Switzerland, Denmark and The Netherlands; even exceeding the combined
-acreage of Italy and the German Empire. Yet in all this region, when
-Mr. Chandler displayed his first stock of goods in Detroit, there
-was not one mile of railroad or telegraph, not one steam mill or
-manufactory, but one city approaching 4,000 inhabitants and not one
-exceeding it, and not a single mile of paved street or sewerage. There
-was but one water-works, and no gas-works. There was not one daily
-newspaper, and but few of any kind. The valuable iron deposits of
-the Upper Peninsula were undiscovered. The wealth of pine timber was
-unknown. In the previous year (1832) the total value of foreign and
-domestic produce exported from Michigan amounted to but the trifling
-sum of $9,234, and in the preceding federal census (1830) the entire
-civilized population of this vast area of limitless possibilities was
-less than 33,000, although there were then in the Union twenty-four
-States with a population of 12,866,020.
-
-[Illustration: DETROIT TN 1834.]
-
-Mr. Chandler came in with the first swell of the great tide of
-emigration which broke over Michigan Territory. Up to within a brief
-period preceding, that extensive and fertile region was scarcely known
-except as it appeared on maps. Its rich prairies, its fertile plains,
-its deep forests with all their wealth, were a _terra incognita_ to all
-white men except the fur traders. But it was being rapidly known and
-understood. Its fame had rolled back over the East, and the fruits were
-seen in the new faces and sturdy forms swarming to Detroit as a point
-of departure to the new and beautiful land. In that year (1833) it was
-a matter of boasting that as many as "one hundred and seventy-five
-emigrants had landed in Detroit in one day." The next year _Niles'
-Register_ had a report from Detroit that the arrivals had reached the
-magnificent proportions of "nine hundred and sixty in one day," and
-that "the streets of Detroit were full of wagons loading and departing
-for the West," principally for the region about Grand river. And the
-same journal said: "The character of these emigrants is in every
-respect a subject of felicitation. They will give Michigan a capital
-stock of wealth and moral worth unequaled by any of the newly-formed
-States, and scarcely approximated by Ohio."
-
-In 1833 and for more than a year afterward the business part of Detroit
-was confined to the narrow space bounded by Wayne and Randolph streets,
-Jefferson avenue and the river, and at the same time there were but few
-buildings on Jefferson avenue above Rivard, and but one on Woodward
-avenue north of State street. Old wind-mills lined the shores; the
-little unsightly French carts clattered through the streets; ducks,
-geese and pigs were the only city scavengers. This sounds like another
-age--another continent--but it was the Detroit and Michigan of but
-forty-six years ago. Change came with population--slowly at first, then
-with increased speed, then with immense strides. Mr. Chandler lived
-to see it all and to be a part of it. He came with the early tide
-of population; he saw the tide rising, at first languid, halting and
-uncertain; he saw it year by year gathering momentum and volume until
-it swelled and rolled over Michigan a mighty flood of brawn and brain,
-of enterprise and conscience.
-
-On the fifth day of November, 1879, tens of thousands of people looked
-upon the dead face of the stalwart Senator and followed his body to
-its last resting place in the city to which he had come in 1833.
-Forty-six years and a few weeks had passed; no more. But in that time
-the city which he made his home had spread its wings until it covered
-an area of thirteen and a half square miles, with 300 miles of streets
-(seventy-six miles paved), and some of them among the broadest and
-most beautiful in the world, shaded by rows of graceful trees of
-luxuriant foliage, and adorned by stores and private residences rich
-in finish and architecture. It had 200 miles of water-mains and 150
-miles of sewers, making it one of the most perfectly-drained cities
-on the continent. Its population had grown to be 120,000, and its
-taxable wealth to exceed $87,000,000. School buildings, representing
-a public investment of $650,000 and accommodating 15,000 pupils, were
-scattered through its wards, and numerous churches and abundant public
-and private charitable institutions made proclamation of the faith and
-philanthropy of its citizens. Great manufacturing enterprises lined its
-wharves and suburbs; scores of railroad trains arrived at and departed
-from its depots daily; and the commerce of the lakes was passing along
-its river front at the rate of thousands of tons hourly.
-
-But the change in Michigan had been no less marvelous. The State
-has a representation in the present Congress of the United States
-exceeding that of any one of eight of the first States of the
-Union, equaling the representation of that of two others (Georgia
-and Virginia), and only exceeded by that of three of the original
-thirteen--Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. In a single
-county of the Upper Peninsula, in 1833 supposed to be only a mass of
-barren, uninviting and uninhabitable rocks, there are three cities
-either one of which has a greater population than the Detroit of that
-day, and in Michigan out of its forty-three cities and 178 villages
-(April, 1879) there are over thirty more populous than Detroit in
-1833--some of them with populations from five to eight times greater.
-The people of the State are a million and a half in number, spread over
-the greater part of the Lower Peninsula, about the Sault, and from
-Marquette to Ontonagon and south to Menominee in the Upper Peninsula.
-Its newspapers have grown to twenty-three dailies and over 300 with
-less frequent issues. Its railroads have developed from non-existence
-to 3,500 miles, owned by thirty-six corporations, connecting Detroit
-and the principal cities of Michigan with all portions of the State,
-penetrating to every center of population and industry, costing over
-$160,000,000, and paying in each year for salaries and operating
-expenses over $13,000,000. Strong institutions for the care of the
-deaf and dumb and the blind and for the insane, a thriving college
-for agricultural education, and that noblest monument of the wisdom
-and forethought of the latter-day founders of Michigan, the State
-University, were all planted in these years. And with this, the public
-school system was nourished until there are over 300 graded schools and
-over 6,000 public schools in the State, with property valued at over
-$9,000,000, paying almost $2,000,000 yearly in teachers' wages, and
-with annual resources amounting to nearly $4,000,000. In the mountains
-of the Upper Peninsula, so long reputed a barren wilderness, have been
-discovered exhaustless mines of the richest iron ores and the most
-extensive and valuable copper deposits known on the globe. The Saginaw
-Valley has poured a briny stream of wealth upon the State from its
-unfailing salt-wells, and from the forests about and beyond to the
-westernmost limits of Michigan have been gathered great treasures of
-pine and hard woods. And while nature was yielding its hidden stores
-to enrich the State its skilled citizens were not idle. Over 10,000
-manufacturing establishments in Michigan now employ upward of 70,000
-people, pay more than $25,000,000 annually in wages, make an infinite
-variety of wares, and turn out products each year amounting in value
-to more than $130,000,000. The statistics of agricultural development
-are equally remarkable. The log cabin and the clearings have yielded
-to ample farms. The marsh, the pine barren, even the hyperborean
-soil of the Upper Peninsula, have been transformed into productive
-wheat-fields. The cereals of Michigan exceed in their annual product
-70,000,000 bushels, and $45,000,000 in their value. Highly cultivated
-and valuable farms (over 111,000 in number and with a total acreage of
-10,000,000) cover the greater part of the Lower Peninsula. Comfortable,
-even stately, farm houses dot the landscape. School-houses, churches,
-villages, towns and cities stand where the forest was. The wilderness
-has fled away. Everywhere there are evidences of peace, prosperity,
-happiness and a high civilization. It is magic; courage, intelligence
-and industry have been the magicians.
-
-The changes in the other parts of the Michigan Territory of 1833 have
-been no less marvelous. Four States have been carved out of that
-region whose boundaries in 1834 were traced on the atlas--Michigan,
-Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota--and the great wheat farms of Dakota
-will soon develop into a fifth. This entire territory to-day has eight
-Senators, twenty-nine Representatives and one Delegate in Congress,
-has over 11,000 miles of railroad, seventy-seven daily papers and over
-1,100 weekly or monthly publications, and several great cities larger
-than Philadelphia and New York when the United States had taken its
-second census. It has a population greater than that of the thirteen
-colonies which successfully defied the power of Great Britain during
-the Revolution, greater than that of the six New England States in
-the present day. It produces a larger amount of breadstuffs than the
-whole Union yielded when Mr. Chandler first came to the territory, and
-contains more wealth than did all the States fifty years ago.
-
-This is a marvelous story of growth. Nothing in the Old World has
-equaled it. Nothing the New has exceeded it. It has confounded
-prophecy. It has outrun imagination. It is the achievement of a
-stalwart race. It is the triumph of faith, of zeal, of courage. It
-dazzles the men of to-day. And it will stand for centuries to excite
-the admiration of the historian and the wonder of the future.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[2] Parkman's "Jesuits in North America."
-
-[3] This is Parkman's picture in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY--RECORD AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY WHIG.
-
-
-The conspicuous figure in Michigan politics, when Zachariah Chandler
-landed at Detroit and for twenty-five years afterward, was Lewis Cass.
-He was a man of ability and many accomplishments, irreproachable in
-private life, and with a claim upon the enduring gratitude of the
-people of the Northwest for his large share in the founding of mighty
-States about the shores of the great lakes. He came to Michigan with
-military distinction, and had added to his laurels civic honors as a
-territorial ruler, as a skilful negotiator with the Indians, and as
-an intrepid explorer. General Cass was a warm political and personal
-friend of Andrew Jackson, and his influence made Michigan a strongly
-Democratic territory and State. In 1831 he had been appointed Secretary
-of War in President Jackson's cabinet, and in 1836 he was sent to Paris
-as the United States Minister at the court of Louis Phillippe. The
-courage, vigor and skill of his attack upon the "Quintuple Treaty,"
-which embodied Great Britain's theories on the then delicate topic of
-the right of search on the high seas, and which was defeated by the
-refusal of France to ratify the preliminary negotiations, made his
-ambassadorship an event in European diplomacy, and gave him a national
-reputation on this continent. His return to Detroit in 1843 was
-attended by unusual popular demonstrations at every important point in
-his Westward journey. In 1845 Michigan sent him to the Senate, and in
-1848 the Democracy nominated him as its candidate for the presidency.
-That a man who thus made a new commonwealth influential in national
-politics should call about him a strong following and mould public
-sentiment at his own home was natural, and the State of Lewis Cass was
-long regarded as staunchly Democratic. His party held control for years
-of the main avenues of political preferment, and not a few young men
-of parts and ambition who came to Michigan as Whigs were led into the
-ranks of the Democracy by the fact that it was the only organization
-which had honors and offices to bestow.
-
-General Cass was a courtly gentleman, dignified in manners, who, with
-a natural boldness of character which never lost wholly its power of
-self-assertion, gradually became ultra-conservative in his Democracy.
-Originally he had anti-slavery tendencies, but the Southern drift
-of his party, which became apparent about the time of his return
-from France, carried him with it, and he grew to be one of the most
-assiduous originators and supporters of the series of compromises
-which so long defeated justice and encouraged the aggressions of the
-slave power. The result was that in time the hammer of his personal
-influence in Michigan was broken on the anvil of New England ideas,
-while his name became the symbol of "hunkerism" in the Northwest;
-but in December, 1860, his octogenarian patriotism flamed up in the
-presence of armed treason and executive imbecility, and he branded
-the administration of James Buchanan as it deserved by indignantly
-resigning the portfolio of the department of state. No political
-contrast could well be more vivid than that between Lewis Cass and the
-man who succeeded him in the Senate, and replaced him in the political
-leadership of Michigan, representing a greater State, a nobler
-political cause, and instead of the make-shifts of compromise ideas
-which are to-day embodied in the fabric of American civilization.
-
-Zachariah Chandler's father was originally a Federalist, and then
-a Whig. The son brought with him to Detroit Whig sympathies and
-anti-slavery convictions, but no predisposition to political activity.
-For many years he refused to divert his energies from his mercantile
-pursuits, and took no share in party contests, except such as would be
-natural in the case of any enterprising citizen with a lively interest
-in public questions. He was known as a staunch Whig, and he thoroughly
-identified himself with that party when in both Michigan and the Union
-its victories seemed accidental, and its defeats certain. Between
-1837 and 1848 his name frequently appears among the officers of Whig
-meetings, or as a member of the election day vigilance committees of
-his party, and (very rarely) as a ward delegate to Whig conventions. He
-was a regular contributor to the campaign fund, and he did his share
-of work at the polls. At that time the labors of election day were not
-those of persuasion merely. Partisan feeling was bitter, and in the
-population of the growing frontier city, there was a strong ruffianly
-element, which was as a rule Democratic in its sympathies. In close
-contests mobs sometimes gathered about the voting places, and sought
-by jostling and occasional assaults to keep away from the ballot-boxes
-the more timid or fastidious of the Whigs. On these occasions Mr.
-Chandler was among the men of strong frames, sinewy arms, and pugnacity
-of spirit, who furnished the Whig muscle to defeat this variety of
-"Loco-foco trick." He and Alanson Sheley (now a well-known Detroit
-merchant) were, with a few others of like strength and stature, the
-Whig body-guard who forced a way for voters through the dense crowd,
-and interposed for the rescue of the threatened. There is no lack of
-amusing anecdotes of this species of service rendered by Mr. Chandler
-to the Whig party; and it was at times attended by serious danger. In
-later years he credited Mr. Sheley with having saved his life in one of
-these election disturbances, and frequently recalled reminiscences of
-the muscular exploits of those days. It was not until Mr. Chandler was
-a Whig of nearly twenty years' standing, that he became that party's
-candidate for any office, or that he actively interested himself in
-its committee work and practical management. He cast a void vote for
-Harrison in 1836, before Michigan had been formally admitted; he
-attended the monster meetings and sang campaign songs in the log cabins
-of 1840, and gave then a valid vote to Harrison; he denounced Tyler's
-political treason, and in 1844 cheered for Clay and Frelinghuysen; he
-opposed General Cass in 1848, and at that time delivered his maiden
-speech, in support of "Zach." Taylor; but it was not until 1851 that
-he manifested any especial taste for or skill in politics, or that he
-allowed his name to be used as a candidate for position.
-
-The Whigs of Michigan were as a rule of New England extraction, and the
-masses of the party were always staunchly anti-slavery in sentiment.
-They charged General Cass's denunciation of the "Quintuple Treaty" to
-a disposition to seek Southern approval by indirectly shielding the
-slave trade: they opposed the annexation of Texas, applauded the Wilmot
-Proviso, and were restive under Southern aggression and slaveholding
-arrogance at the capital. The few Congressmen whom they were able to
-elect voted uniformly for free institutions and against the extension
-of human bondage. Michigan's first Whig Senator, Augustus S. Porter,
-while still new in his seat, opposed alone Calhoun's resolutions in
-"the Enterprise case" (a vessel employed in the coastwise slave trade
-had touched at Port Hamilton in the British West Indies, and some
-negro chattels who formed part of her cargo had taken advantage of
-English law to assert their manhood and freedom), and cast a solitary
-vote to lay them upon the table. Of this act Joshua R. Giddings wrote:
-"Seeing that eminent Senators around him interposed no objection to
-the passage of the resolutions, Mr. Porter, obeying the dictates of
-his own judgment and conscience, heroically met the overwhelming
-influence arrayed against him, and showed the most cogent reasons for
-rejecting the resolutions, by exhibiting the absurdity of the attempt
-to induce the British government to acknowledge the laws of slavery
-and the slave trade to exist and be enforced within her ports." Both
-Mr. Porter and William Woodbridge voted against the resolution for the
-annexation of Texas. In the House of the Twenty-seventh Congress Jacob
-M. Howard acted with the friends of freedom on questions involving
-that issue, and in the Thirtieth Congress William Sprague, the second
-Whig Representative, was openly classified as a Free Soiler. In 1849
-the Whigs and Free Soilers united to support Flavius J. Littlejohn
-for Governor, and the Whigs of Michigan as a whole were a body of
-intelligent and conscientious anti-slavery men, and made their
-political weight felt on the side of free institutions.
-
-Mr. Chandler was from his boyhood radical in his opposition to human
-bondage, and for a time hoped that the Whig party of the North could be
-used to effectually resist the conspiracy of the slave power against
-the territories. His anti-slavery activity preceded his appearance
-in politics. Detroit was an important terminus of the "Underground
-Railroad," that mysterious organization which so skilfully and quietly
-transported colored fugitives from the Ohio to Canadian soil, and Mr.
-Chandler, while still absorbed in business, was a frequent and liberal
-contributor to the fund for its operating expenses. He manifested an
-especial interest in the Crosswhite case, which, played a conspicuous
-part in the fugitive slave law agitation preceding the compromises of
-1850. Adam Crosswhite was the mulatto son of a slave mother who was
-owned by his father, a white farmer in Bourbon county, Kentucky. While
-a boy he was given as a servant to his half-sister, a Miss Crosswhite,
-who married a slave-dealer named Stone. Her husband subsequently sold
-her brother for $200, and Crosswhite ultimately became the chattel
-of a Kentucky planter named Giltner living in Carroll county. When he
-had reached the age of forty-four and had become the father of four
-children, he learned that his master was planning to sell a portion of
-his family. The parental instinct drove this man to a step which he had
-not taken through any desire for personal freedom, and he determined
-upon flight. He succeeded in getting his entire family across the Ohio
-in a skiff, and into the hands of the "Underground Railway" managers
-in Indiana. There was a vigorous pursuit, and at Newport the fugitives
-were nearly captured, but Quaker shrewdness concealed and protected
-them, and after weeks of stirring adventure, during which the father
-and mother were compelled to separate, they reached Michigan, and
-became the occupants of a little cabin in the eastern part of the
-present city of Marshall. They were quiet and industrious citizens,
-and by thrift and unremitting labor commenced making payments on
-their homestead. In time the history of the fugitives became known
-to their neighbors, and finally some one with the genuine spirit
-of the slave-driver sent to Kentucky information concerning their
-hiding-place. In December, 1846, Francis Troutman came to Marshall,
-ostensibly as a young lawyer in search of business, but in fact as
-Giltner's representative in identifying his fugitive slaves and
-planning their recapture. He did his work well, through artifice and
-with the help of aid which he hired at Marshall, but did not succeed
-in perfectly concealing his plans. Crosswhite received warning of the
-impending danger, and both armed himself and arranged with sympathizing
-friends for prompt assistance. The abduction was finally attempted
-early on the morning of Jan. 27, 1847. Troutman was assisted by David
-Giltner, Franklin Ford, and John S. Lee, all Kentuckians, and the four
-men were well armed. Crosswhite saw their approach, and succeeded in
-giving the alarm, but before his friends commenced to assemble the
-Kentuckians broke in the door of his cabin and informed the negroes
-that they must go at once before a magistrate where it was proposed
-to prove the fact of their escape from slavery. While the preparation
-of the children for the winter's ride to the justice's office was in
-progress, a crowd, at first largely composed of colored men but soon
-including many whites, gathered about the cabin, and promptly made
-the fact apparent that they were in no mood to permit the proposed
-restoration of human property to its Kentucky owners. The courage of
-the slave-hunters did not prove equal to the occasion, and finally
-Troutman resorted to argument. He harangued the jeering crowd on the
-sanctity of the fugitive slave law and the legality of Giltner's
-claim, even offering as proof of his law-abiding spirit not to take
-back to slavery a child born to the Crosswhites since their escape.
-The response to this proposition to do exact justice by separating an
-infant from its mother may be imagined, and in the end the Kentuckians
-abandoned their attempt. Crosswhite had meanwhile complained against
-them for trespass, and they were then arrested, convicted and fined
-$100. Money was also at once raised in Marshall by which the negroes
-were sent to Detroit and thence to Canada. While the excitement was
-at its hight some of the prominent citizens of Marshall joined the
-crowd, and endeavored to restrain them from violence and to convince
-the slave-hunters of the folly of attempting to defy the aroused
-indignation of the community; they were careful, however, to avoid any
-violation of the law. Troutman met their remonstrances by a demand
-for their names. One of them replied, "Charles T. Gorham; write it in
-capital letters." The answer of another was, "Oliver Cromwell Comstock,
-Jr.; take it in full so that my father may not be held responsible
-for what I do." Troutman also obtained the name of Jarvis Hurd, these
-three being well-known residents of Marshall and gentlemen of pecuniary
-responsibility. Nothing further took place at the time, and in a few
-days the Kentuckians returned to their State, which was soon aflame
-with wrath at this "Northern outrage." Public meetings were held to
-denounce the "abolition rioters," the most exaggerated accounts of
-the Marshall release were circulated and believed, the event received
-Congressional attention, and finally the State of Kentucky made an
-appropriation for the prosecution of all who were concerned in the
-escape of the Crosswhite family. Troutman returned to Michigan in the
-summer of 1847, and brought an action to recover the value of the
-rescued slaves, in the United States Circuit Court, against a large
-number of defendants; the case as tried, however, was practically a
-prosecution of Messrs. Gorham, Comstock, and Hurd. The Kentuckians
-retained a large array of counsel, including John Norvell, the veteran
-Democratic leader, while the defense was represented by Theodore
-Romeyn, Wells & Cook, and Hovey K. Clarke, with Halmer H. Emmons
-(subsequently United States Circuit Judge) and James F. Joy as counsel.
-Gerrit Smith also came from New York to argue the constitutional
-question involved, but the defendants' attorneys did not deem it
-prudent in a jury trial at that time to ally themselves with so radical
-an abolitionist. The case was taken up before Justice John MacLean,
-in 1848, and attracted national attention. The first trial took place
-in the June term and resulted in a disagreement of the jury. A second
-trial followed in November and December of the same year and ended
-in a verdict for the plaintiffs of $1,926 and costs; the expenses of
-defending the suits had also imposed heavy pecuniary burdens upon the
-Marshall gentlemen. Mr. Gorham was then a Democrat, and found among his
-party friends a strong feeling that it was important at that time and
-in so conspicuous a case that Michigan should manifest a disposition to
-rigidly enforce the fugitive slave law, as these were the years when
-General Cass's presidential aspirations culminated, and when it was
-essential that his hold upon Southern confidence should be preserved.
-There was no lack of private expressions of Democratic sympathy with
-the defendants, and assurances were given that they should not be left
-to meet alone the heavy expenses involved, but among the Democratic
-leaders there was an unmistakable wish that the prosecution should
-be vigorously pushed for the sake of its political effect, and this
-secret pressure had a powerful influence. This case interested Mr.
-Chandler from the outset, and he watched every development closely.
-Early in the proceedings he met Mr. Gorham, with whom his acquaintance
-was then but slight, and said to him, "I am satisfied from what I have
-seen and learned that this case is being manipulated in the interest
-of the Democratic party, and that you are to be sacrificed to appease
-the slave power of the South, so that Cass may not be damaged by the
-result. Offer no compromise; fight them through to the end; I will
-stand by you, and see that you do not suffer." He was as good as his
-word, gave and helped to raise money for the defense, and attended
-the trial to the close. Mr. Gorham, who received no Democratic aid of
-importance, became one of his firmest and most intimate friends, and
-when Mr. Chandler was appointed Secretary of the Interior Mr. Gorham
-(who had then served five years as United States Minister at The Hague)
-became the Assistant Secretary of that department. Of the same period
-of Mr. Chandler's life this characteristic anecdote is told: John
-Sumner, one of his Jackson customers, passed Sunday as his guest in
-Detroit, and at church listened with him to a sermon of pro-slavery
-flavor, followed by a prayer by a visiting clergyman in which the
-Divine blessing was earnestly invoked upon the down-trodden and the
-oppressed. At the conclusion of the services Mr. Chandler stepped to
-the foot of the pulpit, sought an introduction to the utterer of the
-prayer, and said: "Thank you for that prayer! It was all that I have
-heard this morning that was worth hearing." Throughout the days of
-Mr. Chandler's earnest attachment to the Whig party, his anti-slavery
-feeling was pronounced.
-
-In 1848 Mr. Chandler fleshed his political broadsword with one
-or more speeches in behalf of General Taylor. He had been an
-occasional participant in the debates of the Young Men's Society,
-the training-school for not a few of Detroit's eminent men, but in
-that year for the first time he addressed a miscellaneous audience
-on public questions. His earlier speeches showed the strength of the
-man, and despite some ruggedness were effective. In the State election
-of 1849 Mr. Chandler took no active part. In 1850 he was one of the
-Wayne county delegates to the Whig State convention, which met at
-Jackson on the 18th of September, and nominated a ticket headed by
-George Martin, of Kent, for Secretary of State; the following campaign
-was a local one, arousing but little interest, and in it Mr. Chandler
-did not prominently share. On February 19, 1851, the Whigs of Detroit
-held a convention to select a city ticket for the charter election
-in March, and after one informal ballot Mr. Chandler was unanimously
-nominated by them for Mayor. This event marks the commencement of his
-career as a popular, shrewd, and successful political leader. The
-Democratic candidate for the Mayoralty was Gen. John R. Williams, a
-native and one of the foremost citizens of Detroit, the president of
-the Michigan constitutional convention of 1835, and the senior officer
-of the State militia. He had been the first Mayor of the city, and had
-held that place for six terms, and was a man of practical ability, the
-owner of a large estate, and popular with the people. His personal
-strength made him a formidable candidate, and his defeat not easy of
-accomplishment. Mr. Chandler's answer to the delegation who waited
-upon him with the question, "Will you run on the Whig ticket against
-John R. Williams?" was, "I will and I will beat him too," and he put
-all his energy into the campaign which followed. The Whig convention
-by resolution presented his name to the people of Detroit as that of
-"a man identified with its improvements, prominent in its welfare, and
-interested in its prosperity," and in the Whig journals he was warmly
-commended as "known to every man, woman, and child in the city as a
-man of strict integrity, active and industrious business habits, of
-great liberality of views, both in person and sentiment, and of the
-purest moral character; eminently popular and affable in his habits of
-intercourse with his fellow-citizens, his extensive business operations
-have brought him in daily contact with all, through a long course of
-years." His election was also urged on the ground that he was the only
-candidate "known to be in favor of extending the various enterprises
-of sewerage, pure water, pavements and sidewalks, just as fast as the
-needs of a young city shall require," and because his "course in his
-own business, and in relation to the public interest, has been an
-energetic, discreet and efficient prosecution of everything upon which
-he has laid his hands." During this canvass Mr. Chandler gave what is
-believed to be the only lecture of his life, and its marked success
-undoubtedly helped him at the ballot-box. It was delivered before
-the Young Men's Society upon February 25, 1851, its theme being "The
-Element of Success in Character." The newspaper report of it was as
-follows:
-
-  The theme chosen by Mr. Chandler. "The Element of Success in
-  Character," though much worn, was most successfully treated.
-  Intending only to discourse from his own observations and
-  experience, his views were as philosophical as they were practical.
-  Therein was the charm and _takingness_ of the lecture. Without
-  rhetorical flourish the composition was excellent, severe in its
-  simplicity and directness, nevertheless abounding in beauty. For
-  originality, aptness of quotation and illustration, and felicitous
-  use of language, it ranks with the choicest productions before the
-  society. In his own person he furnished the very best illustration
-  and proof of success. Such a lecture from any one would do good,
-  but how much greater its influence when enforced by the living
-  example the lecturer himself affords of the truths of his teaching.
-
-Mr. Chandler organized his first political battle with characteristic
-thoroughness and system, visited every ward, called upon the voters,
-and made a remarkable personal canvass. The result was that when the
-ballots were counted it was found that he had carried every precinct
-in Detroit and had defeated his opponent by 349 majority in a total
-vote of less than 3,500. He led by nearly 400 the average vote of his
-ticket, and the Democrats elected at the same time a large proportion
-of their candidates. The victory was celebrated by a Whig serenade,
-at which the Mayor-elect made a modest and brief speech of thanks.
-This manifestation of personal strength and political skill at once
-attracted State attention, and it became the source of new Whig hope.
-
-Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor continued for one year, but was devoid of
-especial incident, although even now some interest will be felt in this
-official letter to Kossuth, which the Hungarian patriot answered with a
-note of regretful declination:
-
-                                      DETROIT, January 10, 1852.
-
-  _To his Excellency Louis Kossuth_:
-
-  DEAR SIR: By resolution of the Common Council, it becomes my
-  pleasing duty to invite you to visit the city of Detroit and
-  partake of its hospitalities. Much as we esteem you personally,
-  highly as we appreciate your public and private worth, it is not
-  to these alone that we do homage, but to the great principles
-  which you advocate. We hail you as the champion of republicanism
-  in Europe, as God's instrument in arousing throughout the world
-  a hatred of despotism, as a man who has sacrificed his all, and
-  offers his life upon the altar of liberty, as a teacher of "even
-  bayonets to think." We, sir, have not been disinterested spectators
-  of your glorious struggle for Hungarian independence. We watched
-  with most intense interest the commencement and progress of that
-  sanguinary conflict. When we saw the people rising in their might,
-  the nobleman and citizen vieing with each other in devotion to
-  their country's cause, emulous in sufferings and sacrifices, under
-  such a leader, we felt that victory must crown your exertions;
-  and when we saw the elements of Despotism uniting to crush this
-  (to them) detested spirit of Freedom, when we saw the temporary
-  triumphs of your oppressors, we felt that all was not lost--that
-  the Almighty Ruler of the Universe would neither leave nor forsake
-  you in your low estate, that the days of despotism were numbered.
-
-  Again would I invite you to visit Detroit and partake of its
-  hospitalities. Again would I assure you of our deep sympathy for
-  your down-trodden country, and I hazard nothing by the assertion
-  that that sympathy will manifest itself in a tangible form. Whether
-  our government will act in your behalf as a government, is not for
-  me to say; whether it would be proper for it to do so, is not for
-  me to discuss at this time. But that you have the deep sympathy of
-  our entire population is manifest to all.
-
-  With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
-
-  ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
-         _Mayor of the City of Detroit_.
-
-At the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor the Common Council of
-Detroit, by unanimous vote, spread upon its records this resolution:
-
-  _Resolved by the Common Council of the City of Detroit_, That in
-  retiring from the office of chief magistrate of this city the
-  Hon. Zachariah Chandler, by his urbanity, fidelity and zeal in
-  the discharge of his official duties for the past year, merits
-  the admiration and respect of the Council, and that in retiring
-  to private life he carries with him our cordial wishes for his
-  happiness and prosperity.
-
-In November, 1852, occurred Michigan's first general election under
-the constitution of 1850. The Democratic candidate for Governor
-was Robert McClelland, who had already held that office during the
-preceding short term. General Cass alone surpassed this gentleman in
-personal strength with his party in the State. Mr. McClelland was an
-upright and able man, who had served with distinction in Congress, and
-had held many important offices in Michigan; he subsequently became
-Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of President Pierce. While
-a member of the House of Representatives he had assisted in drafting
-the original Wilmot Proviso, but he had grown conservative with his
-party, and in 1852 came before the people as a warm champion of the
-compromises of 1850. Personally he was a man of some reserve, but
-affable with acquaintances and respected everywhere. He was renominated
-enthusiastically and with every prospect of an easy re-election.
-With the single exception of William Woodbridge, who was borne into
-office on the Whig tidal-wave of 1839 and 1840, Michigan had chosen
-an unbroken line of Democratic Governors. At the first election after
-its admission to the Union, Stevens T. Mason had a majority of 237 in
-a total poll of 22,299. The term for which Governor Woodbridge was
-chosen (he resigned to take a seat in the Senate) was followed by six
-successive Democratic victories. John S. Barry was elected in 1841
-with 5,326 majority over his Whig competitor, Philo C. Fuller, and two
-years later he defeated Dr. Zina Pitcher by 6,493 votes. Alpheus Felch
-in 1845 had 3,807 majority over Stephen Vickery, Whig, and in 1847
-Epaphroditus Ransom was chosen over James M. Edmunds by 5,649 votes. In
-1849 John S. Barry was again elected, defeating Flavius J. Littlejohn,
-Whig and Free Soiler, by 4,297 votes in a total poll of 51,377. In
-1851, which was the last election under the old constitution, Robert
-McClelland led Townsend E. Gidley 6,926 votes. The Liberty party, as a
-distinct organization, also existed six years in Michigan, beginning
-in 1841 with 1,214 votes and ending in 1847 with 2,585. Thus from 1841
-to 1852 not only did the Democrats control Michigan but at every State
-election had a clear majority over all shades of opposition.
-
-In 1852 the chronic difficulties of the Whig situation in Michigan
-were aggravated by the fact that the Baltimore convention which
-nominated Scott and Graham had condemned that anti-slavery sentiment
-of the party, which gave it all its virility in the West. The greater
-portion of the Northern Whigs with Mr. Greeley supported the ticket
-and "spat upon the platform," but some of them abandoned old party
-affiliations and joined the Free Soil Democrats, who put up Hale and
-Julian as their national candidates and in Michigan nominated a full
-State ticket headed by Isaac P. Christiancy. The Whig State convention
-of 1852 met at Marshall on July 1, and was called to order by Henry T.
-Backus as chairman of the State Central Committee, and presided over by
-Cyrus Lovell of Ionia. In the preliminary consultations Mr. Chandler's
-was the name chiefly urged for the head of the ticket, on account of
-his acquaintance throughout the State and the political strength and
-capacity he had shown as a candidate in Detroit. This is an extract
-from the official record of the convention:
-
-  On motion of W. A. Howard of Detroit a ballot was taken for
-  Governor and was announced by the tellers as follows:
-
-  Z. Chandler,         76
-  H. G. Wells,          7
-  G. A. Coe,            2
-  H. R. Williams,       1
-  J. R. Williams,       1
-  George R. Pomeroy,    2
-
-  On motion of Mr. DeLand of Jackson a formal ballot was had as
-  follows:
-
-  Z. Chandler,         95
-  H. G. Wells,          2
-  J. R. Williams,       1
-  Blank,                1
-
-  Mr. Chandler was not present and inquiry was made if it was known
-  whether he would accept the nomination. Mr. Wm. A. Howard of
-  Detroit, chairman of the delegation from that city, said on the
-  part of that delegation that he had seen Mr. Chandler previous to
-  leaving Detroit, and Mr. Chandler had said to him that he was not
-  a candidate for any of the offices under consideration, that he
-  preferred working in the ranks, but that should the convention see
-  fit to nominate him he was with them.
-
-[Illustration: =Temperance Ticket.=
-
-  For Governor,
-  Zachariah Chandler.
-
-  For Lieut. Governor,
-  Andrew Parsons.
-
-  For Secretary of State,
-  George E. Pomeroy.
-
-  For State Treasurer,
-  Bernard C. Whittemore.
-
-  For Auditor General,
-  Whitney Jones.
-
-  For Attorney General,
-  Nathaniel Bacon.
-
-  For Sup't of Pub. Instruction,
-  U. Tracy Howe.
-
-  For Com'r of State Land Office,
-  Nathan Power.
-
-  For State Board of Education,
-  Isaac E. Crary, for the term of six years.
-  Grove Spencer, for the term of four years.
-  Chauncey Joslin, for a term of two years.
-
-  For Member of Congress 1st District,
-  William A. Howard.
-
-  For Member of Senate,
-
-  For Representative,
-
-  For Sheriff,
-  Henry B. Holbrook.
-
-  For Clerk,
-  Jeremiah Van Rensselaer.
-
-  For Prosecuting Attorney,
-  D. Bethune Duffield.
-
-  For Judge of Probate,
-  Rufus Hosmer.
-
-  Circuit Court Commissioner,
-  John S. Newberry.
-
-  For Register,
-  Robert E. Roberts.
-
-FAC-SIMILE OF ONE OF THE STATE TICKETS OF MICHIGAN IN 1852.]
-
-The result was hailed with hearty cheering, and Mr. Chandler soon
-formally accepted this nomination and commenced a most energetic
-personal canvass of the State. The Temperance party made up a ticket in
-that year from the Democratic and Whig candidates, and Mr. Chandler was
-also retained as its nominee for Governor, but this action was without
-practical importance in the campaign or at the polls. During the fall
-of 1852 the Whig nominee for Governor labored unremittingly. He visited
-all the leading towns in the State, and spoke constantly from the
-middle of September until the week before election. The list of his
-appointments included Jonesville, Coldwater, Constantine, Cassopolis,
-Howell, Lansing, Eaton Rapids, Hastings, Allegan, Grand Rapids, Ionia,
-DeWitt, Corunna, Flint, Saginaw, Lapeer, Almont, Romeo, Mt. Clemens,
-Ann Arbor, Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek, St. Clair, and Detroit. His
-addresses were vigorous, entertaining and telling, and while he neither
-then nor afterward sought for the polished sentence or rounded period,
-he showed that capacity for plainness and force of reasoning and for
-hard-hitting which ultimately made his oratory so characteristic
-and effective. In this series of speeches he dealt largely with the
-national questions of Protection and Internal Improvements, and also
-with the business aspects of the State administration. His friends
-laid especial stress upon his strength as "a business man of energy,
-integrity and success," and urged his election because he bore "the
-reputation, well earned by a long course of business experience, of
-being a keen and shrewd business man of the highest moral tone," and
-because he was "endowed with remarkable business talent," and had
-been "identified with the growth and interests of the State." Mr.
-Chandler was also helped in this contest by his mercantile friendships
-throughout Michigan, and by the natural pleasure with which his fellow
-merchants saw one of their own guild fighting his way to political
-distinction along the paths so largely occupied by men of professional
-callings. As part of the organization of this canvass he mailed large
-quantities of gummed "slips" bearing his name to acquaintances in all
-parts of the State, and this is believed to be the first instance
-in which this now common weapon of political warfare was used in
-the Northwest. The Democrats found themselves compelled by this
-unprecedentedly vigorous attack to put forth most strenuous efforts,
-and General Cass labored assiduously to prevent the loss of his own
-State. So pronounced did the opposition of the veteran Democratic
-leader to the head of the Whig ticket become, that Mr. Chandler
-laughingly said to friends by way of comment upon it, "I am afraid that
-it will take General Cass's Senatorial seat to balance the account
-between us."
-
-But the national tide was then overwhelmingly against the Whigs,
-and Southern distrust of General Scott and Northern wrath at the
-circumstances of his nomination brought that party to the Waterloo
-defeat from which it never recovered. Michigan cast 41,842 votes for
-Pierce, 33,859 for Scott, and 7,237 for Hale. Mr. Chandler received
-34,660 votes for Governor against 42,798 for McClelland, and 5,850 for
-Christiancy. He thus received 801 more votes than Scott; he also led
-the entire Whig State ticket by from 500 to 4,000 votes, and received
-over 11,000 more votes than had ever been given to any Whig candidate
-for Governor. He had made a resolute fight, and again strikingly
-manifested his personal strength with the people and his political
-ability.
-
-In the Michigan Legislature of 1853, which was chosen at the same
-State election, the Democrats had a majority on joint ballot of
-forty-eight, and the Whig minority included but seven Senators and
-twenty-one Representatives. The term of Alpheus Felch as United States
-Senator expired on March 3, 1853, and Charles E. Stuart was chosen
-as his successor. The Whigs gave expression to their high estimate
-of the value of Mr. Chandler's services in the preceding campaign
-by complimenting him with their united vote for the Senate, and the
-footings of the Legislative ballot for that office were:
-
-  SENATE.
-  C. E. Stuart,    27
-  Z. Chandler,      7
-
-  HOUSE.
-  C. E. Stuart,    49
-  Z. Chandler,     21
-  H. K. Clarke,     1
-
-This was the last important political action of the Whig party of
-Michigan. Before another State election its formal dissolution had been
-pronounced, and the great body of its members had gathered around the
-cradle of infant Republicanism.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
-
-
-The darkest hour for the anti-slavery cause preceded the dawn of 1854.
-The compromises of 1850 had closed that long series of so-called
-bargains, by which the South had forced surrender after surrender
-from the North in the vain hope of preserving by such artificial
-devices its traditional preponderance in the government, so constantly
-threatened by the rapid development of the free States and the
-marvelous settlement of free territory. Behind the Louisiana purchase
-from Bonaparte was slavery's demand for new States to reinforce
-its political strength. Florida was bought from Spain for the same
-reasons. The Missouri compromise of 1820 involved the admission of a
-new slave State to the Union, and the organization of Arkansas as a
-slave territory; it was the work of the advocates of slavery extension,
-and was practically a surrender of free territory to bondage, the
-only consideration being the exclusion of slavery from soil on which
-(judging from all the experience of American settlement up to that
-time) it could not be established nor maintained. The annexation of
-Texas had been forced to add to the Union an enormous expanse of slave
-territory, capable, it was hoped, of early division into several slave
-States. The Mexican War was a peculiarly Southern scheme, having as
-its real aim the conquest of an empire which was to include human
-bondage among its established institutions. The futile plans for
-the annexation of Cuba came from the same prolific source, and were
-inspired by the same need of forcing the expansion of the political
-power of the slave South to prevent its being outstripped by the
-magnificent growth of the free North. But the forces of nature prove
-more potent than human devices, and the last speech of John C. Calhoun
-(read for him in the Senate on March 4, 1850,) showed how clearly this
-fact had impressed itself on the ablest and acutest of the Southern
-statesmen. That farewell address sketched minutely the history and
-condition of the steadily-growing disparity between the North and the
-South, declared in effect that the South with its institutions could
-not permit Northern ascendancy, demanded from the North constitutional
-amendments "which would restore to the South in substance the power
-she possessed of protecting herself before the equilibrium between the
-sections was destroyed," added that on no other basis could the South
-safely remain in the Union, and said that, if this demand was refused,
-"we would be blind not to perceive that your real objects are power and
-aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accordingly." To this candid
-avowal of the Southern programme (ten years later it became evident
-that Mr. Calhoun had stated then the slave power's ultimatum) the
-answer was the final surrender of 1850. The compromise measures of that
-year pledged the United States to the subdivision of Texas into new
-(slave) States, organized Utah and New Mexico without any prohibition
-of slavery within their boundaries, forbade the abolition of slavery in
-the District of Columbia, and set the odious machinery of the Fugitive
-Slave law in operation throughout the North. The consideration Freedom
-received for these concessions was the admission of California to the
-Union (it was evident that nothing but invasion and conquest could ever
-make it a slave State) and the abolition of the slave trade in the
-District of Columbia, amounting to a removal of the auction blocks of
-slave dealers from the shadow of the Capitol to the narrow streets of
-decaying Alexandria.
-
-The opiate of compromise sufficed to keep still dormant the conscience
-of the North, and the national acquiescence in this adjustment was
-emphatic. The Whig and the Democratic parties in 1852 both formally
-accepted in their platforms the legislation of 1850 as a decisive
-and just settlement of the slavery question, and they polled almost
-3,000,000 votes, while for the Free Soil ticket, representing hostility
-to slavery extension and to pro-slavery compromises, but 155,000
-votes were cast. The victory of the Democrats, who embodied in much
-the fullest degree the spirit of concession to Southern demands,
-was an overwhelming one. They carried 27 out of the 31 States, and
-had 254 electoral votes out of 296, with a clear popular majority
-over the entire opposition. In the Senate they had 14 majority out
-of a membership of 62, and in the House a majority of 84 in a total
-membership of 234. The condition of public sentiment then is thus
-described by the most accurate and graphic historian of that era:
-
-  Whatever theoretic or practical objections may be justly made to
-  the compromise of 1850, there can be no doubt that it was accepted
-  and ratified by a great majority of the American people, whether
-  in the North or in the South. They were intent on business--then
-  remarkably prosperous--on planting, building, trading and getting
-  gain--and they hailed with general joy the announcement that all
-  the differences between the diverse "sections" had been adjusted
-  and settled. The terms of settlement were, to that majority, of
-  quite subordinate consequence; they wanted peace and prosperity,
-  and were no wise inclined to cut each other's throats and burn each
-  other's houses in a quarrel concerning (as they regarded it) only
-  the _status_ of negroes. The compromise had taken no money from
-  their pockets; it had imposed upon them no pecuniary burdens; it
-  had exposed them to no personal and palpable dangers; it had rather
-  repelled the gaunt spectre of civil war and disunion (habitually
-  conjured up when slavery had a point to carry), and increased
-  the facilities for making money, while opening a boundless vista
-  of national greatness, security and internal harmony. Especially
-  by the trading class, and the great majority of the dwellers in
-  seaboard cities, was this view cherished with intense, intolerant
-  vehemence.... Whatever else the election of 1852 might have meant,
-  there was no doubt that the popular verdict was against "slavery
-  agitation" and in favor of maintaining the compromises of 1850....
-  The finances were healthy and the public credit unimpaired.
-  Industry and trade were signally prosperous. The tariff had ceased
-  to be a theme of partisan or sectional strife. The immense yield of
-  gold in California during the four preceding years had stimulated
-  enterprise and quickened the energies of labor, and its volume as
-  yet showed no signs of diminution. And though the Fugitive Slave
-  law was still denounced, and occasionally resisted by abolitionists
-  in the free States, while disunionists still plotted in secret and
-  more openly prepared in Southern commercial conventions (having for
-  their ostensible object the establishment of a general exchange
-  of the great Southern staples directly from their own harbors
-  with the principal European marts, instead of circuitously by way
-  of New York and other Northern Atlantic ports) there was still a
-  goodly majority in the South, with a still larger in the North and
-  Northwest, in favor of maintaining the Union and preserving the
-  greatest practical measure of cordiality and fraternity between the
-  free and slave States, substantially on the basis of the compromise
-  of 1850.
-
-This was the blackest chapter in the history of the agitation for
-Freedom on this continent. The era seemed to have been at last reached
-of national surrender to slavery's demands, and of the purchase
-of peace by the abandonment of (with the promise never to resume)
-resistance to "the sum of all villainies." John Quincy Adams had said
-that up to his day "the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation
-of slavery" had ever been "the animating spirit" of the American
-government. Daniel Webster had bitterly declared in 1848 that there was
-no North in American politics, and that the South absolutely controlled
-the government. Certainly, in 1853, the surface of the political
-situation fully justified the indignant words of Gerrit Smith: "Were
-this government despotic and her religion heathen, there might be some
-hope of republicanizing her politics and Christianizing her religion;
-but now that she has turned into darkness the greatest of all political
-lights and the greatest of all religious lights, what hope is left for
-her?"
-
-It was at this juncture, when its triumph appeared to be complete, that
-slavery fatally overreached itself. The Missouri compromise of 1820,
-which _forever_ prohibited slavery in all of the original Louisiana
-territory north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes of north latitude, had
-remained unquestioned upon the statute books for a generation. The
-South had received the full benefits of its share of that bargain,
-which added Arkansas and Missouri to the ranks of the slave States. In
-the interminable discussions of 1850 there had been no suggestion that
-the compromise measures of that year were intended to either disturb
-or supersede the Missouri compact, and the first message of Franklin
-Pierce congratulated the country on the sense of repose and security
-in the public mind which the compromise measures had restored, and
-added the pledge, "this repose is to suffer no shock during my official
-term, if I have power to avert it." Before two months had elapsed,
-the North heard with astonishment and indignation the doctrine laid
-down in Congress by the representatives of the slave power that the
-Missouri compromise had been abrogated by the measures of 1850, and
-that the vast domain between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, rich
-in all material and political possibilities, was open to slaveholding
-settlement. A few days more passed, and it was discovered that this
-claim was receiving the powerful support of the administration, and
-that it would also be championed by Stephen A. Douglas, with his
-formidable energy, personal influence, and rare skill in debate, as a
-step towards the vindication of his dogma of "Popular Sovereignty." Of
-the memorable four months' struggle over this issue, the following is a
-sketch in outline:
-
-Soon after the Thirty-third Congress assembled, in December, 1853,
-Senator A. C. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill to organize the
-Territory of Nebraska out of the magnificent region between Missouri
-and Iowa and the Rocky Mountains. It was referred to the Committee on
-Territories, and was reported back by Senator Douglas with amendments,
-none of which, however, proposed to repeal the prohibition of slavery
-included in the Missouri compromise. Upon this, Senator Archibald
-Dixon, of Kentucky, a Whig who declared that on the question of slavery
-he knew no Whiggery and no Democracy, but was a pro-slavery man,
-gave notice that he should offer an amendment, providing that the
-act of 1820 should not be so construed as to apply to the territory
-contemplated by this act, nor to any other territory of the United
-States. Senator Douglas thereupon had the bill recommitted, and
-subsequently reported in an entirely different form, creating _two_
-territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of one, and including the
-provision that all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories
-and in the new States to be formed therefrom should be left to the
-action of the people thereof through their appropriate representatives,
-and that the provisions of the constitution and laws of the United
-States in respect to fugitives from service should be carried into
-faithful execution in all the organized territories the same as in the
-States. This was, equally with Senator Dixon's proposition, a direct
-violation of the provision of the Missouri compromise, which was in
-these words (Section 8): "That in all that territory ceded by France
-to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of
-36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, not included within the
-limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary
-servitude, otherwise than as the punishment of crime, shall be and is
-hereby forever prohibited." In the last report, however, the pill was
-sugar-coated with Mr. Douglas's catch-word of "Popular Sovereignty."
-
-The territory which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was intended to organize
-was included in this quoted prohibition. That bill as introduced, in
-the section that provided for the election of a delegate to Congress
-from Kansas, had the stipulation:
-
-  That the constitution and all laws of the United States, which are
-  not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect
-  within said territory as elsewhere in the United States.
-
-To this the amended bill added the following reservation:
-
-  Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of
-  Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which was
-  superseded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly
-  called the compromise measure, and is declared inoperative.
-
-A similar provision with a like reservation was added to the section
-providing for the election of a delegate from Nebraska. A prolonged and
-brilliant debate followed in the Senate, and finally in place of the
-original reservation the following was adopted, on motion of Senator
-Stephen A. Douglas, by a vote of 35 to 10:
-
-  Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of
-  Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which, being
-  inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress
-  with slavery in the States and territories, as recognized by the
-  legislation in 1850 (commonly called the compromise measure), is
-  hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
-  meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or
-  State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
-  perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions
-  in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United
-  States.
-
-Senator Chase then moved to add to the above the following:
-
-  Under which the people of the territory, through their appropriate
-  representatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of
-  slavery therein.
-
-This amendment was voted down, yeas 10, nays 36, the Senate thus
-declaring its understanding that the people of the new territories
-should _not_ be allowed to prohibit slavery previous to their admission
-as a State. The bill passed on the morning of March 4th, by a vote
-of 37 to 14. In the House a separate bill had been introduced, but
-when it came up for consideration the Senate bill was substituted for
-it--by a parliamentary trick its opponents were prevented from offering
-amendments--and the bill was passed, yeas 113, nays 100. It went back
-to the Senate, in form as an original measure, but in effect the Senate
-bill, and on May 26 was finally passed by that body and was approved by
-President Pierce on May 30. The debate had been a memorable one; for
-the friends of Liberty, while they resisted to the last the surrender
-of what had been once bought for Freedom, joyfully recognized the fact
-that this act would in its logic make every compromise repealable,
-and thus kill in the womb all future political bargainings. Benjamin
-F. Wade said in the Senate that "the violation of the plighted
-faith of the nation would precipitate a conflict between liberty and
-slavery; and that, in such a conflict, it will not be liberty that
-will die in the nineteenth century. You may call me an Abolitionist
-if you will; I care little for that, for if an undying hatred to
-slavery constitutes an Abolitionist, I am that Abolitionist. If man's
-determination at all times and at all hazards, to the last extremity,
-to resist the extension of slavery, or any other tyranny, constitutes
-an Abolitionist, I before God believe myself to be that Abolitionist."
-William H. Seward said: "You are setting an example which abrogates all
-compromises.... It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them
-now; but the proposition has come from another quarter--from an adverse
-one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of compromise are
-passing from under my feet, and they are now, without agency of my own,
-taking hold again on the rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault
-of mine if they do not remain firm." Charles Sumner closed his protest
-against this removal of "the landmarks of freedom" by declaring the
-measure to be "at once the worst and best bill on which Congress ever
-acted--the worst inasmuch as it is a present victory for slavery, and
-the best bill because it prepares the way for the 'All hail hereafter,'
-when slavery must disappear. Sorrowfully I bend before the wrong you
-are about to perpetrate. Joyfully I welcome all the promises of the
-future."
-
-The response of the North to the abrogation of the Missouri compromise
-justified these predictions. To this overthrow of a solemn compact
-for the purpose of opening a vast empire to attempts at slave
-colonization, men of every shade of anti-slavery conviction made
-answer by eagerly seeking ways of uniting in effective resistance to
-such a crime against civilization. Amid an excitement, which grew
-profounder as the contest progressed, and which was fed by the press,
-the pulpit, and the lyceum, and was organized by public meetings,
-the demand became daily stronger for political action on the basis of
-uncompromising hostility to the aggressions of the slave power. Before
-the Kansas-Nebraska controversy was finished the Whig party had ceased
-to exist, the Democracy had become a pro-slavery organization, the era
-of compromise had passed away, and the young giant of Republicanism
-stood on the threshold of the territories commanding slavery to stand
-back. This vast and far-reaching political revolution was accomplished
-through the wholesale sacrifice of cherished ties by the friends of
-free institutions and through their hearty union in the new party
-of Freedom. The State in which this fusion of anti-slavery opinion
-into Republicanism was first accomplished was Michigan, and the
-Republican party as a distinct organization was born and christened
-under the oaks of Jackson on the 6th of July, 1854. Political opinion
-in that State was peculiarly ripe for this step. Its Whigs were with
-but rare exceptions staunch anti-slavery men. Even Senator Cass's
-great influence had failed to keep all the Democrats submissive to
-pro-slavery compromises. The Free Soilers were strong in character
-and several thousands in number. Thus when the opportunity came for
-decisive action it found the men ready.
-
-The Free Democrats of Michigan, encouraged by the increase in their
-vote in 1852, and responding to an appeal of the "Independent Democrats
-in Congress" (signed by Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Joshua R.
-Giddings, Gerrit Smith, Edward Wade, and Alexander De Witt) for popular
-resistance to the attack on the Missouri compact, held the first
-political convention of 1854 in that State. It met in Jackson, on
-February 22d, under a call issued at Detroit on January 12, and signed
-by U. Tracy Howe, Hovey K. Clarke, Samuel Zug, Silas M. Holmes, S. A.
-Baker, S. B. Thayer, S. P. Mead, J. W. Childs, and Erastus Hussey,
-forming the state central committee of that party. The convention
-was called to order by Hovey K. Clarke, and it organized with Wm.
-T. Howell of Hillsdale as president. The committee on resolutions
-consisted of Hovey K. Clarke, Fernando C. Beaman, Kinsley S. Bingham,
-E. Hussey, Nathan Power, D. C. Leach, and L. Moore, and a committee of
-twenty-four was appointed to nominate a State ticket. The committee on
-resolutions reported a platform prepared by Hovey K. Clarke, declaring
-freedom national and slavery sectional, and denouncing the attempt to
-repeal the Missouri compromise as an infamous outrage upon justice,
-humanity and good faith. The nominating committee submitted this list
-of candidates for the State offices:
-
-                     Governor--Kinsley S. Bingham.
-                  Lieutenant-Governor--Nathan Pierce.
-                   Secretary of State--Lovell Moore.
-                   State Treasurer--Silas M. Holmes.
-                   Auditor-General--Philotus Hayden.
-                  Attorney-General--Hovey K. Clarke.
-          Commissioner of Land Office--Seymour B. Treadwell.
-       Superintendent of Public Instruction--Elijah H. Pilcher.
-          Member of Board of Education--Isaac P. Christiancy.
-
-Kinsley S. Bingham was a pioneer farmer of Central Michigan, one of
-the very best representatives of his influential class, and a man of
-sterling sense, strong convictions, and excellent abilities. He had
-served with honor in the State Legislature, and had as a Democratic
-Congressman sustained alone in his State delegation the Wilmot
-Proviso. His nomination was in itself the strongest possible appeal
-to the anti-slavery Democrats of the State. The ticket also had upon
-it the names of gentlemen who had in the past acted with the Whigs.
-The convention ratified the reports of its committees, and after
-listening to a few speeches adjourned. It was a significant fact that
-two of the speakers were conspicuous Whigs, Henry Barns of the Detroit
-_Tribune_, and Halmer H. Emmons; Mr. Emmons was especially emphatic
-in his expression of the hope that before the day of election "all
-the friends of freedom would be able to stand upon a common platform
-against the party and platform of the slave propagandists."
-
-Cotemporaneously with this organized action of the Free Soilers, but
-outside of it and of all party lines, there were held many public
-meetings throughout Michigan to denounce the Kansas-Nebraska act.
-Some of these were county conventions in form, and others were local
-mass-meetings. One of the latter took place at Detroit on the 18th of
-February; Zachariah Chandler was among the many prominent citizens who
-signed its call, and was one of the five speakers from its platform
-(the others were Jonathan Kearsley, Samuel Barstow, James A. Van Dyke,
-and D. Bethune Duffield). The tone of all the speeches was wholesomely
-defiant, and this was also true of the resolutions adopted which were
-reported by a committee consisting of Samuel Barstow, Jacob M. Howard,
-Joseph Warren, James M. Edmunds, and Henry H. Le Roy. The effect of
-this demonstration in the metropolis of the State upon public opinion
-was marked, and it and like non-partisan action did much to pave the
-way for the fusion of July. Powerful contributions to the same movement
-came also from the strong and growing current of sentiment in that
-direction throughout the entire North, and from the significant results
-of many of the spring elections. Both New Hampshire and Connecticut
-elected anti-administration candidates in March and April, and in
-Michigan anti-slavery coalitions were successful in quite a number of
-municipal contests, notably in the important city of Grand Rapids which
-chose Wilder D. Foster mayor on that issue.
-
-Throughout the spring of 1854 many private conferences (Mr. Chandler
-sharing in them) were held in Michigan among representative men of
-the Whigs, Free Soilers, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats to discuss the
-feasibility of union and consider plans for its accomplishment. The
-early action of the Free Soilers was in fact a practical obstacle in
-the way. That party represented but a small element of the anti-slavery
-sentiment of Michigan, and neither the sincerity of its purpose, nor
-its tender of the olive branch by placing Whig names on its State
-ticket, nor the soundness of its platform on the slavery question could
-counterbalance the many reasons why the Whigs would not surrender
-a time-honored organization and march bodily into the camp of what
-they had always regarded as a faction of impracticables. There was
-also much in the State situation to encourage Whig hope, for the
-party there was almost solidly anti-slavery and certain to profit by
-the weakening of the enemy through the revolt of the Anti-Nebraska
-Democrats. But there was a vigor of principle and an intelligence of
-sentiment in the Whig party of Michigan which encouraged the belief
-that it would not subordinate essentials to a name, and that it would
-assent to an anti-slavery union under conditions not involving any
-seeming self-degradation. In fact it was called upon to make the only
-real sacrifice involved in the desired coalition. The Free Soilers
-were powerless, and had nothing to lose and everything to gain in
-the new movement; the Anti-Nebraska Democrats were condemned by, and
-without influence in, their own party; but the Whigs were strong
-in numbers, and were asked to surrender a historic name, honorable
-traditions and reviving hope for a doubtful experiment. But that the
-hour demanded precisely this act of self-denial was clear, and men
-of resolution and principle grappled with the problem of making it
-possible. Altogether the most important work in that direction was done
-by Joseph Warren, editor of the Detroit _Tribune_, then an influential
-Whig paper, which began the publication in its columns of a series of
-vigorous and well-considered articles advocating the organization of
-a new party composed of all the opponents of slavery extension. This
-policy accorded with the drift of public opinion, and, involving as
-it did the disbanding of both the Whig and Free Soil organizations,
-avoided any appearance of surrender and humiliation. Public and private
-discussion made its wisdom plainer, and the proof of its feasibility
-was followed by steps for its accomplishment. An indispensable
-preliminary was the withdrawal of the "Free Democrat" ticket, as this
-would remove the chief stumbling-block in the path of the anti-slavery
-Whigs. Mr. Warren, whose personal labors at this juncture were of the
-utmost value, writes with reference to the spirit with which the Free
-Soil leaders met the demand for this step:
-
-  One of the first and chiefest obstacles to be overcome in order to
-  ensure the co-operation of all the opponents of slavery extension
-  in the movement looking to the organization of a new party, was
-  to induce the Free Soilers to consent to the withdrawal of their
-  ticket from the field, thus placing themselves on the same footing
-  as the Whigs (who as yet had made no nominations), free from all
-  entangling alliances and in a position to act in a way likely to
-  prove most effectual. But formidable as this obstacle seemed to
-  be in the beginning, it was promptly removed through the wisely
-  directed and patriotic efforts of the prominent leaders of the
-  party. Such men as Hovey K. Clarke, Silas M. Holmes, Kinsley S.
-  Bingham, Seymour Treadwell, all on the Free Soil ticket, F. C.
-  Beaman, S. P. Mead, I. P. Christiancy, W. W. Murphy, Whitney Jones,
-  U. Tracy Howe, Jacob S. Farrand, Rev. S. A. Baker, proprietor,
-  and Rev. Jabez Fox, editor of the Detroit _Free Democrat_, were
-  especially active and influential in preparing the way for this
-  necessary preliminary step.
-
-This readiness of the Free Soil leaders to make the sacrifices required
-on their part bore prompt fruit. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed
-by the House on the 22d of May, and three days after a stirring call
-was issued for a mass convention of the Free Democrats of Michigan at
-Kalamazoo on June 21st. The village of Kalamazoo had long been a center
-of anti-slavery sentiment, and the agitation against the pending bill
-had been especially vigorous there and in the surrounding counties.
-The call was full of fiery denunciation of the slavery propagandists,
-and its vigor and _vim_ showed how thoroughly the people were aroused.
-The convention itself, owing to bad weather and other inauspicious
-circumstances, was not a large one, but its character and action were
-significant and important. Among those in attendance were four of
-the candidates on the "Free Democrat" ticket, including Kinsley S.
-Bingham. M. A. McNaughton was made president, and Hovey K. Clarke,
-from the committee for that purpose, reported a series of resolutions
-reviewing the disgraceful proceedings of the session of Congress,
-denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska bill as the crowning act of a series of
-aggressions by which slavery had become the great national interest
-of the country, and appealing to the virtue of the people "to declare
-in an unmistakable tone their will that slavery aggression upon their
-rights shall go no further, that there shall be no compromise with
-slavery, that there shall be no more slave States, that there shall
-be no slave territory, that the Fugitive Slave law shall be repealed,
-that the abominations of slavery shall no longer be perpetrated under
-the sanctions of the federal constitution, and that they will make
-their will effective by driving from every place of official power the
-public servants who have so shamelessly betrayed their trust, and by
-putting in their places men who are honest and capable, men who will be
-faithful to the constitution and the great claims of humanity." A final
-resolution directed the appointment of a committee of sixteen, two from
-each judicial district, to consult with others for the organization
-of a new party animated and guided by the principles expressed in
-the resolutions, and it empowered that committee, in case of the
-establishment of an "efficient organization" of such a character,
-to surrender the "distinctive organization" of the "Free Democrats"
-and withdraw the State ticket nominated on the 22d of February. This
-action, reached after a vigorous discussion, cleared the way for the
-coalition.
-
-A few days before the meeting of the Kalamazoo convention, but after
-its probable course had become apparent, a call had appeared in the
-columns of the Detroit _Tribune_ (it was copied, after the Kalamazoo
-action, by the Detroit _Free Democrat_ also) for a mass-meeting at
-Jackson, on July 6, of all the opponents of slavery extension. This
-was signed by several thousand leading citizens of Michigan, in all
-parts of the State, including Zachariah Chandler, Jacob M. Howard, H.
-P. Baldwin, H. K. Clarke, Franklin Moore, John Owen, Jacob S. Farrand,
-Shubael Conant, J. J. Bagley, E. B. Ward, R. W. King, James Burns,
-Charles M. Croswell, Allen Potter, Austin Blair, Isaac P. Christiancy,
-Chas. T. Gorham, and others. The signatures filled two newspaper
-columns in close type, and it was announced on the last day that
-several hundred names had been received too late for publication. The
-text of this document was as follows:
-
-
-TO THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN.
-
-  A great wrong has been perpetrated. The slave power of this country
-  has triumphed. Liberty is trampled under foot. The Missouri
-  compromise, a solemn compact, entered into by our fathers, has been
-  violated, and a vast territory dedicated to freedom has been opened
-  to slavery.
-
-  This act, so unjust to the North, has been perpetrated under
-  circumstances which deepen its perfidy. An administration placed in
-  power by Northern votes has brought to bear all the resources of
-  executive corruption in its support.
-
-  Northern Senators and Representatives, in the face of the
-  overwhelming public sentiment of the North, expressed in the
-  proceedings of public meetings and solemn remonstrances, without
-  a single petition in its favor on their table, and not daring to
-  submit this great question to the people, have yielded to the
-  seductions of executive patronage, and, Judas-like, betrayed the
-  cause of liberty; while the South, inspired by a dominant and
-  grasping ambition, has, without distinction of party, and with
-  a unanimity almost entire, deliberately trampled under foot the
-  solemn compact entered into in the midst of a crisis threatening
-  to the peace of the Union, sanctioned by the greatest names of our
-  history, and the binding force of which has, for a period of more
-  than thirty years, been recognized and declared by numerous acts
-  of legislation. Such an outrage upon liberty, such a violation
-  of plighted faith, cannot be submitted to. This great wrong must
-  be righted, or there is no longer a North in the councils of the
-  nation. The extension of slavery, under the folds of the American
-  flag, is a stigma upon liberty. The indefinite increase of slave
-  representation in Congress is destructive to that equality between
-  freemen which is essential to the permanency of the Union.
-
-  The safety of the Union--the rights of the North--the interests of
-  free labor--the destiny of a vast territory and its untold millions
-  for all coming time--and finally, the high aspirations of humanity
-  for universal freedom, all are involved in the issue forced upon
-  the country by the slave power and its plastic Northern tools.
-
-  In view, therefore, of the recent action of Congress upon this
-  subject, and the evident designs of the slave power to attempt
-  still further aggressions upon freedom--we invite all our fellow
-  citizens, without reference to former political associations, who
-  think that the time has arrived for a _union_ at the North to
-  protect liberty from being overthrown and down-trodden, to assemble
-  in mass convention on Thursday, the 6th of July next, at 4 o'clock,
-  P. M., at Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thought
-  best to concentrate the popular sentiment of this State against the
-  aggression of the slave power.
-
-The response to this appeal was the gathering at Jackson, on a
-bright mid-summer day, of hundreds of influential men from all parts
-of Michigan, representing every shade of anti-slavery feeling, and
-thoroughly alive to the importance of the occasion and the difficulty
-of the task projected. The convention far outstripped in numbers the
-preparations for its accommodation, and, after filling to excess the
-largest hall in the town, it adjourned to meet in a beautiful oak
-grove, situated between the village and the county race-course, on a
-tract of land then known as "Morgan's Forty." The growth of Jackson has
-since covered this historic ground with buildings, and the spacious
-grove has dwindled to a few scattered oaks shading the city's busy
-streets. A rude platform erected for speakers was appropriated by the
-officers of the convention, and about it thronged a mass of earnest
-men, the vanguard of the Republican host. In a body so incongruous
-and unwieldy, confused purposes, discordant views, and conflicting
-interests were unavoidable, but the universal fervor of the fusion
-sentiment formed a broad foundation for harmonious action, and the
-convention did not lack for shrewd and sagacious political managers
-with the skill to direct earnest effort into practical channels. Such
-differences of opinion as there were on questions of policy and as
-to candidates exhausted themselves in private conferences and secret
-committee deliberations, and the convention itself did its business
-with promptness, without discord, and amid a genuine enthusiasm.
-
-Its temporary chairman was the Hon. Levi Baxter, of Jonesville, a
-pioneer settler of Southern Michigan, and the founder of a family of
-marked prominence in that State. He was well known as the master spirit
-of many important business enterprises, had been a Whig and then a Free
-Soiler, and had been elected to the State Senate by a local coalition
-of both those parties in his own county. After a brief address by
-Mr. Baxter, Jeremiah Van Renselaer was chosen temporary secretary,
-and this committee on permanent organization was appointed: Samuel
-Barstow, C. H. Van Cleeck, Isaac P. Christiancy, G. W. Burchard, Lovell
-Moore, James W. Hill, Henry W. Lord, and Newell Avery. While they were
-deliberating, the convention adjourned to the oak grove, and there
-listened to brief speeches until a permanent organization was effected
-with the following gentlemen as officers of the first Republican State
-convention ever held:
-
-  President--David S. Walbridge, of Kalamazoo.
-
-  Vice-Presidents--F. C. Beaman, Oliver Johnson, Rudolph Diepenbeck,
-  Thomas Curtis, C. T. Gorham, Pliny Power, Emanuel Mann, Charles
-  Draper, George Winslow, Norman Little, John McKinney, W. W. Murphy.
-
-  Secretaries--J. Van Renselaer, J. F. Conover, A. B. Turner.
-
-Mr. Walbridge was a prominent merchant of Central Michigan, and an
-exceedingly active and earnest Whig. He had already served several
-terms in the Legislature and was afterward a Republican Congressman
-for four years from Michigan. His selection as president of the
-convention was a wise recognition of the important Whig element in its
-membership. The great throng next separated into representatives of
-the four congressional districts, and chose the following committee
-on resolutions: Jacob M. Howard, Austin Blair, Donald McIntyre, John
-Hilsendegen, Charles Noble, Alfred R. Metcalf, John W. Turner, Levi
-Baxter, Marsh Giddings, E. Hussey, A. Williams, John McKinney, Chas.
-Draper, M. L. Higgins, J. E. Simmonds, Z. B. Knight. The chairmanship
-of this important committee naturally fell to Jacob M. Howard,
-of Detroit, a lawyer of eminence and rare powers, the first Whig
-Congressman from Michigan, and a man of deservedly high reputation
-for intellectual vigor and personal integrity. He was afterward for
-nine years a Republican Senator, and at Washington earned national
-distinction as the author of the Thirteenth Amendment and by much
-able and laborious public service. Mr. Howard had prepared a draft
-of a platform in advance of the convention, and the committee met to
-consider it under a clump of trees on the outskirts of the grove (at
-the present intersection of Franklin and Second streets in the city
-of Jackson). No material modifications were made in the document,
-which was adopted substantially as written by Mr. Howard, except that
-Austin Blair proposed to add two resolutions relating to State affairs
-purely. As to the expediency of this action there was some difference
-of opinion, and finally Mr. Blair submitted his propositions as a
-minority report, and the convention adopted and thus added them to the
-main platform. Over the resolution formally christening the new party
-"Republican," there was no especial discussion. There had already been
-suggestions made throughout the country that, for the new organization
-evidently about to be born, it might be expedient to revive "the name
-of that wise conservative party, whose aim and purpose were the welfare
-of the whole Union and the stainless honor of the American name."[4]
-The history of this resolution in the Howard platform has been thus
-given with undoubted correctness by Mr. Joseph Warren in a published
-letter: "The honor of having named and christened the party the writer
-has always claimed and now insists belongs jointly to Jacob M. Howard,
-Horace Greeley and himself. Soon after the writer began to advocate,
-through the columns of the _Tribune_, the organization of all opponents
-of slavery into a single party, Horace Greeley voluntarily opened a
-correspondence with him in regard to this movement, in which he frankly
-communicated his views and gave him many valuable suggestions as to the
-wisest course to be pursued. This correspondence was necessarily very
-short, as it began and ended in June, it being only five weeks from the
-repeal of the compromise, May 30, to the Jackson convention. In his
-last letter, received only a day or two before it was to assemble, Mr.
-Greeley suggested to him 'Republican,' according to his recollection,
-but, as Mr. Howard contended, 'Democrat-Republican,' as an appropriate
-name for the proposed new party. But this is of comparatively little
-consequence. The material fact is, that this meeting the writer's
-cordial approval, he gave Mr. Greeley's letter containing the
-suggestions to Mr. Howard on the day of the convention, after he had
-been appointed chairman of the committee on resolutions, and strongly
-advised its adoption. This was done and the platform adopted."
-
-While the committee on resolutions was absent, the convention was
-addressed by Zachariah Chandler, Kinsley S. Bingham, and a number of
-others. No complete record was made of Mr. Chandler's remarks upon
-this occasion, but the report of the convention in the Detroit _Free
-Democrat_, prepared by its secretary, contains this: "We would say in
-parenthesis that an allusion most generously made by Mr. Chandler to
-Mr. Bingham drew from the crowd three rousing cheers for the latter
-gentleman." The Jackson _Citizen_ also gave the following reference
-to Mr. Chandler's remarks: "When in the course of his speech he gave
-a brief history of the Wilmot Proviso in Michigan, alluding to the
-anti-slavery resolutions passed by a Democratic State convention
-in 1849, and the resolutions of instructions to our Senators and
-Representatives in Congress by the Legislature on the same subject,
-and then exclaimed that 'not one of our Representatives had ever been
-_honest_ enough to carry them out except Kinsley S. Bingham, a spark
-of enthusiasm fired the crowd, the shout of approbation ran through
-the vast assembly, and, if any doubt had previously existed as to who
-should be the man, that doubt was then removed." These addresses were
-followed by the report of the committee on resolutions, which was read
-by Mr. Howard amid frequent outbursts of applause, and was as follows:
-
-  The freemen of Michigan, assembled in convention in pursuance of
-  a spontaneous call, emanating from various parts of the State, to
-  consider upon the measures which duty demands of us, as citizens of
-  a free State, to take in reference to the late acts of Congress on
-  the subject of slavery and its anticipated further extension, do
-
-  _Resolve_, That the institution of slavery except in punishment
-  of crime is a great moral, social and political evil; that it was
-  so regarded by the fathers of the republic, the founders and best
-  friends of the Union, by the heroes and sages of the Revolution
-  who contemplated and intended its gradual and peaceful extinction
-  as an element hostile to the liberties for which they toiled;
-  that its history in the United States, the experience of men best
-  acquainted with its workings, the dispassionate confession of
-  those who are interested in it; its tendency to relax the vigor
-  of industry and enterprise inherited in the white man; the very
-  surface of the earth where it subsists; the vices and immoralities
-  which are its natural growth; the stringent police, often wanting
-  in humanity and revolting to the sentiments of every generous
-  heart, which it demands; the danger it has already wrought and the
-  future danger which it portends to the security of the Union and
-  our constitutional liberties--all incontestably prove it to lie
-  such evil. Surely that institution is not to be strengthened and
-  encouraged against which Washington, the calmest and wisest of our
-  nation, bore unequivocal testimony; as to which Jefferson, filled
-  with a love of liberty, exclaimed: "Can the liberties of a nation
-  be ever thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,
-  a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are
-  THE GIFT OF GOD; that they are not to be violated but with His
-  wrath? Indeed, I tremble, for my country when I reflect that God
-  is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; that, considering
-  numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel
-  of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that
-  it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty
-  has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest!"
-  And as to which another eminent patriot in Virginia, on the close
-  of the Revolution, also exclaimed: "Had we turned our eyes inwardly
-  when we supplicated the Father of Mercies to aid the injured and
-  oppressed, when we invoked the Author of Righteousness to attest
-  the purity of our motives and the justice of our cause, and
-  implored the God of battles to aid our exertions in its defense,
-  should we not have stood more self-convicted than the contrite
-  publican?" We believe these sentiments to be as true now as they
-  were then.
-
-  _Resolved_, That slavery is a violation of the rights of man as
-  man; that the law of nature, which is the law of liberty, gives to
-  no man rights superior to those of another; that God and nature
-  have secured to each individual the inalienable right of equality,
-  any violation of which must be the result of superior force; and
-  that slavery therefore is a perpetual war upon its victims; that
-  whether we regard the institution as first originating in captures
-  made in war, or the subjection of the debtor as the slave of his
-  creditor, or the forcible seizure and sale of children by their
-  parents or subjects by their king, and whether it be viewed in
-  this country as a "_necessary evil_" or otherwise, we find it to
-  be, like imprisonment for debt, but a relic of barbarism as well
-  as an element of weakness in the midst of the State, inviting the
-  attack of external enemies, and a ceaseless cause of internal
-  apprehension and alarm. Such are the lessons taught us, not only
-  by the histories of other commonwealths, but by that of our own
-  beloved country.
-
-  _Resolved_, That the history of the formation of the constitution,
-  and particularly the enactment of the ordinance of July 13, 1787,
-  prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio, abundantly shows it to have
-  been the purpose of our fathers not to promote but to prevent
-  the spread of slavery. And we, reverencing their memories and
-  cherishing free republican faith as our richest inheritance, which
-  we vow, at whatever expense, to defend, thus publicly proclaim our
-  determination to oppose by all the powerful and honorable means in
-  our power, now and henceforth, all attempts, direct or indirect, to
-  extend slavery in this country, or to permit it to extend into any
-  region or locality in which it does not now exist by positive law,
-  or to admit new slave States into the Union.
-
-  _Resolved_, That the constitution of the United States gives to
-  Congress full and complete power for the municipal government of
-  the territories thereof, a power which from its nature cannot be
-  either alienated or abdicated without yielding up to the territory
-  an absolute political independence, which involves an absurdity.
-  That the exercise of this power necessarily looks to the formation
-  of States to be admitted into the Union; and on the question
-  whether they shall be admitted as _free_ or _slave_ States Congress
-  has a right to adopt such prudential and preventive measures as
-  the principles of liberty and the interests of the whole country
-  require. That this question is one of the gravest importance to
-  the free States, inasmuch as the constitution itself creates an
-  inequality in the apportionment of representatives, greatly to the
-  detriment of the free and to the advantage of the slave States.
-  This question, so vital to the interests of the free States (but
-  which we are told by certain political doctors of modern times is
-  to be treated with utter indifference) is one which we hold it to
-  be our right to _discuss_; which we hold it the duty of Congress
-  in every instance to determine in unequivocal language, and in
-  a manner to _prevent_ the spread of slavery and the increase of
-  such unequal representation. In short, we claim that the North is
-  a _party to the new bargain, and is entitled to have a voice and
-  influence in settling its terms_. And in view of the ambitious
-  designs of the slave power, we regard the man or the party who
-  would forego this right, as untrue to the honor and interest of the
-  North and unworthy of its support.
-
-  _Resolved_, That the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," contained
-  in the recent act of Congress for the creation of the territories
-  of Nebraska and Kansas, thus admitting slavery into a region till
-  then sealed against it by law, equal in extent to the thirteen old
-  States, is an act unprecedented in the history of the country, and
-  one which must engage the earnest and serious attention of every
-  Northern man. And as Northern freemen, independent of all former
-  parties, we here hold this measure up to the public execration, for
-  the following reasons:
-
-  That it is a plain departure from the policy of the fathers of
-  the republic in regard to slavery, and a wanton and dangerous
-  frustration of their purposes and their hopes.
-
-  That it actually admits _and was intended to admit_ slavery into
-  said territories, and thus (to use the words applied by Judge
-  Tucker, of Virginia, to the fathers of that commonwealth) "sows the
-  seeds of an evil which like a leprosy hath descended upon their
-  posterity with accumulated rancor, visiting the sins of the fathers
-  upon succeeding generations." That it was sprung upon the country
-  stealthily and by surprise, without necessity, without petition,
-  and without previous discussion, thus violating the cardinal
-  principle of republican government, which requires all legislation
-  to accord with the opinions and sentiments of the people.
-
-  That on the part of the South it is an open and undisguised
-  breach of faith, as contracted between the North and South in
-  the settlement of the Missouri question in 1820, by which the
-  tranquillity of the two sections was restored; a compromise binding
-  upon all honorable men.
-
-  That it is also an open violation of the compromise of 1850, by
-  which, for the sake of peace, and to calm the distempered pulse of
-  certain enemies of the Union at the South, the North accepted and
-  acquiesced in the odious "fugitive slave law" of that year.
-
-  That it is also an undisguised and unmanly contempt of the pledge
-  given to the country by the present dominant party at their
-  national convention in 1852, not to "_agitate the subject of
-  slavery in or out of Congress_," being the same convention that
-  nominated Franklin Pierce to the Presidency.
-
-  That it is greatly injurious to the free States, and to the
-  Territories themselves, tending to retard the settlement and to
-  prevent the improvement of the country by means of free labor, and
-  to discourage foreign immigrants resorting thither for their homes.
-
-[Illustration: THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION.
-
-"UNDER THE OAKS," JACKSON, MICH., JULY 6, 1854.]
-
-  That one of its principal aims is to give to the slave States
-  such a decided and practical preponderance in all the measures of
-  government as shall reduce the North, with all her industry, wealth
-  and enterprise, to be the mere province of a few slaveholding
-  oligarchs of the South--a condition too shameful to be contemplated.
-
-  Because, as openly avowed by its Southern friends, it is intended
-  as an entering wedge to the still further augmentation of the slave
-  power by the acquisition of the other Territories, cursed with the
-  same "leprosy."
-
-  _Resolved_, That the obnoxious measure to which we have alluded
-  ought to be _repealed_, and a provision substituted for it,
-  prohibiting slavery in said Territories, and each of them.
-
-  _Resolved_, That after this gross breach of faith and wanton
-  affront to us as Northern men, we hold ourselves absolved from all
-  "_compromises_" (except those expressed in the constitution) for
-  the protection of slavery and slave-owners; that we now demand
-  measures of protection and immunity for ourselves; and among them
-  we demand the _repeal of the fugitive slave law_, and an act to
-  abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.
-
-  _Resolved_, That we notice without dismay certain popular
-  indications by slaveholders on the frontier of said Territories of
-  a purpose on their part to prevent by violence the settlement of
-  the country by non-slaveholding men. To the latter we say: Be of
-  good cheer, persevere in the right, remember the Republican motto,
-  "THE NORTH WILL DEFEND YOU."
-
-  _Resolved_, That postponing and suspending all differences with
-  regard to political economy or administrative policy, in view of
-  the imminent danger that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by
-  slavery, and a thousand miles of slave soil be thus interposed
-  between the free States of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific,
-  we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert and repeal
-  this gigantic wrong and shame.
-
-  _Resolved_, That in view of the necessity of battling for the first
-  principles of republican government, and against the schemes of an
-  aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth
-  was ever cursed, or man debased, we will co-operate and be known as
-  REPUBLICANS until the contest be terminated.
-
-  _Resolved_, That we earnestly recommend the calling of a general
-  convention of the free States, and such of the slaveholding States,
-  or portions thereof, as may desire to be there represented, with a
-  view to the adoption of other more extended and effectual measures
-  in resistance to the encroachments of slavery; and that a committee
-  of five persons be appointed to correspond and co-operate with our
-  friends in other States on the subject.
-
-  _Resolved_, That in relation to the domestic affairs of the State
-  we urge a more economical administration of the government and a
-  more rigid accountability of the public officers: a speedy payment
-  of the balance of the public debt, and the lessening of the amount
-  of taxation: a careful preservation of the primary school and
-  university funds, and their diligent application to the great
-  objects for which they were created; and also further legislation
-  to prevent the unnecessary or imprudent sale of the lands belonging
-  to the State.
-
-  _Resolved_, That in our opinion the commercial wants of Michigan
-  require the enactment of a general railroad law, which, while
-  it shall secure the investment and encourage the enterprise of
-  stockholders, shall also guard and protect the rights of the public
-  and of individuals, and that the preparation of such a measure
-  requires the first talents of the State.
-
-The resolutions were adopted almost unanimously, and thereupon Isaac
-P. Christiancy, as chairman of the committee of sixteen appointed by
-the Kalamazoo convention, came forward and announced the absolute
-abandonment of the State ticket and organization of the Free
-Democracy--an act which was greeted with loud and prolonged applause. A
-committee of ninety, consisting of three from each Senatorial district
-in the State, and including the names of Jacob M. Howard, Moses
-Wisner, Charles M. Croswell, Fernando C. Beaman, and Chas. T. Gorham,
-was next appointed to nominate a State ticket, and the convention
-adjourned until evening. At that session, which was held in one of the
-village halls, a State central committee was chosen, and the committee
-on nominations reported the following ticket which was unanimously
-endorsed by the convention, this closing its formal proceedings:
-
-             Governor--Kinsley S. Bingham, of Livingston.
-            Lieutenant-Governor--George A. Coe, of Branch.
-           Secretary of State--John McKinney, of Van Buren.
-              State Treasurer--Silas M. Holmes, of Wayne.
-             Attorney-General--Jacob M. Howard, of Wayne.
-              Auditor-General--Whitney Jones, of Ingham.
-    Commissioner of Land Office--Seymour B. Treadwell, of Jackson.
-     Superintendent of Public Instruction--Ira Mayhew, of Monroe.
-        Member Board of Education--John R. Kellogg, of Allegan.
-            (To fill vacancy)--Hiram L. Miller, of Saginaw.
-
-The response of the anti-slavery masses to the action of the convention
-was prompt and cordial. Some of the more earnest and enthusiastic
-Whigs who had hoped that the Northern wing of their party could be
-transformed into an efficient champion of slavery restriction--Mr.
-Chandler had shared in this feeling--at first doubted the wisdom of
-what had been done. They found themselves called upon to make large
-sacrifices of cherished traditions and ties, and felt that their
-representation upon the fusion State ticket was not in due proportion
-to the number of votes they would be expected to contribute to its
-election. But this not unnatural feeling of early disappointment
-had but a brief existence among the Whigs of strong anti-slavery
-convictions. As the good faith of the movement, the spontaneous
-character of the popular uprising, and the possibility of accomplishing
-anti-slavery union throughout the North became clear, they laid aside
-all hesitation and joined with sincere ardor in the work of Republican
-organization. Before the close of the summer of 1854 the strong
-leaders and the intelligent rank and file of the Michigan Whigs had
-accepted the new fellowship, and the action of the Jackson convention
-received their hearty acquiescence and loyal support. Mr. Chandler
-rendered valuable service in the following campaign as an organizer of
-Republicanism throughout Michigan, and put into this work enough of his
-characteristic vigor to earn from the Democratic papers the title of
-the "traveling agent" of the "new Abolition party."
-
-There was still among the Whigs a small conservative minority who,
-chiefly through the inspiration of pro-slavery sentiment and under
-the leadership of the Detroit _Advertiser_, made a desperate effort
-to prevent the abandonment of their party organization. They procured
-the signing of a circular addressed to the Whig committee asking that
-a State convention should be held, and in compliance with this request
-a call was issued for a convention to meet at Marshall on October 4.
-When it assembled it was found that the great majority of its delegates
-favored union with the Republicans. They controlled its proceedings
-throughout, and put in the chair Rufus Hosmer who was then the head of
-the new Republican State central committee, elected a State central
-committee composed of ardent fusionists, defeated the schemes for the
-nomination of a ticket, and issued an address urging the Whigs of
-Michigan to unite in this campaign with all other opponents of the
-spread of slavery. This decisive action made the Michigan election of
-1854 a contest between Republicanism and the Democracy (which held its
-convention at Detroit on September 14, and placed John S. Barry at the
-head of its State ticket).
-
-The local result of the Jackson convention was a permanent political
-revolution. In November the Republicans elected their entire State
-ticket (giving Mr. Bingham 43,652 votes to 38,675 for Mr. Barry),
-three of the four Congressmen, and a Legislature with an overwhelming
-majority in both branches against the Kansas-Nebraska policy. The
-Republican ascendancy thus established in Michigan has never been
-impaired. That party has been victorious in every State election since
-1854; and of the Governors since chosen every one who was at that time
-a resident of the State (Henry H. Crapo did not settle in Michigan
-until 1856) was a member of the Jackson convention. Michigan has also
-since sent only Republicans to the Senate; every one of them except
-Thomas W. Ferry (who had barely attained his majority in 1854) was a
-prominent actor in the scenes "under the oaks." It has sent seventy-six
-Republicans and only seven Democrats to the House of Representatives,
-and the Republicans have controlled both branches of every Legislature
-since 1854. Iowa is the only State which can point to a similar record
-of uninterrupted Republican victory. In Vermont the Democrats have been
-uniformly defeated, but the opposition ticket in 1854 was not called
-Republican. Of the States which have been admitted since 1854, three
-(Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota) have been steadfastly Republican, but
-Michigan surpasses them in the duration, while she equals them in the
-quality, of her fidelity to the party of Freedom. Each of the other
-Northern States has at least once chosen an anti-Republican Governor,
-while Michigan (with Iowa) has been uniformly Republican.
-
-The claim that Michigan was the first State to organize and name the
-Republican party cannot be successfully disputed.[5] The convention
-"under the oaks" of Jackson ante-dates by a week or more all similar
-bodies. The first Republican convention in Wisconsin was held at
-Madison on July 13, 1854. Its call was issued (July 9) after a number
-of Anti-Nebraska meetings had been held in different parts of the
-State, and invited "all men opposed to the repeal of the Missouri
-compromise and the extension of the slave power" to take part. This
-convention adopted the following as one of its resolutions:
-
-  _Resolved_, That we accept the issue forced upon us by the slave
-  power, and in defense of Freedom, will co-operate and be known as
-  Republicans.
-
-The Anti-Nebraska men of Massachusetts met in convention on July 19
-of the same year, and organized the Republican party in that State by
-adopting the following resolution:
-
-  _Resolved_, That in co-operation with the friends of Freedom in
-  sister States, we hereby form the Republican party of Massachusetts.
-
-But the Republicans did not carry Massachusetts that year, the
-Anti-Nebraska vote being cast almost solidly for the successful
-Know-Nothing ticket. In Vermont, on July 13, 1854, a mass convention
-was held of persons "in favor of resisting, by all constitutional
-means, the usurpations of the propagandists of slavery." Among the
-resolutions there adopted was one which closed with these words: "We
-propose and respectfully recommend to the friends of Freedom in other
-States to co-operate and be known as Republicans." A State ticket was
-nominated, but, the State committees of the various parties being
-empowered "to fill vacancies," a fusion ticket was afterward placed in
-the field, voted for and elected under the name of Fusion. On the same
-day a convention was held in Columbus, O., which organized a canvass
-which swept that State at the fall elections; during this campaign
-most of the Anti-Nebraska candidates called themselves Republicans,
-and the party formally adopted that name at the State convention in
-1855 which nominated Salmon P. Chase for Governor. It will be seen
-that the Jackson convention preceded all these kindred gatherings. To
-this statement may be profitably added the testimony of Henry Wilson,
-who, after thoroughly investigating the whole subject of the origin of
-Republicanism, wrote:[6]
-
-  But whatever suggestions others may have made, or whatever action
-  may have been taken elsewhere, to Michigan belongs the honor of
-  being the first State to form and christen the Republican party.
-  More than three months before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
-  bill the Free Soil convention had adopted a mixed ticket, made
-  up of Free-Soilers and Whigs, in order that there might be a
-  combination of the anti-slavery elements of the State. Immediately
-  on the passage of the Nebraska bill, Joseph Warren, editor of
-  the Detroit _Tribune_, entered upon a course of measures that
-  resulted in bringing the Whig and Free Soil parties together, not
-  by a mere coalition of the two, but by a fusion of the elements
-  of which the two were composed. In his own language, he "took
-  ground in favor of disbanding the Whig and Free Soil parties and
-  of the organization of a new party, composed of all the opponents
-  of slavery extension." Among the first steps taken toward the
-  accomplishment of this vitally important object was the withdrawal
-  of the Free Soil ticket. This having been effected, a call for a
-  mass convention was issued signed by more than 10,000 names. The
-  convention met on the 6th day of July, and was largely attended.
-
-  A platform drawn by the Hon. Jacob M. Howard, afterward United
-  States Senator from Michigan, was adopted, not only opposing the
-  extension of slavery, but declaring in favor of its abolition
-  in the District of Columbia. The report also proposed the name
-  of "Republican" for the new party, which was adopted by the
-  convention. Kinsley S. Bingham was nominated for Governor, and
-  was triumphantly elected; and Michigan, thus early to enter the
-  ranks of the Republican party, has remained steadfast to its then
-  publicly-avowed principles and faith.
-
-It is true that the Michigan convention of July 6, 1854, was only one
-development of a vast national agitation. The forces that gave it being
-were at work throughout the continent. Like movements were on foot in
-every Northern State. Kindred bodies met in the same month to take
-the same action. But to the men who gathered on that mid-summer day
-in the oak grove at Jackson belongs the honor of being the first to
-comprehend a great opportunity; they were wise enough to improve all
-its possibilities, and there founded and named the party of the future.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[4] Israel Washburn in an address at Bangor, Me.
-
-[5] The Senator from Virginia has stated that the Republican party
-originated in New England, from Know Nothingism. It is not true, sir;
-it had no such origin; it originated in no such place and from no
-such source. The Republican party was born in Michigan, on the sixth
-day of July, 1854. It had no origin from Know Nothingism or any other
-thing, except the outrageous, the infamous repeal of the time-honored
-Missouri compromise by the Congress of that year. It was christened
-the Republican party at its birth. It is perfectly evident the Senator
-from Virginia knows nothing at all about the Republican party, its
-origin, its ends, or its aims. He does not know anything about its
-birth or its principles. I merely wish to correct the misapprehension
-on his part that it was born in New England or anywhere else out of the
-State of Michigan. There is where it was born, sir; and we glory in the
-production of such a child.--_Mr. Chandler in the Senate, December 14,
-1859, in reply to Senator Mason, of Virginia._
-
-[6] Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," volume 2,
-page 412.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
-
-
-The abrogation of the Missouri compromise was followed by the arbitrary
-enforcement of the Fugitive Slave act in important Northern cities, and
-by a determined struggle between freedom and slavery for the possession
-of the virgin soil of Kansas. These phases of "the irrepressible
-conflict" were attended by many exciting incidents which constantly
-strengthened the new anti-slavery party in the North and in the end
-made it the main competitor of the Democracy in the presidential
-election of 1856. The decisive character of its victory in Michigan
-in 1854 made Republicanism especially strong in that State, and the
-events of each successive month of 1855 and 1856 added to its power
-both in numbers and in sentiment. Throughout this period Mr. Chandler
-labored, in public and in private, and with earnestness and effect, to
-inspire the new party with vigor of conviction and unflinching firmness
-of purpose. No man did more than he to make it thoroughly "radical,"
-and his former prominence as a Whig rendered his efforts especially
-fruitful. His earliest Republican speeches did not differ from his
-latest in courage of opinion, in plainness of expression, or in
-manifest sincerity of conviction. On September 12, 1855, he addressed,
-with Henry Wilson, an immense mass-meeting at Kalamazoo, and denounced
-the border-ruffian crimes in Kansas in the strongest terms. On the 30th
-of May, 1856, he was one of the speakers at a large meeting held in the
-city of Detroit to consider the assault of Preston Brooks upon Charles
-Sumner. He there gave expression to Republican indignation in the
-plainest language. After fitly describing the era of pro-slavery murder
-in Kansas, and the recent crime of "a cowardly assassin on the very
-floor of the Senate of the United States," he offered two resolutions,
-one demanding the impeachment of Franklin Pierce for his action in
-relation to Kansas, and a second to expel Rust, of Arkansas, for his
-attack upon Horace Greeley, and Preston Brooks for his assault on Mr.
-Sumner. Then he said in substance:
-
-  This is not a time for argument. It is a time for action, for
-  speaking boldly and fearlessly.... This assault is upon the entire
-  North. So long have craven doughface representatives sat in her
-  places in Congress that the South has come to doubt our manhood....
-  We should uphold the hands of our representatives, and tell them
-  that an indignity offered to them is an indignity offered to us.
-  [Applause.] ... The resolution calling for the impeachment of
-  the President is one proper to be offered. He has connived at
-  and aided all this Kansas treachery and wrong. He supports the
-  bogus Legislature of Kansas and orders its odious laws enforced.
-  If Thomas Jefferson was to read his preamble to the Declaration
-  of Independence in Kansas, he could be condemned by those laws
-  to imprisonment in the penitentiary for two years.... What the
-  British did at Lexington, the United States troops, under the
-  orders of President Pierce, did at Lawrence. Our fathers resisted
-  by all means in their power. We should imitate their example. What
-  should we do?... We should send enough men there to put Kansas in a
-  peaceable condition.
-
-Mr. Chandler also said: "Had I been on the floor of the Senate when
-that assault occurred, so help me God, that ruffian's blood would
-have flowed," and he closed by declaring that Detroit should send one
-hundred men to Kansas, and by pledging himself, if that was done, to
-devote his entire income while they were there to aiding in their
-maintenance. He also made a forcible speech at a Kansas relief meeting,
-held in Detroit, to greet Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, on June 2, 1856,
-and then headed a subscription paper for the aid of the struggling
-Free State men of that territory with the sum of $10,000. Actions and
-utterances of this kind in the plastic days of Michigan Republicanism
-gave to it that resolute and robust character which has been the source
-of its power.
-
-The first national convention of the Republican party was held at
-Pittsburg on the 22d of February, 1856, under a call issued by
-the chairmen of the Republican committees of Ohio, Massachusetts,
-Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It was attended by
-delegates representing twenty-seven States and territories, and
-provided for the national organization of the Republican party by
-creating a general executive committee and calling a convention, to
-meet at Philadelphia on June 17, to nominate a presidential ticket.
-Michigan was represented at Pittsburg by a delegation of eighteen,
-headed by Zachariah Chandler, and including Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob
-M. Howard, and Fernando C. Beaman. Mr. Chandler was also a member of
-the committee which reported the plan for the national organization of
-the Republican party, and he participated briefly in the debates of
-that important gathering. The Michigan convention to elect delegates to
-Philadelphia was held at Ann Arbor, on March 8, 1856, and was addressed
-by Mr. Chandler and other prominent Republicans. He was a member of the
-Philadelphia convention, acting as an alternate for Charles T. Gorham,
-and, after Fremont was nominated, formally promised that the electoral
-vote of Michigan should be given for the ticket. He was there made the
-member for his State of the first Republican National Committee. The
-Michigan delegation at Philadelphia originally supported Mr. Seward for
-the presidency, but finally joined in the movement to nominate General
-Fremont on the first ballot. For the vice-presidency the majority of
-the delegation supported William L. Dayton, but Mr. Chandler, with four
-others, voted for Abraham Lincoln.
-
-In the following campaign Mr. Chandler was among the most active of
-the Republican leaders. He aided liberally in the work of organizing
-the party throughout the State, and spoke at Detroit several times,
-and at Kalamazoo, Lapeer, Port Huron, Adrian, Coldwater, and other of
-the important cities and towns of Michigan. He also held one joint
-discussion with Alpheus Felch, at Olivet, on October 16. The tone of
-his public utterances in 1856 will appear from these extracts from his
-speech at Kalamazoo (on August 27) before an immense mass-meeting,
-which was also addressed by Abraham Lincoln and Jacob M. Howard:
-
-  The Republicans of Michigan stand by the constitution, and when
-  their defamers proclaim that they are a disunion party, as they
-  do so often, they publish what they know to be a falsehood.... We
-  are determined to stand by the constitution in all its parts, and,
-  more than that, to make our adversaries stand by it in all and
-  every part.... Our opponents have ignored this constitution with
-  but a single exception. And what is that exception? It is the key
-  to their character and their principles. In this whole instrument
-  they acknowledge but one clause, and that is the right to reclaim
-  fugitive slaves from their hard-earned freedom!
-
-  We intend to make our opponents stand by this clause: "The citizens
-  of each State shall be entitled to the privileges of all the
-  States." But how is this at present on the Missouri? The citizens
-  of Massachusetts, of New Jersey, of Pennsylvania or of Michigan,
-  if they but presume to enter Kansas, are sent back with a guard or
-  murdered in cold blood, while the citizens of the South are aided
-  on their way to plant in that beautiful territory the accursed
-  blight of slavery. We will make them stand by the constitution in
-  all its parts, or, by the Eternal, we will have a different state
-  of things here. The oak shall bear other fruit than acorns if the
-  constitution be not upheld.
-
-  Here is another clause of that instrument: "Congress shall make no
-  law abridging the freedom of speech or the press." How is it in
-  Kansas to-day regarding this? If any man shall dare to deny the
-  right to hold slaves in that territory he is imprisoned for a term
-  of five years.
-
-  Our opponents must also stand by this clause of the constitution:
-  "A well-regulated militia being necessary of a free state, the
-  right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
-  That clause of the constitution is trampled under foot, and the
-  Democratic platform in sustaining Pierce's administration virtually
-  sustains and endorses the disgraceful outrage.
-
-  Here is another clause: "No person shall be deprived of life,
-  liberty or property without due process of law." The whole history
-  of the Kansas matter shows how shamefully this clause has been
-  rejected by those who uphold the administration.
-
-  There are but two candidates for the Presidency and but two
-  platforms. The issue--the only issue--is: Shall slavery be
-  national? Shall it be under our protection, or shall it be under
-  the protection of the slave States only? The whole question of
-  platforms is in that. It is the only question.... The policy of
-  this government for twenty-five years has been pro-slavery. The
-  first act toward breaking that policy was the election of Banks
-  as Speaker last winter. It was the first of what I hope will be a
-  series of victories.
-
-  A few years ago there was great commotion in the land. We were told
-  "the Union is in danger." "What shall be done?" That was the first
-  question. What was the answer of the men in power? "Use the utmost
-  power of the government; the Union must be saved." Armed men went
-  through the streets of Boston. Troops were ordered there in great
-  numbers. Ships of war were sent to Massachusetts Bay. What was the
-  terrible danger of the Union? There was a Negro lost! A slave had
-  run away! A poor African had escaped from his master and--lo, the
-  Union was in danger! "Use all the power of the government; the laws
-  must be enforced." Other troops were ordered there. The militia
-  were called out. They surrounded the jail. A sloop of war was sent.
-  Burns was borne back to his master and the Union was saved!
-
-  There came a later cry, "the Union is in danger." This time it
-  was heard from bleeding Kansas. Armed bands were committing
-  daily depredations. This appeal reached the government, and what
-  answer is made by the party in power? "I see nothing to call for
-  executive interference." "Nothing?" Yet an empire is being crushed.
-  "Nothing?" Yet houses are being robbed and burned, and helpless
-  women and children murdered! "No cause for interference?" The
-  reason is plain. There was no Negro lost.
-
-Michigan fulfilled the pledge made in her behalf at Philadelphia by
-Mr. Chandler, and gave to the Fremont electors 71,762 votes, while the
-Buchanan ticket received but 52,136 and the Fillmore strength was only
-1,660. The Republicans thus more than trebled their majority of 1854,
-and in this year carried all of the four Congressional districts of the
-State. Their victory in the legislative districts was overwhelming, and
-they elected twenty-nine of the thirty-one Senators, and sixty-three of
-the eighty Representatives. The term of Lewis Cass as Senator of the
-United States expired on the 4th of the following March, and his State
-had thus decided that he should give place to a representative of its
-earnest and aggressive Republican sentiment. Mr. Chandler was at once
-recognized as the leading candidate for the position by reason of his
-positive qualities, his personal strength with the business classes
-of the State and the masses of the people, and his prominence as a
-representative of the strong Whig element in the Republican ranks. The
-senatorial canvass was an earnest one, but it was from the outset clear
-that Mr. Chandler was the first choice of decidedly the largest number
-of legislators, and that no other man possessed his popular following.
-Some unavailing efforts were made to combine against him the friends
-of all other candidates, but the fact that he was also "the second
-choice" of many members defeated this plan, and the Republican caucus
-met at Lansing on January 8, 1857, with his marked lead in the contest
-still unimpaired. Three ballots were taken at its first session, the
-third giving Mr. Chandler a clear majority of all the votes cast. The
-caucus then adjourned until the following day, when he received a still
-stronger support on the fourth ballot and was formally nominated on the
-fifth. The following is the record of the balloting:
-
-                             FIRST SESSION.            SECOND SESSION.
-                       +-----------^------------+     +-------^-------+
-                      /  First   Second   Third  \   /  Fourth   First \
-                       Informal Informal Informal     Informal  Formal
-                        Ballot.  Ballot.  Ballot.     Ballot.  Ballot.
-
-  Zachariah Chandler,     37       45       49          54       80
-  Isaac P. Christiancy,   17       21       22          33       --
-  Austin Blair,           18        7        6          --       --
-  Moses Wisner,           12        9       10          --       --
-  Jacob M. Howard,        --        6        6           3       --
-  Kinsley S. Bingham,      3        7        2          --       --
-  George A. Coe,           4       --       --          --       --
-  James V. Campbell,       1       --       --          --       --
-  Halmer H. Emmons,       --       --       --           1       --
-  Blank,                  --       --        1          --       --
-  Scattering,             --       --       --          --        8
-                         ----     ----     ----        ----     ----
-      TOTAL,              92       95       96          91       88
-
-This result was received with the heartiest enthusiasm by the
-Republicans, and the caucus greeted its nominee, when he came before it
-to return his thanks, with prolonged cheering. The scene which followed
-has been thus described by an eyewitness: "This was the only time in
-an acquaintance of nearly thirty years that I ever saw Mr. Chandler
-abashed. When brought before the caucus he trembled with emotion, and
-it was several minutes before he could compose himself to even briefly
-return his thanks. He has often said that it was the only time that his
-courage and nerve absolutely failed him and that he completely broke
-down. The rejoicing was so hearty and unselfish that it overcame him,
-and he trembled like a child." On the 10th of January the two branches
-of the Legislature voted for Senator, the Democrats complimenting
-General Cass with their ineffectual votes. The record of the balloting
-was as follows:
-
-                         SENATE.  HOUSE.  TOTAL.
-  Zachariah Chandler,      27       62      89
-  Lewis Cass,               2       14      16
-  Blank,                   --        1       1
-
-In the following joint convention of the two Houses the resolution,
-reciting the action taken separately and finally recording Mr.
-Chandler's election, was adopted without any dissent. Among the members
-of the Legislature whose votes made him the first Republican Senator
-from Michigan were Thomas W. Ferry, in later years his colleague in the
-Senate, Omar D. Conger, who became afterward a Republican leader in the
-lower branch of Congress, and George Jerome, a most intimate political
-and personal friend throughout life.
-
-The Senate of the Thirty-fifth Congress met in special session at
-Washington, on March 4, 1857, Franklin Pierce having convened it at the
-request of his successor, who was inaugurated on that day. The names
-upon its rolls were these:
-
-  Clement C. Clay, Jr., and Benj. Fitzpatrick, of Alabama;
-
-  Robert W. Johnson and Wm. K. Sebastian, of Arkansas;
-
-  David C. Broderick and Wm. M. Gwin, of California;
-
-  James Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut;
-
-  Martin W. Bates and James A. Bayard, of Delaware;
-
-  Stephen R. Mallory and David L. Yulee, of Florida;
-
-  Alfred Iverson and Robert Toombs, of Georgia;
-
-  Stephen A. Douglas and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois;
-
-  Jesse D. Bright and Graham N. Fitch, of Indiana;
-
-  James Harlan and Geo. W. Jones, of Iowa;
-
-  John J. Crittenden and John B. Thompson, of Kentucky;
-
-  Judah P. Benjamin and John Slidell, of Louisiana;
-
-  W. P. Fessenden and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine;
-
-  Anthony Kennedy and James A. Pearce, of Maryland;
-
-  Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts;
-
-  Zachariah Chandler and Chas. E. Stuart, of Michigan;
-
-  Albert G. Brown and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi;
-
-  James S. Green and Trusten Polk, of Missouri;
-
-  James Bell and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire;
-
-  John R. Thomson and William Wright, of New Jersey;
-
-  Preston King and William H. Seward, of New York;
-
-  Asa Biggs and David S. Reid, of North Carolina;
-
-  Geo. E. Pugh and Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio;
-
-  William Bigler and Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania;
-
-  Philip Allen and James F. Simmons, of Rhode Island;
-
-  Josiah J. Evans and Andrew P. Butler, of South Carolina;
-
-  John Bell and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee;
-
-  Samuel Houston and Thos. J. Rusk, of Texas;
-
-  Jacob Collamer and Solomon Foot, of Vermont;
-
-  R. M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, of Virginia;
-
-  James R. Doolittle and Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin.
-
-[Illustration: THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON.]
-
-This Senate met in the old chamber now occupied by the Supreme Court,
-but around which then clustered fresh memories of Clay, Webster,
-Calhoun and their cotemporaries. The Secretary, Asbury Dickins,
-called the body to order, and in the absence of John C. Breckenridge,
-Vice-President elect, James M. Mason of Virginia was chosen to preside
-temporarily. After the roll was called of the members with unexpired
-terms, the list of newly-elected Senators was read. As they responded
-to their names they advanced to the front of the presiding officer's
-desk, in groups of four, to take the oath of office. The first group
-were Bates, Bayard, Bright and Broderick; the second consisted of
-Simon Cameron, Zachariah Chandler, Jefferson Davis and James Dixon.
-This scene was the subject, twenty-two years later,[7] of the most
-effective speech ever delivered by Mr. Chandler; probably no speech
-ever uttered in the Senate more thoroughly touched the popular heart or
-was more widely read. Of the men who were then United States Senators,
-parts and witnesses of this scene, Fitzpatrick, Sebastian, Broderick,
-Dixon, Bates, Mallory, Iverson, Douglas, Bright, Crittenden, Thompson,
-Slidell, Fessenden, Kennedy, Pearce, Sumner, Wilson, Green, Hale,
-Thomson, Wright, King, Seward, Pugh, Wade, Allen, Simmons, Evans,
-Butler, John Bell, Jas. Bell, Andrew Johnson, Houston, Rusk, Collamer,
-Foot, Mason and Durkee (perhaps others) preceded Mr. Chandler to the
-grave. Of this number, one (Broderick) was killed in a duel and two
-committed suicide (Rusk killed himself at Nacogdoches, Tex., on July
-29, 1857, and Preston King on August 15, 1865, and while collector of
-the port of New York, jumped heavily weighted into the Hudson river).
-
-Of the members of this Senate Hamlin, Wilson (his original name was
-Jeremiah Jones Colbath) and Johnson became Vice-Presidents, and
-Johnson, on the death of Abraham Lincoln, became President. Mr. Hamlin
-was the only one still in the Senate at the time of Mr. Chandler's
-death, and his service had not been continuous but was broken by his
-Vice-Presidential term. Sons of Cameron and Bayard were in 1879 in the
-seats occupied by their fathers in 1857. Seward became Secretary of
-State, Cameron Secretary of War, Fessenden Secretary of the Treasury,
-and Harlan and Chandler Secretaries of the Interior. Durkee became
-Governor of Utah, Jones Minister to Colombia and Cameron Minister to
-Russia. Jones was, on his return from Colombia, arrested for treason
-and confined in Fort Warren. Bright was expelled for treasonable
-correspondence with the enemy; Polk was expelled for treason, and
-Sebastian, who retired from the Senate when Arkansas seceded from
-the Union, was also expelled, but after the war, ample proof being
-furnished that he was and always remained true to the Union, the
-resolution of expulsion was rescinded. Doolittle, Trumbull, Dixon and
-Foster, who were Republicans in 1857, afterward joined the Democracy,
-and Mr. Seward also ceased to be in sympathy with the party to which
-he was indebted for his greatest honors. Gwin identified himself with
-the Confederacy, then became _aide_ to the unfortunate Maximilian, by
-whom he was created "Duke of Sonora," and is back again at Washington
-as a lobbyist. Douglas and John Bell were defeated candidates for the
-Presidency in 1860. Houston was Governor of Texas when the ordinance
-of secession passed and was deposed from his office by the disunion
-convention.
-
-Jefferson Davis, who swore to support the constitution and the Union
-at the same instant with Mr. Chandler, within four years rebelled
-against the government and became President of the so-called "Southern
-Confederacy." Slidell, the most skilful of the disunion leaders, and
-Mason were appointed by the rebel government Commissioners to Great
-Britain, and while on their way across the ocean were seized by Captain
-Wilkes, commanding the United States steamer San Jacinto, taken from
-the British vessel Trent, and carried to Boston harbor, where they
-were confined in Fort Warren on a charge of treason. This seizure the
-Department of State declined to uphold, and on the demand of Great
-Britain the "embassadors" were released. Slidell died abroad in merited
-obscurity. Benjamin became Secretary of War of the Confederacy, and
-after its downfall emigrated to England, became a British citizen,
-and is a prosperous lawyer in London. Toombs was Confederate Secretary
-of State, and is still living in Georgia, crying as he did in 1861
-"death to the Union." Mallory was Confederate Secretary of the Navy,
-and for a time after the war was imprisoned in Fort Lafayette. Hunter
-was also Secretary of State of the Confederacy; since the war he has
-been Treasurer of Virginia, but with the political revolution of 1879
-retired to private life and poverty. Clay was a Confederate Senator
-and diplomatic agent; in 1865 he was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe.
-Fitzpatrick was the original nominee for Vice-President on the Douglas
-ticket in 1860, but declined; he became a rebel but without prominence.
-Robert W. Johnson was a Confederate Senator and afterward practiced law
-in Washington. Yulee (whose original name was David Levy) retired from
-the Senate to join the Confederacy, ceased to be conspicuous, and is
-now president of a railroad in Florida. Iverson was a Brigadier-General
-in the rebel army, as was also Toombs. Brown was Captain in the
-Confederate army and a member of the Confederate Senate. Butler died
-during the following recess of Congress, and Evans, his colleague, died
-before the war. All of these Southern Senators, who retired with their
-States in 1861 were afterward formally expelled from the Senate.
-
-When Mr. Chandler entered the Senate the House of Representatives was
-controlled by the Democrats, but out of 234 members ninety-two were
-filled with the fresh blood of the Republican party. Some of these
-men were then distinguished, and others have become so since, but of
-the entire number of Representatives only twelve yet remain in either
-branch of Congress. Henry L. Dawes is a Senator from Massachusetts,
-Lafayette Grover from Oregon, Justin S. Morill from Vermont, Zebulon
-B. Vance from North Carolina, George H. Pendleton from Ohio, and L. Q.
-C. Lamar from Mississippi. Samuel S. Cox, a Representative from Ohio
-in 1857, is now a Representative from New York. Alex. H. Stephens of
-Georgia, Alfred M. Scales of North Carolina, John H. Reagan of Texas,
-Otho R. Singleton of Mississippi, and John D. C. Atkins of Tennessee
-are again members of the House. Stephens was Vice-President of the
-Confederacy; Scales was Captain, Colonel and Brigadier-General in the
-rebel army; Singleton was Aid-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee; and Atkins
-was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Confederate Tennessee regiment, and
-afterward a member of the Confederate Congress.
-
-Others who were members of the House in 1857 afterward added to the
-reputations they then enjoyed. Schuyler Colfax has been Vice-President.
-A. H. Cragin, R. E. Fenton, Thomas L. Clingman, Frank P. Blair, Jr.,
-John W. Stevenson, Edwin D. Morgan, Joshua Hill, and George S. Houston
-have been United States Senators. Israel Washburn has been Governor of
-Maine, John Letcher of Virginia, and C. C. Washburn of Wisconsin. N. P.
-Banks was a General in the Union army, and is United States Marshal of
-Massachusetts. Daniel E. Sickles was also a General in the Union army
-and afterward Minister to Spain. Francis E. Spinner was for many years
-Treasurer of the United States. John Sherman has been a Senator, and is
-Secretary of the Treasury. Elihu B. Washburne was Minister to France.
-John A. Bingham is Minister to Japan, and Horace Maynard to Turkey.
-Anson Burlingame was Minister to China, and afterward the embassador
-of that empire to negotiate treaties with foreign powers. William A.
-Howard is Governor of Dakota, and John S. Phelps of Missouri. The roll
-of the dead of the Thirty-fifth House of Representatives far exceeds
-that of the living.
-
-Zachariah Chandler entered the Senate of the United States with an
-abiding faith in Northern civilization and its right to supremacy,
-with a wise distrust of Southern professions, with a just hatred of
-institutions poisoned by slavery, with a determination to attack
-treason wherever found, with an unquestioning belief that his cause was
-right and its defeat impossible, and with as resolute a spirit as ever
-crossed the threshold of the Senate chamber. His nature was without an
-atom of compromise, and was strong in the rugged qualities of courage,
-honesty, sincerity, firmness, and moral intrepidity.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[7] "The Jeff. Davis speech," March 3, 1879.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY--THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM
-LINCOLN.
-
-
-Mr. Chandler became a Senator of the United States at the time when
-the Southern followers of John C. Calhoun had determined that the
-preservation of slavery was impossible without disunion, and had
-commenced preparations for that desperate measure of defense. The heavy
-vote given to Fremont in the North, the failure of the attempt to plant
-slavery in Kansas, the widening schism in the Democracy itself on
-the issue of slavery-extension, and the certainty that the census of
-1860 would greatly increase the voting power in Congress of the North
-and Northwest--all made it plain that the South could not reinforce
-its waning strength with new slave States. Its leaders saw that the
-alternative before them was a systematic repression of slavery pointing
-toward its ultimate extinction, or the creation of a new government
-pretending to be a republic but "with its foundations laid, its
-corner-stone resting upon, the great truth that the negro is not equal
-to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is
-his natural and normal condition."[8] Every civilized instinct urged
-them to assent to peaceful and gradual emancipation, but they chose the
-alternative of disunion from a belief that in no other way could the
-political ascendancy so long enjoyed by the ruling classes of the South
-be maintained. The administration of James Buchanan was their period
-of preparation. Whatever of needed assistance his sympathy failed to
-supply was furnished by his imbecility of purpose. In his Cabinet and
-in federal offices throughout the South active disunionists plotted
-and labored to make all things ready for rebellion and unready for
-its suppression. Chronic compromisers, Northern believers in slavery,
-and State Rights theorists were their useful allies. In Congress they
-threatened and bullied, and month by month made the demands of slavery
-more arrogant and exacting, scheming to kindle the war spirit of the
-South and to widen the breach between the sections, until they could
-offer to the North the ultimatum of abject surrender to the slave
-power or disunion and civil strife. The representatives of the North
-at Washington met these early developments of treason in various
-moods; there was no lack among them of those who were inclined to
-submit; there were many who disbelieved in the reality of the purpose
-underlying Southern vaporing and bluster, and this class included
-earnest and able Republicans; but there were also some who did not
-doubt that the slave power would try secession before accepting defeat,
-and who, yielding not one inch of the right to menaces, proposed to
-treat disunion, whether threatened or attempted, as treason and to
-denounce and resist it as such.
-
-Early in his Senatorial career Mr. Chandler became convinced that
-the purpose of rebellion was a well-defined one at the South, that
-preparations to make it successful were in active progress, and that
-the longer the crisis was delayed the more difficult would be the
-task of its suppression. Between 1857 and 1861 his comments to his
-intimate friends on the outlook were exceedingly gloomy, and he often
-declared that he saw no possible escape from war. If the government
-was to be maintained on the basis on which it was founded and was
-not to be revolutionized in the interest of slavery, he believed
-that an armed conflict with the men who had determined to change its
-character was inevitable. He did not underestimate their ambition,
-their desperateness of purpose, or their readiness for violence.
-But neither in public nor in private did he quail before them in any
-degree, and his only plan of action was the simple, straightforward and
-characteristic one of meeting their threats with defiance and their
-treason with all the force required for its punishment. In a time of
-vacillation, feebleness and moral cowardice, and while he was still
-new in the Senate and hampered by his own inexperience and the usages
-of that body, what he did say and all his acts and influence were
-important contributions to that invigorating of Northern sentiment
-which the times so greatly demanded and which alone made possible the
-national uprising of 1861.
-
-As a matter of record, the first time Zachariah Chandler's voice
-was heard in the Senate chamber, he asked that "Cornelius O'Flynn
-have leave to withdraw his memorial and papers from the files of the
-Senate." The first caucus he attended was that in which the Republican
-minority decided to make a vigorous protest against the unfairness
-of its treatment in the appointment of the Senate committees of the
-Thirty-fifth Congress. In his first speech he added, on the floor
-of the Senate, to the protest of his party an equally vigorous
-remonstrance against the complete ignoring of the commercial importance
-of the Northwest in the selection of members of the Committee on
-Commerce. In his second speech (on the proposition to increase the
-army) he said in significant language: "If they will show to me that
-they require a force in Utah to put down rebellion I will vote for it,
-I care not whether it be one regiment or one hundred regiments." His
-first prepared address in the Senate was delivered on the 12th day
-of March, 1858, and had as its theme that most reckless of the slave
-power's efforts at self-extension, the attempt to force upon Kansas
-what was known as the Lecompton constitution.
-
-This was a pro-slavery instrument, framed by a constitutional
-convention elected and controlled by Border-Ruffians, apparently
-ratified at an election whose managers allowed no one to vote against
-it but only to vote for it with slavery or for it without slavery (even
-the "without" was fraudulent, because property in slaves already in
-Kansas was in any event guaranteed until 1864), and overwhelmingly
-rejected at the only election which in any degree fairly represented
-the opinions of the genuine settlers of the territory. Mr. Chandler's
-speech on this topic, the absorbing one of that day, was prepared with
-much care and delivered from manuscript. Portions of it were read to
-Senators Cameron, Wade and Hamlin before it was uttered. While it was
-spoken with the impulsive manner that generally characterized his
-speeches, it was the result of long deliberation and of such careful
-study of phraseology as was necessary to make it explicit and forcible.
-It was listened to by a large audience. Mr. Chandler had in private
-conversation spoken with much vigor of the duty of the Republican party
-in case the Lecompton constitution of Kansas was accepted and the new
-State admitted under that instrument, and his remarks had been freely
-quoted. His reputation for radicalism of opinion and plainness of
-speech had also reached Washington, and there was a general interest
-felt in his first prepared address. He began speaking about fifteen
-minutes after the Senate was called to order (in the chamber now
-occupied by the Supreme Court) and held the floor for nearly three
-hours. The spectators included many members of the House, among them
-John Sherman, since Senator and Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander
-H. Stephens, afterward Vice-President of the Confederacy, and John A.
-Logan, now well-known as both soldier and Senator. The address was
-one of power and was attended by marked effect.[9] It contained this
-description of the fate of three Michigan emigrants to Kansas:
-
-  Men have been hunted down by sheriffs and by _posses_ from other
-  States, by border-ruffians--everywhere under the color of law. Sir,
-  the State of Michigan has over a thousand of her people in Kansas
-  to-day. Three of her citizens, and many other good men, have been
-  murdered in cold blood. Two of them, Barbour and Brown, I know
-  were as good men as can be found on the face of the earth. The
-  other--Gay--was Mr. Pierce's Land Agent for the territory. He was a
-  Nebraska pro-slavery Democrat. He was met one day, with his son, on
-  the road, and asked whether he was for Free-State or pro-slavery.
-  He had become a little Free-Statish in his views, and, not dreaming
-  of danger, he said: "I am a Free-State man," and he was shot down,
-  and his son, in attempting to defend his father, received a bullet
-  in his hip, and is now a cripple in Michigan. I speak with some
-  feeling. My own constituents, my own people, have been brutally
-  murdered, and I should be recreant to my trust if I did not speak
-  with feeling on this subject. I know the men from Michigan who are
-  in Kansas to be as good men as can be found within these United
-  States, and when any one says the emigrants from Michigan to the
-  territory of Kansas are picked from the purlieus of cities I tell
-  him he knows nothing about the subject and that it is not true.
-  They are as good men as the State of Michigan produces; they are
-  honest and brave; they know their rights and, knowing, dare defend
-  them.
-
-But those parts of the speech which most thoroughly stirred his hearers
-and fell with unaccustomed force on ears which rarely heard such
-defiant tones, were these:
-
-  I cannot permit this bill to pass without protest. It was conceived
-  and executed in fraud.... It is one of the series of aggressions on
-  the part of the slave power which, if permitted to be consummated,
-  must end in the subversion of the constitution and the Union.... It
-  strikes a death-blow at State sovereignty and popular rights....
-  When Missouri applied for admission as a slave State ... the North
-  objected. They declared it was agreed to that no more slave States
-  should be admitted into the Union.... Agitation ran high. The South
-  then as now threatened a dissolution of the Union. The North then
-  as now denied her power to dissolve it.... During this excitement
-  the hearts of brave men quailed.... A new compromise was made....
-  As a part of this compromise slavery was forever prohibited north
-  of 36° 30'.... The compromise was acquiesced in.... Peace again
-  reigned through the land, ... and this peace continued until the
-  discovery of the new doctrine of popular sovereignty.... This is
-  called a new compromise.... We are told we must accept it because
-  the Union is in danger.... But that set of people who have been
-  in labor and suffering and trial for so long a time on account of
-  the Union have passed off the stage. In their places are men who
-  love this glorious Union and love it as it was made by the fathers;
-  men who will not whine "danger to the Union," but brave men who
-  will fight for this Union to the death.... The old women of the
-  North who have been in the habit of crying out "the Union is in
-  danger" have passed off the stage. They are dead. Their places will
-  never be supplied, but in their stead we have a race of men who
-  are devoted to this Union and devoted to it as Jefferson and the
-  fathers made it and bequeathed it to us.
-
-  Any aggression upon the constitution has been submitted to by the
-  race who have gone off the stage. They were ready to compromise any
-  principle, any thing. The men of the present day are a different
-  race. They will compromise nothing; they are Union-loving men; they
-  love all portions of the Union; and they will sacrifice anything
-  but principle to save it. They will, however, make no sacrifice of
-  principle. Never! Never! No more compromises will ever be submitted
-  to to save the Union! If it is worth saving, it will be saved; but
-  if you sap and undermine its foundations it must topple. It will be
-  the legitimate result of your own action. The only way that we ever
-  shall save this Union and make it as permanent as the everlasting
-  hills will be by restoring it to the original foundations upon
-  which the fathers placed it....
-
-  The people of Kansas are almost unanimously opposed to this
-  constitution; yet you propose to force it upon them without their
-  consent. It cannot be done. The government has not bayonets enough
-  to force a constitution upon the necks of any unwilling people....
-  It is our purpose to avoid the shedding of blood upon the soil of
-  the United States by civil war. While I will not charge on the
-  supporters of the Lecompton constitution the purpose, in civil
-  war, of shedding blood upon the soil of the United States, I do
-  charge that they, and they alone, will be responsible for every
-  drop of blood that may be shed in consequence of the adoption of
-  that constitution. I trust in God civil war will never come; but
-  if it should come, upon their heads, and theirs alone, will rest
-  the responsibility of every drop that may flow. I trust in God that
-  this question will never be pushed to that extremity, for I would
-  have less respect for the people of Kansas than I now have if I
-  supposed they would tamely submit to have a constitution thrust
-  down their throats without authority of law, and against law,
-  without making resistance. I would disown them as the descendants
-  of the men who fought our revolutionary battles if I did not think
-  they would resist any illegal attempts to force a constitution upon
-  them.
-
-A speech of such vigor of opinion was not without marked effect. There
-was a disposition among the less radical Republicans to rate it as
-imprudent, and there were some attempts at rebuking Mr. Chandler for
-being so outspoken. He received these criticisms good-humoredly, but
-felt confident of his position and constantly defended it. The effect
-of his demonstration on the Democratic side was marked; the new Senator
-from Michigan surprised his political opponents by the directness and
-force of his attack, but won from them the respect always accorded
-to boldness and candor. Mr. Chandler also showed spirit on little as
-well as great occasions. In the latter part of the following April,
-the Democrats attempted to coerce the Republicans into voting upon the
-same bill for the admission of Kansas. Without any ill-temper, but with
-no lack of earnestness, Mr. Chandler arose, and said: "I understand
-gentlemen on the other side to say that no adjournment shall take place
-until this question is disposed of. If that is their determination I
-can assure them that no adjournment will take place until the 7th of
-June. When I say that no adjournment will take place until that time,
-I mean what I say. I propose to take a recess until 9 o'clock, and I
-advise gentlemen to bid farewell to their families for thirty days at
-least."
-
-In 1858 fuel was added to the anti-slavery flame by the Dred Scott
-decision, in which the majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court
-affirmed, that as a matter of history the negroes at the time of the
-formation of the constitution "had no rights which the white man was
-bound to respect," that as a principle of law neither emancipated
-slaves nor the emancipated descendants of slaves were entitled to
-claim the rights and privileges which the constitution provides for
-and secures to citizens of the United States, and that under a correct
-constitutional construction acts excluding slavery from the territories
-were without validity. This utterance was rendered especially obnoxious
-by the fact that the court, while leaving Dred Scott in slavery on the
-ground that the United States tribunals had no jurisdiction in his
-case, practically asserted jurisdiction for the purpose of deciding
-(outside of the real issues of the trial as limited by its own
-finding) that Congress could not exclude slavery from the territories.
-In reference to this decision Mr. Chandler said in the Senate on the
-17th of February, 1859:
-
-  What did General Jackson do when the Supreme Court declared the
-  United States Bank constitutional? Did he bow in deference to
-  the opinion of the court? No, ... he said he would construe the
-  constitution for himself, that he was sworn to do it. I shall do
-  the same thing. I have sworn to support the Constitution of the
-  United States, and I have sworn to support it as the fathers made
-  it and not as the Supreme Court have altered it. And I never will
-  swear allegiance to that.
-
-In October, 1859, "Old John Brown" made his memorable attempt to
-liberate the enslaved negroes of the South by the descent upon Harper's
-Ferry. The rashness of his unaided attack on a giant wrong is protected
-from ridicule by a heroism worthy of Thermopylæ and by a death which
-Sidney's last hours did not surpass in moral grandeur. Mr. Chandler,
-with deep respect for Brown's motives and the unique simplicity of
-his character, was earnest in condemnation of his methods and of the
-utter foolhardiness of his effort. Congress was not in session when
-Brown seized Harper's Ferry and convulsed Virginia with fright, and Mr.
-Chandler was not in Washington. When Congress did meet in December,
-Brown had just been hanged, and the excitement was still feverish. A
-Senate committee, consisting of Mason of Virginia, Jefferson Davis,
-Fitch of Indiana, Democrats, and Collamer and Doolittle, Republicans,
-was at once appointed to investigate the raid, and while the resolution
-providing for it was under consideration Mr. Chandler made one of his
-telling speeches. In it he thus ridiculed "the reign of terror" at the
-South:
-
-  Senators ask us why we have no sympathy with Virginia in this
-  instance. Sir, we do not understand this case at all. What are the
-  facts? Seventeen white men and five unwilling negroes surround
-  and capture a town of 2,000 people, with a United States armory,
-  any quantity of arms and ammunition, and with 300 men employed in
-  it--as I am informed, employed in it under a civil officer--and
-  hold it for two days. These I understand to be the facts, and you
-  ask, Why have we not sympathy? We do not understand any such case
-  as that. The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Brown) asks, What would
-  we say if North Carolina and Virginia were to attack the armory at
-  Springfield? I do not know what is the population of Springfield,
-  but I will guarantee if any seventeen or twenty-two of the Generals
-  ... of the States of Virginia and North Carolina were to attack
-  Springfield, if there was not a man within five miles of there, the
-  women would bind them in thirty minutes and would not ask sympathy
-  and the matter would not be deemed of sufficient importance to ask
-  for a committee of investigation on the part of the corporation.
-  Why, sir, Governor Wise compared the people of Harper's Ferry to
-  sheep, as the public press state. That is a libel on the sheep. For
-  I never saw a flock of fifty or a hundred sheep in my life that had
-  not a belligerent ram among them. We do not understand any such
-  panic as this. If seventeen or one hundred men were to attack a
-  town of the size of Harper's Ferry anywhere throughout the region
-  with which I am acquainted, they would simply be put in jail in
-  thirty minutes, and then they would be tried for their crimes and
-  they would be punished and there would be no row made about it.
-
-The pointed passage of the speech was the one in which he thanked a
-Southern Governor for demonstrating so conspicuously that treason was a
-crime punishable by death. He said,
-
-  I am in favor of the resolution because the first execution for
-  treason that has ever occurred in the United States has just taken
-  place. John Brown has been executed as a traitor in the State of
-  Virginia, and I want it to go upon the records of the Senate in
-  the most solemn manner to be held up as a warning to traitors,
-  come they from the North, South, East or West. Dare to raise your
-  impious hands against this government, its constitution and its
-  laws--and you hang!... Threats have been made year after year for
-  the last thirty years, that if certain events happen this Union
-  will be dissolved. It is no small matter to dissolve this Union.
-  It means a bloody revolution or it means a halter. It means the
-  successful overturn of this government or it means the fate of John
-  Brown, and I want that to go solemnly on the record of this Senate!
-
-These were the speeches of a man untried in public life and still in
-the early years of his first Congressional term. The Senate which
-he thus addressed listened also to Charles Sumner's magnificent
-philippics--blows "struck with the club of Hercules entwined with
-flowers," to the philosophic eloquence of Seward in his moral prime, to
-Wade's sturdy fearlessness of speech, to the wit of Hale, and to the
-vigorous oratory of Fessenden. But no man measured more accurately
-than Zachariah Chandler the political forces of that day, no man
-branded the hatching treason with his blunt precision and homely power,
-and no man asserted with more boldness the courage and the purpose
-of the North. In that hour resolute words were useful in themselves;
-but the lapse of twenty years has shown that Mr. Chandler was then as
-clear-sighted as he was intrepid in spirit and plain in speech.
-
-This unsparing denunciation of treason to plotting traitors was not
-without personal peril. Mr. Chandler became a Senator at a time when
-the South had unleashed its brutality at Washington and regarded
-resistance to its demands as justifying violence and insult. Horace
-Greeley, while visiting Washington, was assaulted and injured in the
-Capitol grounds by Rust of Arkansas, on account of some criticisms
-in the _Tribune_ on Congressional action. Preston Brooks committed
-(on the 22d of May, 1856) his assault on Charles Sumner in the Senate
-chamber, a crime which was publicly upheld by Toombs, Slidell, Davis
-and other Southern leaders, and which led South Carolina to unanimously
-re-elect the ruffian to the House when he resigned after the adoption
-of a vote of censure. Henry Wilson's denunciation of this attack upon
-his colleague as "brutal, murderous, and cowardly" was followed by a
-challenge from Brooks, to which he responded by arming himself and
-by a note declaring that while he repudiated the duelling code he
-"religiously believed in the right of self-defense in the broadest
-sense." John Woodruff, a Connecticut Representative, having stigmatized
-Brooks's act as a "mean achievement of cowardice," was tendered a
-duelling challenge which he declined to receive. Anson Burlingame
-pursued another course. Of the assault on the Massachusetts Senator,
-he said: "I denounce it in the name of the constitution it violates. I
-denounce it in the name of the sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was
-stricken down by the blow. I denounce it in the name of humanity. I
-denounce it in the name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounce
-it in the name of that fair play which bullies and prize-fighters
-respect." To this the response was a challenge from Brooks, which
-Mr. Burlingame accepted, and, selecting Canada as the spot for the
-meeting, had the satisfaction of seeing the representative of South
-Carolina chivalry refuse to abide by the code he had himself invoked.
-William McKee Dunn, of Indiana, was challenged by Rust, of Arkansas,
-for words spoken in the House, and, naming "rifles at sixty paces" as
-the weapons, learned that such was not the "satisfaction" desired by
-Southern "gentlemen." Owen Lovejoy denounced the crimes of slavery
-in front of the Speaker's desk in the House, with the fists of angry
-Southerners shaking in his face, and amid their yells and threats.
-Potter, of Wisconsin, cooled off the hot blood of Roger A. Pryor by
-accepting his duelling challenge and selecting bowie-knives as the
-weapons. Amid all this there was much chronic servility among Northern
-members to Southern insolence, which gave pungent force to Thaddeus
-Stevens's sarcasm (uttered during the prolonged contest over the
-Speakership of the Thirty-sixth Congress) that he could not blame the
-South for trying intimidation, for they had "tried it fifty times and
-fifty times, and had always found weak and recreant tremblers in the
-North." Mr. Chandler entered the Senate with the firm resolution that
-he would not be bullied, that he would not submit to bluster, and that
-if occasion came he would fight without hesitation. His decision did
-not spring from love of quarrel or mere passion, but was the fruit
-of mature reflection and was based upon a clear purpose. He saw that
-the Southerners in Congress vapored and threatened for effect; that
-they believed that Northern men would not fight, and that they would
-be permitted to offer unlimited insults without arousing resentment.
-The public sentiment of the North was against duelling or fisticuffs,
-and the Southerners supposed--and sincerely--that this was the result
-of cowardice and not of conscience. This condition of opinion was of
-decided assistance to the conspirators who were plotting disunion at
-the South, and the stigma of pusillanimity was the source of no little
-practical weakness with the North. Under these circumstances Mr.
-Chandler fully determined--as did Mr. Wade, Mr. Hamlin, Mr. Cameron,
-and one or two other Senators--that if occasion offered, so that
-justice should be clearly upon his side, he would fight. This was a
-deliberate purpose, not reached through any admiration for fighting
-men, nor through belief in force as a method of argument, but from
-a conviction that the moral effect of such a demonstration of the
-personal courage of Northern representatives would be of service to the
-nation. Mr. Chandler knew himself to be physically capable of meeting
-almost any assailant; he prepared himself for a collision by muscular
-exercise and the practice of marksmanship, and, while he did not seek,
-he made no effort to avoid, an encounter.
-
-On February 5, 1858, there was a personal altercation in the House of
-Representatives between Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, afterward
-Speaker, and Lawrence M. Keitt, of South Carolina, who was killed in
-battle, during the rebellion, at the head of a Confederate brigade.
-Mr. Harris of Illinois, an Anti-Nebraska Democrat, had offered a
-resolution for the appointment of a committee to ascertain by an
-investigation whether the Lecompton constitution was the work in any
-just sense of the people of Kansas. Coming from such a source, the
-resolution would have received a majority of votes in the House,
-but its opponents resorted to parliamentary stratagem to prevent
-its passage, "filibustering" for several hours. Amid the attending
-excitement there was a very heated colloquy between Grow and Keitt,
-which ended in blows on both sides, Keitt being the first to strike.
-Grow resisted, and a general melee followed which was participated
-in by many members. The affair was afterward adjusted, and both
-apologized to the House but without apologizing to each other. This
-occurrence impressed Mr. Chandler deeply, and, as soon as he heard of
-it, he went to the Hall of Representatives, and assured Mr. Grow of
-his approval and his readiness to render any desired aid. It was the
-first outbreak of the kind which came within his personal observation,
-and confirmed him in his belief that it was the duty of the Northern
-minority to resist all encroachments upon their personal and official
-rights. Not long afterward a colloquy occurred in the Senate between
-Simon Cameron and Senator Green of Missouri, in which the lie was
-given, and only the prompt interference of Vice-President Breckenridge,
-who was in the chair, prevented a personal altercation. The Democrats
-were insisting upon a vote upon the bill to admit Kansas under the
-Lecompton constitution, while the Republicans were endeavoring to
-secure longer time for debate. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning
-when the offensive words were exchanged. Vice-President Breckenridge
-at once rapped with his gavel, and commanded both Green and Cameron
-to take their seats. After order had been restored, Senator Green
-continued his remarks, and, referring to Cameron, said: "I will not
-use a harsh word now; it will be out of order. But if I get out of
-this Senate chamber I shall use a harsh word in his (Cameron's) teeth,
-for there no rule of order will correct me.... As to any question of
-veracity between that Senator and myself, in five minutes after the
-Senate adjourns we can settle it." Mr. Cameron's reply was: "I desire
-to say, if these remarks are intended as a threat, they have no effect
-upon me." The debate was continued at length, but a small group of
-Senators was soon after seen in earnest conference in a cloak-room. It
-was composed of Senators Chandler, Cameron, Wade and Broderick, and
-the result of the consultation was, that by the advice of his friends
-Mr. Cameron armed himself, and prepared for self-defense in case he
-was attacked by Green. The Senate remained in continuous session for
-over eighteen hours, and for some time after the quarrel. Meanwhile Mr.
-Green's passion cooled, and the expected collision did not take place
-(explanations were ultimately made by both in the Senate chamber). But
-when the Senate adjourned, Mr. Chandler accompanied Mr. Cameron to his
-lodgings, as a measure of precaution. Out of this affair grew a formal
-agreement between Mr. Chandler, Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wade, which was
-reduced to writing, and sealed with the understanding that its contents
-should not be made public until after the death of all the signers. His
-copy of this historic document is still among Mr. Chandlers papers,
-but it will not be made public while Mr. Cameron lives. Of its purport
-one,[10] who knew intimately the men and the circumstances and motives
-of this act, has written:
-
-  The assaults of the violent Southern leaders upon some of
-  the ablest and purest Republicans in the Senate, known to be
-  non-combatants, finally became unbearable to some of the less
-  scrupulous Republicans, until, in the midst of one of the most
-  denunciatory tirades of one of the fire-eaters, there was noticed
-  a little group of the lately-admitted Republicans in a side
-  consultation on the floor of the Senate. Precisely what was said in
-  consultation is not known to the writer, nor is it likely that it
-  will transpire during the lifetime of either of the three gentlemen
-  engaged. It is, however, known that the group was composed of
-  Senators Wade, Cameron, and Chandler; that it was agreed between
-  them substantially that the business of insulting Republican
-  Senators on the floor of the Senate had gone far enough, and that
-  it must cease; and further, that, in case of any renewed insolence
-  to any other Republican Senator of the character which had been
-  practiced, it should be the duty of one of the three to take up the
-  quarrel and make it his own to the full extent of the code--to the
-  death if it need be. The compact was not only made, but signed and
-  sealed, and remains sealed to this day. Its import, however, became
-  known, and the demeanor of the Southern fire-eaters, though still
-  violent and disloyal, soon after became courteous personally toward
-  Republican Senators.
-
-  They did, however, feel around a little to ascertain whether the
-  whisperings as to the fighting Senators could be relied on. They
-  had a scheme to assault Senator Chandler in the street, but a
-  little inquiry as to his strength and skill led to its sudden
-  abandonment. A blustering Southerner took offense at the remarks
-  of Senator Wade, who had said in relation to an assertion made by
-  him, that such a statement would only come from a liar or a coward.
-  Of course this could not be borne by the high-toned cavalier, and
-  his friend, or agent, or servitor called on Senator Wade, not with
-  a formal challenge, but to ascertain how Wade would probably act
-  in the event of a challenge. As soon as Wade pierced the diplomacy
-  of the agent so far as to become aware of his purpose, he told him
-  to tell the old coward that he dare not fight. This was not quite
-  satisfactory. The agent or spy seemed anxious to know what kind of
-  weapons Wade would choose in case of a contest. On learning this,
-  Wade said, "rifles at twenty paces, with a white paper the size of
-  a dollar pinned over the heart of each combatant; and tell him, if
-  I do not hit the one on his breast at the first shot, he may fire
-  at me all day."
-
-  These inquiries seemed to cure all further desire on the part of
-  the chivalry for personal combats. Threats, however, continued to
-  be made of street assaults and caning, generally pointing to the
-  more prominent of the non-combatants in the Republican ranks.
-
-  Certain of the Republicans went thoroughly armed all the time,
-  and these, for weeks together, took turns in walking with their
-  non-belligerent colleagues to and from the Capitol, to protect them
-  from personal assault.
-
-The decided practical value of Mr. Chandler's bearing at that time
-and of his known determination to maintain his official and personal
-rights at all physical hazards cannot be doubted. It made itself
-felt among his associates on both sides of the Senate chamber, and
-earned for him early recognition at Washington as a bold and staunch
-leader of his party. Personal influence was the natural outgrowth
-of positive qualities so fearlessly displayed, and he became a man
-whose opinions were sought and whose energy in execution was prized
-by his fellow-Senators. A close personal intimacy with Mr. Wade, Mr.
-Hamlin and Mr. Cameron sprang up at this time, and general agreement
-of opinion on public questions led them into concerted action as
-representatives of the more "radical" element. Much of their work was
-beneath the surface and is not a matter of record, but the results of
-their efforts at that crisis to infuse vigor by all possible means into
-the lifeless national sentiment of the North and to prepare the people
-for the coming struggle were important and durable.
-
-Mr. Chandler was heard with interest during the sessions of 1858-59-60
-on other questions than those connected with the conflict over slavery.
-His speech (on Feb. 17, 1859) in opposition to the bill appropriating
-$30,000,000 to "facilitate the acquisition of Cuba by negotiation"
-attracted some attention. Its scope and tenor will appear from this
-extract:
-
-  This is a most extraordinary proposition to be presented to the
-  Congress of the United States at this time. With a Treasury
-  bankrupt, and the government borrowing money to pay its expenses,
-  and no efficient remedy proposed for that state of things; with
-  your great national works in the Northwest going to decay, and
-  no money to repair them; without harbors of refuge for your
-  commerce, and no money to construct them; with a national debt of
-  $70,000,000, which is increasing, in a time of profound peace,
-  at the rate of $30,000,000 per annum--the Senate of the United
-  States is startled by a proposition to borrow $30,000,000. And
-  for what, sir? To pay just claims against the government, which
-  have been long deferred? No, sir; you have no money for any
-  such purpose as that. Is it to repair your national works on
-  the Northwestern lakes, to repair your harbors, to rebuild your
-  light-houses? No, sir; you have no money for that. Is it to build
-  a railroad to the Pacific, connecting the Eastern and Western
-  slopes of this Continent by bands of iron, and open up the vast
-  interior of the Continent to settlement? No, sir; you say that
-  is unconstitutional. What, then, do you propose to do with this
-  $30,000,000? Is it to purchase the island of Cuba? No, sir; for
-  you are already advised in advance that Spain will not sell the
-  island; more, sir, you are advised in advance that she will take a
-  proposition for its purchase as a national insult, to be rejected
-  with scorn and contempt. The action of her Cortes and of her
-  government, on the reception of the President's message, proves
-  this beyond all controversy. What, then, do you propose to do with
-  this $30,000,000?... It is a great corruption fund for bribery and
-  for bribery only.... But let us admit for the sake of argument
-  that this proposition is brought forward in good faith and will be
-  successfully terminated. What do any of the Northwestern States
-  gain by the purchase of this island of Cuba? I know something of
-  Cuba, something of its soil, something of the climate, something of
-  its people, their manners and customs, something of their religion
-  and something of their crimes. I spent a winter in the interior
-  of the island of Cuba a few years since and can, therefore, speak
-  from personal knowledge.... Much of the soil of the island is rich
-  and exceedingly productive, but it is in no way comparable to the
-  prairies and bottom lands of the great West. You can go into almost
-  any of your territories and select an equal number of acres and
-  you will have a more valuable State than you can possibly make out
-  of Cuba.... You propose to pay $200,000,000 for the island, $10 an
-  acre for every acre of land on it.... You are selling infinitely
-  better lands, and have millions upon millions of acres of them, at
-  $1.25 per acre. You propose to pay $200,000,000--nearly $200 a head
-  for every man, woman and child, including negroes, on the island.
-  And for what? For the right to govern one million of the refuse of
-  the earth.
-
-During this same period Mr. Chandler was very active in helping on the
-work of Republican organization throughout the country. In the campaign
-of 1858 in Michigan, he spoke repeatedly in the larger towns of that
-State, great audiences gathering to hear him, and answering with
-growing enthusiasm his vigorous attacks on the administration and its
-master, the slave power. The result was that Moses Wisner, Republican,
-was elected Governor by a vote of 65,202 to 56,067 for Charles E.
-Stuart, Democrat. The Republicans also carried every Congressional
-district (William A. Howard obtained his seat after a contest with
-George B. Cooper) and had a large majority in both branches of the
-Legislature. That body, on meeting in January, 1859, elected Kinsley
-S. Bingham to the Senate, and Michigan has always since that year been
-represented in the upper branch of Congress by two Republicans. Charles
-E. Stuart, whom Mr. Bingham succeeded, was a man of ability who had
-manfully refused to support the Lecompton outrage, and with Stephen A.
-Douglas and David C. Broderick had been classed as an Anti-Nebraska
-Democrat. Mr. Bingham was a thorough Republican, and during his brief
-Senatorial term (he died in October, 1861,) stood side by side with his
-colleague on all political questions.
-
-In the Presidential campaign of 1860 Mr. Chandler labored with untiring
-zeal to secure Mr. Lincoln's election. Early in the fall he spoke with
-marked effect in the State of New York. Throughout August, September,
-and October he addressed a series of great mass-meetings at different
-points in Michigan (at Hillsdale 8,000 people gathered to hear him,
-at Cassopolis 10,000, at Paw Paw 5,000, and at Kalamazoo 20,000).
-In October he visited Illinois, speaking at Mr. Lincoln's home
-(Springfield) on the 17th of that month.[11] His last speech in that
-campaign was made in the Republican wigwam at Detroit on November 1,
-and was alive with the spirit of victory and the firm purpose to secure
-its rewards. On the day of election his State answered his appeals with
-an increased Republican majority, giving Lincoln 88,480 votes to 65,057
-for Douglas, 805 for Breckenridge, and 405 for Bell.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[8] Speech of Alexander H. Stephens at Savannah on March 21, 1861,
-after his election to the rebel Vice-Presidency.
-
-[9] Of this speech the New York _Courier and Enquirer_ said: "The
-speech of Mr. Chandler on the 12th places him among the first debaters
-of the country. No more unanswerable exposition of the usurpation in
-Kansas has been made." The Chicago _Tribune_ said: "Mr. Chandler made
-his first formal speech in the Senate to-day. That body paid him the
-compliment of unwavering attention through the whole of his able and
-effective speech. The passage in which he described the murder of
-Brown, Barbour and Gay ... excited the sympathies and passions of his
-audience to a pitch rarely observed in parliamentary debate."
-
-[10] The Hon. James M. Edmunds, for many years Commissioner of the Land
-Office, and afterward postmaster of the Senate and of Washington City.
-
-[11] The Springfield _Journal_ of October 18 said: "Senator Chandler,
-of Michigan, made yesterday one of the best speeches to which our
-citizens have had the pleasure of listening during the campaign.... The
-meeting was a magnificent one and the greatest enthusiasm prevailed."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY.
-
-
-Zachariah Chandler as a Republican Senator was a thorough Whig in
-both his advocacy of an enlightened national system of Internal
-Improvements and his constant and efficient championship of the cause
-of the Protection of American Industries. It has been justly said that
-"the Great West of to-day owes its unequaled growth and progress, its
-population, productiveness and wealth, primarily, to the framers of the
-federal constitution, by which its development was rendered possible,
-but more immediately and palpably to the sagacity and statesmanship
-of Jefferson, the purchaser of Louisiana; to the genius of Fitch and
-Fulton, the projector and achiever, respectively, of steam navigation;
-to De Witt Clinton, the early, unswerving and successful champion
-of artificial inland navigation; and to Henry Clay, the eminent,
-eloquent, and effective champion of the diversification of our national
-industry through the Protection of Home Manufactures." No man knew
-better or acknowledged more fully the truth of this analysis than
-Mr. Chandler. His own State abounded with evidences of its justice,
-and his firm faith in the protective principle was also strengthened
-by the teachings of his practical mercantile experience and by his
-general commercial sagacity. No State presents to-day more abundant
-proofs of the beneficence of "the American system" than Michigan, and
-no personal contributions to the protection of its interests and the
-diversification of its industries equaled those given on every possible
-occasion by Mr. Chandler throughout his prolonged Senatorial service.
-
-Political economy has been well defined as "the science of labor-saving
-applied to the action of communities, its aim being to save labor
-from waste, from misapplication, and from loss through constrained
-idleness." The objects of Protection are the ennobling of labor and
-the enhancing of its productiveness, and its method is interdicting
-an unwholesome competition which looks no farther than securing mere
-cheapness of production at whatever cost of human energy, comfort
-and enlightenment. There has never been an intelligent and sincere
-protectionist without a thorough faith in the vast importance and
-inherent nobility of Labor. On this as on all great questions Mr.
-Chandler's convictions were radical, and he was right fundamentally.
-He had been himself a laborer. The store, the farm, the factory, the
-work-shop, are all one in this--their duties are labor. Mr. Chandler
-knew the worth of free labor. He had witnessed its seed-planting and
-wonderful fruitage of development in Michigan, and he honored the
-strong, hardy, intelligent and self-reliant race who were the laborers
-there, and of whom he was one. He had early opportunity to make this
-plain in the Senate. Hammond of South Carolina, a true representative
-of that turbulent, rebellious State and of the embodied insolence of
-its master class and of the man-owner's contempt for free labor, made
-at this time his notorious "mud-sill" speech. "There must be laborers
-in every community, a low, degenerate class, who hew the wood and
-draw the water, ... the mud-sills of society, in effect they are
-slaves;" this was its idea. It was a frank avowal of the estimate put
-by the slaveholding oligarchy upon the Northern laborers, upon the men
-who have made this country what it is. Mr. Chandler was then young
-in the Senate, and had spoken but rarely, but to this insult to his
-constituency he was quick to reply. In his speech of March 12, 1858,
-the first in which he addressed the Senate at any length, he said:
-
-  It is an attack upon my constituents. Under the Senator's version,
-  under his exposition of slavery, nine-tenths of the people of
-  the North are or have been at some time slaves; for nine-tenths
-  of the people of the North have at some time been hirelings and
-  laborers. We do not feel degraded by being laborers. We believe it
-  to be respectable.... Travel on any road in the State of Michigan,
-  and you will find flourishing farms on almost every 160 acres,
-  with comfortable dwellings, and a high state of improvement and
-  cultivation.... You will find the owners of these farms with four
-  or five sons of their neighboring farmers hired out by the day
-  or the month or the year.... These young men go to service or
-  labor until they get money enough to buy a farm; then they, too,
-  become the employers of labor.... These men are never degraded by
-  labor.... They are the foundations of society there. Some of these
-  men who are at work by the month during the summer on farms are in
-  the Legislature making laws for us in the winter.
-
-There was more of it to the same effect--honest, indignant words in
-defense of free Northern labor, and in eulogy of the men who toiled.
-And the tone of these portions of the speech was wholesomely defiant,
-without a shade of truckling to Southern insolence. Nine years later,
-in discussing proposed tariff amendments in 1867, Mr. Chandler said
-in the Senate, "I thank God we are able to pay good prices to our
-laborers." These utterances indicate the vein in which he always made
-his voice heard and influence felt whenever the interests and rights of
-labor were challenged either by speech or attempted legislation.
-
-The tariff controversy in the United States dates back half a
-century. This republic in its colonial days was agricultural. There
-were no mines nor manufactures. Each house did its own spinning and
-weaving. There were small shops for the making and repairing of a
-few articles, and luxuries and fine goods for the rich were imported
-from the factories of Europe. The great labor-saving appliances of
-the nineteenth century did not exist even in imagination. The water
-power of the country was unused and its boundless wealth of minerals
-unknown. The people were farmers or traders. For them the government
-was founded, and apparently there was no contemplation of anything
-beyond. It was years before a change came, but, once begun, it hurried
-with rapid stride, until to-day more than one-twentieth of the entire
-population of the United States are engaged in manufacturing, as many
-more are employed in occupations connected with and dependent upon such
-enterprises, and the capital invested in productive industries exceeds
-by millions of dollars the entire national debt.
-
-These changes as they progressed made new demands upon the government.
-After the development of the steam engine, and after later inventions
-and contrivances had cheapened the production of cotton, woolen and
-other goods, household spinning-wheels and looms were silent, and
-the United States imported nearly every manufactured article needed
-by its people, sending out in return the products of its farms and
-plantations, its tobacco, cotton and grain. Year after year this
-draining process went on, the manufacturing towns of Europe growing
-great and prosperous, the United States widening and increasing in
-population, but adding little to its wealth. The mill-owners of
-Europe bought their cotton in South Carolina or Georgia, transported
-it across the Atlantic, made it into cloths, and returned them to
-New York or Charleston. The American purchaser paid the cost of both
-transportations, the cost and profit of manufacture abroad, all the
-profits of middle-men who handled the goods, and all the cost of
-exchanges. By this process America toiled, while England and the other
-manufacturing States of Europe reaped the harvest. Thoughtful people,
-knowing that capital employed in production feeds, clothes and lodges
-the industrious workman, adds to the wealth of the nation, adds to its
-strength, adds to its power of resistance, and lessens the individual
-burden of taxation, and comprehending the inevitable result of the
-drain in progress, asked, Is there no way of preventing this? They
-saw the raw material produced in bountiful profusion, saw the water
-power of the country running away to the sea unvexed by use, and
-naturally asked, Is it not possible to bring the miners and smelters,
-the founders, machinists and laborers, the mechanic and manufacturer
-of every description, here, to place them beside the raw material, to
-utilize this wasted power, and to save the losses and attrition that
-are impoverishing the country? When these thoughts took shape in the
-active brains of Americans, the change began. Mills and factories
-sprang up by the water-courses. Tall chimneys, clouds of smoke and
-glowing furnaces came after. Thus American manufacturing was born.
-
-But as the first mills and factories were established, these
-discoveries were made: In building a mill in England the laborers and
-mechanics could be hired at wages from twenty to forty per cent. lower
-than prevailed on this continent. The cost of machinery, most of it
-being brought from Europe, was also greater. Foreign manufacturers
-could hire their capital from the immense reservoir of Europe, where
-it had been accumulating for centuries, at from four to six per
-cent. interest. Here the borrower must pay eight or ten per cent. or
-even higher. There was another and even graver matter presented to
-the consideration of the pioneer manufacturer. Labor in Europe was
-cheap--so cheap that, combined with abundant capital and low interest,
-it enabled the foreign manufacturer to pay two ocean transportations
-and yet undersell an American competitor at the very door of his own
-mill. Should the American mechanic be asked to toil for the pauper
-wages of Europe? Should it be the policy of this government to gather
-about its factories the hungry-eyed, ill-clad, impoverished, ignorant
-and hopeless crowds which are found in the manufacturing towns of the
-old world? Could American institutions endure this? Where the people
-are all agriculturists, except under very extraordinary circumstances
-they need never want for food, and such circumstances are rarely
-chargeable to misgovernment or to bad laws. The farming classes are
-widely scattered; they are conservative and self-reliant, not given
-to mobs and outbreaks, nor to obeying the will of self-constituted
-leaders as do men gathered in great masses. But the men of mills
-and shops and factories, unless they are well paid, must suffer;
-and when they suffer their discontent threatens society itself.
-Despotic governments may apply the gag of a bayonet or the silence of
-a musket ball, but this is not possible in a republic resting upon
-the uncompelled support of all the people. Plainly, if a government,
-constituted as is this, is to be preserved, the mechanics, the laborers
-in mills and mines, in shops and factories, must be paid enough to
-support themselves and their families in comfort, to educate their
-children and to permit the thrifty to make savings. If the time ever
-comes when the millions of American workers upon whose assent this
-government exists are reduced to the condition of the pauper labor
-of Europe, this republic and its golden promises of freedom will
-most certainly ignobly perish from the face of the earth. From such
-circumstances and ideas as these sprang the doctrine, accepted by
-almost all of the earlier statesmen of the republic, that the revenue
-system of the United States must be so modeled as to stimulate domestic
-manufactures, protect them from ruinous foreign competition, and
-promote that diversification of industry which is so essential to the
-prosperity and independence of free labor.
-
-The first tariff measure (passed by the First Congress and approved by
-George Washington) imposed but low duties, but in some of its details
-practically recognized the protective principle, and in its preamble
-declared one of its purposes to be "the protection and encouragement
-of Domestic Manufacture." From 1807 to 1815 the United States was in a
-great degree driven from the ocean. A part of that time it was involved
-in a war with Great Britain, with an embargo laid upon its ports.
-During these years the home manufacturer had no foreign competition
-to fear, and factories sprang up to meet the local demands, drawing
-about them laborers and their families, making a quick market for
-the productions of the soil, and placing consumer and producer side
-by side. But this was the result of accident and not of deliberate
-policy. The scene changed when the raising of the embargo brought into
-the country a flood of manufactured articles representing cheap labor,
-cheap interest and cheap capital. Then came the demand for the levying
-of such duties on the products of foreign labor as would protect the
-American manufacturer and enable him to pay a suitable compensation
-to the American workman. The first response to this was the tariff of
-1816, justly styled "The Planters' and Farmers' Tariff," because it
-gave protection to coarser commodities which least required it, and
-withheld it from those articles in whose production others were to
-be used. Eight years afterward came a third tariff varying little in
-its general features, but with rates of duties slightly increased.
-Four years later (in 1828) was enacted the first thoroughly American
-protective tariff, but it was soon destroyed by the act of July 12,
-1832 (the outcome of the Nullification controversy), which completely
-abolished its protective features. Within a few months, through the
-exertions of Mr. Clay, this measure was modified by what was known
-as the compromise tariff act, which continued in force until the
-passage of the protective tariff of 1842. This was in time displaced
-by the free-trade tariff, which went into force four years later, in
-June, 1847. It was followed in 1861 (March 23) by the Morrill tariff,
-a thoroughly protective measure, which with some modifications yet
-remains on the statute books.
-
-In 1816, notwithstanding it had just emerged from war, the country's
-industrial condition was at least hopeful, but the consequences of
-the tariff of that year promptly manifested themselves. The American
-manufacturer was undersold at the door of his mill by the foreigner;
-factories closed, wages shrunk and the demand for labor diminished.
-Prices of all kinds of planter's and farmer's produce declined in
-turn, and to industrial prostration was speedily added agricultural
-depression. Henry Clay pronounced the seven years preceding 1824 the
-most disastrous this nation had ever known. But almost from the moment
-of its passage the country felt the impetus of the protective tariff of
-1828. Furnace doors were thrown open; foundries were built; the cobwebs
-that had gathered about factory machinery disappeared in the whir of
-busy wheels; labor came again into demand; immigration increased; the
-products of farms and plantations brought good prices; and the public
-revenue grew until the national debt was extinguished. Prosperity thus
-became universal throughout the land. When this protective tariff of
-1828 gave way to the gradual reductions in duties of the compromise
-measure of 1832, there followed a repetition of the scenes that
-succeeded the tariff of 1816. From 1837 to 1842 mills and furnaces were
-closed, wages were reduced, laborers sought in vain for employment, the
-poor-houses were filled and manufacturers, farmers and planters became
-bankrupts together. Even the public treasury was unable to borrow at
-home as small a sum as $1,000,000 at any rate of interest, and the
-great banking houses of Europe refused it credit, so that it was forced
-to the humiliation of selling its securities at ruinous discounts. The
-passage of the protective tariff of 1842 marks the date of another
-business revival. Old mines were re-worked and new ones were opened.
-Mill-fires were re-lighted and new mills sprang up in all directions.
-Money became abundant, and public and private incomes exceeded all
-precedent. Farmers and planters secured easy markets and ample prices
-for their produce, and laborers' homes grew bright with plenty. Then
-came the Free-Trade tariff of 1846 and the commercial decadence which
-culminated in the disasters of 1857. California and its gold delayed
-the catastrophe but could not avert it. From the moment of the repeal
-of the protective tariff, the inflow of British iron and cloth began
-and the receding tide carried back American gold, impoverishing
-the country. Industry was stricken to the earth, and day by day
-saw the dependence of the United States on foreign markets growing
-until when the crash came it was complete. The vast flood of gold
-from California had gone into European vaults and in its stead could
-only be shown receipts for foreign goods consumed and the wrecks of
-American industries. The Morrill tariff was followed by an unparalleled
-mercantile and manufacturing development, which not even the disastrous
-effects of an inflated currency (in 1873-76) could more than briefly
-check.
-
-Mr. Chandler, who knew well these facts, and had learned "the American
-doctrine" in the days of Clay, had taken his seat in the Senate when
-the crash of 1857 came, and was active in demanding and shaping that
-revolution in the revenue system which has made the United States one
-of the great manufacturing nations of the world. He was an ardent
-champion of the Morrill tariff (of 1861), and aided materially in
-perfecting its details, watching with special vigilance those of
-its provisions which affected the vast interests of the Northwest.
-He believed in the largest possible application of the protective
-principle, and favored aiding every American producer and every
-American manufacturer who could complain on valid grounds of foreign
-competition. Every demand for protection, which gave reasonable promise
-of increasing the yield of any staple or of developing a new industry,
-received his energetic support. To any revenue measure or proposition,
-which seemed to him calculated to advance foreign at the expense of
-American interests, he was uncompromisingly hostile. The abrogation of
-the Reciprocity treaty with Canada he labored most assiduously to bring
-about, and he resisted with all his characteristic pertinacity each
-successive effort to restore a compact which imposed such heavy burdens
-upon the lumbermen, salt manufacturers, and farmers of the Northwest.
-Throughout his Senatorial term all measures affecting duties in
-any form or proposing any modification in their schedules found him
-alert, well-informed, and determined to maintain the protective policy
-against any assault.[12] Very much the greater, and undoubtedly the
-most effective, part of his labors for an American tariff was put
-forth in committee-rooms and in the earnest use of argument and
-influence with fellow-Congressmen; he relied much more upon this work
-than upon speech-making for results--and results he always ranked far
-above display or mere publicity. Still he spoke not unfrequently on
-tariff questions, and a few quotations will illustrate satisfactorily
-his positions and methods. This passage shows how radical was his
-protectionism:
-
-  This nation to-day should be an exporter of iron instead of an
-  importer. There is no valid reason why we should buy one single
-  pound of iron from any other nation on the globe. Our mountains
-  are filled with the purest ores on the face of the earth.... If I
-  had my way I would absolutely prohibit the introduction of foreign
-  iron.
-
-The context does not sustain an absolutely literal construction of the
-last sentence. Mr. Chandler had seen Michigan when its copper mines
-were unworked, its limitless riches of iron undiscovered, its salt
-deposits unknown, and its pine forests unfelled. He had seen these
-industries passing through various stages of prosperity and disaster
-as they were affected by prevailing tariffs, now shielded by a wise
-policy of protection and now at the mercy of foreign producers, who at
-times (to use their own admission) "voluntarily incur immense losses
-in order to destroy American competition and to gain and keep control
-of American markets." He saw these industries grow from nothing,
-until the annual yield of Michigan's copper mines became 20,266 tons,
-of its iron mines 1,125,231 tons, and of its salt wells 1,885,884
-barrels, and until its lumber product expanded to the enormous total of
-2,700,000,000 feet in one season. They thus became powerful interests,
-employing a great host of laborers and offering support to thousands
-of families. These facts and the tone of what Mr. Chandler said on
-kindred topics make it plain that by the absolute prohibition of the
-introduction of foreign iron he meant not an embargo, but the affording
-of such ample protection to the iron industries of the entire country
-as would make it impossible for the products of foreign cheap labor to
-compete in its markets with those of American labor, and as would make
-the United States a seller and not a buyer of iron and its wares.
-
-With all his earnestness as a protectionist, he kept the interests
-of labor predominant in his consideration of this subject. For
-instance, in some remarks upon the lumber tariff, he said: "It is
-perfectly well known that the great value of lumber is in the labor
-and the transportation, and while we in the United States are paying
-our laborers (in lumber) $2 a day, they are in the British Provinces
-paying but from 75 cents to $1 per day." And he steadily voted for
-such protection of the lumber trade as would enable producers engaged
-in that business to pay large wages, and opposed every suggestion
-which looked to impoverishing or pauperizing the American artisan. He
-uniformly upheld American industry and labor of every kind against
-the competition of the world. He felt that the highest civilization
-can only be secured through that policy of industrial diversification
-which brings consumer and producer side by side, and he favored giving
-it the widest possible scope. He frequently declared, "I cannot vote
-to discriminate against any particular branch," and he firmly believed
-in protecting everything his country could produce. His vigilance in
-caring for all interests and his grasp of the practical details of
-tariff legislation will appear from one or two brief citations from
-speeches made in 1867 on proposed modifications of the Morrill tariff.
-The duty on pig-metal was then $9 per ton, and it was proposed in the
-new bill to admit scrap-iron on the payment of a duty of $3. On this
-proposition Mr. Chandler said:
-
-  The effect of this tariff will be to admit all the rails in the
-  world into the United States at a duty of $3 a ton. We will
-  become the recipients of all the scrap-iron in the world.... And
-  the effect will be to put out every blast furnace in the United
-  States, and stop the mining in every mountain in the country....
-  The expense of re-rolling bars is only about $30 a ton. You
-  admit scrap-iron at this nominal duty, and the result will be to
-  utterly destroy the revenue you now receive from iron--you will
-  import nothing but at the duty of $3 per ton. This scrap-iron is
-  worth two or three times as much as pig-metal. Pig-metal has to
-  be puddled once. It costs to-day $28 per ton to put pig-metal
-  into scrap, and yet you put a duty of $9 per ton on pig-metal
-  and propose a mere nominal duty of $3 per ton on scrap.... This
-  is absolutely abandoning the whole iron interests of the United
-  States, save and excepting the rolling-mills.... The State of
-  Pennsylvania takes about 300,000 tons of Lake Superior ore to mix
-  with her inferior ore, and transports it by water 700 or 800 miles,
-  and afterward by land carriage--a very expensive carriage--from
-  50 to 300 miles. This ore is mixed with the Pennsylvania ores,
-  and transported then a long distance at very great expense. The
-  demand for pig-iron is for rolling.... Calling material nothing,
-  it costs the manufacturers $60 per ton of scrap-iron to take the
-  ore and the coal from the mine and deliver at the works, every
-  cent of which is labor.... There are in the world 100,000 miles of
-  railroads, of which 36,000 are in the United States, and 64,000 in
-  the rest of the world. These railroads are laid, on an average,
-  with rails weighing 56 pounds to the yard, and use 49,000 tons
-  net to the mile. This gives the 64,000 miles abroad 3,136,000
-  tons of iron. This has to be re-rolled on an average once in ten
-  years; consequently one-tenth of this amount is let loose upon some
-  country every year in the shape of scrap-iron. That would make the
-  amount of railroad scrap alone 313,600 tons per annum, which it is
-  proposed to admit at a duty of $3 a ton, and which it costs to-day
-  $60 a ton to put in the form of scrap in the United States. This
-  is Free Trade in the broadest sense. It is worse than that.... It
-  will build up rolling-mills, but it will break down every forge
-  in the United States.... It will stop our mines in Michigan that
-  yield ores richer than any other in the world.... It will make this
-  country the _entrepôt_ for the scrap-iron of the world.
-
-He would not build up the rolling-mill at the expense of the mine and
-the blast-furnace. He would not build up one industry upon the ruins of
-any other. His many speeches and his more numerous votes in the Senate
-all indicated the same clear purpose to avoid discrimination against
-home interests where possible, and to protect everything American
-against everything of foreign production.
-
-One phase of this many-sided question which made a deep impression upon
-Mr. Chandler remains to be mentioned. In common with all thoughtful
-Americans, during the course of the rebellion he realized the priceless
-value of the large-brained, energetic and highly-skilled American
-mechanic. He had marked these men in every brigade, upon every field of
-the war, enabling commanders to overcome obstacles which without them
-would have been insurmountable. He had seen mills and factories and
-shops pouring into the storehouses of the government the multitudinous
-articles without which a successful prosecution of the war would
-have been impossible, and that, too, with a rapidity which was as
-amazing as it was unexampled. He was from his early manhood a strong
-protectionist. But when he realized what the American working-men had
-done for the country and for freedom, and how its protected trades had
-served the government in its hour of trial, he was still more confirmed
-in the wisdom of the system which fosters American industry and secures
-to the country the priceless heritage of prosperous and intelligent
-laborers and mechanics.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[12] The following letter is written by a gentleman thoroughly familiar
-with the history of tariff legislation at Washington for many years:
-
-                                        WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 5, 1880.
-
-Some eight years ago, when a serious reduction in the copper tariff was
-proposed, I know that Mr. Chandler rendered valuable aid in bringing
-the facts before the Senate in his clear, terse way--going straight
-to the mark. Then, as always in practical matters, his prompt manner,
-his business knowledge, and his immense power of will made him the man
-to be called on, and he ever responded to the call, and had a power
-wonderful indeed to "push things." When the act to reduce internal
-revenue taxes--which had passed the House almost unanimously, and had
-been perfected by the mutual labors of Congressional committees and
-representative business men--was before the Senate for final action in
-March, 1868, an effort was made by Senator Fessenden, of Maine, to add
-to it as a "rider" a clause affecting the copper tariff, which would
-surely have delayed if not defeated the measure. Senator Chandler spoke
-ten minutes, putting concentrated power in his words, and showing the
-great importance of passing the act and the needless mischief that must
-come of saddling it with another question. He succeeded in defeating
-the Fessenden amendment, the act passed without it, and it reduced the
-annual burden of internal revenue taxation some $60,000,000 (all this
-internal).
-
-The Senator's views on tariff legislation were broad and comprehensive,
-recognizing the interdependence of all branches of industry and the
-importance of such action as should bear with equal justice on all:
-knowing no East, nor West, nor South--no petty and narrow jealousy
-between farmer and merchant and manufacturer--but seeking the wise care
-and healthy growth o£ a varied home industry all over the land.
-
-On these subjects he showed practical sagacity and the same moral
-courage and bold vigor that marked his great efforts for freedom and
-justice to all in the last and grandest year, which so nobly closed
-a public career which will live and grow in the minds of future
-generations. Very truly yours,
-
-                                                      GILES B. STEBBINS.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF INTERNAL
-IMPROVEMENTS.
-
-
-Upon the day following that on which Mr. Chandler first took his seat
-in the Senate Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana offered a resolution, from
-a special committee in regard to the formation of committees, amending
-the thirty-fourth rule of the Senate by providing that thereafter the
-standing committees of that body (their members are selected by the
-Senate itself and not by its presiding officer) should be appointed
-at the commencement of each session of Congress. The Committee on
-Commerce then, and from that time until the special session in the
-spring of 1875, consisted of seven members. Mr. Benjamin's resolution
-was adopted, and on March 9th the standing committees for the special
-session were, on motion of Mr. Seward of New York, announced. The
-Committee on Commerce was composed of Messrs. Clay of Alabama,
-chairman, Benjamin of Louisiana, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs of
-Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Bright of Indiana, and Hamlin of
-Maine. Mr. Chandler was assigned to the Committee on the District of
-Columbia, of which Mr. Brown of Mississippi was chairman. Mr. Hamlin
-of Maine was also appointed on this inferior committee, giving it two
-Republican members, while the Committee on Commerce had but one. The
-general assignment of places to the minority was so inadequate and
-unfair that a Republican caucus (the first Mr. Chandler attended)
-had been called to consider the matter. Mr. Chandler, although a new
-member, was one of its speakers and gave strong expression to his
-sense of the injustice with which both his party and the Northwest
-had been treated. It was decided to make a formal protest against the
-constitution of the committees, and, as a result of this consultation,
-when Mr. Seward's motion was made, Mr. Fessenden of Maine, as the
-spokesman of the Republicans, denounced the unfairness of the majority
-with force and vigor. In his remarks he said "that there was not an
-individual member of the Republican party in the Senate who deemed
-that a just and fair division had been made in the appointment of the
-committees, especially two or three of them." He also declared that
-there was not a just and fair division with reference to questions
-coming before the committees, and then gave this illustration: "Take,
-for instance, the Committee on Commerce. On that committee the
-Republican party, numbering twenty out of the sixty-one members of the
-Senate, is assigned, of the whole number of seven, one member.... The
-interests of the whole lake region, the interests of New England and of
-New York, involving, as those large portions of the country do, such
-an infinite superiority of all its commerce, are found with only two
-members out of the seven." Mr. Hamlin here corrected Mr. Fessenden's
-statement, by saying, "My colleague is mistaken.... The interests of
-which he speaks have only _one_ member on that committee, not two." Mr.
-Hamlin was right; there was but one member of the Committee on Commerce
-to represent the immense interests of the country of the Great Lakes of
-the Northwest and of the whole of New England and New York, and that
-single member was himself. But the Republican protest, well-grounded as
-it was, proved then unavailing.
-
-At the first regular session of the Thirty-fifth Congress, beginning
-in December, 1857, Mr. Allen, of Rhode Island, presented under the
-rule a new list of the standing committees of the Senate for adoption.
-That on Commerce was only changed by the substitution of Mr. Allen
-for Mr. Bright of Indiana, increasing its New England but diminishing
-its Western membership. Messrs. Hamlin, Chandler and Wilson again made
-vigorous remonstrances against the unjust formation of the standing
-committees as a whole. This was Mr. Chandler's first speech in the
-Senate, and it was as follows:
-
-  I find in the "Globe" of yesterday the following announcement: "The
-  caucus of all parties in the Senate has agreed to constitute the
-  committees as follows." And then follows a list in detail. This
-  announcement, as I understand it, is incorrect. I believe that no
-  such caucus has been held. I am informed that a Democratic caucus
-  was held, and the committees made up, leaving certain blanks to be
-  submitted to the Republicans for them to fill. They saw fit to fill
-  these blanks, under protest. No such caucus as is announced in the
-  statement which I have read was ever held. No assent has ever been
-  given by the Republicans of this Senate to any such formation of
-  committees as is there announced.
-
-  I rise, sir, to protest against this list of committees as
-  presented here. Never before, in the whole course of my
-  observation, have I seen a large minority virtually ignored in a
-  legislative body upon important committees. This is the first time
-  that I have ever witnessed such a total, or almost total, ignoring
-  of a large and influential minority. But, sir, whom and what does
-  this minority represent? It represents--I believe I am correct in
-  saying--more than half--certainly nearly one-half--of all the free
-  white inhabitants of these United States; it represents two-thirds
-  of all the commerce of the United States; and more than two-thirds
-  of the revenues of the United States; and yet this minority,
-  representing the commerce and revenues of the nation, is expected
-  to be satisfied with one place upon the tail end of a committee of
-  seven on Commerce. I may almost say that that committee is of more
-  importance to the Northwest than all the other committees of this
-  body, but the great Northwest is totally ignored upon a committee
-  in which it takes so deep an interest. Not a solitary member of
-  this body from that portion of the country is honored with a
-  position on that committee, and yet you have been told of the
-  hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of commerce which is there
-  looking for protection to this body.
-
-  Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest
-  against any such formation of committees as is here presented. But
-  we would say to the gentlemen on the other side of the chamber; You
-  have the power to-day; you can elect your committees as you see
-  fit; you can give us one representative on a committee of five, or
-  one on a committee of seven, or none on any of the committees, if
-  you think proper. Exercise that power in your own discretion; but,
-  gentlemen, beware! for the time is not far distant when the measure
-  you mete out to us to-day shall be meted to you again.
-
-Senators Pugh, Bayard, Gwin and Brown, from the Democratic side,
-defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, and his resolution for its
-appointment was adopted by a strict party vote of thirty to nineteen.
-The Republican protests were again unheeded by the Senate, but in less
-than four years Mr. Chandler's prediction, that the situation would be
-reversed, was fulfilled.
-
-Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some work done
-by the United States upon the most serious natural obstacle to the
-navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels and extensive
-shoals at the mouth of the St. Clair river, known as the "St. Clair
-Flats." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts an appropriation of
-$45,000 had been made in the Thirty-fourth Congress (it was passed over
-Franklin Pierce's veto) for this work, and this sum had been expended
-under the supervision of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel
-through the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width,
-and nine feet in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as it
-was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less useful in
-the few following years by a lessening in the depth of the water of
-Lake St. Clair. The rapidly-growing commerce of the lakes manifestly
-demanded the early construction and permanent maintenance through these
-shoals of a first-class ship canal, which could be safely used in all
-conditions of water and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr.
-Chandler clearly perceived the necessity for this important national
-work, determined to rest not until its completion, and commenced
-at once his attack on the great obstacles in its way--namely, the
-disposition of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance
-of the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to
-all internal improvements. The first measure, which (on January 14,
-1858) Mr. Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce, was a
-bill "making an additional appropriation for deepening the channel of
-the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it was referred to the Committee
-on Commerce. There an effort was made to strangle it by persistent
-inaction. Accordingly, on April 24, Mr. Chandler introduced in the
-Senate a resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to report
-back this bill for action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving
-immediate consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote.
-Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much temper,
-and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was lost by one vote.
-Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolution as insulting to the
-Committee on Commerce, and said he spurned the idea that the committee
-could be instructed to report in favor of a certain appropriation for
-a certain work, and that he should despise himself if he was capable
-of obeying such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member,
-expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from Michigan
-(Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought that it was
-appropriate, and that the action of the committee called for such
-instructions. Mr. Clay having inquired, "What is the use of having a
-Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the Senate is to take these matters
-into its own hands?" Mr. Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate,
-if the Committee on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer
-corps, are to control these matters?" and insisted that the Committee
-on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its control, and that
-if it differed from the Senate in regard to any proposition before
-it, that body had the right to instruct the committee what action
-to take. He added that because the committee had agreed to make no
-appropriation excepting for certain specific matters, it did not follow
-that the Senate must adopt its views, and be controlled thereby;
-that the servant had no right nor authority to bind the master, and
-that the committee was the servant of the Senate. Mr. Clay finally
-yielded the point that the Senate had the right to order a committee
-to report back the bill, but still objected to the proposition to
-have it instructed to specify a certain amount to be appropriated, and
-Mr. Chandler consented to modify his resolution so as to instruct the
-committee to report back the bill for the action of the Senate without
-recommendation as to the amount of the appropriation. Mr. Benjamin,
-at this point, moved, as a substitute for the pending resolution, a
-general order to the committee to report on all public works upon
-which there had been any expenditure, and this motion prevailed. Mr.
-Chandler, who was after a specific point and not a mere generality,
-accepted this as a defeat, and began anew by giving notice on the spot
-that he should ask leave at a subsequent day to introduce a bill for
-the improvement of the St. Clair Flats, making an appropriation of
-$55,000, this being the amount estimated by the United States engineers
-as necessary at that time. On May 10 he presented this bill, but the
-Senate refused to refer it, and adopted a motion to lay it upon the
-table. Mr. Chandler met this second defeat without discouragement,
-and later in the session did succeed after two efforts in procuring
-the addition of this item of $55,000 to the civil appropriation bill.
-But the threat of an executive veto of the whole measure, if this
-appropriation was not omitted, proved potent with the Senate, and it
-was ultimately stricken out. Mr. Chandler closed his last speech on
-this measure at that session, with a demand for a vote by yeas and
-nays, and these words:
-
-  I want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest, and who is
-  not--for we are about making our last prayer here. The time is
-  not far distant when, instead of coming here and begging for our
-  rights, we shall extend our hands and _take_ the blessing. After
-  1860 we shall not be here as beggars.
-
-Of this resolute struggle of his first Congressional session, Mr.
-Chandler said in an address at St. Johns, in Michigan, on Oct. 17, 1858:
-
-  When I took my seat in the Senate I supposed every section of
-  the country would be fairly heard in the details of business.
-  There were twenty Republican Senators representing two-thirds
-  the revenue, business and wealth of the country. How were they
-  placed on committees? Out of seven in the Committee on Commerce
-  they had one. I call attention to this fact. It bears the mark
-  of design. How does this work?... I introduced at an early day a
-  bill appropriating money for the St. Clair Flats, and it went to
-  this Southern Committee on Commerce. I procured all the necessary
-  maps and plans and estimates, and gave them into their charge.
-  One hundred days rolled away and they had not deigned to examine
-  them. I then introduced a resolution instructing them to report.
-  Subsequently I introduced a bill myself which was laid on the
-  table. By the most untiring efforts I succeeded in getting the
-  desired appropriation tacked upon an appropriation bill and passed.
-  But the President's friends threatened a veto of the whole bill
-  unless this was stricken out--and that was done. Thus committees
-  were packed against us and we were thwarted at every turn.
-  Thousands of dollars can be obtained for almost any creek in the
-  South, while the inland seas of the North are denied a dollar, and
-  we are left to take care of ourselves the best we can.
-
-The second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress began in December,
-1858, and on the 21st of that month Mr. Chandler moved to take his St.
-Clair Flats bill from the table. This time it was passed by a vote
-of 29 to 22, and sent to the House where it encountered a vigorous
-opposition but was finally passed, its introducer working for it
-with the utmost energy in the committee-rooms, on the floor, and by
-private solicitation. It reached Mr. Buchanan in the last days of that
-Congress, and he killed it by withholding his signature but without
-a formal veto. The Thirty-sixth Congress met in December, 1859, and
-on the 4th of January Mr. Chandler's bill to deepen the St. Clair
-Flats channel made its appearance. On February 2 Mr. Buchanan informed
-Congress, in a special message, of his reasons for "pocketing" the
-measure at the last session. This veto took the position that the
-improvement of harbors and the deepening of the channels of rivers
-should be done by the respective States, and suggested that Michigan
-in conjunction with Upper Canada should provide the necessary means to
-carry out the contemplated improvements in the channels of commerce
-between those two countries, whereas the plain fact was that the
-interest of that State in such works was a mere tithe of that of
-the whole Northwest. Mr. Chandler reviewed this message at length
-in the Senate on February 6, exposing Mr. Buchanan's misstatements
-in detail, and denouncing the Democratic construction of the
-constitution. Jefferson Davis at once came to the defense of the veto
-on constitutional grounds, and a running debate followed on the subject
-between Messrs. Chandler and Bingham of Michigan, Hamlin, Crittenden,
-Davis, Toombs, Wigfall and others. Mr. Crittenden condemned the veto,
-while Toombs and Wigfall joined Davis in its defense. Thus the plotters
-of rebellion assumed a hypocritical attitude as defenders of the
-constitution. Their treasonable daggers were yet concealed beneath
-their Senatorial togas, as they stood in their high places and assumed
-a virtue that they never had, that of being patriots with a deep regard
-for the fundamental law of the land. No action followed this debate,
-but on February 20 Mr. Chandler moved that his bill be made the special
-order for the 23d. This motion prevailed, but when that day arrived
-the Senate refused to proceed with its consideration, Mr. Chandler
-protesting against this delay in a speech pointing out the necessity
-for prompt action. On March 13 he moved to take the bill from the table
-but the Senate refused. Six days later he renewed the motion with the
-same result. Eleven days after that he did succeed in getting the
-measure made the special order for April 10, but again other business
-displaced it, and so no action was taken before adjournment. The second
-session of this Congress commenced in December, 1861, with civil war
-imminent and no chance for the consideration of any project of internal
-improvement. At the meeting of the next Congress the Democracy found
-itself in a petty minority, and remained powerless at Washington for
-many years. As soon as it became plain that rebellion could not destroy
-the life of the nation, Mr. Chandler brought forward again his bill for
-the improvement of the channels at the head of Lake St. Clair, and with
-the powerful support of his colleagues and the commercial interests of
-the Northwest obtained without difficulty from Republican Congresses
-such appropriations as were required for the prompt construction of a
-great ship-canal, ranking to-day among the most important and useful
-of the public works of this continent. Its history and statistics are
-given in this extract from an official report for the year ending June
-30, 1879:
-
-  This canal (according to its present plan) was projected by Col.
-  T. J. Cram, of the Corps of Engineers, in August, 1866, as the
-  best method of improving navigation at the mouth of the St. Clair
-  river. He proposed opening the lower tortuous reach of the south
-  channel, and making a direct cut from its mouth proper to deep
-  water in Lake St. Clair. His project was approved, and construction
-  began on the 20th of August, 1867, under contract with Mr. John
-  Brown of Thorold, Canada. The original plan was a straight canal
-  300 feet wide in the clear, and 13 feet deep at low stage of water,
-  protected by dykes 5 feet in height and 58 feet wide on top, built
-  of the material dredged from the channel and thrown behind a pile
-  and timber revetment. The canal was completed in the autumn of
-  1871, and turned over to the charge of Maj. O. M. Poe, Corps of
-  Engineers, on the 11th of December. As completed, the banks are
-  7,221 feet in length, and constructed mostly of dredged sand thrown
-  behind a revetment consisting of piling in two rows driven 13 feet
-  apart and parallel, and capped with a timber superstructure 5
-  feet high, the front row being supplemented with a single row of
-  sheath-piling to prevent the sand bank from washing back into the
-  canal. As originally planned, the reverse faces of the embankment
-  were to be permitted to take their natural slope, but as it was
-  found that the banks if left so would be gradually washed away,
-  they were secured eventually by a pile and plank revetment. The
-  timbers in the superstructure were carbolized to prevent rotting,
-  but the process proved a disastrous failure, owing to its imperfect
-  application, and the timbers thus treated are as a general rule
-  at this date a mere shell with a core of dry rot. The banks were
-  planted with willows and sodded in some places. The history of
-  the work since Major Poe took charge, excepting as regards the
-  deepening of the channel for 200 feet of its width to a depth of 16
-  feet, as projected by that officer, has been a monotonous routine
-  of stopping leaks on the canal face, due to the imperfection of the
-  single row of sheath-piling, which permits the sand to be sucked
-  through by passing vessels, and propeller-wheels working near the
-  revetment. These leaks have been stopped from time to time at
-  various points by various devices, such as marsh sod, etc.... The
-  deepening of the canal was begun under Major Poe's direction by
-  contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada, in June, 1873, and
-  finished September 23, 1878, under the direction of Major Weitzel,
-  who had in the meanwhile relieved Major Poe.
-
-[Illustration: THE SHIP-CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS.]
-
-  Up to the time when the canal was turned over as completed to Major
-  Poe, it cost in construction and repair $472,837.84. There was
-  subsequently expended by Majors Poe and Weitzel $101,533.63, partly
-  in repairs, but mainly in deepening the canal; and afterward,
-  up to the close of the present fiscal year, $19,162.78 were
-  expended in repairs and protection. It will thus be seen that the
-  canal has thus far cost $586,111.56 in construction, improvement
-  and repair.... Colonel Cram's original estimate of the cost of
-  this work was $428,754. The whole amount appropriated has been
-  $590,000. The annual cost of maintenance is $5,000. There are two
-  light-houses on the banks.
-
-The value of the commerce which annually passes between the willow-clad
-piers of the canal is estimated by hundreds of millions, and in every
-season its cost has been more than made good by the disasters and
-delays it has averted. Mr. Chandler regarded his efforts to secure its
-construction as the hardest fight of his Congressional service, and
-there is nothing in his public life more thoroughly characteristic
-of the man than the skill, energy, and persistence with which he
-championed this measure in the face of the strongest obstacles, and
-in spite of repeated defeats, session after session and Congress
-after Congress, until entire success crowned his labors. Many others
-co-operated with him and aided in securing the ultimate victory; but
-circumstances and his indomitable will placed him at the front in the
-decisive struggle, and this great public work is an enduring monument
-of the value of his services to the vast commercial interests of the
-Northwest.
-
-At the second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress the earnest protests
-of the year before bore fruit, and the Committee on Commerce then
-appointed was composed of Senators Clay of Alabama, chairman, Bigler
-of Pennsylvania, Toombs of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Allen
-of Rhode Island, Hamlin of Maine, and Chandler of Michigan. This
-commenced Mr. Chandler's connection with that committee; he remained a
-member of it throughout all his Senatorial terms, and was its chairman
-and inspiring spirit during the years of its greatest activity and
-usefulness. It is one of the most important standing committees of the
-Senate of the United States, and during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship
-its labors were gradually increased, partly through the growing
-business and commerce of the country, and partly by having new topics
-assigned for its consideration and action, because of the prompt
-attention and rigid scrutiny given to all matters coming under the
-supervision of Mr. Chandler as its head. To this committee are referred
-under the rules nominations of collectors of customs, appraisers
-of merchandise, surveyors of customs, of officers appointed to or
-promoted in the revenue marine service, of the chief officers in the
-life-saving service, and of all incumbents of consular positions. It
-also considers bills fixing the compensation of such officers; bills
-relating to marine hospitals and the customs, consular and life-saving
-services; bills concerning the interests of the commercial marine of
-the country, including the registry, enrollment and license of vessels,
-their inspection and measurement, tonnage-tax, entrance and clearance
-fees, names and official numbers, the lights to be carried, the
-steam pressure allowed, the providing of small boats and life-saving
-apparatus on passenger steamers, and restrictions upon the number of
-passengers or kind of freight; and bills granting medals for heroic
-service in saving life in case of shipwreck or similar disaster. To it
-are referred all measures for the improvement of rivers and harbors
-in the interests of commerce; for the construction of breakwaters,
-harbors of refuge, ship-canals, and locks for slack-water navigation;
-for the building of bridges across navigable rivers, or other waters of
-the United States; for the establishment of ports of entry and ports
-of delivery; for the establishment of customs collection districts
-or changing the boundaries thereof; granting American registers to
-foreign vessels (usually passed where a wreck of a foreign vessel has
-been purchased and rebuilt by an American citizen); and relating to
-the duties and districts of supervising and subordinate inspectors
-of steam craft. There is hardly any conceivable question relating to
-vessels of the United States that Congress has not power to act upon,
-and such matters, unless pertaining to the naval service, are always
-referred to the respective committees on commerce of the Senate and
-House, Congress as a rule following their recommendations where no
-political question is involved. In addition to an immense mass of
-measures coming under the classes enumerated, the Senate Committee on
-Commerce, during Mr. Chandler's connection with it, considered and
-reported bills to admit ship-building material free of duty, to prevent
-the extermination of the fur-bearing seals of Alaska, authorizing the
-appointment of shipping commissioners, and defining a gross of matches.
-All these facts are recited to show the great variety of questions that
-are referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce--greater than are sent
-to any other Congressional committee.
-
-No particular changes took place in the _personnel_ of this committee
-as already given until in the last year of Buchanan's administration.
-At the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress it consisted of
-C. C. Clay, chairman, Bigler, Toombs, Clingman, Saulsbury, Hamlin,
-and Chandler. Senator Hamlin having been elected Vice-President,
-resigned (in January, 1861) his Senatorship, and Mr. Baker of Oregon
-was appointed to fill the vacancy thus caused on this committee. In the
-middle of January Mr. Clay resigned to join the rebellion, and A. 0. P.
-Nicholson of Tennessee was made a member of the committee in his place.
-On the 24th of January, 1861, by the unanimous consent of the Senate,
-the Vice-President filled all the vacancies on the standing committees
-caused by the retiring of the Southern Senators, and the Committee
-on Commerce then, as re-constituted, consisted of Senators Bigler,
-chairman, Clingman, Saulsbury, Chandler, Baker, and Nicholson.
-
-At the special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress (in March,
-1861) the Senate committees were radically reorganized, and the
-new Committee on Commerce, the first appointed by the Republican
-party, consisted of Zachariah Chandler, chairman, Preston King, Lot
-M. Morrill, Henry Wilson, Thomas L. Clingman, Willard Saulsbury, and
-Andrew Johnson. Mr. Chandler continued in the chairmanship until he
-ceased to be a member of the Senate in 1875. Mr. Clingman soon joined
-the rebels, and his place on the committee was filled by Mr. Ten
-Eyck of New Jersey. From session to session changes were made in its
-membership, and among the names on its rolls during the fourteen years
-that Mr. Chandler sat at the head of its table were Edwin D. Morgan,
-James H. Lane, Solomon Foot, Timothy O. Howe, James W. Nesmith, Justin
-S. Morrill, John A. J. Creswell, George F. Edmunds, James R. Doolittle,
-William P. Kellogg, George E. Spencer, Roscoe Conkling, William A.
-Buckingham, J. R. West, John H. Mitchell, John B. Gordon, George R.
-Dennis, and George S. Boutwell. Mr. Chandler was succeeded in the
-chairmanship when he left the Senate by Roscoe Conkling of New York;
-soon after he was re-elected in 1879 the Democrats regained control,
-and the Committee on Commerce of the Forty-sixth Senate was organized
-by them. Mr. Chandler was made a member of it, and at the time of his
-death it consisted of Senator Gordon of Georgia, chairman, Ransom of
-North Carolina, Randolph of New Jersey, Hereford of West Virginia, Coke
-of Texas, Conkling of New York, McMillan of Minnesota, Jones of Nevada,
-and Chandler of Michigan.
-
-Mr. Chandler's business principles were carried out in his committee
-work as thoroughly as they had been in his mercantile career. He
-believed that what was worth doing at all was worth doing well. It was
-the custom of the Senate Committee on Commerce to assemble formally
-once a week, for the consideration of such petitions and bills as had
-been referred to it for action. Whenever the appointed hour for meeting
-arrived Mr. Chandler was always in his seat, while its other members
-but rarely displayed anything like his promptitude. It annoyed the
-chairman to have any one late, and it was his custom to proceed with
-business as soon as a quorum was present, or if no quorum appeared
-within fifteen or twenty minutes, to assume that there was one and
-commence work; no protests against this course were ever made by
-the tardy or absent members. The location of the room of the Senate
-Committee on Commerce during Mr. Chandler's whole term of Senatorial
-service was in the northwest corner of the capitol, on the floor
-leading to the galleries. Its windows look down upon the city of
-Washington, with the broad, historic Potomac and the forest-crowned
-Virginia hills the distance, and the sunset view from them--including
-the blue glimmering river, the golden gossamer clouds, the green
-foliage upon the brow of the hills in the extreme horizon--could never
-be excelled in an artist's most vivid conception.
-
-The first bill reported by Mr. Chandler as chairman of the Committee on
-Commerce was one to provide for the collection of duties on imports and
-for other purposes. He brought it in five days after the appointment
-of the committee at the first session of the Thirty-seventh Congress,
-and asked that it should be put upon its passage at once. A single
-objection carried it over under the rules until the next day, when it
-was passed by a vote of 36 to 6. The scope of the bill was extensive.
-It provided for confiscating to the United States all vessels belonging
-to rebels, for closing ports of entry in rebellious States, and for
-the employment of additional revenue cutters. It also authorized the
-President under certain circumstances to declare by proclamation
-States, sections, or parts of States, in insurrection against the
-United States, and prohibited all commercial intercourse between such
-insurrectionary States, or parts of States, and the rest of the Union
-so long as the insurrection should continue. It was thus among the
-earliest and most important of the war measures.
-
-It is not necessary to occupy space with the details[13] of the
-enormous mass of business transacted by the Senate Committee on
-Commerce during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship. It was in those years
-that the sentiment of every section, in favor of extending the
-fostering care of the government to the aid of internal commerce,
-was consolidated and organized until it bore down all opposition and
-completely reversed the general policy and practice of the United
-States. How important and complete this revolution was will appear
-from the table of the appropriations for river, harbor and kindred
-improvements made at successive Congressional sessions since the
-foundation of the republic.
-
-Mr. Chandler was the firm friend of an intelligently-planned and
-general system of internal improvements. His labors, and those of men
-like him, have borne fruit in manifold aids to commerce scattered over
-river, lake and ocean--light-houses, breakwaters, harbors of refuge,
-straightened and deepened channels, ship-canals and improved natural
-highways. He was prompt to recognize the claims of all sections, but
-was especially vigilant in regard to the necessities of the Northwest,
-and his memory will long be cherished throughout the region of the
-Great Lakes as that of the most ardent and efficient champion of its
-commercial development.
-
-
-  TABLE GIVING THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MONEY APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS
-      FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS AND HARBORS AND THE CONSTRUCTION
-      OF SHIP-CANALS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE GOVERNMENT:
-
-  ==============================================================
-                     YEARS.        AMOUNT.
-  Monroe.          { 1822[14]      $34,200
-                   { 1823            6,150
-                   { 1824          145,000
-  J. Q. Adams.   {   1825           40,600
-                 {   1826           88,900
-                 {   1827          160,200
-                 {   1828          565,300
-  Jackson.         { 1829          254,200
-                   { 1830          377,600
-                   { 1831          637,000
-                   { 1832          693,500
-                   { 1833          546,300
-                   { 1834          791,200
-                   { 1835          505,200
-                   { 1836        1,198,200
-  Van Buren.     {   1837        1,681,700
-                 {   1838        1,467,200
-                 {   1839           18,000
-                 {   1840          .......
-  Tyler.           { 1841           17,500
-                   { 1842          .......
-                   { 1843          233,000
-                   { 1844          701,500
-  Polk.          {   1845            7,000
-                 {   1846          .......
-                 {   1847           14,220
-                 {   1848          .......
-  Taylor-Fillmore. { 1849           20,000
-                   { 1850          .......
-                   { 1851          .......
-                   { 1852        2,099,300
-  Pierce.        {   1853              900
-                 {   1854          140,000
-                 {   1855          .......
-                 {   1856[15]       775,000
-  Buchanan.        { 1857          .......
-                   { 1858          .......
-                   { 1859          .......
-                   { 1860          .......
-  Lincoln.       {   1861          ....... } Term of Z. Chandler
-                 {   1862          ....... } as Chairman of the
-                 {   1863          ....... } Senate Committee on
-                 {   1864          537,500 } Commerce.
-  Johnson.         { 1865           23,000 }
-                   { 1866        3,579,700 }
-                   { 1867        4,816,800 }
-                   { 1868        1,601,500 }
-  Grant.         {   1869        2,200,000 }
-                 {   1870        4,173,900 }
-                 {   1871        5,047,000 }
-                 {   1872        5,603,000 }
-                 {   1873        6,102,900 }
-                 {   1874        5,282,500 }
-                 {   1875        6,643,500 }
-                 {   1876        5,213,000
-  Hayes.           { 1877          .......
-                   { 1878        8,337,000
-                   { 1879        7,912,600
-                                ----------
-                     TOTAL,    $80,292,270
-  --------------------------------------------------------------
-
-NOTES.
-
-  This table only includes $750,000 of the $5,250,000 appropriated to
-  pay Capt. James B. Eads for the jetty improvements at the mouth of
-  the Mississippi.
-
-  The total of these appropriations during the years of Mr.
-  Chandler's term as chairman was $45,610,800, or more than one-half
-  of the entire amount.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[13] Mr. Chandler entered the Senate when Congress was under the
-control of Democratic majorities. He was in the minority, but he never
-feared to assert his views, and denounce measures of doubtful advantage
-to the best interests of the country. The policy of the dominant party
-had been uniformly adverse to internal improvements--especially to
-making appropriations for harbor and river improvements. Soon after
-taking his seat, Mr. Chandler brought this important subject before
-the Senate, and insisted upon the necessity of fostering and aiding
-internal commerce. He introduced several measures, with this object in
-view.... These improvements were not then considered; but his vigorous
-speeches and persistent efforts subsequently compelled their partial
-recognition, and Mr. Chandler was placed on the Committee of Commerce,
-of which he was made chairman when the Republican party came into
-power, and so continued to the end of his Senatorial labors. It is
-not too much to say, for it is only the truth, that to Mr. Chandler's
-untiring zeal in this capacity, the country is indebted for many of
-those magnificent harbor and river improvements, which have been made
-since the Republican party came into power. Says a recent writer--an
-excellent authority, "The evidences of their utility are seen on every
-hand, scattered along our seaboard, along our extended lake coast,
-and upon all our rivers. The beneficent effects of these improvements
-are demonstrated by our vastly-increased and increasing commerce, its
-greater safety, the economy with which the work is performed, the
-extraordinary development of our agricultural and mineral resources
-and the increased compensation of productive labor." Reference is
-thus made to Mr. Chandler's efforts in behalf of those great internal
-improvements in aid of the commerce and internal development of the
-country, in order to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for the position
-which he has just been commissioned to fill.--_Editorial of the
-Washington Chronicle of Oct. 20, 1875, announcing the appointment of
-Zachariah Chandler as Secretary of the Interior._
-
-[14] There were no appropriations for these purposes prior to 1822.
-
-[15] This sum was contained in bills which were passed over the
-President's veto and included the first appropriation for the St. Clair
-Flats.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-THE OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION--NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
-
-
-The news of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the
-United States--through strictly constitutional methods, by a large
-majority of the electoral vote and by a plurality of over half a
-million in the popular vote--was received with cheering and expressions
-of joy in many of the Southern cities. The men who exulted there were
-those who believed that with this pretext sectional passion could
-be kindled into instant rebellion, and they at once set about the
-work of consummating disunion before the close of the term of the
-traitorous and imbecile administration of James Buchanan. On Nov. 12,
-1860, South Carolina ordered the election of a convention to take
-the formal step of secession, and the other cotton States promptly
-followed its example. Congress met on the 3d of December, and listened
-to a message from President Buchanan, in which he said: "After much
-serious reflection I have arrived at the conclusion that no power to
-coerce into submission a State which is attempting to withdraw, or
-has actually withdrawn, from the confederacy, has been delegated to
-Congress or to any other department of the Federal government. It is
-manifest upon an inspection of the constitution that this is not among
-the specific and enumerated powers granted to Congress; and it is
-equally apparent that its exercise is not 'necessary and proper for
-carrying into execution' any one of these powers." On December 20 South
-Carolina adopted its ordinance of secession. Mississippi did likewise
-on Jan. 9, 1861, Florida on January 10, Alabama on January 11, Georgia
-on January 18, Louisiana on January 26, and Texas on February 1. On
-Feb. 4, 1861, a convention of delegates from the seceding States met in
-the city of Montgomery and proceeded to form and organize the "Southern
-Confederacy." These events were attended by popular demonstrations
-throughout the South, in which the Union was denounced with unstinted
-bitterness and its power defied with the utmost audacity, and by the
-active drilling of the local militia and the organization of large
-bodies of armed men. More than all this, the officers of the United
-States in that section abandoned their positions, and sub-treasuries,
-post-offices, large sums of money, arsenals, arms, ammunition,
-fortifications, and vessels of the United States were seized in all the
-leading cities of the South, and used to prepare for war upon the power
-from which they had been stolen. The value of the government property
-thus confiscated by the rebels before the nation fired a shot was not
-less than $30,000,000. On Jan. 5, 1861, the United States steamer Star
-of the West was fired upon in the harbor of Charleston and driven
-out to sea, and within that month a bloodless siege of Fort McRae at
-Pensacola compelled its surrender to rebel forces by a United States
-garrison. Amid these events the traitors in Buchanan's Cabinet boldly
-resigned their portfolios, and Southern Congressmen with insolent words
-left their seats at the capitol "to join their States." The President
-himself was fitly described by Henry Winter Davis as "standing
-paralyzed and stupefied amid the crash of the falling republic, still
-muttering, 'Not in my time; not in my time; after me the deluge.'"
-
-There were three ways of meeting these overt acts of high treason,
-namely: (1.) Submitting, either by sympathy and connivance, by frank
-surrender, or by an equally effective supineness. (2.) Meekly offering
-to rampant rebellion the bribe of fresh concessions to slavery. (3.)
-Treating armed secession as treason and its promoters as traitors,
-and dealing with it and them as such. The first method did not lack
-for supporters outside of the South. Thousands of Northern Democrats
-justified secession and promised the cotton States support. Their
-papers predicted that in case of war "it would be fought in the
-North,"[A] that "no Democrat would be found to raise an arm against his
-brethren of the South,"[16] and that "if troops should be raised in
-the North to march against the people of the South, a fire in the rear
-would be opened upon such troops which would either stop their march
-altogether or wonderfully accelerate it."[17] The Mayor of the great
-city of New York suggested in his annual message that that metropolis
-might well consider if the time did not seem to be at hand when it
-could profitably throw off allegiance to the United States and erect
-itself into "a free city." In public meetings and in party conventions
-like utterances were heard and applauded, all justifying the
-declaration of Lawrence M. Keitt in the city of Charleston that "there
-are a million of Democrats in the North who, when the Black Republicans
-attempt to march upon the South, will be found a wall of fire in their
-front." These sympathizers with rebellion were reinforced by the
-holders of anti-coercion theories, by commercial timidity, and--most
-unexpectedly--by some Republican sentiment in favor of permitting
-peaceful separation rather than facing civil war. This sentiment was
-fortunately short-lived and not cowardly in its origin, but it found an
-advocate in, and was given public expression by, the most influential
-Republican journalist of that period, Horace Greeley, and it did much
-to encourage rebel arrogance and to distract the national councils.
-But that was the most numerous class which comprised the men who
-proposed to meet actual civil war with servile tenders to traitors in
-arms of new guarantees for slavery and with humble petitions for their
-acceptance. With the meeting of Congress in December, 1860, these
-gentlemen became the conspicuous figures at Washington, and for three
-months labored industriously upon compromise schemes, every one of
-which was, in its essence, a proposition that Freedom should do homage
-to Slavery, and that the verdict of the people at the polls should
-be shamefully reversed to placate men who had deliberately plotted
-treason, and who again and again rejected with frank contempt offers
-of "conciliation." There were some who co-operated in these movements
-for the sake of gaining time and keeping the border States out of
-rebellion until Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, but the great source
-of the compromise clamor of that winter was either some feeling of
-friendliness to the slave power or moral flaccidity.
-
-It need not be said that Mr. Chandler was not found in either of these
-classes. For three years he had regarded this crisis as imminent. He
-did not believe that the South would now abandon its cherished dream
-of independent empire for any compromise. He did not propose to shrink
-back one inch before armed rebellion or to surrender one iota of
-principle to traitorous threats. He went to Washington determined to
-maintain the supremacy of the government at every cost, to listen to no
-plans of concession, to offer to disunionists only the alternative of
-obedience to the constitution or the penalties of treason, and to labor
-incessantly to stir into indignant action the slumbering sentiment of
-nationality in the hearts of the Northern people. It is in such hours
-that men of his indomitable stamp step to the front, and he became at
-once a pioneer leader of that uncompromising and tireless spirit which
-was the citadel of the Union cause. He spoke but rarely on political
-questions during the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, but was
-active in all the Republican consultations of that eventful period. In
-them he steadfastly opposed any policy that savored of bending to or
-temporizing with rebellion, and in the face of not a little Republican
-demoralization urged that the crisis should be met with the spirit
-of Jackson and of Cromwell. Speaking of this session he afterward
-said: "If I could have had my way, when treason was proclaimed on the
-floor of the Senate the traitor would never have gone free from the
-capitol." With the Southern leaders he was frank in his denunciations
-of their course and plans. In a chance conversation at this time with
-the craftiest of their number, Slidell of Louisiana, he asked how the
-pending struggle would end, and Slidell replied, "Oh, we will all go
-out, and the Union will be broken up."
-
-"And what are you going to do with the mouth of the Mississippi?" said
-Mr. Chandler.
-
-"We will, of course, have to seize and hold that," was the answer, "but
-we will not tax your commerce."
-
-To this, Mr. Chandler's indignant response was, "We own that river, Mr.
-Slidell; we bought and paid for it; and, by the Eternal, we are going
-to keep it. It was a desert when we bought it, and we will make it a
-desert again before we will let you steal it from us."
-
-Mr. Chandler labored assiduously to thwart the plots of the rebel
-leaders, and to make such preparation as was possible for the coming
-strife. It was at this time that he formed that close intimacy with
-Edwin M. Stanton, which continued until the death of "the Carnot of the
-United States." Mr. Stanton, as the Attorney-General of the Buchanan
-Cabinet in its closing months, rendered service of the largest value
-to the nation by urging vigorous measures on his imbecile chief, by
-boldly confronting the traitors who were among his colleagues, and
-by secretly and promptly informing the Republican leaders of each
-new development of the disunion conspiracy as revealed in Cabinet
-consultations. His information and counsels furnished sure guidance at
-a time of the greatest peril, and this it was that led to the early
-appointment by Mr. Lincoln to the Secretaryship of War of a man whom
-the public then chiefly knew as a minor Cabinet officer in a detested
-administration. Mr. Chandler always rated Mr. Stanton's services to the
-Union cause in the early months of 1861 as second only in value to his
-herculean labors in the War Department; placed the highest estimate
-upon his ability, vigor, and patriotism; aided greatly in securing
-his appointment and confirmation as one of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet;
-remained his firm friend and counselor, and was largely instrumental
-in obtaining from President Grant the nomination to the justiceship of
-the Supreme Court which so shortly preceded his death. It was also at
-this time that Mr. Chandler began to distrust the political fidelity of
-Mr. Seward, whose spoken suggestions of compromise and whose persistent
-negotiations with rebel emissaries, however diplomatic in origin and
-intent, were fruitful sources of Southern hope and Northern weakness.
-Time increased rather than diminished this dislike, and Mr. Chandler
-was always an impatient critic of Mr. Seward's influence upon the
-Lincoln administration, and saw in the course of the Secretary of State
-of Andrew Johnson's Cabinet only the fulfillment of his own suspicions
-and predictions.
-
-The secret history of these exciting days, teeming with incident and
-concealing many startling revelations, has yet been but sparingly
-written; it is doubtful if the veil will ever be more than slightly
-lifted. Mr. Chandler himself guarded scrupulously from public knowledge
-much that was well known to him and a few associates and would have
-shed light on the hidden springs of actions of vast moment. This class
-of information he treated as state secrets, whose perishing with
-the actors in the great drama was desirable for public reasons. A
-well-known Washington journalist, who dined one day with Mr. Chandler
-and Mr. Wade, and listened with interest to their reminiscences of "war
-times," suggested to these gentlemen that their recollections should be
-recorded while they were still fresh for the benefit of history, and
-did succeed at first in obtaining their consent to an arrangement by
-which the two "war Senators" were to devote one evening in each week
-to the relation of the inside history of the period between the fall
-of 1860 and the end of Johnson's administration. These narratives were
-to be taken down by a stenographer, whose notes were to be written
-out, carefully compiled, and subjected to the revision of Messrs.
-Chandler and Wade. The manuscript was then to be sealed and placed in
-such keeping as should make it certain that it would not be published
-until the lapse of many years. On the following Saturday night the
-literary gentleman was promptly at Mr. Chandler's residence with the
-stenographer. Mr. Wade shortly afterward came in, and at once said:
-"I have been thinking this matter over, Chandler, and you must allow
-me to decline. There is no use in telling what we know unless we tell
-_the whole truth_, and if I tell the whole truth I shall blast too
-many reputations. These things would be interesting and valuable if
-they were preserved in a book, but they would not be as valuable as
-the reputations that would be destroyed. The days we were going to
-talk about were exciting days, when good men made mistakes, and their
-mistakes ought to be forgotten." Mr. Chandler promptly assented, and
-the reminiscences were never written.
-
-In the Senate at this time Mr. Chandler's course was bold and
-straightforward. On Feb. 19, 1861, he denounced on its floor "traitors
-in the Cabinet and imbeciles in the Presidential chair." He steadfastly
-opposed the Crittenden Compromise, well described by Charles Sumner
-as "the great surrender to slavery," and the circumstances of his
-opposition to "the Peace Congress" attracted national attention then
-and afterward. The Legislature of Virginia in January, 1861, adopted
-resolutions inviting a conference of delegates from the various States
-to meet at Washington on February 4, and consider how the pending
-"unhappy controversy" could be adjusted by (of course) some plan giving
-"to the people of the slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the
-security of their rights." Twenty-two States answered this invitation,
-and their representatives, presided over by John Tyler, deliberated in
-Washington for nineteen days, and in the end recommended to Congress a
-so-called "compromise measure," which was thus justly characterized at
-the time: "Forbearing all details, it will be enough to say that they
-undertook to give to slavery positive protection in the constitution,
-with new sanction and immunity--making it, notwithstanding the
-determination of the fathers, national instead of sectional; and, even
-more than this, making it one of the essential and permanent parts of
-our republican system." Its origin and its avowed object made this body
-distrusted from the outset by the sincere anti-slavery men, who did
-not believe that it could accomplish anything except to still farther
-debauch the public mind of the North. The result proved that it was
-called in the interest of slavery, and was designed to strengthen
-that system. Mr. Chandler from the outset opposed all Republican
-participation in this Congress, and, through the urgent recommendations
-of its Senators, Michigan was one of the five Northern States which did
-not send delegates. But after the Congress had met and was at work, it
-was thought that the friends of freedom on its floor might be able to
-accomplish something if they were increased in numbers, and accordingly
-application was made to Mr. Chandler and Mr. Bingham to procure the
-appointment by their State of delegates who could take their seats
-before final action was reached. Under such circumstances those
-gentlemen telegraphed to Lansing a request for the appointment of a
-delegation, and followed the message up with letters of the same tenor,
-which, although in the nature of private communications to Governor
-Blair, were shown at Lansing, and soon appeared in the newspapers; they
-were as follows:
-
-                                              WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 1861.
-
-  MY DEAR GOVERNOR: Governor Bingham and myself telegraphed you on
-  Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to send
-  delegates to the Peace or Compromise Congress. They admit that we
-  were right and that they were wrong; that no Republican States
-  should have sent delegates but they are here, and cannot get away.
-  Ohio, Indiana and Rhode Island are caving in, and there is danger
-  of Illinois; and now they beg of us for God's sake to come to their
-  rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I hope you will
-  send _stiff-backed_ men or none. The whole thing was gotten up
-  against my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still I
-  hope as a matter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that
-  you will send the delegates. Truly your friend,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-  _His Excellency Austin Blair._
-
-  P. S. Some of the manufacturing States think a fight would be
-  awful. Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, in my
-  estimation, be worth a rush.
-
-                                              WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 1861.
-
-  DEAR SIR: When Virginia proposed a convention in Washington, in
-  reference to the disturbed condition of the country, I regarded
-  it as another effort to debauch the public mind and a step toward
-  obtaining that concession which the imperious slave power so
-  insolently demands. I have no doubt, at present, but that was the
-  design. I was therefore pleased that the Legislature of Michigan
-  was not disposed to put herself in a position to be controlled
-  by such influences. The convention has met here, and within a
-  few days the aspect of things has materially changed. Every free
-  State, I think, except Michigan and Wisconsin, is represented, and
-  we have been assured by friends upon whom we can rely, that, if
-  those two States should send delegations of true, unflinching men,
-  there would probably be a majority in favor of the constitution
-  as it is, who would frown down the rebellion by the enforcement
-  of laws. These friends have urged us to recommend the appointment
-  of delegates from our State, and in compliance with their
-  request, Mr. Chandler and myself telegraphed to you last night.
-  It cannot be doubted that the recommendations of this convention
-  will have a very considerable influence upon the public mind and
-  upon the action of Congress. I have a great disinclination to
-  any interference with what should properly be submitted to the
-  wisdom and discretion of the Legislature, in which I place great
-  reliance. But I hope I shall be pardoned for suggesting that it
-  may be justifiable and proper by any honorable means to avert the
-  lasting disgrace which will attach to a free people who, by the
-  peaceful exercise of the ballot, have just released themselves from
-  the tyranny of slavery, if they should now succumb to treasonable
-  threats, and again submit to a degrading thraldom. If it should be
-  deemed proper to send delegates, I think if they could be here by
-  the 20th it would be in time. I have the honor, with much respect,
-  to be, Yours truly,
-
-                                                          K. S. BINGHAM.
-
-The Legislature of Michigan refused to follow even these
-recommendations (although an effort to make the two Senators
-themselves delegates received a strong support), and that State was
-not represented at any stage of the abortive Peace Congress. On the
-27th of February Senator Powell of Kentucky presented to the Senate
-newspaper copies of these letters, and then moved to lay aside the
-army appropriation bill which was pending, in order that the Senate
-could proceed at once to amend the constitution. He added that it
-might "better be at that than be appropriating money to support an
-army that is to be engaged, it seems, in the work of blood-letting."
-Mr. Chandler followed by stating that the letter was a private one of
-which no copy had been preserved, but that whether the printed copy was
-accurate or not he adopted it as his, and would at another time speak
-on the questions it involved. He added: "The people of Michigan are
-opposed to all compromises. They do not believe that any compromise is
-necessary; nor do I. They are prepared to stand by the constitution of
-the United States as it is, to stand by the government as it is; aye,
-sir, to stand by it to blood if necessary." On the 2d of March Mr.
-Chandler made his promised speech in reply to Mr. Powell. He commenced:
-"I desire to ask the Senator whether, after we have adopted this or
-any other compromise, he is prepared to go with me, and with the
-Union-loving men of this nation, for enforcing the laws of the United
-States in the thirty-four States of this Union." Powell's response was:
-"I am for enforcing the laws in all the States that are within the
-Union, but I am opposed to making war on the States that are without
-the Union. I am opposed to coercing the seceded States.... We have no
-right, under the constitution, to make war on those States." Upon this
-frank admission from one of its most ardent advocates of the utter
-fruitlessness of compromise, this confession that it would be a sale
-without consideration, Mr. Chandler's comment was: "That is just what
-I expected; it is just what I want the North to know; that those men
-who profess to be for the Union with an 'if' are against it under all
-circumstances." He then quoted the letter of Thomas Jefferson written
-at Paris on Nov. 13, 1787, to Colonel Smith, and closing as follows:
-
-  And what country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not
-  warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of
-  resistance? Let them take up arms! The remedy is to set them right
-  as to facts; pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
-  in a century or two? The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from
-  time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its
-  natural manure.
-
-And with this authority of Thomas Jefferson on "a little blood-letting"
-as his text, Mr. Chandler spoke nearly an hour, denouncing the
-treason about him with unsparing vigor and branding the Democracy
-as responsible for the impending crime against the nation. In the
-face of such distempers he did not hesitate to pronounce war for the
-suppression of rebellion the only adequate remedy. The tone and style
-of this speech will appear from these extracts:
-
-  This is not a question of compromise. It is a question whether
-  we have or have not a government. If we have a government it is
-  capable of making itself respected abroad and at home. If we
-  have not a government, let this miserable rope of sand which
-  purports to be a government perish, and I will shed no tears
-  over its destruction. Sir, General Washington reasoned not so
-  when the whisky rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania; he called
-  out the _posse comitatus_ and enforced the laws. General Jackson
-  reasoned not so when South Carolina in 1832 raised the black flag
-  of rebellion; he said: "By the Eternal, I will hang them;" and he
-  would have done it.
-
-  After these illustrious examples, we are told that six States
-  have seceded, and the Union is broken up, and all we can do is
-  to send commissioners to treat with traitors with arms in their
-  hands; treat with men who have fired upon your flag; treat with
-  men who have seized your custom-houses, who have erected batteries
-  upon your great navigable waters, and who now stand defying your
-  authority! What will be the result of such a treaty? You would
-  stand disgraced before the nations of the earth, your naval
-  officers would be insulted by the Algerines, your bonds would not
-  be worth the paper on which they are written, to-morrow. If you
-  submitted to this degradation your government would stand upon a
-  par with the governments of South America and the Central American
-  States.
-
-  Sir, I will never submit to this degradation. If the right is
-  conceded to any State to secede from the Union, without the consent
-  of the other States, I am for immediate dissolution; and if the
-  State which I have the honor in part to represent will not follow
-  that advice, I, for one, upon my own responsibility and alone,
-  will resign my seat in this body, and leave this government, so
-  soon as I can prepare the small matters I shall have to arrange,
-  _for emigration to some country where they have a government_.
-  I would rather join the Comanches; _I will never live under a
-  government that has not the power to enforce its laws_.... I see
-  before me some of those men who have been fighting this corrupt
-  organization (the Democratic party) for the last twenty years,
-  who now turn about in dismay at the threatened disruption of the
-  government. Why are they terror-stricken? Why do they not stand
-  firm and denounce you as infamously connected with a plundered
-  treasury instead of cowering before your threats? This thing has
-  gone far enough.... Sir, this Union is to stand; it will stand
-  when your great-grandchildren and mine shall have grown gray--aye,
-  when they shall have gone to their last account, and their
-  great-grandchildren shall have grown gray. But the traitors who
-  are to-day plotting against this Union are to die. I do not say,
-  literally, that they are all to die personally and absolutely; but
-  they are soon to pass from the stage, and better and purer men
-  are to take their places. God grant that that consummation, "so
-  devoutly to be wished," may be early accomplished!...
-
-  For the Union-loving men of this nation, for the true patriots of
-  the land, there is no reasonable concession that I would not most
-  cheerfully make; but for those men who profess to be Union men and
-  who are Union men with an "if"; who will take all the concessions
-  we will give them--all that they demand--and then turn about and
-  say "your Union is dissolved," I have no respect; and for them I
-  will do nothing. For the men who love this Union, who are prepared
-  to march to the support of the Union, who will stand up in defense
-  of the old flag under which their fathers fought and gloriously
-  triumphed, I have not only the most profound respect, but to their
-  demands I can scarce conceive anything that I would not yield. But,
-  sir, when traitorous States come here and say, unless you yield
-  this or that established principle or right, we will dissolve the
-  Union, I would answer in brief words--no concession, no compromise;
-  aye, give us strife even to blood before yielding to the demands of
-  traitorous insolence.
-
-This "blood letter" (as it was commonly termed) Mr. Chandler was often
-called upon to meet in the course of his subsequent public life, and
-he never failed to justify its writing or to stand by its language. In
-the extra session of the Senate in March, 1861, John C. Breckenridge
-alluded to "Senatorial threats of blood-letting," and Mr. Chandler
-retorted by re-reading Jefferson's letter and re-asserting the purpose
-to meet attempted treason with force. In the last session of the
-Thirty-seventh Congress (on Feb. 13, 1863) William A. Richardson of
-Illinois said in a debate upon a war loan measure:
-
-  The Senator from Michigan, at the outset of this controversy,
-  declared in a letter to the Governor of the State of Michigan, that
-  this government was not worth a rush without some blood-letting.
-  Standing in array against all our history for seventy years,
-  standing in array against the peace of the country for seventy
-  years, the constitution itself in every proceeding from that time
-  to this being but compromise, he declared at the outset against any
-  compromise for the peace of the country, and he is responsible to a
-  very large extent for the arbitrament of war that is now upon us.
-  He is responsible for those consequences that are now flowing to
-  us from the position assumed then strongly by him at the head of a
-  dominant party in the country.
-
-Mr. Chandler was prompt in meeting this attack, and said:
-
-  Mr. President: I do not propose to-day to go over my record. It has
-  been made before the country and the world. There let it stand.
-  So far as my loyalty and devotion to the country are concerned,
-  I doubt if any man ever seriously attempted to cast suspicion on
-  them. But, as I said before, my record is made. I stand upon it
-  and am proud of it in all its entirety. The Senator alluded to the
-  blood-letting letter, as it is called in Michigan. That letter
-  has been discussed before the people of that State. Thousands and
-  tens of thousands, and, for aught I know, hundreds of thousands
-  of copies of it, were scattered broadcast throughout that State.
-  What were the circumstances under which that letter was written?
-  We had traitors in this body proclaiming from day to-day that this
-  government was then destroyed, and there was no rebuke from the
-  Senator of Illinois or his friends. There was no rebuke from the
-  administration then in power, whom he aided in placing there. They
-  proclaimed that the government was entirely destroyed; and that it
-  should never be restored. Senators proclaimed on this floor that
-  you might give them a blank sheet of paper and allow them to fill
-  it as they pleased, and still they would not live with us under the
-  same government.... Here in this hall and in the other chamber,
-  and on the streets wherever you went, you heard traitors declare
-  that the government was ended, declare that if you attempted to
-  coerce the rebel States it would lead to war. I believed then, as I
-  believe now, that they intended to break up this government; that
-  they intended a disruption of the nation. And I believed then, as
-  I believe now, that without the intervention of armed force to put
-  down armed rebels and traitors, your government was destroyed.
-  Believing it, I so wrote to the governor of a sovereign State--a
-  confidential note, it is true, but that is of no account. I stand
-  by that letter precisely as it was written. A majority of the
-  people of this nation believe to-day, as I believed then, that
-  there was and could be but one way to save the nation, and that
-  was by putting down armed rebels by force. That is what I believed
-  then, what I believe now.
-
-  Another thing the Senator says: Nobody is more responsible for this
-  bloody and wicked war than myself. Mr. President, let us look a
-  little into the matter of responsibility. There is a responsibility
-  somewhere, and a fearful responsibility, for this rebellion and
-  this dreadful war, but that responsibility is not upon my soul....
-  You may go through all the ranks of rebeldom, aye, sir, you may
-  take all the officers of your regular army, who have deserted by
-  hundreds and violated their oath, and gone into the ranks of the
-  enemy, and are fighting to overturn the government; go and poll the
-  whole of them, and you cannot find one that ever co-operated with
-  me politically. They are all Democrats, every man. Yes, sir, and go
-  among the officers of the navy who have deserted and gone over to
-  the enemy, and are now fighting against their flag and attempting
-  to overturn this government; poll them, and among all the hundreds
-  of them you cannot find a single Republican--not one. No, sir, they
-  are all Democrats, every man. You may go and poll the whole four or
-  five hundred thousand men the rebels have now in arms against this
-  government, and you cannot find a man who was ever a Republican or
-  who even sympathized with the Republicans. They are all Democrats
-  or "Union men" such as we had here two years ago, men who had
-  professed to be for the Union when their hearts were with the
-  enemies of the government. Sir, go among the Northern sympathizers
-  with the rebellion, the men who are proclaiming to-day that this
-  government is overturned, and that it will never be restored, who
-  are to-day denouncing your currency and saying that your money is
-  not worth the paper upon which it is written; search through all
-  the sympathizers with this rebellion, and you cannot find a man who
-  ever co-operated with me politically--not one. They are Democrats,
-  but yet, forsooth, I am responsible for this war.... I have no
-  responsibility for this rebellion, nor have the party with which
-  I act. We have with perfect unanimity, in every instance, come up
-  to the support of the government. When the government demanded
-  400,000 men, every single individual on this side of the house
-  voted to give them 500,000 men. And when they demanded $400,000,000
-  to support the government, every man on this side of the house
-  voted to give them $500,000,000 to save the nation. Sir, we have
-  been ready under all circumstances to make any and every sacrifice
-  so that this nation might be saved. Our armies are in large force
-  and ably commanded; they are ready to advance and crush the
-  hydra-headed monster of rebellion. Aye, sir, but we have an enemy
-  insidious and dangerous. The seat of the rebellion is to-day not in
-  Richmond, it is among the copper-headed traitors of the North, and
-  if this government is overturned, if we should fail in saving the
-  government, it will be, not from the force of rebels in our front,
-  but because of the accursed traitors in our rear.
-
-In the course of a debate in the Senate on Feb. 16, 1866, upon
-reconstruction topics, Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana said:
-
-  When the good and the patriotic, North and South, representing the
-  yearning hearts of the people at home, came here in the winter
-  and spring of 1861, in a peace congress, if possible to avoid
-  this dreadful war, then the Senator from Michigan announced to
-  his Governor and the country that this Union was scarcely worth
-  preserving without some blood-letting. His cry before the war
-  was for blood. Allow me to say that when the Senator's name is
-  forgotten because of anything he says or does in this body, in
-  future times it will be borne down upon the pages of history as the
-  author of the terrible sentiment that the Union of the people that
-  our fathers had cemented by the blood of the Revolution and by the
-  love of the people; that that Union, resting upon compromise and
-  concession, resting upon the doctrine of equality to all sections
-  of the country; that that Union which brought us so much greatness
-  and power in the three-quarters of a century of our life; that
-  that Union which had brought us so much prosperity and greatness
-  until we were the mightiest and proudest nation on God's footstool;
-  that that grand Union was not worth preserving unless we had some
-  blood-letting. Mr. President, it is not the sentiment of the
-  Senator's own heart; it is the expression of a bitter political
-  hostility; but it will carry him down to immortality; he is sure of
-  living in history; he has gained that much by it.
-
-To this Mr. Chandler's response was instant. He said:
-
-  The Senator from Indiana has arraigned me upon an old indictment
-  for having written a certain letter in 1861. It is not the first
-  time I have been arraigned on that indictment of "blood-letting."
-  I was arraigned for it upon this floor by the traitor John C.
-  Breckenridge, and I answered the traitor John C. Breckenridge,
-  and after I gave him his answer he went out to the rebel ranks
-  and fought against our flag. I was arraigned by another Senator
-  from Kentucky, and by other traitors upon this floor; I expect to
-  be arraigned again. I wrote the letter, and I stand by the letter
-  and what is in it. What was the position of the country when the
-  letter was written? The Democratic party as an organization had
-  arrayed itself against this government--a Democratic traitor in the
-  Presidential chair, and Democratic traitors in every department
-  of this government, Democratic traitors preaching treason upon
-  this floor and preaching treason in the hall of the other House,
-  Democratic traitors in your army and in your navy, Democratic
-  traitors controlling every branch of this government. Your flag
-  was fired upon and there was no response. The Democratic party
-  had ordained that this government should be overthrown, and I, a
-  Senator from the State of Michigan, wrote to the Governor of that
-  State "unless you are prepared to shed blood for the preservation
-  of this great government the government is overthrown." That is
-  all there was in that letter. That I said, and that I say again.
-  And I tell that Senator, if he is prepared to go down in history
-  with the Democratic traitors who then co-operated with him, I am
-  prepared to go down on that "blood-letting" letter, and I stand by
-  the record as made.
-
-  Because I wrote to the Governor of my State that unless he was
-  prepared to shed blood for the preservation of this government
-  it was overthrown, now I aim to be arraigned as going down to be
-  remembered in history! Yes, sir, I shall be remembered, and I
-  am proud of the record. May it stand, and stand as long as this
-  government stands! When that Senator and the men who co-operated
-  with him shall have gone down to eternal infamy my record will be
-  brilliant.
-
-In the closing session of Mr. Chandler's Congressional service Senator
-Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia, in the course of a reply (on May 10, 1879)
-to a declaration of his on the previous day that "there were twelve
-Senators on the other side whose seats were obtained and are held by
-fraud and violence," again read and commented upon "the blood letter."
-Mr. Chandler promptly answered as follows:
-
-  Mr. President, this is the fourth time since 1861 that allusion
-  has been made to a letter written by me to the Governor of the
-  State of Michigan; first it appeared in a newspaper published in
-  Detroit; a copy was sent to me and a copy was likewise sent to
-  the late Senator Powell. The letter was a private note written to
-  the Governor and no copy retained. Senator Powell approached me
-  with his copy of the letter and asked if it was correct. I told
-  him I did not know; I had written to the Governor of Michigan a
-  private note and had kept no copy and could not say whether this
-  was correct or not. He told me that if it was a correct copy he
-  would wish to make use of it, and if it was not he did not propose
-  to make use of it. I said, "Sir, I will adopt it, and you may make
-  any use of it you please." So to-day that is my letter. If not
-  originally written by me, it is mine by adoption.
-
-  And, Mr. President, what were the circumstances under which that
-  letter was written? I had been in this body then nearly four years
-  listening to treason day by day and hour by hour. The threat, the
-  universal threat daily, hourly, was, "Do this or we will dissolve
-  the Union; if you do not do that we will dissolve the Union."
-  Treason was in the White House, treason in the Cabinet, treason
-  in the Senate, and treason in the House of Representatives; bold,
-  outspoken, rampant treason was daily and hourly uttered. The threat
-  was made upon this floor in my presence by a Senator, "You may
-  give us a blank sheet of paper and let us fill it up as we please,
-  and then we will not live with you." And another Senator stood
-  here beside that Senator from Texas and said, "I stand by the
-  Senator from Texas." Treason was applauded in the galleries of this
-  body, and treason was talked on the streets, in the street cars,
-  in private circles; everywhere it was treason--treason in your
-  departments, traitors in the White House, traitors around these
-  galleries, traitors everywhere!
-
-  The flag of rebellion had been raised; the Union was already
-  dissolved, we were told; the rebel government was already
-  established with its capital in Alabama; "and now we will negotiate
-  with you," was said to us. Upon what basis would you negotiate?
-  Upon what basis did you call your peace convention? With rampant
-  rebellion staring us in the face! Sir, it was no time to negotiate.
-  The time for negotiation was past.
-
-  Sir, this was the condition of affairs when that letter was
-  written; and after Mr. Powell had made his assault upon me in this
-  body for it I responded, relating what I have related here now with
-  regard to it, and I said, "I stand by that letter," and I stand by
-  it now. What was there in it then, and what is there in it now? The
-  State of Michigan was known to be in favor of the constitution and
-  the Union and the enforcement of the laws, even to the letting of
-  blood if need be, and that was all there was and all there is in
-  that letter. Make the most of it!
-
-  The Senator from Georgia says that I did not shed any blood. How
-  much blood did he shed?[18] [Laughter.] Will somebody inform us the
-  exact quantity of blood that the Senator from Georgia shed?
-
-  Mr. HILL, of Georgia: The difference between us is that I was not
-  in favor of shedding anybody's blood.
-
-  Mr. CHANDLER: Nor I, except to punish treason and traitors. Sir,
-  the Senator is not the man to stand up on this floor and talk
-  about other men saving their own blood. He took good care to put
-  his blood in Fort Lafayette where he was out of the way of rebel
-  bullets as well as Union bullets. He is the last man to stand up
-  here and talk to me about letting the blood of others be shed.
-
-  Mr. President, I was then, as I am now, in favor of the government
-  of the United States. Then, as now, I abhorred the idea of State
-  sovereignty over National sovereignty. Then, as now, I was prepared
-  even to shed blood to save this glorious government. Then, as now,
-  I stood up for the constitution and the Union. Then, as now, I was
-  in favor of the perpetuity of this glorious government. But the
-  Senator from Georgia, was, as he testified before a committee, "a
-  Union secessionist." I have the testimony here before me. Will
-  somebody explain what that means--"a Union secessionist?" Mr.
-  President, I should like to see the dictionary wherein a definition
-  can be found of "a Union secessionist!" I do not understand the
-  term. He says they have the right to have a solid South, but a
-  solid North will destroy the government. Why, Mr. President, the
-  South is no more solid to-day than it was in 1857.... It has been
-  solid ever since, and it was no quarrel with the North that made
-  it solid. It was solid because it was determined either to "rule or
-  ruin" this nation. It tried the "ruin" scheme with arms; and now,
-  having failed to ruin this government with arms, it comes back to
-  ruin it by withholding supplies to carry on the government. Sir,
-  the men have changed since 1857. There is now but one member on
-  this floor who stood here with me on the 4th of March, 1857. The
-  men have changed, the measures not at all. You then fought for the
-  overthrow of this government, and now you vote and talk for the
-  same purpose. You are to-day, as you were then, determined either
-  to rule or ruin this government, and you cannot do either.
-
-This letter was also for years constantly quoted and denounced by the
-Democratic press of Michigan with the hope of by this means breaking
-the Senator's hold upon the confidence of the people of his State. He
-uniformly met these attacks, not only without the shadow of apology,
-but with the most emphatic defiance. On the stump he repeatedly
-declared that "that letter was a good one," that he would not qualify
-a sentence nor retract a word of it, that he "stood by it" without
-reservation, and that he believed when he wrote it and knew afterward
-that it pointed out the only path in which the nation could then walk
-with honor and with safety. Time has shown that Mr. Chandler was right
-and that the men who deprecated his boldness were wrong, and that the
-real statesmanship of the winter of 1860-61 was that which proposed not
-to parley with, but to draw the sword upon, "foul treason." The paper
-which at that time first printed "the blood letter" and made it the
-text for unsparing and constant denunciation of its author was edited
-by a man who grew to be one of the foremost of American journalists,
-and--always hostile to Republicanism--published in 1879 the chief
-Northwestern organ of Independent opinion, which said, in announcing
-Mr. Chandler's sudden death in its city: "To superior intellectual
-endowments he united a force of will and resolution of purpose that
-hesitated at no obstacle. Few men ever displayed in a more remarkable
-degree the courage of opinions. No dread of unpopularity, no fear of
-consequences, ever troubled him. His famous 'blood-letting letter,'
-written near the opening of the Southern rebellion, was a faithful
-manifestation of the man. When frightened party chiefs of the North
-were running up and down with peace propositions to placate Southern
-fire-eaters and patch up a new truce between free civilization and
-slave barbarism, Zach. Chandler stood up in his place in the Senate
-and in terms of intense, bitter scorn, denounced all such efforts as
-the pitiful manifestations of political cowardice and folly. He had no
-word of regret to utter upon the departure of the Southern Senators;
-but told them that the North would whip them back, and that in their
-humiliation the bond of nationality would be strengthened. He had no
-dread of the threatened blood-letting, but believed it to be the only
-way of curing the Southern ulcer, and that the nation would afterward
-be the healthier for it." And
-
-         "Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges."
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[16] Bangor, Me., "Union."
-
-[17] Detroit, Mich. "Free Press."
-
-[18] An allusion to the common report that, during a secret session
-o£ the Confederate Senate, William. L. Yancey received injuries in a
-personal encounter with H. H. Hill from which he finally died.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.
-
-
-Abraham Lincoln reached Washington on the 23d of February, 1861, having
-come from Harrisburg _incognito_, and in advance of the announced
-time, because of threats of assassination. Mr. Chandler was one of the
-first persons informed of his arrival, called upon him at once, and
-was in frequent consultation with him thereafter with reference to the
-formation of his Cabinet and the policy to be pursued toward the South.
-Mr. Chandler earnestly opposed placing any but the most uncompromising
-Union men at the head of the departments, urged bold and decisive
-measures toward armed traitors for the sake of the moral effect of such
-a course, and advised the most emphatic declarations in the inaugural
-of the President's intention to enforce the laws at all hazards. Mr.
-Lincoln had seriously thought of inviting two gentlemen from the
-Southern States to seats in his Cabinet, the names chiefly considered
-by him being those of Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, and James
-Guthrie of Kentucky. Mr. Chandler strongly opposed any such concession
-to the rampant dis-unionism of the slave States, and the hostility
-of the wing of the party with which he acted finally led Mr. Lincoln
-to abandon his original plan and select Edward Bates of Missouri and
-Montgomery Blair as the Southern members of the Cabinet. Mr. Chandler
-also advised that Breckenridge, Wigfall, and other avowedly disloyal
-Congressmen should be arrested at once, and urged that the "Secession
-Commissioners," when they came to Washington, should be dealt with
-summarily as traitors and not be permitted to even informally negotiate
-with the Administration. He always believed that this summary
-treatment of rebellion at the outset would have greatly curtailed its
-dimensions, but the President was guided by Mr. Seward and others,
-whose counsels were different and who hoped to prevent the impending
-war by mildness. Accordingly the inaugural was almost apologetic in
-tone toward the South; throughout March, men like Stephen A. Douglas
-inquired whether the Administration meant peace or war; flagrant
-treason was still defiantly uttered on the floor of Congress, and John
-Forsyth and M. J. Crawford, embassadors from the "Confederacy," spent
-weeks in Washington holding relations with the new Secretary of State
-which, if not "official," looked like a concession in fact of the
-practical independence of the seceded States. The first official favor
-Mr. Chandler asked from President Lincoln was the appointment of his
-life-long friend, James M. Edmunds, as Commissioner of the General Land
-Office, and Mr. Edmunds was promptly nominated to that position and
-confirmed by the Senate.
-
-At noon on March 4, 1861, Vice-President Hamlin took the chair of the
-Senate and directed the secretary to read this proclamation convening
-an extra session of that body:
-
-
-BY THE PRESIDENT of THE UNITED STATES:
-
-A PROCLAMATION.
-
-  WHEREAS, Objects of interest to the United States require that the
-  Senate should be convened at twelve o'clock on the 4th of March
-  next, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to
-  it on the part of the Executive: Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan,
-  President of the United States, have considered it to be my duty
-  to issue this, my proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary
-  occasion requires the Senate of the United States to convene
-  for the transaction of business, at the capitol in the city of
-  Washington, on the 4th day of March next, at twelve o'clock at noon
-  on that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act
-  as members of that body are hereby required to take notice.
-
-[Sidenote: [L. S.]]
-
-    Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at
-        Washington, the 11th day of February, in the year of our
-        Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the
-        independence of the United States of America the eighty-fifth.
-
-                                                         JAMES BUCHANAN.
-
-  By the President: J. S. BLACK, _Secretary of State_.
-
-Sixteen new Senators then took the oath of office, and at fifteen
-minutes past one o'clock James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln entered the
-Senate chamber, arm in arm, accompanied by Senators Foote, Baker and
-Pearce, members of the Committee of Arrangements, and were conducted
-to seats in front of the secretary's desk. In a few moments afterward,
-those assembled in the Senate chamber proceeded to the platform on the
-central portico of the eastern front of the capitol, to listen to the
-inaugural address of the President elect. Then the oath of office was
-administered to him by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the
-administration of the government by the Republican party had commenced.
-The business of this extra session of the Senate was chiefly limited to
-the confirmation of executive appointments, although there were some
-exciting discussions upon the political situation. Mr. Chandler, on
-taking possession (as the new chairman) of the room of the Committee
-on Commerce, had his righteous wrath at the men who had availed
-themselves of their official positions to plot treason against the
-government still further stimulated by finding in one of the drawers
-of the large committee table the original draft of the secession
-ordinance of Alabama, which had been prepared in the national capitol
-by Senator Clement C. Clay, his predecessor in the chairmanship of
-the committee.[19] This illustration of Southern perfidy Mr. Chandler
-carefully kept, and at his death it was among his private papers. The
-executive session of the Senate closed on March 28, 1861, and Mr.
-Chandler at once returned to Detroit.
-
-At 5.20 A. M. on April 12, 1861, a mortar in the rebel battery on
-Sullivan's Island in the harbor of Charleston fired a shell into Fort
-Sumter. This was the announcement to the world of the decision of the
-rebels to delay no longer, but to at once
-
-                                  "ope
-    "The purple testament of bleeding war."
-
-On the 13th Major Anderson abandoned the unequal contest, and
-surrendered the blazing ruins of his fortress to Beauregard; on the
-14th his garrison marched out with the honors of war; and on the 15th
-Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, a force which it was
-believed would trample out rebellion in ninety days. The North answered
-Charleston's cannon and the President's appeal with a magnificent
-assertion of its latent patriotism, and the war spirit flamed up in
-every State. On April 17 the business men of Detroit held a public
-meeting at the invitation of its Board of Trade, at which the firm
-purpose to support the government in its contest with treason was
-emphatically declared, and all needed assistance in troops and money
-was pledged. Senator Chandler escorted General Cass to this gathering,
-and their entrance, arm in arm, typifying as it did the solidification
-of the Union sentiment of the North, was followed by long-continued
-cheering. Both gentlemen spoke in tones of earnest loyalty and amid
-constant applause. That night the following letter was mailed to
-Washington:
-
-                                        DETROIT, April 17, 1861.
-
-  _Hon. Simon Cameron._
-
-  DEAR SIR: One of the most distinguished Democrats in this
-  country[20] says: "Don't defend Washington. Don't put batteries on
-  Georgetown Heights, but shove your troops directly into Virginia,
-  and quarter them there."
-
-  Stand by the Union men in Virginia and you will find plenty of them.
-
-  By this bold policy you will save Virginia to the Union as well as
-  the other border States.
-
-  There is but one sentiment here. We will give you all the troops
-  you can use. We will send you two regiments in thirty days,
-  and 50,000 in thirty days more if you want them. General Cass
-  subscribed $3,000 to equip the regiments.
-
-  There are no sympathizers here with treason, and if there were we
-  would dispense with their company forthwith. Your friend,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-Michigan justified her Senator's pledges by promptly raising and
-equipping many more troops, than the State was required to furnish
-under the call for 75,000 volunteers, and this correspondence soon
-followed:
-
-                                        DETROIT, April 21, 1861.
-
-  _Hon. Simon Cameron._
-
-  MY DEAR CAMERON: ... I will esteem it a very great favor if you
-  will officially call for at least one more regiment to go to the
-  front immediately from this State. You did not call for but one,
-  but we have got two all ready, and have raised $100,000 by private
-  subscription to equip them. Truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-  [REPLY.]
-
-                                     WASHINGTON, April 29, 1861.
-
-  _Hon. Z. Chandler._
-
-  DEAR SIR: ... It would give me great pleasure to gratify your
-  wishes, but this can only be done in one way. The President has
-  determined to accept no more for three months' service, but to add
-  to the regular army twenty-five more regiments whose members shall
-  agree to serve two years unless sooner discharged. This will enable
-  the Department to accept another regiment from your State. Truly
-  yours,
-
-                                      SIMON CAMERON, _Secretary of War_.
-
-To this suggestion the response was prompt, and the enlistment of men
-and formation of companies for three years' service went briskly on,
-Michigan sending only one three-months' regiment to the field. Mr.
-Chandler was active in stimulating and organizing the war movements at
-home, both by untiring personal labor and by liberal subscriptions of
-money, until the first regiments were ready for marching orders. He
-was one of the speakers at an imposing Union meeting held in Detroit
-on April 25, with Lewis Cass in the chair, and he there said: "A
-greater contest than the Revolutionary war is now about to take place.
-It is to be tested whether a republican government can stand or not.
-The eyes of all Europe are upon us, and we will convince them that
-ours is the strongest government on earth." He also made an earnest,
-and in the end successful, effort to procure from the War Department
-such orders as should obtain for the Michigan men an opportunity for
-prompt service against the enemy. It was originally intended to send
-the regiments from his State to Cairo, but his influence accomplished
-a change in this plan and they were directed to report to Washington
-for immediate duty. In May Mr. Chandler went to the capital to aid in
-preparing for their reception and to urge upon the authorities, who
-were then declining the profuse offers of troops, the importance of
-accepting all the regiments tendered by his own and other States and
-of promptly attacking the constantly growing rebellion by invading
-its territory and interfering with the organization of its armies.
-On the 17th of May, 1861, the First Regiment of Michigan Volunteers
-arrived in Washington, Col. O. B. Willcox commanding. They were met at
-the depot by Senator Chandler and escorted to quarters he had aided
-in securing for them in a business block on Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr.
-Chandler was active in providing for their comfort, purchased supplies
-for them out of his own private purse, was present at their parade when
-they were formally mustered into the service of the United States by
-Adjutant-General Thomas, and asked the Secretary of War to send them at
-once to the front for active duty. His request was complied with and
-this regiment was prominent in the first important military movement of
-the war.
-
-After he had seen the Michigan troops well cared for, Mr. Chandler, on
-the 19th of May, in company with Senators Wade and Morrill and John
-G. Nicolay, the private secretary of President Lincoln, sailed for
-Fortress Monroe to visit General Butler, and see the condition of his
-newly-organized army. On the following day the party started to return
-on the steamer Freeborn, and as they were passing through Hampton Roads
-heard heavy cannonading, which proved to be an artillery duel between
-the steamer Monticello and a battery erected by the rebels at Sewell's
-Point, where the Elizabeth river empties into Hampton Roads. The
-Freeborn went at once to the assistance of the Monticello, and being of
-light draft approached within 300 yards of the battery and opened fire
-with her guns. The columbiads of the Virginians were soon disabled, and
-the rebels were scattered in every direction, Mr. Chandler pronouncing
-the spectacle "the best ball-playing he had ever seen." On her voyage
-up the Potomac the Freeborn seized two suspicions boats, and found them
-loaded with a company of fifty rebel soldiers on their way to join
-"the Confederate army." Both vessels were brought to the Navy Yard at
-Washington and they were the first prizes taken during the war, and the
-men on board were the first rebel prisoners captured.
-
-On the night of the 23d of May, the Union forces at Washington crossed
-the Potomac and proceeded to seize and fortify advantageous positions
-on Virginia soil. The First Michigan accompanied the famous Zouave
-regiment by ferry-boats to Alexandria, taking possession of that city
-in the night. Mr. Chandler went with the Michigan men, and was the only
-civilian who was allowed to accompany this wing of the expedition. He
-was with a detachment of soldiers who surprised and captured a party of
-forty rebel dragoons, including four officers, and he was in Alexandria
-when Colonel Ellsworth fell and private Brownell instantly avenged his
-death. Of this event, since obscured by four years of carnage, but
-which then first brought to excited millions some sense of the dreadful
-realities of war, he was the first to bear the news to the authorities
-at Washington.
-
-Mr. Chandler remained at the capital some weeks, working industriously
-in helping on the preparations for war, and urging the most vigorous
-and sweeping measures upon the Administration. He believed and said
-repeatedly that the call for 75,000 men for three months was a mistake.
-He was no optimist, and never thought that a rebellion, so carefully
-organized and left so long undisturbed, could be subdued without a
-desperate and bloody struggle. He thought that 500,000 rather than
-75,000 volunteers should have been called for to serve through the
-war, and judged that the effect of such a proclamation upon the
-country, and particularly upon the South, would have been salutary, as
-showing the determination of the government to crush the rebellion at
-once and forever. While the raw levies of volunteers were massing in
-Washington in May and June, there was a lamentable lack of discipline
-and organization. The commissary department of the army was feeble and
-inefficient, and there was a want of proper and sufficient food for the
-soldiers. Mr. Chandler's executive capacity was very useful then to the
-Secretary of War in assisting in the organization of a commissariat
-and in procuring supplies and equipments, and he spent no small sum
-in obtaining food for the soldiers when the regular rations were not
-forthcoming. Although entirely without military training, Mr Chandler's
-business experience, his quick perception, and his clear judgment made
-his services at this period of confusion and mismanagement of great
-value to the country. In June he returned to Michigan for a few days,
-and on the 21st of that month spoke (with the Hon. Charles M. Croswell)
-at Adrian, on the occasion of the presentation by the ladies of that
-city of a stand of colors to a volunteer regiment in camp there.
-
-On the 4th of July, 1861, the Thirty-seventh Congress met in extra
-session, and adjourned on the 6th of August, after having enacted laws
-to increase the army and navy, and to provide the means and authority
-necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the war. The scope of the
-work undertaken by this Congress was far greater than that of any
-preceding session. Many of the members had but little experience in
-legislative matters, but their patriotism was sincere and ardent, and
-their acts embodied the national purpose to maintain the integrity of
-the republic at any cost. On the second day of the session Mr. Chandler
-said in the Senate:
-
-  I desire to give notice that I shall to-morrow or on some
-  subsequent day introduce a bill to confiscate the property of
-  all Governors of States, members of the Legislature, Judges of
-  Courts, and all military officers above the rank of lieutenant
-  who shall take up arms against the United States, or aid or abet
-  treason against the government of the United States, and that said
-  individual shall be forever disqualified from holding any office of
-  honor, emolument or trust under this government.
-
-This bill was introduced on July 15, and was referred to the Committee
-on the Judiciary; it reported back a measure of much narrower scope,
-which was passed, and is known as the confiscation act of 1861. The
-origin of Mr. Chandler's bill was the fact that John Y. Mason of
-Virginia, who had been expelled from the Senate for treason, owned a
-large amount of property in Pennsylvania, and so indignant were the
-people of the county in which it was located at his treachery, that a
-guard was kept over it constantly to prevent its destruction by a mob.
-Mr. Chandler believed it was important that the government should be
-enabled to legally seize for its own use such property as this; there
-were also many officers of the army and navy who were undecided whether
-to go with the rebellion or remain at their posts. He wished to add
-to the penalties of treason to affect them, as well as those wealthy
-citizens of Washington and Maryland who had formerly been in office
-and who sympathized with the rebellion and gave the South as much
-encouragement as they dared. His proposition proved then too vigorous
-to obtain the endorsement of his colleagues, but within a year its
-principle received Congressional sanction. During this session (on July
-18) Mr. Chandler said in the Senate with characteristic force:
-
-  The Senator from Indiana says there are three parties in the
-  country. I deny it, sir. There are but two parties, patriots and
-  traitors--none others in this body nor in the country. I care not
-  what proposition may be brought up to save the Union, to preserve
-  its integrity, patriots will vote for it; and I care not what
-  proposition you may bring up to dissolve the Union, to break up
-  this government, traitors will vote for that. And those are the
-  only two parties there are in the Senate or the country.
-
-It is not necessary to add that Mr. Chandler voted at this session
-for every measure to organize armies and to raise means for their
-maintenance, and that he favored at all times vigorous and summary
-measures in dealing with the enemies of the republic.
-
-General McDowell's "invasion of Virginia" on May 23 was followed by
-several weeks of military inactivity on the Potomac, broken only by a
-dash of the Union cavalry into Fairfax Courthouse and the skirmish at
-Vienna, where a regiment of Ohio troops, who were backed on a railroad
-train into a rebel ambuscade, lost twenty men. On July 16 the Union
-army began a forward movement against the rebels who were found in
-position about and along a creek known as Bull Run. After a short
-and indecisive engagement on that day, General McDowell commenced to
-concentrate his forces for an attack on Beauregard's line, but various
-delays prevented any definite movement until Sunday, July 21. On that
-date was fought the battle of Bull Run, ending in a complete Union
-defeat, attended by severe losses and a panic-stricken retreat by many
-regiments, and followed by great national dismay and alarm. An inquiry
-into the blundering strategy, political half-heartedness, and poor
-generalship, which were the causes of this unnecessary and most serious
-reverse, are foreign to the purpose of this work. Mr. Chandler was one
-of a large number of members of Congress who joined the army on the eve
-of battle, and watched its progress to the final disaster. The First
-Michigan was among the regiments engaged in the thickest of the fight,
-and the Second and Third were in the brigade of Gen. I. B. Richardson,
-which acted as a rear-guard in the retreat of the army and prevented
-defeat from becoming a total rout. Mr. Chandler himself aided in
-halting and rallying the panic-stricken fugitives,[21] and reached
-Washington late at night, covered with mud and wearied with travel
-and hunger. He drove at once to the White House, where he found Mr.
-Lincoln despondent, exhausted with his labors, and greatly depressed
-by the defeat and the loss of life involved. Mr. Chandler urged upon
-the President the necessity of vigorous measures, the wisdom of calling
-for more troops, and the certainty that the North would follow the
-Administration in meeting a reverse with undismayed and redoubled
-energies. He asked Mr. Lincoln to issue an order for the enrolling of
-500,000 men at once, "to show to the country and the rebels that the
-government was not discouraged a whit, but was just beginning to get
-mad." Mr. Chandler's vitality, the timely vigor of his bold words, and
-his overwhelming earnestness acted as a tonic upon the over-burdened
-Executive, and he left Mr. Lincoln cheered, encouraged and resolute.
-The governors of the loyal States were at once appealed to for more
-troops, and the answer of the North to Bull Run was the rush of tens
-of thousands of men into camp and the organization of great armies
-along the Potomac, the Ohio and the Mississippi. Secretary Stanton,
-who knew of this midnight interview, estimated its effect upon the
-course of events as of the utmost importance, and repeatedly said that
-Mr. Chandler's opportunely-manifested courage and vigor then saved the
-Union from a great peril.
-
-In the task of reorganizing the army after Bull Run, of clearing
-Washington of fugitives, and of extracting order from chaos, Mr.
-Chandler rendered important aid to the authorities, and after the
-adjournment returned to Michigan and threw his strong energies into
-the work of raising and equipping troops. This letter (which was not
-followed by any practical results, owing to various causes) is of
-interest as showing the spirit of those days:
-
-                                         DETROIT, Aug. 27, 1861.
-
-  _Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War._
-
-  MY DEAR CAMERON: A Colonel Elliott, member of the Canadian
-  Parliament, is desirous of raising a regiment of Canadian cavalry
-  for the war against treason. I don't know how the Administration
-  may look upon this proposition, but there are many reasons in favor
-  of its acceptance.
-
-  1. Colonel Elliott is a brave and experienced officer.
-
-  2. He is in favor of the closest union between the Canadas and the
-  United States, and believes that this fraternal union upon the
-  battle-field would tend strongly to cement a yet closer connection.
-
-  3. It would satisfy England that hands-off was her best policy.
-
-  The moment it is proven that black men are used in the Southern
-  army _against us_, I propose to recruit a few regiments of negroes
-  in Canada myself to meet that enemy, and I think this would be an
-  opening wedge for the movement of emancipation.
-
-  My colleague will introduce Colonel Elliott to you and explain more
-  at length. Truly, your friend,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-To this same period also belongs this characteristic defense of his
-State and the Northwest against what Mr. Chandler believed--and with
-reason--to be an unjust statement:
-
-  _To the Editor of the New York World_:
-
-  My attention has been called to an article in your valuable and
-  patriotic paper in which you say: "The extreme Northern States,
-  from Maine to Michigan, have not done their duty, and it is high
-  time that State pride aroused them to emulate the noble example
-  of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island." As I am sure you
-  would not willingly do injustice to Michigan, I ask you to state
-  editorially, the population and the number of regiments in the
-  field for the war from each of the States whose example is to be
-  emulated. Michigan had at Bull Run one three-months' regiment (now
-  recruiting and in for the war) and three regiments for the war,
-  _and not a private soldier in camp in the State_. Since that time
-  she has sent seven regiments for the war, making ten regiments now
-  present in the army, in addition to which she furnished to other
-  States over 2,000 men, _now in the field_, for the reason that the
-  government would accept no more men from Michigan at that time,
-  and the patriotic ardor of our citizens could not be restrained.
-  We have now in camp nearly 4,000 men, and shall send two regiments
-  this week and two more within a few days.
-
-  The Northwest has done her whole duty; how is it with the East?
-  The Northwest has exceeded every call made upon her, and yet you
-  lack men and are denuding over 2,000 miles of border territory of
-  troops for the defense of Washington. If New York, Pennsylvania,
-  New Jersey, and the New England States cannot defend Washington, in
-  God's name what can they do? The Northwest will defend the lines
-  from the mountains of Virginia to the Rocky Mountains. She will
-  sweep secession and treason from the valley of the Mississippi,
-  aye, _and will defend the Potomac, too, if she must_. But is
-  not this Union worth as much to New York, Pennsylvania, and
-  Massachusetts as to the Northwest? Why, then, so tardy in supplying
-  troops? Had five of the forty Northwestern regiments now on the
-  Potomac been with Lyon he would have won the battle and cleared
-  Missouri! Had five been with Mulligan he would now be in possession
-  of Lexington! Could ten of them be sent into Kentucky to-morrow (in
-  addition to what they have) they would clear the State of secession
-  in ten days, and threaten Tennessee! Could ten be sent to Rosecrans
-  he would clear the mountains of Virginia and threaten the rear of
-  the grand army! But, no; this cannot be done--because the East will
-  not do her duty. If she does not at once, the whole world will cry
-  shame. Respectfully, your obedient servant,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-  DETROIT, Sept. 30, 1861.
-
-During the Congressional recess he also sent this letter of
-characteristic suggestions to the Secretary of War:
-
-                                         DETROIT, Nov. 15, 1861.
-
-  _Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War._
-
-  MY DEAR SIR: The time for delivering a battle upon the Potomac has
-  now passed, and something _must and can be done_. In my opinion the
-  following plan is still feasible, and will close the war:
-
-  Let Rosecrans be ordered immediately to Kentucky with his army
-  of veteran Northwestern troops. Substitute an equal or larger
-  number of Eastern troops with an Eastern general, who will act
-  strictly upon the defensive. Send your Northwestern troops now
-  upon the Potomac to Cairo _at once_. Send Pope (if he is the man)
-  to Missouri with sufficient arms to supply all the Northwestern
-  regiments in readiness to march on the 1st day of December. Let an
-  abundance of transports and material be provided at Cairo and St.
-  Louis, by that date (December 1st).
-
-  Give the order, "Forward," and _then cut the wires_.
-
-  Stop all official communication with the Army of the Northwest.
-  That army, if thus untrammeled, will _spend New Year's day in New
-  Orleans_, _via_ Memphis, and will reach Washington _via_ Richmond
-  by the 1st of May next.
-
-  In the meantime Sherman, Butler, and Burnside can take care of
-  South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and North Carolina will fall
-  of itself with Virginia and the Gulf States.
-
-  Is this plan feasible?
-
-  None but a traitor will say you Nay, for you and I know that
-  200,000 Northwestern soldiers, with Rosecrans's and Lyon's
-  veterans, _can_ and _will go wherever they are ordered_, and _on
-  time_.
-
-  As to your Army of the Potomac, select 100,000 men of your city
-  regiments which look well on parade, and keep them for reviews.
-  Send the balance to the Gulf States. We want none of them out West.
-
-  We will, by recruiting during the winter, keep our Grand Army up to
-  200,000 men, and furnish garrisons as fast as needed for captured
-  towns. Very truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-Congress re-assembled for its regular session in December, 1861,
-and Mr. Chandler was called upon (on Jan. 17, 1862) to present
-the credentials of the Hon. Jacob M. Howard as his colleague from
-Michigan, _vice_ Kinsley S. Bingham, who had died suddenly in the
-preceding October. Mr. Howard remained a Senator for ten years, winning
-distinction in that position. Throughout his term his relations with
-his colleague were intimate and cordial, and the foremost merchant
-and the first lawyer of Michigan stood side by side in the Senate in
-the support of every important measure which had for its object the
-encouragement of loyal sentiment, or the strengthening of the military
-and financial arms of the government, or the prompt suppression of the
-rebellion.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[19] Mr. Clay (C. C. Clay, Jr., of Alabama), chairman of the Committee
-on Commerce, drew up in the room of that committee the original
-ordinance of secession for the State of Alabama, while he, a rebel
-traitor, was drawing the pay of this government. It was drawn upon
-government paper, written with government ink, and copied by a clerk
-drawing $6 a day from this government. I found it in that room and I
-have it now.--_Zachariah Chandler in the Senate, April 12, 1864._
-
-[20] This undoubtedly refers to Lewis Cass.
-
-[21] Whatever credit there was in stopping the rout (at this point) is
-due wholly to Senators Chandler and Wade, and Representatives Blake,
-Riddle, and Morris. These gentlemen, armed with Maynard rifles and navy
-revolvers, sprang from their carriages some three miles this side of
-Centreville, and, presenting their weapons, in loud voices commanded
-the fugitives to halt and turn back. Their bold and determined manner
-brought most at that point to a stand-still. Many on horseback, who
-attempted to dash by them, had their horses seized by the bits. Some of
-the fugitives who were armed menaced these gentlemen. None, however,
-were permitted to pass until the arrival of the Second New Jersey
-Regiment, on its way to the battle-ground, turned back the flying
-soldiers and teamsters.--_Washington Intelligencer, July 22, 1861._
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
-
-
-During the Congressional recess of the autumn of 1861 gross
-mismanagement led to the annihilation at Ball's Bluff of a brigade of
-Union troops, led by Senator Edward D. Baker of Oregon. They had been
-sent across the Potomac in flat-boats and skiffs, were left without
-adequate support, and, being surrounded by a vastly superior force of
-rebels, were driven to the edge of the river, and there either killed,
-wounded, captured, or driven into hiding places along the banks. Their
-commanding officer, who displayed throughout a high order of personal
-courage, was shot at the head of his line before the final rout.
-General Baker was a man of eloquence and many gallant qualities, and
-his death created a profound impression; that he was sacrificed by
-military incapacity cannot be doubted.
-
-Congress met on Dec. 2, 1861, and on the first business day of the
-session Mr. Chandler offered a motion for the expulsion of John C.
-Breckenridge, who had at last joined the rebels, and it was unanimously
-adopted. On December 5 he introduced this resolution:
-
-  _Resolved_, That a committee of three be appointed to inquire into
-  the disasters at Bull Run and Edward's Ferry (subsequently changed
-  to Ball's Bluff), with power to send for persons and papers.
-
-Mr. Chandler said, in explanation of his motion, that these reverses
-had been attributed to politicians, to civilians, to everything but
-the right cause, and that it was due to the Senate and to the country
-that they should be investigated and that the blame should rest where
-it belonged. After some discussion the Senate adopted the resolution
-with only three dissenting votes, first amending it by providing for
-a joint committee of both branches, and by enlarging the scope of
-its inquiries so as to include "the conduct of the war." The House
-concurred in the action, and the famous "Committee on the Conduct of
-the War" was thus created. On December 17, Mr. Chandler moved that the
-Vice-President should appoint the Senate members, adding: "I do not
-know what the parliamentary usage may be in a case of this kind. If
-that usage would give me the position of chairman, I wish to say that,
-under the circumstances, I do not wish to accept it." Mr. Chandler
-had also privately requested Mr. Hamlin to appoint Senator Wade to
-the chairmanship, saying it was important that a lawyer should be
-given that place, and his desires were followed in both respects.
-The first committee, as announced at that time, consisted of the
-following Congressmen: On the part of the Senate, Benjamin F. Wade,
-Zachariah Chandler and Andrew Johnson; on the part of the House,
-Daniel W. Gooch of Massachusetts, John Covode of Pennsylvania, George
-W. Julian of Indiana, and Moses F. Odell of New York. Of the original
-committee, George W. Julian is the only one who survived Mr. Chandler.
-When Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, he
-resigned his position upon the committee, and Senator Joseph A. Wright
-of Indiana took his place. Mr. Wright served but a year, and after
-the expiration of his term the Senate branch of the committee in the
-Thirty-seventh Congress consisted of only Mr. Chandler and Mr. Wade.
-William Blair Lord, now one of the official reporters of the House of
-Representatives, was appointed its clerk and stenographer.
-
-[Illustration: ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN 1862.]
-
-The tone of the Congressional discussion upon Mr. Chandler's
-proposition shows that this was regarded as an exceedingly important
-step, for the resolution clothed the committee with powers of very
-unusual magnitude, which, if abused, must have seriously embarrassed
-the Administration. Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Cameron, as well as
-General Scott and General McClellan, opposed its appointment at the
-outset, but Mr. Chandler took prompt and successful measures to assure
-the President that, if the plans of its projectors were carried
-out, the committee would be used only to strengthen the hands of
-the Executive, and promised that it should be made a help and not a
-hindrance to the vigorous prosecution of the war. On this point the
-Hon. James M. Edmunds, who was thoroughly informed as to the secret
-history of that period, has said:
-
-  The writer knows that the Administration was not without fear
-  that this was an unfriendly measure. A member of the Cabinet
-  expressed such fears to him, and said that the President had not
-  only expressed doubts as to the wisdom of the movement, but also
-  fears that the committee might, by unfriendly action, greatly
-  embarrass the Executive. On being told by the writer that the
-  measure was not so intended, but, on the contrary, that it was the
-  intention of the mover to bring the committee to the aid of the
-  Administration, he expressed much gratification, and said it was
-  of the utmost importance to bring such purpose to the knowledge
-  of the President in some authoritative way, and at the earliest
-  moment possible. This conversation was at once reported to Senator
-  Chandler, whereupon both he and Senator Wade went immediately to
-  the President and the Secretary of War, and assured them that it
-  was their purpose to bring the whole power of the committee to the
-  aid of the Executive. From this moment the most cordial relations
-  existed between the committee and the Administration.[22]
-
-President Lincoln and Secretaries Cameron and Stanton ultimately
-placed great reliance upon the committee, and constantly, throughout
-the war, it gave them the most valuable assistance. Mr. Wade and Mr.
-Chandler were deeper in the confidence of Secretary Stanton, from
-their connection with it, than were any other members of Congress, and
-differences of aim and opinion between them were exceedingly rare.
-
-Upon organizing for work the committee found itself confronted with
-an enormous task, inquiries into every phase of the organization and
-management of the Union armies being referred to it for consideration.
-"Upon the conduct of the war," to quote from its own report, "depended
-the issue of the experiment inaugurated by our fathers, after the
-expenditure of so much blood and treasure--the establishment of a
-nation founded upon the capacity of man for self-government. The nation
-was engaged in a struggle for its existence; a rebellion, unparalleled
-in history, threatened the overthrow of our free institutions, and the
-most prompt and vigorous measures were demanded by every consideration
-of honor, patriotism, and a due regard for the prosperity and happiness
-of the people." And its sphere of duty was the constant watching of the
-details of movements, upon whose result depended such vast interests,
-as well as the safety of thousands of lives. The committee, in laying
-out its work, followed the suggestion of Mr. Chandler, which was,
-first, to obtain such information in respect to the conduct of the war
-as would best enable them to point out the mistakes which had been made
-in the past, and the course that promised to ensure the avoidance of
-their repetition; second, to collect such information as the many and
-laborious duties of the President and Secretary of War prevented them
-from obtaining, and to lay it before them with those recommendations
-and suggestions which the circumstances seemed to demand. Working in
-such a field, the committee soon became a second Cabinet council,
-and its proceedings were constantly at the President's hand. Its
-sessions were nearly perpetual, and almost daily its members were in
-consultation with the President or the Secretary of War. Many of its
-transactions were never committed to paper, and, as the members were
-sworn to the strictest secrecy, will never be revealed. Secretary
-Stanton was frequently present while the committee was in session, and
-its door was always open to him. There was never any lack of harmony
-between him and its chief members, but, on the contrary, the utmost
-confidence was exchanged, and this committee was the right arm of the
-War Department in the darkest days of the rebellion. Repeatedly, after
-the examination of some important witness, did Mr. Chandler or Mr.
-Wade go at once to the White House with the official stenographer,
-when Mr. Stanton would be sent for and the stenographic notes of the
-evidence would be read to the President and Secretary of War for their
-information and guidance. From such conferences there sprang many
-important decisions, and the files and records of the committee were
-constantly referred to and relied upon as sources of exceedingly useful
-knowledge and hints both at the White House and at the War Department.
-
-Many subjects presented themselves for investigation, any one of which
-would, in ordinary times, have required the exclusive attention of a
-separate committee, and to follow out every line of inquiry suggested
-was manifestly a practical impossibility. Therefore the committee
-decided not to undertake any investigations into what might be
-considered side issues, but to keep their attention directed entirely
-to the essential features of the war, so that they could ascertain and
-comprehend the necessities of the armies and the causes of disaster
-or complaint, and the methods of supplying the one and remedying the
-other. Attempts were made repeatedly to use its power to punish enemies
-or to avenge private grievances, but its members adhered resolutely to
-the straightforward course originally marked out as the path of its
-duty.
-
-The first subject which the committee carefully inquired into was the
-defeat at Bull Run. Many witnesses were examined, chiefly officers
-who were engaged in the battle--Generals Scott, McDowell, Meigs,
-Heintzelman, Butterfield, Fitz-John Porter, and others. The testimony
-was very voluminous, but the committee reached an early and unanimous
-opinion as to the causes of the disaster. Their report, written by Mr.
-Wade, said: "That which now appears to have been the great error was
-the failure to occupy Centreville and Manassas at the time Alexandria
-was occupied, in May. The position at Manassas controlled the railroad
-connections in all that section of the country.... The next cause of
-disaster was the delay in proceeding against the enemy until the time
-of the three months' men was nearly expired. The enemy were allowed
-time to collect their forces and strengthen their position by defensive
-works.... There had been but little time devoted to disciplining
-the troops and instructing them, even in regiments; hardly any
-instruction had been given them in brigade movements, and none at all
-as divisions." General McDowell prepared a plan of campaign, which
-was approved by the Cabinet, and the 9th of July was fixed upon as the
-day for the advance; but the movement did not commence until a week
-later than the appointed time. Transportation was deficient, and there
-was much delay resulting from lack of discipline among the troops, and
-when the battle came the Union forces were fatigued and not in good
-fighting condition. "But," said the report, "the principal cause of
-the defeat was the failure of General Patterson to hold the troops of
-General Johnston in the valley of the Shenandoah." Patterson had 23,000
-men, while Johnston had but 12,000. Still, Patterson disobeyed the
-orders of General Scott, which were to make offensive demonstrations
-against General Johnston so as to detain his army at Winchester, and
-if he retreated to follow him and keep up the fight. Those orders
-were repeated every day for more than a week in the telegraphic
-correspondence between Scott and Patterson. Finally, General Scott
-heard of a large force moving from Patterson's front, and telegraphed,
-"Has not the enemy stolen a march on you?" To this Patterson replied,
-"The enemy has stolen no march upon me," while at that very time his
-large army was watching an empty camp and Johnston was far on his way
-to reinforce the rebels at Manassas. Patterson did not discover that
-Johnston had gone until he was miles distant, and the consequence
-was that McDowell had both Beauregard and Johnston to fight, while
-Patterson, with 23,000 men, was lying idle in his camp. This is the
-substance of the report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War
-on the battle of Bull Run, and was the official announcement to the
-country of the inefficiency of the organization and generalship of the
-Army of the Potomac.
-
-But before the committee was organized the men who were responsible
-for this failure had been displaced, and General McClellan had been
-made the commander-in-chief. He had taken the reins of authority amid
-national acclamations, and was then at the height of a remarkable
-popularity, which it is now known was adroitly stimulated for political
-purposes by the conservative press. But on the investigation into the
-second subject taken up by the committee (the disaster at Edward's
-Ferry or Ball's Bluff) facts came to the knowledge of its members
-which created the suspicion in their minds that General Stone, who was
-charged with the blame of that defeat, and who, as the scape-goat, was
-arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette, was not alone responsible
-for the calamity, but that the real fault would be found higher up.
-This suspicion they were never able to substantiate by absolute proof,
-and it was not expressed in any of their reports.
-
-The third topic taken up by the committee was the military management
-of the Western Department, under General Fremont. This was an inquiry
-of special importance, for the reason that that officer, upon taking
-command at St. Louis, issued a proclamation declaring free all slaves
-whose masters were engaged in rebellion against the United States.
-This order caused a great excitement throughout the country, and the
-Republican party was widely divided in opinion as to its legality
-and propriety. President Lincoln was conservative on the question,
-and revoked the Fremont order, much to the disappointment of Mr.
-Chandler and the other more "advanced" Republicans. Hence the committee
-approached the subject with unusual interest, and, after a thorough
-investigation, made an elaborate report. That part of this document
-which relates to General Fremont's order in regard to slaves was signed
-by Messrs. Wade, Chandler, Julian, and Covode, and showed the ground on
-which these gentlemen then stood with regard to emancipation; it was as
-follows:
-
-  But that feature of General Fremont's administration which
-  attracted the most attention, and which will ever be most prominent
-  among the many points of interest connected with the history of
-  that department, is his proclamation of emancipation. Whatever
-  opinion may be entertained with reference to the time when the
-  policy of emancipation should be inaugurated, there can be no doubt
-  that General Fremont at that early day rightly judged in regard
-  to the most effective means of subduing this rebellion. In proof
-  of that, it is only necessary to state that his successor, when
-  transferred to another department, issued a proclamation embodying
-  the same principle, and the President of the United States has
-  since applied the same principle to all the rebellious States; and
-  few will deny that it must be adhered to until the last vestige of
-  treason and rebellion is destroyed.
-
-The committee heartily endorsed General Fremont's administration,
-declaring it to have been "eminently characterized by earnestness,
-ability, and the most unquestionable loyalty." They also examined into
-various minor military matters and movements, including, particularly,
-rebel barbarities and the return of slaves to their masters by the army.
-
-It was as a member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War in the
-Thirty-seventh Congress, and from the evidence taken in its inquiries,
-that Mr. Chandler obtained the mass of information which enabled him
-to make the most important of his war speeches, that of July 16,
-1862, in which he exposed so conclusively General McClellan's utter
-incompetence. Ample as was the foundation of facts upon which rested
-this effective arraignment of conspicuous incapacity, the attack was
-one requiring genuine boldness, for it defiantly invited a storm of
-denunciation and, if it had failed of justification by the event, would
-have certainly ended its maker's political career. Notwithstanding
-his tardiness, his timidity, his inefficiency as a commander in the
-field, and his political sympathy with the more unpatriotic classes
-of the Northern people, General McClellan was still strong with the
-people and entrusted with great powers. The Democracy warmly commended
-his sentiments and methods, and labored incessantly to prevent any
-diminution of his hold upon the public confidence. The Army of the
-Potomac yet regarded him as "the young Napoleon," and its corps
-commanders were, with but few exceptions, his personal adherents. The
-long-suffering President was submitting with patience to his unjust
-complaints, after having labored incessantly to stimulate into activity
-his chronic sluggishness, fearful, with characteristic over-caution,
-lest his summary removal should divide the North and breed a dangerous
-disaffection in the face of the enemy among his troops. Many who did
-not believe in the sincerity or ability of the man also smothered
-their distrust, for fear that criticism would only weaken the common
-cause and with the hope that even in his nerveless hands the mighty
-weapon of the national resources would at last fall--even if by its
-own weight only--on the enemy with decisive force. At this juncture,
-and under these circumstances, Mr. Chandler, with characteristic vigor
-of statement and plainness of speech, placed before the Senate and the
-country the demonstration of McClellan's imbecility.
-
-Originally Mr. Chandler believed that McClellan's selection as the
-practical successor of General Scott was a wise one, and hoped to see
-his organizing capacity in camp supplemented by enterprise and courage
-in the field. Distrust first sprang up with the persistent inaction
-of the Army of the Potomac throughout the last months of 1861, and it
-was strengthened by contact with the man himself and the study of his
-character and his plans. An illustration of how this change of opinion
-was brought about is given in an incident which occurred in the room
-of the Committee on the Conduct of the War. That committee sent for
-General McClellan as soon as they took up matters relating to his
-command, in order to consult with him informally as to the situation.
-This was in January, 1861, while he was in Washington "organizing" his
-army, and while there was no little impatience felt because he did
-not move. He was not formally summoned before the committee then, but
-simply called in for general consultation. After the regular business
-was finished, Mr. Chandler asked him bluntly why he did not attack
-the rebels. General McClellan replied that it was because there were
-not sufficient means of communication with Washington; he then called
-attention to the fact that there were only two bridges and no other
-means of transportation across the Potomac.
-
-Mr. Chandler asked what the number of bridges had to do with an advance
-movement, and McClellan explained with much detail that it was one
-of the most important features of skillful strategy that a commander
-should have plenty of room to retreat before making an attack. To this
-Mr. Chandler's response was:
-
-"General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at
-the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room so that you can run in
-case they strike back!"
-
-"Or in case you get scared," added Senator Wade.
-
-The commander of the Army of the Potomac manifested indignation at this
-blunt way of putting the case, and then proceeded at length to explain
-the art of war and the science of generalship, laying special stress
-upon the necessity of having lines of retreat, as well as lines of
-communication and supply, always open. He labored hard to make clear
-all the methods and counter-methods upon which campaigns are managed
-and battles fought, and, as he was an accomplished master of the theory
-of war, succeeded in rendering himself at least interesting. After he
-had concluded, Mr. Wade said:
-
-"General, you have all the troops you have called for, and if you
-haven't enough, you shall have more. They are well organized and
-equipped, and the loyal people of this country expect that you will
-make a short and decisive campaign. Is it really necessary for you to
-have more bridges over the Potomac before you move?"
-
-"Not that," was the answer, "not that exactly, but we must bear in mind
-the necessity of having everything ready in case of a defeat, and keep
-our lines of retreat open."
-
-With this remark General McClellan left the room, whereupon Mr. Wade
-asked:
-
-"Chandler, what do you think of the science of generalship?"
-
-"I don't know much about war," was the reply, "but it seems to me that
-this is infernal, unmitigated cowardice."
-
-The committee, after this interview, made a careful inquiry into the
-strength of the rebel forces confronting the elaborate intrenchments
-about Washington, and became convinced that the army at and about
-Manassas was a handful compared with the magnificent body of troops
-under McClellan's command. They submitted these facts to the President
-and his Cabinet at a special session held for that purpose, and urged
-the importance of an instant advance. With one single exception (a
-Cabinet officer) the heads of the departments and the committee agreed
-that an offensive movement from the line of the Potomac into Virginia
-was important and must be made. General McClellan promised that his
-army should start, but it did not. Toward the close of the winter
-the President ordered a general advance, but the Army of the Potomac
-still remained immobile. Finally, on March 10, under the peremptory
-orders of the President, it did advance to Centreville and found there
-deserted camps, wooden guns, weak intrenchments, and traces of the
-retreat of not more than a single full corps of rebel troops. It was
-during this most aggravating delay that members of the committee had
-another characteristic interview with General McClellan. On the 19th of
-February a sub-committee waited upon the Secretary of War[23] to ask
-why the army was idle, and why the city of Washington and the North
-side of the Potomac river were crowded with troops when the enemy was
-all in Virginia. Mr. Wade said that it was a disgrace to the nation
-that Washington was thus allowed to remain to all intents and purposes
-in a state of siege. To this Secretary Stanton replied that the
-committee could not feel more keenly upon this subject than did he,
-that he did not go to bed at night without his cheek burning with
-shame at this disgrace, and that the subject had received his earnest
-attention, but he had not been able to change the situation as he
-wished. General McClellan was then sent for, and Secretary Stanton
-stated to him the object of the visit, and repeated the inquiries as to
-why an advance movement was not made into Virginia, the rebels driven
-away from Washington, and the soldiers who were idle in their camps in
-and around the city sent to active duty.
-
-General McClellan answered that he was considering the matter, but
-that instant action was impossible, although he hoped that he would
-soon be able to decide what ought to be done. The committee asked what
-time he would require to reach a decision. He replied that it depended
-upon circumstances; that he would not give his consent to have the
-troops about Washington sent over to the Virginia side of the Potomac
-without having their rear protected more fully, and better lines of
-retreat open; that he designed throwing a temporary bridge across the
-river as soon as possible, and making a permanent structure of it at
-his leisure. That would make three bridges, and then the requisite
-precautions would be completed.
-
-Mr. Wade replied, with great impatience, that with 150,000 of the best
-troops the world ever saw, there was no need of more bridges; that the
-rebels were inferior in numbers and condition, and that retreat would
-be treason. "These 150,000 men," Mr. Wade said, "could whip the whole
-Confederacy if they were given a chance; if I was their commander I
-would lead them across the Potomac, and they should not come back until
-they had won a victory and the war was ended, or they came in their
-coffins." Mr. Wade spoke strongly and plainly throughout the interview,
-and the Secretary of War endorsed every word he uttered. The committee
-had another conference with Secretary Stanton on the following day at
-his residence, at which it was decided that they should co-operate
-with him in an effort to persuade President Lincoln either to displace
-McClellan or to compel him to commence an active campaign at once.
-On the 25th of February this conference with the President was held,
-and it was followed by others, Senators Chandler and Wade finally
-threatening to make the laggardness of the commander of the Army of the
-Potomac a subject of debate in the Senate, and to offer a resolution
-directing the President to order an advance forthwith. The first result
-was what the committee were so anxious to accomplish. In March, the
-armies commenced to move, and McClellan, at last taking the field in
-person, pushed out to Centreville, and then followed up this delayed
-advance by his flank movement to the Peninsula, driving the rebels out
-of Yorktown by a month's work with the shovel, and following General
-Johnston up to Williamsburg, where a bloody victory was won, but its
-fruits were left ungathered. This campaign was short, bloody, and
-blundering, ending with the battle of Malvern Hill, which was also
-deprived of its proper importance by McClellan's failure to follow up
-his advantage with a prompt advance upon Richmond, and which thus in
-the end amounted to but little more than another Union reverse. Mr.
-Chandler always firmly believed that had McClellan moved toward the
-rebel capital and not toward his gunboats after Malvern Hill, the war
-would have been shortened by two years.
-
-When it first became evident that General McClellan was, by sullenness
-and incapacity, throwing away advantages gained by the heroism of his
-troops on the Peninsula, Mr. Chandler determined to denounce him on
-the floor of the Senate, but was restrained by Mr. Stanton, who urged
-that, while the campaign was still in active progress, there was yet
-some hope of a change for the better, and that to destroy confidence in
-a commanding officer under such circumstances might injure the army
-in the field. After Malvern Hill these reasons ceased to have force,
-and Mr. Chandler commenced the careful preparation of his speech. This
-time the Secretary of War endorsed the timeliness as well as the truth
-of the _expose_, and the Committee on the Conduct of the War by formal
-vote authorized the use of the testimony taken before it and not yet
-made public. After he had gathered and grouped the facts which formed
-the basis of his arraignment, Mr. Chandler submitted them to a friend
-upon whose good judgment and sincerity he greatly relied, and asked:
-
-"Knowing all these facts, as I do, what is my duty?"
-
-The answer was: "Beyond all question, these facts ought to be laid
-before the country, for the knowledge of them is essential to its
-safety. But they will create a storm that will sweep either you or
-McClellan from public life, and it is more than probable that you will
-be the victim."
-
-Mr. Chandler said: "I did not ask your opinion of the consequences, but
-of my duty."
-
-To this it was replied: "The speech ought to be made, and no one else
-will make it."
-
-Mr. Chandler simply said: "It will be made to-day; come and hear it."
-And he did make it, in the midst of a running discussion on a bill "to
-provide for the discharge of state prisoners and others," which was the
-special order in the Senate for that day (July 16, 1862).
-
-Mr. Chandler commenced by briefly reciting the history of the
-appointment of the committee, and then gave from the evidence taken at
-its sessions a compact summary of the causes of the Bull Run disaster,
-fortifying each point with citations from the testimony. After closing
-this part of his speech he proceeded to review the Ball's Bluff
-catastrophe, saying:
-
-  Were the people discouraged, depressed? Not at all. Untold
-  thousands rushed into the shattered ranks, eager to wipe out
-  the stain and stigma of that defeat (Bull Run). From the East,
-  the West, the North, and the Middle States, thousands and tens
-  of thousands and hundreds of thousands came pouring in, until
-  the government said, "Hold, enough." The Army of the Potomac,
-  denuded in August of three-months' men and scarcely numbering
-  50,000 efficient men, swelled in September to over 100,000, in
-  October to 150,000, in November to 175,000 and upward, until,
-  on the 10th day of December, the morning rolls showed 195,400
-  men, and thirteen regiments not reported, chiefly intended for
-  the Burnside expedition, but all under the command of General
-  McClellan. During the months of October, November, and December,
-  the weather was delightful and the roads fine. The question began
-  to be asked in October, when will the advance take place? All had
-  the most unbounded confidence in the army and its young general,
-  and were anxiously waiting for a Napoleonic stroke. It came, but
-  such a stroke! That a general movement was being prepared the
-  whole country had known for weeks; but when the terrific blow was
-  to be struck no one knew save the commander of the Army of the
-  Potomac. The nation believed in its young commander; the President
-  relied upon him, and all, myself included, had the most unbounded
-  confidence in the result of the intended movement. It came! On the
-  21st of October, McCall's division, 12,000 strong, was ordered
-  to Drainesville upon a reconnoissance. Smith's division, 12,000
-  strong, was ordered to support him. McCall's reconnoissance
-  extended four miles beyond Drainesville, and to within nine miles
-  of Leesburg. Stone, on Sunday, was informed of McCall's and Smith's
-  advance, and directed to make a slight demonstration upon Leesburg.
-  How? He could do it in but one way, and that was by crossing the
-  river and moving upon it. [Mr. Chandler here introduced a mass of
-  testimony and official orders to show that Col. E. D. Baker, whom
-  General Stone sent across the Potomac at Ball's Bluff, had ample
-  reasons to believe that he would be sustained in that advance,
-  and reinforced if necessary. He proceeded:] Thus it is shown that
-  Colonel Baker had reason to expect reinforcements, for the enemy
-  were to be pushed upon their flank by General Gorman.
-
-  At two o'clock on Monday morning Colonel Devens crossed the river
-  upon a reconnoissance with 400 men at Ball's Bluff, opposite
-  Harrison's Island, as directed by General Stone. At daylight
-  Colonel Baker was ordered to cross to the support of Colonel
-  Devens. I have read his orders. One scow and two small boats were
-  their only means of transportation. At eight o'clock on Monday
-  morning the fight commenced by Colonel Devens, and Colonel Baker
-  was placed in command, as is alleged, with discretionary orders.
-  Colonel Baker knew that Smith and McCall were at Drainesville,
-  or within striking distance, that our troops were crossing at
-  Edward's Ferry, or, in other words, that 40,000 effective men
-  were within twelve miles of him, and that at least 30,000 were
-  upon the Virginia side of the Potomac, and that, in the nature of
-  things, he must be reinforced. He did not know that at half-past
-  ten A.M., of Monday, or two and one-half hours after Colonel Devens
-  commenced the fight, the divisions of Smith and McCall commenced
-  their retreat by the express orders of General McClellan. He knew
-  that Colonel Devens was contending with greatly superior forces,
-  and, like a gallant soldier as he was, he hastened to his relief
-  with all the force he could cross with his inadequate means of
-  transportation.
-
-  Colonel Baker has been charged with imprudence and rashness; but
-  neither the facts nor the testimony support the charge. Instead
-  of rashly or imprudently advancing into the enemy's lines, as
-  was alleged, he did not move ten rods from the Bluff, and the
-  only sustaining witness to this charge was one officer, who swore
-  that he thought Colonel Baker imprudently exposed himself to the
-  enemy's bullets. This kind of rashness is usually pardoned after
-  the death of the perpetrator. At two o'clock P. M. Colonel Baker
-  found himself in command of about 1,800 men upon Ball's Bluff,
-  including Devens's men and three guns, and the fighting commenced.
-  The alternatives were fight and conquer, surrender, or be captured.
-  That noble band of heroes and their gallant commander understood
-  these terrible alternatives as well upon that bloody field as we
-  do now, and nobly did they vindicate their manhood. During all
-  those long hours, from two o'clock P. M. until the early dusk of
-  evening, the gallant Baker continued the unequal contest, when he
-  fell pierced by three bullets and instantly expired. A council
-  of war was called (after the frightful death-struggle over his
-  lifeless remains and for them), and it was decided that the only
-  chance of an escape was by cutting through the enemy and reaching
-  Edward's Ferry, which was at once decided upon; but, while
-  forming for the desperate encounter, the enemy rushed upon our
-  little band of heroes in overpowering numbers, and the rout was
-  perfect.... How many were killed in battle, how many drowned in
-  the relentless river, will never be correctly known; suffice it
-  to say, our little force was destroyed. Why was this little band
-  permitted to be destroyed by a force little more than double its
-  numbers in presence of 40,000 splendid troops? Why were McCall and
-  Smith ordered back at the very moment that Baker was ordered to
-  cross? If we wanted Leesburg, McCall could have taken it without
-  the loss of a man, as his movement in mass had already caused its
-  evacuation, and the enemy did not return in force until after
-  McCall had retreated. If we did not wish to capture Leesburg, why
-  did we cross at all? Of what use is "a slight demonstration" even,
-  without results? These are questions which the people will ask,
-  and no man can satisfactorily answer. Why were not reinforcements
-  sent from Edward's Ferry to Colonel Baker? The distance was only
-  three-and-a-half miles. We had 1,500 men across at two o'clock on
-  Monday, and the universal concurrent testimony of officers and men
-  is that a reinforcement of even 1,000 men--some say 500, and one
-  gallant captain swears that with 100 men he could have struck them
-  upon the flank,--would have changed the result of the day. Why were
-  not reinforcements sent? Stone swears, as I have already shown,
-  that there were batteries between Edward's Ferry and Ball's Bluff
-  which would have utterly destroyed any force he could have sent to
-  Baker's relief, and that Baker knew it. But Stone was not sustained
-  by a single witness; on the contrary, all swear that there were
-  not, to their knowledge, and that they did not believe there were
-  any, and a civilian living upon the spot, and in the habit of
-  passing over the ground frequently, swears there were none; and
-  again, Stone, when questioned as to the erection of forts under the
-  range of his guns upon his second examination, swears positively
-  that there is not a gun now between Edward's Ferry and Ball's
-  Bluff, and never has been. Why, then, were not reinforcements sent
-  from Edward's Ferry? Let the men who executed and planned this
-  horrible slaughter answer to God and an outraged country. General
-  Banks swears that his orders were such from General McClellan,
-  that, upon his arrival at Edward's Ferry, although his judgment was
-  against crossing, he did not feel himself at liberty to decline
-  crossing, and he remained upon the Virginia side until Thursday....
-  So much for the wholesale murder at Ball's Bluff.
-
-Mr. Chandler next attacked General McClellan's disastrous
-procrastination. Describing the lapse of an army of 150,000 men into
-a state of chronic inaction in its intrenchments about Washington
-after the Ball's Bluff disaster, he laid before the Senate and the
-country documents which proved these facts: In October, 1861, the Navy
-Department requested that 4,000 men might be detailed to hold Matthias
-Point on the lower Potomac, after the gunboats should have shelled
-out the rebels, who were then in possession, and thus in control of
-the navigation of that important river. General McClellan agreed to
-furnish the infantry; twice the Navy Department prepared its vessels
-for the expedition, but the troops did not report for duty, so that,
-finally, the gunboats were necessarily detailed for other service, and
-the unnecessary, expensive and humiliating blockade of the Potomac
-continued for months. Mr. Chandler then proceeded:
-
-  Why was this disgrace so long submitted to? No man knows or
-  attempts to explain. Month after month one of the most splendid
-  armies the world had ever seen, of 200,000 men, permitted itself
-  and the national capital to be besieged by a force _never_
-  exceeding one-half its own number.
-
-  During the month of December, the nation became impatient. The
-  time had arrived and passed when we were promised a forward
-  movement. The roads were good, the weather splendid, the army
-  in high condition, and eager for the fray. How long the roads
-  and weather would permit the movement, no man could predict;
-  still there was no movement. The generals, with great unanimity,
-  declared that the army had reached its maximum of proficiency
-  as volunteers, but still there was no movement. Under these
-  circumstances, the Committee on the Conduct of the War asked an
-  interview with the President and Cabinet, and urged that the winter
-  should not be permitted to pass without action, as it would lead
-  to an incalculable loss of life and treasure by forcing our brave
-  troops into a summer campaign, in a hot and to them inhospitable
-  climate. The President and Cabinet were united in the desire that
-  an immediate advance should be made, but it was not made, although
-  we were assured by General McClellan that it would be very soon,
-  that he had no intention of going into winter quarters, and he did
-  not! While the enemy erected comfortable huts at Centreville and
-  Manassas for their winter quarters, our brave and eager troops
-  spent the most uncomfortable winter ever known in this climate
-  under canvas, as thousands and tens of thousands of invalid
-  soldiers throughout the length and breadth of the land will attest.
-  Why did not the army move in all December, or why did it not go
-  into winter quarters? No man knows, nor is any reason assigned.
-
-  On the 1st day of January, 1862, and for months previous to that
-  date, the armies of the republic were occupying a purely defensive
-  position upon the whole line from Missouri to the Atlantic, until
-  on or about the 27th of January the President and Secretary of War
-  issued the order forward. Then the brave Foote took the initiative,
-  soliciting 2,000 men from Halleck to hold Fort Henry after he had
-  captured it with his gunboats. They were promptly furnished, and
-  Henry fell; then Donelson, with its 15,000 prisoners; then Newbern,
-  and the country was electrified. Credit was given where credit was
-  due. Do-nothing strategy gave way to an "immediate advance upon
-  the enemy's works," and the days of spades and pickaxes seemed
-  to be ended. On the 22d of February a forward movement upon our
-  whole line was ordered, but did not take place. The Army of the
-  Potomac was not ready; but on the 10th of March it moved, against
-  the protest of the commanding general and eight out of twelve of
-  the commanders of divisions; but the President was inexorable, and
-  the movement must be made. It proceeded to Centreville, and there
-  found deserted huts, wooden artillery, and intrenchments which
-  could and can be successfully charged by cavalry. It proceeded
-  to Manassas, and found no fortifications worthy of the name,
-  a deserted, abandoned camp, and dead horses for trophies. The
-  enemy, less than 40,000 men, had leisurely escaped, carrying away
-  all their artillery, baggage, arms, and stores. Our Army of the
-  Potomac, on that 10th day of March, showed by its muster-roll a
-  force of 230,000 men. Comment is needless! The Grand Army of the
-  Potomac proceeded toward Gordonsville, found no enemy, repaired the
-  railroad, and then marched back again.
-
-  Why this Grand Army of the Potomac did not march upon Richmond has
-  never been satisfactorily explained, and probably never will be.
-  One reason assigned was lack of transportation; but there were two
-  railroads, one by way of Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, the
-  other via Manassas and Gordonsville, which could have been repaired
-  at the rate of ten miles per day, and our army was ample to guard
-  it. Had this overwhelming force proceeded directly to Richmond by
-  these lines, it would have spent the 1st day of May in Richmond,
-  and ere this the rebellion would have been ended. This grand army,
-  _ably_ commanded, was superior to any army the world has seen for
-  five hundred years. Napoleon I. never fought 130,000 men upon
-  one battle-field. Yet this noble army was divided and virtually
-  sacrificed by some one. Who is the culprit?
-
-  Before the advance upon Manassas, General McClellan changed his
-  plans, and demanded to be permitted to leave the enemy intrenched
-  at Centreville and Manassas; to leave the Potomac blockaded, and
-  to take his army to Annapolis by land, and there embark them for
-  the rear of the enemy to surprise him. In the council of war
-  called upon this proposition, the commanding general and eight out
-  of twelve of the commanders of divisions (and here permit me to
-  say that I am informed that seven out of the eight generals were
-  appointed upon the recommendation of General McClellan) voted that
-  it was not safe to advance upon the wooden guns of Centreville, and
-  to adopt the new plan of campaign. The President and the Secretary
-  of War overruled this pusillanimous decision, and compelled
-  McClellan to "move immediately upon the enemy's works." He marched,
-  and the trophies of that memorable campaign are known to the Senate
-  and the country.
-
-  At Fairfax, General McClellan changed his plan and decided not to
-  advance upon the rebels with his whole force, but to return to
-  Alexandria, divide his army, and embark for Fortress Monroe and
-  Yorktown. It was decided that 45,000 men should be left for the
-  defense of the capital, and he was permitted to embark. After much
-  delay (unavoidable in the movement of so vast a force, with its
-  enormous material) the general-in-chief himself embarked. Soon
-  after he sailed it came to the knowledge of the Committee on the
-  Conduct of the War that the capital, with its vast accumulation
-  of material of war, had been left by General McClellan virtually
-  without defense, and the enemy's whole force, large or small, was
-  untouched in front. [Mr. Chandler here introduced the official
-  testimony to prove that General McClellan had so denuded Washington
-  as to compel the President to interpose and detain General
-  McDowell's corps for its adequate defense. He then said:] The
-  country has been deceived. It has been led to believe that the
-  Secretary of War or somebody else has interfered with General
-  McClellan's plans, when he had an army that could have crushed any
-  other army on the face of the earth. One hundred and fifty-eight
-  thousand of the best troops that ever stood on God's footstool were
-  sent down to the Peninsula and placed under command of General
-  McClellan; and yet the whole treasonable press of the country has
-  been howling after the Secretary of War because of his alleged
-  refusal to send reinforcements to General McClellan. As I said the
-  other day, he has sent every man, every sabre, every bayonet, every
-  horse, that could be spared from any source whatever to increase
-  that grand army under General McClellan in front of Richmond. Why
-  did he not enter Richmond? We shall see.... It is not for me, sir,
-  to state the strength of McClellan's army at this time; but I know
-  it is 158,000 men, less the number lost by sickness and casualties.
-  Does any man doubt that this army, ably handled, was sufficiently
-  strong to have captured Richmond and crushed the rebel army? I
-  think not, if promptly led against the enemy; but instead of that,
-  it sat down in malarious swamps and awaited the drafting, arming,
-  drilling, and making soldiers of an army to fight it, and in the
-  meantime our own army was rapidly wasting away. Unwholesome water,
-  inadequate food, overwork, and sleeping in marshes, were rapidly
-  filling the hospitals, and overloading the return boats with the
-  sick. Sir, we have lost more men by the spade than the bullet,
-  five to one, since the army started from Yorktown under McClellan.
-  Had the soldiers been relieved from digging and menial labor by
-  the substitution of negro laborers, the Army of the Potomac would
-  to-day, in my estimation, contain 30,000 more brave and efficient
-  soldiers than it does. Had it been relieved from guarding the
-  property of rebels in arms, many valuable lives would have been
-  saved. Yorktown was evacuated after a sacrifice of more men by
-  sickness than the enemy had in their works when our army landed at
-  Fortress Monroe. The battle of Williamsburg was fought by a small
-  fraction of our army, and the enemy routed. During the battle,
-  General McClellan wrote a dispatch, miles from the field of battle,
-  saying he should try to "hold them in check" there.... He would try
-  to "hold them in check!" He could not hold them. He could not stop
-  his eager troops from chasing them. After a small fraction of his
-  army had whipped their entire force and had been chasing them for
-  hours, he penned that dispatch and sent it to the Secretary of War,
-  and, if I remember aright, it was read in one of the two houses of
-  Congress. As you may suppose from that dispatch, there was no great
-  eagerness in following up that victory. Three Michigan regiments
-  were not only decimated, they were divided in twain, in that
-  bloody battle at Williamsburg. They fought there all day without
-  reinforcements. One Michigan regiment went into the trenches and
-  left sixty-three dead rebels, killed by the bayonet, weltering in
-  their blood. But who has ever heard, by any official communication
-  from the head of the army, that a Michigan regiment was in the
-  fight at Williamsburg? I do not blame him for not giving credit
-  where credit is due, for I do not believe he knew anything more of
-  that fight than you or I.
-
-  When that battle was fought and won, all the enemy's works were
-  cleared away, and we had an open road to Richmond. There was not a
-  single fortification between Richmond and Williamsburg. All we had
-  to do was to get through those infernal swamps, march up, and take
-  possession of Richmond. What did we do? We found the worst swamp
-  there was between Richmond and Williamsburg, and sat right down
-  in the center of it and went to digging. We sacrificed thousands
-  and tens of thousands of the bravest troops that ever stood on
-  the face of God's earth, digging in front of no intrenchments, and
-  before a whipped army of the enemy. We waited for them to recruit;
-  we waited for them to get another army. They had a levy _en masse_.
-  They were taking all the men and boys between the ages of fifteen
-  and fifty-five, and magnanimously we waited weeks and weeks and
-  weeks for them to bring these forced levies into some sort of
-  consistency as an army. The battle of Fair Oaks was fought. There
-  the enemy found again a little fraction of our army, very much
-  less than half, and they brought out their entire force. I have it
-  from the best authority that they had not a solitary regiment in
-  or about Richmond that was fit to put in front of an enemy that
-  they did not bring to Fair Oaks and hurl upon our decimated army.
-  Again the indomitable bravery of our troops (of the men, of private
-  soldiers, the indomitable energy of Michigan men and New Jersey
-  men--but I will not particularize, for all the troops fought like
-  lions), and the fighting capacity of our army not only saved it
-  from being utterly destroyed by an overwhelming force, but gave us
-  a triumphant victory. The enemy went back to Richmond pell-mell.
-  I have been informed by a man who was there at the time, that two
-  brigades of fresh troops could have chased the whole Confederate
-  army through the city of Richmond and into the James river, so
-  utter was their rout and confusion.
-
-  And what did we do then? We found another big swamp, and we sat
-  down in the center of it and went to digging. We began to throw up
-  intrenchments when there were no intrenchments in our front, no
-  enemy that was not utterly broken. We never took advantage of the
-  battle of Fair Oaks. Again Michigan soldiers were cut to pieces
-  by hundreds. Go into the Judiciary square hospital in this city,
-  and you will find more than half the occupants are Michigan men
-  who were shot at Fair Oaks and Williamsburg, men who stood until
-  a regiment of 1,000 men was reduced to 105, and even then did not
-  run. Sir, these men have been sacrificed, uselessly sacrificed.
-  They have been put to hard digging, and hard fare, and hard
-  sleeping, and if there was any hard fighting to do they have been
-  put to that; and, besides all this, at night they have had to guard
-  the property of rebels in arms. They have been so sacrificed that
-  two or three of the Michigan regiments to-day cannot bring into the
-  field 250 men each out of 1,000 with whom they started.
-
-  Fair Oaks was lost; that is to say, we won a brilliant victory,
-  but it did us no good; we did not take advantage of it. Of course
-  it would have been very unfair to take advantage of a routed army
-  [laughter]; it would not have been according to our "strategy." We
-  magnanimously stopped, and commenced digging. There was no army in
-  our front, there were no intrenchments in our front; but we did not
-  know what else to do, and so we began to dig and ditch, and we kept
-  digging and ditching until the rebels had impressed and drilled and
-  armed and made soldiers of their entire population. But that was
-  not enough; they sent Jackson up on his raid to Winchester, and
-  we waited for him to come back with his twenty or thirty thousand
-  men. We heard that Corinth was being evacuated, and of course
-  it would have been very unfair to commence an attack until they
-  brought their troops from Corinth, and so we waited for the army at
-  Corinth to get to Richmond. After the rebels had got all the troops
-  they ever hoped to raise from any source, we did not attack them,
-  but they attacked us, as we had reason to suppose they would. They
-  attacked our right wing, and, as I am informed upon what I must
-  deem reliable authority, they hurled the majority of their entire
-  force upon our right wing of 30,000 men, and during the whole of
-  that Thursday our right wing of 30,000 men held their ground, and
-  repulsed that vast horde of the enemy over and over again, and held
-  their ground at night. Of course you will say a reinforcement of
-  twenty or thirty thousand men was sent to these brave troops that
-  they might not only hold their ground the next day, but send this
-  dastardly army into Richmond a second time, as at Fair Oaks. No,
-  sir, nothing of the sort was done.
-
-  At night, instead of sending them reinforcements, they were ordered
-  to retreat. That was "strategy!" The moment they commenced their
-  retreat, as is said in the dispatches, the enemy fought like
-  demons. Of course they would. Who ever heard of a retreating army
-  that was not pursued by the victors like demons, except in the
-  case of rebel retreats? No other nation but ours was ever guilty
-  of stopping immediately after a victory. Other armies fight like
-  demons after a victory, and annihilate the enemy, but we do not.
-  Our left wing and center remained intact. A feint was made upon
-  the left and center, and I have here, not the sworn testimony, but
-  the statement of one of the bravest men in the whole Army of the
-  Potomac--I will not give his name, but a more highly honorable man
-  lives not--that when his regiment was ordered under arms, he had
-  no doubt that he was going to march into Richmond. He believed the
-  whole force of the enemy had attacked our right wing; he believed
-  there was nothing but a screen of pickets in front; and he thought
-  that now our great triumph was to come off. His men sprang into
-  line with avidity, prepared to rush into Richmond and take it at
-  the point of the bayonet. He never discovered his error until he
-  saw a million and a half dollars' worth of property burned in
-  front of his regiment, and then he began to think that an advance
-  upon Richmond was not intended. And it was not! We had been at
-  work there and had lost 10,000 men in digging intrenchments; we
-  had spent months in bringing up siege guns, and we abandoned
-  those intrenchments without firing one gun. Our army was ordered
-  to advance on the gunboats instead of on Richmond. This colonel
-  told me that his regiment fought three days and whipped the enemy
-  each day, and retreated each night. The left wing and center were
-  untouched until they were ordered to retreat. No portion of our
-  vast force had been fought except the right wing under Porter, and
-  they whipped the enemy the first day.
-
-  This is called strategy! Again, sir, I ask, Why was this great
-  Army of the Potomac of 230,000 men divided? Human ingenuity could
-  not have devised any other way to defeat that army; Divine wisdom
-  could scarcely have devised any other way to defeat it than that
-  which was adopted. There is no army in Europe to-day that could
-  meet the Army of the Potomac when it was 230,000 strong, the best
-  fighting material ever put into an army on the face of the earth.
-  Why was that grand army divided? I simply charge that grave and
-  serious errors have been committed, and, as I have said, no other
-  way could have been devised to defeat that army. If the 158,000
-  men that were sent to General McClellan had been marched upon the
-  enemy, they could have whipped all the armies the Confederates
-  have, and all they are likely to have for six months. One hundred
-  and fifty-eight thousand men are about as many as can be fought on
-  any one battle-field. One hundred and fifty-eight thousand men are
-  a vast army, a great deal larger army than that with which Napoleon
-  destroyed 600,000 of the Austrians in a single year. One hundred
-  and fifty-eight thousand men ably handled can defeat any force
-  the Confederates can raise; and that is the force that went down
-  to the Peninsula. But, sir, it lay in ditches, digging, drinking
-  rotten water, and eating bad food, and sleeping in the mud, until
-  it became greatly reduced in numbers, and of those that were left
-  very many were injured in health. Still they fought; still they
-  conquered in every fight, and still they retreated, because they
-  were ordered to retreat.
-
-  Sir, I have deemed it my duty to present this statement of facts to
-  the Senate and the country. I know that I am to be denounced for so
-  doing, and I tell you who will denounce me. There are two classes
-  of men who are sure to denounce me, and no one else, and they are
-  traitors and fools. The traitors have been denouncing every man who
-  did not sing pæans to "strategy," when it led to defeat every time.
-  The traitors North are worse than the traitors South, and sometimes
-  I think we have as many of them in the aggregate. They are meaner
-  men; they are men who will come behind you and cut your throat in
-  the dark. I have great respect for Southern traitors who shoulder
-  their muskets and come out and take the chances of the bullets
-  and the halter; but I have the most superlative contempt for the
-  Northern traitors, who, under the pretended guise of patriotism,
-  are stabbing their country in the dark.
-
-The effect of this speech was profound. It enraged McClellan's friends
-to the highest pitch; it was not supported at the time by any like
-utterance in Congress, and at first many who believed it to be true
-condemned, or at least deprecated, the fierceness of the attack;
-but those who knew that "the young Napoleon" at heart preferred a
-pro-slavery compromise to the conquest of a durable and honorable
-peace, and who had marked with righteous indignation the attempt of
-his _claquers_ to make the Secretary of War the scape-goat for his
-own blunders, greeted with enthusiasm the signal courage of the man
-who, in the face of abuse, prejudice, and popular blindness, dared to
-tell with words of rugged force this story of disastrous imbecility.
-Mr. Chandler disregarded the remonstrances of weak friends, and met
-without quailing the storm of vituperation he had invited. Events
-made themselves his justifiers and within four months[24] President
-Lincoln, with the full approval of the patriotic masses of the North,
-relieved General McClellan from all command and abruptly terminated
-his military career. Nothing contributed more to this salutary change
-than Mr. Chandler's arraignment, of which it has been well said, that
-"with words resembling battles he told the American people that they
-were leaning upon a broken reed, that 'the idol of the soldiers' was
-as incapable of helping them as the idols of the heathen, and that
-McClellan was only digging graves for the brave men who followed him
-and a last ditch for the cause he defended; he shocked by his language
-the mass of the people into a right comprehension of the death's dance
-this military Jack-o'-lantern was leading them through the swamps of
-Virginia."
-
-Mr. Chandler, who took this step after full deliberation and not
-from any passing impulse, rated the McClellan speech as his most
-important public service, alike in its necessity, its timeliness,
-and its results. He also felt that it involved more real hazard,
-and made larger demands upon his courage, than any other act of his
-Senatorial career, for such relentless invective could scarcely fail
-to mortally wound either its object or its maker. Had time shown that
-he had uttered calumnies and not the sober truth, he would have been
-inevitably driven from public life; and even when he spoke, the men who
-thoroughly doubted McClellan were still a small minority. History has
-shown that his indictment was as true in substance as it was unsparing
-in terms and bold in spirit.
-
-Two other matters naturally group themselves with this speech: Mr.
-Chandler distrusted McClellanism in the Army of the Potomac as
-thoroughly as he did McClellan. The investigations of this committee
-convinced him that General Pope's campaign was so unfortunate because
-of the insubordination of General McClellan's friends among the corps
-commanders, and led him to believe that the same cause crippled the
-movements of both Burnside and Hooker, who, if faithfully supported,
-would have won decisive victories. So strong were his convictions on
-these points, that when General Grant became commander-in-chief he
-called upon the Secretary of War and requested him to make out a list
-of the incompetent, suspected and insubordinate generals of the Army of
-the Potomac, to be furnished to that officer so that he would be able
-to place them where they could do the least harm in the service. This
-Secretary Stanton promised to do. A few days afterward Mr. Chandler
-called again at the War Department, and, learning that this had not
-yet been done, said, "I will make out the list myself and send it to
-Grant;" and he did so, Major-Gen. C. C. Washburn being its bearer.
-Mr. Chandler carefully studied and vigilantly watched the Fitz-John
-Porter case, and approved of the findings of the court-martial, except
-the failure to inflict the death penalty, which he believed that the
-character and consequences of Porter's action fully merited. The
-attempt to secure the reversal of this verdict and the re-instatement
-in the army of the dismissed officer aroused his sternest indignation,
-and he fought it resolutely at every stage--and successfully, while
-he remained in the Senate. He spoke at length on this subject in that
-body on Feb. 21, 1870, declaring that he did so in fulfillment of a
-voluntary pledge given some years before in the same chamber to General
-Pope, "that justice should be done to him and to his campaign in the
-valley of Virginia, even although I were called upon to vindicate him
-from my seat in the Senate." After rehearsing the facts connected with
-Pope's movement, which was planned to create a diversion of Lee's
-army for the extrication of McClellan's forces from the Peninsula, in
-conformity with the suggestion of Gen. James S. Wadsworth, and showing
-that Pope had frequently requested to be relieved from the hazardous
-work laid out for him and that he had only a force of 42,000 men
-scattered between Harper's Ferry and Acquia Creek, Mr. Chandler said:
-
-  I asked him in the presence of the committee: "What is to prevent
-  you from being struck by a superior force of the enemy and
-  overwhelmed?" Said he: "Nothing on earth is more probable than
-  that I shall be struck by a superior force and shall be whipped;
-  but I will keep my troops near the mountains, and there are no
-  ten miles where there is not a gulch up which I can take my men
-  and small-arms, and, by abandoning my artillery and baggage,
-  save my men; I shall probably be whipped, but it must be done."
-  Any military man can see and appreciate the difficulties and
-  responsibilities of so desperate a campaign. "Yet," said he, "it
-  must be done."
-
-  Well, sir, General Pope started on that campaign. Had he announced
-  to the newspaper press of Washington, or of the North, the number
-  of his men or his object, the object itself would have been
-  defeated. General Pope did what I believe is allowable in war: he
-  perpetrated a _ruse de guerre_. He sent his scouts all through the
-  mountains of Virginia proclaiming that he had an army of 120,000
-  men. And, sir, he fooled the newspaper correspondents of the city
-  of Washington and of the whole North. General Pope, when he started
-  on that campaign, had no more idea of going to Richmond than he had
-  of following Elijah to Heaven in a chariot of fire without seeing
-  death. He started with one single object, and that was to save the
-  army of McClellan, or to do all that was in his power to save it.
-  He massed his troops, and that terrible battle of Cedar Mountain
-  was fought; and by that battle he not only fooled the people of
-  this country, but he fooled the rebels. The rebels believed that
-  he had 120,000 men, and that, unless they fought him and crushed
-  him before he could unite with the Army of the Potomac, their cause
-  was lost; and he drew upon his shoulders with that little force the
-  whole rebel army, so that, when McClellan started for Yorktown,
-  there was not even a popgun fired at his troops. The _ruse_ was
-  a perfect success, and, as I told General Pope then, "I consider
-  that your campaign has been one of the most brilliant that has been
-  fought up to this time"--which was February, 1863--"you saved two
-  armies; you first saved the Army of the Potomac, and then you saved
-  your own."
-
-  Sir, General Pope fought for eleven days, fought night and day,
-  fought the whole rebel army with his little force, his force never
-  having exceeded 70,000 men,--comprising not simply his own army,
-  but also General Burnside's forces, and the 20,000 men who had in
-  thirty days been brought up from the Army of the Potomac, and of
-  whom Porter's corps was part. The force which he had met with these
-  was that originally in his front, but overwhelmingly augmented by
-  that rebel force from which McClellan, with his 90,000 men, had to
-  be delivered by a demonstration in their rear. He fought for time.
-  He defended every brook, every barn, every piece of woods, every
-  ravine. He fought for time for the Army of the Potomac to reach him
-  and unite with him, so as to crush the advancing and overwhelming
-  force of the rebels.
-
-Mr. Chandler then reviewed at length (and with copious citations from
-the testimony of eye-witnesses and the official orders) the facts as
-to Fitz-John Porter's course in Pope's campaign, adding extracts from
-the reports of rebel officers which had come into the possession of the
-government since the war, and closed as follows:
-
-  Mr. President, if I had more time I should like to go more fully
-  into this subject; but I cannot. The court, after forty-five days
-  spent in careful investigation, brought in unanimously the verdict
-  against Porter. Many of the members of that court were in favor of
-  sentencing him to suffer death. It is rumored, and many believe,
-  that the only reason the death-penalty was not inflicted was the
-  fear that Mr. Lincoln, whose kindness of heart was so well-known,
-  would not execute the sentence; and, hence, they unanimously
-  brought in the verdict they did. It was first carefully examined
-  _seriatim_ by the then Secretary of War and the President. No more
-  just tribunal ever investigated a case, I presume to assert, than
-  this tribunal, and there its finding stands.
-
-  It may be asked, How came it that a misunderstanding, almost as
-  universal as complete, was suffered to be put upon the country?
-  General Pope himself says: "The next day it (my report) was
-  delivered to General Halleck; but by that time influences of
-  questionable character, and transactions of most unquestionable
-  impropriety, which were well known at the time, had entirely
-  changed the purposes of the authorities. It is not necessary,
-  and, perhaps, would scarcely be in place, for me to recount these
-  things."
-
-  It is as well known to others present as to me that, during
-  that gloomy, eventful Sunday which succeeded the last battle on
-  Saturday, the 30th of August, the President and Mr. Stanton were
-  overrun and overcome with statements that, unless McClellan was
-  restored to command "the army would not fight." These statements
-  came from men who did not mean it should fight, who could not in
-  the exigency of the moment be displaced. The President was able
-  afterward to relieve McClellan and court-martial Porter. Had he
-  lived, he would have seen justice to General Pope awarded also. It
-  remains for me, while I live, to do my portion of that duty.
-
-  There is one other point to which I wish to allude. During this
-  very trial--during the very pendency of the trial--Fitz-John Porter
-  said, in the presence of my informant, who is a man whom most of
-  you know, and who is to-day in the employment of Congress, and
-  whose word I would take as soon as I would most men's--though
-  I told him I would not use his name, but I will give his sworn
-  testimony, taken down within two minutes after the utterance was
-  made--Fitz-John Porter said in his presence: "I was not true to
-  Pope, and there is no use in denying it." Mr. President, what was
-  "not true to Pope"? If he was not true to Pope, whom was he true
-  to? Being true to Pope was being true to the country; "not true
-  to Pope" was being a traitor to the country. Sir, "not true to
-  Pope" meant the terrible fight of the 30th of August, with all the
-  blood and all the horrors of that bitter day; "not true to Pope"
-  meant the battle of Antietam, with its thousands of slain and its
-  other thousands maimed; "not true to Pope" meant the first battle
-  of Fredericksburg, with its 20,000 slain and maimed; "not true
-  to Pope" covered the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor,
-  and all the dreadful battles that followed. Had Fitz-John Porter
-  been true to his government, Jackson would have been destroyed
-  on the 29th of August, and on the 30th the rebels could scarcely
-  have offered any resistance to our victorious army. "Not true to
-  Pope" meant 300,000 slain and 2,000,000,000 of additional dollars
-  expended.
-
-  Sir, I wish to put this on the record for all time, that it may
-  remain. Let Fitz-John Porter thank God that he yet lives, and that
-  he was not living at that time under a military government. I told
-  General Pope, in the first interview I had with him, that I had but
-  one fault to find in the whole conduct of the campaign. He asked,
-  "What is that?" Said I, "That you ever allowed Fitz-John Porter to
-  leave the battle-field alive!"
-
-In 1877 Porter at last succeeded, by the most persistent effort, in
-obtaining the order for the re-examination of his case, and when Mr.
-Chandler re-entered the Senate in 1879, he found himself confronting
-an organized movement to secure that officer's restoration to his
-old rank with full pay since the date of his dishonorable dismissal
-from the army. To this contemplated action he proposed to offer the
-most strenuous resistance, and the last volumes he drew from the
-Congressional Library were authorities he wished to consult in the
-preparation of his argument against the reversal of the Porter finding.
-
-Mr. Chandler's positive opinions in the McClellan and Porter cases were
-shared by his colleagues of the Committee on the Conduct of the War
-of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and are justified by their elaborate
-reports covering the history of the Army of the Potomac from the
-battle of Ball's Bluff to the close of the Fredericksburg campaign.
-The Thirty-eighth Senate adopted a resolution continuing the existence
-of this committee, and, the House concurring, the old members, so
-far as they were in Congress, were re-appointed. Senator Harding of
-Oregon took the place of Mr. Wright, and afterward Mr. Buckalew of
-Pennsylvania succeeded Mr. Harding. From the House, Mr. B. F. Loan of
-Missouri was appointed as the successor of Mr. Covode. Wm. Blair Lord
-was re-elected clerk and stenographer. This committee also devoted
-much of its time to the troubles of the Army of the Potomac. General
-Burnside had resigned the command because of a misunderstanding with
-the President, brought about by the interference of Gens. John Cochrane
-and John Newton, and General Hooker was appointed in his place, with
-General Halleck as commander-in-chief. But Halleck disliked Hooker,
-and forced his resignation by overruling his plans and countermanding
-his orders, General Meade succeeding. The committee examined closely
-into this matter, reaching the conclusion that Hooker had not been
-fairly dealt with, and incidentally disposing of the false statement
-then current that that officer was intoxicated at the battle of
-Chancellorsville, and was defeated from that cause. The committee
-condemned Hooker's removal, and Mr. Chandler firmly believed in his
-courage, patriotism and ability, and regarded him as the victim of
-circumstances. These facts make it an interesting coincidence that
-these two men--both bold, frank and positive in their respective
-spheres of public activity--should have died sudden and painless deaths
-within the same week.
-
-The committee did not believe that the selection of General Meade
-for the command of the Army of the Potomac was a fortunate one,
-and doubted his ability to properly control his subordinates. While
-there is no reference to the matter in their report on this subject,
-it is a fact that they recommended the removal of General Meade from
-command, and the re-instatement of Hooker. On the 4th of March, 1864,
-Mr. Chandler and Mr. Wade called upon the President, and told him that
-they believed it to be their duty, impressed as they were with the
-testimony the committee had taken, to lay a copy of it before him, and
-in behalf of the army and the country demand the removal of General
-Meade, and the appointment of some one more competent to command. The
-President asked what general they could recommend; they said that for
-themselves they would be content with General Hooker, believing him to
-be competent, but not being advocates of any particular officer, they
-would say that if there was any one whom the President considered more
-competent, then let him be appointed. They added that "Congress had
-appointed the committee to watch the conduct of the war; and unless
-this state of things should be soon changed it would become their duty
-to make the testimony public which they had taken, with such comments
-as the circumstances of the case seemed to require." General Meade was
-not removed, but General Grant was, within a week, given command as
-general-in-chief, and assumed personal direction of the movements of
-the Army of the Potomac.
-
-During 1864 and 1865 the committee (besides considering many minor
-matters) also investigated, with care:
-
-1. The disastrous assault upon Petersburg on July 30, 1864; their
-report exonerated General Burnside from the responsibility for
-the repulse, and held that the disaster was attributable to the
-interference with his plans of General Meade, whose course in the
-matter was severely censured.
-
-2. The unsuccessful expedition of 1864 up the Red river in Louisiana,
-which the committee (Mr. Gooch dissenting) emphatically condemned.
-
-3. The first Fort Fisher expedition, the committee, in its report,
-approving of General Butler's course in withdrawing from the projected
-assault.
-
-During the inquiry into the Petersburg fiasco, the sub-committee were
-in session at General Grant's headquarters, and Mr. Chandler was his
-guest, renewing there an early acquaintance and laying the foundations
-of their future close friendship. Some incidents of their intercourse
-were characteristic.
-
-General Sherman had just reached Savannah, and the mystery of the
-objective point of his great "march to the sea" had thus been solved
-for the public. This memorable exploit was discussed at length between
-General Grant and Mr. Chandler. The former said that the suggestion
-was Sherman's, and so was the entire plan of the campaign. Sherman had
-urged it for a long time before he (Grant) would consent, but finally
-the conditions were ripe, and the order was given. General Grant added
-that Sherman was the only man in the army whom he would have entrusted
-this campaign to, as he was especially adapted for such a command, and
-said: "Congress ought to do something for Sherman. He deserves a great
-deal more credit and honor than he has ever received." "What can we do
-for him?" asked Mr. Chandler. "Increase his rank," was the reply. "We
-have made you lieutenant general," responded Mr. Chandler, laughingly,
-"and I suppose we could make him a general, and thus put him over you."
-"Do it," said Grant, promptly. "If he carries this campaign through
-successfully, do it. I would rather serve under Sherman than any man I
-know." General Grant also said that when he received a dispatch that
-Thomas had attacked Hood, he felt that a great victory was already won.
-He added: "I did not have any anxiety about the result; when Thomas
-attacks, a victory is sure. He is a slow man, but he is the surest man
-I know. Once in motion, he is the hardest man to fight in this army.
-He never precipitates a battle unless he is all ready, and knows his
-points, and you may rest easy when he attacks, for the next news will
-be the enemy's rout. When Thomas once gets in motion the rebels have
-not force enough to stop him."
-
-Upon the final adjournment of the Thirty-eighth Congress (on March 4,
-1865) it continued the existence of the Committee on the Conduct of the
-War for ninety days, in order to afford it time to finish its work.
-During this period it closed up some pending inquiries and prepared
-its final reports. Its last action was an examination into General
-Sherman's unauthorized and unfortunate negotiations with General
-Johnston, which the committee disapproved and that officer's superiors
-promptly repudiated. The final report of the committee bears the date
-of the 22d of May, 1865, and its closing passages are as follows:
-
-  Your committee, at the close of the labors in which the most
-  of them have been engaged for nearly four years past, take
-  occasion to submit a few general observations in regard to their
-  investigations. They commenced them at a time when the government
-  was still engaged in organizing its first great armies, and before
-  any important victory had given token of its ability to crush
-  out the rebellion by the strong hand of physical power. They
-  have continued them until the rebellion has been overthrown, the
-  so-called Confederate government been made a thing of the past,
-  and the chief of that treasonable organization is a proclaimed
-  felon in the hands of our authorities. And soon the military and
-  naval forces, whose deeds have been the subjects of our inquiry,
-  will return to the ways of peace and the pursuits of civil life,
-  from which they have been called for a time by the danger which
-  threatened their country. Yet while we welcome those brave veterans
-  on their return from fields made historical by their gallant
-  achievements, our joy is saddened as we view their thinned ranks
-  and reflect that tens of thousands, as brave as they, have fallen
-  victims to that savage and infernal spirit which actuated those who
-  spared not the prisoners at their mercy, who sought by midnight
-  arson to destroy hundreds of defenseless women and children,
-  and who hesitated not to resort to means and to commit acts so
-  horrible that the nations of the earth stand aghast as they are
-  told what has been done. It is a matter for congratulation that,
-  notwithstanding the greatest provocations to pursue a different
-  course, our authorities have ever treated their prisoners humanely
-  and generously, and have in all respects conducted this contest
-  according to the rules of the most civilized warfare....
-
-  Your committee would refer to the record of their labors to show
-  the spirit and purpose by which they have been governed in their
-  investigations. They have not sought to accomplish any purpose
-  other than to elicit the truth; to that end have all their labors
-  been directed. If they have failed at any time to accomplish that
-  purpose, it has been from causes beyond their control. Their work
-  is before the people, and by it they are willing to be judged.
-
-The volumes which contain the official record of the proceedings of the
-Committee on the Conduct of the War are and always must be regarded as
-the most valuable single magazine of historical material relating to
-the Great Rebellion. They have been liberally used in the preparation
-of every important account of our civil strife yet published, and the
-men, who shall in the light of another century estimate the greatness
-and significance of that "throe of progress," will inevitably look
-in their pages to the graphic narratives of those who were parts
-of memorable movements and actors in famous battles as a means of
-information, and to the conclusions of those who prosecuted inquiries
-so zealously when the events were yet fresh in the memory as a source
-of guidance. Infallibility is not a human attribute, and the work of
-this committee was not free from misapprehension and mistake. Time,
-which has shown some of its errors and will correct others, has also
-sustained the essential justice of its most important conclusions,
-which will stand unreversed on the pages of impartial history.
-
-But the chief value of the labors of this committee is not to be
-found in its collection of rich materials for the future chronicler.
-To its unrecorded but potent influence upon the conduct of the war,
-adequate justice has not yet been done. Its unwearied investigations
-constantly exposed corruption, incompetence, and insubordination, and
-placed in the hands of the authorities the means of discovering and
-punishing the knavish, the weak, and the disloyal. Its activity was
-a perpetual prompter to energy, and a vigilant detective by the side
-of inefficiency and disaffection. As the result of its labors, the
-unsuccessful, the half-hearted, and the traitorous gave way to the
-able and the patriotic; because of the knowledge of its relentless
-questioning, indolent men were vigilant, and laxity was transformed
-into vigor. Its unremitting labors stayed up the hands of the War
-Secretary in the heaviest hours of his great task, and usefully
-informed the counsels and shaped the decisions of the White House. If
-its every session had been permanently secret, and not a line of its
-proceedings existed as a public record, there would still remain an
-ineffaceable transcript of the results of its action in the correcting
-of mistakes of organization and that crushing of sham generalship which
-alone made final victory possible.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[22] In "The Republic" magazine of April, 1875.
-
-[23] Edwin M. Stanton had succeeded Simon Cameron on Jan. 13. 1862.
-
-[24] On Nov. 7, 1862.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
-
-
-Conscription, taxation, and the reverses of the Union arms in the
-summer of 1862 in Virginia and elsewhere materially affected the
-political currents of the ensuing fall, and the tide of reaction
-against the war feeling reached its highest flood in the closing
-elections of that year. Horatio Seymour was then chosen Governor of
-New York; the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and
-Illinois gave anti-Republican majorities, and ten of the principal
-Northern States, which in 1860 rolled up over 200,000 Republican
-majority, gave over 35,000 to the Opposition, while the footings of
-their Congressional delegations showed a Democratic majority of ten
-replacing a Republican preponderance of forty-one. In Michigan a
-successful effort was made to fuse all the "conservative" elements in a
-so-called "Union movement," which obtained some support from lukewarm
-Republicans and was thus enabled to manifest unusual strength. Its
-platform was dissent from "radical" measures in general, and the force
-of its attacks was centered upon Senator Chandler and his record, as
-representing the most aggressive type of Republicanism. He accepted
-this challenge unhesitatingly, and fought the campaign through without
-a hint at retraction or an apologetic word. He defended the "blood
-letter" and the "McClellan speech" on every stump; he repeated before
-the people the bold utterances with which he had stirred the Senate;
-he declared to every audience that his record he would not qualify by
-a hair's breadth, and that by it he was prepared to stand or fall;
-and he denounced with unstinted severity the weakness of some of his
-critics and the disloyalty of others.[25] The brunt of the battle in
-his State fell upon him, and the vigor and courage of his personal
-canvass attracted widespread attention. He spoke in all the leading
-cities of Michigan during the campaign, and worked uninterruptedly
-until the day of election. The result was the casting of 68,716 votes
-for the Republican State ticket to 62,102 for the "Union" candidates,
-and the choice of five Republicans out of the six members of Congress,
-and of a Legislature constituted as follows: Senate--18 Republicans
-and 14 Fusionists; House--63 Republicans and 37 Fusionists. This
-Legislature, on assembling in January, 1863, re-elected Mr. Chandler
-to the Senate in accordance with the unmistakable wish of his party
-and the universal expectation. The most strenuous efforts were made
-to detach Republican support from him, but they failed utterly. In
-the caucus the vote was taken _viva voce_, and it was unanimous for
-Mr. Chandler. In the Legislature he received the support of the
-representatives of his party as well as that of one or two members
-chosen by the Fusionists. The Opposition selected a candidate of
-Republican antecedents, and its vote was divided as follows: James F.
-Joy, 45; Alpheus Felch, 2; Hezekiah G. Wells, 1; Solomon L. Withey, 1.
-In his address of thanks before the nominating caucus, Mr. Chandler
-said: "I do not claim my re-election as a personal tribute. It is,
-rather, a tribute to principle. It indicates that the patriotic sons
-of Michigan stand firm in support of the government and a vigorous
-prosecution of the war."
-
-Not only did he thus modestly measure the significance of his
-re-election, but he bent every energy to make that felt which the
-people meant. Strafford's motto of "Thorough"--although the spirit was
-that of Hampden and Pym and not of the apostate Earl--expresses the
-fixity of purpose and the ardor of zeal with which he strove to make
-irresistible the blows of the Union against its assailants. Before the
-people, on the floor of the Senate, within the White House, at the
-private offices of the War Department, in committee-room, and as part
-of his daily intercourse with men of all ranks and classes, he urged
-the use of every resource for the defense of the nation and demanded
-the sternest punishment of those who had dared
-
-            "to lay their hand upon the ark
-    "Of her magnificent and awful cause."
-
-As a Senator his vote was recorded for every important war measure,
-relating to the revenues, the finances, and the armies of the Union.
-Upon the great questions of public policy which bore so powerfully
-on the progress of the struggle he uniformly led his party. At the
-first Congressional session of the war he urged the employment of
-confiscation as a legitimate and effective weapon for checking and
-punishing rebellion; the measure he introduced at that time proved to
-be too sweeping to receive an immediate enactment, but within a few
-months Congress did advance on this subject to his ground. When General
-Butler declared that the slaves who fled to his camp from work upon
-the rebel intrenchments were "contraband of war," and reported his
-action to the authorities at Washington and asked for instructions, Mr.
-Chandler was one of the first to appreciate the adroit wisdom of that
-epigrammatic construction of military law, and his co-operation with
-Secretary Cameron in urging the approval of General Butler's action
-upon the President and General Scott was very valuable and effective.
-Immediately after the battle of Bull Run he, with Mr. Sumner and
-Mr. Hamlin, called upon Mr. Lincoln with a proposition to organize
-and arm the colored people. Mr. Chandler even then favored the full
-exercise of the President's constitutional war powers, and urged that
-they should be used, first, to set the slaves free; and, second, to
-make the slaves themselves aid the work of abolishing slavery and
-maintaining the Union. He believed that this institution was the
-backbone of the South, that the war was brought on to save it from the
-civilizing tendencies of the age, and that among the first steps taken
-by the Federal government, when thus assailed by slavery, should be
-the proclaiming of freedom to all bondsmen and the guaranteeing of the
-protection of the government to the free. He argued that such a policy,
-promptly declared, would produce chaos in the South, would subject the
-Confederate government to the danger of local uprisings of the negroes,
-and would thus make victory easy. But the Administration was not
-prepared to take a step so far in advance of popular opinion, and for
-some months the prevailing policy was one which prohibited the soldiers
-of the Union from protecting or harboring fugitive slaves, and in some
-instances made slave-hunters of the troops. When General Fremont, on
-the 31st of August, issued his proclamation in Missouri, declaring
-free all slaves belonging to persons engaged in the rebellion, Mr.
-Chandler was among those who most heartily approved this step. The
-President was alarmed, as he feared the country was not ready for such
-an act, and greatly modified the Fremont proclamation, as he also did a
-still more sweeping order of General Hunter in the following May. Mr.
-Chandler's disappointment at this was extreme, but within a few months
-he saw emancipation resorted to by the Administration as a war measure,
-and a death-blow dealt to "the relic of barbarism." That part of the
-report for 1861 of Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, which urged the
-most summary attacks upon the institution of slavery as the surest
-means of dealing mortal blows to the rebellion, and which Mr. Lincoln
-suppressed, Mr. Chandler heartily endorsed, and every manifestation by
-Northern commanders of a disposition to make their armies defenders
-of the slave system aroused his indignation. The act of March 13,
-1862, prohibiting by an article of war the use of the troops for the
-returning of fugitive slaves to their masters, he earnestly supported,
-and the act of April 16, 1862, abolishing slavery in the District of
-Columbia, was a measure in which he especially interested himself, and
-whose final passage he celebrated by an entertainment given to its
-most devoted friends at his rooms in the National Hotel of Washington.
-The abortive colonization schemes which were tried about this time, at
-Mr. Lincoln's urgent recommendation, Mr. Chandler privately opposed
-as utterly inadequate and as a mere diversion of force into useless
-channels, but for public reasons he made no open resistance to the
-experiment. For the laws of June 19, 1862, forever prohibiting slavery
-in the territories, and of June 28, 1864, repealing the fugitive slave
-statutes, it need not be said that he labored with unflagging industry.
-
-Mr. Chandler was very active in advocating the use of colored troops
-as soldiers, being months in advance of the Administration in this
-respect; he urged this policy upon the authorities unsuccessfully
-for weeks, and then worked earnestly to secure legislation from
-Congress authorizing the enrollment and enlistment of negroes. This
-movement was so strenuously resisted at the capitol that in the end a
-compromise was effected upon a bill, which was approved on July 16,
-1862, authorizing the receiving of colored men as laborers in the
-army to dig trenches and do other work of non-combatants. But after
-the Emancipation Proclamation black men were accepted as soldiers by
-order of the President, and regularly enrolled and paid. Mr. Chandler
-always believed that that proclamation and the enlistment of freedmen
-in the army were two of the most powerful blows at the rebellion,
-and often remarked, when talking upon the subject, that they were
-worth 300,000 men. While the controversy over this important step
-was unsettled, General Butler, at New Orleans, found himself in need
-of reinforcements, and was actually compelled to organize and arm
-several regiments of colored soldiers, whom he knew to be especially
-well adapted to the performance of a certain class of duties in that
-region which could not be done by soldiers from the North, who were
-not acclimated. This step on his part followed his definite refusal,
-under instructions from Washington, to permit General Phelps to do
-the same thing (that officer resigning for this very reason.) While
-the correspondence on this whole topic was in progress with the
-authorities, General Butler appealed to Senator Chandler, writing him
-long letters showing the sanitary necessity of having negro garrisons
-in some localities, and touching upon the other phases of the question.
-He also asked the Senator's aid in securing arms and equipments for
-these colored troops, and obtained from him valuable assistance in
-pushing on the requisitions at the War Department in defiance of
-official "red tape." On this general question Mr. Chandler said in the
-Senate, on June 28, 1864:
-
-  I believe that this rebellion is to be crushed, is to be
-  exterminated, and I believe that every man who favors it, whether
-  he be a member of this body or a member of the Southern army, is
-  to be crushed and to be exterminated, unless he repents. That is
-  what I believe.... I thank God the nation has risen to the point of
-  using every implement that the Almighty and common sense have put
-  in its hands to crush the rebellion.... We do not need another man
-  from north of the Potomac. Let us bring the loyal men of the South
-  in to put down treason in the South, and there are men enough and
-  more than enough to do it. We have heard enough about not using
-  black men to put down this rebellion. I would use every thing that
-  God and nature had put in my hands to put down this rebellion; but
-  first I would use the black element, bring every negro soldier who
-  can fight into the army. A negro is better than a traitor. I say
-  this advisedly. I consider a loyal negro better than a secession
-  traitor, either in the North or the South. I prefer him anywhere
-  and everywhere that you please to put him. A secession traitor is
-  beneath a loyal negro. I would let a loyal negro vote; I would let
-  him testify; I would let him fight; I would let him do any other
-  good thing and I would exclude a secession traitor.
-
-The seizure of the rebel emissaries, Mason and Slidell, by Captain
-Wilkes, on the British steamer Trent, was heartily applauded by Mr.
-Chandler, and he opposed with much earnestness their surrender at the
-demand of Great Britain. Mr Seward's policy in the matter seemed to him
-to be humiliating and the possibility of a second war, in case Captain
-Wilkes was sustained, he did not dread, believing that the nation would
-treble its military strength in the face of such a danger, that the
-South would suffer from an alliance with a country so long regarded as
-the hereditary foe of the American people, and that the end would be
-the conquest and annexation of the British American provinces. He was
-greatly incensed by Great Britain's prompt concession of belligerent
-rights to the South and by its blustering bearing in the Trent case,
-and at one time suggested a policy of non-intercourse with that power,
-which he regarded as an inveterate enemy. In later years he advocated
-the most vigorous pushing of "the Alabama claims," and at the time
-of the British war with Abyssinia offered in the Senate a resolution
-recognizing King Theodore as a "belligerent" in the general terms of
-the Queen's proclamation of May, 1861 in regard to the Confederacy.
-He never ceased to believe that the United States, in the settlement
-of its war claims with Great Britain, ought to have refused to accept
-anything less than the annexation of the Canadas.
-
-Mr. Chandler in the Senate favored imposing severe penalties on the
-gold gambling in Wall street, which affected so injuriously the
-national credit. In the preparation of the internal revenue laws of
-1862, imposing a large number of taxes and affecting vast interests,
-he gave exceedingly valuable aid, his own business experience and his
-familiarity with commercial details making his suggestions practical
-in form and wise in scope. Every measure to secure the stringent
-enforcement of the laws for the punishment of treason received his
-hearty support, and his denunciation of traitors and their open or
-secret allies continued to be vigorous and unsparing.[26] His industry
-time alone seemed to restrain, for his zeal was inexhaustible and his
-magnificent physical powers bore the tremendous strain unyieldingly.
-His public record during the four years of the war makes it possible
-to apply to him, without extravagance, Lord Clarendon's description of
-Hampden: "He was of a vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the
-most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed on by the most subtle or
-sharp, and of a personal courage equal to his best parts."
-
-The "little, nameless, unremembered acts" of these days were of
-no slight aggregate importance and thoroughly illustrate the
-characteristics of the man. There was no reasonable service that he
-was not quick to render to any volunteer who applied to him for aid. A
-blue uniform gained for its wearer prompt admittance to his room and
-a careful hearing for any request. Repeatedly private soldiers saw
-him leave men of rank and influence to listen to their stories, and
-lay aside matters of pressing moment to act upon their complaints or
-relieve their distress.[27]
-
-He visited the hospitals to seek out Michigan men whom he could
-help, and to see that they were properly provided for, while their
-applications for furloughs and for discharges, if entrusted to his
-care, were so pushed as to obtain prompt action from the authorities
-in spite of routine and official tardiness. He advanced large sums of
-money to help destitute and invalid soldiers homeward,[28] or to aid
-the friends of fallen or wounded men upon their melancholy errands.
-Upon all occasions he was especially attentive to the humblest
-applicants, and the ease of the private soldier in distress and need
-touched his sympathies the most quickly. His was a familiar figure in
-all the departments, often accompanied with a squad of sick, crippled,
-even ragged, veterans, in search of delayed furloughs, or of arrears
-of pay, or of the medical examinations preceding invalid discharges,
-or of some service which "red tape" had delayed. In the words of one
-who possessed abundant opportunities for obtaining knowledge, "This
-could be said of Mr. Chandler to a greater extent than of any other
-public man I ever saw, that he would spare no pains in doing even
-little things for men who were of the smallest consequence to one in
-his position. He would take great trouble in hunting up minor matters
-for enlisted men, and this it was that made him so popular among the
-soldiers." His activity in their behalf was not limited by State lines;
-he answered any appeals that came to him, although he was especially
-prompt and vigilant in helping the "Michigan boys."[29]
-
-At the War Department Mr. Chandler was as well known as (and was
-reputed to be scarcely less powerful than) the Secretary himself. Mr.
-Stanton's brusqueness never daunted him, and few stood upon such terms
-of privileged intercourse with that no less irascible than great man.
-Repeatedly he elbowed his way through the crowded ante-chamber of the
-Secretary's office, pushed past protesting orderlies, strode up to Mr.
-Stanton's private desk, and obtained by emphatic personal application
-some order which subordinates could not grant in a case needing prompt
-action.[30] Where other men would have encountered rebuff he rarely
-failed. In connection with this phase of his public activity these
-letters are of interest:
-
-                                  DETROIT, Mich., July 29, 1862.
-
-  _Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
-
-  DEAR SIR: Brigadier-General Richardson, of this State, is reported
-  as being absent from duty without leave. This is not true. He is
-  absent on sick leave, and is not able to join his command. Will
-  you not, in accordance with the wishes of the whole delegation,
-  assign him to the command of Michigan soldiers now being raised?
-  His presence here, and the assurance that he is to command, will
-  greatly stimulate enlistments. We are proud of him as one of the
-  best fighting generals of the army. Very truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-                                         DETROIT, July 31, 1862.
-
-  _Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
-
-  SIR: There is a fine company of ninety-five splendid men guarding
-  _three rebel prisoners_ at Mackinac. Would it not be well to put
-  those rascals in some tobacco warehouse or jail and send these
-  troops where they are needed? General Terry would like a command in
-  some other division than the one he is in. Can you not accommodate
-  him? The soldiers at Mackinac are anxious for active service and
-  are well drilled. Very truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-                                          DETROIT, Aug. 9, 1862.
-
-  _Adjutant-General Thomas._
-
-  DEAR SIR: Are the boys of the Michigan First (Bull Run prisoners)
-  exchanged yet? I promised them it should be done at once, and now
-  find them enlisting again under the supposition that it has been
-  done. The list is with the Secretary of War. Our quota is full, and
-  our blood is up. They were yesterday paying $10 for a chance to
-  enter some of the regiments. Very truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-                                         DETROIT, Aug. 28, 1862.
-
-  _Hon. Wm. A. Howard._
-
-  DEAR SIR: Will you say from me to the Secretary of War that I
-  deem it of vital importance that some one be authorized to open
-  and examine rebel correspondence passing through the Detroit
-  postoffice? Mr. Smith (of the postoffice) informs me that letters
-  come through directed to rebels at Windsor. Truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-                                         DETROIT, Nov. 15, 1863.
-
-  _Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
-
-  DEAR SIR: I telegraphed you to-night to send heavy guns and
-  ammunition to the lakes. The reason was this: Upon examination
-  I found that we could improvise a navy in about two hours which
-  could cope with any rebel armament which could be placed upon the
-  lakes, _if we had big guns_. But my investigation furnished one
-  68-pounder, condemned, and four 32-pounders, without powder, at
-  Erie; and this was our whole armament on the lakes, except one
-  32-pounder upon the Michigan, and a few 6, 10 and 12-pounders. We
-  must have guns of large calibre at each of the principal ports.
-  If you cannot spare eleven-inch guns immediately send us some
-  eight-inch or some old 68-pounders, with ammunition. A tug,
-  costing not over $30,000, with one eleven-inch gun on board and
-  a crew of twenty men, could destroy a million dollars' worth of
-  property on the lakes every twenty-four hours, and we would be
-  powerless. She would sink the Michigan with one judiciously-placed
-  shell. We are not alarmed, but we want big guns and _must have
-  them_. The lake marine is scarcely second to the ocean in tonnage
-  and value, and it must be protected. We had no idea of our defenses
-  until the late scare. Truly yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-Mr. Chandler's influence with public men and in the private councils
-of the nation's leaders at Washington was throughout the war always
-invigorating. From the very outset, and while the patriotic instinct
-of the North was "still, as it were, in the gristle and not yet
-hardened into the bone," he urged upon the executive authorities
-summary measures, and the striking of hard and quick blows. He advised
-them to arrest traitors while their treason was still in the bud.
-He urged them to make early and incessant attacks on the enemy, and
-counseled implicit reliance on the devotion and loyalty of the North.
-The Union cause saw no hour so dark that the eye of his courage could
-not penetrate its gloom; the rebellion won no victory that shook his
-absolutely "dauntless resolution." Every suggestion of peace except on
-the basis of Freedom and the national supremacy he denounced. Every
-hint of conciliating armed traitors he scouted as, in Hosea Biglow's
-phrase, mere "tryin' squirt-guns on the infernal Pit." To the real
-statesmanship of that period he thus gave expression in a public
-dinner at Washington early in 1863: "We must accept no compromise; a
-patched-up peace will be followed by continued war and anarchy." He
-chafed like a caged lion before half-heartedness, imbecility and delay.
-His sincerity and his earnestness revived the discouraged and aroused
-hope, and his strong convictions inspired men of weaker moral fibre
-with something of his own inflexibility. He never hesitated to use
-plain words in dealing with the nation's enemies, he never lost faith,
-and he never admitted the possibility of defeat. At the White House
-his visits were ever welcome, his advice received, and the virility
-of his understanding and the fervor of his patriotism recognized. Mr.
-Chandler appreciated to the full extent the innate strength of Abraham
-Lincoln's remarkable character and its rare loftiness, and, different
-as were their dispositions and widely divergent as often were their
-opinions, he never lost confidence in the President's aims and never
-ceased to be one of his trusted counselors. Many features of executive
-policy he condemned plainly and boldly to the President himself,
-but frankness and sincerity prevented his criticisms from becoming
-unpalatable, and Mr. Lincoln often acknowledged his indebtedness to the
-practical wisdom and the tireless zeal of the Michigan Senator.
-
-Cecil said to Sir Walter Raleigh, "I know that you can toil terribly."
-This Mr. Chandler did through those eventful years. His labor was
-without cessation. The great demands upon the energies of the public
-man were equaled by appeals for private effort which he would not
-decline, and in every channel of profitable work for the Union cause
-he made his strong will and his aggressive vitality felt. Industry,
-so unusual and efficient, multiplied the power of his Roman firmness,
-and these qualities, guided by his strong understanding, high courage,
-sincerity of conviction, and the ardor of his patriotism, made him a
-leader of men in years when leadership without strength was impossible.
-His impress is upon the events of that era, and of the war for
-Emancipation and the Union he could say with Ulysses, "I am part of
-all that I have met." Through the tempest of civil strife his strong
-spirit battled its way unflinchingly to the goal, and title was fitly
-bestowed in the people's knighting of Zachariah Chandler as "The Great
-War Senator."
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[25] I pity the man who, in this hour of peril, stands back and says,
-"this is an abolition war, and I won't go." ... There are but two
-classes of men now in the United States, and there are no middle men;
-these two classes are patriots and traitors. Between these two you must
-choose. A man might as well cast himself into the gulf that separated
-Dives from Lazarus as to stand out in this hour of trial.--_Speech at
-Ionia on September 6._
-
-It has taken time to educate us. If we had won certain victories the
-war would have been over, but the cause would have remained. The
-proclamation pronouncing emancipation, for which God bless Abraham
-Lincoln, is educating the people, and soon we will be ready to go
-forward.... We can never secure a permanent peace until we strike a
-death-blow at the cause of the war.--_Speech at Jackson on October 7._
-
-[26] Extract from a debate in the Senate on April 12, 1864:
-
-MR. POWELL, of Kentucky: The Senator from Michigan, if I understood
-him, said that I was now the friend of traitors?
-
-MR. CHANDLER: You did understand me properly. You have been the friend
-of traitors, and I voted to expel you, as a traitor, from this body.
-
-MR. POWELL: Do I understand you to say that I am now the friend of
-traitors and of treason?
-
-MR. CHANDLER: You co-operated with traitors, and I have never known you
-to cast a vote that was not in favor of rebellion.
-
-[27] It is exceedingly gratifying to witness the marked attention Mr.
-Chandler bestows on soldiers. One day I happened to be in his room,
-when a major-general and a senator came in. Shortly after a sprightly
-young soldier came to the door. When about to enter, the young man
-hesitated to interrupt their conversation, but Mr. Chandler at once
-gave his attention to the soldier, who, on being asked to take a seat
-and tell what he desired, said he was a paroled prisoner and wished a
-furlough home, and that he had been told that all he had to do was to
-apply to him and he would be sure to get it. Mr. Chandler immediately
-took his papers and secured the furlough for him.--_Washington letter
-of 1863._
-
-[28] Mr. Chandler said that during the late war, while he was in
-Washington, he loaned our soldiers several thousands of dollars, in
-small sums of from $2 to $10 each, but that the whole amount was repaid
-to him with the exception of about $10, and he was satisfied that the
-poor men who owed him that small amount had given their lives for their
-country.--_Hon. M. S. Brewer in the House of Representatives, Jan. 28,
-1880._
-
-[29] This tribute comes from a well-known officer of the Michigan
-volunteer regiments:
-
-                                              DETROIT, February 3, 1880.
-
-Could all the acts of kindness and aid rendered by Senator Chandler to
-the soldiers of Michigan, their families and friends, during the war,
-and especially to those who filled the ranks, be gathered together
-and written out, the volumes that contained them would be large and
-numerous. No soldier, however humble, ever applied to him, when in
-distress or trouble, that he did not receive a patient hearing and, if
-possible, speedy aid. No soldier's wife, father, mother, or other kin
-ever wrote him a letter that was not answered. To these facts there are
-thousands who can testify to-day, and many thousands more who could do
-so were they not in their graves.
-
-In those dark days he was always sanguine of the final triumph of our
-armies, and he always assured the soldiers of his positive convictions
-that in the end they would be victorious. None except those who had
-experience can ever know what cheerful assurances and hopeful words
-from those high in authority did to nerve men for the work of severe
-campaigns.
-
-The trials and fatigues of army life, and the uncertainty of the
-final results, were lessened vastly by the assuring words of brave,
-indomitable men like Zachariah Chandler. All honor to his memory, as
-also to the memory of his great associates in high places during those
-memorable days!
-
-                                                            R. A. ALGER.
-
-
-
-[30] This anecdote is related by a prominent Michigan officer: I
-accompanied Senator Chandler once to the War Department to secure the
-re-instatement of a paymaster who, it had been clearly ascertained,
-had been unjustly dismissed. The papers were in the possession of the
-proper bureau, and action had been promised, but was delayed. A great
-body of eager applicants were gathered about the Secretary's door,
-which was guarded by two sentries with crossed bayonets. He pushed
-rapidly through the mass of people to the entrance of the private
-office, where the sentinel said, "The Secretary is very busy, Mr.
-Senator." "I know he is," was Mr. Chandler's response, and laying a
-hand on each bayonet he pushed them up over our heads, opened the door,
-and we were in Mr. Stanton's presence. Once there, he commenced a
-vigorous denunciation of the tardiness of the Department, upbraided the
-Secretary because no action had yet been taken in the case according
-to promise, and astonished me by the earnestness of his criticisms.
-Mr. Stanton heard him pleasantly, said when he stopped, "Are you all
-through, Chandler?" and then gave the order we needed.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
-
-
-The Republican reverses of the fall of 1862 were not repeated in 1863.
-Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the anti-draft riots in New York, and the
-formal acceptance of Vallandigham as a trusted party leader by the
-Democracy stimulated and strengthened the Union spirit of the North,
-and the State elections of that year were emphatic endorsements of
-the party of freedom and of its policy. The political verdicts of
-the spring of 1864 were equally gratifying to the friends of liberty
-and the advocates of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and, with
-the accession of General Grant to the command of the Union armies
-and his "advance all along the line," it became evident that nothing
-but discord among the Republicans could deprive them of a sweeping
-victory in the presidential election. The masses of that party were
-unequivocally in favor of Mr. Lincoln's renomination; the common people
-saw one of themselves in the White House and fully met his firm trust
-in them with an answering confidence. But among men of influence within
-the Republican ranks there was an exceedingly earnest opposition to
-his second candidacy. Some of this sprang from rival aspirations;
-more of it from disappointed office-seeking and from personal pique;
-but there was outside and above such considerations a strong feeling,
-entirely disinterested in origin and honorable in character, and held
-by thousands of sincere men, that the President was unduly conservative
-in policy and that a man of more aggressive temperament ought to be
-elected in his stead. There were also not a few experienced politicians
-who regarded the personal opposition to Mr. Lincoln as sufficiently
-formidable to jeopard party success, and who were inclined to think
-that the selection of some candidate who was not identified with the
-existing Administration, and thus would not be compelled to defend
-its acts, was demanded on the ground of superior "availability." The
-anti-Lincoln wing of the party at that time included such men as
-Mr. Chase and Mr. Greeley, was represented by many of the leading
-newspapers, including the entire New York press except the _Times_,
-and counted among its especially active members not a few of the most
-earnest and devoted of the original Abolitionists.
-
-In this chaotic condition of party sentiment a call appeared (in April,
-1864) addressed "To the Radical Men of the Nation," and requesting them
-to meet by representatives in convention at Cleveland, O., on May 31.
-Those of its signers who were best known were B. Gratz Brown, Lucius
-Robinson, John Cochrane, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
-George B. Cheever, James Redpath, Wendell Phillips and Emil Pretorious.
-Its tone will appear from this paragraph:
-
-  The imbecile and vacillating policy of the present Administration
-  in the conduct of the war, being just weak enough to waste its men
-  and means to provoke the enemy, but not strong enough to conquer
-  the rebellion--and its treachery to justice, freedom and genuine
-  democratic principles in its plan of reconstruction, whereby the
-  honor and dignity of the nation have been sacrificed to conciliate
-  the still-existing and arrogant slave power, and to further the
-  ends of unscrupulous partisan ambition--call in thunder tones upon
-  the lovers of justice and their country to come to the rescue of
-  the imperiled nationality and the cause of impartial and universal
-  freedom threatened with betrayal and overthrow.
-
-  The way to victory and salvation is plain. Justice must be throned
-  in the seats of national legislation, and guide the executive will.
-  The things demanded, and which we ask you to join us to render
-  sure, are the immediate extinction of slavery throughout the whole
-  United States by Congressional action, the absolute equality of
-  all men before the law without regard to race or color, and such a
-  plan of reconstruction as shall conform entirely to the policy of
-  freedom for all, placing the political power alone in the hands of
-  the loyal, and executing with vigor the law for confiscating the
-  property of the rebels.
-
-This document was widely published, and the New York _Tribune_ in
-advance approved the calling of this convention, although it did not in
-the end support its action. The call was answered by about 350 persons
-from fifteen States; while very few of them were men of more than
-limited reputation, yet they made up a body representing widespread
-convictions strongly and sincerely held. Ex-Governor W. F. Johnston
-of Pennsylvania was the temporary and Gen. John Cochrane of New York
-the permanent presiding officer of the convention. It nominated John
-C. Fremont for President, and General Cochrane for Vice-President, and
-adopted a platform exceedingly radical in terms, including declarations
-in favor of unconditional emancipation, a one-term presidency, the
-Monroe doctrine, and the wholesale confiscation of the property of the
-rebels. Two letters were received by it which at the time produced a
-strong impression. In one of them, Lucius Robinson, then Comptroller of
-New York, severely condemned "a weak Executive and Cabinet," and urged
-the nomination of General Grant, "a man who has displayed the qualities
-which give all men confidence." In the second, Wendell Phillips
-attacked a Republican administration with that polished invective which
-had made him one of the most formidable assailants of the slave power.
-He wrote:
-
-  For three years the Administration has lavished money without
-  stint and drenched the land in blood, and it has not yet
-  thoroughly and heartily struck at the slave system. Confessing
-  that the use of this means is indispensable, the Administration
-  has used it just enough to irritate the rebels and not enough to
-  save the state. In sixty days after the rebellion broke out the
-  Administration suspended _habeas corpus_ on the plea of military
-  necessity--justly. For three years it has poured out the treasure
-  and blood of the country like water. Meanwhile slavery was too
-  sacred to be used; that was saved lest the feelings of the rebels
-  should be hurt. The Administration weighed treasure, blood, and
-  civil liberty against slavery, and, up to the present moment, has
-  decided to exhaust them all before it uses freedom heartily as a
-  means of battle.... A quick and thorough reorganization of States
-  on a democratic basis--every man and race equal before the law--is
-  the only sure way to save the Union. I urge it, not for the black
-  man's sake alone, but for ours--for the nation's sake. Against
-  such recognition of the blacks Mr. Lincoln stands pledged by
-  prejudice and avowal. Men say, if we elect him he may change his
-  views. Possibly. But three years have been a long time for a man's
-  education in such hours as these. The nation cannot afford more. At
-  any rate the constitution gives this summer an opportunity to make
-  President a man fully educated. I prefer that course.
-
-  The Administration, therefore, I regard as a civil and military
-  failure, and its avowed policy ruinous to the North in every point
-  of view. Mr. Lincoln may wish the end--peace and freedom--but he
-  is wholly unwilling to use the means which can secure that end.
-  If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected I do not expect to see the Union
-  reconstructed in my day, unless on terms more disastrous to liberty
-  than even disunion would be. If I turn to General Fremont, I see a
-  man whose first act would be to use the freedom of the negro as his
-  weapon; I see one whose thorough loyally to democratic institutions
-  without regard to race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose
-  clear-sighted statesmanship and rare military ability justify my
-  confidence that in his hands all will be done to save the state
-  that foresight, skill, decision, and statesmanship can do.
-
-Generals Fremont and Cochrane promptly accepted the nominations
-thus tendered them. General Fremont resigned his commission in the
-army before doing so, and in his letter of acceptance accused the
-Administration of "incapacity and selfishness," of "managing the war
-for personal ends," of giving to the country "the abuses of a military
-dictation without its unity of action and vigor of execution," and of
-"feebleness and want of principle" in its dealings with other powers.
-He further vindicated the Cleveland action by declaring that, "if
-Mr. Lincoln had remained faithful to the principles he was elected
-to defend, no schism could have been created," and added: "If the
-convention at Baltimore will nominate any man whose past life justifies
-a well-grounded confidence in his fidelity to our cardinal principles,
-there is no reason why there should be any division among the really
-patriotic men of the country." There was a lack of any popular response
-to this demonstration, and it at once appeared--and, in fact, this was
-the sum of the original expectations of its shrewder promoters--that
-this movement was only formidable as a rallying point for any serious
-disaffection which might spring up in the future.
-
-The "Union National" convention assembled at Baltimore on June 7,
-with every State, except those still wholly in possession of the
-rebels, represented upon its floor. It adopted a platform denouncing
-any peace by compromise, endorsing the Administration, and demanding
-the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment. Abraham Lincoln
-was renominated for the Presidency, receiving every vote save that of
-the delegation of Missouri radicals who supported General Grant, and
-Andrew Johnson was on the first ballot nominated for Vice-President as
-the representative of the Union men of the South. The response of the
-masses and the leading papers of the Republican organization to this
-action was prompt and hearty; but, notwithstanding this encouraging
-fact, the political horizon grew rapidly darker. General Grant was in
-that summer fighting a series of bloody battles on and about the banks
-of the James, whose immediate results were indecisive, the attendant
-steady reduction of Lee's available force not being then apparent at
-the North. In like manner, Sherman was forcing his way through the
-mountainous regions between Chattanooga and Atlanta, winning no great
-victories and losing thousands of men; the mortal effects of his blows
-at the rebels are evident now, but could not be seen then. General
-Early, in July, swept down the Shenandoah and over the Potomac, burning
-Chambersburg and threatening the defenses of Washington, finally
-making good his retreat. In the face of this military situation, so
-encouraging to discontent and so calculated to invite criticism, the
-premium on gold rose rapidly to its highest war point. This disastrous
-depreciation of the paper money of the government was materially
-helped by the unexpected resignation, on June 30, of Secretary of the
-Treasury Salmon P. Chase. Differences of opinion as to some details
-of department management were assigned as the cause of this step,
-but its real origin was much deeper, and Mr. Chase's course was
-universally ascribed, and was undoubtedly due, to lack of sympathy
-with and confidence in the Administration. The effect of a change in
-so important a position at such a critical moment was profound, and it
-gave a powerful stimulus to Republican disaffection. This was followed
-by the abortive peace negotiations at Niagara Falls with C. C. Clay, J.
-P. Holcombe and G. N. Sanders. That this was a crafty scheme to place
-the Administration in a false position before both the North and the
-South cannot now be doubted. It failed to yield all that its projectors
-hoped, but it did ensnare Mr. Greeley most disagreeably, and it had the
-effect of furnishing the enemy with grounds for charging the President
-with being "hostile to peace except on impossible conditions." It
-also materially augmented the public restlessness and deepened the
-vague apprehensions which naturally sprang from such exhibitions of
-cross-purposes among the leaders of the national cause. Another event
-followed which was of still graver moment:
-
-The problem of the reconstruction of the Southern States after the
-defeat of the rebel armies was from the outset surrounded with grave
-difficulties, and the views held upon this subject by the ablest
-Republicans were diverse and conflicting. Bills and resolutions
-embodying various theories of reconstruction were presented in
-Congress early in the war, but nothing was done with them, and no
-definite policy was fixed by enactment or even determined upon in
-private consultations. On Dec. 8, 1863, and in connection with the
-transmission to Congress of his third annual message, Mr. Lincoln
-issued a proclamation offering amnesty to all rebels (with a few
-conspicuous exceptions) who should take an oath of loyalty, and
-declaring that whenever, in any of the seceded States, persons to the
-number of not less than one-tenth of the votes cast in such States at
-the presidential election of 1860, having first taken and abided by the
-prescribed oath, should re-establish a State government, republican in
-form and recognizing the permanent freedom of the slaves, it should
-"be recognized as the true government of the State." This plan Mr.
-Lincoln explained and defended at length in the message, and under it
-provisional governments were soon organized in Louisiana and Arkansas,
-and application was made for the admission of their Senators and
-Representatives to Congress. The President's action in this respect did
-not receive congressional sanction and was not endorsed by the majority
-of his supporters at the capitol. Many held that the subject was one
-which was wholly within the control of the legislative branch of the
-government, and that his proclamation was itself an unwarrantable
-assumption of authority by the Executive. Others objected strenuously
-to the "one-tenth clause," as oligarchical in tendency and certain to
-leave the real advantages of position within easy reach of the disloyal
-majority in any State thus reconstructed. As a rule those who opposed
-Mr. Lincoln's scheme favored establishing provisional governments in
-the South until there should spring up a loyal majority, which could be
-safely trusted with political power. Congress, therefore, referred the
-message and proclamation to special committees, refused to recognize
-the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, and passed on the last day of
-the session a reconstruction act differing radically in terms from the
-President's plan. Its bill provided that provisional governors should
-be appointed with the consent of the Senate, that an enrollment of
-white male citizens should be made when armed resistance ceased in
-any State, and that when a majority of the citizens so enrolled took
-the oath of allegiance the loyal people should be entitled to elect
-delegates to a convention to establish a State government; upon the
-adoption of an anti-slavery constitution by such a convention it was
-to be certified to the President, who, with the assent of Congress,
-was to recognize the government thus established as "the lawful State
-government." This measure the President defeated by withholding his
-signature. On July 8, 1864, he issued a second proclamation upon the
-subject, setting forth that he had not signed this bill because "less
-than one hour" intervened between its passage and the adjournment of
-Congress, and because he was not ready by its approval to be inexorably
-committed to this or any other specific plan of reconstruction which
-would set aside the _quasi_-governments of Louisiana and Arkansas and
-thus repel their citizens from further efforts in the same direction.
-He added that he was not yet prepared to admit the "constitutional
-competency of Congress to abolish slavery in the States," although he
-did earnestly desire that it should cease through the adoption of a
-constitutional amendment. The proclamation closed by declaring that he
-was satisfied with the terms of the bill, and by pledging the hearty
-co-operation of the Executive with all who might avail themselves
-of the method therein laid down to return to their places in the
-Union. In response to this proclamation, which treated the process
-of reconstruction as a matter of executive discretion merely, there
-was published early in August a vigorously worded and cogently argued
-manifesto, addressed "To the Supporters of the Government," and signed
-by Senator Benjamin F. Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis, as
-chairmen of the committees of their respective houses upon the _status_
-of the rebel States. This document commenced with the declaration that
-its authors had "read without surprise, but not without indignation,"
-the President's proclamation, and proceeded as follows:
-
-  The President, by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds
-  the electoral votes of the rebel States at the dictation of his
-  personal ambition. If those votes turn the balance in his favor, is
-  it to be supposed that his competitor, defeated by such means, will
-  acquiesce? If the rebel majority assert their supremacy in those
-  States, and send votes which elect an enemy of the government,
-  will we not repel his claims? And is not that civil war for the
-  presidency inaugurated by the votes of rebel States? Seriously
-  impressed with these dangers, Congress, "the proper constitutional
-  authority," formally declared that there are no State governments
-  in the rebel States, and provided for their erection at a proper
-  time; and both the Senate and House of Representatives rejected
-  the Senators and Representatives chosen under the authority of
-  what the President calls the free constitution and government of
-  Arkansas. The President's proclamation "holds for naught" this
-  judgment, and discards the authority of the Supreme Court and
-  strides headlong toward the anarchy his proclamation of the 8th of
-  December inaugurated. If electors for President be allowed to be
-  chosen in either of those States, a sinister light will be cast
-  on the motives which induced the President to "hold for naught"
-  the will of Congress rather than his governments in Louisiana and
-  Arkansas. That judgment of Congress which the President defies was
-  the exercise of an authority exclusively vested in Congress by
-  the constitution to determine what is the established government
-  in a State, and in its own nature and by the highest of judicial
-  authority binding on all other departments of the government....
-  A more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the people
-  has never been perpetrated. Congress passed a bill; the President
-  refused to approve it, and then by proclamation puts as much of
-  it in force as he sees fit, and proposes to execute those parts
-  by officers unknown to the laws of the United States and not
-  subject to the confirmation of the Senate! The bill directed the
-  appointment of provisional governors by and with the advice and
-  consent of the Senate. The President, after defeating such a law,
-  proposes to appoint without law, and without the advice and consent
-  of the Senate, military governors for the rebel States! He has
-  already exercised this dictatorial usurpation in Louisiana, and he
-  defeated the bill to prevent its limitation....
-
-  The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance which the
-  supporters of his administration have so long practiced, in view
-  of the arduous conflict in which we are engaged, and the reckless
-  ferocity of our political opponents. But he must understand that
-  our support is of a cause and not of a man; that the authority of
-  Congress is paramount and must be respected; and that the whole
-  body of the Union men of Congress will not submit to be impeached
-  by him of rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes
-  our support, he must confine himself to his executive duties--to
-  obey and execute, not make the laws--to suppress by arms armed
-  rebellion, and leave political reorganization to Congress.
-
-  If the supporters of the government fail to insist on this, they
-  become responsible for the usurpations which they fail to rebuke,
-  and are justly liable to the indignation of the people, whose
-  rights and security, committed to their keeping, they sacrifice.
-  Let them consider the remedy for these usurpations, and, having
-  found it, fearlessly execute it!
-
-The damaging force of this attack was undoubted. Mr. Wade was a
-veteran of the anti-slavery "Old Guard," and was known through the
-North to be as sturdy, true and honest as he was "radical" in his
-Republicanism. No man sat in the House who surpassed--but few men
-then in public life equaled--Henry Winter Davis in mental vigor, in
-brilliant accomplishments, and in moral fearlessness. Originally sent
-to Congress by the Maryland "Americans," it was his vote which elected
-Mr. Pennington to the Speakership in 1859; to the formal censure of
-that act by his Legislature he replied by telling the men who voted
-for it to take their message back to their masters, for only to their
-masters, the people, would he reply. He made a magnificent fight
-against secession in his State, and waged there a still more gallant
-battle for emancipation, winning both. In the House he spoke always
-with force, often with impassioned eloquence, and the Republican
-ranks contained no champion more ardent in patriotism or more firmly
-attached to the fundamental principles of Freedom. The formal uniting
-of these two men, both able, influential and unquestionably sincere,
-in strictures so severe upon the President, materially invigorated the
-"radical" opposition to the Baltimore ticket, increased Republican
-discouragement, and furnished the Opposition with additional ground
-for accusing the President of the gross use of arbitrary power. The
-series of events thus recapitulated naturally gave to the action of the
-Cleveland convention a fresh importance, and by the fall of 1864 it had
-become a factor of moment in the political calculations of the year.
-
-Greatly encouraged by the evident demoralization of the dominant
-party, the Democrats held their national convention at Chicago on
-August 29. Its platform in effect declared the war "a failure," and
-its ticket consisted of George B. McClellan, representing war without
-vigor, and George H. Pendleton, representing peace by compromise. The
-most conspicuous figure on its floor was Clement L. Vallandigham, a
-banished traitor _posing_ as a martyr, and the sedition which was
-thinly disguised in its deliberations was boldly shouted to cheering
-mobs about its hall and in front of the great hotels which its
-delegates thronged. The character and action of this body made clear
-the issues of 1864; in Mr. Seward's apt language, the people were
-called upon to decide whether they would have "McClellan and Disunion
-or Lincoln and Union." To make the latter the accepted alternative was
-impossible without complete Republican harmony, and to restore that
-fully and promptly was plainly a matter of the first importance. This
-task was undertaken by Mr. Chandler, whose relations with all parties
-peculiarly fitted him for the work. He was a pronounced "radical," and
-had steadfastly opposed many features of Mr. Lincoln's policy;[31] but
-honest disagreement of opinion had not impaired his full confidence
-in the man, and that firm grasp upon the practical aspects of all
-political questions, which was one of his marked characteristics then
-as always, prevented him from putting in jeopardy essentials by unduly
-magnifying differences as to details. To the wisdom of renominating
-Mr. Lincoln he assented, and his election he believed necessary to the
-preservation of the government. With Mr. Wade he was on terms of the
-closest intimacy; both Mr. Davis and General Fremont were his personal
-friends; and his record and public attitude gave him a claim upon
-the attention of the "radicals" everywhere. His qualifications as a
-mediator were thus numerous and apparent, and were rounded out by his
-political experience and sagacity.
-
-Mr. Chandler commenced work by visiting Mr. Wade at his home in Ohio,
-being accompanied thither by his intimate friend and adviser, the Hon.
-George Jerome of Detroit. The Ohio senator's vigorous common sense was
-Mr. Chandler's ally in the long interview that followed, and it only
-required a thorough review of the situation to convince him that, if
-Lincoln was defeated, the Union cause, and not an individual, would
-be the sufferer. Mr. Wade, however, urged that Mr. Lincoln himself
-should make some sacrifices of opinion and preference in the face of
-the common danger, that the "radical" element of the Republicans was
-entitled to more considerate treatment at his hands, and that, at
-least, his Cabinet, which was wholly within his control, should not
-contain men who were obnoxious to the stanchest members of his own
-party. Mr. Wade then denounced in the strongest terms the presence
-in and influence upon the Administration of Montgomery Blair, whom
-he believed to be at heart a Democrat. Later years have shown how
-well-grounded were the doubts then felt of Mr. Blair's political
-trustworthiness, doubts which were, even in 1864, general and strong
-enough to lead the Baltimore convention to declare in its platform
-that it regarded "as worthy of public confidence and official trust
-only those who cordially endorsed" its principles. Mr. Wade readily
-agreed, as the result of this conference, to pursue any course that
-should command the approval of his associate in the manifesto, and Mr.
-Chandler left him to visit Mr. Lincoln at Washington and Henry Winter
-Davis at Baltimore. He obtained from the President what were practical
-assurances that Mr. Blair should not be retained in the Cabinet in the
-face of such strong opposition if harmony would follow his removal. Mr.
-Davis promptly recognized the logic of the situation, and expressed his
-willingness to accept Blair's displacement as an olive branch and give
-his earnest support to the Baltimore ticket.
-
-Mr. Chandler next proceeded to New York, and opened negotiations there
-with the managers of the Fremont movement. He had expected Mr. Wade to
-join him, but was disappointed in this; he met at the Astor House the
-Hon. David II. Jerome of Saginaw and the Hon. Ebenezer O. Grosvenor of
-Jonesville, with whom he frequently counseled, and he also obtained the
-assistance of George Wilkes of the _Spirit of the Times_. Mr. Wilkes
-was well known as the master of a pure and vigorous English, and no war
-correspondent equaled him in accurate, lucid and graphic descriptions
-of important movements and famous battles. The public, however, did
-not know the extent of his political ability, of his skill in affairs
-and of his patriotic energy, and these qualities proved of the highest
-usefulness to Mr. Chandler in the completion of his delicate mission.
-Without the aid so intelligently and zealously rendered by Mr. Wilkes,
-Mr. Chandler doubted whether complete success would have been possible.
-The negotiations were protracted for some days, but ultimately the
-leaders of the Fremont organization agreed that, if Mr. Blair (whom
-General Fremont regarded as a bitter enemy) left the Cabinet and all
-other sources of Republican opposition to the Baltimore nominees were
-removed, the Cleveland ticket should be formally withdrawn from the
-field. While these conferences were in progress Mr. Chandler learned
-that the editor of one of the influential evening papers of New York,
-who had originally doubted the propriety of Mr. Lincoln's renomination,
-had concluded that his election was not possible and had prepared "a
-leader" urging his withdrawal, the holding of a second convention, and
-Republican union upon either General Fremont or some other candidate
-who could command the solid party support. It was not until the day
-of the intended publication of the article and after it was in type
-that Mr. Chandler learned of its existence, and then by instant and
-earnest efforts he obtained its withholding until the result of
-his labors could be known. Ultimately all obstacles yielded to his
-persistence and skill, and he started for the capital to inform Mr.
-Lincoln of the close of the negotiations and to ask the fulfillment of
-the assurances concerning Mr. Blair's removal. On reaching Washington
-he went instantly to the White House, was admitted to an immediate
-private interview with the President in preference to a great throng
-of visitors, and reported in detail the successful result of his
-labors. On the day of this call upon Mr. Lincoln (Sept. 22, 1864) the
-newspapers published General Fremont's letter withdrawing his name as a
-presidential candidate. In it he said:
-
-  The presidential contest has in effect been entered upon in such a
-  way that the union of the Republican party has become a paramount
-  necessity. The policy of the Democratic party signifies either
-  separation or re-establishment with slavery. The Chicago platform
-  is simply separation. General McClellan's letter of acceptance is
-  re-establishment with slavery. The Republican candidate is, on the
-  contrary, pledged to the re-establishment of the Union _without_
-  slavery, and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure of
-  his party will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues
-  I think that no man of the Liberal party can remain in doubt. I
-  believe I am consistent with my antecedents and my principles in
-  withdrawing--- not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do
-  my part toward preventing the election of the Democratic candidate.
-  In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to hold exactly the
-  sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider that
-  his administration has been politically, militarily and financially
-  a failure, and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret
-  to the country.
-
-On the following day this correspondence took place:
-
-                  EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 1864.
-
-  _Hon. Montgomery Blair._
-
-  MY DEAR SIR: You have generously said to me more than once that,
-  whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my
-  disposal. That time has come. You very well know that this proceeds
-  from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially.
-  Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any friend,
-  and while it is true that the war does not seem greatly to add to
-  the difficulties of your department, as to those of some others, it
-  is not too much to say, which I most truly can, that in the three
-  years and a half during which you have administered the general
-  postoffice I remember no single complaint against you in connection
-  therewith. Yours as ever,
-
-                                                        ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
-
-                                  POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT, Sept. 23, 1864.
-
-  MY DEAR SIR: I have received your note of this date referring to
-  my offer to resign whenever you would deem it advisable for the
-  public interest that I should do so, and stating that in your
-  judgment that time has come. I now, therefore, formally tender my
-  resignation of the office of Postmaster-General.
-
-  I cannot take leave of you without renewing the expression of my
-  gratitude for the uniform kindness which has marked your course
-  toward me.
-
-                               Yours truly,
-                                                                M. BLAIR.
-
-  _To the President._
-
-Mr. Blair's resignation was accepted by the majority of Republicans
-throughout the North as a "cleansing of the Cabinet,"[32] and party
-lines were at once re-formed. The "radicals" became earnest supporters
-of the Baltimore ticket, no Republican demand for a new nomination or a
-second convention appeared, Mr. Davis ceased his trenchant criticisms,
-and Mr. Wade took the stump and made a series of exceedingly effective
-speeches in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Military success also came with its
-powerful help. General Sherman crowned his campaign by the capture of
-Atlanta, General Grant drew the coils of "the anaconda" daily tighter
-about the rebel capital, and General Sheridan fairly "swept" Early from
-the valley of the Shenandoah. The results of the September elections
-had been dubious in significance, but those of October were decisive
-Republican victories and preceded an overwhelming triumph in November.
-Mr. Chandler (who had in 1863 taken an active share in the campaigns in
-New York and Illinois,[33] Michigan not holding any general election
-in that year) returned from his labors of mediation to his own State
-and spoke to almost daily mass-meetings in its chief towns throughout
-the month of October. Michigan gave to the Lincoln electors a majority
-of 16,917, and sent only Republicans to the Thirty-ninth Congress. Mr.
-Chandler's contribution to this result was not unimportant, but it
-was of meagre value compared with his labors upon a broader field in
-healing grave dissensions and in quietly removing a cause of danger
-which was deeply founded, and which, although now almost forgotten, was
-then of no slight actual proportions and of very serious possibilities.
-It was characteristic of the man that this self-prompted and successful
-service, one of the greatest he ever rendered to Republicanism, was
-rarely mentioned by him afterward, and never as if it was more than
-was due to the cause of his political faith nor as if it gave him any
-especial claim upon the party gratitude.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[31] Mr. Chandler explained the ground of his opposition to the ten
-per cent. loyal basis plan of reconstruction proposed by Mr. Lincoln
-for the admission of Louisiana and Arkansas. There were not more
-than seven or eight members of the Senate with him at the beginning
-of the session on that question, although there was a large majority
-before its close. The Democrats did not believe in this ten per cent.
-doctrine, and they voted with those who did not believe in admitting
-those States without guarantees. This admission was finally prevented
-by a night of filibustering. Only six Republicans remained and voted
-during that night. The result, however, proved that those six men were
-right, and that Mr. Lincoln and the others were wrong. If Louisiana and
-Arkansas had been admitted, then we would have been compelled to admit
-all the other States in the same way, and to-day we would have eleven
-rebel States in the Union. Those two States, Louisiana and Arkansas,
-had become the most intensely rebel of all the States that were in
-rebellion.--_Report of his speech, before the Republican caucus at
-Lansing on Jan. 6, 1869._
-
-[32] Mr. Greeley's comment in the New York "Tribune" was: "Precisely
-why Mr. Lincoln thought this action called for at this moment, rather
-than at any other time in the last four months, we are not told." This
-chapter shows that Mr. Chandler could have "told" him.
-
-[33] If the North had been a unit the rebellion would long ago have
-been crushed. But the rebels found out we were not a unit at any time,
-so they persevered, so they invaded Pennsylvania, so they hoped to take
-Washington, and to raise insurrection all over the land. The only hope
-of the South to-day is in the traitors of the North.... They will fail
-in the contest. Instead of having established a slave empire they will
-have, by their own acts, destroyed all the securities that slavery
-ever possessed. They will have swept away all the compromises by which
-slavery has been tolerated by a forbearing people.--_Senator Chandler
-at Springfield, Ill., on Sept. 7, 1863._
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON--RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT.
-
-
-On the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
-at Ford's theater in the city of Washington. The universal grief was
-fitly described by Disraeli, who said, in the British Commons, that the
-character of the victim and the circumstances of his death took the
-event "out of all the pomp of history and the ceremonial of diplomacy;
-it touched the heart of nations and appealed to the domestic sentiment
-of mankind." Its effect upon the American people was profound, and it
-deepened vastly the public appreciation of the essential barbarity of
-the prejudices, passions and ambitions which had plunged the republic
-into civil war.
-
-The members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War returned on
-the evening of this crime from Richmond, having made an unsuccessful
-attempt to visit North Carolina for the purpose of taking testimony in
-regard to the Fort Fisher expedition. On the following morning they
-met, and addressed a formal note to Andrew Johnson, who had, while a
-Senator, served upon that committee, expressing the wish of his "old
-associates" to call upon him and acquaint him with "many things which
-they had seen and heard at Richmond." They were promptly admitted to
-his apartments at the Kirkwood House, and were among the first to talk
-freely with the man who had been so tragically made President of the
-newly-restored Union. Mr. Johnson had just been sworn into office by
-Chief Justice Chase in the presence of some of the Cabinet and a few
-Congressmen, and naturally the conversation chiefly turned upon the
-pursuit of the assassins, and the proper punishment of the men who
-had inspired or countenanced this crime, as well as of its actual
-committers. As a sequel of this conference, an important meeting was
-held on the following day (Sunday, April 16, 1865) in the President's
-rooms. By appointment Senators Chandler and Wade and John Covode (an
-original member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, then a
-contestant for a seat in the House) called upon Mr. Johnson, and
-proceeded to consider with him what policy should be pursued toward
-the chiefs of the conquered rebellion. They believed that the public
-interest required that examples should be made of a few of the more
-guilty of the Southern traitors, and urged such a course upon the
-President. They found him--confronted as he was with the danger of
-assassination, and recollecting his own sufferings as a Southern
-Unionist--eager for measures of extreme rigor, and were compelled at
-the outset to seek to moderate a violence of intention on his part,
-which was certain to defeat the aim they were anxious to secure,
-namely: that of impressing the public with a sense of the justice as
-well as the severity of the punishment of deliberate and inexcusable
-treason. Andrew Johnson's disposition was to give to the contemplated
-proceedings rather a revengeful than a sternly retributive complexion.
-The relations of Mr. Chandler, Mr. Wade and Mr. Covode with their
-former fellow-committeeman were then exceedingly intimate, and they
-labored to restrain his vehemence and to direct his determination into
-a channel of action which should be just and not passionate, and should
-thus yield wholesome influences. It had been suggested that Davis
-and other fugitive rebels should be allowed to escape to Mexico or
-Europe, and the question of their punishment thus evaded; this plan was
-promptly condemned by all the participants in the conference, and there
-was a general agreement that the leaders of the rebellion should be
-arrested as rapidly as possible and held to answer for their offenses.
-The next question that arose related to the best method of procedure
-after these men had been captured, and then it was decided than Gen.
-Benjamin F. Butler should be sent for to give his advice as a lawyer.
-Mr. Covode undertook this errand and soon returned with him. Mr.
-Chandler then stated to General Butler the subject of the conference,
-and the President added that he was anxious to make a historical
-example of the leading traitors, for its moral effect upon the future,
-and took exceedingly extreme ground on this point, much more so than
-the other gentlemen were willing to approve. All of those present
-expressed their opinions in turn, after Mr. Johnson had concluded, and
-all agreed upon one point, namely: that in the case of the seizure of
-Jefferson Davis he should be summarily punished by death. Mr. Chandler
-remarked, with emphasis:
-
-"You have only to hang a few of these traitors and all will be peace
-and quiet in the South. A few men have done the mischief, and the
-masses of the people were misled by them. They have put the country
-in great peril to gratify their political ambition and they ought to
-suffer the penalty of treason as a warning to all men hereafter."
-
-To this Andrew Johnson replied that Mr. Chandler could not know the
-full enormity of the crime Davis and his associates had committed,
-that Northern men could never realize the sufferings the rebellion had
-brought upon the loyal people of the South, and that no punishment
-could be too severe. He added that he was determined that a precedent
-should be established that would be forever a terror to such men as had
-conspired to overthrow the government.
-
-After some further conversation, the President asked General Butler
-for his professional opinion, as to whether Davis, Benjamin, Floyd,
-Wigfall, and the other civil officers of the Confederacy, could be
-tried by a military commission. General Butler replied that if they
-could be arrested in the insurrectionary States--in any locality
-under military control and where no civil authority existed or was
-recognized--they could be arraigned before such a tribunal, but a court
-of this character would have no jurisdiction if the criminals should
-get upon foreign soil, or, before being apprehended, reach any district
-where the civil law was in force. Mr. Chandler then urged that Davis
-should, by all means, be secured before he had a chance to leave the
-seceded States; and inquired as to the situation of the troops in the
-South and the probability of their defeating an attempt by Davis to
-fly through Mexico, or by boat on the Gulf. President Johnson replied
-that no way was open for his escape, but that he would be captured,
-dead or alive. The supposition that Davis was implicated in the
-assassination plot was then discussed with some difference of opinion,
-and finally the President asked General Butler to indicate a plan for
-the prosecution and punishment of Davis and his associates, for the use
-of the government. General Butler consented and the conference ended.
-
-With the preparation of the memorandum thus requested, General Butler
-occupied almost his entire time for several weeks, investigating
-precedents, and examining authorities with the utmost thoroughness.
-During this work he was repeatedly in consultation with Mr. Chandler,
-who saw all of his notes and made many suggestions; before its
-completion, Davis had been captured and sent to Fortress Monroe.
-General Butler's plan was submitted to President Johnson in the latter
-part of May, 1865. It was long and elaborate, was based upon an
-exhaustive examination of the history of all military tribunals, and
-set forth in substance these propositions:
-
-1. That Davis could be tried by a military commission, having been
-captured while in rebellion in a locality where no lawful civil
-authority existed. This tribunal could sit at Fortress Monroe, where
-Davis was a prisoner, as that was still within the military lines.
-
-2. That this commission should be composed of the thirteen officers
-of the highest rank in the army; this provision would have made it
-consist of Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant; Major-Generals H. W. Halleck, W.
-T. Sherman, George G. Meade, Philip H. Sheridan, George H. Thomas, and
-Brigadier-Generals Irwin McDowell, Wm. S. Rosecrans, Philip St. George
-Cooke, John Pope, Joseph Hooker, W. S. Hancock, and John M. Schofield.
-
-3. That in case of conviction, before the sentence should be executed,
-Davis should be allowed an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court
-of the United States; this would silence criticism, secure Davis all
-his legal rights, and establish a precedent which might stand for all
-time.
-
-4. That the only doubt that existed as to the conviction of Davis
-was to be found in the question of the jurisdiction of the military
-commission.
-
-5. That the prosecution should hold Davis's assumption of military
-authority against the United States as the overt act of treason, and
-that his military orders, his commissions of officers, his official
-announcements of himself as "commander-in-chief of the military and
-naval forces of the Confederate States," his official reviews of
-troops, the official reports made to him by commanders of armies in
-rebellion, should be proven to establish the case.
-
-6. That the record of the oaths taken by him as an officer in the
-United States army, as a Senator, and as Secretary of War, should be
-shown with evidence that he had violated them.
-
-7. That the various acts of cruelty to prisoners of war committed
-by his orders should be proven; other minor counts could also be
-introduced in the indictment to secure an accumulation of charges.
-
-General Butler's memorandum further set forth that the prosecution
-should expect to be met by the defense:
-
-1. With the question of jurisdiction.
-
-2. With an attempt to prove the right of secession.
-
-3. With the claim that the duty of allegiance to a state was superior
-to the duty of allegiance to the general government.
-
-4. With the claim that the acts of which Davis was accused were
-performed by him as the head of a _de facto_ government, to which
-office he had been elected under forms of law.
-
-5. With the further point that the recognition of this _de facto_
-government by the United States in the exchange of prisoners, in the
-acceptance of terms of surrender, in the observance of flags of truce,
-and in correspondence of various kinds, amounted to such a recognition
-of the existence of a government with which it was at war, as must
-prevent the United States from claiming that participation therein was
-treason.
-
-These were the chief points which General Butler thought the defense
-would set up, and in his brief he grouped a powerful array of
-precedents and decisions upon which the prosecution could rest its
-case and meet these objections. During the early stages of this work,
-Mr. Chandler, General Butler and others, who firmly held that stern
-punishment should be meted out to a few conspicuous rebels--not in a
-spirit of vengeance, but from a belief that salutary results would
-follow if it should be established as a historical fact that in the
-United States treason is a high crime whose penalty is death--were
-constantly anxious lest the President should by some violent act or
-word destroy the moral effect of their position. In public he said
-repeatedly at this time that "the penalties of the law must be in a
-stern and inflexible manner executed upon conscious, intelligent and
-influential traitors," but his private utterances far outstripped
-this language, and were often scarcely less than bloodthirsty. Mr.
-Chandler, on one occasion, came away from the White House greatly
-disturbed by Mr. Johnson's disposition to treat this subject with mere
-anger, and characteristically said to Senator Wade and Mr. Hamlin,
-"Johnson has the nightmare, and it is important that he should be
-watched." General Butler's memorandum Mr. Chandler heartily approved
-as clear in scope, just in spirit, and certain to prove effective in
-operation, but, by the time it was fully completed, a great change
-had taken place in the disposition of the President. In April he was
-in favor of hanging every body; in June he was opposed to hanging
-any one. He finally ignored entirely the memorandum which General
-Butler had drawn up at his request, and decided that Davis should be
-tried by the civil authorities at Richmond, where his crimes had been
-committed. As a result the arch-rebel was allowed to remain in prison
-at Fortress Monroe for nearly two years, because of the lack of a
-civil court competent to take jurisdiction of his case. In 1866 he was
-indicted and arraigned, and in 1867 was admitted to bail; a year later
-a _nolle prosequi_ was entered, and the case against him dismissed.
-Before this matter had reached its second stage even, Mr. Chandler had
-become convinced that Andrew Johnson had determined to desert the party
-which had elevated him to the vice-presidency, and with that knowledge
-ceased to act as his adviser and became one of the most active of his
-political enemies. The leniency of the course finally pursued toward
-Davis Mr. Chandler then and afterward regarded as a grave public
-mistake, and believed that the failure to enforce the death penalty
-where it was so thoroughly deserved was exceedingly unfortunate in its
-influence upon popular opinion, and did more than any other one cause
-to encourage the disloyal classes of the South in their plans for
-ultimately recapturing the political supremacy they had forfeited by
-rebellion.
-
-Precisely the causes which led Andrew Johnson so quickly back into
-close fellowship with the men whom he had regarded as his inveterate
-enemies will never be known. It is probable that originally they
-were slight, but his temperament rapidly widened disagreement into
-irreconcilable hostility. His maudlin speech on Inauguration-day so
-incensed many of his supporters that the Republican senators, at a
-formal gathering, actually considered a proposition (urged by Mr.
-Sumner) to request him to resign the office he had disgraced. The
-conference decided against such a step, but Mr. Johnson heard of the
-movement, and regarded those who approved it with much bitterness;
-his hatred of them undoubtedly fed his growing dislike for the party
-of which they were influential leaders. Again, he was a thorough
-representative of the "poor whites" of the South. He felt their
-jealousy of the planting aristocracy which monopolized political power
-in his section, and this made him such a vigorous opponent of the
-secession conspiracy which that oligarchy organized and led. But he
-also shared in the prejudice of his own class against the negroes,
-and, when he saw the disposition of the Republicans to accord to the
-freedmen equal rights and privileges before the law, he refused to
-join in that movement and set doggedly about defeating such plans.
-Precisely how great Mr. Seward's influence over him was at this time
-is not clear, but it is certain that the change in his attitude toward
-Republicanism was simultaneous with the slow recovery of his Secretary
-of State from the blows of Payne's dagger. His combative obstinacy also
-made him fiercely resent the vigorous criticisms which his "policy"
-of reconstruction invited when first announced; Congress did not meet
-for months after his accession to the presidency, and its leaders were
-not in position to check his course, either by organized remonstrance
-or by legislative interposition; the rebels who had been denouncing
-him savagely were prompt to flatter his vanity and to offer promises
-of support; and, as a result, when the Thirty-ninth Congress met on
-December 4, 1865, the break between the President and the Republican
-party had passed beyond mending. Mr. Johnson entered at once upon
-that shameful course, which included the betrayal of those who had
-trusted him and the disgrace of his high office by lamentable public
-exhibitions of passion and boorishness, and which led to great and
-durable public injury by trebling the difficulties surrounding the
-delicate and important work of reconstructing the "Confederacy." Mr.
-Chandler's distrust of the President commenced with his change of tone
-in regard to the punishment of treason and with the first manifestation
-of his intention to assume full control of reconstruction and to
-practically restore the rebels to power in the subdued States. They
-had one stormy interview at the White House, in which Mr. Chandler,
-after touching upon the implicit character of his confidence in the
-President during their senatorial service, denounced his new course as
-a violation of his sacred pledges and a base surrender to traitors, and
-left him indignantly and forever. From that time he regarded Andrew
-Johnson as a public enemy, whose opportunities for evil were to be
-lessened by every possible lawful restriction. He did not oppose the
-efforts made by his more hopeful associates in December, 1865, to
-re-establish harmony between the Capitol and the White House, but he
-predicted their failure. All the legislation which diminished Johnson's
-power for harm he ardently supported. The bills to admit Nebraska and
-Colorado (the Colorado bill failed at this time) he was especially
-active in pushing, from a belief that it was important to increase the
-Republican ascendency in the Senate while there was an uncertainty as
-to how much strength the "Johnson men" proper (Senators Doolittle,
-Dixon, Norton, and Cowan) might develop. It was largely through Mr.
-Chandler's untiring exertions, also, that the Fortieth Senate elected
-Benjamin F. Wade as its President, and thus made him the acting
-Vice-President of the United States, a position of the very highest
-responsibility in the then critical state of national affairs.
-
-Mr. Chandler aided in shaping and passing the reconstruction measures
-of 1866-'67-'68, not for the reason that they precisely embodied his
-ideas of the true method to be pursued, but because they presented a
-plan upon which the Republicans could be united, which was practicable,
-and which promised to reorganize the Southern States on the basis of
-the supremacy of the loyal elements in their population. When Andrew
-Johnson took the first step in unfolding his "policy" (by his general
-amnesty proclamation and by the appointment of a provisional governor
-for North Carolina, both acts bearing the date of May 29, 1865) the
-"Confederacy" had ceased to exist, its chieftain was a captive, its
-armies were prisoners of war on parole, its capacity for resistance had
-been consumed in the furnace of battle, but its bitterness still glowed
-and the prejudices and ambitions which gave it being were undestroyed.
-The amnesty proclamation relieved, with a few exceptions, those who
-bore arms against the government and the most virulent supporters of
-rebellion who remained at home from all pains and penalties on the sole
-condition that they should subscribe to an oath of future loyalty.
-The provisional government proclamations permitted all persons thus
-amnestied, who were voters according to laws of the States previous
-to the rebellion, to elect delegates to conventions to amend the
-local constitutions and restore the States to their "constitutional
-relations with the federal government." By this process the loyal
-colored men of the South were denied the right to participate in the
-work of reconstruction and the entire machinery of reorganization was
-placed in the control of men whose hands were yet red with Union blood.
-Their discretion was only hampered by three conditions, compliance
-with which was made essential to the presidential approval of their
-work. They were required to annul the secession ordinances, to formally
-recognize the abolition of slavery, and to repudiate all debts created
-to promote rebellion. Beyond this, the disloyal classes of the South
-were left in undisputed mastery of the situation. The control of the
-insurgent States, and of the lives and fortunes of the loyalists,
-white and black, were surrendered absolutely to the men who but a few
-weeks before had been wrecked in the catastrophe which overwhelmed the
-rebellion. That they were prompt to improve this unexpected, undeserved
-and mistaken leniency need not be said. Their use of their new power
-was both presumptuous and intolerant. In elections, which proscribed
-Union men as unworthy of trust, conventions were chosen which accepted
-ungraciously the mere fact of emancipation, and which repudiated
-the rebel debts only under repeated presidential compulsion. State
-governments were then organized, which placed men whose disloyalty had
-been conspicuous in responsible positions, and which sent unamnestied
-leaders of the rebellion in the field and in council to Washington as
-claimants of Congressional seats. The State legislation which followed
-embodied in shameful laws the unquenched diabolism of the slave power.
-In statutory phraseology these enactments declared, "politically and
-socially this is a white man's government," and, impudently asserting
-that Congress was without any power over the matter, the men who had,
-in form, admitted the death of slavery proceeded to establish peonage
-in its stead. No body of laws adopted by any civilized nation in
-this century has equaled in studied injustice and cruelty those by
-which the "Johnson governments" of 1865 and 1866 sought to prevent
-the freedmen from rising from the level of admitted and hopeless
-inferiority, and to convince the blacks that in ceasing to be slaves
-they had only become serfs. Colored people were denied the right to
-acquire or dispose of public property. It was made a crime for a negro
-to enter a plantation without the consent of its owner or agent.
-Freedmen were declared vagrants, and punished as such for preaching
-the gospel without a license from some regularly organized church.
-Colored men failing to pay capitation tax were declared vagrants and
-the sale of their services was permitted as a penalty. Black persons
-were prohibited from renting or leasing lands except in incorporated
-towns or villages. Their owning or bearing arms was declared to be a
-violation of the peace. For a negro to break a labor contract was made
-an offense punishable by imprisonment. Colored laborers on farms were
-prohibited from selling poultry or farm products, and it was made a
-misdemeanor to purchase from them. This class was also denied the right
-of forming part of the militia, and it was made an offense for any
-freedman to enter a religious or other assembly of whites, or go with
-them into any rail car or public conveyance. White persons "usually
-associating themselves with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes"
-were also declared to be vagrants in the eye of the law. The colored
-people were prohibited from practicing any art, trade or business
-except husbandry, without special license from the courts. And most
-infamous of all were the statutes for the compulsory apprenticeship
-of colored children with or without the consent of parents, which
-practically re-established over the next generation of the freed people
-slavery with the whipping-post and overseer's lash. One State by joint
-resolution tendered thanks to Jefferson Davis "for the noble and
-patriotic manner in which he conducted the affairs of _our_ government
-while President of the Confederacy," and other resolutions were adopted
-declaring that "nothing more is required for the restoration of law
-and order but the withdrawal of federal bayonets." [The fell spirit
-and tendency of the reaction which was thus revealed found still more
-significant expression in the revolting butchery in and around the
-Mechanic's Institute of New Orleans on the 30th of July, 1866.] Some
-of these infamous measures were adopted in all the insurrectionary
-States, others in only some of them, but without exception the new
-Southern governments which Andrew Johnson's "policy" created were
-founded upon the traditions of the slave system and the memories of
-"the lost cause." The objection that the President had, in thus taking
-the work of reconstruction into his own hands, usurped authority
-devolved upon Congress by the constitution, was a strong one, but it
-received but little popular attention. Anger at the results of that
-"policy" obscured the mere disapproval of its methods. When it was seen
-that the rebellion had merely changed its theater of action, and that
-what it lost on the battle-field it proposed to secure by legislation,
-there was but one opinion among the masses of the people who had
-heartily supported the war and were sincerely anxious to preserve its
-fruits. Their emphatic demand was that the illegal and reactionary
-governments set up by the President should be overturned, and the South
-reconstructed in the interests of loyalty and liberty. Congress, as
-part of its stubborn contest with Andrew Johnson, undertook this work.
-It refused to recognize the pretended State governments or to admit
-their Congressmen. It divided the territory of the conquered States
-into five military districts, and placed it under the control of the
-army until a juster system of reconstruction could be applied. It then
-provided that in the calling of conventions to frame new constitutions
-colored men should be permitted to vote; that those revised instruments
-must confer the elective franchise upon all loyal colored people
-and all whites not disfranchised for rebellion; that the work of
-the conventions must be submitted to the colored and white people
-not disfranchised for approval; that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
-Amendments to the national constitution must be ratified; and that
-the State constitutions so adopted must be submitted to and accepted
-by Congress. Upon this general plan the South was reconstructed, not
-without much friction, not wholly to the satisfaction of the men who
-marked out this course of procedure, but with the faith (or at least
-the trust) on their part that it would restore that section to the
-Union with genuinely free institutions, that it would protect the
-emancipated slave in his rights, and that it would substitute for
-disloyal communities States controlled by those whose interests and
-traditions lay with the national cause. The reconstruction laws were
-not vengeful in character; the aim of the men who passed them was not
-retaliation, not even retribution except in so far as the application
-of mild penalties to treason might increase the security of the future.
-To prevent a repetition of the terrible struggle which had just closed
-was the aim; that a political system had been devised, which both
-recognized human rights, and by its natural operations would exclude
-from political power the men who had plunged the country into civil
-war, was the hope. Within ten years the scheme failed utterly, and what
-it was designed to prevent had been accomplished upon its ruins. No
-body of laws can maintain itself in the face of organized murder and
-terrorism which authority refuses to either punish or prevent.
-
-The reconstruction measures, while they commanded Mr. Chandler's
-general assent, were laxer in details than he would have made them.
-He felt, as Thaddeus Stevens said, that much that they ought to
-have contained was "defeated by the united forces of self-righteous
-Republicans and unrighteous Copperheads," but held that the bills
-which were passed deserved support as a whole on the ground that it
-was not wise to "throw away a great good because it is not perfect."
-Schuyler Colfax closed one of his speeches upon this subject as
-follows: "Loyalty must govern what loyalty preserved." Mr. Chandler
-complimented him warmly and said, "You got it all into one sentence,"
-and that doctrine and the belief in equal rights for citizens of
-every color guided his share of the work upon all measures affecting
-reconstruction. His chief regret was that the process of this
-reorganization was not prolonged until the loyal sentiment of the South
-had become strong enough and intelligent enough to maintain itself. If
-his wishes had prevailed, the provisional governing of that section
-would have been continued until the education of the blacks, the death
-of the rebel leaders, and the extinguishment by time of the prejudices
-and animosities of the war had accomplished such a wholesome revolution
-in sentiment throughout that section as would in itself have been a
-loyal and durable reconstruction. As this was not possible, he spared
-no effort to make successful the experiment which was attempted; if
-others had been as resolute and faithful as he, it would not have
-failed. He did not share in the disposition of so many Republicans to
-abandon what had been just commenced because of the imperfection of its
-first fruits. He stood manfully for the maintenance by Northern opinion
-and by the aid of the United States of the loyal State governments
-of the South, not claiming they were faultless, but because they
-were based on justice and were far better than that which would take
-their place if they fell. When they were assailed by assassination,
-by massacre, and by systematic terrorizing, he believed that it was
-the duty of the general government to use all its authority and all
-its force to protect its citizens in their rights and to prevent the
-harvesting by unpunished traitors of the fruits of atrocities as
-brutal and bloody as Saint Bartholomew. The policy of political murder
-triumphed finally at the South, not through any weakness of such men as
-he, nor through any failure upon his part to denounce that vast crime.
-He labored strenuously to kindle Northern opinion into such a flame
-of just wrath as would have made impossible that victory of organized
-brutality.
-
-Mr. Chandler, was often described by political opponents as "the
-relentless enemy of the South;" nothing was farther from the fact.
-That small minority of the Southern people, who ruled that section
-with oligarchical power before and during the war, who organized and
-led the rebellion, and who have now regained supremacy by outrage and
-murder, he always distrusted and attacked. But the great majority of
-the people of the South--the blacks whom those men rob of their rights
-and the whites whom they mislead--he profoundly pitied, and their
-cause he espoused. For them he demanded equal rights before the law, a
-free ballot box, the common school, and an opportunity to prove their
-manhood. Those who resisted a policy so just and civilizing he was
-quick to denounce in unstinted terms, and upon them he did not waste
-conciliation. They--not "the South"--found him the inappeasable, but
-still "the avowed, the erect, the manly foe."
-
-In the elections of 1866 the issues were chiefly those connected with
-reconstruction, and Mr. Chandler as usual spoke in his own and other
-Western States, exposing the malign results of Mr. Johnson's "policy"
-and in advocacy of the Congressional plan and the Fourteenth Amendment.
-The general tenor of his speeches will appear from this extract from an
-address delivered at Detroit, at the close of the political campaign:
-
-  These perjured traitors are permitted to live here, but we say
-  to them they can never again hold office unless Congress by a
-  two-thirds vote shall remove the disability; why, a man who has
-  committed perjury alone, right here in Michigan, you would not
-  allow to testify before a justice of the peace in the most petty
-  case. But we forget the perjury of the rebels which would send them
-  to the State prison, we forget the hanging which follows treason,
-  and say to them simply, that for the future they can never hold
-  office. Personally I am not in favor of the last clause of this
-  section which gives Congress the power to remove this disability by
-  a two-thirds vote. I would have let this race of perjured traitors
-  die out, out of office, and educate the rising generation to
-  loyalty. But it is in the amendment and I advocate its adoption as
-  it is.
-
-Often during the progress of the obstinate struggle between Andrew
-Johnson and Congress his attempts to evade law and his encroachments
-upon the powers vested in the legislative branch of the government led
-to the serious consideration in the House of Representatives of the
-question of impeachment. Several resolutions ordering the preferring
-of charges against him at the bar of the Senate were presented without
-action, but on the 7th of January, 1867, the Hon. J. M. Ashley of
-Ohio offered a preamble, beginning, "I do impeach Andrew Johnson,
-Vice-President and acting President of the United States, of high
-crimes and misdemeanors. I charge him with usurpation of power and
-violation of law in that he has corruptly used the appointing
-power; ... corruptly used the pardoning power; ... corruptly used
-the veto power; ... corruptly disposed of public property; ... and
-corruptly interfered in elections." With this preamble was a resolution
-referring the charges to the Judiciary Committee to inquire if the
-President had been guilty of acts which were "calculated to overthrow,
-subvert or corrupt the government." By a vote of 108 yeas to 39 nays
-this reference was ordered, but no report was made until November
-25, 1867, and then a resolution of impeachment was submitted by Mr.
-Boutwell in behalf of the majority of the committee. On December 7,
-this resolution was rejected by a vote of 57 to 108. Encouraged by
-this result Mr. Johnson, who had suspended Edwin M. Stanton from the
-Secretaryship of War during the Congressional recess of 1867, and whose
-action had been disapproved by the Senate under the Tenure of Civil
-Office act, undertook to force Mr. Stanton out by a second suspension
-on February 21, 1868, accompanied by an order appointing Gen. Lorenzo
-Thomas Secretary _ad interim_. Mr. Stanton declined to acknowledge the
-President's power to take this step, refused to give place to General
-Thomas, and for many days and nights remained in constant occupation
-of the department offices. The House of Representatives at once
-arraigned the President before the Senate for this attempted violation
-of the Tenure of Office act, and his trial followed. Chief Justice
-Chase presided; the proceedings lasted from February 25 until May 26,
-1868; and in the end Mr. Johnson was acquitted, exactly the number of
-Republican Senators necessary to defeat conviction voting with the
-Democratic minority. These proceedings Mr. Chandler watched with the
-liveliest interest, and the failure of the impeachment was one of
-the most bitter disappointments of his political career. He sincerely
-believed that Johnson's course fully merited a verdict of "guilty,"
-and he felt that the great difficulties surrounding the problem of the
-loyal reconstruction of the South would disappear if the executive
-department of the government was administered with the Jacksonian vigor
-and patriotism of Benjamin F. Wade. Mr. Stanton's refusal to permit the
-President to displace him without the consent of the Senate he endorsed
-with the utmost heartiness, and, while the Secretary remained in his
-office to prevent its seizure by Mr. Johnson's _ad interim_ appointee,
-Mr. Chandler spent night after night with him, and did all that was
-possible to strengthen his resolution and to lighten his voluntary
-confinement. On one occasion, when there were signs of an intention on
-the part of the claimant to use force, Mr. Chandler, General Logan,
-and a few others gathered together about a hundred trusty men, who
-occupied the basement of the department, and there did garrison duty
-until the danger was past. During Johnson's trial Mr. Chandler was not
-forgetful of his position as a judge, and was an attentive listener to
-the evidence and the arguments before and in the court of impeachment.
-He was restive under the length of the proceedings, however, and did
-advise the managers on the part of the House to push the case along
-as rapidly as possible, urging that the public interest required the
-ending of the general suspense. He felt then, and said afterward, that
-the delay was used to effect combinations with, and apply pressure to,
-individual Senators, which would induce them to favor acquittal. That
-this was done he never doubted, and he repeatedly denounced in the
-strongest terms, both in public and private, the action of the seven
-Republicans (Senators Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes, Henderson, Fowler,
-Ross and Van Winkle) who voted "not guilty" with the Democrats and
-the "Johnson men." He was especially indignant at the course of Mr.
-Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull, and on several occasions in after years
-came into sharp personal collision with them during the Senate debates.
-The final failure of the impeachment movement he felt as a blow. One
-who knew him well has said: "He believed that republican government was
-at stake and impeachment a necessity. Never was there a time when he
-came so near despairing of the republic as at that event."
-
-The Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses remained in nearly continuous
-session for over three years "watching the White House." Outside of
-the exciting political topics which received so large a share of their
-attention, they were compelled to deal with important financial,
-commercial and material questions affecting vitally the general
-interest. The currency and public debt demanded simplification; the tax
-system was to be changed from a war to a peace footing; the commercial
-wrecks of many years called for a bankrupt law; bounties were to be
-equalized, pensions provided, and war claims adjusted on wise bases;
-neglected internal improvements clamored for renovation and extension;
-the ocean commerce required national care; and innumerable minor
-interests, long neglected under the stress of civil war, needed instant
-attention. Mr. Chandler worked with characteristic energy and practical
-wisdom in all these branches of legislative activity, and rendered
-public services of varied and permanent usefulness.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT--THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.
-
-
-In the presidential election of 1868 Mr. Chandler was even more than
-usually active, both as an organizer and speaker. He delivered nearly
-forty addresses in his own State, which gave to the Grant and Colfax
-ticket 31,492 majority, and elected a Republican Congressman in each
-of its six districts. The Legislature chosen at the same time had 66
-Republican majority upon joint ballot, and re-elected Mr. Chandler
-for his third Senatorial term, the Democratic vote being cast for the
-Hon. Sanford M. Green of Bay City. In the Republican caucus there
-was practically no opposition to Mr. Chandler's renomination, and
-he received on the first and only ballot 78 votes, 13 other ballots
-being cast for seven gentlemen by way of personal compliment. The
-inauguration of President Grant, on March 4, 1869, renewed Mr.
-Chandler's influence with the executive branch of the government, and
-the political and personal friendship between him and the modest,
-resolute, and illustrious soldier who succeeded Andrew Johnson grew
-mutually stronger and more appreciative from that day.
-
-Very much of the legislation of President Grant's first term, which
-received Mr. Chandler's vigilant attention and absorbed no small share
-of his energy, related to the details of the public business, and
-furnishes no biographical material of permanent interest. He supported
-the Fifteenth Amendment in all its stages, and also the Civil Rights
-bills, which he regarded as incomplete, but still as the taking of
-steps in the direction of justice.[34] It was his firm purpose to
-contribute his share toward making American citizenship mean something,
-for both black and white, and, if life was spared, to cease not his
-labors until the humblest freeman in the United States should be in
-firm possession of every natural and constitutional right, should have
-free access to an honest ballot-box, should suffer no proscription for
-his political opinions, and should be amply protected in his liberty to
-think, say, go, and do as he pleased within the limitations laid down
-by law for the regulation of the conduct of all. The battle, in which
-he was so eager and stalwart a leader, will not be finished until that
-result is forever secured.
-
-Early in General Grant's term the friends of Edwin M. Stanton
-determined to secure for him such an official appointment as should be
-congenial to his tastes and guarantee him an adequate support in old
-age. His iron constitution resisted the enormous labors of the civil
-war successfully. For many months he worked from fifteen to twenty
-hours in each day; his assistant secretaries were energetic and trained
-men of affairs, but their strength successively gave way in attempting
-to keep up with their chief. When the strain was finally withdrawn, it
-was perceived that his own powers were greatly exhausted. Rest restored
-their tone somewhat, and he made one or two legal arguments and public
-addresses, which showed that his intellectual vigor was undiminished,
-but these efforts were followed by extreme nervous prostration. Under
-these circumstances, Mr. Stanton's friends determined to secure for
-him a judicial appointment. For such a position he was qualified by
-eminent professional attainments, and this fact and the permanency
-of tenure made the tender of a place upon the bench grateful to him.
-Accordingly, when Judge Grier resigned his position as a member of
-the Supreme Court, Mr. Stanton's appointment to the vacant Associate
-Justiceship was at once urged upon President Grant. Mr. Chandler was
-very active in this matter and pressed it with all his energy. The
-effort was successful, and on Dec. 20, 1869, this nomination was sent
-to the Senate and promptly confirmed. Four days afterward, and before
-his commission was made out, Mr. Stanton's overtaxed constitution
-broke down, and he died after a brief illness, in the fifty-fifth
-year of his age, as thorough a sacrifice to the nobility of his own
-patriotic devotion during the war as the bravest soldier who fell on
-any of its battle-fields. During his fatal illness, Mr. Chandler was a
-frequent watcher at his bedside, and was one of the last persons with
-whom the dying statesman conversed. After his death it was found that
-the man who had controlled the disbursement of hundreds of millions
-had died poor, and had not left an estate adequate to the support of
-his children. Congress directed a year's salary of a Justice of the
-Supreme Court to be paid to his heirs. Mr. Chandler and others of his
-friends also set on foot a movement to raise a national memorial fund.
-A meeting of Republicans was called at the residence of Congressman
-Samuel Hooper of Massachusetts, and a committee was there appointed
-who collected over $140,000 (Mr. Chandler contributing $10,000 and
-President Grant $1,000), which was invested in United States bonds and
-placed in the hands of a few trustees, of whom Surgeon-General Barnes
-of the army was chairman, for the benefit of the Stanton family.
-
-During General Grant's term the subject of "war claims" commenced to
-attract national attention. Originally the Republican Congresses dealt
-liberally with the South in the matter of compensation for damages
-inflicted upon its loyal citizens during the rebellion. By a series of
-carefully-guarded laws (and by a few private relief measures passed to
-meet exceptional cases) a large sum was paid to residents of the rebel
-States who suffered war losses, and were able to produce satisfactory
-proof of their fidelity to the Union. In this matter the national
-government certainly went to the extreme verge of generosity. The
-experience attending the disbursement of the money thus appropriated
-established conclusively the fraudulent and outrageous character of a
-large percentage of these claims. In thousands of cases investigation
-showed conclusively that arrant rebels were willing to swear that they
-had been "Union men," and that small losses had, by false affidavits,
-been magnified into great sums. As reconstruction broke down, and
-the survivors of the rebellion gained in strength at the Capitol, a
-new danger arose. No statute of limitations barred the indefinite
-presentation of claims to Congress, and it soon became evident that,
-not merely Southern loyalists, but avowed rebels who suffered losses
-in the war were looking to the general government for compensation
-for the damages which their own treason had invited. The movement on
-the Treasury in their interest did not take on the form of an attack
-in front, but by the flank. It commenced with plausible applications
-for the "relief" of Southern institutions and corporations, and not
-of individuals. It further manifested itself in propositions for such
-a relaxation of the terms of the laws and regulations governing this
-class of claims as would abolish all distinctions of "loyalty" and put
-the "Confederate" upon an equal footing with the Union applicant for
-this kind of "relief." The precise dimensions of this scheme, which
-has been well characterized as "an attempt to make the United States
-pay to the South what it cost it to be conquered in addition to what
-it cost to conquer it," have not yet fully appeared, but the cloven
-hoof has been sufficiently revealed to justly arouse and alarm the
-loyal sentiment of the North. Mr. Chandler's record upon this question
-affords a striking illustration of the soundness of his judgment as to
-the scope and tendency of any particular line of public policy. When
-this subject first demanded attention, he took the position which his
-party substantially assumed ten years later. His clear and practical
-mind saw what the consequences would be of any general reimbursement of
-war losses, and he strenuously resisted the taking of any false steps
-at the outset. Thus, on March 2, 1865, upon the bill to pay Josiah O.
-Armes for the destruction of property within the rebel lines, he said
-in the Senate:
-
-  I hope this bill will not pass the Senate.... If you pass it, if
-  you set this precedent, if you say to every rebel and every loyal
-  man, and every man throughout the South, by the passage of this
-  bill, that you intend to pay for every dollar of property that has
-  been destroyed by order of our generals, you will give a more fatal
-  blow to the credit of the government than by any other act that you
-  can perform in this body. I should look upon the passage of this
-  bill as a national calamity, and one that we cannot afford at this
-  time to bring on our heads. It will do more to shake the faith of
-  our own citizens and of the moneyed centers of the world in the
-  credit of your securities than any other act you could perform.
-
-In his address before the Republican caucus which renominated him for
-the Senate in January, 1869, he also said:
-
-  The moment this government begins to allow claims for damages
-  accruing to individuals during the war in the South, it is placed
-  in a position of great peril. Every rebel in the South who lost a
-  haystack or barn by fire during the war will prove his loyalty and
-  secure damages. It requires the greatest vigilance to prevent some
-  of these claims from being allowed, as they are continually being
-  pressed upon Congress, and probably will be for many years. The
-  laws of war do not require nor justify the allowance of this class
-  of claims even to loyal men. If they are loyal, then they have
-  served the government, and that is compensation enough. If they are
-  disloyal, they have no claim.
-
-These quotations indicate his original position on this issue, taken in
-the days when it had received but the slightest public attention. They
-are exactly in the line of the vigorous utterances upon the same topic
-which formed one of the important features of his public addresses in
-1879, when the subject had aroused marked popular interest, and other
-leaders had stepped up to the platform he had so long occupied.
-
-But Mr. Chandler did more than strenuously oppose the payment of the
-"war claims" of Southern disloyalists; his farsightedness placed in
-their path a serious practical obstacle. In 1873, a Colonel Pickett,
-who had been confidentially connected with the War Department of
-the "Confederacy," came to Washington and offered to sell to the
-authorities a vast quantity of the archives of the rebel government,
-which he had secreted before the capture of Richmond. Congress was
-not in session, and the Secretary of War, having no authority in law,
-refused to buy the documents. Mr. Chandler was in that city at the
-time, and Pickett was referred to him as a man of means and as one who
-would be apt to appreciate the importance of such a purchase. After
-one or two calls, Mr. Chandler determined that the matter deserved
-investigation at least. He asked for a schedule of the documents and
-for a statement of their prices. Pickett promptly furnished the former
-and offered to sell them for $250,000. Mr. Chandler, after a careful
-examination of the schedule, replied with a proposition that, if the
-papers corresponded with the list furnished, he would pay $75,000 for
-them. This offer was at last accepted, and Mr. Chandler deposited that
-sum in a Washington bank, subject to Pickett's order after a thorough
-examination of the documents had been made. Confidential clerks
-were at once set at work upon them, and it was found that they even
-surpassed their owner's representations as to value. The purchase was
-therefore completed, and the documents became the private property
-of Mr. Chandler, who had them locked up in a vault. When Congress
-met, a bill was passed authorizing the Secretary of War in general
-terms to purchase the archives of the Confederate government if it
-was ever possible, and appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. As
-soon as the bill became a law Mr. Chandler transferred the documents
-to the Secretary of War, and they are now in the possession of that
-department and constitute one of the most valuable and useful features
-of its record of the rebellion. The amount that has been saved to the
-government by this purchase, in furnishing evidence to defeat rebel
-claims, already exceeds many-fold the original price. Case after case
-in the Quartermaster-General's office, before the Southern Claims
-Commission, and before the Court of Claims has been defeated by
-evidence found among these papers.[35] One single conspicuous instance
-in which they saved to the Treasury more than four times their entire
-cost attracted much deserved attention at the time. On Nov. 16, 1877,
-an effort was made by leading Southern Democrats in the House of
-Representatives to pass under a suspension of the rules, and without
-debate, a joint resolution, ordering the immediate payment of several
-hundred thousand dollars to mail contractors in the rebel States who
-forfeited their contracts at the commencement of the rebellion. An
-objection from the Hon. Omar D. Conger prevented action on that day,
-but the resolution came up again on Feb. 15, 1878. Representative John
-H. Reagan of Texas, who had been the Postmaster-General of the rebel
-Cabinet, then took charge of the measure, and assured the House that
-the resolution was a purely formal matter, that it only provided for
-the payment of liabilities incurred before the war commenced, and that
-the rebel government had never paid these men for the same services.
-The Hon. Edwin Willits of Michigan, by a timely examination of the
-phraseology of the resolution, discovered that it provided for the
-payment of these contractors, not down to the actual beginning of
-the rebellion, but until May 31st, 1861, many weeks after the rebel
-government had been formed and after the firing upon Fort Sumter.
-Calling attention to this fact, he obtained the further postponement of
-the consideration of the resolution. When it came up again (on March
-8, 1878) Mr. Willits came to the House armed with a volume of the
-rebel statutes and with important extracts from documents contained
-in the rebel archives. With this evidence he demonstrated in ten
-minutes' time, beyond question, that the rebel government had assumed
-the payment of this class of claims, that it confiscated United States
-money and applied it to that purpose, that the men so paid agreed
-to refund to the rebel treasury any money subsequently given them
-on this account by the United States, and that the joint resolution
-was but an attempt to pay a second time contracts already paid and
-also properly declared forfeited through treason. The scene attendant
-upon this _expose_ was a dramatic one, and it resulted in the virtual
-abandonment then of the measure by those who were responsible for it.
-This result would not have been possible, had not the rebel archives
-thus opportunely yielded up their secrets. Their possession by the
-government is undoubtedly worth millions to the Treasury.
-
-In 1871, the second term of Jacob M. Howard, as Senator from
-Michigan, expired, and Thomas W. Ferry, then a member of the House of
-Representatives, was chosen as his successor. With his new colleague
-Mr. Chandler's relations were always close and cordial, and upon the
-questions of reconstruction, equal rights, and the national supremacy
-their accord was complete. Mr. Ferry rapidly attained distinction in
-the upper branch of Congress, and was for several successive years the
-President _pro tempore_ of the Senate. The death of Vice-President
-Wilson in 1875 made him Acting Vice-President of the United States,
-and he held that responsible position throughout the trying weeks of
-the electoral dispute of 1876-'7, when his good sense, the perfect
-discretion of his course, and the dignity and impartiality with which
-he discharged duties of the gravest character amid vast and dangerous
-excitement, both deserved and received universal praise. Mr. Ferry was
-re-elected during this critical period, and, as Mr. Chandler's term as
-Secretary of the Interior was then about to close, it was suggested
-in some quarters that Michigan should send him back to the Senate in
-Mr. Ferry's stead. The quality of Mr. Chandler's fidelity as a friend
-and of his estimate of Mr. Ferry's public usefulness were shown in the
-fact that, anxious as he avowedly was to become again a Senator, these
-suggestions obtained from him only peremptory negatives, and his advice
-and influence contributed to Mr. Ferry's unopposed re-election. Mr.
-Howard died suddenly at Detroit from apoplexy shortly after the close
-of his Senatorial service. As further illustrating the nature of the
-friendship existing between him and his colleague from Michigan, and
-the estimation in which he was held by the eminent men with whom he
-came in contact, this private letter from Mr. Chandler to President
-Grant, with an endorsement made thereon by the latter, is here given:
-
-                                             WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 1870.
-
-  MY DEAR SIR: Secretary Cox has done my colleague an unintentional
-  but a serious injury.
-
-  In 1869 the whole Michigan delegation united in recommending the
-  Rev. W. H. Brockway, one of the most popular Methodist clergymen in
-  the State, for Indian Agent.
-
-  He was nominated and confirmed, but acquiesced in the transfer
-  of Indian affairs to the military. Since the adjournment of
-  Congress, my colleague made a personal request to the Secretary
-  of the Interior, that the Rev. Mr. Brockway be commissioned as
-  Indian Agent for Michigan. Instead of sending the commission, he
-  has sent a man from New Jersey to attend to our Indian affairs.
-  This has given offense to the most numerous and powerful religious
-  denomination in the State and seriously injured my colleague. I ask
-  for my colleague that the New Jersey commission may be immediately
-  revoked, and Mr. Brockway may be at once commissioned....
-
-  It is really important that this be done at once. Very
-  respectfully, your obedient servant,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-  _To President U. S. Grant._
-
-  AUTOGRAPHIC ENDORSEMENT BY PRESIDENT GRANT.
-
-  Referred to the Secretary of the Interior.
-
-  I think Mr. Brockway might with great propriety be assigned to the
-  Indian agency in his own State, to which he has once been appointed
-  and confirmed.
-
-  He is a minister, and therefore the new rule adopted will not be
-  violated by his appointment.
-
-  I want, besides, to accommodate Senator Howard, whom I regard as an
-  able supporter of the Republican party and of the Administration.
-
-  Sept. 22, 1870.                                            U. S. GRANT.
-
-Mr. Chandler was a member of one or two of the special Congressional
-committees appointed to investigate those atrocious political murders
-which made infamous the return of the disloyal classes to power in the
-South. This general subject received no small share of his attention;
-the facts which investigation disclosed deepened his conviction
-of the essential barbarity of much that passes for civilization in
-that section, and added to the inflexibility of his opposition to a
-political system, which was responsible for the atrocious crimes of the
-Ku-Klux-Klan, "the Mississippi plan," the White League, and the "rifle
-clubs," and for the horrible massacres of Colfax and Coushatta, of
-Hamburg and Ellenton.
-
-Two of his speeches in the Senate in 1871 and 1872 attracted general
-attention and were widely republished. One of them was delivered on
-January 18, 1871, in reply to Mr. Casserly of California, who had
-challenged a comparison between the records of the Republican and
-Democratic parties. In the course of twenty minutes Mr. Chandler
-rapidly sketched the services of the Republican party in defeating the
-Democratic plot to surrender the territories to slavery, in crushing a
-Democratic rebellion, in emancipating four million slaves, in building
-a trans-continental railway to the Pacific coast, in inviting the
-settlement of the Great West by a homestead law, in establishing the
-national banking system, in maintaining the public credit against
-Democratic attack, and in reconstructing the South on the basis of
-freedom and loyalty. He closed as follows:
-
-  These measures were carried, not with the Democratic party, but
-  in spite of the Democratic party. Sir, we are not to be arraigned
-  here and put on the defensive, certainly not by that old Democratic
-  party.
-
-  And now, Mr. President, they ask us to do what? To forgive the past
-  and let by-gones be by-gones. You hear on the right hand and on the
-  left, from every quarter, "Let by-gones be by-gones; let us forget
-  the past and rub it out." Sir, we have no disposition to forget
-  the past. We have a record of which we are proud. We have a record
-  that has gone into history. There we propose to let it stand. We
-  never propose to blot out that record. There are no thousand years
-  in the world's history in which so much has been accomplished for
-  human liberty and human progress as has been accomplished by this
-  great Republican party in the short space of ten years. Blot out
-  that record? Never, sir, never! It is a record that will go down
-  in history through all times as the proudest ever made by any
-  political party that ever existed on earth. But, sir, do gentlemen
-  of the Democratic party want to blot out their record? I do not
-  blame them for wanting to, for that record is a record of treason.
-  It, too, has gone into history, and there it must stand through all
-  ages. Sir, the young men of this country are looking at these two
-  records, and they are making up their minds as to which they desire
-  their names to go down to history upon; and I am happy to say that
-  of the young men now coming upon the stage of action, nine out of
-  every ten are joining this great Republican party. They desire that
-  their record shall be associated with those who saved this great
-  nation, and not with those who attempted its overthrow. The day
-  is far distant when that old Democratic party that attempted to
-  overthrow this government will again be entrusted with power by the
-  people of this nation.... Mr. President, if this record of the two
-  parties does not please my Democratic friends, I have only to say
-  to them that they made it deliberately and they have got to stand
-  by it.
-
-On June 6, 1872, Mr. Chandler replied in the Senate to that part of
-Mr. Sumner's elaborate attack upon General Grant in which he declared
-that Edwin M. Stanton had said, in his last days, "General Grant cannot
-govern this country." The excessive egotism, which marred Mr. Sumner's
-character and which inspired that unfortunate speech, was always a
-cause of impatience with Mr. Chandler, and this display of it aroused
-his anger. In his reply, he challenged squarely the credibility of Mr.
-Sumner's statement. He first read from Mr. Stanton's reported speeches,
-to show that their enthusiastic and repeated commendation of General
-Grant by name proved that Mr. Sumner's assertion that Mr. Stanton had
-also said, "In my speeches I never introduced the name of General
-Grant; I spoke for the Republican cause and the Republican party," was
-exactly contrary to the fact. He then proceeded:
-
-  Mr. President, I had occasion with Mr. Wade, formerly Senator from
-  Ohio, as member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, to see
-  Mr. Stanton, I think once a day on an average, during the whole
-  war, and I was in the habit of visiting him up to the time of his
-  death, and never, under any circumstances, did he express in my
-  presence any but the highest opinion of General Grant, both as to
-  his military capacity and as to his civil capacity.
-
-  Mr. President, on the Friday before the death of E. M. Stanton, I
-  had occasion to visit him in company with two friends, members of
-  the other House, one Hon. Judge Beaman, then a member for Michigan,
-  the other Judge Conger, now a member from Michigan. We had that
-  day a long interview of not less than an hour and a half, wherein
-  Mr. Stanton expressed the highest opinion of President Grant, both
-  as to his military and civil capacity. I awaited an interview with
-  these parties before making this statement, and their recollection
-  is the same as my own. I have likewise held two or three interviews
-  with Senator Wade since then, and his recollection of the
-  expressions of the late E. M. Stanton is equally strong as my own
-  to-day. Mr. Stanton said, in the presence of two witnesses, "The
-  country knows General Grant to be a great warrior; I know he will
-  prove a great civilian." ...
-
-  Mr. President, the relations between the President of the
-  United States and the late Secretary Stanton were of remarkable
-  kindliness. Never did I hear either express any but the highest
-  esteem and regard for the other.... I think the last interview
-  he ever had was the interview with me in the presence of these
-  two living witnesses.... Surgeon-General Barnes was his attending
-  physician at the hour of his death. According to his testimony,
-  from the hour I last saw him up to the time of his death, there was
-  no change, so far as can be known.
-
-  In another part of this speech the President is arraigned as a
-  great gift-taker. Sir, General Grant was a great taker. Few men
-  have ever been as eminent as takers. He took Fort Donelson with
-  some twenty or thirty thousand soldiers; and he took Shiloh, and
-  took Vicksburg, and took the Wilderness, and took Murfreesboro'
-  and Appomattox and all the rebel material of war. He, with his
-  army, took the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves. And, sir, after he
-  had taken the vitals out of the rebellion, he was urged by his
-  friends to accept a small donation to take himself out of the
-  hands of poverty, a thing that has been done by all nations and by
-  all grateful peoples in all ages of the world. Sir, he is to be
-  arraigned as a great gift-taker because he accepted the voluntary
-  contributions of a grateful people!
-
-  Why, sir, there were few men of capacity, few men of fitness to
-  occupy positions under this government who did not subscribe,
-  gratefully, anxiously subscribe, to that fund to relieve U. S.
-  Grant from his poverty. And yet, he is to be arraigned here as a
-  gift-taker, as though that was a crime!
-
-  Mr. President, there are two classes of people in this world,
-  and we see specimens of them both. We have great _o-ra-tors_ and
-  great men of business. On this floor our _o-ra-tors_ have occupied
-  the time of this session to the exclusion of business, and while
-  these _o-ra-tors_ have been wasting the time of this body to the
-  detriment of the business of the nation, willing to indulge in
-  windy orations at the expense of the government, U. S. Grant,
-  President of the United States, has been managing the affairs of
-  this nation better than they were ever managed before. While your
-  _o-ra-tors_ were here delivering windy words, he was paying the
-  national debt faster than these _o-ra-tors_ could count it. While
-  they were _o-ra-ting_, he was negotiating treaties and attending
-  to the civil service of the nation. While they were _o-ra-ting_
-  on this floor during the war, he was winning victories in the
-  bloodiest part of the fight. And now, while they are _o-ra-ting_
-  on this floor, he is endearing himself to the hearts of the
-  whole people of this land as no other man ever did. Stanton was
-  prophetic; he is not only great in war, but he is greater as a
-  civilian.
-
-The act of March 3, 1873, which raised the annual salaries of
-Congressmen from $5,000 to $7,500, gave also to this increase a
-retroactive effect and made it apply to the members of Congress who
-passed the measure and whose official terms ended on that very day.
-Public opinion did not approve of any aspect of this change, but it
-condemned vehemently the voting by Congressmen to themselves of $5,000
-each for services already rendered and in addition to liberal salaries
-fixed at the time of their acceptance of office. So emphatic were the
-manifestations of popular wrath at both this act and its methods,
-that the next Congress promptly repealed "the salary grab," as it was
-commonly called. Mr. Chandler's integrity and good sense kept him
-from any participation in this obnoxious performance. He opposed the
-increase of compensation earnestly in the Senate, voted against it
-at all stages of the contest, and refused to accept his "back pay."
-When the bill had been passed and the increased salary had been placed
-to his credit on the Senate books, he went to the Treasury with his
-colleague and they deposited the difference between the old and the new
-rate to the credit of the government, writing the following letter to
-the Secretary of the Treasury:
-
-                                             WASHINGTON, March 28, 1873.
-
-  SIR: Herewith find drafts on the Treasury, one of $3,906.80 payable
-  to Z. Chandler, the other of $3,920, to T. W. Ferry, being avails
-  of retroactive increase of salary passed during the expiring days
-  of and for the Forty-second Congress, and this day placed in our
-  hands by the Secretary of the Senate.
-
-  Not willing to gain what we voted against, we request that the same
-  be applied toward the cancellation of any of the six per cent.
-  interest-bearing obligations of the nation. Lest such return be
-  distorted into possible reflection upon the propriety of dissimilar
-  disposition by others, you will oblige us much by giving no
-  publicity to the matter. Very respectfully, yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER,
-                                                            T. W. FERRY.
-
-The amount refunded was the exact difference between the sums allowed
-under the old and the increased rate. The new law gave an increase of
-salary for the term, without mileage. The old law allowed $5,000 less
-salary, but gave mileage in addition. Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ferry took
-the amount due them under the old system, and returned the additional
-sum which was allowed them under the new. The spirit of scrupulous
-honesty which dictated this proceeding is shown in the last sentence
-of the joint letter, asking that publicity might not be given to their
-action. They took this step voluntarily and not under any constraint
-from public opinion.
-
-In the general elections of 1870 and 1872 Mr. Chandler was exceedingly
-active, making the usual number of public addresses, and also
-devoting much time to organization and to the general distribution of
-political literature. The latter branch of party effort had become
-the special province of the Republican Congressional Committee.
-For more than twenty years there have been two distinct executive
-organizations within the Republican party, independent of each other,
-but always working in harmony, namely: The National Committee, and the
-Congressional Committee. The latter is composed of a Representative
-in Congress from each State, chosen by the Republican members of the
-respective delegations. No man can serve upon this committee unless
-he holds a seat in Congress, and States which have no Republican
-Congressmen are unrepresented in its membership. Mr. Chandler and
-James M. Edmunds were the founders of the Congressional Committee as
-a practical and influential working body; their plans and efforts
-first made it a power in American politics, and it remained under
-their joint control until Mr. Chandler became chairman of the National
-Committee. The special objects which it aimed to accomplish were the
-securing of a uniform treatment of political topics by newspapers
-and speakers throughout the country, and the circulation (under the
-franking privilege, or otherwise) of instructive and timely documents.
-During the reconstruction era it also devoted much attention to the
-work of Republican organization in the South, where special efforts
-were necessary to form into effective voting masses the emancipated
-slaves, not yet freed from the blindness of bondage or familiar
-with the responsibilities of citizenship. But the great aim of the
-committee--all else that it did was subsidiary to that--was the
-circulation of political literature. This end it sought to reach by
-two methods: First, by the publication and mailing to individuals and
-to local committees in all parts of the country of such Congressional
-speeches as treated thoroughly and effectively any phase of the
-current political situation; second, by furnishing the Republican
-press, through the medium of weekly sheets of carefully prepared
-matter, with accurate information as to the facts underlying existing
-issues and with suggestions as to their best treatment before the
-people. Obviously this work could be done to much better advantage
-at Washington than elsewhere, for the capital city is the focus of
-the thousand currents of political opinion and the depository of
-the official statistics of the nation. Hence it was deemed wise
-to establish a system of guidance from that point of the public
-discussions of each national campaign, so that increased intelligence,
-cohesion, and efficiency could be given to the general attack on
-the enemy; this idea--which is, in brief, that the systematizing of
-the political education of the people is an important element of
-well-planned party warfare--James M. Edmunds always held tenaciously;
-aided by Mr. Chandler's friendship, influence, means, and co-operation,
-he proved its soundness most conclusively.
-
-Early in his Senatorial service Mr. Chandler was made the chairman
-of this committee, and Mr. Edmunds its secretary. The two men were
-admirably matched. Mr. Edmunds was a natural planner, keen in his
-intuitions, shrewd in observation, and a skillful judge of the bearing
-and tendency of party and public policies. In determining what was the
-most promising line of attack, where the weakest points of the enemy's
-lines were to be found, wherein the strength of any position lay, or
-what strategy would make victory the most certain and complete, he had
-no superior. When his acute and experienced judgment was reinforced by
-Mr. Chandler's vigor in execution, influence with public men, and large
-wealth great results never failed to follow. These two men quickly made
-the Congressional Committee one of the most powerful agencies of party
-warfare known in American politics. In many campaigns its influence was
-almost literally felt in every Northern township, and its labors were
-not without some effect, more frequently greater than less, in unifying
-and invigorating the contest in every Congressional district from
-Maine to Texas and Florida to Oregon. Its work was done quietly, but
-most thoroughly; its managers rather shunned than courted publicity;
-and the people at large, who were informed and inspired by its labors,
-knew nothing of its methods and activity, hardly the fact of its
-existence. From 1866 to 1874 Mr. Chandler was very active in connection
-with this committee, and never failed to provide the agencies and the
-resources for the adequate carrying on of its work. When its treasury
-grew empty his private check made good any deficiency, and repeatedly
-his advances upon its account reached tens of thousands of dollars.
-His confidence in Secretary Edmunds was implicit, and the latter's
-mature recommendations never failed because of any lack of means. In
-1870 the work of this committee was especially productive; its value
-became much more clearly apparent then than had ever been the case
-before, and Mr. Chandler repeatedly said to the President and other
-Republican leaders, "Judge Edmunds is the Bismark of this campaign." In
-1872 Mr. Edmunds first suggested the necessity of meeting the Greeley
-movement by the thorough searching of the files of the New York
-_Tribune_ and of Mr. Greeley's record, for the ample material therein
-contained which would make impossible his support by the Democratic
-masses. Mr. Chandler approved of this plan, and promised that the
-money needed should be forthcoming. Before all the work was completed,
-his advances had reached nearly $30,000. At times, in the course of
-efforts of this character, Mr. Edmunds guided the pens of upward of
-three hundred writers gathered under his general supervision, while
-the results of their labors informed the editorial pages of thousands
-of Republican newspapers, and thus reached millions of voting readers.
-For some time, also, a monthly periodical named _The Republic_ was
-issued, which preserved in durable form the most careful and elaborate
-articles prepared under the committee's supervision. This work of the
-political enlightenment of the people, clearly the most rational agency
-of party warfare, has never been executed on this continent with the
-thoroughness, intelligence and efficiency which marked the labors of
-the Congressional Committee when Mr. Chandler was at its head and Mr.
-Edmunds was its executive officer.
-
-[Illustration: JAMES M. EDMUNDS.]
-
-The man whose name is so closely coupled in these pages with that
-of Mr. Chandler deserves the grateful and lasting remembrance of the
-Republican party. James M. Edmunds was a natural politician of the
-best type. Patriotic instincts and sincere convictions were interwoven
-with his nature. The party whose tendencies satisfied those instincts,
-and whose policies most nearly accorded with those convictions, he
-served loyally and with rare capacity; more than this, he served it
-unselfishly. He cared nothing for prominence, and never sought after
-reputation. He made no speeches, he rarely shared in any public
-demonstration, he held no conspicuous positions, he manifested no
-personal ambition, but for twenty years he was the trusted counselor
-of famous men at the capital, his influence was felt in national
-legislation and party movements, and important events with which his
-name never was and never will be connected received the impress of his
-acute observation and sagacious judgment. Especially in Republican
-political management was he a wise and strong "power behind the
-throne." Mr. Edmunds was a native of Western New York, but emigrated
-to Michigan in 1831. He was for many years a prominent business man
-at Ypsilanti, Vassar and Detroit, in that State, and was always
-politically active. The Whigs sent him repeatedly to the Legislature,
-and made him their (unsuccessful) candidate for Governor in 1847. He
-was chairman of the Republican State Central Committee from 1855 to
-1861, and Controller of the city of Detroit for two of those years.
-At the commencement of Mr. Lincoln's administration he removed to
-Washington, and was there successively Commissioner of the General
-Land Office, Postmaster of the Senate, and Postmaster of the city of
-Washington. Personally he was a tall and spare man, exceedingly plain
-in his manners and simple in his tastes, utterly without either the
-liking for or faculty of display, retiring in disposition, firm of
-purpose, of strict integrity, and exact in his dealings and habits.
-Mr. Edmunds's remarkable strength as a politician consisted in his
-experience, in his lack of any personal aspirations, in his skill
-in controlling men and the accuracy of his judgment as to their
-motives, and in an almost prophetic ability to reason out the probable
-direction and effect of any given plan of action. He became a man
-whom those charged with great responsibilities could profitably and
-safely consult, and his well-considered and shrewd advice often had
-decisive weight at the White House, on the floors of Congress, and
-in the private councils of eminent men. Outside of the Congressional
-Committee, he did much campaign work in directing organization and
-suggesting plans. He was one of the founders of the Union League,
-and directed its operations during the years of its great political
-usefulness in the South. It may be said without exaggeration that no
-single member of the Republican party ever rendered it services as
-great and as slightly requited as were those of James M. Edmunds.
-
-Mr. Chandler's close friendship with Mr. Edmunds covered a period of
-nearly half a century, and included an implicit confidence in the man
-himself and in his prudence and the sagacity of his judgment. The
-comment made upon their intimacy by one who knew them both well was,
-"Sometimes it seemed to me that no man could be as wise as Mr. Chandler
-believed that Judge Edmunds was." They were in almost constant
-consultation upon public questions, their co-operation was ever hearty,
-and this friendship the Senator valued as a priceless possession. "In
-death they were not divided;" the dispatch, which announced that Mr.
-Chandler's busy life had ended so suddenly in Chicago, came to Mr.
-Edmunds while infirm in health; it affected him powerfully, and his
-spirit did not pass from under the shadow of this blow; within a few
-weeks his own death followed.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[34] To a letter of confidence and congratulation, written to him
-at the time of his last Senatorial election, by a committee of the
-colored citizens of East Saginaw, Mich., Mr. Chandler replied (under
-date of Feb. 20, 1879): "I hope to be able to assist in the grand but
-unfinished work of securing equal political rights for every citizen of
-this country, black as well as white, South as well as North."
-
-[35] The value of this class of documents will further appear from two
-quotations from the official "Digest of the Report of the Southern
-Claims Commission upon the Disallowed Claims," only two being taken
-where many might be. "Claim No. 193" was preferred before this
-Commission by W. R. Alexander of Dickson, Ala., for $13,443, for cotton
-and horses furnished to the Union army. Mr. Alexander produced evidence
-to show, and swore himself, that he had been a consistent Union man.
-The Digest (1 vol., p. 55) says: "Among the papers of the rebel
-government found at Richmond is a letter, now in the War Department, a
-copy of which Adjutant-General Townsend has furnished to us. It reads
-as follows:
-
-"'DICKSON, Ala., August 1, 1861.
-
-"SIR: I have heard that the War Department was scarce of arms, and I
-have taken it upon myself to look up all the old muskets I can find and
-I now send them to you, and I hope they will kill many a Yankee. I have
-had one musket fixed to my notion, which I send with the others for a
-model. All here are delighted with our victory, both white and black.
-Yours, respectfully,
-
-                                                       WM. R. ALEXANDER.
-
-"P. S. I send these guns, ten in number, to the Ordnance Department,
-Richmond, Virginia.
-
-                                                                W. R. A.
-
-_"The Hon. L. P. Walker."_
-
-"On October 11, 1872, the counsel for the claimant, John J. Key,
-Esq., appeared before the Commissioners and requested that the claim
-be withdrawn, admitting the disloyalty of the claimant. The claim is
-rejected."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Claim 135" was preferred by J. P. Levy of Wilmington, N. C., for
-$10,000. After he had sworn to his own loyalty, he was called upon
-to face some letters found in the rebel archives. The Commission say
-(p. 33, 1 vol., Digest): "The original letters were furnished the
-Commission by the War Department from the captured rebel archives, and
-copies of several of them were filed with this report.... We have in
-them the claimant at the outbreak of the war calling upon the rebel
-government to punish the superintendent of his brother's plantation
-for insulting the rebel flag; and, again, asking the rebel Congress
-to pass a law granting him his brother's plantation on account of his
-signal service to the rebel cause; and, again, offering a ship, to be
-commanded by himself, for the rebel service; also, tendering for the
-benefit of the rebel army, patent fuse train and soda baking-powders,
-and boasting and complaining of the large amount due him from the rebel
-government for supplies for the rebel army. And now this shameless
-traitor, perjurer and swindler comes before us and swears, with brazen
-effrontery, that the government of the United States owes him, as a
-loyal adherent to the cause of the Union and the government throughout
-the war of the rebellion, for supplies furnished the army, the sum of
-$10,000. We reject this claim."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH.
-
-
-In 1873 the bubble of an irredeemable currency, inflated prices, and
-wild speculation burst in the United States, and the era of universal
-shrinkage, commercial collapse, and industrial stagnation began. The
-financial condition of the government and the people at once became the
-absorbing topic of public discussion, and for five years the questions
-connected with the currency and the national credit were those which
-most completely absorbed popular attention. Mr. Chandler's share in the
-prolonged controversy over the financial problem was a conspicuous one;
-he came into it equipped with clear ideas and a consistent record; he
-contended for the causes of rational finance and public honesty without
-wavering in the face of the strongest opposition, and without any
-departure from sound doctrine; and he saw the courage and persistence
-of those with whom he acted finally rewarded by the enlightenment of
-the people, the restoration of a convertible currency, and the raising
-of the credit of the United States to the highest standard. For obvious
-reasons his record upon all the phases of "the financial question"
-can be most satisfactorily treated in a single chapter. That record
-will show that he began at a point to which many other public men
-were brought only by years of education, and it well illustrates the
-clearness of his conceptions of the principles underlying questions
-connected with what may be called the practical departments of
-statesmanship.
-
-Not the least of the difficulties, which at the outset confronted
-the administration of Abraham Lincoln, was the fact that the public
-treasury was empty and the national credit impaired. In October, 1860,
-the government had contracted a five per cent. loan of $7,000,000 at a
-small premium; four months later, a six per cent. loan had been sold
-with difficulty at about ninety cents on the dollar. It was true,
-by way of offset, that the country was in a generally prosperous
-condition. The commercial wrecks of 1857 had disappeared, crops were
-abundant, and general business had become again remunerative. This was
-an element of national strength, but it was not a quickly available
-resource. War meant large immediate expenditure, for which the means
-must be promptly provided. There was no time to create and organize
-upon an extensive scale the machinery of direct taxation, and some
-doubts were then felt as to whether the people would not grow restive
-under any general imposition of new burdens. The entire stock of coin
-in the North was estimated at but about $121,000,000, while the paper
-money in existence was exclusively composed of the notes of state
-banks organized under diverse and often insecure systems, and much
-of it circulated only at a discount. This condition of the currency
-created the fear that the rapid negotiation of large government loans
-could not be accomplished without the serious derangement of the money
-market; the withdrawal of considerable sums from circulation, even
-temporarily, business men believed would be impossible without great
-injury to domestic enterprise and commerce. All these circumstances
-forced the government (which found itself facing absolutely without
-preparation organized rebellion) to resort at once to the issue of a
-national paper currency in the form of non-interest-bearing treasury
-notes of small denominations. Congress, at its extra session in July,
-1861, passed the necessary act for this purpose, and $50,000,000 of
-these notes ($10,000,000 more were subsequently authorized) were placed
-in circulation; originally they were made redeemable in coin on demand
-at any United States sub-treasury, and thus violated none of the
-established principles of sound finance. This expedient facilitated
-the negotiation of loans, and provided "the sinews of war" for 1861.
-But, when Congress met in December of that year, it had become plain
-that the struggle would be of indefinite duration, and that past
-expenditures would be greatly exceeded in the months to come. To add to
-the embarrassments of the situation, at about this time the banks of
-the North suspended specie payments, and the Treasury Department was
-compelled as a matter of self-protection to also stop redeeming in coin
-its own notes then outstanding. It was as a means of escape from this
-emergency, that the first issue of greenbacks was authorized (by the
-act of Feb. 25, 1862). These notes were not redeemable on demand, but
-to secure their free circulation they were made a "legal tender" for
-all purposes except the payment of duties and of the interest on the
-public debt. The abandonment of the self-operating method of redemption
-and the resort to the compulsion of the "legal tender" enactment, as
-a means of keeping these notes in circulation, constituted a step
-which the Thirty-seventh Congress took with extreme reluctance. A
-small minority of its members resisted this measure to the last, but
-what seemed to be the overshadowing necessities of the situation and
-the earnest appeals of Secretary Chase finally forced the passage of
-the law. Mr. Chandler was one of those who, without approving of the
-principle of this legislation, still voted for it, on the ground that
-it was essential to the public safety at that moment and justified
-by the urgency of the situation. But he regarded it as a temporary
-expedient, a mere plan for an emergency, and not as a permanent policy.
-The first act authorized the issue of $150,000,000 of "greenbacks" and
-directed the retiring of the $60,000,000 of treasury notes previously
-paid out; this $150,000,000 Mr. Chandler believed it was possible to
-so control and use as to avoid the evils inseparable from inflation.
-But the proposition to double the amount of "greenbacks," which came
-in less than half a year from the Treasury officials, he strenuously
-opposed. On June 17, 1862, he offered this resolution in the Senate:
-
-  _Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives_, That
-  the amount of "legal tender" treasury notes authorized by law shall
-  never be increased.
-
-On the following day he called up this resolution, and said:
-
-  The effect of the recommendation (to issue $300,000,000 of "legal
-  tender" notes) has been most disastrous. The mere recommendation,
-  without any action of Congress on the subject, has created such a
-  panic, and has so convinced the moneyed centers of the world that
-  we are to be flooded with this paper, that gold has risen in price
-  from two and three-quarters to seven per cent. premium. National
-  credit is precisely like individual credit. It is based, first,
-  on the ability to pay; and, second, upon the high and honorable
-  principle which would induce the payment of a liability. When the
-  proposition to issue treasury notes was first made, it was received
-  with great apprehension by Congress and by the nation.... There
-  was at that time a vacuum for $50,000,000 that must be filled from
-  some source.... I then believed that $100,000,000 was requisite,
-  and that $100,000,000 was enough. I believe so now. When you issue
-  $100,000,000 of currency you must either find a vacuum or you must
-  create one for it. A hundred millions in addition to the existing
-  circulation would at any time create great disturbance in the
-  financial condition of this country.... The moment you authorize
-  the issue of $300,000,000 your coin will rise to ten or twelve
-  per cent., and your notes will full to 90 or 85. The result will
-  be that the government will be paying just so much more for every
-  article it purchases than it would if you kept your circulating
-  notes at or about the value of coin.
-
-  Again, the moment you reduce the value of these notes, even
-  to the point at which they now stand, even to seven per cent.
-  discount, you drive out of circulation the coin of the country.
-  The temptation is too strong to be resisted to use something
-  else besides coin for change and for small circulation. Are we
-  to be reduced to a shin-plaster circulation, as is the case
-  to-day all through the South? That will be the result if you
-  force upon the country an amount of circulating notes beyond its
-  requirements.... I consider it a duty we owe to the country, a
-  duty we owe to ourselves, to proclaim that under no circumstances
-  shall a currency, irredeemable in coin, beyond the present issue of
-  $150,000,000, be thrust upon the money markets of the country.
-
-But the pressure toward a reckless currency expansion was irresistible,
-and the pending bill passed. Mr. Chandler's prophecies were promptly
-verified, for the gold premium rose and the "shin-plaster currency"
-made its appearance with but little delay. Moreover, these issues only
-stimulated the thirst they were intended to quench, and the general
-inflation of prices soon again produced an apparent scarcity of
-currency. Early in 1863 a demand came from Mr. Chase for authority to
-increase the "greenback" circulation to $400,000,000. Congress granted
-this application, but Mr. Chandler opposed it, saying in the Senate:
-
-  When the first proposition was made to issue $150,000,000 of
-  treasury notes, I favored it; but when the proposition was made to
-  increase that to $300,000,000, I opposed it.... I prophesied what
-  the result of thus thrusting $300,000,000 of irredeemable paper
-  upon an already overstocked market would be. I said it would carry
-  up coin to an unlimited extent. The result has proved that my
-  predictions were true. Now it is proposed to issue $400,000,000;
-  we propose to thrust them upon an already over-supplied market....
-  It is our duty to protect the people, so far as in our power, from
-  this great depreciation in the specie value of the circulating
-  medium, and this we can only do by decreasing its volume.
-
-The general positions which he stated thus early Mr. Chandler
-firmly held throughout every stage of the subsequent contest over
-the "currency question." He believed that irredeemable paper money,
-although issued by the government itself and made a "legal tender" by
-supreme authority, was an unmixed evil; that only the most imminent
-peril could justify an even temporary resort to its use; that it ought
-never to be employed except within narrow limits; that any excessive
-issues, if made, should be promptly called in; that it should be made
-redeemable on demand in coin, "the money of the world," at the earliest
-possible moment; and that ultimately it should be wholly withdrawn
-from circulation by the issuing power. Accordingly, he opposed the
-propositions to still further increase (to $450,000,000) the issue
-of "greenbacks," supported the principle (while objecting to some
-of the details) of the act of April 12, 1866, ordering their steady
-contraction, and was opposed to the act of Feb. 4, 1868, stopping
-such contraction. The reduction in the volume of the "greenbacks" he
-believed to be an indispensable preliminary to the resumption of specie
-payments, saying in the Senate: "The government will never resume so
-long as it has $400,000,000 of outstanding demand notes." As he opposed
-during the war excessive issues of the "greenbacks," so after it closed
-he steadily favored the reduction of their volume with the view to the
-early restoration of their convertibility and their final redemption
-and canceling. The hesitating and halting policy, which perpetuated all
-the unwholesome influences of inflation and added to the severity of
-the inevitable collapse, was followed against his protest and in the
-face of predictions, which were inspired by his intimate knowledge of
-natural commercial laws, and were verified by the event.
-
-In the constant discussions of financial measures during the war, Mr.
-Chandler did not earnestly oppose the frequent resort to the issue of
-irredeemable paper without offering as a substitute policies which he
-believed would yield relief, equally adequate, much less costly, and
-far less unwholesome in tendency. He proposed to provide the means for
-meeting the enormous expenditures required of the government by more
-thorough direct taxation and by larger loans; and he believed that
-increased imposts, by strengthening the credit of the government, would
-greatly improve its standing as a borrower in the money markets of
-the world. Briefly, the policy which he favored, in lieu of the mass
-of temporary expedients which were adopted, was this: (1.) Declare
-that the issue of "legal tender" treasury notes should not exceed
-$150,000,000, and thus stop their depreciation by ending all fear
-of their inflation. (2.) Tax freely, and by this means convince the
-world that the United States could and would redeem its treasury notes
-and pay the interest and principal of its bonds. (3.) Use the credit
-thus created to borrow on the most advantageous terms, and avoid all
-measures that might in any way tend to impair the negotiable value of,
-or the general confidence in, the national securities. He developed
-these general ideas repeatedly in his speeches and votes, while
-questions relating to them were before Congress. On May 30, 1862, he
-said in the Senate:
-
-  We voted at an early day in the session that we would raise a tax
-  of $150,000,000 from all sources.... What was the result of that
-  vote? On the very day that that solemn pledge was given to the
-  country and the world ... the six per cent. bonds of the United
-  States stood at 90 cents on the dollar in the city of New York.
-  To-day with an expenditure of more than a million dollars a day,
-  ... under this simple pledge in advance, of what you would do, your
-  bonds have gone up from 90 cents to above par, and are now sought
-  for, not only at home but abroad. If you violate that solemn pledge
-  given to your country and to the world, what will be the effect on
-  your securities? Let Congress violate that pledge, and you will
-  see your bonds not only not worth 104½ but you will see them below
-  85.... The world abroad does not believe your simple asseveration
-  that you would impose a tax, but the people of this Union do and
-  consequently they themselves have carried your bonds from 90 to
-  104½. But the world does not take them. Impose your tax; carry out
-  your solemn pledges, and you will see your bonds eagerly sought
-  for in the moneyed centers of the world.... I hope we shall not
-  only carry out this pledge which we have given, but I care not if
-  we exceed it.... Under this pledge ... you are now able to borrow
-  money at six per cent. instead of seven and three-tenths, and you
-  are to-day reaping the reward of your pledge of good faith.
-
-All just tax measures Mr. Chandler vigorously supported, as furnishing
-the solid basis of national credit and public integrity, and time
-established the ability and the willingness of the people to sustain
-this war burden. Had the heavy taxation been accompanied by an
-adherence to sound principles in the management of the currency and
-a resort to borrowing when needed, it would have reduced the cost of
-conquering the rebellion by at least $1,000,000,000, probably by nearly
-one-half.
-
-The maintenance of the public credit at a high standard was exceedingly
-important during the war, but it was of no less moment after the
-collapse of the rebellion, and is as great to-day as it has ever been.
-On no public question was Mr. Chandler more vigilant and outspoken
-than on this. Any attack on the integrity of the national promise
-represented by the bonds of the United States he denounced vigorously,
-whether it took on the form of the taxation of these securities,
-or of propositions to pay them in depreciated currency, or of bald
-repudiation. On May 20, 1862, he said, upon the proposition to tax the
-bonds:
-
-  I believe it to be for the best interest of the government--not
-  for the benefit of moneyed men, not for the benefit of moneyed
-  institutions, but for the benefit of this government--to proclaim
-  in advance that we will never tax these bonds. I believe we
-  shall receive the _quid pro quo_ now, to-day, or whenever we
-  negotiate. It is for our interest, not for the interest of moneyed
-  institutions, to offer these bonds. Here is the best security in
-  the world, and we proclaim to the world, if you take these bonds
-  they shall never be taxed. I believe we shall realize more to-day,
-  or to-morrow, or this year, or next year, for these bonds by that
-  course, than if we were to impose a tax of one and a-half, or
-  three, or five, or any other per cent. These bonds are negotiable.
-  We are the negotiators. They are not in the hands of third parties.
-  We are to borrow for our daily wants, ... and I believe it to be
-  for the interest of the government to declare in advance that there
-  shall never be a tax of any sort, kind or description upon these
-  bonds which we are now offering to the world in such enormous
-  quantities.
-
-Mr. Chandler said, in 1868, in a public address at Battle Creek, Mich.,
-(on August 24):
-
-  The national debt is a sacred obligation upon this government,
-  and it is to be paid, every dollar of it. But it is a Democratic
-  debt, every dollar. If anybody should talk of repudiation it should
-  be the Republican party, who had no instrumentality in creating
-  it. But did you ever hear a Republican talk of repudiating it? It
-  is a large debt. It is the price we pay for government. Is the
-  government worth the cost? If it is, then the debt is not only an
-  honest debt, but it has been worthily contracted. The Democrats
-  propose to pay this debt in greenbacks, and they propose to pay the
-  greenbacks by issuing more greenbacks. What do we gain by that?
-  Issue $2,500,000,000 more greenbacks and they would not be worth
-  the paper they are printed on, because the supply would flood the
-  country and be greater than the demand.... It is a measure of
-  fraudulent repudiation. In five or ten years the country might
-  recover financially, but we would never wipe out the national
-  disgrace that would follow that repudiation. It means the absolute
-  annihilation of all values. These extra issues would be utterly
-  worthless.
-
-Mr. Chandler accordingly voted for the act of March 18, 1869, which
-formally declared that the United States would redeem its "greenbacks"
-and pay the interest and principal of its long term bonds in coin, and
-which was simply a new pledge that the government would do what it was
-already honorably bound to do both by fair construction of its own
-legislation and by the explicit and repeated promises of its agents.
-The full maintenance of the public faith, both as a matter of honor
-and of wise policy, he always upheld, and saw his arguments sustained
-and his prophecies made good in the steady improvement of the nation's
-credit and the refunding of its debt at greatly reduced rates of
-interest.
-
-Of the national banking system Mr. Chandler was an original supporter.
-He regarded it as certain to become a lasting feature of the fiscal
-system of the United States, and as destined to ultimately furnish
-the paper money of the Union. The uniformity of its circulation, the
-security afforded to bill-holders, and the excellent results attending
-its method of governmental supervision, he considered as unanswerable
-arguments in favor of its permanent maintenance. It was his firm
-opinion that ultimately these banks would furnish all the national
-currency, and that their notes would supplant the "greenbacks." If
-national banking should be kept free, and redemption in coin required
-by law, he believed that the result would be a thoroughly-secured and
-readily-convertible paper currency, whose volume would be controlled
-by commercial demand and not by legislative caprice or political
-agitation, and which would lubricate and not obstruct the machinery of
-trade.
-
-When the national bank bill first made its appearance in Congress,
-Mr. Chandler (in February, 1863) favored it as a measure of relief
-offering a quick market for $300,000,000 of government bonds, and as
-sure to supply "a better currency than the local banks now furnish."
-Holding the views he did, he supported the measures which promised to
-substitute bank notes for "greenbacks," although he opposed those which
-contemplated any expansion of the aggregate volume of both issues. For
-instance, in 1870, when the inflation element in Congress introduced a
-bill to add $52,000,000 to the national bank circulation (banking was
-not then free, it not being deemed prudent to leave the issue unlimited
-while all the paper money was irredeemable), he offered on January 31
-an amendment to make the sum $100,000,000 and to withdraw "greenbacks"
-to an amount equal to the bank notes issued under this provision. He
-said:
-
-  The simple effect of my proposition, if adopted, will be to keep
-  the circulation to a dollar where it is. If no new banks are
-  started, no greenbacks are withdrawn, and if banks are started
-  anywhere, then an amount of greenbacks must be withdrawn equal to
-  the amount of national bank bills put in circulation. Should the
-  whole $100,000,000 be taken we will be just $100,000,000 nearer to
-  specie payments than we are to-day, ... and in the meantime the
-  amount of national currency will not be changed in the slightest
-  degree.
-
-  MR. SUMNER: There is salvation in that.
-
-  MR. CHANDLER: Of course there is salvation in it; that is why I
-  offer it.
-
-All proposals made at the time to increase the aggregate paper
-circulation he resisted, saying:
-
-  That is a step in the wrong direction.... If you let it go out
-  that this is to be the policy of Congress, you will see gold go
-  up immediately, ... because it will show that the Congress of the
-  United States is in favor of expansion instead of a reduction of
-  the currency.
-
-After the panic of 1873, when there was such a universal clamor for
-further inflation, and scores of propositions were introduced to add
-many millions to the existing volume of "greenbacks" and of bank notes,
-Mr. Chandler again insisted at all proper opportunities that resumption
-was the most essential step toward financial soundness, and that the
-substitution of bank notes for "greenbacks" would aid greatly both
-in reaching and in maintaining specie payment. On Feb. 18, 1874, he
-offered an amendment to a pending bill, directing "the Secretary of
-the Treasury to retire and destroy one dollar in 'legal tender' notes
-for each and every dollar of additional issue of bank notes," and spoke
-upon this proposition at length. He did not urge it as a complete
-remedy for the existing situation (contraction and resumption would
-alone furnish that), but he said:
-
-  This is a step in the right direction. In 1865 I advocated upon
-  this floor the substitution of bank notes for greenbacks as a step
-  toward the resumption of specie payments, and a rapid step toward
-  that resumption. I am now simply advocating what I advocated then.
-
-Mr. Chandler's wishes on this subject were not gratified at that time
-nor during his life, but before his death he saw the demand that the
-Treasury should cease to be a bank of issue approved by the soundest
-financial sentiment of the country. His belief, that the paper money
-of the Union should be furnished by commercial institutions operating
-under properly regulated governmental supervision, that is, by the
-national banking system perfected and enlarged, has been long held by
-the ablest and clearest students of monetary problems in the United
-States; it is to-day constantly growing in popular strength, and the
-result it aims at will form part of any durable settlement of "the
-currency question."
-
-In 1873 the vacillating and halting financial policy of the
-nation--which had tried and abandoned contraction, and while looking
-toward the resumption of specie payments had, in fact, retreated
-from it--bore fruit in speculative collapses, followed by a panic in
-business circles and widespread commercial disaster. Congress met
-amid the crumbling of unsound enterprise, and was called upon to meet
-a terrified demand for a renewed inflation of the already excessive
-volume of irredeemable paper. To cure the fever, men demanded more
-miasma. To repair the ruin, which all history proved to be the natural
-result of an oversupply of currency, it was proposed to still further
-increase that supply. Measures to this end were introduced at once,
-and pushed with great vehemence. They were sustained by a misled but
-powerful public sentiment, which was especially strong in the West
-and influenced the great mass of that section's representatives at
-Washington. Mr. Chandler never served his country better than he did in
-that hour. Unmoved by the clamor about him, and refusing to listen to
-the cries of even his own people when they demanded false leadership,
-he firmly resisted every measure of inflation and every suggestion
-that added embarrassments to the business of the future, or increased
-the difficulties of preserving the public faith. The pressure in favor
-of the inflation bill which President Grant vetoed was unusually
-strong. The Western Congressmen were almost a unit for its passage,
-but no solicitations, no force of numbers, prevented Mr. Chandler from
-opposing and denouncing it. His speech in opposition to this bill (on
-Jan. 20, 1874) commenced with one of his terse sentences, which went
-straight to the marrow of the situation, and furnished a motto for the
-cause he championed. It was, "We need one thing besides more money,
-and that is better money." This phrase furnished the text for many
-addresses and editorials, and stood upon the title-page of the weekly
-circular issued by the friends of a sound currency in Boston during the
-controversy which preceded the passage of the Resumption act of 1875.
-In the same speech Mr. Chandler said:
-
-  To insure prosperity we ought to have something permanent,
-  something substantial. Then the business of the country will
-  conform itself to the facts and regulate itself accordingly. This
-  panic (of 1873) was exceptional, as indeed all panics are. A panic
-  among men is precisely like a panic among animals. I once saw
-  2,000 horses stampede, and they were just as the same number of
-  thousands of men would be in a panic. It is the feeling of animal
-  fear, and one encourages the other, and so it goes on until it
-  becomes a perfect insane rush for something, nobody knows what.
-  Prior to this late panic, as is well known, many of our capitalists
-  had over-invested in wild railroad schemes; they had undertaken to
-  do impossible things; when the panic struck them it ought not to
-  have had the least effect outside of Wall street and operators in
-  railroad stocks. But the panic swept like a tornado all over the
-  land, affected values everywhere, values of all kinds. Whoever had
-  money in bank sought to draw it out and hide it away. The panic
-  was universal, and yet this nation was never more prosperous than
-  it was the day before the panic struck. And to-day there is as
-  much money in the Union as there was then. Every dollar that was
-  here then is here now. Besides, the enormous borrowers, the men
-  who would pay any price for money--one-half per cent. a day, one
-  per cent. a day, or any other given price--have failed and gone
-  out of the market. And now the money is seeking the legitimate
-  channels of commerce for interest and use.... The best time for the
-  resumption of specie payment that has occurred since the suspension
-  was in 1865, at the close of the war, when gold had fallen from
-  over 200 to 122. In a few days values had shrunk, and the people
-  of the nation were comparatively out of debt, and were ready then
-  for a resumption of specie payments, but the government was not.
-  The government owed more than $1,000,000,000, that was maturing
-  daily in the shape of compound interest notes, seven-thirties and
-  other obligations that must be funded or disposed of. Hence the
-  government was not prepared for specie payments at that time,
-  although the people were.... From that day to this we have been
-  drifting and floating further and further away every hour from the
-  true path--the resumption of specie payments. I have advocated
-  from the first the earliest possible payment in coin. I believe
-  there is no other standard of value that will stand the test, and
-  I believe the time has arrived, or very nearly arrived, for coming
-  to it. I have not the same timidity in fixing a date that some of
-  my friends on this floor have. I believe that if we were to resolve
-  to-day that we would resume the payment of our greenbacks in coin
-  on the 1st day of January, 1875, and authorize the Secretary of
-  the Treasury to borrow $100,000,000 in coin to be used in the
-  redemption of the greenbacks, and sell no more gold until the 1st
-  of January, 1875, on that day we would have $200,000,000 of coin
-  in the Treasury for the redemption of the greenbacks. I am not
-  particular as to date. I merely suggest the 1st of January, 1875.
-  But I would accept an earlier date than that if it were deemed more
-  advisable, but certainly I would not extend it more than six months
-  thereafter....
-
-  It is no part of the business of this government to issue an
-  irredeemable currency. We cannot afford to place ourselves beside
-  the worn-out governments of Europe--we cannot afford to place
-  ourselves on a par with Hayti and Mexico. We are too rich a people
-  to do it; and it is a disgrace to us as a nation that we have
-  allowed it to continue one single hour beyond the hour when it was
-  in our power to remedy the wrong.
-
-  The proposition to increase our paper currency is a step in the
-  wrong direction, and I, for one, am utterly opposed to taking
-  even one step in the wrong direction when I know what the right
-  direction is.
-
-As part of the same general discussion, Mr. Chandler made a carefully
-prepared financial speech in the Senate on Feb. 18, 1874, in which
-he first graphically sketched the history of "wild-cat banking" in
-Michigan, and then said:
-
-  After the failure of these banks the cry was still, "More money;
-  and we must have more money; the country is suffering for more
-  money." The cry was responded to, and more money was furnished.
-  The Treasury of the State of Michigan, already owing $5,000,000,
-  undertook to furnish more money, and the State issued treasury
-  notes _ad libitum_, and the "more money" men got more money until
-  the value of the state treasury notes, which have been paid to the
-  last dollar at par, ran down to thirty-seventy cents on the dollar;
-  and almost every city in the State, including the city of Detroit,
-  responded to the cry of "more money," and issued shin-plasters;
-  and individuals, realizing that "more money" was needed, issued
-  shin-plasters. So the State of Michigan was flooded with more money.
-
-  Well, sir, you can see at a glance that the State of Michigan
-  needed more money. We had as a people been speculating almost to a
-  man. It was not confined to the merchant, the banker, the man of
-  wealth; but the mechanic, the farmer, the laborer, every man who
-  could buy a piece of property of any sort, kind, or description,
-  bought it, ran in debt, laid out a town, sold the lots, gave a
-  mortgage, and then wanted "more money" to pay that mortgage.
-
-  When the collapse came it was absolute; there was no mistake about
-  it; the collapse was perfect. Then the people of Michigan had
-  enough of "more money;" and when our constitutional convention
-  met, as it did a few years later, they put into the constitution a
-  clause prohibiting the Legislature forever from chartering a bank
-  or affording the means of furnishing "more money;" and the people
-  acquiesced in it. They had enough of the "more money" cry; and for
-  twenty-five years there was no more cry in the State of Michigan
-  for irredeemable money.... The losses to which I have referred did
-  not fall upon the moneyed men of the State of Michigan, the men
-  who were in sound condition. They fell upon the laboring man, the
-  farmer, and the mechanic. They fell upon the men who could least
-  afford to submit to the loss. So it is now. Why, sir, our values
-  are fixed by a foreign market, and in coin. There is not a bushel
-  of corn or a bushel of wheat raised in Indiana, or Illinois, or
-  Michigan, the value of which is not fixed by the foreign value
-  in coin of that particular article. When you enhance the cost of
-  production by an inferior currency you put that loss upon the
-  producer, and the loss falls not upon the wealthy man, but upon the
-  laborer and producer. Money will take care of itself all over the
-  world. If it is not safe in this country, it will find a country
-  where it is safe, and it will go to that country, no matter where
-  that may be. Hence, capital requires no protection whatever from
-  this body; money will take care of itself; but the poor man, the
-  laboring man, the man who submits to all the losses from this
-  depreciated currency, is the man who suffers all the pain and all
-  the injury that are inflicted by this false legislation....
-
-  Now, sir, we come to the crash of 1873. On the 15th day of
-  September, 1873, this nation was in a more prosperous condition
-  than perhaps it had been for the last twenty-five years. Every
-  branch of industry was prosperous, every interest of the people
-  was prosperous; but in a day, at the drop of the ball at twelve
-  o'clock on the 16th of September, the panic struck. What produced
-  this tremendous panic and crash in this great and prosperous
-  country? It was over-speculating in railroad securities. It was by
-  men undertaking to do what it was utterly impossible for them to
-  do, to wit, for individuals to float untold millions by their own
-  credit; and when the people became alarmed for fear the crash would
-  come, the crash came, and there was no salvation from it. But, sir,
-  on that very self-same day the nation was more prosperous than it
-  had been for the last twenty years in all its interests--business,
-  banking and every other. The crash ought not to have extended one
-  yard beyond Wall street and the few producers of railroad iron who
-  were manufacturing for these defunct railroads. But, sir, the panic
-  was so great that it spread until it became universal, and values
-  sank until there seemed to be no bottom, and everybody was affected
-  throughout the length and breadth of this broad land.
-
-  But, Mr. President, that panic was of short duration. Many failures
-  took place, and particularly among stock and railroad operators;
-  but the main business of the country still went on with a few
-  notable exceptions. Some manufacturers stopped for the want of
-  money; others stopped for the want of credit. The men that had
-  been issuing their paper without intending to pay it, issuing
-  millions of dollars of paper which they knew they could not meet
-  at maturity, trusting in luck to meet their obligations--those
-  men cannot borrow money; their lines are full everywhere; nobody
-  will loan them money; but, sir, upon undoubted security money is
-  to-day cheaper than it has been at any time for the last twenty
-  years. These great borrowers, without the expectation of paying at
-  maturity, are to-day all out of the market. No man will loan money
-  to a person who does not pay at maturity. Every man that desires to
-  borrow money for legitimate business can borrow it to-day cheaper
-  than he could borrow it at any time in the last twenty years. Sir,
-  you may legislate for this class who have over-speculated, you may
-  legislate for the benefit of the men who have built factories,
-  built steamboats, built mills, bought mills, bought mines, bought
-  everything for sale, and given their paper knowing they could not
-  meet it unless they could borrow the money over again; you may
-  legislate them $100,000,000 or $1,000,000,000, and you will not
-  help them in the slightest degree....
-
-  Now, Mr. President, I will ask the attention of the Senate while
-  I show the effect upon the purchasing value of money of issuing
-  your greenback circulation from the day it was first issued to the
-  present time. In 1862 we commenced the issue of greenbacks. In
-  January, 1862, the premium on gold was 2.5 per cent.; in February
-  it was 3.5; in March, 1.8; in April, 1.5; in May, 1.3; in June,
-  6.5; in July, 15.5; in August, 14.5; in September, 18.5; in
-  October, 28.5, in November, 31.1; in December, 32.3. It will be
-  remembered that the then circulating medium (which was at that time
-  state bank notes) amounted to about $200,000,000. This circulation
-  was increased during the year 1862 by the addition of $147,000,000
-  in greenbacks, and that increase of circulation carried the value
-  of gold from 102.5 on the 1st of January to 132.3 on the 31st day
-  of December following.
-
-  In 1863 the necessities of the government compelled us to increase
-  the greenback circulation to a yet larger extent. We issued during
-  that year $263,500,000 additional, carrying up our greenback
-  circulation to $411,200,000, in addition, of course, to our bank
-  circulation, whatever it may have been. During the month of January
-  of that year the premium on gold was 45.1 per cent.; during
-  February, 60.5; March, 54.5; April, 51.5; May, 48.9; June, 44.5;
-  July, 30.6; August, 25.8; September, 34.2; October, 47.7; November,
-  48; December, 51.1. In other words, the average rate of premium
-  upon gold during that whole year was 45.2 per cent. I hold in my
-  hand a paper showing the cash value of this emission for 1863. The
-  emission of greenbacks at that time was $411,200,000. The average
-  premium on gold was 45.2 per cent. The actual cash purchasing value
-  of that $411,000,000, during the year 1863, was $283,195,000, and
-  that was the whole purchasing value of that money during that year.
-
-  Then we come to the next year, 1864. That year, we increased our
-  circulating medium by the addition of $237,900,000, making the
-  whole amount $649,100,000. In 1864 the price of gold was, in
-  January, 155.5; February, 158.6; March, 162.6; April, 172.7; May,
-  176.3; June, 219.7; July, 258.1, or less than 40 cents on the
-  dollar in coin for your greenbacks after you had carried the amount
-  up to $649,000,000. In August the price was 254.1; in September,
-  222.5; in October, 207.2; in November, 233.5; in December, 227.5.
-  There is not a man here who does not remember, nor is there a
-  farmer or mechanic throughout the length and breadth of the land
-  who does not remember, that he then paid 60 cents for cotton goods
-  that he had been in the habit of buying for 12½ cents, and that he
-  paid for everything else in the same ratio. The merchant took care
-  that he met with no loss; but the laboring man, the farmer, the man
-  of muscle, was the man who submitted to this great loss, while the
-  merchant and while every man with money took care of himself.
-
-  During that year the average price of gold was 203.3 per cent., or
-  your money was a fraction less than 48½ cents on the dollar during
-  the whole year. You had out that year $649,100,000, and the value
-  of gold was 203.3, and the purchasing value of your $649,100,000
-  was $319,281,000, and that was the whole of it.
-
-  In 1865 you again increased the volume of your circulating medium
-  by the amount of $49,800,000; making the whole amount of your
-  circulation $698,900,000. During the month of January, 1865, the
-  price of gold was 216.2; during February, 205.5; in March, 173.8;
-  in April, 148.5; and after that it stood at 135.6, 140.1, 142.1,
-  143.5, 143.9, 145.5, 147, 146.2. The average of the year 1865 was
-  157.3; and what was the purchasing value of your greenbacks that
-  year? Every man here will remark that that year we were disposing
-  of our bonds at the rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a
-  month; money was passing through the Treasury almost without limit.
-  We had $1,000,000,000 that must be negotiated, and negotiated at
-  once--seven-thirties and compound-interest notes and other floating
-  liabilities that must be funded; and during that year the war had
-  closed, and while we were negotiating at this enormous rate, the
-  price of gold fell to 153.3, and during that year the purchasing
-  value of our circulation attained a higher rate than during any
-  other year. That year, although our circulation of greenbacks was
-  $698,900,000, and the premium on gold 57.3, the actual purchasing
-  value of that $698,900,000 was $444,310,000.
-
-  In 1866 we retired $90,000,000, leaving $608,900,000, and the
-  average premium on gold that year was 40.9 per cent. The purchasing
-  value of the $608,900,000, with the premium on gold at 40.9, was
-  $432,150,000.
-
-  The next year, 1867, we retired $72,300,000, and premium on
-  gold fell to 38.2. So we went on reducing until we got down to
-  $400,000,000, and then we struck 14.9, 11.7, 12.4 and 14.7 as the
-  premium on gold. There the matter has stood, and I have here from
-  year to year, the purchasing value for each year....
-
-  Mr. President, what we want is purchasing value, because the
-  intrinsic value is measured by the purchasing value. There is
-  not a bushel of wheat that goes from your State or from mine the
-  purchasing value of which is not fixed by the gold value on the
-  other side of the Atlantic. We are shipping millions and tens of
-  millions and hundreds of millions of our agricultural products
-  every year, and the value of these products is fixed in gold on the
-  other side of the Atlantic; and yet by this increase of circulation
-  we enhance the value of everything that the producer raises, but
-  when the product comes to the market its value must be fixed by its
-  price in gold across the Atlantic....
-
-  Mr. President, I know of no way to substitute the Treasury of the
-  United States for the banking experience of the last ten centuries.
-  We have the experience of the past, we have the experience of our
-  own nation, we have the experience of the world. Now, do we propose
-  to throw aside this experience, and to launch our boat upon a wild
-  and uncertain sea, an ocean of expansion and no payments?
-
-  Sir, there are very few persons within the range of my acquaintance
-  who desire expansion of an irredeemable currency. Certainly the
-  people of Michigan have had abundance of experience of that kind.
-  But wherever you go you will find two classes of men who are making
-  a great noise about "more money." One is the speculator, the
-  impecunious speculator, who has, perhaps, bought real estate and
-  given a mortgage, and thinks that his only chance is to reduce the
-  value of your currency until it falls so low that the people would
-  rather take his land than hold your money; and the other is the man
-  who has issued his paper without intending to pay when it matures,
-  and who can borrow no more money upon any terms until he pays what
-  he already owes.
-
-On the 14th of January, 1875, the act for the resumption of specie
-payments became a law. Mr. Chandler was a member of the Senate when
-this bill passed. He had but one objection to it; the time fixed
-for resumption was unnecessarily remote. Neither present exigency
-nor needed preparation required the delay, and he believed it to be
-opposed alike to economy, patriotism, and public honor. But it was
-the best that could be secured; insistence upon an earlier date would
-have divided the friends of resumption, prevented the passage of any
-bill at that time, and postponed the day of specie payments. For these
-reasons Mr. Chandler favored the measure, and a few weeks later,
-when he retired from the Senate, it was with the consciousness that
-he had only voted for an irredeemable and inconvertible currency to
-meet the imperious exigencies of civil war, that he had opposed its
-undue expansion, that he had sustained every measure of contraction
-calculated to lessen the difficulties of the return to a sound basis,
-and that he finally had crowned his Senatorial career by support
-of a measure which insured the return of the government to the
-constitutional standard of values.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT.
-
-
-Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-four was a year of unusual political
-disaster. The prevalent commercial depression both naturally and
-seriously injured the party in power, and this and other causes
-combined to produce a general relaxation of Republican vigor, which
-bore its inevitable fruit in a series of damaging reverses in the fall
-elections throughout the Union. The contest in Michigan was complicated
-by an organized movement on the part of the opponents of Prohibition
-to secure a repeal of that State's stringent law against the liquor
-traffic, and to more surely reach that end its License League formed
-an alliance with the Democracy, by which the latter was greatly aided.
-The result was that the Republican plurality upon the State ticket
-was reduced to 5,969 in a total vote of 221,006, that three of the
-nine Congressional districts were carried by the Opposition, and that
-a Legislature was chosen in which the Republican majority upon joint
-ballot was but ten. Upon this body, so closely divided, devolved the
-choice of an United States Senator. To a man of Mr. Chandler's positive
-qualities and aggressive methods an active public life was impossible
-without creating strong enmities, and the attention which, had he been
-more subtle, he would have given to conciliating hostility his direct
-nature preferred to devote to showing appreciation of friendship. The
-equality of parties in the Legislature, and the passing disposition
-among Republicans to look with disfavor upon what has been since
-termed "stalwart leadership," supplied the local opposition to Mr.
-Chandler with the looked-for opportunity for successfully resisting
-his re-election. Michigan Republicanism as a whole gave him its
-usual hearty support, and, so far as the contest was waged within
-the recognized lines of partisan warfare, his personal triumph was
-flattering and signal. In the regular caucus he received fifty-two
-votes against five ballots cast for three other candidates, and his
-nomination was made unanimous with but one dissenting voice. A small
-Republican minority refused to participate in the caucus, and after
-a prolonged and exciting struggle a combination was formed between
-six of these men and the solid Democratic and Liberal Opposition,
-which (on the second ballot in the legislative joint convention) gave
-precisely the necessary majority of all the votes cast to Isaac P.
-Christiancy, then one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan.
-Mr. Christiancy was an original Republican, but had in some instances
-in the past so far satisfied the Democrats by his public course that
-he had been once re-elected to the Supreme Bench without opposition,
-his name having been placed at the head of the Democratic State ticket
-after his nomination by his own party. This fact materially facilitated
-the coalition which secured Mr. Chandler's defeat. Like results in
-pending Senatorial contests in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska showed
-that more than merely local influences had contributed to bring about
-this event.
-
-Mr. Chandler, with that strong faith in his own position which was so
-useful a characteristic of the man, did not believe that his defeat
-was possible until it was accomplished. His disappointment was keen,
-but he bore it manfully, and, assuring his friends that he should be
-"a candidate for _that seat_ when Judge Christiancy's term ended," he
-started for Washington to close up his eighteen years of continuous
-Senatorial service. Many and sincere were the expressions of grief
-among earnest Republicans everywhere at what seemed to be the abrupt
-termination of the public career of so influential a man. Mr. Chandler
-himself was as strongly affected by his fear that Republicanism might
-have received a severe blow from the method by which his re-election
-had been prevented as by any sense of mere personal failure. In a
-letter written in the following March, in response to an invitation
-from the great majority of the Republican legislators of Michigan to
-address them on political topics, he said:
-
-  Thanking you cordially for your continued confidence, I assure
-  you most sincerely that when I enlisted in the Republican ranks
-  it was for the whole war, which, I trust, is to be continued
-  until the complete and final triumph of Republican principles,
-  the pacification of the whole people, and the establishment of
-  equal and exact justice for all men in every section of our common
-  country. It will be my pride to prove to my friends, and to my
-  enemies, if there are such, that I can be useful as a private
-  soldier. In all the future contests of the Republican party with
-  its opponents you may order me into the ranks with full confidence
-  that I will respond with all my time, if need be, and with such
-  ability as I can command.... We shall not yield in the forum the
-  great principles which have triumphed in the field, nor shall we
-  further waste in internal strife the strength which should be
-  organized against our opponents. I have faith in the future of our
-  country, because of my confidence in the continued success of the
-  Republican party.
-
-Ultimately it became evident that his defeat in 1875 was not a personal
-calamity, he himself afterward saw that it had opened the way for him
-to broader fields of public usefulness, and that in what then seemed to
-be a fall he had in fact only "stumbled up stairs."
-
-After the termination of Mr. Chandler's third Senatorial term (on March
-3, 1875), his name was connected, both in current rumor and in the
-deliberations of influential men, with several prominent positions.
-It was at one time predicted that he would be nominated for the St.
-Petersburg embassy, and at another that he would succeed Mr. Bristow as
-Secretary of the Treasury. Ground was not lacking for both reports, but
-the appointment which was actually made involved a far more complete
-test of his faculty of administration than would have attended
-either of the others. The Interior Department is the most complex
-division of the executive branch of the government. A great diversity
-of interests are under its charge, and its duties are dissimilar,
-widely ramified, and encumbered with a perplexing multiplicity of
-details. During President Grant's second term this Department,
-notwithstanding the personal honesty of Secretary Columbus Delano, had
-fallen into bad repute. It sheltered abuses and frauds which tainted
-the atmosphere, but were not hunted down and removed by its chiefs.
-From the scandals which this state of affairs created, Mr. Delano
-finally sought escape by a resignation, which took effect on Oct. 1,
-1875. General Grant, who was determined to appoint to the place a man
-whose integrity, sagacity and vigor should make it certain that he
-would not tolerate incompetence and rascality among his subordinates,
-tendered the position to Mr. Chandler. After some hesitation, and no
-little urging by his friends, that gentleman accepted, and on Oct.
-19, 1875, his commission as Secretary of the Interior was executed
-and sent to him. (His nomination was, on the meeting of Congress in
-December, promptly confirmed by the Senate, all of the Republican and
-three of the Democratic Senators voting affirmatively, with only six
-Democrats recorded in the negative). Mr. Chandler entered at once
-upon the discharge of his new and difficult duties. No man could have
-had less of the professional "reformer" about him--in fact he was not
-chary of expressing the most contemptuous skepticism concerning much
-that paraded itself as "reform"--but the exemplification which he
-gave of practical reform was at once thorough and brilliant. Without
-ostentation, without the faintest savor of cant, he went at his work
-in unpretentious, business-like, manful, and clear-sighted fashion. A
-firm believer himself that "corruption wins not more than honesty,"
-he gave durable lessons on that theme in every bureau of the Interior
-Department.
-
-[Illustration: THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.[36]]
-
-The first step of Mr. Chandler's administration was the infusion of new
-blood. He applied to James M. Edmunds for aid in the selection of a
-Chief Clerk, and was by him advised to tender that important position
-to Alonzo Bell, then holding a place in the Treasury. What followed
-illustrates some of Mr. Chandler's methods of transacting business:
-
-Mr. Bell, at his desk in the Winder Building, received a dispatch
-on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 1875, which read: "The Secretary of the
-Interior desires to see you." On the next morning at nine o'clock he
-was in waiting in the ante-chamber of Secretary Chandler's office, and
-shortly thereafter that gentleman entered. In a few moments Mr. Bell
-was summoned into his room, and Mr. Chandler said, "Good morning, Mr.
-Bell. I suppose General Cowen (the then Assistant Secretary) has told
-you what the business with you is?" Mr. Bell answered, "I have had a
-very pleasant talk with him, but there has been no business alluded to
-by us." Mr. Chandler then said, "I have concluded to appoint you Chief
-Clerk of the Interior Department; will you accept?" "Yes, sir," was
-the reply. "Very well," said Mr. Chandler, "go ahead." Mr. Bell went
-at once to the Treasury, filed his resignation, and within an hour
-returned to the office of the Secretary of the Interior. He found him
-in conference with two Senators, and this conversation followed: "Mr.
-Secretary, I have taken the oath and I am ready to go to work." "Very
-well, do you know where to find the Chief Clerk's room?" "No, sir."
-"Well, sir, it won't take long to look it up." Mr. Bell started on the
-search for it, and within a few moments had relieved the gentleman
-temporarily in charge, taken possession of its desk, and commenced
-business. Mr. Chandler, also on recommendation of Mr. Edmunds, promoted
-John Stiles from a minor place to the Appointment Clerkship. The
-Assistant Secretaryship of the Department he requested the President to
-tender to Charles T. Gorham of Michigan, who had lately relinquished
-the embassy of the United States at The Hague. He believed that Mr.
-Gorham's business training, practical ability and personal attachment
-to himself would greatly aid in the reorganization of the Department,
-and only felt doubtful as to whether that gentleman would accept the
-position. In the end, Mr. Gorham was induced to take it, and the
-Assistant Attorney-Generalship was given to Augustus S. Gaylord of
-Saginaw, well-known to Mr. Chandler as a good lawyer and a vigilant
-and trustworthy man. These changes in his executive staff the new
-Secretary of the Interior regarded as an essential part of the work of
-investigation and purification which was to be accomplished.[37]
-
-Within less than one month after the commencement of Mr. Chandler's
-term, all the clerks in one of the important rooms in the Patent Office
-were summarily removed. Examination had supplied satisfactory proof of
-dishonesty in the transaction of the business under their care, and
-the Secretary concluded that all of them were either sharers in the
-corruption or lacked the vigilance necessary for their positions, and
-he declared every desk vacant. To the Hon. Jay A. Hubbell, whom he met
-on the evening of the day upon which he had taken this vigorous step,
-he said, "I have been 'reforming' to-day. I have emptied one large room
-and have left it in charge of a colored porter, who has the key, who
-cannot read and write, and who is instructed to let no one enter it
-without my orders. I think the public interests are safe so far as that
-room is concerned until I can find some better men to put into it." To
-the remonstrances which followed this action he was resolutely deaf,
-and to some influential friends of one of the men thus displaced he
-said significantly, "That man is competent enough; if he thinks that
-the cause of his removal should be made public, he can be accommodated;
-I don't advise him to press it." Later in Mr. Chandler's term, and
-without warning, the monthly pay-rolls of the Patent Office employes
-were placed in the custody of a new officer, and the full name and city
-address of every one who signed them was taken. The result was that for
-upward of a score of names no owners appeared, and it was thus found
-that money had been dishonestly drawn in the past by some one through
-the device of fictitious clerkships. It was also ascertained that in
-a few cases work requiring expert skill had been given to unqualified
-persons who had "farmed it out" to others at reduced rates, and were
-thus receiving pay without rendering service. These disclosures led to
-further prompt removals of those implicated in the frauds, and to the
-eradication of the abuses thus exposed. In this bureau some change of
-methods was also made which simplified the transaction of business, and
-increased the facilities for procuring patents while lessening their
-cost to the public.
-
-The Bureau of Indian Affairs Mr. Chandler found to be more utterly
-unsavory in reputation than any other division of his Department.
-Besides securing a new Commissioner and Chief Clerk, he instituted a
-series of quiet inquiries into the methods of doing business there,
-and soon determined upon removing a number of subordinates, whose
-records were unsatisfactory and whose surroundings were suspicious.
-He then sent for the Commissioner and notified him of this decision,
-but that officer replied that they were the most valuable men he had,
-and that it would be almost impossible to conduct the business of
-the bureau without them. The urgency of his protest finally induced
-Mr. Chandler to delay action for a few days. While matters were in
-this state of suspense, President Grant, who was watching with keen
-interest the examination into the Interior Department offices, said
-to its Secretary, "Mr. Chandler, have you removed those clerks in the
-Indian Bureau whom we were talking about?" Mr. Chandler replied, "No,
-sir; the Commissioner said it would be almost impossible to run the
-office without them." The President answered, "Well, Mr. Secretary,
-you can shut up the bureau, can't you?" The answer was, "Yes, sir."
-"Well then," said General Grant, "have those men dismissed before
-three o'clock this afternoon, or shut up the bureau." Mr. Chandler
-went over to the Department, sent for the Commissioner, told him that
-the suspected clerks must go that afternoon if the bureau was closed
-as the result, and gave the necessary orders of removal which were
-promptly executed. In regard to the dismissal of these men, he said,
-"I haven't evidence that would be regarded in a court as sufficient
-to convict them of fraud or dishonesty, but to my mind the proof of
-their crookedness is strong as Holy Writ." This was only one of many
-instances in which President Grant actively interested himself in the
-work of hunting out fraud, and there was no step which Mr. Chandler
-took in the direction of honest and cheaper administration in which he
-was not cordially and powerfully sustained at the White House.
-
-The "Indian Attorneys" also came under and felt the weight of the new
-Secretary's just displeasure. One of the glaring impositions practiced
-upon the ignorant aborigines was that of inducing them, winter after
-winter, to send "agents" to Washington to look after their interests,
-upon representations made to them that the government would otherwise
-deprive them of some of their rights. Many of these men were paid eight
-dollars a day and their expenses, while others contracted for certain
-sums secured on the property of the Indians. In fact, these "attorneys"
-rendered no needed service and preyed upon the ignorance of their
-clients. These men Mr. Chandler banished from his Department; he also
-declined to allow the payment of claims preferred by representatives of
-the Indians for "expenses incurred in procuring legislation," on the
-ground that such outlay was illegal and immoral. His decision on these
-points was embodied in this order (addressed on Dec. 6, 1875, to the
-Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and still governing the proceedings of
-that bureau), which saved large sums of money to the Indians:
-
-  Hereafter no payment shall be made and no claim shall be approved
-  for services rendered for or in behalf of any tribe or band of
-  Indians in the procurement of legislation from Congress or from any
-  State Legislature, or for the transaction of any other business for
-  or in behalf of such Indians before this Department or any bureau
-  thereof, or before any other Department of the government, and no
-  contract for the performance of such services will hereafter be
-  recognized or approved by the Indian Office or the Department.
-  Should legal advice or assistance be needed in the prosecution or
-  defense of any suit involving the rights of any Indian or Indians,
-  before any court or other tribunal, it can be procured through the
-  Department of Justice.
-
-  This regulation will govern the Indian Office, and application
-  for compensation for such services must not be forwarded to the
-  Department for action hereafter, it being understood that the
-  regularly-appointed Indian Agent, the Commissioner of Indian
-  Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior are competent to protect
-  and defend the rights of Indians in all respects, without the
-  intervention of other parties, and without other compensation than
-  the usual salaries of their respective offices.
-
-Mr. Chandler's experience as Secretary of the Interior made him a
-firm believer in President Grant's policy of seeking to civilize
-the American savages by dealing with them through the agency of the
-Christian churches. Originally he favored turning the management of
-Indian affairs over to the military arm of the government, but actual
-contact with this knotty problem convinced him that the so-called
-"peace policy" was, with all its conceded imperfections, the true one.
-He held that, if firmly adhered to and improved as experience should
-dictate, it would ultimately yield the largest and best returns. To
-make any policy successful he knew that honest and competent service
-was indispensable, and that he spared no efforts to secure.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  President Grant.
-  Lot M. Morrill.
-  Hamilton Fish.
-  G. M. Robeson.
-  J. D. Cameron.
-  Alphonso Taft.
-  Z. Chandler.
-  J. N. Tyner.
-
-PRESIDENT GRANT'S CABINET--1876-'77.
-
-[From a Sketch by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett.]]
-
-In the Pension Bureau there was also some wholesome investigation, and
-the efficiency of its administration and the vigilance of its scrutiny
-into fraudulent claims upon the government were materially increased,
-with the result of saving to the Treasury hundreds of thousands of
-dollars annually. In the Land Office a series of extensive frauds in
-what was known as "Chippewa half-breed scrip" were discovered during
-the first six months of Mr. Chandler's term. The matter was one that
-had been brought to the attention of the Department under other
-Secretaries, but no detection of rascality had followed. Mr. Chandler
-ordered a thorough investigation, which was pushed vigorously by Mr.
-Gorham and Mr. Gaylord. The end was the breaking up of a strong and
-corrupt combination, the prompt removal of all officers connected with
-its past operations, and the reporting of the facts to the proper
-Congressional committees for further action. The Secretary also ordered
-a consolidation of the seven stationery divisions of the Department
-into one central office, securing thereby a lessened cost of management
-which was and is worth $20,000 annually to the Treasury.
-
-The result of this exhibition of executive vigor need not be described
-in detail. Under the impetus of shrewd insight, disciplined business
-habits, and firm purpose, the _morale_ of the various bureaux improved
-rapidly. Abuses withered up, inefficiency became industry, and fraud
-took flight.[38] The Interior Department became a strongly-officered
-and well-administered branch of the government. Men saw that it had
-at last a head who meant that his subordinates should be honest and
-should render efficient service, and who could push his intentions into
-acts. Mr. Chandler, who had originally doubted as to whether he could
-still command his old mercantile faculty of mastering and managing a
-host of details, convinced both himself and others that this was still
-one of his powers. His administration made evident the benefits of the
-supervision of the public business by a practical man of affairs, and
-no member of President Grant's Cabinets made a record more enviable for
-unostentatious and efficient discharge of duty.
-
-The anecdotes of Mr. Chandler's Cabinet service are many and
-entertaining. He commenced by arming himself for the chronic battle
-of all heads of departments with the claimants of patronage. One of
-his first orders prohibited clerks from recommending applicants for
-position, and another provided him with a statement of the number
-of employes in the Department from each Congressional district. A
-memorandum book, containing this information, was constantly by his
-side, and was used almost daily. A Congressman would apply for the
-appointment to a clerkship of some constituent whom he was anxious to
-oblige or assist. The record would be produced, and something like this
-conversation would follow: "You see your quota is full, but that don't
-matter; pick out any man you want me to remove and I'll put your man
-in his place at once." "But," the Congressman would reply, "I can't
-do that. If I ask you to turn out any of these men I shall get myself
-into hot water." "You don't mean to say that you're asking me to get
-myself into hot water for you?" the Secretary would answer, and with
-this weapon, thus used half banteringly but still effectively, he,
-with perfect good-nature, turned aside the Congressional pressure for
-positions.
-
-He also carefully kept memoranda of the official records of his
-subordinates, and charges against any one of them coming from
-responsible sources were certain to be thoroughly investigated. But no
-man could be more wrathful at mere backbiting or at efforts for the
-secret undermining of reputation. His repugnance to injustice was no
-less keen than his sense of justice. One afternoon a man of clerical
-aspect and garb called at his office, and said, after introducing
-himself, "Mr. Chandler, I presume it is your intention to have none but
-correct people in your Department."
-
-"That is my intention."
-
-"Well, do you know, sir, that you have a woman in one of the bureaux of
-your Department who is of bad character."
-
-"No, sir, I do not know that I have any such persons in my Department."
-
-"I thought you didn't know it, Mr. Chandler, and so I decided to come
-and inform you."
-
-The name of the clerk in question was then given and the charges
-against her made still more explicit. Mr. Chandler listened quietly,
-and finally picked up a pen and handed it to his caller, saying,
-"Just put that down in writing, sir, and I will dismiss the woman."
-The accuser hesitated and said, "Now, I hope, Mr. Chandler, you will
-not connect my name with this matter. I don't want to be known." The
-Secretary thereupon leaned back in his chair and said, "You know all
-about this woman and I know nothing about her, except what you state
-to me; but you want me to put a stain on her reputation upon charges
-you are unwilling to even substantiate with your name. Never! Leave
-the office." Upon the abrupt departure of the visitor so dismissed,
-Mr. Chandler turned to one of his clerks and said, "He belongs to that
-class of informers who are always willing to stand behind and ruin a
-person, but who don't want to be known. I don't propose to be a party
-to any such transaction."
-
-A contractor, whose rascality had been conclusively exposed and whose
-contract had been unceremoniously annulled, came to him one day to
-remonstrate. The conversation ran in this wise.
-
-"Mr. Secretary, I have been badly used----"
-
-"I'm glad of it," interrupted Mr. Chandler; "you're a scoundrel, and
-it's time you were getting your deserts."
-
-The man attempted explanation, but Mr. Chandler was too impatient
-to listen, and finally sent him away with orders to write a letter
-setting forth his grievances, which should be investigated. "Although,"
-added he, as the contractor retired, "it's my opinion that the worst
-treatment you could get would be too good for you."
-
-In the few cases where genuine hardship followed his quick decisions
-and their enforcement, he was ready to make good the injury he had
-not intended to inflict. One morning a prominent officer of the army
-entered Mr. Chandler's office with a small pamphlet in his hand and
-said, "What kind of a fool is it, Mr. Secretary, that you have at your
-door distributing tracts?" Upon Mr. Chandler's denying all knowledge
-of this variety of colportage, he said, "Here is a tract a fellow out
-there gave me, and told me to read it, and said it might be good for my
-soul." Mr. Chandler was nettled at this violation of discipline, and
-made inquiries which showed that one of the clerks was distributing
-tracts about the Department under circumstances that implied neglect of
-his official duties, and thereupon he was dismissed. In a short time
-an earnest letter came to the Secretary from the wife of the displaced
-man describing the distress that had been brought upon their home,
-whereupon Mr. Chandler directed his re-instatement, saying, as he
-issued the order, "I guess he won't circulate any more tracts. I don't
-object to their distribution, but when a man is doing the government
-business he should give that his attention." For a clerk discharged
-because of dishonesty, no amount of personal solicitation, even by
-close friends of Mr. Chandler, availed anything. At one time when he
-was most vehemently and persistently urged to restore a suspected and
-dismissed subordinate, he finally said to the Senator who was pressing
-the matter, "There is but one way by which you can have that man
-re-appointed, and that is to first have me turned out."
-
-In the early part of his term a letter came to Mr. Chandler from a
-man in California, who had a case pending before the Department upon
-an appeal from the Commissioner of the Land Office. He wrote that if
-the Secretary would decide that case in favor of the appellant, he
-would remit $300 in gold. Mr. Chandler read it and said to his clerk,
-"Call the attention of the Attorney-General to that, cite the law that
-man has violated, and ask the Department of Justice to prosecute the
-fellow," and this course was taken. At about the same time, a dispatch
-came from the Pacific coast stating that a man was at San Francisco who
-claimed to be Mr. Chandler's brother, and was seeking to borrow money
-on that statement. To this Mr. Chandler's answer was this telegram: "I
-have no brother. Arrest the scoundrel."
-
-By the clerks, whose official record satisfied him, he was universally
-liked. He was easily approached, ready to listen, quick to perceive,
-and prompt in decision. He scarcely ever gave reasons, but his rapid
-judgment was rarely found to require reversal or even revision. With
-those who did business with the Department on honest principles,
-and only asked for promptitude and efficiency in its service, his
-popularity was great and deserved. The fact that he was at its head was
-kept constantly fresh in the minds of all. Soon after the commencement
-of his term he exchanged offices with the Commissioner of Patents, thus
-obtaining an apartment much more desirable than the one previously
-occupied by the Secretaries. One of the Patent Office _attaches_, in
-replying to the comment of somebody who expressed surprise at the fact
-that this change had not been sooner made, said, "To tell the truth we
-have generally regarded the Secretary himself as an interloper in the
-Department. Mr. Chandler has started a new order of things."
-
-[Illustration: THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR'S OFFICE.]
-
-While the investigating mania was at its height, the House Committee on
-the Expenditures of the Interior Department determined to look into his
-books and business system. He accordingly received from them a formal
-letter asking what time would be convenient for the investigation. The
-Chief Clerk submitted this communication to Mr. Chandler, who said,
-"Tell them to come down any day, and I want you to put the best room
-we have at their disposal, and give them all the facilities you can
-to investigate the affairs of any bureau of the Department that they
-want to look into. If they can find anything wrong that I haven't
-found, I shall be very much obliged to them. They will be pumping a dry
-well. The work is done." The committee came, but only held a few brief
-sessions, and finally never concluded their labors and never made a
-report in relation thereto.
-
-Active as were Mr. Chandler's party sympathies, and little disposed
-as he was to consult his political opponents as to his course, or to
-admit them to any share in the patronage at his disposal, he did not
-manage the Department upon merely partisan principles. He did not
-make removals of Democratic subordinates except for cause; he never
-appointed any Republican whom he did not believe to be thoroughly
-upright and competent. That to fill any vacancy he always sought to
-find the right kind of Republican was true. His civil service theories
-stopped with honesty and efficiency, and did not exclude pronounced
-political sympathy with the appointing power nor party activity.
-Still, he did not on any occasion enforce the payment of political
-assessments by his subordinates, and their work for the Republican
-cause was left voluntary in character. The nearest approach to mere
-partisanship in his use of the appointing power was the giving of
-places in the Department to crippled soldiers who had been discharged
-from the employment of the House of Representatives by the Democratic
-Door-keeper, and even in that it was far more the indignation of the
-patriot than of the Republican that stirred him. At the close of Mr.
-Chandler's Secretaryship, the clerks of the Department waited upon
-him in a body, and thanked him for the kindness they had received at
-his hands. While farewells were being exchanged Mr. Schurz, the new
-Secretary, came in and was introduced to his staff of subordinates. Mr.
-Chandler then said:
-
-  Mr. Secretary, I welcome you to this office. When I came here this
-  Department was greatly tainted with corruption, especially in the
-  Patent Office and the Indian Bureau. With the aid of the gentlemen
-  you see around you, I have been able to cleanse it, and I believe,
-  as far as I am able to ascertain, that no abuses exist in the
-  bureaux I have named. I had to use the knife freely, and I believe
-  this Department stands to-day the peer of any department of the
-  government.
-
-Mr. Chandler further commended the corps of employes as honest,
-faithful men, and Mr. Schurz replied:
-
-  I think I am expressing the general opinion of the country when
-  I say you have succeeded in placing the Interior Department in
-  far better condition than it had been in for years, and that the
-  public is indebted to you for the very energetic and successful
-  work you have performed. I enter upon the arduous duties with which
-  I have been entrusted with an earnest desire to discharge them
-  conscientiously, and I shall be happy when leaving the Department
-  to have achieved as good a reputation for practical efficiency as
-  you have won. I thank you, sir, for this cordial welcome, and I
-  will say to the gentlemen to whom you have introduced me that they
-  shall have my protection; and I ask from them the same faithful
-  assistance they have given you.
-
-The tribute which Secretary Schurz at the outset thus paid to the
-practical efficiency of his predecessor merely expressed the public
-verdict which greeted the close of Mr. Chandler's term. Examination
-did not compel any modifying of this praise, and after Mr. Chandler's
-death his successor in the Interior Department--a man very exacting
-in judgment and one with whom his political differences had been
-numerous--again said: "In the course of the last two years I have
-frequently discovered in the transaction of public business traces of
-his good judgment and his energetic determination to do what was right."
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[36] This massive edifice is popularly known as "The Patent Office,"
-because its main halls are occupied by the magnificent model rooms of
-the Bureau of Patents.
-
-[37] Much of Secretary Chandler's confidence arises from the well-known
-integrity and personal reliability of the several gentlemen sustaining
-the nearest official relation to him, all of whom were selected by
-his own free choice, and from his own personal knowledge of these
-essential characteristics. General Gorham did not seek the office of
-Assistant Secretary; the office sought him, and Mr. Chandler himself
-would take no denial. So, also, of Mr. Gaylord, his able and untiring
-Assistant Attorney-General for the department. And the same is true of
-Mr. Partridge, his discreet and trusted private secretary. Surrounded
-by such aids he well knows that no material interest can suffer by any
-temporary contingency, such as the one which now occurs.--_Washington
-dispatch to the Philadelphia "City Item" of Oct. 20, 1875_ (_referring
-to Mr. Chandler's temporary absence_).
-
-[38] No appointment was ever more thoroughly justified by the result
-than Mr. Chandler's. It gave him a new field for his energy and his
-masterly executive ability, and it is conceded that he made the best
-Secretary of the Interior that the nation has had in our day. He made
-no boasts of what he intended to accomplish, but instituted reforms and
-uprooted abuses. He hated dishonest men, and they feared him.--_Gen. J.
-R. Hawley, in the "Hartford Courant."_
-
-On no occasion was Mr. Chandler known to use his official position for
-his own pecuniary gain--directly or indirectly. His death has ended a
-long career of public service in executive and legislative capacities,
-and throughout his hands were ever clean of unjust or illegitimate
-gain--nor did his bitterest political foe (and no man evoked stronger
-personal criticism) ever charge, or ever suspect him, with making
-personal profit out of his political station and opportunities.--_T. F.
-Bayard in the Senate, Jan. 28, 1880._
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876--AT HOME--THE MARSH FARM NEAR LANSING.
-
-
-The Michigan delegation to the Cincinnati Convention of 1876 selected
-Mr. Chandler as the member of the National Republican Committee
-for their State, and at the first formal meeting of that body (at
-Philadelphia, early in July) he was chosen its chairman after a close
-triangular contest between his friends and those of the Hon. A. B.
-Cornell and Gen. E. F. Noyes. The committee at once opened rooms at
-the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, with its Secretary, the Hon. R. C.
-McCormick of Arizona, in immediate charge. Mr. Chandler made frequent
-visits to the headquarters throughout the campaign, superintending the
-general plan of operations and meeting with the executive committee; as
-election-day approached his attendance became more constant.
-
-Originally he felt confident of Republican victory, not believing that
-in the centennial year the American people would render a political
-verdict whose result would be the restoration of the disloyal classes
-of the South to national supremacy. But, in September, evidences of
-Republican apathy in the important States of Ohio and Indiana--more
-especially in the former, which was the home of the Presidential
-candidate--greatly disturbed him, and made it plain that the situation
-was critical. It had become evident that organized brutality would give
-all the close Southern States to the Democrats and even make doubtful
-those which were strongly Republican, and that the merchantable and
-criminal classes of New York city would be so used as to also cast the
-electoral vote of that great State for the Opposition. The gravity of
-the prospect then brought out Mr. Chandler's best qualities of party
-leadership. Prompt aid was rendered in Ohio, and the National Committee
-did more than its full share (Mr. Chandler making large personal
-advances) to carry that State in the important October election.
-After the serious loss of Indiana, measures were at once instituted
-to organize the party for decisive work on the Pacific Slope, to see
-that in those Southern States where there was any hope all lawful
-measures were taken to defeat the plans of "the rifle clubs" and "the
-white leagues," and to carry New York if that was possible. Nothing was
-spared that would arouse the spirit of the party, and Mr. Chandler saw
-that the means were forthcoming for every effort that promised to make
-success more certain.
-
-The elections showed that the calculations of the managers of the
-Republican campaign were accurate, and were also adequate to "snatching
-victory from the jaws of defeat." The effort to save New York failed,
-and it and the neighboring States rewarded with their electoral votes
-the unscrupulous and subtle skill of Governor Tilden's personal
-canvass. But the Republican victories beyond the Rocky Mountains,
-and the resolute resistance offered in South Carolina, Louisiana and
-Florida, to the seizure of those States by political crimes ranging
-from shameless fraud to wholesale massacre, still left success with the
-Republicans after a contest without an American parallel in obstinacy,
-bitterness and excitement. Mr. Chandler showed throughout the prolonged
-electoral dispute "the courage which mounteth with the occasion," and
-his firmness, vigor and activity were among the important factors in
-the work of saving the fruits of the so narrowly-won victory. As soon
-as the smoke lifted from the battle-field his dispatch appeared, "Hayes
-has 185 votes and is elected," and he maintained that position to the
-end without a shade of faltering. Knowing that the Republicans were
-rightfully entitled to the electoral votes of, at least, Mississippi,
-Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, he determined that in
-the three States where the existence of Republican officials afforded
-some ground for hope nothing should be left undone to deprive fraud and
-violence of their prey, and he pushed every measure which seemed needed
-to uphold the Republicans of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina
-in their lawful rights. In some of the important closing phases of
-this exciting contest his counsels were not followed. The Electoral
-Commission act was not a measure that he approved. Firmly believing
-in the constitutional power of the President of the Senate to count
-the electoral votes and announce the result, he held the position that
-that officer should discharge that duty, and that the candidate thus
-constitutionally declared elected should be duly inaugurated at all
-hazards; and revolutionary threats were without effect upon his firm
-purpose. The negotiations between the opposing party leaders which
-attended the closing hours of the struggle, and which culminated in
-the abandonment by the new administration of the Republican State
-governments of the South, received no sanction from him. He regarded
-such a policy as essentially perfidious, and as clouding the title
-of Mr. Hayes to his high office, a title which Mr. Chandler believed
-to be as clear as that possessed by any President chosen since the
-formation of the constitution. Much else that attended the surrender
-of the South to the bitter enemies of the republic he deprecated as
-exceedingly harmful to the party of his faith, as unwise in tendency,
-and as unjust in principle. He was not demonstrative in his criticisms
-upon the new "policy," and his retirement to private life enabled him
-to maintain a general silence upon the subject. But his disapproval of
-a "conciliation," which he regarded as cowardly in its treatment of
-friends and as foolish in its manifestation of undeserved confidence
-in enemies, was profound.[39] Within two years the vindication of his
-opinions was complete.
-
-The indebtedness of the Republicans to Mr. Chandler's attitude and
-efforts in the presidential election of 1876 and the subsequent
-electoral dispute can scarcely be exaggerated. Without his firmness,
-the spirit with which he held his party up to the thorough assertion
-of its rights, the liberality with which he advanced the large sums
-required for legitimate expenditures, and the influence of his
-indomitable resolution, the final victory would have been at least
-vastly more difficult of attainment, if not actually impossible. In
-him the enemy never found the slightest traces of failing will or
-flagging strength. While the excitement was at its height, a Democratic
-periodical published a cartoon, in which Mr. Chandler was caricatured
-as standing colossus-like over a yawning chasm, holding up an elephant,
-labeled "The Republican Vote," by a double-handed grasp upon its tail.
-The humor of the rough sketch greatly delighted its subject, and he
-kept it with him for the entertainment of his friends. He first saw it
-after one of the Cabinet sessions, when it was produced by President
-Grant and passed through the hands of the other Secretaries, until
-it reached Mr. Chandler, who, after looking it over, said, gravely
-pointing out his position in the cartoon: "Mr. President, one of three
-things is certain: either the rocks upon which my feet are resting
-will crumble, or the elephant's tail will break, or I shall land the
-animal." Into the methods of his work he never feared examination. No
-cipher dispatch disclosures have cast infamy upon his name, and eager
-investigation by his political enemies still left his personal honor
-untainted.
-
-After the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term of Cabinet service, he
-remained in Washington for several weeks, and then accompanied General
-Grant to Philadelphia, and was one of the party who escorted the
-Ex-President down the Delaware when, on May 17, 1877, he commenced his
-tour around the world. The next two years were spent by Mr. Chandler
-in Michigan. His only prolonged absence from his Detroit home during
-this period was caused by a two months' trip to the California coast
-in June and July of 1877. A special car was placed at his service by
-the Pacific Railroads (he was one of the earliest and most energetic
-supporters of the trans-continental railway project), and he was
-accompanied by Charles T. Gorham of Marshall, H. C. Lewis of Coldwater,
-and S. S. Cobb of Kalamazoo. Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San
-Francisco, and the Yo Semite Valley were visited during the journey,
-and everywhere Mr. Chandler was welcomed with noteworthy public
-and private entertainments; his attractive social qualities shone
-throughout the jaunt. Not a great traveler, yet he saw during his life
-much of the world. In 1875, in company with Senators Cameron, Anthony
-and others, he visited the leading cities of the South. During one of
-the Congressional recesses of his second term, he passed some months
-in Europe, and while still in active business he spent a winter in the
-West Indies. His knowledge of the resources and points of interest of
-the Worth and Northwest was extensive and thorough.
-
-[Illustration: PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM.[40]]
-
-The marsh farm, which Mr. Chandler bought near the city of Lansing,
-and the experiments in extensive and systematic drainage which he made
-thereon, always received a generous share of his attention when he was
-in Michigan. This enterprise was one in which he unhesitatingly made
-large investments with the view of settling definitely questions of
-manifest public importance. In 1857 the State of Michigan gave to its
-Agricultural College the public lands in the four townships of Bath, De
-Witt, Meridian, and Lansing, which were designated on the surveyor's
-maps as "swamp lands;" in the main the sections covered by the grant
-were marshy, although their rectilinear boundaries included some solid
-ground. Mr. Chandler purchased from the college and other owners a farm
-of 3,160 acres, located four miles (by railroad) from Lansing, in the
-towns of Bath and De Witt in Clinton county; it included about 1,900
-acres of marsh meadow, 500 acres of tamarack swamp, and 800 acres of
-oak-opening uplands. The marsh was traversed by a slender water-course,
-deviously connecting some small lakes with a stream known as the
-Looking-glass river. The upland portion of the farm was thoroughly
-fertile, but its development and cultivation did not specially interest
-Mr. Chandler, except as furnishing the needed base for his experiments
-upon the marsh. He said: "Michigan contains thousands of acres of
-precisely this kind of land. The drainage of this particular marsh is
-difficult, as much so as is the case with any land in this peninsula
-which is not a hopeless swamp. If this tract can be reclaimed, others
-can be, and I propose to give the experiment of reclamation a thorough
-trial. I have the money, and I believe I have the pluck. If I succeed,
-it will be a good thing for the State, for it will show how to add
-millions of dollars worth of land to its farms. If I fail, it will
-also be a good thing, for it will settle an open question, and no man
-need repeat my attempt." He pushed this experiment vigorously from the
-time of its commencement until his death, and gave to it his frequent
-personal supervision: His investments in the marsh farm soon came to
-be counted by many tens of thousands of dollars. Originally, practical
-farmers were inclined to regard his operations as sheer folly, but as
-they saw the purpose, methods and thoroughness of his work, a just
-appreciation of its aim followed. Mr. Chandler never disguised the
-character of this enterprise. Repeatedly he said to visitors at the
-farm and to friends, "I have a theory--that is a remarkably expensive
-thing to have--and I propose to test it here; it will make me poorer,
-but it may make others richer some time." The public value of his
-experiment he believed to be great, and that fact he was quick to make
-prominent whenever it seemed necessary.
-
-[Illustration: THE "BIG DITCH" (WINTER SCENE).]
-
-The general plan of drainage operations consisted in connecting by
-a large ditch Park lake (which has an area of 235 acres) with the
-Looking-glass river. This main ditch was constructed by straightening
-the bed of Prairie creek, and possessed descent enough to ensure a slow
-current in wet seasons. It is about four miles in length, and averages
-fourteen feet in width by four in depth. At intervals of forty rods
-are constructed lateral ditches, as a rule five feet in width at the
-top by three in depth. This part of the work had not been completed at
-the time of Mr. Chandler's death, but still the lateral ditching had
-reached about fifty miles in aggregate length, and had well drained
-about 1,000 acres in the western end of the marsh near the outlet into
-the Looking-glass. In that portion of the farm the first results of
-the drainage--the rotting down of the peaty surface of the marsh into
-a vegetable mold--have already manifested themselves satisfactorily.
-The extent to which this decomposition will continue is not completely
-tested, nor does it yet appear what will be the full measure of the
-arability of soil, which will be created by this process, supplemented
-by the tile draining which will follow the subsidence of the marsh to
-a permanent level. This peaty surface varies from two and a half feet
-to a rod in depth and promises to become an enormously productive soil.
-The experiments thus far tried upon it have resulted hopefully. Much
-of the native grass furnished excellent hay, and stock fatted upon it
-thoroughly with no more than the usual allowance of grain. The tame
-grass sown was chiefly Fowl Meadow and Timothy. The former Mr. Chandler
-had seen growing in Holland on reclaimed land, and he determined to
-give it a trial; he was only able to find the seed in the Boston
-market, and there paid for it four dollars per bushel of eleven pounds.
-It is a species of Red Top, and soon yielded from one and a half to
-two tons of excellent hay per acre. For four seasons this seeding-down
-with tame grasses was tried with satisfactory results, and then other
-experiments followed. In the fall of 1878, twelve acres of marsh, then
-well seeded-down with grass, were thoroughly plowed by Superintendent
-Hughes, who, in the following season, raised thereon corn, potatoes,
-rutabagas and oats. The results conclusively showed that the marsh
-possessed general productiveness, although the experiment itself was
-marred by the unseasonable frosts of 1879. The corn looked well at
-the outset, but was severely injured in the end. The potato crop was
-a good one, and the yield of oats was also large. In the fall of 1879
-another tract of twelve acres was plowed, and the same experiment was
-put in process of repetition. Superintendent Hughes is of the opinion
-that within another year, the reclaimed marsh will produce 100 bushels
-of corn to the acre. A short time before his death, Mr. Chandler said
-that, in view of the success which had attended the experiments already
-tried, he now felt confident that in time his farm would be pointed
-out as an ague-bed transformed into one of the most valuable pieces of
-property in Central Michigan, and would demonstrate the reclaimability
-of large tracts of swamp land in that State. About 500 acres of the
-marsh are seeded with Fowl Meadow grass; about 300 acres of this is
-mowed, and the remainder is used for pasturage. Over 400 tons of
-excellent hay were cut there in the season of 1879.
-
-[Illustration: THE SUPERINTENDENT'S HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM.]
-
-Outside of the interest attaching to it by reason of the drainage
-experiments, the Chandler farm would deserve notice as one of the
-most thoroughly equipped and stocked of the new farms of Michigan.
-It is traversed by a state road, and by the Jackson, Lansing and
-Saginaw Railroad (which has established a signal station near the
-farm-house). Its buildings are located upon the highest ground. They
-are substantially constructed, and surrounded with all the evidences
-of thrift. The main house of the farm, which is occupied by the
-superintendent and his family, is a commodious frame structure, two
-stories in height, and conveniently partitioned off into spacious
-and airy apartments. Near it is the house-barn (32 by 54 feet in
-dimensions) with sheep-sheds adjoining. About a half-mile to the east
-are two tenant houses, occupied by families employed on the farm. On
-the east side of the state road, at a distance of half a mile, is a
-large barn, erected in 1879; its main portion is 41 by 66 feet in
-dimensions, with a wing 38 by 90 feet; its height is 44 feet to the
-ridge; attached are sheds 250 feet in length and "L" shaped. This
-barn is largely used for storage purposes, and will receive 250 tons
-of hay. The basement of its wing is divided into 60 cattle stalls, 30
-on each side, with a broad passage through the center. The stalls are
-ingeniously arranged in the most improved style, and with a special
-regard for cleanliness. In the basement of the main barn is a large
-root cellar (capable of holding 2,000 bushels of potatoes, turnips,
-etc.), stabling accommodations for eight horses, two large box-stalls
-for stallions, a feed-room 20 by 25 feet in size, numerous calf-pens,
-and many other conveniences. Located above are two granaries, each
-12 by 28 feet in dimensions. Attached to the barn, but in a separate
-building, is a 12-horse-power engine, used for cutting feed, and for
-other farm purposes. A large automatic windmill and pump supply water
-in abundance.
-
-The farm is well stocked; on it are seventeen horses, including "Mark
-Antony," an imported Normandy stallion, which is a fine specimen of the
-Percheron breed. There are also 120 head of handsome graded cattle on
-the farm, 300 sheep graded from Shropshire Down bucks, and 23 pure-bred
-Essex swine. In wagons and implements of every kind the equipment
-is complete, and all are of the best manufacture and most improved
-quality. The force of laborers on the farm as a rule includes five men
-in summer and three in winter, large gangs being employed during the
-two months of the haying season, and also when there is any extensive
-fencing or ditching enterprise to be pushed.
-
-[Illustration: THE MAIN BARN OF THE MARSH FARM.]
-
-Mr. Chandler's experiments were closely watched by the farmers of
-Michigan. Visits were frequent from them singly, in small parties,
-and in club or grange excursions to the marsh, and they always met a
-hospitable reception. Letters of inquiry also came from many parts of
-the State, giving evidence of the widespread character of the interest
-felt. Mr. Chandler himself when in Michigan visited the farm at least
-once a month, inspecting the work thoroughly, discussing plans with the
-superintendent, making suggestions, and giving orders. His experience
-as a farmer in his boyhood furnished ideas which were yet useful and
-a judgment which was well-informed; still he was ready to welcome all
-innovations that promised good results, and he closed many discussions
-with his superintendents by remarking, "If you come at me with facts,
-that is enough; I never argue against them." At the farm he also
-found the most congenial relaxation. He would come there jaded out
-with the excitement and labor of political contest and public life;
-in stout clothing and heavy boots he would scour the meadows, examine
-ditching, look up the stock, oversee labor, and work himself if there
-was an inviting opportunity. A day or two of this life would bring
-rest, hearty appetite, and sound sleep, would relieve his nerves from
-tension, and restore his vital powers to their natural activity. He
-always rated his visits to the marsh farm as a certain and delightful
-tonic.
-
-[Illustration: MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN WASHINGTON.]
-
-In private life Mr. Chandler kept up the habits which marked his public
-career. His voluminous correspondence was never neglected. Napoleon's
-method of leaving letters unopened for three weeks, because within
-that time most of them would need no replies, he reversed. As a rule,
-every communication addressed to Mr. Chandler was promptly answered;
-to even mere notes of compliment brief responses were sent. Of course
-this practice made a confidential secretary indispensable, and that
-position was held for some years by a Mr. Miller; after his death (in
-1870) it was discreetly and faithfully filled by George W. Partridge.
-Matters entrusted to Mr. Chandler's care by constituents always
-received early attention; the same statement is true of applications
-from the humblest stranger who preferred a claim upon his attention,
-and it includes political enemies as well as friends. Mr. Chandler
-regarded meeting these demands as part of his public duties; no other
-prominent man of his day gave to such matters a tithe of the time and
-energy devoted to them by him, and this was one source of his hold upon
-the popular affection. Of course much labor was involved, but this was
-offset by the fact that in all his duties he was regular, punctual
-and systematic; his mercantile training helped him greatly in this
-respect, and it was said of him truly, "He has never been excelled as
-a 'business Senator' at Washington." While not a student, he was a man
-who prepared for every important action. In his speeches he aimed at
-nervous strength and effectiveness. For oratorical finish he cared
-nothing, but simple language, terse sentences, some plain word whose
-meaning was an argument in itself--these he sought for unceasingly.
-He apologized for the length of one of his brief speeches because he
-had not had time to make it shorter. Not rarely he would put into a
-sentence of ten Saxon words the power of a philippic, and this rough
-missile would crush where mere rhetoric would have only irritated. Mr.
-Chandler never failed as a speaker to command the popular attention,
-and his force and the simplicity of his diction were greatly aided
-by the sincerity which illuminated them. The vigor and truth of
-conviction, which made him so ardent a champion of the party of his
-political faith, marked his speeches, and made his appeals potent with
-his hearers. "His words were simple and his soul sincere." In fact,
-his sincerity and honesty were the salient qualities of the man. His
-was not a faultless character; but it was above baseness, and it was
-free from affectation, from cant, and from hypocrisy. The record of his
-public life recalls Emerson's estimate of Bonaparte: "This man showed
-us how much may be accomplished by the mere force of such virtues as
-all men possess in less degree--namely, by punctuality, by personal
-attention, by courage, and by thoroughness." But more honorable to his
-memory is the fact that concerning the man himself can be justly quoted
-Carlyle's eloquent tribute to Burns: "He is an honest man.... In his
-successes and his failures, in his greatness and his littleness, he is
-ever clear, simple and true, and glitters with no lustre but his own.
-We reckon this to be a great virtue--to be, in fact, the root of most
-other virtues."
-
-[Illustration: MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN DETROIT.] a game of
-
-Mr. Chandler's social nature was a hearty one. His manners were easy,
-he was affable with all, and he was without the slightest tinge of
-aristocratic tastes or prejudice. No false dignity surrounded him; with
-his friends his laugh was ready; he liked whist, enjoyed a good story,
-found pleasure in social gatherings, was entertaining in conversation,
-and easily gave way to the natural jollity of his spirits. Exact
-and stern as he often was, his intimates found him a most agreeable
-companion Few men have ever bound friends to themselves more firmly.
-
-He surrounded his homes with the comforts that wealth could supply,
-and yet was not ostentatious. His Washington residence he purchased
-for about $40,000 in 1867 from Senor Bareda, the Peruvian Minister.
-It is located on H between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and is
-a handsome house with spacious parlors and dining room upon the first
-floor; commodious apartments occupy the upper stories, which are
-connected by rich staircases of black walnut. Mr. Chandler's office
-was located in the basement, and has been the scene of many important
-consultations between famous men on questions of party policy and
-public concern. His Detroit home was the mansion on the Northwest
-corner of Fort and Second streets, which he built in 1855-'56. It
-is situated in spacious grounds, and is of the plain Roman style of
-architecture, which aims at the simple in outline and massive in
-effect. A semi-circular drive and path lead to it through the gate-ways
-of a heavy and handsome fence and into a large _porte cochere_. Thence
-wide stone steps rise through solid mahogany doors to a broad hall,
-whose floor of inlaid woods is partly hidden by rich rugs. On the
-right is the drawing room, a spacious apartment furnished in blue and
-gold, and abounding in tasteful ornaments and handsome paintings. In
-it stands Randolph Rogers's marble bust of Mr. Chandler, executed
-about 1870. Opposite and connected by folding doors are the library
-and dining room. The former's shelves are well filled with the best
-works of standard authors, including many ancient chronicles seldom
-found in private book collections. Back of the dining room and across
-a transverse hallway is the apartment that was Mr. Chandler's private
-office; its walls are literally covered with shelving containing
-Congressional annals and reports and many public documents. The
-appointments of the numerous other rooms are tasteful and complete,
-and all the surroundings of the house are in keeping with its quiet
-elegance. In 1858 Mr. Chandler met there with an accident of nearly
-fatal results. He followed his little daughter upon a search for some
-escaping gas, and was caught with her in a room in which a large mass
-of that inflammable vapor was exploded by a lighted candle. To add
-to the danger of the situation the door was closed upon them by a
-frightened servant. Mr. Chandler seized his child and sheltered her
-from serious danger, and groped his way out blinded and scorched. It
-was then found that his hands and face were badly burned, and the loss
-of his eyesight was threatened. Careful treatment and his vigorous
-constitution ultimately brought about a full recovery, and the only
-traces left of the casualty were some slight affections of the facial
-muscles and an unusual pallor of countenance.
-
-Mr. Chandler's domestic life was a thoroughly happy one. He married
-Letitia Grace Douglass of New York, a noble Christian woman, whose
-social accomplishments blended dignity with grace, and who met to the
-full her large share of the exacting duties attendant upon public
-life and high station. Their only child was a daughter, Mary Douglass
-Chandler, who was married, while her father was a Senator, to the Hon.
-Eugene Hale of Ellsworth, Maine. She inherited many of her father's
-traits, and his affection for her was rooted in the inner fibres of his
-strong nature. Her children, his three little grandsons, often knew him
-as a rollicking playfellow, and he counseled with her freely and often,
-and she shared in his confidence as well as his love. Throughout his
-life he expressed his appreciation of the devoted attachment of his
-wife and child by many acknowledgments that do not belong to a public
-chronicle; his will left his great estate to them as his sole heirs,
-"share and share alike."
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[39] In the fall of 1877 Mr. Chandler delivered the annual address
-before the Branch County Agricultural Society, and while in Coldwater
-was the guest of the Hon. Henry C. Lewis of that city, who invited a
-few friends to meet him socially. In the course of the conversation
-Mr. Chandler said that he was going to his Lansing farm to spend a few
-days. His reticence in regard to the Hayes administration was then a
-matter of remark, and the Hon. C. D. Randall said to him: "Well, Mr.
-Chandler, when you get out in the center of your great farm and alone,
-you will have a fine opportunity to express your opinion about the
-Hayes 'policy.'" Mr. Chandler's reply was: "No, sir; that Lansing farm
-will never answer my purpose. To do that I shall have to be on the top
-of a high hill behind the meeting-house and with the wind blowing the
-other way!" The audience responded with a hearty laugh.
-
-[40] The heavy black lines in this map are the boundaries of the
-farm; the waving lines indicate the border of the uplands surrounding
-the marsh. The drainage is from Mud Lake via "the big ditch" to the
-Looking-glass river. The lateral ditching (of which there are over
-fifty miles) is shown on the plat by the fine lines.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878--MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
-SENATE--"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
-
-
-The township elections in Michigan in April, 1878, revealed an
-astonishing growth in the number of the advocates of an irredeemable
-paper currency. "Hard times," Democratic disgust over the result of
-the electoral dispute, and Republican disappointment at "the Southern
-policy" of the new administration greatly relaxed existing party ties,
-and made the way ready for the expounders of the seductive theory
-that prosperity depends upon a great volume of the currency, and
-that large issues of paper bearing the government stamp must greatly
-add to individual wealth. Throughout the West and South, Republican
-and Democratic leaders had fostered these fallacious ideas, and thus
-prepared the field of public sentiment for this "Greenback" sowing. In
-Michigan the result was that the National party (which in 1876 gave
-only 9,060 votes to Peter Cooper for President) in April, 1878, cast
-over 70,000 votes for its township candidates, elected a large number
-of supervisors in the most populous counties of the State, and showed
-greater strength than either of the old parties in four Congressional
-districts. This was the gravest situation the Republicans of Michigan
-had ever been called upon to face. A conference of their representative
-men was at once held, at the call of the State Central Committee, and
-the situation was thoroughly discussed. Among those participating
-was Gov. Charles M. Croswell, who said that he believed that the
-party should boldly declare for a sound currency, and resist with all
-its power the further spread of financial heresy; for himself, he
-preferred defeat on that platform to a victory won by any surrender
-to false theories. The endorsement of his views was substantially
-unanimous, and an aggressive campaign was determined upon. The State
-Convention was promptly called, and met in Detroit on June 13. It was
-the ablest political gathering ever held in Michigan, and its delegates
-included the foremost men of the party from every county. Mr. Chandler
-presided; Governor Croswell was renominated at the head of a strong
-State ticket; a platform, admirable for its soundness of doctrine and
-clearness of statement[41] (its author was Frederick Morley, formerly
-editor of the Detroit _Post_), was adopted; and Mr. Chandler was, amid
-the prolonged cheering of the convention, placed at the head of the
-State Committee. He had at that time about completed his plans for
-a European journey, and it was suggested to him by friends that his
-chairmanship of the National Committee afforded a valid excuse for
-declining this new appointment, which would make him responsible for
-the result of a doubtful fight, with the certainty that defeat would
-greatly impair his political prestige. To this advice Mr. Chandler
-simply replied, "If Michigan Republicanism goes down, I will go
-with it." He promptly canceled all other engagements, appointed his
-confidential secretary, G. W. Partridge, secretary of the committee
-(with the consent of its members), and threw his energy and vigor into
-that State campaign. The contest that followed under his leadership
-preserved the spirit of the convention and upheld the doctrines of the
-platform. The financial question was discussed in every phase "upon
-the stump" and by the press. Mr. Chandler himself spoke in all the
-leading cities of the State, and was seconded by many other orators,
-including James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, and Stewart L. Woodford,
-whose addresses were masterly examples of the candid, luminous and
-popular treatment of a topic usually regarded as too abstruse and dry
-for profitable public discussion. The courage and honesty of this fight
-were justly rewarded. The Republicans carried the State by over 47,000
-plurality, and elected every Congressional candidate and a Legislature
-with a large Republican majority upon joint ballot. The victory was
-a signal one. In no Western State had financial heresy ever been as
-resolutely grappled with and as thoroughly beaten, and his prominent
-share in this battle must rank among Mr. Chandler's most unselfish and
-honorable public services.
-
-An unforeseen but almost poetically just result of this triumph was
-his own return to Congress. Senator Christiancy's failing health
-compelled him in the winter of 1879 to seek (under physician's
-advice) rest and a change of climate. The President offered him the
-embassadorship at Berlin, or at Mexico, or at Lima, and he finally
-decided to accept the latter. His nomination was sent to the Senate
-on Jan. 29, 1879, and confirmed without reference to a committee. On
-February 10, his resignation as Senator was laid before the Michigan
-Legislature, and on the 18th that body filled the vacancy by election.
-With the earliest hints of the possibility of Senator Christiancy's
-retirement, Republican opinion and the popular expectation had agreed
-that Mr. Chandler would be chosen for the remaining years of what the
-Republicans of Michigan had unsuccessfully sought to make his fourth
-term. This was regarded as due to him, as still more due to the party
-which had in 1875 been deprived of its choice, and as securing the
-restoration to public activity of a man of national influence and
-prominence, at an hour when the sagacity of his political judgment
-had been vindicated by the alarming attitude of the South, and when
-the sturdiest qualities of leadership were needed in Washington. The
-legislative action reflected this strong current of public sentiment.
-In the Republican caucus (held in the new Capitol of that State),
-Mr. Chandler was nominated for Senator on the first formal ballot,
-receiving sixty-nine of the eighty-nine votes cast. In the Legislature
-he was elected by the vote of every Republican in his seat in either
-branch.
-
-[Illustration: THE MICHIGAN CAPITOL AT LANSING.]
-
-On Feb. 22, 1879, Mr. Chandler's credentials were presented and
-read in the Senate, and he was escorted by Senator Ferry to the
-Vice-President's desk, where the official oath was administered to
-him by William A. Wheeler. He took the seat upon the outer row of
-the Republican side, which he had occupied in other Congresses.
-The circumstances of his return to public life attracted national
-attention, and his re-appearance in the Senate was everywhere accepted
-as significant of the growth of Republican courage and resolution.
-But what followed outstripped all expectation and was dramatic in its
-accessories. Upon February 28, he first addressed the Forty-fifth
-Senate, speaking briefly upon a bill providing for pension arrears,
-and in advocacy of an amendment to make more efficient the methods of
-detecting pension frauds by taking expert examiners from one part of
-the country and sending them to another. In this connection he referred
-to his own experience as Secretary of the Interior, saying that he
-had declared that with $100,000 to so use he could save $1,000,000 to
-the Treasury yearly. Upon the same day, he also spoke briefly upon
-the Sundry Civil Appropriation bill, opposing a proposition in it to
-re-open a settled claim of the war of 1812, based on expenditures
-made by some of the older States for military purposes. He spoke from
-recollection of a discussion in 1857, when this matter came up, and
-showed that the principal of the claims had been already paid, and
-that this was an attempt to collect compound interest. This measure,
-which Mr. Chandler repeatedly opposed during his Senatorial career, was
-again defeated at this time. On March 1, a proposition to pay Georgia
-over $72,000 compound interest upon advances alleged to have been made
-in 1835-'38 in the Creek, Seminole and Cherokee wars was strenuously
-and successfully opposed by him. On the 28th of February, a bill had
-been passed by the Senate making appropriations for the arrearages
-of pensions. To this an amendment was offered and adopted extending
-to those who served in the war with Mexico the provisions of the law
-passed in 1878, giving pensions to the surviving soldiers of 1812. This
-amendment was adopted without full consideration, and on the evening of
-Sunday, March 2, a motion was made and carried for a reconsideration.
-Then an amendment was offered excluding persons who served in the
-Confederate army or held any office under the "Confederacy" from the
-benefits of this bill. This amendment was defeated by the votes of the
-Democrats and two Southern Republicans. Another amendment was offered
-by Senator Hoar excluding Jefferson Davis from the benefits of any
-pension bill. An astonishing debate followed. For some hours the Senate
-Chamber rang with fervent eulogies upon the arch-rebel of the South.
-Senator Garland declared that Davis's record would "equal in history
-all Grecian fame and all Roman glory." Senator Maxey pronounced him
-"a battle-scarred, knightly gentleman." Senator Lamar characterized
-the proposition as a "wanton insult," springing from "hate, bitter,
-malignant sectional feeling, and a sense of personal impunity;" he
-added, "The only difference between myself and Jefferson Davis is that
-his exalted character, his pre-eminent talents, his well-established
-reputation as a statesman, as a patriot, and as a soldier enabled
-him to take the lead in a cause to which I consecrated myself;" he
-further declared that Davis's motives were as "sacred and noble as
-ever inspired the breast of a Hampden or a Washington." Senator Harris
-pronounced him "the peer of any Senator on this floor." "I will not,"
-said Senator Coke, "vote to discriminate against Mr. Davis, for I was
-just as much a rebel as he." Senator Ransom said, "I shall not dwell
-upon Mr. Davis's public services as an American soldier and statesman.
-He belongs to history, as does that cause to which he gave all the
-ability of his great nature." There was no lack of Republican protest
-against this apotheosis of unrepentant treason, but it was not wholly
-free from a certain deprecatory tone. The Senators who spoke in support
-of Mr. Hoar's proposition rather remonstrated against than denounced
-the assumption that it was their duty to quietly assent to legislation
-which would place the unamnestied and still defiant representative
-of the Great Rebellion on the pension-rolls of the nation. After
-the debate had lasted for over two hours, Mr. W. E. Chandler of New
-Hampshire, who was watching its progress from the reporters' gallery,
-said to Senator E. H. Rollins of his State, "Tell Zach. Chandler that
-he is the man to call Jeff. Davis a traitor." Mr. Rollins delivered the
-message, which was received with a nod of acquiescence in the direction
-of the gallery. Senator Morgan of Alabama was speaking at the time,
-with Senator Mitchell of Oregon in the chair. As Mr. Morgan closed,
-Senator Chandler rose and said:
-
-  Mr. President, twenty-two years ago to-morrow, in the old Hall of
-  the Senate, now occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States,
-  I, in company with Mr. Jefferson Davis, stood up and swore before
-  Almighty God that I would support the Constitution of the United
-  States. Mr. Jefferson Davis came from the Cabinet of Franklin
-  Pierce into the Senate of the United States and took the oath with
-  me to be faithful to this government. During four years I sat in
-  this body with Mr. Jefferson Davis and saw the preparations going
-  on from day to-day for the overthrow of this government. With
-  treason in his heart and perjury upon his lips he took the oath to
-  sustain the government that he meant to overthrow.
-
-  Sir, there was method in that madness. He, in co-operation with
-  other men from his section and in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, made
-  careful preparation for the event that was to follow. Your armies
-  were scattered all over this broad land where they could not be
-  used in an emergency; your fleets were scattered wherever the winds
-  blew and water was found to float them, where they could not be
-  used to put down rebellion; your Treasury was depleted until your
-  bonds bearing six per cent., principal and interest payable in
-  coin, were sold for 88 cents on the dollar for current expenses,
-  and no buyers. Preparations were carefully made. Your arms were
-  sold under an apparently innocent clause in an army bill providing
-  that the Secretary of War might, at his discretion, sell such arms
-  as he deemed it for the interest of the government to sell.
-
-  Sir, eighteen years ago last month I sat in these halls and
-  listened to Jefferson Davis delivering his farewell address,
-  informing us what our constitutional duties to this government
-  were, and then he left and entered into the rebellion to overthrow
-  the government that he had sworn to support! I remained here,
-  sir, during the whole of that terrible rebellion. I saw our brave
-  soldiers by thousands and hundreds of thousands, aye, I might say
-  millions, pass through to the theater of war, and I saw their
-  shattered ranks return; I saw steamboat after steamboat and
-  railroad train after railroad train arrive with the maimed and the
-  wounded; I was with my friend from Rhode Island (Mr. Burnside) when
-  he commanded the Army of the Potomac, and saw piles of legs and
-  arms that made humanity shudder; I saw the widow and the orphan in
-  their homes, and heard the weeping and wailing of those who had
-  lost their dearest and their best. Mr. President, I little thought
-  at that time that I should live to hear in the Senate of the United
-  States eulogies upon Jefferson Davis, living--a living rebel
-  eulogized on the floor of the Senate of the United States! Sir, I
-  am amazed to hear it; and I can tell the gentlemen on the other
-  side that they little know the spirit of the North when they come
-  here at this day, and, with bravado on their lips, utter eulogies
-  upon a man whom every man, woman, and child in the North believes
-  to have been a double-dyed traitor to his government.
-
-[Illustration: SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON "JEFF."
-DAVIS.
-
-[In the Senate Chamber, at 3 A. M., Monday, March 3, 1879.]]
-
-This speech was made at about the hour of half-past three in the
-morning of Monday, March 3, 1879. But few people were in the galleries
-at that time, and the Senate had lapsed into a listless state. Mr.
-Chandler's bearing as he arose to speak, and the first sentence that
-resounded through the Senate Chamber in his strong voice, aroused
-instant attention. The spectators above listened with new and eager
-interest, Senators came in from the lobbies and cloakrooms, sleep was
-shaken off by drowsy _attaches_, and his closing words "a double-dyed
-traitor to his government" fell in ringing tones upon an intent
-audience and were answered by an applause from the galleries which
-the gavel of the presiding officer could not check. His excited
-hearers listened eagerly for a reply, but none came. After some
-silent waiting the presiding officer stated the pending question,
-and was about to put it to vote. Senator Thurman then rose and began
-the discussion of another branch of the subject, and no answer was
-attempted to Mr. Chandler's just denunciation of the eulogizing of
-the man, whose past history and present attitude unite to make him at
-once the representative of treason's crimes and the embodiment of its
-unrepentant spirit. When the vote was taken, one majority was given
-for Mr. Hoar's amendment, and after that result the original amendment
-itself was defeated.
-
-This speech was a masterpiece in its way--in its brevity, in its
-skillful use of the speaker's early official association with Jefferson
-Davis, in its vivid epitome of the history of American treason, and in
-the rugged power of its simple language. It most profoundly stirred
-the people. It may be said without exaggeration that years had passed
-since any Congressional utterance had received such public attention.
-Democratic and Southern denunciation of Mr. Chandler followed
-abundantly, but this was wholly overshadowed by the enthusiasm of the
-response of the patriotic sentiment of the Union to his indignant
-refusal to let treason raise its head in insolence without branding it
-as it deserved. The Northern press reprinted the speech with unstinted
-praise. Public men hastened in person, by telegraph, and through the
-mails to tender their congratulations. Letters of fervent thanks poured
-in by the hundreds; from utter strangers, from the rich and the humble,
-from veteran soldiers, from mothers whose sons were buried on Southern
-battle-fields, from the colored men, from the Republicans of the South,
-from every State and Territory came the expressions of gratitude for
-the utterance given at so opportune a moment and with such force to the
-loyal feeling of the republic. It was this spontaneous approval of the
-masses of the people that Mr. Chandler especially prized.
-
-On March 18, 1879, the extra session of the Forty-sixth Congress
-commenced, and the Democrats made their abortive attempt to force the
-repeal of the laws relating to the supervision of national elections by
-withholding appropriations. Their reactionary programme (the striking
-of the last vestige of the war measures from the statute books was even
-threatened) and revolutionary menaces aroused the North, and in the end
-they quailed before the rising popular wrath. Mr. Chandler denounced
-their schemes vigorously on the floor of the Senate, even charging
-explicitly that twelve of the Southern Senators "held their seats by
-fraud and violence." He also earnestly opposed all propositions to
-compel the unlimited coinage of the silver dollar of 412½ grains, a
-measure which would have given to the country a superabundance of
-silver currency of depreciated value to the exclusion of gold. His
-last Congressional speech was this carefully prepared and forcible
-"arraignment of the Democratic party," of which tens of thousands of
-copies were circulated throughout the Union in the following campaign:
-
-  We have now spent three months and a half in this Capitol, not
-  without certain results. We have shown to the people of this nation
-  just what the Democratic party means. The people have been informed
-  as to your objects, ends, and aims. By fraud and violence, by
-  shot-guns and tissue ballots, you hold a present majority in both
-  Houses of Congress, and you have taken an early opportunity to show
-  what you intend to do with that majority thus obtained. You are
-  within sight of the promised land, but like Moses of old we propose
-  to send you up into the mountain to die politically.
-
-  Mr. President, we are approaching the end of this extra session,
-  and its record will soon become history. The acts of the Democratic
-  party, as manifested in this Congress, justify me in arraigning
-  it before the loyal people of the United States on the political
-  issues which it has presented, _as the enemy of the nation_ and as
-  the author and abettor of rebellion.
-
-  1. I arraign the Democratic party for having resorted to
-  revolutionary measures to carry out its partisan projects, by
-  attempting to coerce the Executive by withholding supplies, and
-  thus accomplishing by starvation the destruction of the government
-  which they had failed to overthrow by arms.
-
-  2. I arraign them for having injured the business interests of
-  the country by forcing the present extra session, after liberal
-  compromises were tendered to them prior to the close of the last
-  session.
-
-  3. I arraign them for having attempted to throw away the results of
-  the recent war by again elevating State over National Sovereignty.
-  We expended $5,000,000,000 and sacrificed more than 300,000
-  precious lives to put down this heresy and to perpetuate the
-  _national life_. They surrendered this heresy at Appomattox, but
-  now they attempt to renew this pretension.
-
-  4. I arraign them for having attempted to damage the business
-  interests of the country by forcing silver coin into circulation,
-  of less value than it represents, thus swindling the laboring-man
-  and the producer, by compelling them to accept 85 cents for a
-  dollar, and thus enriching the bullion-owners at the expense of the
-  laborer. Four million dollars a day is paid for labor alone, and
-  by thus attempting to force an 85 cent dollar on the laboring-man
-  you swindle him daily out of $600,000. Twelve hundred million
-  dollars are paid yearly for labor alone, and by thus attempting to
-  force an 85-cent dollar on the laboring-man you swindle him out of
-  $180,000,000 a year. The amount which the producing class would
-  lose is absolutely incalculable.
-
-  5. I arraign them for having removed without cause experienced
-  officers and employes of this body, some of whom served and were
-  wounded in the Union army, and for appointing men who had in the
-  rebel army attempted to destroy this government.
-
-  6. I arraign them for having instituted a secret and illegitimate
-  tribunal, the edicts of which have been made the supreme governing
-  power of Congress in defiance of the fundamental principles of the
-  constitution. The decrees of this junta are known although its
-  motives are hidden.
-
-  7. I arraign them for having held up for public admiration that
-  arch-rebel, Jefferson Davis, declaring that he was inspired by
-  motives as sacred and as noble as animated Washington; and as
-  having rendered services in attempting to destroy the Union which
-  will equal in history Grecian fame and Roman glory. [Laughter on
-  the Democratic side and in portions of the galleries.] You can
-  laugh. The people of the North will make you laugh on the other
-  side of your faces!
-
-  8. I arraign them for having undertaken to blot from the
-  statute-book of the nation wise laws, rendered necessary by the war
-  and its results, and insuring "life, liberty and the pursuit of
-  happiness" to the emancipated freedmen, who are now so bulldozed
-  and ku-kluxed that they are seeking peace in exile, although urged
-  to remain by shot-guns.
-
-  9. I arraign them for having attempted to repeal the wise
-  legislation which excludes those who served under the rebel flag
-  from holding commissions in the army and navy of the United States.
-
-  10. I arraign them for having introduced a large amount of
-  legislation for the exclusive benefit of the States recently in
-  rebellion, which, if enacted, would bankrupt the national Treasury.
-
-  11. I arraign them for having conspired to destroy all that the
-  Republican party has accomplished. Many of them breaking their
-  oaths of allegiance to the United States and pledging their
-  lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors to overthrow this
-  government, they failed, and thus lost all they pledged.
-
-  _Call a halt._ The days of vaporing are over. The loyal North is
-  aroused and their doom is sealed.
-
-  I accept the issue on these arraignments distinctly and
-  specifically before the citizens of this great republic. As a
-  Senator of the United States and as a citizen of the United States,
-  I appeal to the people. It is for those citizens to say who is
-  right and who is wrong. I go before that tribunal confident that
-  the Republican party is right and that the Democratic party is
-  wrong.
-
-  They have made these issues; not we; and by them they must stand or
-  fall. This is the platform which they have constructed, not only
-  for 1879 but for 1880. They cannot change it, for we will hold them
-  to it. They have made their bed, and we will see to it that they
-  lie thereon.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[41] The Michigan Republicans have done well. Their platform has about
-it the clear ring of honest conviction, undulled by any half-hearted
-and halting compromise. So lucid and courageous an enunciation of
-the financial creed of the Republican party has certainly not been
-made this year, nor has the irreconcilable hostility of the party to
-all forms of tampering with public credit and national honor been so
-resolutely and judiciously stated as by the Detroit Convention.--_New
-York Times, June 14, 1878._
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
-THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879--MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS--DEATH AND FUNERAL.
-
-
-The closing hours of the Forty-fifth Congress and the extra session
-of the Forty-sixth may be said to have revealed Mr. Chandler to the
-country. While he had been well known he had not been truly known. He
-then became a central figure in the public attention. His utterances
-were universally discussed, and with discussion came a juster
-appreciation of the man. The people at last saw him as he was, the
-possessor of strong common-sense, a cool and indefatigable worker, a
-sagacious and fearless leader, a man who had never sacrificed principle
-to policy, who had never compromised with crimes against liberty or
-the nation's honor, whose most malignant enemies had not accused
-him of being influenced by corrupt motives, and one gifted with the
-rare capacity of saying the right thing at the right time in terse,
-impromptu sentences, in epigrams which became political mottoes.
-
-The campaign of 1879 followed closely upon the mid-summer adjournment
-of Congress, and invitations to address the people came to Mr. Chandler
-from a score of States. No public speaker was in more urgent demand, or
-aroused a keener interest. The popular gatherings, which, during the
-summer and fall, greeted his every appearance from the shores of the
-Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard, amounted to a genuine ovation.
-His first address was delivered before the Republican State Convention
-of Wisconsin, at Madison, on July 23. In August he made six speeches
-in Maine to immense mass meetings. In September he visited Ohio, and
-spoke at Sandusky, Toledo, Warren, Cleveland, and other important
-points. His audiences in that State were uniformly large, and his
-Warren speech was delivered in the afternoon to an enormous crowd,
-one of the greatest ever called together upon such an occasion in the
-Western Reserve. He was greatly pleased by an invitation, which came to
-him at about this time, from Senator G. F. Hoar, to visit Massachusetts
-in October. It was unexpected, and he had believed that the Republican
-leaders in the Bay State were inclined to look upon him with distrust.
-He accepted it promptly, and spoke to enthusiastic audiences in Boston,
-Worcester, Lynn and Lowell. Some brief remarks made at a dinner of
-the Middlesex Club, in which he urged the national importance of the
-pending contest, were especially useful in stimulating Republican
-activity and directing it into proper channels. He next addressed
-meetings in New York at Flushing, Albany, Troy, Potsdam, Lowville
-and Buffalo, amid increasing public interest. On returning home from
-that State in the last days of October, he revisited Wisconsin, and
-spoke to great crowds at Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Janesville, returning
-to Chicago, where, on the evening of October 31st, he made the last
-address of his life.
-
-The striking evidences of his hold upon the popular confidence, which
-manifested themselves during the summer and fall of 1879, led to the
-frequent mention of Mr. Chandler as a possible presidential candidate
-in 1880. His friends in his own State were eager to formally present
-his name to the National Convention, and the Republican press of
-Michigan united in earnestly advocating such a course. This movement
-also manifested strength in other States, and steadily increased in
-importance up to the hour of his death. Although Mr. Chandler was not
-insensible to this growing sentiment, little or nothing was done by
-him to promote it; he favored the renomination of General Grant, and
-the presidential ambition he rated as the most fatal malady to which
-public men are subject.[42] To one friend, who spoke of the popular
-feeling and his own desire in this matter, Mr. Chandler replied: "You
-may vaccinate me with the presidency and scratch it deep, but it won't
-take." To another he said: "No! no! Men recover from the small-pox,
-cholera and yellow fever, but never from the presidential fever. I
-hope I will never get it." The movement in that direction, which his
-death so abruptly checked, was spontaneous and sincere, and that it was
-growing in strength was undoubted. What limit that growth might have
-reached and with what result can only be conjectured.
-
-[Illustration: THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO.
-
-[Where Mr. Chandler died on the night of October 31, 1879.]]
-
-Repeatedly, during the arduous labors of the year, did Mr. Chandler's
-physical powers manifest signs of rebellion against excessive effort.
-In one of his Ohio speeches his voice suddenly failed, compelling
-him to cease speaking. He suffered several times from what seemed to
-be violent attacks of indigestion, and was on one or two occasions
-dangerously distressed by them. At Janesville he caught a severe cold,
-but when he reached Chicago, on the last day of his life, he seemed to
-be in his usual robust health, and showed but slight signs of fatigue.
-Those who called upon him on that day at the Grand Pacific Hotel noted
-his fine spirits. His address in that city was delivered before the
-Young Men's Auxiliary Republican Club in McCormick Hall, and he never
-spoke with more animation, nor more effectively. The audience applauded
-almost every sentence, and under that stimulus he rose to even more
-than his usual fervor of speech. His ringing sentence, "The mission
-of the Republican party will not end until you and I, Mr. Chairman,
-can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mexico, make
-Black Republican speeches wherever we please, vote the Black Republican
-ticket wherever we gain a residence, and do it with exactly the same
-safety that a rebel can travel throughout the North, stop wherever
-he has a mind to, and run for judge in any city he chooses," was
-followed by cheer after cheer, until the entire audience was standing
-and shouting. After closing his speech, Mr. Chandler returned to the
-Grand Pacific Hotel; a few friends chatted with him in his rooms for
-a short time, and at about midnight Representative Edwin Willits of
-Michigan, who had been one of his hearers, made a short call, and
-congratulated him upon the power of his closing appeal. After that, no
-man saw Mr. Chandler alive. At seven o'clock on the following morning,
-in accordance with orders, one of the employes of the hotel knocked
-at his door. There was no answer, and a look over the transom showed
-a figure lying in an unnatural attitude on the edge of the bed with
-the feet almost touching the floor. In alarm the room was entered with
-a pass-key, and Mr. Chandler was found in a half reclining posture,
-with his coat about his shoulders, unconsciousness having apparently
-seized him while he was attempting to rise and summon help. Medical aid
-was promptly at hand, but life was extinct. "A Power had passed from
-earth." Zachariah Chandler was dead!
-
-[Illustration: BUST PROFILE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
-
-[A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's plaster cast.]]
-
-The news spread at once throughout the great city in which he had so
-suddenly fallen; friends were soon by his bedside, while a large crowd
-gathered about the hotel. A coroner's jury was at once impaneled,
-listened to the testimony of the physicians, and returned a verdict
-that death had resulted from cerebral hemorrhage. Impressions of the
-features were taken by Leonard W. Volk, the eminent sculptor, and the
-lifeless body was then arranged by kind, if strange, hands for the
-funeral casket. Before its removal to Detroit, thousands who cherished
-the memory of the man looked mournfully upon the dead face.
-
-The telegraph bore the intelligence of this sudden death promptly
-throughout the country, and the announcement was answered by unusual
-demonstrations of national grief. Throughout the cities and towns of
-Michigan, at Washington, and in many other places where his name was
-well known, the insignia of mourning were at once displayed. Public
-men sent prompt dispatches of sympathy to his family, upon whom the
-blow had fallen with prostrating force. Especially significant were the
-newspaper tributes to the memory of the bold, resolute, and successful
-leader of men, whose star had not set, but had gone out at the zenith.
-The President of the United States issued this official order:
-
-                            EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 1879.
-
-  The sad intelligence of the death of Zachariah Chandler, late
-  Secretary of the Interior, and during so many years Senator from
-  the State of Michigan, has been communicated to the government
-  and to the country, and, in proper respect to his memory, I
-  hereby order that the several executive departments be closed to
-  public business, and their flags, and those of their dependencies
-  throughout the country, be displayed at half-mast on the day of his
-  funeral.
-
-                                                            R. B. HAYES.
-
-From the Executive Mansion also came this dispatch of personal
-condolence:
-
-                                WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 1, 1879.
-
-  _Mrs. Z. Chandler._
-
-  Mrs. Hayes joins me in the expression of the most heartfelt
-  sympathy with you in your great bereavement.
-
-                                                            R. B. HAYES.
-
-[Illustration: GEN. U. S. GRANT'S TRIBUTE.
-
-[His endorsement on W. A. Gavett's official notification, as a member
-of the Detroit Commandery K. T. to attend Mr. Chandler's funeral.]]
-
-The following proclamation was published by the Governor of Michigan:
-
-                        EXECUTIVE OFFICE, LANSING, Nov. 1, 1879.
-
-  _To the People of Michigan_:
-
-  An eminent citizen has suddenly been taken from us. Zachariah
-  Chandler was found dead in his room at the Grand Pacific Hotel in
-  Chicago early this morning. For nineteen years he has represented
-  this State in the National Senate. He held this exalted position
-  at the most perilous period in the history of the nation, and
-  unfalteringly supported every measure for the maintenance of the
-  Union. A member of the Cabinet under the recent administration
-  of President Grant, he proved himself a public officer of keen
-  sagacity, of incorruptible integrity and of admirable ability. A
-  resident of Michigan during the whole period of his manhood, he has
-  been active in advancing the interests of the State and promoting
-  its growth. By his energy he secured a competence, and by his
-  integrity the confidence of all. A statesman and a leader among
-  men, he combined in an unusual degree qualities which commanded
-  respect and admiration. Taken from us so unexpectedly, we cannot
-  but deeply feel and deplore his loss. I, therefore, as a tribute to
-  his memory and to his public services, hereby direct the several
-  State offices to be closed to public business, the flags to be
-  displayed at half-mast, and the other demonstrations of public
-  grief usual to be made, on the day of his funeral.
-
-                                                    CHARLES M. CROSWELL.
-
-An unofficial tribute, highly prized by Mr. Chandler's friends, was
-that of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who wrote upon the reverse of a funeral
-order issued by the Detroit Commandery of Knights Templar (shown him by
-W. A. Gavett) these lines:
-
-  A nation, as well as the state of Michigan, mourns the loss of one
-  of her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler
-  was beloved by his associates and respected by those who disagreed
-  with his political views. The more closely I became connected with
-  him the more I appreciated his great merits.
-
-                                                             U. S. GRANT.
-
-  GALENA, Ill., Nov. 9, 1879.
-
-On the morning of Sunday, November 2, an escort of the militia and of
-the people of Chicago accompanied the body of the dead Senator from
-the Grand Pacific Hotel to the depot, and delivered it to a committee
-of prominent citizens of Michigan, who had arrived to receive it. The
-burial-case was wrapped in the national flag, and, when it had been
-placed in the car, its lid was opened and the face exposed. The train
-stopped at Niles, Kalamazoo, Marshall, Jackson, and Ann Arbor, and at
-each place crowds came on board to look at the remains. When Detroit
-was reached, thousands of grief-stricken people were at the depot, and
-in solemn procession they joined the military escort in the march to
-the Chandler mansion. There a few loving friends received and looked
-upon the silent and lifeless form. To gratify the earnest desire of the
-many who wished to behold again the strong, earnest face of Zachariah
-Chandler before it was forever covered from mortal sight, the body was
-removed on the morning of November 5 to the City Hall, where it lay
-until one o'clock; a guard of honor kept watch at the head and foot of
-the casket, and on either hand, for five hours, a double file of men
-and women passed in steady march. Thousands of mournful glances were
-given at the placid face of the dead, and many affecting incidents made
-touching this parting tribute of the people. Then, from the City Hall,
-the body was borne to the Fort street residence for the last time. The
-day was cold and blustering; a blinding snow-storm set in. Yet the
-streets were thronged by the sad multitude, while every train brought
-from Michigan and from other States hundreds to increase the sorrowing
-concourse; among them were men of great reputations founded on useful
-and honorable public careers. After impressive funeral services at the
-house, the remains of Michigan's great Senator, escorted by the militia
-of Detroit and of the neighboring cities, by the United States troops,
-by civic societies, by Governors, Senators, Congressmen, Legislators
-of Michigan and of other States, and by hundreds of friends, passed
-slowly through the streets draped in mourning, and lined with dense
-crowds of people who braved the storm to pay this last honor to
-Zachariah Chandler. At the gates of Elmwood Cemetery the militia and
-civic societies halted, presenting arms as the hearse rolled slowly on
-under its trees. Upon a high knoll, fronting on Prospect Avenue, it
-halted; the coffin was drawn slowly out, poised a moment over an open
-grave, lowered to its resting-place, and "I am the resurrection and the
-life" rose up in solemn tones above the sobbings of family and friends.
-Living green branches and flowers fell softly down upon the casket, and
-a new mound grew up beside where Senator Chandler's brother already lay.
-
-Thus was Zachariah Chandler buried. Living, he was honored. Dead, he
-was mourned. Though dead, his labors and his example remain, and they
-form his fittest monument.
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[42] This letter, written to a prominent Republican of the Pacific
-coast, did not reach the gentleman to whom it was addressed until after
-Mr. Chandler's death, and was then given to the public:
-
-                                   REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, }
-                                   DETROIT, Mich., Sept. 23, 1879.     }
-
-MY DEAR SIR: Your favor of 11th inst. is at hand, and contents noted.
-
-The prospects for the success of the Republican party in the national
-election next year look much more favorable now than they did the year
-preceding the election in 1876. Republicans are united, and earnestly
-preparing for success as the only hope of saving the country from the
-shot-gun rule of the Confederate Democracy. The Tammany bolt promises
-to give us New York both this year and next.
-
-Ohio is sure to go Republican, and there is hardly a doubt that every
-Northern State having a general election this fall will score a victory
-in favor of a free ballot and an honest count.
-
-Each Territory is entitled to two delegates in the National Republican
-Convention, under the rules heretofore adopted. I am under the
-impression now that Grant's chances for the nomination are better than
-those of any other person; but unless he is nominated without a contest
-he will be out of the field, and there will be a trial of strength
-between the friends and supporters of a few stalwart radicals.
-
-No unknown man of lukewarm sentiments or obscure antecedents will be
-nominated.
-
-It is very possible that Michigan will present a name in the convention
-as well as Maine, New York, Ohio, and perhaps other States; but I know
-nothing special in regard to the matter, only that, if General Grant is
-a candidate, no one else will be. Very truly, yours,
-
-                                                            Z. CHANDLER.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-
-
-                            THE LAST SPEECH
-
-                                  OF
-
-                          ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
-
-      DELIVERED IN MCCORMICK HALL, IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO, ON THE
-                 NIGHT OF HIS DEATH, OCTOBER 31, 1879.
-
-   [Republished by permission of Ritchie & Williston, Stenographers,
-                   Room 23, Howland Block, Chicago.]
-
-
-MR. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: It has become the custom of late to
-restrict the lines of citizenship. In the Senate of the United States
-and in the halls of Congress you will hear citizenship described as
-confined to States, and it is denied that there is such a thing as
-national citizenship. I to-night address you, my fellow-citizens
-of Chicago, in a broad sense as fellow-citizens of the United
-States of America. [Applause.] A great crime has been committed,
-my fellow-citizens--a crime against this nation, a crime against
-republican institutions throughout the world; a crime against civil
-liberty, and the criminal is yet unpunished--that is to say, he is not
-punished according to his deserts. [Applause.] And I shall to-night
-devote myself chiefly to the history of a crime, and shall endeavor to
-hold up the criminal to your execration. [Renewed applause.]
-
-But, first, it is proper for me to allude to certain matters of
-national importance, which are at this present moment living issues.
-Twelve years ago an idea was started in the neighboring State of Ohio,
-called the "Ohio idea," which spread and bore fruit in different
-States. That idea was to pay something with nothing. [Laughter] From
-this Ohio idea sprang up a brood of other ideas. For example, the
-greenback idea, an unlimited issue of irredeemable currency, and a
-party was inaugurated in different States called the greenback party.
-It took root in Michigan last year, had a vigorous growth, put forth
-limbs, blossomed liberally, bore no fruit, and died. [Laughter and
-cheers.] Therefore, I shall pay no attention to the greenback party. It
-is not a living issue. [Laughter.] But the Ohio idea is still a living
-issue, and even during the last session of Congress a demand was made,
-and persistently made, to repeal the Resumption act that had been in
-existence for years. The resumption of specie payment was virtually
-accomplished when, in 1874-5, that Resumption act became a law, for
-at that time we made that act so strong that there was no power on
-earth that could defeat the resumption of specie payments after it had
-once been inaugurated. [Applause.] We authorized the Secretary of the
-Treasury to use any bonds ever issued by the government, and in any
-amount that was necessary, to carry forward to success specie payments,
-as soon as the time arrived for the resumption. We carefully guarded
-that law. True, we are under an obligation to the man who executed
-the law, but the resumption of specie payments was as much a fixed
-fact when that law was signed as it is to-day, and all the powers on
-earth combined could not break that resumption when it had once been
-inaugurated.
-
-But this Ohio idea, as I said, was to pay off your bonds with
-greenbacks. Well, my fellow-citizens, we have paid off $160,000,000 of
-your bonds in greenbacks within the last sixty or ninety days, and what
-more do you want? Ah! But the Ohio idea was something different from
-that. It was, as I said before, to pay something with nothing, and up
-to the final adjournment of the last regular session of Congress the
-attempt was still made to issue irredeemable paper and force it upon
-the creditors of the nation. Now, if this paper which they propose
-to issue in paying off the bonds of your government was properly and
-truthfully described, it would read thus: "The government of the United
-States for value received"--for it was for value received; no greenback
-was ever issued except for value received; no bond of the government
-was ever issued except for value received--"for value received, the
-government of the United States promises to pay nothing to nobody,
-never." [Applause and laughter.] That was the paper with which it was
-proposed by these men, entertaining then, and now entertaining the
-"Ohio idea," to redeem the bonds of your government.
-
-Now, you have heard, I presume, here in Chicago, the denunciation of
-the holders of your government bonds. The "bloated bondholder" was a
-term of reproach, both on the floor of Congress and in the streets of
-Chicago and all over these United States. But who were the bloated
-bondholders? Why, my friends, every single man who has a dollar in the
-savings bank is a bloated bondholder, for there is not a savings-bank
-in the land, which ought to be entrusted with a dollar, whose funds
-are not invested in the bonds of your government. [Applause.] There
-is not a widow or orphan who has a fund to support the widow in her
-widowhood and the orphan in its orphanage, in a trust company, who
-is not a bloated bondholder; for there is not a trust company in the
-land that ought to be trusted which has not a large proportion of its
-funds in the bonds of your government. Every man who has his life
-insured, or his house insured, or his barn, or his lumber, or who has
-any insurance, is a bloated bondholder; for there is not an insurance
-company, life, fire, marine, or of any other class of insurance, that
-ought to be trusted, which has not its funds invested in bonds of
-your government. You may go to the books of the Treasury to-morrow and
-inquire and you will find ninety-nine men who own $100 and less of the
-bonds of your government, directly or indirectly, where you will find
-one man who owns $10,000 or more. And these men, entertaining the Ohio
-idea, would ruin the ninety-nine poor men for the possible chance of
-injuring the one-hundredth rich man. And yet you may destroy the bonds
-of the rich man and you do him no harm, for he has but a small amount
-of his vast wealth in the bonds of your government, while the poor man,
-owning $100 or under as his little all, is utterly ruined. [Applause.]
-
-You would not find a man, woman, or child in America who would touch
-the kind of paper I have described, if proffered to them. You say you
-would stop the interest on your bonded debt. Very well! The holder of
-your bonds would say: "You do not propose to pay any interest. I hold
-a bond for value received, with a given amount of interest payable on
-a given day. Now I will hold your bonds until you men entertaining
-the Ohio idea are buried in your political graves, and then I will
-appeal to an honest people, to an honest government, to pay an honest
-debt." [Applause] "But," say these men, "pay off your foreign bonds."
-I see men before me who remember the days of General Jackson, and they
-likewise remember that in the time of General Jackson the government
-of France owed to the citizens of the United States $5,000,000, which
-France did not refuse to pay, but neglected to pay. It ran along
-from decade to decade, unpaid. General Jackson sent for the French
-minister and said: "Unless that $5,000,000 due to the citizens of the
-United States is paid, I will declare war against France." [Applause.]
-General Jackson was remonstrated with. It would disturb the commercial
-relations, not only of this country, but the world. Said he, "Unless
-France pays that $5,000,000, by the Eternal, I will declare war against
-France." [Applause.] Every man, woman and child and the King of France
-knew that he would do it, and the $5,000,000 was paid to the United
-States. It is not $5,000,000 that your government owes to the citizens
-of the world, but it is more than fifty times five million, and it is
-scattered in every nation with which we have commercial relations, or
-where money is found to invest in your bonds. You say you will stop
-the interest on those bonds. How long do you think it would be before
-a British fleet would come sailing to your coast, followed by a French
-fleet, and a German fleet, and a Russian, and an Austrian, and a
-Spanish and an Italian fleet, and the British Admiral would step ashore
-and say: "I have $50,000,000 of the bonds of this government belonging
-to the citizens of Great Britain, which I am ordered to collect!" The
-answer is: "Your account is correct, sir. The government of the United
-States owes just $50,000,000 to the citizens of Great Britain, and here
-is your money, sir."
-
-[Mr. Chandler, suiting the action to the word, held out a sheet of
-paper with $50,000,000 written upon it, and the audience burst out into
-loud and long-continued laughter.]
-
-The British Admiral looks at it and says: "What's that?"
-
-"Why, money. Don't you see? Why, it is a first mortgage on all the
-property of all the citizens of all the United States." [Laughter.]
-"Don't you see the stamp of the government?" [Laughter.]
-
-Says the Admiral: "Where is it payable?"
-
-"Nowhere." [Laughter and applause.]
-
-"To whom is it payable?"
-
-"Nobody." [Laughter.]
-
-"When is it made payable?"
-
-"Never." [Renewed laughter and cheers.]
-
-"Why," says the Admiral, "I don't know any such money. My orders are
-to collect this $50,000,000 in the coin of the world, and unless it is
-so paid my orders are to blockade every port of these United States,
-and here are all the navies of the earth to assist me, and to burn down
-every city that my guns will reach."
-
-Honesty is the best policy with nations as well as with individuals.
-[Cheers.] "Well," they say, "perhaps you are right about this bond
-business. It is an open question, and we will abandon that, but the
-national banks--down with the national banks! [Laughter and applause.]
-Abolish national banks and save interest." What do you want to abolish
-the national banks for? That is a living issue to-day--a present
-proposition of the Democratic party that I propose to hold up to your
-abhorrence before I get through to-night. What do you want to "down
-with the national banks" for? I was in the Senate of the United States
-when that national banking law was passed. I was a member of that
-body and voted upon every proposition made in it. I had had a little
-experience in state banks myself. [Laughter and applause.] Michigan had
-a very large state bank circulation at one time [loud applause], and
-we called that "money" in those days wild-cat money [laughter], and
-it was very wild. [Renewed laughter and applause.] Chicago also had
-a little experience in those days as well as Michigan. In those days
-it was necessary for any man liable to receive a five-dollar note to
-carry a counterfeit detector with him for three purposes. First, to
-ascertain whether there ever was such a bank in existence. [Laughter
-and applause.] Second, to ascertain whether the bill was counterfeit,
-and, third, to ascertain whether the bank had failed [laughter]--and as
-a rule it had failed. [Laughter and applause.] Now, we had two objects
-in view in getting up that national banking law. First, we wanted to
-furnish an absolutely safe circulating medium, so that no loss could
-ensue to the bill-holder. Second, we wanted to furnish a market for
-our bonds which had become somewhat of a drug. We might just as well
-have put in state bonds as security for those bank notes. It would have
-been just as legal, just as right, but we didn't know which one or how
-many of those rebel States would repudiate their bonds, and therefore
-we didn't put in any. [Laughter and applause.] We might just as well
-have put in railroad bonds, but we didn't know how many railroads
-would default in their interest. We might just as well have put in real
-estate, but we didn't know whether the neighbors of the banker would
-appraise the real estate at its actual cash-selling value. [Applause
-and laughter.] And therefore we put in the bonds of your government at
-90 cents on the dollar; so that to-day for every single 90 cents of
-national bank notes afloat there is 100 cents--(worth 102½ cents)--of
-the bonds of your government deposited with the Treasurer of the United
-States for the redemption of the 90 cents. [Applause.] And you don't
-know and you don't care whether the bank is located in Oregon, in
-Texas, in South Carolina, Mississippi, New York or Illinois, because
-you know there is 102½ cents to-day of the bonds of your government
-deposited with the Treasurer of the United States for the redemption of
-every 90 cents of national bank notes you hold. You don't know and you
-don't care whether the bank whose note you have in your pocket failed
-yesterday, last week, or last year, or whether it ever failed. And you
-never find that out, for if trouble comes the bonds are sold and your
-bank notes are redeemed the day after, or the week after, or the year
-after your bank has failed, precisely the same as though it had never
-failed. [Applause.]
-
-Now you say, "Call in your bonds; abolish the national bank notes."
-Very well! You pass a law to-morrow repealing the charters of all your
-national banks. Call in the national bank notes! Every national bank in
-America takes the exact amount of the circulation which it has, either
-in silver or gold or greenbacks, to the Treasury, leaves it there
-to redeem its notes, takes the bonds and distributes them among the
-stockholders of that bank, and the day after you have called in every
-national bank note that you have out, you pay the self-same amount of
-interest on your bonds that you paid the day before, not one farthing
-more nor less. You don't gain one cent, but you lose $16,500,000 of
-taxes paid this year and last year and every year upon the stock of
-the national banks to national, state and municipal governments.
-[Applause.] You gain nothing, and you lose $16,500,000. You distress
-the whole community of these United States by compelling your banks
-to call in $850,000,000, now loaned and now being used in commerce,
-manufactures and all the industries of the nation. You distress the
-people by forcing a recall of that amount. No, my friends, in my
-judgment you had better devote yourselves to something you understand,
-and let the national banks alone. [Applause and laughter.]
-
-But they say, "There is one thing that we know we are right on, and
-that is the free coinage of silver." Every man who holds 85 cents worth
-of silver shall go to the Treasury or the mints of the United States
-and take a certificate of deposit for 100 cents, which shall pass as
-money. This was the Warner bill. This the Democratic party as a party
-was committed to, and is committed to, and on the very last day of the
-extra session by a majority vote of one, and only one, in the Senate of
-the United States we substantially laid that bill upon the table, every
-Republican voting aye, and every Democrat, except four or five, voting
-no. [Applause.] Now, to-day, the laboring man can take gold or silver
-or paper, as he chooses, for his day's labor. I am in favor of the
-dual standard. I am in favor of a silver dollar with 100 cents in it.
-I am in favor of an honest dollar anywhere you can find it [cheers],
-and I stand by an honest dollar. To-day the laboring man can take gold
-or silver or paper, and they are all of equal value, because they are
-all interchangeable into each other. The paper dollar costs nothing; a
-silver dollar costs the government 85 cents--a fraction more now; it
-has been a fraction less. But all three are of equal value. Now the
-very moment you commence issuing those certificates of deposit freely
-to every man having bullion you banish gold from your circulating
-medium and make it an article of traffic and nothing else; and you have
-but a single standard, and that is a depreciated standard. Now there is
-paid out in these United States every day for labor alone $4,000,000.
-By compelling the substitution of the silver dollar alone, you swindle
-the laboring man out of $600,000 a day. The laboring man who receives
-a dollar gets but 85 cents. The man who receives $10 a week gets
-$8.50, and no more. The farmer who sells a horse, or the man who sells
-a load of lumber, or a load of wheat, or anything else amounting
-to $100, receives but $85, and no more. You have but one single
-standard, and that the silver standard, which, having banished gold,
-is worth precisely the metal that is in it. Who is benefited by this
-substitution? Why, my friends, not a living mortal is benefited, except
-the bullion-owner and the bullion-speculator. I do not charge these
-men with being bribed to pass that law, because I have no proof of it;
-but I do say that the bullion-owners and the bullion-speculators can
-afford to pay $10,000,000 in bullion for the privilege of swindling the
-laboring men of the country out of 15 per cent. of all their earnings.
-[Applause.] They say, "That may all be true; we don't know how it is;
-we have not been bribed"--and I never knew a man that would own up that
-he was bribed in my life. [Laughter.] I don't say that they are, but I
-do say that they are engaged in a mighty mean business. [Laughter and
-applause.]
-
-But there is another question which is of vital interest to every
-man, woman and child in America, and that is this question of the
-enormous rebel claims against your government. I hold in my hand a
-list of the claims now before the two houses of Congress, and being
-pressed--cotton claims, claims for the destruction of property, for
-quartermaster's stores, for every conceivable thing that war could
-produce. I have a list of claims right here [holding up several sheets
-of paper containing names and amounts] aggregating many hundreds of
-millions. And the only thing to-day--the Senate and the House both
-being under the control of those Southern rebels--the only protection,
-the only barrier between the Treasury of the United States and those
-rebel claims is a presidential veto [cheers], and thank God for the
-veto! [Long-continued applause.] But these claims are not all. There
-are claims innumerable which they dare not yet present. You may go
-through every State in the South, and somewhere, hidden away, you will
-find a claim for every slave that ever was liberated. In the files of
-the Senate and the House you will find demands for untold millions of
-dollars to improve streams that do not exist--where you will have to
-pump the water to get up a stream at all. [Laughter and applause.]
-Demands for untold millions to build the levees of the Mississippi
-river! We have already given the Southern people 32,000,000 of acres of
-land which would be reclaimed by those levees, and now they propose to
-bankrupt your Treasury by telling you, people of the North, to build
-the levees to make the lands which you gave them valuable.
-
-To show you that I am not over-stating this idea of Southern claims, I
-will read you a petition which is now being circulated throughout the
-South:
-
-"We, the people of the United States, most respectfully petition your
-honorable bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section
-of the United States may be paid for all their property destroyed by
-the governments and armies on both sides, during the late war between
-the States, in bonds, bearing 3 per cent. interest per annum, maturing
-within the next one hundred years."
-
-Every soldier who served in the Northern army has been paid. Every
-dollar's worth of property furnished to the Northern army has been paid
-for. Every widow or orphan of a wounded soldier entitled to a pension
-has been pensioned, so that there is no claim from the North; but this
-means that you shall do for the South precisely what you have done for
-your own soldiers.
-
-But I have not yet reached the milk in this cocoa-nut. [Laughter.]
-
-"And we also petition that all soldiers, or their legal
-representatives, of both armies and every section, be paid in bonds
-or public lands for their lost time [laughter], limbs, and lives
-while engaged in the late unfortunate civil conflict." [Laughter and
-applause.]
-
-That all soldiers be paid for their lost time while fighting to
-overthrow your government! That they shall be paid for their lost limbs
-and their lost lives while fighting to overthrow your government!
-
-Ah, my fellow-citizens, they are in sober, serious, downright earnest.
-They have captured both houses of Congress, and the only obstacle to
-the payment of these infamous claims is the presidential veto, and
-there is not a man before me who has not a personal, direct interest in
-seeing to it that the rebels do not capture the balance of Washington.
-[Applause.] These rebel States are solid--solid for repudiating your
-debt, solid for paying these rebel claims; they have repudiated their
-individual debts through the bankrupt law; they have repudiated their
-State debts by scaling, and then refusing to pay the interest on
-what has been scaled; they have repudiated their municipal debts by
-repealing the charters of their cities, towns, and villages. And do
-you think they are more anxious to pay the debt contracted for their
-subjugation than they are to pay their own honest debts? I tell you,
-No. They mean repudiation, and do not mean that your debt shall be of
-any more value than their own. When you trust them you are making a
-mistake, and I do not believe you will ever do it again. [Laughter and
-applause, and voices: "We won't!"]
-
-But we have a matter under consideration to-night of vastly more
-importance than all the financial questions that can be presented to
-you, and that is, Is this or is it not a Nation! We had supposed for
-generations that this was a Nation. Our fathers met in convention
-to frame a constitution, and they found some difficulty in agreeing
-upon the details of that constitution, and for a time it was a
-matter of extreme doubt whether any agreement could be reached.
-Acrimonious debate took place in that convention, but finally a spirit
-of compromise prevailed, and the constitution was adopted by the
-convention and submitted to the people of these United States. Not to
-the States, but to the people of the United States, and the people
-of the United States adopted the constitution that was framed by the
-fathers, and for many long years the whole people of the United States
-believed that we had a Government. The whisky rebellion broke out in
-Pennsylvania, and was put down by the strong arm of the Government,
-and we still believed that we had a Government. We continued in that
-belief until the days of General Jackson, when South Carolina raised
-the flag of rebellion against the Government. Armed men trod the soil
-of South Carolina and threatened that unless the tariff was modified to
-suit their views they would overthrow the Government. This was under
-the leadership of John C. Calhoun, in carrying out his doctrine. Old
-General Jackson took his pipe out of his mouth when he was told that
-Calhoun was in rebellion against the Government, and said: "Let South
-Carolina commit the first act of treason against this Government, and,
-by the Eternal, I will hang John C. Calhoun!" and every man, woman, and
-child in America, including Calhoun, knew that he would do it, and the
-first act of treason was not committed against the Government, for even
-the State of South Carolina, under the leadership of John C. Calhoun,
-had bowed to its power.
-
-We remained under that impression until I first took my seat in
-the Senate on the 4th day of March, 1857. Then, again, treason was
-threatened on the floor of the Senate and on the floor of the House.
-They said then: "Do this or we will destroy your Government. Fail
-to do that, and we will destroy your Government." One of them in
-talking to brave old Ben. Wade one day repeated this threat, and
-the old man straightened himself up and said: "Don't delay it on my
-account." [Laughter.] Careful preparations were made to carry out
-these treasons. Jefferson Davis stepped out of the Cabinet of Franklin
-Pierce, as Secretary of War, into the Senate of the United States, and
-became chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. There was an
-innocent-looking clause in the general appropriation bill which read
-that the Secretary of War might sell such arms as he deemed it for
-the interest of the government to dispose of. Under that apparently
-innocent clause, your arsenals were opened; your arms and implements
-of war went together with your ammunition; your accoutrements followed
-your arms; your navy was scattered wherever the winds blew and
-sufficient water was found to float your ships, where they could not
-be used to defend your government. The credit of the government, whose
-6 per cent. bonds in 1857 sold for 122 cents on the dollar, was so
-utterly prostrated and debased that in February, 1861--four years
-afterward--bonds payable, principal and interest in gold, bearing 6
-per cent., were sold for 88 cents on the dollar, with no buyers for
-the whole amount. Careful preparations were made for the overthrow
-of your government, and when Abraham Lincoln [cheers] took the oath
-of office as President of the United States [cheers], you had no
-army, no navy, no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, nothing
-to protect the national life. Yet with all these discouragements
-staring us in the face, the Republican party undertook to save your
-government. [Applause.] We raised your credit, created navies, raised
-armies, fought battles, carried on the war to a successful issue, and,
-finally, when the rebellion surrendered at Appomattox, they surrendered
-to a Government. [Applause.] They admitted that they had submitted
-their heresy to the arbitrament of arms and had been defeated, and
-they surrendered to the government of the United States of America.
-[Applause.] They made no claims against this government, for they had
-none. In the very ordinance of secession which they had signed they
-had pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the
-overthrow of this government, and when they failed to do it, they lost
-all they had pledged. [Cries of "Good."] They made no claims against
-the government because they had none. They asked, and asked as a boon
-from the government of the United States, that their miserable lives
-might be spared to them. [Applause.] We gave them their lives. They had
-forfeited all their property--we gave it back to them. We found them
-naked and we clothed them. They were without the rights of citizenship,
-having forfeited those rights, and we restored them. We took them to
-our bosoms as brethren, believing that they had repented of their sins.
-We killed for them the fatted calf, and invited them to the feast, and
-they gravely informed us that they had always owned that animal, and
-were not thankful for the invitation. [Great laughter and cheers.] By
-the laws of war, and by the laws of nations, they were bound to pay
-every dollar of the expense incurred in putting down that rebellion.
-Germany compelled France to pay $1,000,000,000 in gold coin for a brief
-campaign. The seceding States were bound by the laws of war and by the
-laws of nations to pay every dollar of the debt contracted for their
-subjugation, but we forgave them that debt, and, to-day, you are being
-taxed heavily to pay the interest on the debt that they ought to have
-paid. [Applause.] Such magnanimity as was exhibited by this nation to
-these rebels has never been witnessed on earth [applause], and, in my
-humble judgment, will never be witnessed again. [Cheers.] Mistakes we
-undoubtedly made, errors we committed, and I will take my full share of
-responsibility for the errors, for I was there, and voted upon every
-proposition; but, in my humble judgment, the greatest mistake we made,
-and the gravest error we committed was in not hanging enough of these
-rebels to make treason forever odious. [Prolonged cheers.] Somebody
-committed a crime. Either those men who rose in rebellion committed
-the greatest crime known to human law, or our own brave soldiers, who
-went out to fight to save this government, were murderers. Is there a
-man on the face of the earth who dares to get up and say that our brave
-soldiers, who bared their breasts to the bullets of the rebels, were
-anything but patriots? [Cheers.]
-
-And now, after twenty years--after an absence of four years from the
-Senate--I go back and take my seat, and what do I find? The self same
-pretensions are rung in my ears from day to-day. I might close my eyes
-and leave my ears open to the discussions that are going on daily
-in Congress, and believe that I had taken a Rip Van Winkle sleep of
-twenty years. [Applause.] Twenty years ago they said, "Do this or we
-will shoot your government to death! Fail to do that or we will shoot
-your government to death!" To-day I go back and find these paroled
-rebels, who have never been relieved from their parole of honor to
-obey the laws, saying: "Do this! obey our will, or we will starve your
-government to death! Fail to obey our will, and we will starve your
-government to death!" Now, if I am to die, I would rather be shot dead
-with musketry than be starved to death. [Laughter and applause.]
-
-These rebels--for they are just as rebellious now as they were twenty
-years ago--there is not a particle of difference--these rebels to-day
-have thirty-six members on the floor of the House of Representatives,
-without one single constituent, and in violation of law those
-thirty-six members represent 4,000,000 people, lately slaves, who are
-as absolutely disfranchised as if they lived in another sphere, through
-shot-guns, and whips, and tissue ballots; for the law expressly says,
-wherever a race or class is disfranchised they shall not be represented
-upon the floor of the House. [Applause.] And these thirty-six members
-thus elected constitute three times the whole of their majority upon
-the floor of the House. Now, my fellow-citizens, this is not only
-a violation of law, but it is an outrage upon all the loyal men of
-these United States. [Applause.] It ought not to be. It must not be.
-[Applause.] And it shall not be. [Tremendous cheers.]
-
-Twelve members of the Senate--and that is more than their whole
-majority--twelve members of the Senate occupy their seats upon that
-floor by fraud and violence, and I am saying no more to you in Chicago
-than I said to those rebel generals to their faces on the floor of the
-Senate of the United States. [Enthusiastic applause.] Twelve members
-of that Senate were thus elected, and with majorities thus obtained
-by fraud and violence in both houses, they dare to dictate terms to
-the loyal men of these United States. [Applause.] With majorities thus
-obtained they dare to arraign the loyal men of this country, and say
-they want honest elections. [Laughter and applause.] They are mortally
-afraid of bayonets at the polls. We offered them a law forbidding any
-man to come within two miles of a polling place with arms of any
-description, and they promptly voted it down [laughter and applause],
-for they wanted their Ku-Klux there. They were afraid, not of Ku-Klux
-at the polls, but of soldiers at the polls. Now, in all the States
-north of Mason and Dixon's line and east of the Rocky Mountains there
-is less than one soldier to a county. [Laughter.] There is about
-two-thirds of a soldier to a county. [Laughter and applause.] And, of
-course, about two-thirds of a musket to a county. [Laughter.] Now,
-would not this great county of Cook tremble if you saw two-thirds of a
-soldier parading himself up and down in front of the city of Chicago.
-[Loud and long-continued applause and laughter.] But they are afraid to
-have inspectors. What are they afraid to have inspectors for? The law
-creating those inspectors is imperative that one must be a Democrat and
-the other a Republican. They have no power whatever except to certify
-that the election is honest and fair. And yet they are afraid of those
-inspectors, and then they are afraid of marshals at the polls. Now,
-while the inspectors cannot arrest, the marshals under the order of
-the court can arrest criminals; therefore, they said: "We will have
-no marshals." What they want is not free elections, but free frauds
-at elections. They have got a solid South by fraud and violence. Give
-them permission to perpetrate the same kind of fraud and violence in
-New York city and in Cincinnati and those two cities with a solid South
-will give them the presidency of the United States; and once obtained
-by fraud and violence, by fraud and violence they would hold it for
-a generation. To-day eight millions of people in those rebel States
-as absolutely control all the legislation of this government as they
-controlled their slaves while slavery was in existence. Through caucus
-dictation now I find precisely what I found twenty years ago when I
-first took my seat in Congress. In a Democratic Congress, composed of
-twenty-eight Southern Democrats and sixteen Northern Democrats, they
-decreed that Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois should be degraded and
-disgraced from the Committee on Territories, and there were but just
-two Northern Democratic senators who dared even to enter a protest
-against the outrage. To-day there are thirty-two Southern Democratic
-senators to twelve Northern, and out of the whole twelve there is not
-a man who dares protest against anything. [Applause.] I say, that
-through this caucus dictation, these eight millions of Southern rebels
-as absolutely control the legislation of this nation as they controlled
-their slaves when slavery existed.
-
-Now, if every man within the sound of my voice should stand up in this
-audience and hold up his right hand and swear that a rebel soldier was
-better than a Union soldier, I would not believe it. [Laughter and
-applause.] I would hold up both of my hands and swear that I did not
-believe it. [Cheers.] And yet, to-day, in South Carolina, in Alabama,
-in Louisiana, in Mississippi and in several other States the vote of a
-rebel soldier counts more than two of the votes of the brave soldiers
-of Illinois; for they vote for the negro as well as for themselves, and
-their vote weighs just double the weight of that of the brave soldier
-in Illinois. It is an outrage upon freedom, an outrage upon the gallant
-soldiers of Illinois and Michigan. [Applause.]
-
-Now, my fellow-citizens, I have undertaken to show you the condition
-in which the country was placed when the Republican party assumed the
-reins of power. When the Republican party took the reins of power, the
-country had no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, no navy, no
-material of war. When the Republican party took the reins of power in
-its hands, there was no nation poor enough to do you reverence. You
-were the derision of the nations of the earth. You had but one ally
-and friend on earth, and that was little Switzerland. [Applause.]
-Russia sent her fleet to winter here for her own protection, but there
-was not a nation on God's earth, that did not hope and pray that your
-republican government might be overthrown, and there was no nation on
-earth poor enough to do you reverence. We fought that battle through;
-we raised the nation's dignity, and the nation's honor, the national
-power and the national strength, until now, to-day, after eighteen
-years of Republican rule, there is no nation on earth strong enough
-not to do you reverence. [Loud and continued applause.] We took your
-national credit when it was so low that your bonds were selling at 88
-cents on the dollar, bearing six per cent. interest and no takers,
-and we elevated your credit up, up, up, up, up until to-day your
-four per cent. bonds are selling at a premium in every market of the
-earth. [Applause.] So your credit stands higher than the credit of any
-other nation. [Applause.] We saved the national life and we saved the
-national honor, and yet, notwithstanding all this, there are those
-who say that the mission of the Republican party is ended and that it
-ought to die. If there ever was a political organization that existed
-on the face of this globe, which, so far as a future state of rewards
-and punishments is concerned, is prepared to die, it is that old
-Republican party. [Cheers.] But we are not going to do it. [Laughter
-and applause.] We have made other arrangements. [Renewed laughter and
-cheers.]
-
-The Republican party is the only party that ever existed, so far as
-I have been able to ascertain--so far as any record can be found,
-either in sacred or profane history--it is the only party that ever
-existed on earth which had not one single, solitary, unfulfilled
-pledge left [cheers]--not one [renewed cheers]; and I defy the worst
-enemy the Republican party ever had to name one single pledge it gave
-to the people who created it which is not to-day a fulfilled and an
-established fact. [Cheers.] The Republican party was created with one
-idea, and that was to preserve our vast territories from the blighting
-curse of slavery. We gave that pledge at our birth, that we would save
-those territories from the withering grasp of slavery, and we saved
-them. [Voices. "Yes, we did."] It is our own work. We did it. [Cheers.]
-But we did more than that; we not only saved your vast territories
-from the blighting curse of slavery, but we wiped the accursed thing
-from the continent of North America. [Tremendous cheering.] We pledged
-ourselves to save your national life, and we saved your national
-life. We pledged ourselves to save your national honor, and we saved
-your national honor. [Applause.] We pledged ourselves to give you a
-homestead law, and we gave you a homestead law. [Applause.] We pledged
-ourselves to improve your rivers and your harbors, and we improved your
-rivers and your harbors. [Applause.] We pledged ourselves to build
-a Pacific railroad, and we built a Pacific railroad. [Applause.] We
-pledged ourselves to give you a college land bill, and we gave it to
-you; and, not to weary you, the last pledge ever given and the last to
-be fulfilled was that the very moment we were able we would redeem the
-obligations of this great government in the coin of the realm, and on
-the first day of January, 1879, we fulfilled the last pledge ever given
-by the Republican party. [Cheers and long-continued applause.]
-
-Notwithstanding all this, you say: "Your mission is ended and you
-ought to die." [Laughter and applause.] Well, my fellow-citizens, if
-we should die to-day, or to-morrow, our children's children to the
-twentieth generation would boast that their ancestors belonged to that
-glorious old Republican party [applause] that wiped that accursed
-thing, slavery, from the escutcheon of this great government. [Cheers.]
-And they would have a right to boast throughout all generations.
-
-Senator Ben. Hill of Georgia said, in my presence, that he was an
-"ambassador" from the sovereign State of Georgia [laughter] to the
-Senate of the United States. Suppose Ben. Hill should be caught in
-Africa or India, or some of those Eastern nations, and should get
-into a little difficulty, do you think he would raise the great flag
-of Georgia over his head [laughter] and say: "That will protect me."
-[Renewed laughter and applause.] My fellow-citizens, you may take the
-biggest ship that sails the ocean, put on board of her the flags of all
-the States that were lately in the rebellion against this government,
-raise to her peak the stars and bars of the rebellion, start her with
-all her bunting floating to the breeze, sail her around the world, and
-you would not get a salute of one popgun from any fort on earth. [Loud
-and continued laughter and applause.] Take the smallest ship that sails
-the ocean, mark her "U. S. A."--United States of America--raise to her
-peak the Stars and Stripes, and sail her around the world, and there
-is not a fort or a ship-of-war of any nation on God's footstool that
-would not receive her with a national salute. [Cheers.] And yet the
-Republican party has done all this. We took your government when it was
-despised among the nations, and we have raised it to this high point of
-honor; and yet you tell us we ought to die. [Laughter and applause.]
-
-Suppose there was a manufacturing concern here that failed about the
-year 1837, and the citizens of Chicago thought it very important that
-it be reorganized and resume business. You would buy the property for
-fifty cents on the dollar and reorganize it under your general laws,
-elect officers, and look about for a competent man to manage it.
-Finally you find what you believe to be the very man for that business
-and put him in possession. He finds that the machinery is not up to
-the progress of the age, and goes and buys new. He brings order out of
-confusion, he manages the business so that the stock of the concern
-rises to par; dividends are paid semi-annually and they grow larger
-and larger. The stock rises to two hundred, and none for sale. After
-eighteen years of successful management the manager comes in with his
-account-current and his check for the half-yearly dividend, and lays it
-before the president and the directors. The president has had a little
-conversation with his directors, and says:
-
-"This statement is very satisfactory, but we have concluded that after
-the first day of July next we shall not require your services any
-longer."
-
-"Why," says the manager, "what have I done?"
-
-"Nothing that is not praiseworthy. We will give you a certificate
-that we think you have managed this establishment with great ability
-and great success. We will certify that we think you have no equal in
-the city of Chicago or State of Illinois. Everything you have done
-is praiseworthy, and we give you full credit for it; but eighteen
-years ago one of our employes was caught stealing and sent to the
-penitentiary. He has now served his time out, and we propose to put him
-in your place." [Prolonged laughter and cheers.] Wouldn't you say that
-the president and all of the directors should be put into a lunatic
-asylum on suspicion at once? [Applause and laughter.]
-
-Now, I tell you, Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Republican party is
-not ended. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, Mr. Chairman, that it has
-just begun. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, that it will never end
-until you and I can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of
-Mexico, make black Republican speeches wherever we please [applause],
-vote the black Republican ticket wherever we gain a residence [cheers],
-and do it with exactly the same safety that a rebel can travel
-throughout the North, stop wherever he has a mind to, and run for judge
-in any city he chooses.
-
-[This hit at the Democratic candidate for judge of the Cook County
-Superior Court, who was a rebel soldier during the war, set the
-audience wild, and they cheered and swung their hats and handkerchiefs
-frantically.]
-
-I hope after you have elected him judge he won't bring you in a bill
-for loss of time. [Laughter.]
-
-You are going to hold an election next Tuesday which is of importance
-far beyond the borders of Chicago. The eyes of the whole nation
-are upon you. By your verdict next Tuesday you are to send forth
-greeting to the people of the United States, saying, that either
-you are in favor of honest men, honest money, patriotism, and a
-National Government [cheers], or that you are in favor of soft money,
-repudiation, and rebel rule. [Cheers.] It is a good symptom, Mr.
-Chairman, to see 600 young men like you in line, prepared to carry the
-flag of the Republican party forward to victory. [Cheers.] It is a good
-symptom to see 600 young men like my friend, the chairman here, in the
-front ranks, ready to fight the battles of their country now, and vote
-as they shot during the war. [Cheers.]
-
-Now, I want every single man in this vast audience to consider himself
-a committee of one to work from now until the polls close on Tuesday
-next. [Cheers.] Find a man who might stay away, who has gone away
-and might not return; secure one man besides yourself to go to the
-polls and vote the Republican ticket; and if you cannot find such a
-man, try to convert a sinner from the error of his way. [Applause.]
-You have got too much at stake to risk it at this election. The times
-are too good. Iron brings too much. Lumber is too high. Your business
-is too prosperous. Your manufactories are making too much money for
-you to afford to turn this great government over to the hands of
-repudiating rebels. You cannot do it. Shut up your stores. Shut up your
-manufactories. Go to work for your country, and spend two days, and on
-the night of election, Mr. Chairman, send me a dispatch, if you please,
-that Chicago has gone overwhelmingly Republican. [Loud cheers.]
-
-
-
-
-THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN.
-
-A MEMORIAL ADDRESS,
-
-DELIVERED IN THE FORT STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DETROIT, MICH.,
-THURSDAY MORNING, NOV. 27, 1879,
-
-BY
-
-THE REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.
-
-
-"There were giants in the earth in those days," is the simple record of
-the age before the flood.
-
-There has been no age without its giants; not, perhaps, in the narrow
-sense of great physical stature, but in the broader sense of mental
-might, capacity to command and control. Such men are but few, in
-the most favored times, and it takes but few to give shape to human
-history and destiny. Their words shake the world; their deeds move and
-mold humanity; and, as Carlyle has suggested, history is but their
-lengthened shadows, the indefinite prolonging of their influence even
-after they are dead.
-
-One of these giants has recently fallen, at the commanding signal
-of One who is far greater than any of the sons of men, and at whose
-touch kings drop their sceptre, and, like the meanest of their slaves,
-crumble to dust.
-
-This giant fell among us. We had seen him as he grew to his great
-stature and rose to his throne of power. He moved in our streets; he
-spoke in our halls; in our city of the living was his earthly home,
-and in our city of the dead is his place of rest. He went from us
-to the nation's capital, to represent our State in the Senate of
-the republic; he belonged to Michigan, and Michigan gave him to the
-Union; but he never forgot the home of his manhood. Here his dearest
-interests clustered, and his deepest affections gathered; and here his
-most loving memorial will be reared. As he belonged peculiarly to this
-congregation, surely it is our privilege to weave the first wreath to
-garland his memory.
-
-The annual Day of Thanksgiving is peculiarly a national day, since
-it is the only one in the year when the whole nation is called upon
-by its chief magistrate to give thanks as a united people. By common
-consent, it is admitted proper that, on that day, special mention be
-made of matters that affect our civil and political well-being. There
-is therefore an eminent fitness in a formal commemoration upon this day
-of the life and labors of our departed Senator and statesman.
-
-With diffidence I attempt the task that falls to me. The time is too
-short to admit even a brief sketch of a life so long in deeds, so
-eventful in all that makes material for biography; a life full, not
-only of incidents, but of crises; moreover, I am neither a senator nor
-a statesman, and feel incompetent to review a career which only the
-keen eye of one versed in affairs of state can apprehend or appreciate
-in its full significance; but, if you will indulge me, I will,
-without conscious partiality or partisanship, calmly give utterance
-to the unspoken verdict of the common people as to our departed
-fellow-citizen; and try to hint at least a few of the lessons of a life
-that suggests some of the secrets of success.
-
-History is the most profitable of all studies, and biography is the key
-of history. In the lives of men, philosophy teaches us by examples. In
-the analysis of character, we detect the essential elements of success
-and discern the causes of failure. Virtue and vice impress us most in
-concrete forms; and hence even the best of all books enshrines as its
-priceless jewel the story of the only perfect life.
-
-To draw even the profile of Mr. Chandler's public career the proper
-limits of this address do not allow. There is material, in the twenty
-years of his senatorial life, which could be spread through volumes.
-His advocacy of the great Northwest, whose champion he was; his
-master-influence, first as a member, and then as the chairman of the
-Committee of Commerce; his bold, keen dissection of the Harper's Ferry
-panic; his sagacious organization of the presidential contests; his
-plain declarations of loyalty to the Union as something which must be
-maintained at cost both of treasure and of blood; his large practical
-faculty for administration, made so conspicuous during stormy times;
-his efficiency as a member of the standing Committee on the Conduct of
-the War; his exposure of those who were responsible for its failures,
-and his defense of those who promoted its successes, his marked
-influence in changing not only the channel of public sentiment, but
-the current of events; his watchful guardianship of popular interests,
-political and financial; his intelligence and activity in senatorial
-debates; his attentive and persistent study of the problem of
-reconstruction; and his fearless resistance to all Southern aggression
-and intimidation, are among the salient points of that long and
-eventful public service, whose scope is too wide to allow at this hour
-even a hasty survey.
-
-But, happily, it is quite needless that in such a presence I should
-trace in detail the events of his life; to us he was no stranger; and
-the mark he has made upon our memory and our history is too deep not
-to last. His footprints are not left upon treacherous and shifting
-quicksands; and no wave of oblivion is likely soon to wash them away.
-
-Zachariah Chandler had nearly completed his sixty-sixth year; forty-six
-years he had been a resident of the City of the Straits. New Hampshire
-was the State of his nativity: Michigan was, in an emphatic sense,
-the State of his adoption. In our city his first success was won in
-mercantile pursuits, where also was the first field for the exhibition
-of his energy, ability and integrity. Here, as this century passed
-its meridian hour, he passed the great turning-point in his career;
-and his large capacities and energies were diverted into a political
-channel. First, Mayor of the city, then nominated for Governor; when,
-more than twenty years ago, a successor was sought for Lewis Cass in
-the Senate, this already marked man became the first representative of
-the Republican party of this State in that august body at Washington.
-There, for a period of eighteen years, he sat among the mightiest men
-of the nation, steadily moving toward the acknowledged leadership of
-his party, and the inevitable command of public affairs. After three
-terms in the Senate, his seat was occupied for a short time by another;
-but, upon the resignation of Mr. Christiancy, he was, with no little
-enthusiasm, re-elected, and was in the midst of a fourth term, when
-suddenly he was no more numbered among the living. It may be doubled
-whether, at this time, any one man, from Maine to Mexico, swayed the
-popular mind and will with a more potent sceptre than did he; and many
-confidently believe and affirm that, had death spared him, he would
-have been lifted by the omnipotent voice and vote of the people to the
-Presidency of the Republic.
-
-Mr. Chandler took his seat in the Senate in those days of strife when
-the storm was gathering, which, on the memorable 12th of April, 1861,
-burst upon our heads, in the first gun fired at Fort Sumter. He entered
-the Senate chamber, to take the oath of office, in company with some
-whose names are now either famous or infamous for all time. On the one
-hand, there was Jefferson Davis; on the other Hannibal Hamlin, Charles
-Sumner, Benjamin F. Wade and Simon Cameron.
-
-Those were days when history is made fast. Every day throbbed with
-big issues. Kansas was a battle-ground of freedom; and the awful
-struggle between State Sovereignty and National Unity was gathering,
-like a volcano, for its terrible outbreak. The Republican Senator from
-Michigan took in, at a glance, the situation of affairs. Devoted as
-he was to the State, whose able advocate and zealous friend he was;
-earnest and persistent as he was, in promoting the commercial and
-industrial interests of the lake region; he was yet too much a patriot
-to forget the whole country; and as the great conflict, which Mr.
-Seward named "irrepressible," moved steadily on toward its crisis, he
-armed himself for the encounter and planted his feet upon the rock of
-unalterable allegiance to the Union; and from that position he never
-swerved.
-
-Mr. Chandler was a zealous party-man; in the eyes of some he was a
-partisan, in the strenuous advocacy of some measures; but I believe
-that when history frames her ultimate, impartial verdict, she will
-accord to him a candid, conscientious adherence to what he believed
-to be a fundamental principle, absolutely essential to our national
-life. He saw the South breathing hot hate toward the North, planning
-and threatening to rend the Union asunder. To him it was not a question
-simply of liberty and slavery, of sectional prejudice, of political
-animosity; but a matter of life or of death. He saw the scimitar of
-secession raised in the gigantic hand of war--but what was it that it
-was proposed to cleave in twain at one blow? A living, vital form!
-the body of a nation, with its one grand framework, its common brain
-and heart, its network of arteries and veins and nerves. It was not
-dissection as of a corpse--it was vivisection as of a corpus--that
-sharp blade, if it fell, would cut through a living form, and leave
-two quivering, bleeding parts, instead. Divide the nation? Why, the
-same mountain ranges run down our eastern and western shores; the same
-great rivers, which are the arteries of our commerce, flow through both
-sections. Our republic is a unit by the decree of nature, that marked
-our nation's area and arena by the lines of territorial unity, a unit
-by the decree of history that records one series of common experiences;
-and, aside from the decree of nature and of history, it is one by the
-decree of necessity, for we could not survive the separation. Those
-were the decisive days, and they showed whose heart was yearning toward
-the child; and God said, as he saw a unanimous North pleading with Him
-to arrest the falling sword and spare the living body of a nation's
-life--"Give her the child, for she is the mother thereof!"
-
-Mr. Chandler has been charged with violent and even vindictive feeling
-toward what he deemed disloyalty and treason.
-
-You have heard the story of the Russians, chased by a hungry pack of
-wolves, driving at the height of speed over the crisp snow, finding
-the beasts of prey gaining fast upon them, and throwing out one living
-child after another to appease the maw of wolfish hunger, while the
-rest of the family hurried on toward safety.
-
-There are sagacious statesmen that have declared, for a quarter of
-a century, that State Rights represents the pack of wolves and the
-Sovereignty of the Union the imperilled household. For scores of years,
-the encroachments of the South became more and more imperious and
-alarming.
-
-Concession after concession was made, offering after offering flung to
-the sacrifice, but only to be followed by a hungrier clamor and demand
-for more; and, at last, even men of peace said, "We must stop right
-here and fight these wolves;" and, when it becomes a question of life
-and death, men become desperate.
-
-I have never supposed myself to be a strong partisan. As a man, a
-citizen, and a Christian, I have sought to find the true political
-faith, and, finding it, to hold it, firmly and fearlessly. The question
-of the unity of our nation and the sovereignty of the national
-government has ever seemed to me to be of supreme moment, transcending
-all mere political or party issues; and, as a patriot, I cannot be
-indifferent to it.
-
-When the long struggle between State Rights and National Sovereignty
-grew hot and broke out into civil war, it was a matter of tremendous
-consequence that the Union be preserved. History stood pointing, with
-solemn finger, to the fate of the republics of Greece and Switzerland,
-reminding us that confederation alone will not suffice to keep a nation
-alive. Mexico, at our borders, was a warning against dismemberment
-or the loss of the supremacy of a republican unity. And men of all
-parties forgot party issues in patriotic devotion. It may be a question
-whether State Sovereignty, however fatal to national life, deserved
-the hideous name of treason, before the war. But, after the matter had
-been referred to the arbitrament of the sword, and had been settled at
-such cost of blood and treasure, it can never henceforth be anything
-but treason, again to raise that issue. Hence, even men that were
-temperate in their opposition to Southern aggressions before the war,
-now are impatient. They set their teeth with the resolution of despair,
-and say, "We make no further effort to escape this issue, and we throw
-out no more offerings of concession. We shall fight these wolves; and
-either State Rights or National Sovereignty shall die."
-
-This was Mr. Chandler's position; if it was a mistaken one, it is the
-unspoken verdict of millions of the best men of all parties in the
-whole country; and every new concession to this great national heresy
-is only making new converts to the necessity of a firm and fearless
-resistance.
-
-Some one has suggested that the old division of the church into
-militant and triumphant is no longer sufficient; we must add another,
-namely, the church termagant. In our country both sections were
-militant, and one was triumphant; the other has been very termagant
-ever since. General Grant, at his reception in Chicago, declared that
-the war for the Union had put the republic on a new footing abroad. A
-quarter of a century ago, by political leaders across the sea, "it was
-believed we had no nation. It was merely a confederation of States,
-tied together by a rope of sand, and would give way upon the slightest
-friction. They have found it was a grand mistake. They know we have
-now a nation, that we are a nation of strong and intelligent and brave
-people, capable of judging and knowing our rights, and determined on
-all occasions to maintain them against either domestic or foreign foes;
-and that is the reception you, as a nation, have received through me
-while I was abroad."
-
-On the same day we have a significant voice from the South, General
-Toombs, in response to a suggestion that Governors of various States
-and prominent Southern men should unite in congratulations to the
-ex-President on his return, telegraphs in these words: "I decline to
-answer except to say, I present my personal congratulations to General
-Grant on his safe return to his country. He fought for his country
-honorably and won. I fought for mine and lost. I am ready to try it
-over! Death to the Union!"
-
-Here we have simply two representative utterances; one is the voice
-of a solid North; the other is, we fear, the voice of a South that
-is much more "solid" than we could wish. It is no marvel if, after a
-war of so many years, that cost so many lives and so much money, and
-left us to drag through ten years of a financial slough, loyal men are
-impatient and even angry, when they discover that the question is still
-an unsettled one, and that we have not even conquered a peace! Even
-the interpretation now attached to this seditious utterance by General
-Toombs himself, that "the result of war was death to the Union, and
-that the present government is a consolidated one, not a confederacy,"
-does not essentially relieve the matter.
-
-Mr. Chandler could not brook what he regarded as sentiments rendered
-doubly treasonable by the fact that a long, bitter but successful war
-had burned upon them with a hot iron the brand of treason. He fought
-those sentiments, and it was as under a black flag that announced "no
-quarter." But this does not prove malicious or vindictive feeling
-toward misguided men who hold such views. There is a difference between
-fighting a principle and fighting a person. In fact the only way to
-prevent fighting men is often a vigorous and timely opposition to
-their measures. And if we wish to avoid another war, and that a war of
-extermination, the ballot must obviate the necessity for the bullet: we
-must stand together, and by our voice and vote, by tongue and pen, by
-our laws and our acts, in the use of every keen weapon, exterminate the
-heresy of State Rights. We need not do this in hate toward the South:
-a true love even for the South demands it, for to them as to us it is
-a deadly foe to all true prosperity and national existence. How can a
-man who candidly looks upon the present attitude of the South as both
-suicidal and nationally destructive be calm and cool? The philippics of
-Demosthenes were bitter, but they were the mighty beatings of a heart
-that pulsed with the patriotism that could not see liberty throttled
-without sounding a loud and indignant alarm. The North owes a big debt
-to every man who at this crisis will not suffer an imperilled republic
-to sleep.
-
-Mr. Chandler was not a college graduate. His early training was got in
-the New England common school and academy. Yet he was in a true sense
-an educated man: for education is "not a dead mass of accumulations,"
-but self-development, "power to work with the brain," to use the hand
-in cunning and curious industries, to use the tongue in attractive and
-effective speech, to use the pen in wise, witty or weighty paragraphs.
-Somehow he had learned to hold, with a master hand, the reins of his
-own mind, and make his imagination and reason and memory and powers of
-speech obey his behests. That is no common acquirement: it is something
-beyond all mere acquirement; it is the infallible sign and seal of
-culture. His addresses, even on critical occasions, were unwritten,
-and, in some cases, could not have been elaborated, even in the mind;
-yet in vigor of thought, logical continuity and consistency, accuracy
-of diction, and even rhetorical grace, few public speakers equal them.
-
-The power to command the popular ear is a rare power, whether it be a
-gift of nature or a grace of culture. With Mr. Chandler it was held
-and wielded as a native sceptre. He had the secret of rhetorical
-adaptation; he could at once go down to the level of the people and
-yet lift them to his level. They understood what he said and knew what
-he meant. He threw himself into their modes of thought and habits of
-speech; he culled his illustrations mainly from common life. If he
-sacrificed anything, it was rhetorical elegance, never force; his one
-aim was to compel conviction.
-
-The simplicity of his diction was a prime element and secret of his
-power. He did not speak as one who had to say something, but as one
-who had something to say, and whose whole aim was to say it well; with
-clearness, plainness, force and effect. If he could not have both
-weight and lustre, he would have weight.
-
-Walter Scott has exposed the absurdity of "writing down" to children,
-and shown that it is really writing up, to make oneself so simple as
-to be plain even to the child-mind. Simplicity is the highest art. To
-have thought faintly gloom and glimmer through obscure language, like
-stars through a haze or mist, may serve to impress the ignorant with a
-supposed profundity in the speaker; but it is no more a sign of such
-profundity than muddy water signifies depth in a stream; it may suggest
-depth because you can see no bottom, but it means shallowness! It is
-a lesson that all of us may learn through the life of our departed
-Senator, that the first element of good speaking is thought; and the
-second a form of words fitting the thought, which, like true dress,
-shall not call attention to itself but to the idea or conception which
-it clothes. Any man who is long to hold the ear of the people must
-give them facts and thoughts worth knowing and thinking of, in words
-which it will not take a walking dictionary or living encyclopædia
-to interpret, or a philosopher to untangle from the skein of their
-confusion.
-
-Mr. Chandler was such a man, a man for the people. Free from all
-stately airs and stilted dignities, he took hold of every political
-and national question with ungloved hands. He understood and used the
-language of home life, which is the "universal dialect" of power. His
-speeches were packed with vigorous Saxon. He thought more of the short
-sword, with its sharp edge and keen point and close thrust, than of
-the scholar's labored latinity, with its longer blade, even though it
-might also have a diamond-decked hilt; and in this, as in not a few
-other conspicuous traits, he was master of the best secrets that gave
-the great Irish agitator, O'Connell, his strange power of moving the
-multitude. His last speech, even when read, and without the magnetism
-of his personal presence, may well stand as the last of his utterances.
-
-The simplicity of Mr. Chandler's style of oratory amounted to
-ruggedness, in the sense in which we apply that word to the naked
-naturalness of a landscape, whose features have not been too much
-modified by art. There is in oratory an excessive polish, which
-suggests coldness and deadness. Some speakers sharpen the blade until
-there is no blade left, the mistaken carefulness of their culture
-brings everything to one dead level of faultlessness; there is nothing
-to offend, and nothing to rouse and move. Demosthenes said that
-kinésis--not "action," but motion, or rather that which moves--is the
-first, second, third requisite of true oratory. He is no true speaker
-who simply pleases you: he must stir you to new thought, new choice,
-new action.
-
-We must beware of the polish that is a loss of power, and, like a
-lapidary, not grind off points, but grind into points. Demosthenes was
-more rugged than Cicero; but he pricked men more with the point of his
-oratorical goad. Men heard the silver-tongued Roman and said, "How
-pleasantly he speaks!" They heard the bold Athenian and shouted, "Let
-us go and fight Philip!"
-
-Carlyle says, "He is God's anointed king whose simple word can melt a
-million wills into his!" That melting wills into his own is the test of
-eloquence in the orator; and a rugged simplicity has held men in the
-very fire of the orator's ardor and fervor, till they were at white
-heat, and could be shaped at will; while the most scholarly display of
-culture often leaves them unmoved, to gape and stare with wonder, as
-before the splendors of the Aurora Borealis, and feel as little real
-warmth. Emerson is right: "There is no true eloquence unless there is a
-man behind the speech," and men care not what the speech is if the man
-be not behind it, or, on the other hand, what the speech is, if the man
-be behind it! And so it is that Richard Cobden compelled even Robert
-Peel, who loved truth and candor, to become a convert to his free-trade
-opinions; and so it was that John Bright, another model of a simple
-utterance with a sincere man behind it, swayed such a mighty sceptre
-over the people of Britain. The mere declaimer or demagogue may win a
-temporary hearing; but the man who leaves a lasting impress on the mind
-of the people must have in himself some real worth.
-
-To Mr. Chandler's executive ability reference has been made. It
-was never better illustrated than in his vigorous and faithful
-administration as Secretary of the Interior. It was Hercules in the
-Augean stables again--purging the department of incompetency and
-dishonesty. He sent a flood through the Patent Office, that swept all
-the clerks out of one room; and another through the Indian Bureau,
-that cleaned out its abuses and exposed its frauds. It is said that
-the reconstruction of that department saved millions annually to the
-treasury of the nation. Mr. Schurz, in becoming his successor, paid
-a very handsome tribute to the retiring Secretary, acknowledging the
-great debt of the country to Mr. Chandler's energy and fidelity, and
-modestly declaring that he could hope for no higher success than to
-keep and leave the department where he found it.
-
-If there be any one thing for which the Senator from Michigan stood
-above most men it was in this practical business ability. He had, in
-rare union, "talent" and "tact." His good sense, clear views, ready
-and retentive memory, prompt decision, patience and perseverance, quick
-discernment and instinctive perception of the fitness of ways to ends,
-qualified him for energetic and successful administration anywhere.
-Webster said, "There is always room at the top." Even the pyramid waits
-for the capstone, which must be, itself, a little pyramid. And he who
-has inborn or inbred fitness for the top place will find his way there;
-no other will long stay there, even if some accident lifts him to the
-nominal occupancy of such a position.
-
-He had rare tact, that indefinable quality of which Ross says, that
-"it is the most exquisite thing in man." Literally it means "touch,"
-and is suggested by the delicacy often found in that mysterious sense.
-It describes, though it cannot define, the nice, skillful, innate
-discernment and discrimination which tells one what to say and do, even
-on critical occasions; how to reach and "touch" men, when a blunder
-would be fatal. This wisdom of instinct may be cultivated but cannot be
-acquired; and it seems to be close of kin with that common sense which,
-though by no means exceedingly "common," represents a sound intuitive
-sense in common matters, such as would be the common sense or verdict
-of wise and sagacious minds.
-
-The Senator impressed men as one whose powers were varied and
-versatile. Thomas F. Marshall, the "Kentucky orator," maintained that
-fine speaking, writing and conversation depend on a different order of
-gifts. "A speech cannot be reported, nor an essay spoken. Fox wrote
-speeches; nobody reads them. Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays; nobody
-listened. Yet England crowded to hear Fox, and reads Mackintosh. Lord
-Bolingbroke excelled in all, the ablest orator, finest writer, most
-elegant drawing-room gentleman in England."
-
-Whether or not this philosophy be sound and this estimate correct, we
-shall all agree that few men combine power of speech with force in
-composition and grace in conversation. Our departed Senator certainly
-had more than the common share of versatility. That last speech at
-Chicago thrilled a vast audience when spoken, and kindled a flaming
-enthusiasm; yet it reads like the compact and complete sentences of the
-essayist.
-
-Versatility, however, is not to be coveted where it implies a lack of
-concentration. An anonymous writer has left us a very discriminating
-comparison of two great British statesmen. He likens Canning's mind to
-a convex speculum which scattered its rays of light upon all objects;
-while he likens Brougham's to a concave speculum which concentrated the
-rays upon one central, burning, focal point. There are some men who
-possess, to a considerable degree, both the power to scatter and the
-power to gather the rays. At times they exhibit varied and versatile
-ability, they touch delicately and skillfully many different themes or
-departments of thought and action; but when crises arise which demand
-the whole man, they become in the best sense men of one idea, for one
-thought fills and fires the soul; every power is concentrated in one
-burning purpose.
-
-The Senator, whose deserved garland we are weaving, was one of these
-men. There were times when he seemed to turn his hand with equal
-ease to a score of employments; now giving wise counsel in gravest
-matters, now playfully entertaining guests at his table; now studying
-the deep philosophy of political economy, now holding a Senate in
-rapt attention; now reorganizing a department of state; now pushing
-a new measure through Congress; now closeted with the President over
-the issues of a colossal campaign, and again conducting a pleasure
-excursion; to-day leading on the hosts of a great party, and to-morrow
-managing the affairs of an extensive farm. But, when the destiny of
-the nation hung in the balance, or history waited with uplifted pen to
-record on her eternal scroll the final decision of some great question,
-he gathered and condensed into absolute unity all the powers of mind
-and heart and will, and flung the combined weight of his whole manhood
-into the trembling scale. When he felt that a thing must be, a mountain
-was no obstacle to surmount, a host of foes no occasion for dismay.
-With intensity of conviction, with contagious courage and enthusiasm,
-with indomitable resolution, with tireless energy of action, he
-went ahead, and weaker men had to follow; his conviction persuaded
-the hesitating, his courage emboldened the timid, his determination
-inspired the irresolute. He was the unit that, in the leading place,
-makes even the cyphers swell the sum of power.
-
-It is no slight praise of Mr. Chandler to say that he was a man of
-industry; the results he reached were won by work. There is a great
-deal of blind talk about genius. That there is such a thing, apart
-from the practical faculty of application, even great men have doubted
-or boldly denied; but certain it is that there is such a thing as
-the genius of industry, and that rules the world! Alexander Hamilton
-disclaimed any other genius than the profound study of a subject. He
-kept before him a theme which he meant to master, till he explored it
-in all its bearings and his mind was filled with it. Then, to quote
-his words, "the effort which I make the people are pleased to call the
-fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."
-
-And so for us all there is no royal road to a true success. We must
-simply plod on, along the plain, hard, plebeian path of honest toil,
-and climb up the hills, if we would get on and up at all. Spinoza
-grandly says that that there is no foe or barrier to progress like
-"self-conceit and the laziness which self-conceit begets." We venture
-to add that no conceit is surer to beget laziness than the conceit
-of "conscious genius." Our peril is to learn to do our work easily;
-that means poor work, if indeed any work at all, shallow acquirements,
-superficial attainments, and no real scholarly or heroic achievements.
-
-Our regretted Senator did not despise honest work, and never claimed
-to be a genius. He had a hearty contempt for all that aristocracy of
-intellect that frowns on mental toil.
-
-He spoke without manuscript, and without memorizing; or, as we say,
-"extempore." That is another much-abused word. Extemporaneous speech
-is not the utterance of words that shake the world, or any considerable
-part of it, unless such speech be the fruit not of that time, but,
-as Dr. Shedd says, "of all time previous." But when the orator first
-becomes master of his theme and then of the occasion, and is thus
-fitted to deal with the real vital issues before the people, he may,
-without having put pen to paper, or having framed a single sentence
-beforehand, often find himself master also of his audience. The careful
-study of his subject, the habit of thinking in words, and of weighing
-words when he reads and talks, scoops out a channel in the mind; and
-when he rises to speak he finds his thought flowing naturally and
-easily in this channel.
-
-No man can carefully read Mr. Chandler's public utterances without
-detecting a brevity and terseness, a simplicity and plainness, an
-accuracy and vigor, and often a rhetorical beauty, which shew care in
-preparation. These qualities are not the offspring of indolence. Years
-of drill lie back of the exact and daring touches with which the artist
-makes the canvas speak and the marble breathe; and the extempore speech
-of the eloquent orator tells of long, hard discipline that has taught
-him how to think and how to talk; it may have taken him fifty years to
-learn how to hold and sway an audience at will for fifty minutes. The
-ease and grace of true oratory are the signs of previous exertion; of
-that systematic exercise of the intellect that has suggested for our
-training schools the name, gymnasia. The laws of brain and of brawn do
-not differ much in this respect. Men are not born athletes, either in
-mind or muscle; and to all who have a true desire to succeed, in any
-sphere of life, the one voice that, with the growing emphasis of the
-successive centuries, speaks to us, is, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth
-to do, do it with thy might." Your sword may be short; "add a step to
-it!" it may be dull; add force to the blow or the thrust. There is no
-encouragement from history, more universally to be appropriated by
-us, than the testimony she furnishes to the power and value of honest
-endeavor. To will and to work is to win. The highest endowments assure
-no achievements; all success is the crown of patient toil!
-
-While thus speaking a word in favor of hard work, one word of caution
-and of qualification may not be out of place. I think God means that
-the sudden decease of public men when in life's prime, shall not be
-without warning. No thoughtful man fails to feel the force of this
-fact that somehow the average duration of human life, especially on
-these shores and among men of mark, is shortening; and that apoplexy,
-paralysis, angina pectoris, cerebral hemorrhage, and softening of the
-brain are amazingly common among brain-workers. The fatality among
-journalists is especially startling.
-
-We are a fast-living and a fast-dying people. Our habits are bad. We
-work hard half the time and worry the other half. We eat and sleep
-irregularly; we tax our powers unduly, keeping the bow bent until
-the string snaps simply from constant tension, lack of relaxation.
-We turn night into day, without restoring the balance by turning day
-into night. We live in an atmosphere of excitement, and push on to
-the verge of death before we know our peril or realize our risk. We
-are tempted to put stimulus in the place of strength, that we may do,
-under unnatural pressure, what we cannot do by nature's healthy powers.
-Instead of repairing the engine, we crowd fuel into the boiler and get
-up more steam; and, by and by, something breaks, or bursts, and the
-machinery is a wreck.
-
-I believe it is not hard work that kills us, so much as work under
-wrong conditions. To do, with the aid of even mild stimulants, like tea
-and coffee, not to say tobacco, opium, quinine, etc., what we cannot
-do by the natural strength, is the worst kind of overwork; and yet our
-public men are subject, to such strain, that they are almost driven to
-such resorts. Where they ought to stop, and sleep and rest, they "key
-up" with a kind of artificial strength, and get the habit of unnatural
-wakefulness; and then wonder why they are victims of insomnia.
-
-Professor Tyndall, one of the most tireless men of brain in our day,
-says to the students of University College, London: "Take care of
-your health! Imagine Hercules, as oarsman in a rotten boat; what can
-he do there but, by the very force of his stroke, expedite the ruin
-of his craft! Take care of the timbers of your boat!" And Dr. Beard
-adds: "To work hard without overworking, to work without worrying, to
-do just enough without doing too much--these are the great problems
-of our future. Our earlier Franklin taught us to combine industry
-with economy; our 'later Franklin' taught us to combine industry with
-temperance; our future Franklin--if one should arise--must teach us how
-to combine industry with the art of taking it easy."
-
-The qualities that fitted Mr. Chandler for the conduct of affairs were,
-however, not purely intellectual; they belonged in part to another and
-a higher order, viz.: the emotions and affections.
-
-He had great intensity of nature. Even his political opponents could
-not doubt the positiveness of his conviction and the profoundness of
-his sincerity; and here, as Carlyle justly says, must be found the
-base blocks in the structure of all heroic character. It is no small
-thing to be able to command even from an antagonist the concession and
-confession of one's sincerity. Candor atones for a host of faults.
-Men will, at the last, forgive anything else in a man who tries to be
-true to his own convictions and to their interests. The utterances of
-impulse and even of passion, stinging sarcasm and biting ridicule,
-unjust charges and assaults, all are easy to pardon in one whose
-sincerity and intensity of conviction betray him into too great heat;
-men would rather be scorched or singed a little in the burning flame
-of a passionate earnestness than freeze in the atmosphere of a human
-iceberg--beneath whose rhetorical brilliance, they feel the chill of a
-cold, calculating insincerity and hypocrisy that upsets their faith in
-human honesty.
-
-He was also peculiarly independent and intrepid. The determination to
-be loyal, both to his convictions and to his country, inspired him to a
-bold, brave utterance and invested him with a courage and confidence
-that were almost contagious. We cannot but admire the political
-fidelity expressed by Burke, in his famous defense before the electors
-of Bristol, when he said: "I obeyed the instructions of nature and
-reason and conscience; I maintained your interests, as against your
-convictions." Few men have ever dared to say and do what Mr. Chandler
-has, in the face of such political risks and even such personal peril.
-One brief address delivered by him in the Senate, soon after he resumed
-his seat, will stand among the classics of our language, and, if I may
-so say, among the "heroics" of our history.
-
-He was also a man of great political integrity. In the long career of a
-public life spanning more than a quarter of a century, no suspicion of
-dishonesty or disloyalty has ever stained his character or reputation.
-Michigan may safely challenge any Senatorial record of twenty years to
-surpass his, either in the quantity or quality of public service.
-
-Those who knew him best affirm that he was, politically and personally,
-an incorruptible man. The position of a legislator is one of proverbial
-peril. From the days of Pericles and Augustus till now, the men
-who make laws and guide national affairs are peculiarly in danger
-of defiling their consciences by "fear or favor." Bribery sits in
-the vestibule of every law-making assembly. Greed holds out golden
-opportunity for getting enormous profits from unlawful or questionable
-schemes and investments. Ambition lifts her shining crown, and offers
-a throne of commanding influence if you will bow down and worship,
-or even make some slight concession in favor of, the devil. Only a
-little elasticity of conscience, a little blunting of the moral sense;
-a little falsehood, or perjury, or treachery, under polite names; a
-lending of one's name to doubtful schemes; and there is a rich reward
-in gains to the purse and gratifications to the pride, which more than
-pay for the trifling loss of self-respect. And so not a few who go
-to Congress with unsullied reputation, come back smutched with their
-participation in "Credit Mobilier" and "Pacific Railroad" schemes, or
-any one of the thousand forms of fraud.
-
-So far as I know, Mr. Chandler has never been charged with complicity
-as to dishonest and disgraceful measures such as have sometimes made
-the very atmosphere of the Capitol a stench in the nostrils of the pure
-and good. His name does not stand on the pay-roll of Satan, but with
-the honored few whose eyes have never been blinded by a bribe and whose
-record has never been blotted with political dishonor.
-
-To have simply done one's duty is no mean victory. To stand--like the
-anvil beneath the blows of the hammer--and firmly resist the force of
-a repeated temptation is grand and heroic. To be venal is no venial
-fault; no price which can be weighed in gold can pay a man for the sale
-of one ounce of his manliness. Conscience is a Samson, whose locks are
-easily shorn, but they never grow again; whose eyes, once put out or
-seared with a hot iron, no prayer will restore. And men, as great and
-wise as Bacon, have like him been compelled to confess to their own
-meanness and the mercenary character of their virtue.
-
-One of the worst signs of the times is this corruptibility of popular
-leaders. One of the greatest of European journals moves like a
-weather-vane, just as the day's wind blows. Much of the best talent of
-Europe is for sale for or against despotism. Some of the most gifted
-men in the House of Lords are of plebeian birth, bought by the bribe of
-a title, as Harry Brougham himself was, when his great influence became
-a terror to the aristocracy; and the Duke of Newcastle is said to have
-bought one-third of the House of Commons. There is scarce a measure,
-however infamous, that may not be pushed through our common councils
-and legislative bodies if the lobbyists are only "influential and
-numerous," and the money is only plenty enough. Let us give God thanks
-for every man in the community who is not on the auction block to be
-knocked down to the highest bidder. In these days of abounding fraud
-and falsehood, men are beginning to feel the value of simple honesty.
-We have, in our admiration of the genius of intellect, forgotten the
-genius of goodness, which has power to inspire men with heroism. Better
-to strengthen a few timid hearts in loyalty to principle than to have
-deserved the encomium of Augustus, who "found Rome brick, and left
-it marble." The Earl of Chatham refused to keep a million pounds of
-government funds in the bank and pocket the proceeds; as Edmund Burke,
-on becoming paymaster-general, first of all introduced a bill for the
-reorganization of that department of public service, refusing to enrich
-himself, through the emoluments of that lucrative office, at public
-expense.
-
-No wonder George the Second should have said of such "honesty" that it
-is an "honor to human nature!" Such words were worthy of a king, but
-it is only a crowned head bowing to royal natures that need no crown
-to tell that they are kingly. The distinguished Hungarian exile will
-never be forgiven for saying that he would praise anything and anybody
-to aid Hungary. There is an instinct in the great heart of humanity
-which not even wickedness kills, that no quality is so fundamental to
-character as absolute loyalty to truth, it is the base-block of the
-whole structure; and great has been many a "fall," where there is no
-better foundation than the treacherous and shifting quicksands of what
-is called "policy," and which is to many the only standard of honesty.
-
-Mr. Chandler was known in politics as an enthusiastic and radical
-advocate of his party and its measures. It was not in him to do
-anything by halves, and it is difficult to see why one may not as
-naturally be zealous in politics as in religion; in fact, none are
-more likely to charge upon him partisanship than those who in their
-attachment to the opposite party shew their own lack of moderation.
-
-It has been well said that religion demands "a faith, a polity and a
-party." The faith and the polity belong to it as necessary features;
-the party is that on which it depends for organization and onward
-movement. There is a philosophy, a political creed and economy, which
-are to the state what religion is to the church; and no man can be a
-patriot without a political faith and polity and party; though he may
-stand alone, he represents all three. He may be in the largest sense a
-patriot, and adopt the sublime motto of Demosthenes, "Not father, nor
-mother, but dear native land!" yet his patriotism may compel him, us he
-looks at the matter of his country's interest, to take a position on
-the side of a political party, and to hold it in the face of ridicule
-and reproach and even of a pelting hail of hate. Others may not be
-wrong in their espousal of a different political creed, but he is not
-wrong, but right, in his honest adherence to his. It is so in religion;
-an honest, intelligent man is loyal to his own denomination, yet is
-he none the less, because of that, a Christian in the breadth of his
-charity.
-
-In fact, religion is not the only sphere where self-sacrifice, for duty
-and for conscience, may be pressed even to martyrdom. St. Ignatius,
-facing the wild beasts in the arena, calmly said, "I am grain of God; I
-must be ground between teeth of lions to make bread for God's people."
-That was the grand confession of a Christian martyr. Tell me, how much
-lower down in the scale of the heroic does he belong who, for the sake
-of the best good of a constituency blinded by passion or prejudice,
-like the great English statesman, consents to be hurled from his shrine
-as the idol of the people, and calmly says, "I am under no obligation
-to be popular, but I am under bonds to myself to be true!" When
-Regulus refused to buy his own liberty and life, at the cost of Rome's
-disgrace, and persuaded the Senate to reject the very overtures which
-he was commissioned to convey, himself returning as his pledge required
-him if the negotiations were unsuccessful, and surrendering himself to
-the will of his enemies that Carthage might put him to death by slow
-torture, it seems to me something like the martyr-spirit burned in that
-bosom. And, if there be nothing akin to moral martyrdom in bravely
-standing in one's place and boldly holding one's ground, advocating
-what one believes to be the only true creed in politics, and the only
-true policy for the country, in face of sneer and threat, daring the
-blade and the bullet, the open affront and the secret assault, for the
-sake of being true to one's self and to one's native land--if there
-be nothing sublime and heroic in all this, the verdict of reason is
-unsound.
-
-This lamented statesman had also a genial temper, which won for him a
-host of friends. Public men are prone to one of two extremes; either
-the hypocritical suavity of the demagogue, or the arbitrary bluntness
-and curtness of the despot. Some swing away from the fawning airs of
-the puppy, but it is toward the repulsive manners of the bear. The man
-who, as you tip your hat with a polite good morning, sweeps by, saying,
-"I haven't time," is too often the typical man of affairs, who thinks
-the quick dismission of applicants and intruders is the price of all
-energetic public service. It is said of the great French statesman,
-Richelieu, that he could say "No." so gracefully and winningly, that
-a man once became applicant for a position, upon which he had not
-the least claim, just to hear the great Cardinal refuse. If common
-testimony may be trusted, Michigan's esteemed Senator seldom lost the
-hearty cordiality and courtesy of his manners, even under the fretting
-friction of public cares.
-
-I am tempted to add that, though a representative Republican, Mr.
-Chandler was, in the best sense, a democrat. He weighed a man according
-to the worth of his manhood. He could recognize true manliness beneath
-a black skin as well as a white one, and behind the rough dress of
-a poor man, as behind broadcloth; and, because he was the friend of
-humanity and of human rights, you will find some of his warmest friends
-among the common people and in the lower ranks.
-
-I think both justice and generosity demand that among the tributes
-we weave for him, there should be distinct and emphatic mention of
-this simplicity of character. He was a man among men. From the first,
-he had none of those assumptions of conscious superiority that mark
-the aristocrat. If anything, he was rather careless than careful of
-his dignity, and would sooner shock than mock the fastidious airs
-and tastes of those who prate about culture, or pride themselves on
-their "nobility." Fox quaintly said, of the elder Pitt, that he "fell
-up stairs" when he was elevated to the peerage. Many a man cannot
-stand going up higher. He becomes haughty, proud; he affects dignity,
-he lords it over God's heritage, he becomes too big with conscious
-superiority. Like Jeshurun, he waxes fat and kicks. He falls up stairs,
-if not down.
-
-The warm, soft, genial side of Mr. Chandler's nature was unveiled in
-social life and most of all in the domestic circle. The play of his
-smile, the roar of his laughter, the delicacy and tenderness of his
-sympathy, his stalwart defense of those whom he loved, the childlike
-traits that drew him to children and drew children to him, none
-appreciate as do those who knew him best as friend, husband and father.
-The man of public affairs, he could lay one hand firmly on the helm of
-state, while with the other he fondly pressed his grandchildren to his
-bosom, or playfully roused them to childish glee.
-
-This aspect of his many-sided character makes his death an irreparable
-loss to his own household. Even the great grief of a nation cannot
-represent by its "extensity," the intensity of the more private sorrow
-that secludes itself from the public eye. He was, to those whom he
-specially loved, both a tower for strength, and a lover and friend for
-comfort and sympathy. Those who were "at home" with him and especially
-those who were the peculiar treasures of his heart, knew him as no
-others could. Happy is the minister who forgets not his parish at
-home--the church that is in his own house--and happy is the public man,
-whose private life is not simply the revelation of the hard, coarse and
-unattractive side of his character.
-
-That is I am sure no ordinary occurrence, which has made forever
-memorable the Calends of this November. Death, however frequent and
-familiar by frequency, can never, to the thoughtful, be an event
-of common magnitude; the exchange of worlds cannot be other than
-a most august experience. But this death has about it colossal
-proportions; it stands out and apart like a mountain in a landscape.
-It is recognized as a calamity not only to a household, but to the
-city, the State, the Nation; and it may be doubted whether, since
-the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, any single announcement has so
-startled the public mind and moved the popular heart as when on the
-1st day of November it was announced that Zachariah Chandler was found
-sleeping his last sleep.
-
-Ulysses S. Grant is a man of few words--and like his shot and shell
-they weigh a good deal and are well aimed. Let us hear his verdict on
-Mr. Chandler:
-
-  "A nation, as well as the State of Michigan, mourns the loss of one
-  of her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler
-  was beloved by his associates and respected by those who disagreed
-  with his political views. The more closely I became connected with
-  him the more I appreciated his great merits.
-
-                                                            U. S. GRANT.
-
-  "GALENA, Ill., Nov. 9, 1879."
-
-It is evident that it is no ordinary man who has departed from among
-us. It is not "a self-evident truth that all men are created equal,"
-if we mean equality of gifts and graces, capacity, opportunity or even
-responsibility; and the people of these United States do not need to be
-told that Mr. Chandler was no common man. It was by no accident that he
-held in succession, and filled with success, posts of such importance
-and trusts of such magnitude. He did not drift into prominence; he
-rose by sheer force of character and by the fitness of things. Born
-to be a leader, endowed with those qualities that mark a man destined
-to leadership, having rare business faculty, and sagacity, tact and
-talent, large capacity for organization and administration, his hand
-was naturally at the helm.
-
-Mr. Chandler's leadership reached beyond and beneath the visible
-conduct of affairs. As Moses was the inspiration, of which Aaron was
-the expression, he was often the power behind the throne. He who has
-now left us, forever, belonged to the illustrious few who were the
-special counselors of Mr. Lincoln and the instigators of many of his
-wisest and best measures. There is an inner history of the war which
-has never been written and never will be. The lips that alone could
-disclose those secrets are fast closing in eternal silence, and the
-scroll will find no man worthy to loose its seals.
-
-Mr. Chandler could not have been wholly ignorant of the risk he ran in
-his laborious and prolonged campaign-work; but when his country seemed
-in peril his tongue could not keep silence. Just before starting on his
-last journey westward, he said to me: "In my judgment the crisis now
-upon us is more important than any since Lee surrendered, and as grave
-as any since Sumter was fired on." Those who knew him best will not be
-surprised that, with such an impression of the magnitude of the issues
-now before the American people, he could not spare himself, but gave
-himself without reserve to his country, sacrificing his life itself on
-the altar of his own patriotism.
-
-And so our stalwart statesman has fallen, and we have a new lesson on
-human mortality. Anaxagoras, when told that the Athenians had condemned
-him to die, calmly added, "And nature, them!" All our riches, honors,
-dignities cannot stay the steps of the great destroyer. The manliest
-and mightiest leaders, and the humblest and meanest followers bow alike
-to the awful mandate of death. And as Massilon said at the funeral of
-the Grand Monarch, "God only is great!"
-
-Of how little consequence after all are all the things that perish.
-Temporal things derive all their true value from their connection with
-the invisible and eternal. How small will all appear as they recede
-into the dim distance at the dying hour and the world to come confronts
-us with its awful decisions of destiny! What grandeur and glory are
-imparted to our humblest sphere of service, here, when touched and
-transformed by the power of an endless life!
-
-We have reason to be glad that the popular recognition of Mr.
-Chandler's abilities and services has been so prompt and hearty as to
-afford him not a little satisfaction. Posthumous tributes are sometimes
-melancholy memorials, reminding us of the monumental sepulchres of
-martyr-prophets.
-
-Robert Burns's mother said about his monument, as she bitterly
-remembered how the poet of Ayr had been left to starve, "Ah, Robbie, ye
-asked them for bread and they hae ge'en ye a stane!" It can never be
-said that our departed Senator had to wait for another generation to
-pronounce a just or generous verdict upon his career; the trophies of
-victory and of popular esteem were strewn along the whole line of his
-march; and his last tour of the Northwest was a perpetual ovation.
-
-There is to my mind no little inspiration of comfort in the fact that
-not even human malice can falsify history. Men sometimes get more
-than their share of praise or of blame while they live; but sooner or
-later the cloud of incense or the mist of prejudice clears away and
-the real character is more plainly seen. We can afford to leave the
-final verdict to another generation if need be, grateful as it is to be
-appreciated by the generation which we seek to serve.
-
-But it is still more inspiring to know that God rules this world, and
-reigns over the affairs of men. If He marks the flight and the fall of
-the sparrow, we may be sure that no man rises to the seat of power or
-sinks to the grave without His permission.
-
-God is not dead, and cannot die. Generations pass away while He remains
-the same. His hand is on the helm, whatever human hand seems to have
-hold, and is still there when the most trusted helmsman relaxes his
-dying grasp. If God's hand is not in our history, all its records are
-misleading, and all its course a mystery. Admit the divine factor,
-and, from the strange unveiling of this hidden Western world until
-this day, our national life appears like one colossal crystal; it has
-unity, transparency and symmetry. We can understand Plymouth Rock, the
-revolution, the French and Indian wars, the war of 1812, the great
-rebellion, the Kansas problem and the California problem, the Indian
-question and the Chinese question, Romanism and Communism, Eastern
-conservatism and Western radicalism, the freedmen and the emigrant,
-state rights and national sovereignty--all are the subordinate factors
-whose harmonizing, reconciling, assimilating factor is the divine
-purpose and plan in our history. My friends, the republic has a divine
-destiny to fulfill. The Great Pilot is steering the ship of state for
-her true haven. Scylla threatens on one side, Charbydis on the other;
-but He knows the channel. The stormy Euroclydon may strike her, tear
-her sails to tatters and snap her ropes like burnt tow, and splinter
-her masts to fragments; but He holds the winds in his fists. Let us not
-fear. We have only to love, trust and obey the God of our Fathers and
-He will guide us safely and surely through all darkness and danger.
-The sins that reproach our people are the only foes we have to fear;
-the righteousness that exalts a nation the only ally we need to covet.
-If the people of Michigan would rear a grand monument to the heroic
-men who have adorned our history, let us be true to the principles
-which they have defended, and to the God who gave them to us as His
-instruments.
-
-The DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN has fallen; but the State stands, and
-God can set another pillar in its place. There is stone in the
-quarry--columns are taking shape to-day in our homes and schools and
-churches; and in God's time they shall be raised to their place. Let us
-only be sure that in the shrine of our nation God finds a throne, and
-not the idols of this world, and not even the earthquake shock shall
-shatter the symmetric structure of the Republic.
-
-
-
-
-
-  TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
-
-
-  Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
-  errors.
-
-  Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
-
-  Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
-
-  Enclosed bold font in =equals=.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Zachariah Chandler, by Detroit Post and Tribune
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-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's Zachariah Chandler, by Detroit Post and Tribune
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Zachariah Chandler
-       An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services
-
-Author: Detroit Post and Tribune
-
-Release Date: November 13, 2015 [EBook #50423]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZACHARIAH CHANDLER ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Richard Tonsing, Andrew Sly, Mark C. Orton and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
-Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div class="tnotes covernote">
-  <p>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
-<img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" width="539" height="700" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
-<div id="titlepage">
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h1>ZACHARIAH CHANDLER:<br />
-
-<span class="large">AN OUTLINE SKETCH</span><br />
-
-<span class="medium">OF</span><br />
-
-<span class="xlarge">His Life and Public Services.</span></h1>
-
-
-<p>BY</p>
-
-<p class="large">THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE.</p>
-
-<p>WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER</p>
-
-<p>FROM</p>
-
-<p class="large">JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE.</p>
-
-<div class="poem p2"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">O iron nerve to true occasion true,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">O fall'n at length that tower of strength<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!<br /></span>
-<span class="i30">&mdash;<em>Tennyson.</em><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="large p2">DETROIT:</p>
-
-<p>THE POST AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.</p>
-
-<ul><li>R. D. S. TYLER &amp; CO., DETROIT.</li>
-<li>CHARLES DREW, NEW YORK.</li>
-<li>J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS.</li>
-<li>TYLER &amp; CO., CHICAGO.</li>
-<li>WM. H. THOMPSON &amp; CO., BOSTON.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>1880.
-</p>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="center p6"><span class="smcap">Entered According To Act of Congress, in the Year 1879, by</span></p>
-
-<p class="center">THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE,</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</span></p>
-
-<p class="center p6">Electrotyped by<br />
-<span class="smcap">A. W. Habbin</span>, Detroit.</p>
-
-<p class="center">PRESS OF<br />
-WRIGHTON &amp; CO.,<br />
-CINCINNATI, O.
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="center p6">TO</p>
-
-<p class="center">THE REPUBLICANS OF MICHIGAN,</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Who so Long Upheld, and Who were Implicitly Trusted by</span>,</p>
-
-<p class="center">ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,</p>
-
-<p class="center">THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE IS</p>
-
-<p class="center">DEDICATED.
-</p>
-
-<p class="p6"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_005.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">It</span> is stated elsewhere that this work is written "<span class="smcap">By The
-Detroit Post and Tribune</span>." Unusual as this form of
-announcement is on the title-pages of books, there certainly
-may be an authorial as well as an editorial impersonality;
-in this case the phrase succinctly expresses the fact, namely, that
-the volume represents the joint labors of the staff of <span class="smcap">The Post
-and Tribune</span>, alike in the collection and the treatment of its
-material.</p>
-
-<p>While its preparation has been almost wholly a matter of
-original research, such use as was necessary has been made of historical
-data contained in "The Centennial History of Bedford,
-N. H.," published in 1851, in Horace Greeley's "American Conflict,"
-and in Henry Wilson's "History of the Rise and Fall of
-the Slave Power."</p>
-
-<p>Needed information has been furnished by those intimately
-connected with Mr. <span class="smcap">Chandler</span>, but the work has not been submitted
-to their revision, and they are not responsible for the
-form of the narrative, nor for the personal estimate it embodies.</p>
-
-<p>This book presents a sketch of the life and the public
-services of a remarkable man. It has been written from the
-standpoint of political sympathy, and with the hope of deepening
-the wholesome influences so powerfully exerted upon public
-sentiment in his lifetime by <span class="smcap">Zachariah Chandler</span>. The aim
-has been to make it accurate in statement, and to see that its
-chapters should fairly draw, in outline at least, the picture of
-the career of a genuine leader of men.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a><br /><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>INTRODUCTORY LETTER.</h2>
-
-
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">To the Editors of The Post and Tribune</span>:<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>I am unable to give any personal or special incidents in the
-life of Mr. Chandler not open to his biographers from other
-sources. I was not so intimate in my relations with him as
-were some others, nor did I know him better than many others
-who like myself were associated with him in public life for a
-long period. I knew him well, however, both on the side of
-his private life and his public life, and in every phase he was a
-man of strong character.</p>
-
-<p>The time in which a man lives, and the circumstances by
-which he is surrounded, control his fate even more largely than
-his personal and inherent qualities. Mr. Chandler was fortunate
-in the time of his removal to the West, fortunate in the era
-which brought him into public life. When he became a citizen
-of Michigan the days of hard pioneer life were ending, extensive
-cultivation of the soil had begun, products for shipment were
-large and rapidly increasing. Facilities for transportation were
-already great. The Erie Canal had been open for several years,
-and steamers had multiplied on the Great Lakes. Everything was
-in readiness for a strong-minded, energetic, competent man of
-business, and Mr. Chandler had the good fortune to settle in
-Detroit at the precise point of time when the elements of suc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>cess
-were within his grasp. For a quarter of a century thereafter
-his career was that of a business man intensely devoted to
-his private interests, and participating in public affairs only as
-an incident and with no effort to secure advancement. The
-result of this steady devotion to business was that Mr. Chandler
-found himself at forty-four years of age possessed of a large
-property, constantly and rapidly increasing in value.</p>
-
-<p>Coincident with this condition in his financial fortunes came
-a crisis in the political affairs of the country, involving the class
-of questions which took deep hold on the mind and the heart
-of Mr. Chandler. The curbing of the slave power, the assertion
-and maintenance of freedom on free soil, undying devotion to
-the Union of the States, and the bold defense of the rights of the
-citizen&mdash;these were the issues which in various phases absorbed
-the public mind from the repeal of the Missouri compromise
-in 1854 down to the close of Mr. Chandler's life. And on all
-the issues presented for consideration for twenty-five years Mr.
-Chandler never halted, never wearied, never grew timid, never
-was willing to compromise. On these great questions he became
-the leader of Michigan, and Michigan kept Mr. Chandler at the
-front during the prolonged struggle which has wrought such
-mighty changes in the history of the American people.</p>
-
-<p>It is a noteworthy fact, not infrequently adverted to, that the
-political opinions of Michigan both as Territory and State, for a
-period of sixty years, were represented, and indeed in no small
-degree formed, by two men of New Hampshire birth. From
-1819 to 1854 General Cass was the accepted political leader of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>
-Michigan, and only once in all that long period of thirty-five
-years did her people fail to follow him. That was in 1840,
-when the old pioneers and the soldiers of 1812&mdash;generally the
-friends of Cass&mdash;refused his leadership, and voted for the older
-pioneer and the more illustrious chieftain, William Henry Harrison.
-From 1854 till Mr. Chandler's death the dominant
-opinion of Michigan was with him; and her people followed
-him, trusted him, believed in him. During that quarter of a
-century the population of the State more than trebled in number,
-but the strength of Chandler with the newcomers seemed
-as great as with the older population with whom he had begun
-the struggle of life in the Territory of Michigan. The old men
-stood firmly by him in the faith and confidence of an ancient
-friendship, and the young men followed with an enthusiasm
-which grew into affection, and with an affection which ripened
-into reverence.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's life in Washington, apart from his public
-service, was a notable event in the history of the capital. His
-wealth enabled him to be generous and hospitable, and his
-elegant mansion was a center of attraction for many years. Nor
-were the guests confined to one party. Mr. Chandler was personally
-popular with his political opponents, and the leading men
-of the Democratic party often sat at his table and forgot in the
-genial host, and the frank, sincere man, all the bitterness that
-might have come from conflict in the partisan arena.</p>
-
-<p>It is fitting that Mr. Chandler's life be written. It is due,
-first of all, to his memory. It is due to those who come after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>
-him. It is due to the great State whose Senator he was, whose
-interests he served, whose honor he upheld. I am glad the work
-is committed to competent friends, who can discriminate between
-honest approval and inconsiderate praise, and who with strict
-adherence to truth can find in his career so much that is honorable,
-so much that is admirable, so little that is censurable, and
-nothing that is mean.</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Very sincerely yours,</span><br />
-<br />
-<span style="margin-left: 27.5em;">JAMES G. BLAINE.</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, February 15, 1880.<br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TABLE OF CONTENTS">
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Birthplace and Ancestry in New England.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <th>PAGE.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The town of Bedford, N. H.&mdash;King Phillip's War&mdash;Land grants to surviving soldiers&mdash;Souhegan-East&mdash;Grant of a charter&mdash;Naming the town&mdash;The early settlers&mdash;The thirst for civil and religious liberty&mdash;Records of the church&mdash;The thrift of the people&mdash;Native humor&mdash;A patriotic record&mdash;Services in three wars.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Parentage and Childhood.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The Chandlers of New England&mdash;The first Zechariah and his possessions&mdash;Settlement in the intervale of the Merrimack&mdash;Genealogy of the family&mdash;Noted family connections&mdash;Prominence in church and State&mdash;The family residences&mdash;Birthplace of Zachariah&mdash;Inherited traits&mdash;A strong, self-reliant boy&mdash;His school-days&mdash;One term as teacher&mdash;Work on the farm&mdash;Military experience&mdash;Clerk in a store&mdash;His journey Westward&mdash;Affection for the old town&mdash;Some of Bedford's emigrants.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Removal to Michigan&mdash;Mercantile Success&mdash;Business Investments.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Business start in Detroit&mdash;The cholera epidemic&mdash;Caring for the sick&mdash;Characteristics of the young business man&mdash;Nearest approach to an assignment&mdash;Pushing his business&mdash;Visits to the interior&mdash;Strong friendships&mdash;His young clerk and successor&mdash;Commercial integrity and sagacity&mdash;Accumulation of property&mdash;Helping the Government credit&mdash;Incorruptibility as a Legislator.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Panorama of Northwestern Development.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Early explorations of the Lakes&mdash;A mission at the Sault&mdash;Passage of the Strait&mdash;First settlement at Detroit&mdash;Steam navigation upon the Lakes&mdash;Organization of the Territory&mdash;An imperial domain&mdash;Detroit in 1833&mdash;Marvelous development of a great City and State&mdash;Statistics of 1879.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Commencement of Political Activity&mdash;Record as an Anti-Slavery Whig.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">A conspicuous figure in politics&mdash;Lewis Cass, his career and characteristics&mdash;A strong contrast&mdash;Mr. Chandler as a Whig&mdash;A sinewy worker at the polls&mdash;The Crosswhite case&mdash;Making a firm friend&mdash;Nomination and election for Mayor&mdash;A sharp campaign&mdash;Invitation to Kossuth&mdash;Nominated for Governor&mdash;An energetic but unsuccessful canvass&mdash;First nomination for the Senate.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Formation of the Republican Party.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The Compromises of 1820 and 1850&mdash;Annexation of Texas&mdash;Calhoun's farewell&mdash;Profound Northern indignation&mdash;Memorable debates in Congress&mdash;"Free Democrat" action in Michigan&mdash;Public anti-slavery meetings and private conferences&mdash;The Whig Convention at Kalamazoo&mdash;Steps toward union&mdash;A stirring address&mdash;"Under the Oaks" at Jackson&mdash;A notable convention&mdash;Formation of the Republican party&mdash;A ringing platform&mdash;The first of a series of uninterrupted successes&mdash;Work of Mr. Chandler in the campaign.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The First Election to the Senate.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Work in the campaign of 1856&mdash;The National Conventions&mdash;Aid in making Michigan radical&mdash;Republican success in that State&mdash;An earnest Senatorial canvass&mdash;Mr. Chandler nominated over Mr. Christiancy and others&mdash;His election&mdash;Composition of the Thirty-fifth Congress&mdash;Subsequent career of his associates.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Development of the Southern Conspiracy&mdash;The Election of Abraham Lincoln.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Preparations for Disunion&mdash;Imbecility of the Administration&mdash;Gloomy forebodings&mdash;Mr. Chandler's first prepared address&mdash;A vigorous and unanswerable speech&mdash;The Dred Scott decision&mdash;The John Brown raid&mdash;A warning to traitors&mdash;Denunciation of treason&mdash;Personal peril&mdash;Giving "satisfaction" to Southern "gentlemen"&mdash;Mr. Chandler not to be bullied&mdash;The Chandler, Cameron and Wade compact.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Services to the Cause of the Protection of Home Industry.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Beneficence of "The American System"&mdash;Reply to the "mud-sill" speech&mdash;Defense of free Northern labor&mdash;Review of the tariff controversy&mdash;The Morrill tariff of 1861&mdash;Modifications proposed in 1867&mdash;The priceless value of the skilled mechanic.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Services to Northwestern Commercial Interests and the Cause of Internal Improvements.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The Committee on Commerce as first organized&mdash;Unavailing protests&mdash;Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate&mdash;The St. Clair Flats improvement&mdash;A defeat and significant prophecy&mdash;The work, its cost and value&mdash;Mr. Chandler a member and then Chairman of the Committee on Commerce&mdash;The wide scope of that committee's labors&mdash;One-half of the entire amount expended by the United States for rivers and harbors appropriated during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Outbreak of the Rebellion&mdash;No Compromise of Constitutional Rights.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">First formal step of secession&mdash;Buchanan's "No coercion" message&mdash;Organization of the Southern Confederacy&mdash;Mr. Chandler opposes compromise&mdash;Thwarting the plots of rebel leaders&mdash;Securing the appointment of Secretary Stanton&mdash;Unwritten reminiscences&mdash;Denunciation of traitors and imbeciles&mdash;The proposed Peace Congress&mdash;The "blood-letter" and its justification.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Commencement of the Civil War.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">President Lincoln's arrival in Washington&mdash;Mr. Chandler's advice as to the Cabinet&mdash;Conciliatory character of the inaugural&mdash;An illustration of Southern perfidy&mdash;Surrender of Fort Sumter&mdash;A Detroit meeting&mdash;"But one sentiment here"&mdash;Reception of Michigan men in Washington&mdash;Visit to Fortress Monroe&mdash;Crossing the Potomac&mdash;Proposed confiscation of rebel property&mdash;"Two parties in the country, patriots and traitors"&mdash;Vindication of Michigan's record&mdash;An advance movement urged.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Committee on the Conduct of the War.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The disaster at Ball's Bluff&mdash;A committee of inquiry proposed by Mr. Chandler&mdash;Organization of the Committee on the Conduct of the War&mdash;Opposition and subsequent co-operation of the Administration&mdash;Confidential Relations with President Lincoln and Secretaries Cameron and Stanton&mdash;Laying out work&mdash;Mr. Chandler's great speech against McClellan&mdash;Distrust of McClellanism in politics&mdash;The Fitz-John Porter case&mdash;Last work of the committee.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Vigorous Prosecution of the War.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The political reverses of 1862&mdash;The "Union movement" in Michigan&mdash;Re-election of Senator Chandler&mdash;Proposition to arm the colored people&mdash;The Fremont proclamation and the Hunter order&mdash;Opposition to the colonization schemes&mdash;Influence with the Secretary of War&mdash;The Trent affair&mdash;Aid to Michigan soldiers in the Washington hospitals&mdash;"We must accept no compromise."</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Presidential Campaign of 1864.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The political and military successes of 1863&mdash;The Cleveland convention&mdash;Nomination of Fremont and Cochrane&mdash;Renomination of Abraham Lincoln&mdash;Resignation of Secretary Chase&mdash;Peace negotiations at Niagara Falls&mdash;The Wade-Davis manifesto&mdash;Nomination of McClellan&mdash;Mr. Chandler's conferences with the disaffected Republicans&mdash;Resignation of Postmaster-General Blair&mdash;Withdrawal of the Fremont ticket&mdash;An overwhelming political triumph.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_263">263</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Administration of Andrew Johnson&mdash;Reconstruction and Impeachment.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">The Assassination of President Lincoln&mdash;The War Committee meet President Johnson&mdash;Revengeful disposition of the new Executive&mdash;Legal questions in reference to the trial of traitors&mdash;An important paper by Benjamin F. Butler&mdash;A practicable method for prosecuting Jeff Davis&mdash;Change of sentiment in President Johnson&mdash;He abandons the party that elected him&mdash;Development of his "policy"&mdash;Hindrance to successful reconstruction&mdash;The impeachment resolutions and trial&mdash;Disappointment of Mr. Chandler at the failure to convict&mdash;General work in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Presidency of General Grant&mdash;The Republican Congressional Committee.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Work in the campaign of 1868&mdash;Mr. Chandler's re-election to the Senate&mdash;The Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill&mdash;Edwin M. Stanton's death and the fund for his family&mdash;Mr. Chandler's opposition to Southern war claims&mdash;His purchase of the Confederate archives&mdash;The value of these documents&mdash;Election of Senator Ferry&mdash;Mr. Chandler's fidelity to his friends&mdash;His denunciation of Southern outrages&mdash;His comparison of the two parties&mdash;His defense of President Grant against Charles Sumner's attacks&mdash;The "Salary Grab" opposed by Senator Chandler and his colleague&mdash;The Republican Congressional Committee and its efficient work&mdash;Intimacy between Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds&mdash;The latter's usefulness.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Maintenance of a Sound Currency and the Public Faith.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Condition of the government credit in 1861&mdash;The first issue of "greenbacks"&mdash;Mr. Chandler's opposition to any increase in the amount&mdash;Taxation recommended as a substitute&mdash;Opposition to the taxation of national bonds&mdash;Arguments for payment in coin of the "greenbacks" and bonds&mdash;Advocacy of the national bank system&mdash;The panic of 1873&mdash;Resistance to every measure of inflation&mdash;Mr. Chandler's speeches in January and February, 1874&mdash;The Resumption act.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_319">319</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Grant.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Political reverses of 1874&mdash;The contest in Michigan a complicated one&mdash;Republican success by a narrow margin&mdash;A close Legislature&mdash;Resistance to Mr. Chandler's re-election&mdash;His pronounced success in his party caucus&mdash;A combination of a few Republicans with the Democrats elects Judge Christiancy&mdash;Like results elsewhere&mdash;Mr. Chandler's confidence&mdash;"A candidate for that seat"&mdash;Letter to the Republican members of the Legislature&mdash;A seeming calamity proves to be a benefit&mdash;Appointment as Secretary of the Interior&mdash;Changes in the <em>personnel</em> of the Department&mdash;How Alonzo Bell became Chief Clerk&mdash;The first blow falls&mdash;An entire room closed as a measure of "practical reform"&mdash;Purification of the Bureau of Indian Affairs&mdash;"The most valuable men" suddenly dismissed&mdash;Order against the "Indian attorneys"&mdash;President Grant's support&mdash;Changes in the Bureau of Pensions and the General Land Office&mdash;Mr. Chandler's admirable executive qualities recognized&mdash;Anecdotes of his Cabinet service&mdash;Fighting the patronage-seekers&mdash;A cowardly informer&mdash;A head to the Department&mdash;An investigation that failed&mdash;"Pumping a dry well"&mdash;Close of Mr. Chandler's term&mdash;Tributes of Secretary Schurz to the practical efficiency of his predecessor.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Presidential Election of 1876&mdash;At Home&mdash;The Marsh Farm near Lansing.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Mr. Chandler made Chairman of the National Republican Committee&mdash;His original confidence in the result&mdash;Apathy in the West&mdash;Aid to Ohio&mdash;The closeness of the contest apparent&mdash;Measures to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat&mdash;Mr. Chandler's firm attitude during the remainder of the contest&mdash;Its great value&mdash;Dissent from the "policy" of the new Administration&mdash;A Cabinet anecdote&mdash;Mr. Chandler retires to private life&mdash;A visit to the Pacific coast&mdash;Other extended trips&mdash;The marsh farm near Lansing, Michigan&mdash;An important experiment in the reclamation of wet lands&mdash;Mr. Chandler's "expensive theory"&mdash;The method of drainage explained and illustrated in detail&mdash;Successful results of the earlier experiments in cultivation&mdash;General farm equipment&mdash;Houses, barns and stock&mdash;Relaxation at the farm&mdash;Mr. Chandler's correspondence&mdash;The answering of every letter his rule&mdash;The power of his oratory&mdash;Terse sentences, Saxon words, and brief speeches his aim&mdash;The sincerity and honesty of the man&mdash;The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> strength of his friendships&mdash;His hearty social qualities&mdash;His Washington and Detroit residences described&mdash;Narrow escape from a serious accident in 1858&mdash;Mr. Chandler's family&mdash;His domestic happiness&mdash;His wife and daughter his sole heirs.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Michigan Election of 1878&mdash;Mr. Chandler's Return to the Senate&mdash;"The Jeff. Davis Speech."</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Development of "Greenback" strength in the West&mdash;Resolute resistance in Michigan to the spread of financial heresy&mdash;Mr. Chandler leads the Republican battle&mdash;A great victory&mdash;It is followed by his fourth election to the Senate&mdash;He takes his seat in time to answer rebel eulogies in the Senate on Jeff. Davis&mdash;His brief and telling response&mdash;It strikes the chord of patriotic feeling&mdash;The popular response&mdash;The "extra session" of 1879&mdash;Mr. Chandler's last Congressional speech.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Campaign of 1879&mdash;Mr. Chandler's Last Days&mdash;Death and Funeral.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">Mr. Chandler at the front in the political contests of 1879&mdash;He is greeted by a popular ovation&mdash;His name urged for the Republican presidential nomination in 1880&mdash;Grant his own choice&mdash;Work affects his strong constitution&mdash;His Chicago speech&mdash;Dead in his bed at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Nov. 1, 1879!&mdash;The national grief&mdash;Funeral and burial.</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">APPENDIX.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">ZACHARIAH CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH: <span class="smcap">Delivered in McCormick Hall, in the City of Chicago, on October 31, 1879</span>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdi">THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN: <span class="smcap">A Memorial Address, Delivered in the Fort Street Presbyterian Church, Detroit, on November 27, 1879, by the Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D.</span></td>
-  </tr>
-</table><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS">
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <th class="tdr">PAGE.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Steel Portrait of Zachariah Chandler</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><em><a href="#Page_i">Frontispiece</a>.</em></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Chandler Homestead at Bedford, N. H.</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Birthplace of Zachariah Chandler</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Entry of the Birth of Zachariah Chandler in the Family Bible</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The School House at Bedford, N. H.</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Chandler Block</span> (Detroit),</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Detroit in 1834</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Fac-Simile of the "Temperance Ticket" of 1852 in Michigan</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The First Republican State Convention</span>&mdash;("Under the Oaks" at Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854),</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The National Capitol at Washington</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Ship Canal at the St. Clair Flats</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Portrait of Senator Chandler in 1862</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Portrait of the Late James M. Edmunds</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Interior Department at Washington</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Cabinet of President Grant</span>&mdash;1876-'77&mdash;(From a Sketch by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett),</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_347">347</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Office of the Secretary of the Interior</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Plat of the Marsh Farm</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The "Big Ditch" of the Marsh Farm</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Main House at the Marsh Farm</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Large Barn at the Marsh Farm</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler's Residence at Washington</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler's Residence at Detroit</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The State Capitol of Michigan</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Senator Chandler Denouncing the Eulogies upon Jeff. Davis in the Senate Chamber at 3 a. m. of Monday, March 3, 1879</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_381">381</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Grand Pacific Hotel at Chicago</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Profile Bust of Zachariah Chandler</span>&mdash;(A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's Plaster Cast),</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_391">391</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">The Tribute of Gen. U. S. Grant</span> (<em>fac-simile</em>),</td>
-    <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_393">393</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p class="ph1">ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
-</p>
-<div class="chapter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER I.<br />
-
-BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_019.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">the</span> valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from
-Boston, is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a
-community of thrifty farms, with striking characteristics,
-and almost a century and a half of entertaining history.
-Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of character prevail among
-its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock of its original settlers,
-the loftiness of their traditions, and the puritanism of its
-civilization have made it a nursery of strong men.</p>
-
-<p>King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the New
-England provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only
-accomplished when one in twenty of the men among the colonists
-had fallen and a like proportion of their families was
-houseless, and it left behind it what was in those days a heavy
-debt. More than half a century elapsed before there was any
-substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of that war
-and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous
-petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General
-Court of Massachusetts" granted land enough for two townships
-"to the soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narragansett
-War and to their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
-subsequently enlarged to seven townships, as appears from the
-following record of proceedings in "the Great and General Court
-or Assembly for His Majestie's Province of the Massachusetts
-Bay," under date of April 26, 1733:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>A Petition of a Committee for the Narragansett Soldiers, showing that
-there are the number of Eight Hundred and Forty Persons entered as officers
-and soldiers in the late Narragansett War, Praying that there may be such
-an addition of Land granted to them, as may allow a Tract of six miles
-Square to each one hundred and twenty men so admitted.</p>
-
-<p>In the House of Representatives, Read, and Ordered that the Prayer of
-the Petition be granted, and that Major Chandler, Mr. Edward Shove, Col.
-Thomas Tileston, Mr. John Hobson and Mr. Samuel Chandler (or any three
-of them,) be a Committee fully authorized and empowered to survey and lay
-out five more Tracts of Land for Townships, of the Contents of Six miles
-Square each, in some of the unappropriated lands of this Province; and that
-the said land, together with the two towns before granted, be granted and
-disposed of to the officers and soldiers or their lawful Representatives, as they
-are or have been allowed by this Court, being eight hundred and forty in
-number, in the whole, and in full satisfaction of the Grant formerly made
-them by the General Court, as a reward for their public service. And the
-Grantees shall be obliged to assemble within as short time as they can conveniently,
-not exceeding the space of two months, and proceed to the choice of
-Committees, respectively, to regulate each Propriety or Township which is to
-be held and enjoyed by one hundred and twenty of the Grantees, each in
-equal Proportion, who shall pass such orders and rules as will effectually
-oblige them to settle Sixty families, at least, within each Township, with a
-learned, orthodox ministry, within the space of seven years of the date of this
-Grant. Provided, always, that if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle
-the said number of families in each Township, and also lay out a lot for the
-first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the school, in each of
-the said townships, they shall have no advantage of, but forfeit their respective
-grants, anything to the contrary contained notwithstanding. The Charge of
-the Survey to be paid by the Province.</p>
-
-<p>In Council read and concur'd.</p>
-
-<p class="right">J. BELCHER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In June of 1733 these grantees met on Boston Common for
-the purpose of making a division of the lands thus appropriated,
-but twenty veterans of the Narragansett War being then living.
-They organized into seven societies, each representing one
-hundred and twenty persons, and each represented by an execu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>tive
-committee of three. These committees convened in Boston
-on the 17th of October, 1733, and, by drawing numbers from a
-hat, apportioned to their societies the following seven townships
-set apart from the public domain under the grant: No. 1,
-in Maine, now called Buxton; No. 2, Westminster, Mass.;
-No. 3, Souhegan-West, now Amherst, N. H.; No. 4, originally
-at the Falls of the Amoskeag, where Goffstown now is (subsequently
-exchanged for lands in Hampden county, Mass.); No. 5,
-Souhegan-East, N. H.; No. 6, Templeton, Mass.; No. 7, Gorham,
-Me. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester, drew "Number 5,
-Souhegan-East;" of the one hundred and twenty grantees
-whom he represented, fifty-seven belonged to Boston, fifteen to
-Roxbury, seven to Dorchester, two to Milton, five to Braintree,
-four to Weymouth, thirteen to Hingham, four to Dedham, two
-to Hull, one to Medfield, five to Scituate, and one to Newport,
-R. I. In the fifteen Roxbury grantees was Zechariah Chandler,
-who was one of the few who personally took up land under the
-grant and settled upon it one of his own family. As a rule
-the grantees sold their claims to others. On the town records
-Zechariah Chandler's name is signed in the right of his wife's
-father, Thomas Bishop, who served against King Philip. His
-son, Thomas Chandler, took possession of the land and was
-among the pioneers of the town. To-day the Chandler family
-is believed to be the only representative in Bedford of the
-original grantees. It was in 1737, 1738, and 1739 that systematic
-settlement practically began in this part of the Merrimack
-valley.</p>
-
-<p>In 1741 New Hampshire became a separate province, and
-in 1748 the farmers of Souhegan-East, finding themselves without
-any township organization and without the power to legally
-transact corporate business, called upon the government for relief.
-As a result, it is recorded that on the 11th of April in that
-year Gov. Benning Wentworth informed the Council of New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
-Hampshire "of the situation of a number of persons inhabiting
-a place called Souhegan-East, within this Province, that were
-without any township or District, and had not the privilege of
-a town in choosing officers for regulating their affairs, such as
-raising money for the ministry," etc. Thereupon a provisional
-township organization was authorized, under which the municipality
-was managed until 1750, when, on the 10th of May, the
-following petition was sent to the Governor, signed by thirty-eight
-citizens, among them Thomas Chandler:</p>
-
-<p class="hangindent">To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and Commander-in-Chief
-of his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, and to the Honorable,
-his Majesty's Council, assembled at Portsmouth, May 10, 1750.</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The humble Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of Souhegan-East,
-so-called, sheweth, That your Petitioners are major part of said Souhegan;
-that your petitioners, as to our particular persuasion in Christianity, are
-generally of the Presbyterian denomination; that your petitioners, through a
-variety of causes, having long been destitute of the gospel, are now desirous
-of taking proper steps in order to have it settled among us in that way of
-discipline which we judge to tend most to our edification; that your petitioners,
-not being incorporated by civil authority, are in no capacity to raise
-those sums of money, which may be needful in order to our proceeding in the
-above important affair. May it therefore please your Excellency, and Honors,
-to take the case of your petitioners under consideration, and to incorporate us
-into a town or district, or in case any part of our inhabitants should be taken
-off by any neighboring district, to grant that those of our persuasion, who are
-desirous of adhering to us, may be excused from supporting any other parish
-charge, than where they conscientiously adhere, we desiring the same liberty
-to those within our bounds, if any there be, and your petitioners shall ever
-pray, &amp;c.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This petition was presented on May 18, 1750, to the Council,
-which unanimously advised the granting of a charter, and this the
-Governor did upon the following day. The name of the town
-was changed by Governor Wentworth from Souhegan-East to
-Bedford, it is said in honor of the fourth Duke of Bedford, then
-Secretary of State in the ministry of George II. This was the
-formal organization of the present town, which has a territorial
-extent of about twenty thousand acres of land.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Of the early population of this and neighboring towns "The
-Centennial History of Bedford" (published in 1851) says:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>With few exceptions the early inhabitants of the town were from the
-North of Ireland or from the then infant settlement of Londonderry, N. H.,
-to which they had recently emigrated from Ireland. Their ancestors were of
-Scotch origin. About the middle of the seventeenth century they went in
-considerable numbers from Argylshire, in the West of Scotland, to the
-counties of Londonderry and Antrim, in the North of Ireland, from which in
-1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived at Boston,
-and some at Casco Bay near Portland, which last were the settlers of Londonderry.
-Many towns in this vicinity were settled from this colony. Windham,
-Chester, Litchfield, Manchester, Bedford, Goffstown, New Boston, Antrim,
-Peterborough and Acworth derived from Londonderry a considerable proportion
-of their first inhabitants.</p>
-
-<p>Many of their descendants have risen to high respectability, among whom
-are numbered four Governors of New Hampshire, one of the signers of the
-Declaration of Independence, several distinguished officers in the Revolutionary
-War and in the last war with Great Britain, including Stark, Reid, Miller,
-and McNeil, a President of Bowdoin College, some Members of Congress,
-and several distinguished ministers of the gospel.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It was a Scottish stock, with an Irish preceding the American
-transplanting, that peopled Bedford. There were among its original
-settlers a few families of English and fewer still of pure
-Milesian extraction, but the Scotch descent was overwhelmingly
-predominant, and the austere theology and noble traditions of the
-Kirk of Scotland formed the leaven of the community. Their
-religious history dated back to John Knox. Their immediate
-ancestors were the sturdy Presbyterians with whom James I.
-colonized depopulated Ulster after he had crushed the Catholic
-uprisings. Those involuntary colonists made that the most prosperous
-of the Irish provinces, and at a critical moment for the
-cause of Protestantism added to the annals of heroic endurance
-the defense of Londonderry against the army of James II. But
-to their simple and tenacious faith the tithes and rents of the
-Anglican Church were scarcely less abhorrent than Catholic persecution,
-and the example of Puritan emigration ultimately led<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
-them by thousands to American shores. Much of this tide of
-settlement was diverted by the Puritan pre-occupation of New
-England soil to the Middle and Southern States, but a strong
-current set up into northern New England and occupied (with
-much other territory) the valley of the Merrimack. It was to
-these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that the greater number of the
-grantees of Bedford&mdash;as a rule the descendants of Massachusetts
-Puritans&mdash;sold their claims, and the community became what
-their labors and influence made it. The Chandler (representing
-an original grantee) was one of the few Bedford families which
-sprang from English stock and possessed Puritan antecedents.</p>
-
-<p>The settlement of Bedford was thus the outgrowth of an
-unquenchable thirst for civil and religious liberty. A profound
-conscientiousness added these simple, devout, frugal, and industrious
-people to the pioneer assailants of the North American
-wilderness. The ancient records and the published annals of the
-town afford a quaintly interesting picture of early New England
-civilization. Its background is the rock of religious faith, and to
-repeat the chronicles of the Bedford church for the eighteenth
-century is to write the history of the township for that period.
-The original grant required the maintenance of "a learned,
-orthodox ministry." The petition for the charter of Bedford set
-forth that "your petitioners, as to our particular persuasion in
-Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian denomination,"
-and assigned as the chief reason for asking incorporation that
-they "having been long destitute of the gospel, are now desirous
-of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled
-among us," but "not being incorporated by civil authority are
-in no capacity to raise those sums of money which may be needful."
-The official records of formal township proceedings abound
-in such entries as these:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Feb. 15. 1748.</em> <em>Voted</em>&mdash;That one third of the time, Preaching shall be to
-accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the town; one other third
-part, at the lower end of the town; the last third, about Strawberrie hill.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
-<p><em>July 26, 1750.</em> <em>Voted</em>, There be a call given to the Rev. Mr. Alexander
-Boyd, to the work of the ministry in this town.</p>
-
-<p><em>March 28, 1753.</em> <em>Voted</em>, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr. Alexander
-McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the ministry in this town.</p>
-
-<p><em>March 13, 1757.</em> <em>Voted</em>,&mdash;That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker, and
-Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the meeting-house.</p>
-
-<p><em>March, 1767.</em> <em>Voted</em>,&mdash;That the same committee who built the pulpit,
-paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr. McGregor's pulpit is, in
-Londonderry.</p>
-
-<p><em>June, 1768.</em> The meeting-house glass lent out<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>; Matthew Little's account
-of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six squares of the
-meeting-house glass; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of the same, Dea. Gilmore
-had of the same, 24 squares. <em>November 20, 1768</em>, the Rev. Mr. John Houston,
-had 24 squares of the same; Hugh Campbell had 12 squares of the same;
-Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield Gilmore 6 squares of the same; James Wallace
-had 15 squares of the same; John Bell had 9 squares of the same; Joseph
-Scobey, one quart of oil.</p>
-
-<p>A true record.</p>
-
-<p class="right">Attest, WILLIAM WHITE, <em>Town Clerk</em>.</p>
-
-<p>[Extract from the "town meeting warrant" (call) for 1779]: As for some
-time past, the Sabbath has been greatly profaned, by persons traveling with
-burthens upon the same, when there is no necessity for it,&mdash;to see whether
-the town will not try to provide some remedy for the same, for the future.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The Bedford church has been ever the center of all public
-activity. Its officers have been the officers of the town. From
-its pulpit have been made all formal announcements. Within its
-walls have been inspired every important home measure, and its
-influence has stimulated each wise public action. In the early
-records the school-house also shares prominence with the meeting-house,
-and the later generations of Bedford's inhabitants were men
-and women of solid primary education and thorough religious
-training. Thrift and industry made them prosperous, and they
-raised large families of powerful men and vigorous women.
-The mothers and daughters shared in the field work, and even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
-carried on foot to Boston the linen thread from their busy spinning
-wheels. Physical and moral strength characterized the race,
-and they built up a community of comfortable homes, severe
-virtues, strong religious instincts, a stern morality, and long lives.
-Neither poverty nor riches were to be found among them, and
-the simplest habits prevailed. Silks were unknown, and homemade
-linen was the choicest fabric. Brown bread was the staple
-of life, and wheat flour a luxury. Tea and coffee were rarely
-seen, but barley broth was on all tables. Shoes were only worn
-in winter, except to church on Sundays when they were carried
-in the hand to the neighborhood of the meeting-house. The
-saddle and pillion were used in journeys. Splinters and knots of
-pitch pine furnished lights. The hymns were "deaconed out"
-by the line at the meeting-house, and at the appearance of the
-first bass-viol in the gallery (about 1790) there was a fierce
-rebellion among the more austere of the worshipers. There was
-community of effort in all important enterprises, and no man
-needed aught if his neighbor could supply it.</p>
-
-<p>But this frontier picture is not wholly stern in its lines.
-Along with this simplicity of life and severity of religious doctrine
-there was no lack of frolic and rough joking, and the other
-rugged characteristics were relieved by shrewd wit and native
-humor. The annals of Bedford are entertaining and abound in
-such anecdotes as these: Deacon John Orr (the grandfather of
-the mother of Zachariah Chandler) was a sturdy Irish-Scotchman,
-whose temper under extreme provocation once got the better of
-his devoutness and led him into a vigorous profanity of speech.
-This glaring dereliction in a church officer called for reprimand,
-and he was waited upon by the minister and a delegation of his
-brethren who asked, "How could you suffer yourself to speak
-so?" "Why, what was it?" His offending language was
-repeated to him. "And what o' that!" said he, "D'ye expect
-me to be a' spirit and nae flesh?" Late in life Deacon Orr<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
-visited Boston with a load of produce and put up at a house of
-entertainment where, after he had drunk several cups of tea, and
-refused a final invitation, the landlady said that it was customary
-to turn the cup upside down to show that no more was wanted.
-He apologized and promised to remember the injunction. The
-next morning he partook of a huge bowl of bread and milk for
-breakfast, and not wanting the whole laid down his spoon and
-turned the dish upside down with its contents on the table. The
-hostess was naturally angry, but was met with the statement that
-he had merely followed her own direction. The answer of a
-brother deacon to one of the congregation who complained, "I
-could na' mak yesterday's preaching come together," was a compend
-of practical Christianity: "Trouble yourself na' about that,
-man&mdash;a' ye have to do, man, is to fear God and keep His
-commandments." It is also told that the objections of one of
-the staunch Scotch Presbyterians of Bedford to the marriage of
-his daughter with an urgent suitor of Catholic parentage were
-overcome by the apt query, "If a man happened to be born in
-a stable would that make him a horse?" And to one of the
-rural theologians of the town is credited this contribution to
-ecclesiastical distinctions: "The difference between the Presbyterians
-and Congregationalists is this: The Congregationalist
-goes home and eats a regular dinner between services, but the
-Presbyterian postpones his until after meeting." After a most
-vigorous quarrel between the minister and one of the flock over
-a boundary line dispute, the wrathful member of the congregation
-was prompt at service on Sunday with the following
-explanation: "I'd have ye to know, if I did quarrel with the
-minister, I did not quarrel with the Gospel."</p>
-
-<p>That this was a community of uncompromising patriotism
-follows from its character. In the French and Indian war the
-New England forces were at one time under command of Col.
-John Goffe, of Bedford, and the number of privates enlisted from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
-that town was large. The New Hampshire regiment which joined
-the expedition of General Amherst against Canada, commanded
-by Colonel Goffe, was raised largely among the Scotch-Irish
-emigrants of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, and had in
-its ranks many Bedford men. In the Revolutionary War a large
-portion of its able-bodied citizens were in the first American
-army that beleaguered Boston and fought at Bunker Hill; nearly
-or quite half of all who could handle a musket were with Stark
-at Bennington, and with Gates at Saratoga. General Stark lived
-but a few rods from the town line on the north, and one of his
-most trusted officers was Lieutenant, afterwards Colonel, John
-Orr, of Bedford. The town records abound with votes taken to
-carry out the measures proposed by the Continental Congress,
-and also chronicle one case of semi-Toryism and its punishment.
-In 1776 Congress advised the disarming of all who were disaffected
-towards the American cause, and the selectmen of the
-New Hampshire towns circulated this pledge among their people:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental Congress, and
-to show our determination in joining our American brethren, in defending the
-lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants of the United Colonies, We,
-the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise, that we will, to the
-utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose
-the hostile proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United
-American Colonies.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Among its Bedford signers were John Orr, Zachariah Chandler,
-and Samuel Patten (all ancestors of Zachariah Chandler,)
-and the report made from that town was this:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p class="hangindent">To the honorable, the Council and House of Representatives, for the Colony of
-New Hampshire, to be convened in Exeter, in said Colony, on Wednesday,
-5th inst.</p>
-
-<p>Pursuant to the within precept, we have taken pains to know the minds
-of the inhabitants of the town of Bedford, with respect to the within obligation,
-and find none unwilling to sign the same, except <em>the Rev. John Houston</em>,
-who declines signing the said obligation, for the following reasons: Firstly,
-Because he did not apprehend that the honorable Committee meant that Min<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>isters
-should take up arms, as being inconsistent with their ministerial charge.
-Secondly, Because he was already confined to the County of Hillsborough,
-therefore, he thinks he ought to be set at liberty before he should sign the said
-obligation. Thirdly, Because there are three men belonging to his family
-already enlisted in the Continental Army.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Houston, who was thus officially reported as the only
-Bedford Tory, had occupied the town pulpit for over fifteen
-years, and was a man of scholarship and purity, but he had
-become a loyalist in sympathy at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
-troubles, and was as inflexible in conviction as his
-neighbors. Originally (in 1756) the town had voted that his
-salary should be at the rate of forty pounds sterling a year for
-such Sundays as they desired his services. When they felt
-unable to pay they voted him one or more Sundays for himself,
-and then deducted from his salary proportionately. In 1775, after
-prolonged controversy with him, his case was brought before
-town-meeting (on June 15th), and he was unanimously dismissed
-by the adoption of a vote setting off for his own use all the
-Sabbaths remaining in the calendar year. The town records
-contain this explanation of the action:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>June 15, 1775.</em> <em>Voted</em>&mdash;Whereas, we find that the Rev'd Mr. John Houston,
-after a great deal of tenderness and pains taken with him, both in public
-and private, and toward him, relating to his speeches, frequently made both
-in public and private, against the rights and privileges of America, and his
-vindicating of King and Parliament in their present proceedings against the
-Americans; and having not been able hitherto to bring him to a sense of his
-error, and he has thereby rendered himself despised by people in general, and
-by us in particular, and that he has endeavored to intimidate us against maintaining
-the just rights of America: Therefore, we think it not our duty as men
-or Christians, to have him preach any longer with us as our minister.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly
-resented and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the
-people had been accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested
-on all occasions. This is a document of later date, signed by a
-Bedford committee, which seems not to have been suggested by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
-any outside action, but to have resulted from the impulses of
-the citizens themselves:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p class="right"><em>Bedford, May 31, 1783.</em></p>
-
-<p class="hangindent">To Lieut. John Orr, Representative at the General Court of the State of New
-Hampshire:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>Sir:&mdash;Although we have full confidence in your fidelity and public virtue,
-and conceive that you would at all times pursue such measures only as tend
-to the public good, yet upon the particular occasion of our instructing you,
-we conceive that it will be an advantage to have your sentiments fortified by
-those of your constituents.</p>
-
-<p>The occasion is this; the return of those persons to this country, who are
-known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in America, by those of
-conspirators, absentees, and tories;</p>
-
-<p>We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not receive
-the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they not deserving favor,
-as they left us in the righteous cause we were engaged in, fighting for our
-undoubted rights and liberties, and as many of them acted the part of the
-most inveterate enemies.</p>
-
-<p>And further,&mdash;that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we esteem
-them as persons not deserving it, but the contrary.</p>
-
-<p>You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are already
-returned, be treated according to their deserts.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In the War of 1812 there were more than two hundred men
-in Bedford armed and in readiness to march whenever called
-upon, and in this two hundred was one company of about sixty
-men over forty years of age and therefore exempt from military
-duty. In the War of the Rebellion Bedford invariably filled its
-quota without draft and without high bounties, and it paid its
-war debt promptly.</p>
-
-<p>It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom-loving,
-sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and
-women, that Zachariah Chandler was born and that the foundations
-of his character were durably laid.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building was ready for it,
-and it was loaned to different members; the careful record kept shows how scarce and
-costly an article it then was.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER II.<br />
-
-PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_031.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> Chandlers of New England are the descendants of
-William Chandler, who came from England in the days
-of the Puritan immigration&mdash;about 1637&mdash;and settled
-in Roxbury, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The
-Chandlers of Bedford, N. H., are the posterity of one of his
-descendants, Zechariah Chandler of Roxbury, who was among the
-grantees of Souhegan-East in the right of his wife, the daughter
-of a soldier in King Philip's War. They were the conspicuous
-English family in that Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlement, and
-their farm is the only one in that town which is still in possession
-of the lineal descendants of an original grantee. That
-Zechariah Chandler was a man of some means is shown by this
-document, which is still on record and reads curiously enough in
-the biography of a most inveterate and powerful opponent of
-slavery and the slave power:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, November 11, 1740.</p>
-
-<p>Received of Mr. Zechariah Chandler, one hundred and ten pounds, in full,
-for a Negro Boy, sold and delivered him for my master, John Jones.</p>
-
-<p>£110</p>
-<p class="right">WM. MERCHANT, Jun'r.
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This slave was taken to Bedford, but soon freed by his owner,
-when he assumed the name of Primas Chandler. Although past
-the usual military age, in 1775 he enlisted as a private in the
-service of the colonies, was captured by the British at "The
-Cedars" and was never afterwards heard from by his friends.
-He left a wife and two sons in Bedford, but his family has
-since become extinct.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The first settlers in Bedford located chiefly on the rocky
-and hilly territory which is now the central and most thickly
-inhabited portion of the town. East of this, in the smooth and
-fertile intervale of the Merrimack, judging by the names on the
-most ancient maps, the settlers were chiefly of English descent,
-and among them was Thomas Chandler, the son of Zechariah,
-and the first actual occupant of the land granted to his father.
-He married Hannah, a daughter of Col. John Goffe, by whom
-he had four children&mdash;three daughters and a son named also
-Zachariah, who married Sarah Patten, the second daughter of
-Capt. Samuel Patten. This Zachariah, the grandfather of his
-namesake, the Senator, died on April 20, 1830, at the age of 79,
-and his widow died in 1842, aged nearly 94. From them were
-descended the two families of Chandlers, who in the present
-generation have been prominent in Bedford.</p>
-
-<p>The oldest son of Zachariah was named Thomas, and was
-born August 10, 1772. He had four children&mdash;Asenath, who
-married Stephen Kendrick, of Nashville; Sarah, who married
-Caleb Kendrick; Hannah, who married Rufus Kendrick, a
-well-known citizen of Boston; and Adam, who now lives in
-Manchester, where also reside his three sons, Henry and Byron,
-who are connected with the Amoskeag National Bank, and
-John, who is a prominent merchant of that city. The only
-daughter of Zachariah, Sarah, remained single, and lived at the
-old homestead, which had become her property, until her death
-in 1852. Throughout that whole region she was known for
-years as "Aunt Sarah."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
-<img src="images/i_033.jpg" width="550" height="368" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD, AT BEDFORD, N. H.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Samuel, the second son of Zachariah, was born May 28, 1774,
-and married Margaret Orr, the oldest daughter of General Stark's
-most trusted officer, Col. John Orr. They had seven children,
-one of whom died in infancy. Those who reached maturity were
-Mary Jane, who was successively married to the Rev. Cyrus
-Downs, the Rev. David P. Smith, and the Rev. Samuel Lee, and
-who is still living, the last surviving member of the seven, at
-the present homestead; Annis, who married Franklin Moore and
-became a resident of Detroit; Samuel, Jr., who, after four years
-at Dartmouth and Union colleges, lost his health and died in
-Detroit in 1835; Zachariah, the subject of this memorial volume;
-and John Orr, who, after graduating at Dartmouth, spent one
-year in Andover Theological Seminary, came in feeble health to
-Detroit where he was tenderly cared for by his brother, and finally
-went by way of New Orleans to Cuba, where he died in January,
-1839, his remains being subsequently removed to the Bedford
-burying-ground. The father, Samuel, died in Bedford on January
-11, 1870, at the age of 95, and the mother in 1855, at the
-age of 81.</p>
-
-<p>The Chandlers during the three generations from Thomas
-to Samuel were thus allied by marriage to three of the most
-noted families, not only in Bedford but in New Hampshire,
-the Goffes, Pattens and Orrs. They were generally long-lived,
-although consumption developed in different generations, and
-were always prominent in town and church matters. The
-Thomas Chandler who first settled in Bedford was one of the
-signers of the petition for incorporation in 1750, and was conspicuously
-connected with all local movements at that time. His
-grandson Thomas, the Senator's uncle, was in the Legislature
-several terms, and in Congress from 1829 to 1833, being elected
-as a Jackson Democrat. His name is frequently mentioned in
-the records of the church where he was choir-leader and where
-he formed a class for instruction in sacred music. He was also
-selectman for many years, and held other positions in connection
-with the town government. He as well as his father "kept
-tavern" on one of the main New England thoroughfares of
-those days, and both were widely known through that region.
-Samuel, the father of the Senator, played the first bass-viol ever
-used in the church choir, and helped to stem the tide of indig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>nation
-with which the introduction of this "ungodly" instrument
-was met by the more rigid members of that orthodox Presbyterian
-body. His name often appears in the records as clerk of
-the church, selectman, and town clerk. He was for over twenty
-years consecutively a justice of the peace, and in his hands was
-usually placed such business as the settlement of estates. In the
-list of town officers the name of Chandler appears almost every
-year, and in almost all church and public gatherings for over a
-century some member of this family was present among the
-active and public-spirited citizens.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_035.jpg" width="700" height="489" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first house built on the Chandler farm was on the east
-side of the river road, and not far from the present homestead.
-It was torn down many years ago, but the cellar was visible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
-until within a comparatively recent period. The second house
-was built before the Revolutionary War, by the grandfather of
-the Senator, and this is still standing, though it has been remodeled
-and modernized. It was used as a tavern and court-house
-during that war. In this the second Zachariah and his wife lived
-for many years, and in this they and their daughter Sarah died.
-During their declining years they were cared for there by the
-mother of Rodney M. Rollins, the present occupant and owner
-of the place, and the house, with forty acres of land, was willed
-to Mrs. Rollins by "Aunt Sarah" previous to her death. This
-was the first alienation from the possession of the family of any
-part of the Chandler farm. Although the house has been
-remodeled, it retains many of its old features, and one apartment
-at the northwest corner has been preserved nearly as it was at
-the time of the Revolution. It is called the Revolutionary room,
-and has still in its furniture some of the chairs that were there
-a hundred years ago, and among its fixtures an ancient buffet,
-carved by hand and unchanged except by paint since 1776.</p>
-
-<p>On the opposite side of the road, fronting the east, and in
-sight of the Merrimack, where it takes its broad sweep above
-Goff's Falls, is the present Chandler homestead, which was built
-by Samuel Chandler in 1800, before his marriage. It remains
-to-day almost precisely as first constructed, and seems good for
-half a century more. Its rooms are large, and the ceilings
-unusually high for a farm-house of the earlier times. The front
-portion contains four large apartments on the lower floor,
-and in the rear are the dining-room, the kitchen, the pantry,
-and store-rooms. In the second story are five bed-rooms, with
-closets and additional store-room, and above these is a spacious
-attic. Among the furniture are chairs and chests of drawers
-of pro-revolutionary times, one of the ancient four-post bedsteads
-common a hundred years ago, and brass andirons which
-would delight the eyes of a lover of antique relics. Here still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
-lives the Senator's oldest sister, and here the family of seven
-were born.</p>
-
-<p>In the ancient family bible, printed in 1803 and preserved by
-Mrs. Lee, is an entry of a birth, of which this is a fac-simile:</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_037.jpg" width="700" height="165" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>Zacharias Chandler</p>
-
-<p>Born Dec<sup>r</sup>. 10<sup>th</sup> 1813</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It will be noticed that the given name is written Zacharias.
-Mrs. Lee still speaks of her brother as Zacharias, and his name
-is also so printed in the Chandler genealogy in the centennial
-history of Bedford. The Senator in his signatures simply used
-the initial of his first name, but he ultimately adopted the
-ancestral Zachariah, and that was the name which he made
-famous, and by which he will be known in this biography.</p>
-
-<p>Zachariah Chandler's father and paternal grandfather, Samuel
-and Zachariah, are described as spare men of medium stature,
-but energetic and full of endurance. His mother, Margaret Orr,
-was tall and powerful; her distinguished son resembled her in
-face, and inherited from her many of his most vigorous traits.
-She was a woman of great strength of character and robust sense,
-and exercised a large influence over her children. Her family
-was a remarkable one; her father was the conspicuous man of
-his day in his part of New Hampshire; her brother, Benjamin
-Orr, became the foremost lawyer of Maine early in the present
-century, and served one term from that State in Congress; her
-half-brother, the Rev. Isaac Orr, was a man of many accomplishments
-and a diverse scholarship, a prolific writer on scientific and
-philosophical topics, and with a claim on the general gratitude as
-the inventor of the application of the air-tight principle to the
-common stove.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The boy Zachariah was healthy, strong, quick-tempered, and
-self-reliant, and the contrast was marked between his sturdiness
-and the constitutional feebleness of his short-lived brothers. The
-traditions of his childhood, still fondly cherished by his surviving
-sister, all show that from his cradle he was ready to fight his
-own battles, and that his "pluckiness" was innate. One juvenile
-anecdote related by Mrs. Lee will illustrate scores that might be
-repeated: His father's poultry-yard was ruled by a large and
-ill-tempered gander, the strokes of whose horny beak were the
-dread of the smaller children. The oldest brother was one day
-driven back by this fowl while attempting to cross the road,
-when the young "Zach.," then three years old, called out "Do,
-Sammy, do, I'll keep e' dander off," and rushed into a pitched
-and victorious battle with the "dander," during which his brother
-made good his escape.</p>
-
-<p>His rudimentary education was obtained in the little brick
-school-house at Bedford, which remains substantially unchanged
-and is still used. Here he attended school regularly from the
-age of five or six until he was fourteen or fifteen. He had an
-excellent memory, and was a good scholar, standing well with
-others of his age. He was a leader in the boys' sports, always
-active, and entering with zest into every frolic. Of these
-days, one of his early playmates&mdash;now the Rev. S. G. Abbott,
-of Stamford, Conn.&mdash;thus writes: "The death of Mr. Chandler
-revives the memories of half a century ago. The old brick
-school-house where we were taught together the rudiments of
-our education; the country store where his father sold such a
-wonderful variety of merchandise for the wants of the inner
-and outer man; the broad acres of field and forest in the
-ancestral domain where we used to rove and hunt; his uncle's
-'tavern,' the cheerful home of the traveler when there were no
-railroads, situated on a great thoroughfare, constantly alive with
-stages, teams, cattle, sheep, swine, turkeys, and pedestrian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
-immigrants&mdash;all these form a picture as distinct to the mind's
-eye as if a scene of the present. No unimportant feature of
-that picture in my boyish memory was a rough-built, overgrown,
-awkward, good-natured, popular boy, who went by the
-never-forgotten, familiar sobriquet of 'Zach.' He never forgot
-it. After more than forty years' separation, when I called on
-him in the capitol, and apologized for calling him Zach., in
-his old, rollicking way he said 'Oh, you can call me <em>old</em> Zach.,
-that's what they all call me out West.'"</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_039.jpg" width="700" height="479" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In his fifteenth and sixteenth years he attended the academies
-at Pembroke and Derry, with his older brother, who was
-fitting for college. In the winter following he taught school
-one term in the Piscataquog or "Squog" district. As is the
-rule in country schools, many of the pupils were about as large
-as the teacher, and the "Squog" boys had the reputation of
-being especially unruly. The usual disorders commenced, but
-after some trouble the energetic young man from the Chandler
-farm established his supremacy, and the scholars recognized the
-fact that there was a head to the school. Mr. Chandler always
-spoke with interest of his brief experience in teaching, although
-he never claimed any particular success in that calling. While
-he was thus employed the teacher of the brick school, in which
-he had been so long a pupil, was a Dartmouth sophomore who
-in his "boarding around" was especially welcome at the house
-of Samuel Chandler. This was James F. Joy, who then formed
-with the young Zachariah an intimacy, which ranked among the
-causes that determined Mr. Joy's own selection of Detroit as a
-home, and lasted through life.</p>
-
-<p>In the latter years of his school life young Chandler worked
-on the farm through the summer, and the last season that he
-was home he took entire charge, employing the help and superintending
-the labor. Thomas Kendall, who was with him during
-three summers, and who is still living in Bedford, says, "Zach.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
-was a good man to work and a good man to work for." He
-was just in his dealings with the men, but vigorous as an overseer,
-and himself as good a "farm hand" as there was. Stories
-are still told of his achievements in mowing contests with the
-men. He had no liking, as had many of his fellows, for hunting
-or fishing, but he was fond of athletic sports, and was the
-best wrestler in town. "Whoever took hold of Zach.," says Mr.
-Kendall, "had to go down."</p>
-
-<p>During one of the last years of his residence at Bedford,
-Mr. Chandler was enrolled in the local militia company and
-turned out at the "general muster." He did not, however,
-succeed in bringing himself to perfect obedience to the orders
-of the young captain, whom he knew he could easily out-wrestle
-and out-mow, and was arrested for insubordination. He was kept
-under arrest through one afternoon, but the court-martial which
-had been ordered for his trial was recalled and he was released.
-He was afterwards for a short time on the staff of the commanding
-officer, General Riddle, but his removal from New Hampshire
-took place at about this time. After his Janesville, Wis., speech,
-two days before his death, Mr. Chandler was called upon by the
-Captain Colley who had placed him under arrest nearly fifty
-years before. Mr. Colley is now a resident of Rock county,
-Wis., and had driven a long distance to listen to his old-time
-subordinate, or rather insubordinate, and to revive with him old
-memories.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1833 Zachariah Chandler entered the store of
-Kendrick &amp; Foster of Nashua, and in September of that year,
-moved by the same impulse that has sent so many New Englanders
-into the growing territories, turned his face Westward,
-and in company with his brother-in-law, the late Franklin Moore,
-came to the city, which from that time to his death was his
-home. He had not then shown in any marked degree the
-qualities which made his future success so eminent, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
-apparently simply a good specimen out of thousands of the energetic,
-determined, and sagacious young men, who, leaving more
-sterile New England, have subdued the forests, moulded the
-politics and conducted the business of half a dozen Western
-States.</p>
-
-<p>For the old homestead and its occupants, and for the town
-of Bedford, Mr. Chandler always entertained a warm affection.
-He was a good correspondent, and his home letters, which until
-his entrance into public life were frequent and long, breathed a
-genuine feeling of filial and brotherly affection. After his election
-to the Senate, with the voluminous correspondence which
-his official position involved, his letters to the old home became
-less frequent, but to the last he kept up occasional communication
-with the surviving friends at his birthplace. During his father's
-life he visited Bedford twice or more each year, and after his
-father's death made at least one annual journey there. In 1850,
-when the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the township
-occurred, Mr. Chandler was among those invited to be
-present, and sent the following letter of regret:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p class="right"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, May 16, 1850.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>:&mdash;I regret exceedingly my inability to accept your kind
-invitation to be present at your Centennial Celebration of the settlement of
-the good old town of Bedford. It would have afforded me great pleasure to
-meet my old friends upon that occasion, but circumstances beyond my own
-control will prevent. The ashes of the dead, as well as the loved faces of the
-living, attract me strongly to my native town, and that attachment I find
-increasing each day of my life. Permit me, in conclusion, to offer: "<em>The
-town of Bedford</em>&mdash;May her descendants (widely scattered through the land)
-never dishonor their paternity."</p>
-
-<p>Be pleased to accept, for yourselves and associates, my kind regards, and
-believe me,</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Truly yours,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 29.5em;">Z. CHANDLER.</span><br />
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>His later visits were looked forward to with much interest,
-not only by his relatives, but by the neighbors, to whom a talk
-with him was one of the events of the year. He was there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
-always genial and friendly, kept up his acquaintance with the
-old residents, and thoroughly enjoyed his association with them.
-His last visit to the homestead was after the close of his campaign
-in Maine, in August, 1879. He then met many of his boyhood
-friends, and enjoyed a ramble over the undulating fields which
-stretch from the central hills toward the banks of the Merrimack.
-And as he drove for the last time down the road from
-the house of his birth toward Manchester, he pointed to a pine
-grove which skirts the northern border of the Chandler farm,
-and said to his companion, "That, to me, is the most beautiful
-grove in the world."</p>
-
-<p>New Hampshire has been prolific in strong men with the
-granite of its hills in the fibres of their characters. Bedford
-itself has been the birthplace of scores of the leading men of
-the thriving city of Manchester; of Joseph E. Worcester, the
-lexicographer; of Benjamin Orr, of Maine; of David Aiken,
-Isaac O. Barnes, and Jacob Bell, of the Massachusetts bar; of the
-Hon. David Atwood, of Wisconsin; of Judge A. S. Thurston,
-of Elmira, N. Y.; of Hugh Riddle, of the Rock Island Railroad,
-and Gen. George Stark, of the Northern Pacific; of the
-Rev. Silas Aiken, of the Boston pulpit; and of others of large
-influence in their generations. But upon no one of its sons was
-the impress of its peculiar history so indelibly stamped as upon
-the young man who left it to aid in founding a powerful State
-amid the Great Lakes, and who became the foremost representative
-of that State's vigorous political conviction and purpose.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER III.<br />
-
-REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN&mdash;MERCANTILE SUCCESS&mdash;BUSINESS
-INVESTMENTS.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_044.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">In</span> 1833 Zachariah Chandler, then still a minor, joined the
-current of Western emigration from New York and New
-England which had sprung up with the completion of
-the Erie canal, and in the fall of that year entered into
-the retail dry-goods business at Detroit. Franklin Moore (the
-husband of his sister Annis), who had already visited Michigan,
-came with him as a partner in the enterprise, and the original
-firm name was Moore &amp; Chandler. At the outset the young
-merchant had some assistance from his father, who, the tradition
-is, offered him $1,000 in cash or the collegiate education which
-his brothers received, the money being chosen. Samuel Chandler
-also subsequently bought a store for his son's use, but it is
-understood that all such advances were speedily and fully repaid.
-The building in which the future Senator first laid the foundation
-of his ample fortune was located where the Biddle House
-now stands; it adjoined the mansion of Governor Hull, and was
-subsequently transformed into the American House. Upon its
-shelves Moore &amp; Chandler displayed a small general stock, representing
-the ample assortment usual in frontier stores, and saw a
-promising business answer their invitations. In the following
-spring they removed to a brick store (on the site now occupied
-by S. P. Wilcox &amp; Co.), near the main corner of the town
-(where Woodward and Jefferson avenues meet). In the summer
-of 1834 Detroit was visited by the Asiatic cholera, which
-appeared in malignant form, and was attended by an appalling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
-death rate, and an almost entire suspension of general traffic.
-Mr. Chandler did not yield to the prevalent panic, but remained
-at his business and was indefatigable in his efforts to relieve the
-universal distress. His vigorous constitution and plain habits
-guarded his own health, and he cared for the sick and buried
-the dead without faltering amid the dreadful scenes of the pestilence.
-For weeks he and a clerk (Mr. William N. Carpenter,
-of Detroit) alternated in watching by sick beds, and, with others
-of like strength and courage, brightened with unassuming heroism
-the gloomy picture of a season of dreadful mortality.</p>
-
-<p>On August 16, 1836, the firm of Moore &amp; Chandler was
-dissolved, and the junior partner retained the established business,
-and continued its vigorous prosecution. Those who knew
-him then describe a fair-haired, awkward, tall, gaunt and wiry
-youth, blunt in his ways, simple in habits, diffident with others,
-but shrewd, tireless in labor, and of unlimited energy. He
-worked day and night, slept in the store, often on the counter
-or a bale of goods, acted as proprietor, salesman, or porter as
-was needed, lived on $300 a year, avoided society, and allowed
-only the Presbyterian church to divide his attention with business.
-He kept a good stock, especially strong in the staples,
-bought prudently, and there was no better salesman in the West.
-His trade became especially large with the farmers who used
-Detroit as a market, and the unaffected manners and homely
-good sense of the rising merchant soon gave him a popularity
-with his rural customers that foreshadowed the strong hold of
-his later life on the affectionate confidence of the yeomanry of
-the State.</p>
-
-<p>The training which this intense application added to native
-vigor of judgment early made him a thorough business man,
-exact in dealings, strong in an intuitive knowledge of men,
-sound in his judgment of values, prudent in ventures, and of an
-unflagging energy which pushed his trade wherever an opening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
-could be found. As interior Michigan developed he added jobbing
-to his retail department, and became known as a close and
-prudent buyer, a shrewd judge of credits, and a most successful
-collector. A business established at the commencement of an
-era of marvelous growth, pushed with such industry, drawn upon
-only for the meagre expenses of a young man living with the
-closest economy, and unembarrassed by speculation, meant a
-fortune, and at twenty-seven years of age Mr. Chandler found
-himself with success assured and wealth only a matter of patience.
-His nearest approach to financial disaster was in the ruinous
-crash which swept "the wild-cat banks" and so many mercantile
-enterprises out of existence in Michigan in the year 1838.
-Like others he found it almost impossible at that time to obtain
-money, and the Bank of Michigan which had promised him
-accommodations was compelled by its own straitened condition
-to decline his paper. Thus it happened that a note for about
-$5,000 given to Arthur Tappan &amp; Co. of New York fell due
-and went to protest. Mr. Chandler, accustomed to New England
-strictness in business and exceedingly sensitive on the point of
-meeting all engagements, was inclined to treat the protest as
-bankruptcy itself, and called upon his Bedford friend, James F.
-Joy, then a young lawyer in Detroit and for years afterwards
-Mr. Chandler's counsel, to have a formal assignment drawn up.
-What followed is given in Mr. Joy's language: "I looked carefully
-into his affairs, and found them in what I believed to be
-a sound and healthy condition. I then said: 'I won't draw
-an assignment for you, Chandler; there is no need of it.'
-'What shall I do?' was his answer, 'I can't pay that note.'
-My reply was, 'Write to Tappan &amp; Co. and say that you
-cannot get the discounts that have been promised, but that if
-they will renew the note you will be able to pay it when it
-next falls due.' He took my advice and went through, and
-never had any trouble with his finances after that. I reminded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
-Mr. Chandler of that occurrence about two months before his
-death, when he said he remembered it perfectly, and added
-that if it had not been for that advice he might have been a
-clerk on a salary to this day."</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's was the first business in Detroit whose sales
-aggregated $50,000 in a single year, and the reaching of that
-limit was hailed by the community as a great mercantile triumph.
-He showed increasing commercial sagacity at every stage of his
-active business life. He pushed his jobbing trade in all directions
-and made his interior customers his personal friends. He invested
-his surplus profits in productive real estate which grew rapidly
-in value. He was never tempted into speculation, and he was
-very reluctant to incur debt. As a result, ten years after he
-landed at Detroit he had a reputation throughout the new
-Northwest as a merchant of ample means, personal honesty,
-large connections, and remarkable enterprise.</p>
-
-<p>Between 1840 and 1850 Mr. Chandler reduced his business
-to a purely wholesale basis and made himself independently and
-permanently rich. He had opportunities and they were improved
-to the full. [And it may be here said without exaggeration that
-every dollar of the fortune with which he closed his career as an
-active merchant represented legitimate business enterprise; it was
-the product of personal industry and good judgment put forth
-in a field wisely selected and with only slight aid at the outset.]
-The wiry stripling had become a stalwart man, despite a family
-consumptive tendency which at times caused alarm. Prosperity
-did not affect the plainness of his manners and speech, nor the
-simplicity of his character, and maturity added method to, without
-impairing, his powers of personal application. He was a man
-alive with energy and thoroughly in earnest. He was active and
-influential in all public matters in Detroit. Every year he drove
-through the State, visited its cross-roads and its clearings, saw its
-pioneer merchants at their homes and in their stores, made up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
-his estimate of men and their means, studied the growth of the
-State, and marked the course of the budding of its resources. He
-thus kept himself thoroughly informed as to the material development
-of Michigan, and acquired that intimate knowledge of the
-State and its representative men which formed such an important
-part of his equipment for public life. His companion in these
-numerous commercial journeys was the man who succeeded him
-in the Senate, the Hon. Henry P. Baldwin of Detroit, who came
-to Michigan largely through his solicitations, was engaged in
-business for years by his side, and remained his intimate associate
-through life. This part of Mr. Chandler's career abounded
-in the making of friendships which endured until death. While
-strict in all his dealings, he was considerate and his sympathy
-was quick with struggling industry and honesty. He aided when
-they needed it many who afterwards rose to position and wealth,
-and these men became the most firmly attached of his supporters
-in his public career.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 410px;">
-<img src="images/i_049.jpg" width="410" height="500" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE CHANDLER BLOCK.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Shortly after 1850 political affairs commenced to receive Mr.
-Chandler's attention, and he gradually entrusted more and more
-of the actual management of his large business to others, though
-he still for some years directed in a general way the operations
-of the house. He had been already absent one winter on a trip
-to the West Indies for his health, and had made a brief and not
-wholly satisfactory experiment (about 1846) at establishing a jobbing
-fancy-goods trade in New York. With these exceptions
-he had made his Detroit dry-goods business his personal charge.
-The firm name had generally been Z. Chandler &amp; Co., although
-it was for some time Chandler &amp; Bradford, and some of his
-relatives had been and were associated with him in business.
-From his second location he had moved his stock to more commodious
-quarters on the site now occupied by the Chandler
-Block, and in 1852 he again moved to the stores built jointly
-by himself and Mr. Baldwin on the southwest corner of Woodward
-avenue and Woodbridge street. In 1855, as outside matters
-commenced to press constantly upon Mr. Chandler's attention,
-there came into his employment as a clerk a young man of
-twenty-three from Kinderhook, N.Y., Allan Shelden. He showed
-an aptitude for business and a capacity for work that recalled to
-the head of the house his own earlier days, and Mr. Shelden's
-rise in his employer's confidence was rapid and permanent. On
-Feb. 1, 1857, just before Mr. Chandler took his seat as the suc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>cessor
-of Lewis Cass in the Senate, the firm name was changed
-to Orr, Town &amp; Smith, with Mr. Chandler as a special partner,
-with an interest of $50,000. In the fall of that year, it became
-Town, Smith &amp; Shelden; in the fall of 1859 it was changed to
-Town &amp; Shelden; on Feb. 1, 1866, it was again changed to the
-present name of Allan Shelden &amp; Co. Three years later Mr.
-Chandler ceased to be a special partner, and thus finally sundered
-his formal connection with the business he had established. The
-mercantile pre-eminence in Michigan of his house in its line of
-trade has been maintained by his successors, and it now occupies
-the magnificent Chandler Block, built for its accommodation by
-its founder in 1878 on Jefferson avenue in Detroit. Mr. Shelden
-himself continued in confidential relations with his predecessor,
-and was entrusted in later years with the management of a large
-share of his private affairs.</p>
-
-<p>During his active business life no Northwestern merchant
-surpassed Mr. Chandler in credit, in enterprise, or in success,
-and he left the counter and office of his store with wealth and
-with an unsullied mercantile character. His commercial integrity
-and sagacity always remained among his marked characteristics.
-He made profitable investments, became interested in remunerative
-enterprises, and, while he lived generously after his income
-warranted it, saw his riches steadily increase under prudent and
-shrewd management. At the time of his death, his estate which
-was absolutely unincumbered was roughly estimated as exceeding,
-at the least, two millions, representing valuable business property
-in Detroit, several farms, large tracts of timbered lands, the
-marsh farm at Lansing, residences in Washington and Detroit,
-bank stock, government and other securities, and investments in
-railroad and like enterprises. His business habits remained in
-full vigor to the last. He was punctuality itself in all appointments;
-he was rigid in his adherence to his engagements; he
-hated debt, and never permitted the second presentation of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
-account; he did business on business principles and with business
-exactitude; he spent money freely but knew where and for what
-it went; and always his counsel was sought and prized by men
-engaged in enterprises of the largest magnitude. Without being
-ostentatious or profuse in his charities he was a large giver,
-rarely refusing a meritorious application for aid, but he invariably
-satisfied himself that the object was worthy, and put a
-heartiness into his "no" when a refusal seemed to him to be
-in order.</p>
-
-<p>His business instincts he never relaxed except for well-considered
-reasons. The ditching of the marsh farm he regarded as
-an experiment of far-reaching public importance, and he paid
-its cost cheerfully for the sake of settling the question of the
-possibility of reclaiming such lands. Some of his "imprudences"
-of this deliberate and well-weighed sort proved profitable. During
-the war and when the credit of the United States was at an
-alarmingly low ebb as shown in the ruling prices of its bonds,
-he visited the city of New York in company with Representative
-Rowland E. Trowbridge, of his State. On the way there he
-spoke, in private, in a tone of unusual depression of the financial
-difficulties of the government, and lamented the absence of any
-available remedy. The next day there was a decided improvement
-in the rates for "governments" on Wall street, and the
-firmer feeling it created never wholly disappeared but was
-followed by a gradual appreciation in this class of securities.
-Mr. Trowbridge called his attention to the advance on the day
-following, and the Senator answered, "I know all about it.
-I gave my broker orders to buy heavily and the street, finding
-that out, said 'Chandler is just over from Washington and
-knows something,' and so they followed my lead, and there
-was a rush which sent the market up." Years afterwards, Mr.
-Chandler was reminded by Mr. Trowbridge of the permanent
-character of the improvement in the government's credit which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
-attended his speculation and of his own profit in the matter.
-He replied that while he had sold many of his bonds bought
-during the war, he still held those which came into his possession
-at that time, cherishing them for their associations with an
-investment which he made at some risk to help the treasury in
-its difficulties and which had proved very remunerative.</p>
-
-<p>During his public life information legitimately acquired and
-the broadening of his judgment by contact with men undoubtedly
-helped his investments, and thus added to his wealth, but
-individual pecuniary advantage he resolutely ignored in shaping
-his public career. And his sturdy incorruptibility as a legislator
-was proverbial at the capital. An illustration of this fact was
-shown in his strenuous resistance to and emphatic denunciation
-of the bills to remonetize and coin without limit the old silver
-dollar. While these measures were pending he had considerable
-investments in silver mining stocks, which would have been
-greatly increased in value by the proposed policy, but, showing
-one day to a friend a large draft representing a silver-mine
-dividend, he said, "I ought for personal reasons to favor these
-bills, but I can't consent to make money at the expense of the
-people." Another incident exemplifies this phase of his character:
-In February, 1873, the city of Manistee, on the shore of
-Lake Michigan, sent Gen. B. M. Cutcheon to Washington to
-secure an increased appropriation for the improvement of its
-harbor. Senator Chandler, as the chairman of the Committee on
-Commerce and with a reputation for vigilance in caring for
-Michigan interests, was naturally relied upon for valuable assistance.
-He received General Cutcheon cordially, gave his personal
-attention to the matter of introducing the representative of
-Manistee to influential Congressmen and to department officials,
-and then made an appointment for the consideration of what his
-own share in the work should be. At that private meeting he
-expressed to General Cutcheon his cordial sympathy with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
-errand, but added, "My hands are tied; the fact is that I am
-interested in large tracts of pine on the Manistee river, and, if
-I should take charge of your appropriation, it would be said,
-'Chandler is feathering his own nest;' and if I am going to
-retain my influence for good here, I must keep clear of even
-the suspicion of a job."</p>
-
-<p>The great multitude who knew Mr. Chandler as a public man
-knew nothing of this early chapter of business life. It wholly
-ante-dated his appearance at Washington, and the channels in
-which his strong energies made themselves felt there and in his
-younger days were widely distinct. But it is a fact that he was
-a remarkable man of business and as thorough a merchant as
-ever developed in the West a great trade from small beginnings.
-His was a doubly successful career. Before he had reached
-middle age he had won success in business and a fortune. Then
-he entered public life and made himself a leader of men in a
-historic era.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br />
-
-THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_054.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> forty-six years of Zachariah Chandler's life in
-Michigan saw a vast material empire supplant an almost
-unbroken wilderness. His commercial enterprise and
-success and his labors as a legislator were among the
-influential agents in this marvelous development and give its
-story a title to a place in his biography.</p>
-
-<p>As early as 1634 Jesuits Brebuef, Daniel and Davost,
-following a route explored by Samuel Champlain eighteen years
-before, passed up the River Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, down
-French river and along the lonely shores of the great Georgian
-bay to the dark forests bordering Lake Huron. Brebuef
-reached there first; Daniel came later, weary and worn; Davost
-came last of all, half dead with famine and fatigue.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Champlain
-had been before them, and other explorers preceded Champlain,
-but these three were the first Europeans who made a habitation
-by the shores of the great lakes which roll their tireless flood
-down through the gateway of Detroit. They erected a hut, and
-daily rang a bell to call the surrounding savages to prayers.
-Behind them was the tangled forest they had penetrated; at their
-feet were the broad waters of Lake Huron; beyond&mdash;toward
-the setting sun&mdash;was an abyss so soundless that no echo had
-ever come from it. And these three soldiers of the cross, converters
-of the heathen, unarmed and alone amid a multitude of
-savages, were the advance ripples of the mighty wave that two
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>centuries later was to break across the lake at their feet and
-the rivers below them and surge over the trackless wilderness
-beyond.</p>
-
-<p>Seven years later (September, 1641,) Charles Raymbault and
-Isaac Jaques embarked in a frail birch-bark canoe, paddling
-northwest from Georgian bay among the countless islands of
-the St. Marie river, amid scenery that filled them with delight.
-After seventeen days the Sault de St. Marie burst upon their
-enraptured vision. There they were welcomed "as brothers" by
-the Chippewas and there began the first known white settlement
-in Michigan.</p>
-
-<p>On the 28th of August, 1660, Rene Mesnard left Quebec,
-resolved to make greater progress in the exploration of the
-Northwest. He ascended the Sault in a canoe, coasted along the
-northern shore of the upper peninsula of Michigan, and on the
-15th of October of that year reached the head of Keweenaw
-bay to which he gave the name of St. Theresa. Eight years
-later (1668) a permanent mission was established at the Sault.
-In the autumn of 1678 occurred an event forever memorable in
-the annals of Michigan. There was then laid on the Niagara
-river the keel of the first large vessel built on the shores of the
-great lakes. It was completed and launched early in the following
-summer, and on the 7th of August, 1679 (200 years ago),
-amid the discharges of arquebuses and the sound of swelling <i lang="la">Te
-Deums</i> it began the first voyage ever made by Europeans upon
-the upper inland seas of North America. This was the "Griffin,"
-sixty tons burden, carrying five guns, with La Salle commander,
-Hennepin missionary and journalist, and a crew of Canadian fur
-traders. Three days later (August 10), after many soundings,
-they reached the islands grouped at the entrance of Detroit
-river. They thus knew the lake was navigable by vessels of large
-size&mdash;this was one step toward solving the destiny of the West.
-Ascending the river, the explorers passed by a large number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
-Indian villages; these had been visited years before by Jesuit
-missionaries and <i lang="fr">coureurs des bois</i>. Some fix the date as early
-as 1610, but others make it later, no names being given in
-either case. Louis Hennepin gives the earliest description of the
-river: "The strait (De troit) is finer than Niagara, being one
-league broad, excepting that part which forms the lake that
-we have called St. Clair." The strait once voyaged and
-understood, its value was quickly appreciated by the French as a
-means of resisting the inroads of the persevering English (who
-from New York and New England were pressing upon their
-possessions in the East), and of preventing British interference
-with the valuable hunting privileges or with the Indian tribes
-dwelling upon the borders of the Northern lakes. With this in
-view the Marquis de Nonville, Governor-General of the Canadas,
-ordered (June 6, 1686) M. Du Lhut, who had been commandant
-at Michilimackinac, "to establish a post on the Detroit, near
-Lake Erie, with a garrison of fifty men," and the order added,
-"I desire you to choose an advantageous place to secure the
-passage, which may protect our savages who go to the chase,
-and serve them as an asylum against their enemies and ours."
-In obedience to these instructions, M. Du Lhut proceeded to the
-entrance of the strait from Lake Huron, where he built a fort
-and established a trading post (on the site of the present Fort
-Gratiot) which he called Fort St. Joseph. Thus (1686) was
-made the first settlement by Europeans in the lower peninsula
-of Michigan.</p>
-
-<p>The misfortunes of the war with England which terminated
-with the peace of Ryswick (Sept. 1, 1697,) still further convinced
-the most sagacious of the leading French colonists of the
-importance of a fort on the Detroit river which would command
-this channel of communication with the great lakes above. Impressed
-with this fact, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a Gascon
-sailor who amid a career of romantic adventure came to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
-commandant at Michilimackinac, crossed the Atlantic in person,
-and earnestly and repeatedly pressed upon the colonial minister,
-Count Ponchartrain, the necessity of the prompt establishment
-of a permanent post on the Detroit, where it would bring the
-French forces in closer proximity to the Iroquois and would give
-them command of the waters of the upper lakes and of the
-great fur trading regions about them. Cadillac did not urge
-this as a missionary enterprise but for its commercial and military
-advantages, and the force and vigor of his representations
-prevailed at the palace. He sailed from France with the royal
-order, "Take prompt possession of Detroit," with this supplement
-from Ponchartrain: "Prosecute vigorously; if the Jesuits
-obstruct, return and report." Cadillac arrived in Quebec early
-in the first year of the eighteenth century (March 8). Three
-months later (June 5) his preparations were made, and on that
-day he took his departure from La Chine. With him were
-Captain Tonti, Lieutenants Dugue and Chacornacle, fifty soldiers,
-and fifty Canadian traders and artisans. Nineteen days later he
-arrived upon the site of the present city of Detroit. In his
-memoir Cadillac wrote: "I arrived at Detroit, July 24 (1701),
-and fortified myself there immediately. I had the necessary
-huts made and cleared up the ground preparatory to its being
-sowed in the autumn." When he touched the shore of Michigan,
-with pomp and ceremony he erected a cross, a cedar post
-beside it; then with a sword in one hand and a sod in the other
-he made solemn proclamation with many words of "possession
-taken" of all the country round about, from the great lakes to
-the south seas, in the name of the King of France.</p>
-
-<p>Thus French Michigan began, and so it remained until
-Wolfe's victory gave new rulers to Canada and to all the French
-possessions beyond. On Nov. 29, 1760, the French flag floated
-for the last time over Detroit, as a part of the dominion of
-France. On that day Maj. Robert Rogers, an English provincial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
-officer, native of New Hampshire, took possession in the name
-of another king, ran up the Cross of St. George, fired a salute,
-gave some round British cheers, and (the Treaty of Paris confirming
-this occupation) Michigan was English. It so remained
-until the Revolution and the treaty of 1783 made it American.
-But it was not until thirteen years after (1796) that it was
-evacuated by the British garrison; in June of that year Captain
-Porter with a detachment of American troops entered the fort
-and hoisted the Union flag for the first time, and took formal
-possession in the name of the United States. The Hull surrender
-again swept Detroit and that part of Michigan lying within
-its command under the Cross of St. George (Aug. 16, 1812,) to
-remain until Perry's victory and the subsequent military successes
-of General Harrison expelled the English and restored it permanently
-to the Union, on Sept. 28, 1813. During the Revolution
-Detroit was the headquarters of British power in the Northwest,
-and from it were sent out the expeditions which ravaged the
-frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia.</p>
-
-<p>The British captain, Rogers, who took possession in 1760,
-afterwards reported the population (1765) as: Able-bodied men,
-243; women, 164; children, 294&mdash;total, 701. This was exclusive
-of the garrison, who were sent away as prisoners of war, and
-included the 60 men, women and children who were slaves. He
-also reported that of the French families remaining in the settlement
-there were 23 men able to bear arms, 24 women, and 41
-children. The others were probably English who had followed
-upon the track of the troops. Captain Rogers's report gives
-strength to this supposition. It says: "There are in the fort
-many English merchants, several of whom have bought houses."
-Then it gives this insight into the industrial condition of the
-settlement: "Of farms there are 40, and some fourscore
-acres in depth with a frontage on the river; of these several
-farms are at present in cultivation." The number of acres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
-under cultivation is given as 404; number of bushels of wheat
-raised the preceding year, 670; bushels of corn, 1,884. The
-report quaintly adds: "The Indian corn would have been in
-greater abundance, had proper care been taken of it; the most
-part has been devoured by birds."</p>
-
-<p>Here remote from the world, with the joyous sparkling of
-the great river at their feet, the luxuriance of the forest about
-them, the cottages of the settlers peeping out from the green
-foliage in which they were half hidden, these simple colonists
-lived uneventful lives, surrounded by the beauty and the bounties
-of nature. The forests teemed with game, the marshes with wild
-fowl, and the rivers with fish. The long winters were seasons of
-enjoyment. In summer and autumn traders, voyageurs, <i lang="fr">coureurs
-des bois</i>, and half-breeds gathered from the distant Northwest, and
-the settlement was boisterous with rude frolic and gaiety. This
-was Detroit and Michigan in 1765.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
-
-<p>Between the French surrender and American occupancy, little
-was done toward the development of the peninsulas. In 1796
-there were a few straggling settlements on the Detroit river, as
-also on Otter creek and on the rivers Rouge, Pointe aux Tremble,
-and other small streams flowing into Lake Erie. The French
-Canadians had extended their farms to a considerable distance
-along the banks of the St. Clair. Detroit was a small cluster of
-rude wooden houses, defended by a fort, and surrounded by
-pickets. Villages of the Ottawas and Pottawatamies stood on
-the present site of the city of Monroe, and near them were a
-few primitive cabins constructed of logs, erected by the French
-on either bank of the river Raisin; this was called Frenchtown,
-and is now part of Monroe. On the upper lakes there were the
-posts on the island of Mackinac, at St. Marie, and at St. Joseph
-(on the St. Joseph river). The transition from France to England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
-had given the monopoly of the fur trade to the Hudson
-Bay Company, thus changing the direction of its profits; otherwise
-the effect upon Michigan had been a change of masters,
-flag and garrison, and little else. And the shifting from England
-to the United States also meant only new faces and new colors
-in the fort; otherwise it was for the time effectless.</p>
-
-<p>The interior of the country was but little known except to
-those engaged in the fur trade, and they were interested in
-depreciating its value. Even as late as 1807 the Indian titles
-had only been partially extinguished, and no portion of the public
-domain had been brought into the market. The opposite
-shore was occupied by a vigilant and jealous foreign power. The
-interior of the future State swarmed with the savages who yet
-made it their home, and an Indian war was threatening. These
-things repelled the tide of immigration that was already surging
-over Ohio and the country bordering on the Ohio river. Fourteen
-years after American possession the population of Michigan
-was given as: Whites, 4,384; free blacks, 120; slaves, 24&mdash;total,
-4,528. Five years before the number of householders in the
-lower peninsula was officially given as 525. There are antecedent
-estimates of population and assertions, but no facts that can be
-relied on. It is, however, probable that at the time of the British
-evacuation (1796) the population did not exceed 2,500 souls,
-for two years afterwards (1798) Wayne county, then co-extensive
-with the present State of Michigan, sent a representative to
-Chillicothe, where it was claimed that the Northwest Territory
-was entitled to a delegate in Congress because there were then
-5,000 inhabitants within its boundaries. It can scarcely be possible
-that half of that aggregate was in Michigan alone, and that
-its settlers then equaled in numbers those scattered over the
-inviting and fertile region which now includes the powerful and
-populous States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The growth of the decade succeeding 1810 was trifling. In
-1820 the census showed but 9,048 souls in Michigan Territory,
-which included the present State and the region beyond the
-lakes north of Illinois. The war was over. Indian depredations
-had ceased and the Indian titles had been quieted. The perils
-of settlement were removed. The seeming obstacles of the toil
-and privations of frontier existence were mere cobwebs in the
-way of the hardy and adventurous. But there yet remained
-serious impediments to Michigan's growth. Distance was one,
-for the State was still difficult of access, and canals and railroads
-were yet in the future. A more serious impediment was a
-blunder. On May 6, 1812, Congress passed an act requiring that
-2,000,000 acres of land should be surveyed in Michigan Territory.
-The surveyors went into the forest with their chains and poles,
-and the result was a report to Congress which may be thus
-summarized: "Many lakes of great extent; marshes on their
-margins; marshes between; other places covered with coarse
-high grass; this grass covered with water from six inches to
-three feet; lakes and swamps over half the country; the intermediate
-space poor, barren and sandy; the dry land composed
-of sand-hills, with deep basins between and more water; the
-margins of many of the streams and lakes literally afloat, or
-thinly covered with a sward of grass with water and mud
-underneath; the country altogether so bad that there would
-not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would
-be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of
-cultivation." Official stupidity had its effect on Congress, and
-in 1816 (April 29) that body cancelled the survey order, and
-abandoned Michigan to the hunters and trappers and their
-game. For two years this continued; but the adventurous
-would plunge into the wilderness and would come back and talk
-of beautiful valleys, broad prairies and fertile soils. Explorations
-widened and a multitude of witnesses came with their facts to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
-prove that the curtain of forest concealed something more inviting
-than marsh and barren and sand-hill. Then the government
-(1818) ordered a new survey and out of all this came part of
-the truth, namely: There was in this wilderness an immense
-variety of forest trees&mdash;oak, maple, ash, elm, sycamore, locust,
-butternut, walnut, poplar, whitewood, beech, hemlock, spruce,
-tamarack, chestnut, white, yellow, and Norway pine. There were
-plains and natural parks; there were level prairies and hills rising
-with gradual swell away to the center of the State. Of soils
-there were deep sandy loams mixed with limestone pebbles, deep
-vegetable moulds mingled with clay producing dense and luxuriant
-vegetation, brown loams mingled with clay, deep vegetable
-moulds with a surface covering of black sands. There was water
-in abundance, rivers and streams and creeks and beautiful lakes.
-All these reports and more, confirmed and re-confirmed by
-pioneers and surveyors, came back from the interior, until the
-exceeding richness and great agricultural value of the Lower
-Peninsula of Michigan was established.</p>
-
-<p>But another event was to exercise a most important influence
-upon the future State. In 1817 the first steamer upon the
-Northern lakes, the "Ontario," was launched, and, amid bonfires,
-illuminations and most lively demonstrations of joy, made her
-first trip upon Lake Ontario. This heralded the dawn of a
-material revolution. One year later, on the 27th day of August,
-1818, the "Walk-in-the-water," the first steamer launched above
-Niagara Falls, came up to the wharves of Detroit after a passage
-of forty-four hours from Buffalo. This vessel, of only 340 tons,
-and lost three years later, was a puny affair, but wise men saw
-in her advent the promise of a future which time has more than
-realized. Then in the wake of the steamer, Congress (1819)
-ordered the public lands of Michigan placed in the market for
-sale. At this time Detroit contained 250 houses, 1,415 inhabitants,
-and the entire territory a population of 8,896. In 1825<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
-the Erie canal was completed, and its far-sighted projector,
-De Witt Clinton, sailed amid national acclamations from Lake
-Erie to tide-water. It completed the link of direct water
-communication with Michigan, and the stream of Western emigration
-was quickly swollen to a torrent.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler first came to Michigan in 1833. Three years
-before (1830) the census of the entire territory, as it was
-constituted when Illinois was admitted to the Union, was 32,531.
-The growth during the preceding decade had been steady, not
-immense; that was to come after. It was in the year of 1833
-that the first settlement was made in the present State of Iowa.
-And in that fall (September) the people of Detroit were rejoicing
-that "arrangements were in train for the establishment of a new
-stage-line route to Chicago, by which travelers can go from
-one place to the other in five days." There was not then a
-mile of railroad in the territory, and not until five years after
-(1838) was the first twenty-nine miles completed to Ypsilanti.
-Detroit was still a frontier post numbering less than 4,000
-inhabitants. On all the Western lakes at the beginning of that
-year there were but eighteen steamers, ranging from fifty to
-395 tons in burden, and aggregating but 3,710 tons, and with
-the best of these a voyage of thirty-nine hours from Buffalo
-to Detroit was a remarkable passage. All this was improvement;
-yet the Detroit merchant in that year could not expect to receive
-his purchases made in New York within less than from three to
-six months after the time of setting out to procure them.
-During the winter steamboats and river craft were ice-bound,
-and the settlements at Detroit, the River Raisin and elsewhere
-throughout the broad peninsula, were shut out from the Eastern
-world, except as travelers braved the tedious and painful staging
-through Canada to Buffalo, with its week of continuous day and
-night journeying.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A year later (1834) Congress defined the boundaries of Michigan
-Territory. Let the finger trace on the atlas the northern
-borders of Ohio and Indiana, follow around the south shore
-of Lake Michigan to the boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois,
-pursue that line to the Mississippi river, then down its
-stream to the north line of the State of Missouri, along that
-westward to the Missouri, and up that river until between the
-25th and 26th degrees of west longitude the finger reaches the
-faint line, coming down into the Missouri from the north, of
-the White Earth river&mdash;all the land and lakes between the
-Detroit straits and this little White Earth river and between the
-line so traced and the British possessions, was Michigan Territory
-in 1834 and until Michigan was admitted as a State into the
-Union. It was an imperial domain, larger than Sweden and
-Norway united; nearly three times greater than England, Wales,
-Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel islands; surpassing the united
-territories of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and The
-Netherlands; even exceeding the combined acreage of Italy and
-the German Empire. Yet in all this region, when Mr. Chandler
-displayed his first stock of goods in Detroit, there was not one
-mile of railroad or telegraph, not one steam mill or manufactory,
-but one city approaching 4,000 inhabitants and not one exceeding
-it, and not a single mile of paved street or sewerage. There
-was but one water-works, and no gas-works. There was not one
-daily newspaper, and but few of any kind. The valuable iron
-deposits of the Upper Peninsula were undiscovered. The wealth
-of pine timber was unknown. In the previous year (1832) the
-total value of foreign and domestic produce exported from Michigan
-amounted to but the trifling sum of $9,234, and in the
-preceding federal census (1830) the entire civilized population
-of this vast area of limitless possibilities was less than 33,000,
-although there were then in the Union twenty-four States with a
-population of 12,866,020.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_065.jpg" width="700" height="464" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>DETROIT TN 1834.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler came in with the first swell of the great
-tide of emigration which broke over Michigan Territory. Up to
-within a brief period preceding, that extensive and fertile region
-was scarcely known except as it appeared on maps. Its rich
-prairies, its fertile plains, its deep forests with all their wealth,
-were a <i lang="it">terra incognita</i> to all white men except the fur traders.
-But it was being rapidly known and understood. Its fame had
-rolled back over the East, and the fruits were seen in the new
-faces and sturdy forms swarming to Detroit as a point of departure
-to the new and beautiful land. In that year (1833) it was
-a matter of boasting that as many as "one hundred and seventy-five
-emigrants had landed in Detroit in one day." The next
-year <cite>Niles' Register</cite> had a report from Detroit that the arrivals
-had reached the magnificent proportions of "nine hundred and
-sixty in one day," and that "the streets of Detroit were full of
-wagons loading and departing for the West," principally for the
-region about Grand river. And the same journal said: "The
-character of these emigrants is in every respect a subject of
-felicitation. They will give Michigan a capital stock of wealth
-and moral worth unequaled by any of the newly-formed States,
-and scarcely approximated by Ohio."</p>
-
-<p>In 1833 and for more than a year afterward the business
-part of Detroit was confined to the narrow space bounded by
-Wayne and Randolph streets, Jefferson avenue and the river,
-and at the same time there were but few buildings on Jefferson
-avenue above Rivard, and but one on Woodward avenue north
-of State street. Old wind-mills lined the shores; the little
-unsightly French carts clattered through the streets; ducks, geese
-and pigs were the only city scavengers. This sounds like another
-age&mdash;another continent&mdash;but it was the Detroit and Michigan
-of but forty-six years ago. Change came with population&mdash;slowly
-at first, then with increased speed, then with immense
-strides. Mr. Chandler lived to see it all and to be a part of it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
-He came with the early tide of population; he saw the tide
-rising, at first languid, halting and uncertain; he saw it year
-by year gathering momentum and volume until it swelled and
-rolled over Michigan a mighty flood of brawn and brain, of
-enterprise and conscience.</p>
-
-<p>On the fifth day of November, 1879, tens of thousands of
-people looked upon the dead face of the stalwart Senator and
-followed his body to its last resting place in the city to
-which he had come in 1833. Forty-six years and a few weeks
-had passed; no more. But in that time the city which he made
-his home had spread its wings until it covered an area of thirteen
-and a half square miles, with 300 miles of streets (seventy-six
-miles paved), and some of them among the broadest and most
-beautiful in the world, shaded by rows of graceful trees of luxuriant
-foliage, and adorned by stores and private residences rich
-in finish and architecture. It had 200 miles of water-mains and
-150 miles of sewers, making it one of the most perfectly-drained
-cities on the continent. Its population had grown to be 120,000,
-and its taxable wealth to exceed $87,000,000. School buildings,
-representing a public investment of $650,000 and accommodating
-15,000 pupils, were scattered through its wards, and numerous
-churches and abundant public and private charitable institutions
-made proclamation of the faith and philanthropy of its citizens.
-Great manufacturing enterprises lined its wharves and suburbs;
-scores of railroad trains arrived at and departed from its depots
-daily; and the commerce of the lakes was passing along its river
-front at the rate of thousands of tons hourly.</p>
-
-<p>But the change in Michigan had been no less marvelous.
-The State has a representation in the present Congress of the
-United States exceeding that of any one of eight of the first
-States of the Union, equaling the representation of that of two
-others (Georgia and Virginia), and only exceeded by that of
-three of the original thirteen&mdash;Massachusetts, New York, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
-Pennsylvania. In a single county of the Upper Peninsula, in
-1833 supposed to be only a mass of barren, uninviting and uninhabitable
-rocks, there are three cities either one of which has a
-greater population than the Detroit of that day, and in Michigan
-out of its forty-three cities and 178 villages (April, 1879)
-there are over thirty more populous than Detroit in 1833&mdash;some
-of them with populations from five to eight times greater. The
-people of the State are a million and a half in number, spread
-over the greater part of the Lower Peninsula, about the Sault,
-and from Marquette to Ontonagon and south to Menominee in
-the Upper Peninsula. Its newspapers have grown to twenty-three
-dailies and over 300 with less frequent issues. Its railroads
-have developed from non-existence to 3,500 miles, owned by
-thirty-six corporations, connecting Detroit and the principal cities
-of Michigan with all portions of the State, penetrating to every
-center of population and industry, costing over $160,000,000, and
-paying in each year for salaries and operating expenses over
-$13,000,000. Strong institutions for the care of the deaf and
-dumb and the blind and for the insane, a thriving college for
-agricultural education, and that noblest monument of the wisdom
-and forethought of the latter-day founders of Michigan, the State
-University, were all planted in these years. And with this, the
-public school system was nourished until there are over 300
-graded schools and over 6,000 public schools in the State, with
-property valued at over $9,000,000, paying almost $2,000,000
-yearly in teachers' wages, and with annual resources amounting
-to nearly $4,000,000. In the mountains of the Upper Peninsula,
-so long reputed a barren wilderness, have been discovered
-exhaustless mines of the richest iron ores and the most extensive
-and valuable copper deposits known on the globe. The Saginaw
-Valley has poured a briny stream of wealth upon the State
-from its unfailing salt-wells, and from the forests about and
-beyond to the westernmost limits of Michigan have been gathered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
-great treasures of pine and hard woods. And while nature was
-yielding its hidden stores to enrich the State its skilled citizens
-were not idle. Over 10,000 manufacturing establishments in
-Michigan now employ upward of 70,000 people, pay more than
-$25,000,000 annually in wages, make an infinite variety of wares,
-and turn out products each year amounting in value to more
-than $130,000,000. The statistics of agricultural development
-are equally remarkable. The log cabin and the clearings have
-yielded to ample farms. The marsh, the pine barren, even the
-hyperborean soil of the Upper Peninsula, have been transformed
-into productive wheat-fields. The cereals of Michigan exceed in
-their annual product 70,000,000 bushels, and $45,000,000 in their
-value. Highly cultivated and valuable farms (over 111,000 in
-number and with a total acreage of 10,000,000) cover the greater
-part of the Lower Peninsula. Comfortable, even stately, farm
-houses dot the landscape. School-houses, churches, villages,
-towns and cities stand where the forest was. The wilderness has
-fled away. Everywhere there are evidences of peace, prosperity,
-happiness and a high civilization. It is magic; courage, intelligence
-and industry have been the magicians.</p>
-
-<p>The changes in the other parts of the Michigan Territory
-of 1833 have been no less marvelous. Four States have been
-carved out of that region whose boundaries in 1834 were
-traced on the atlas&mdash;Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota&mdash;and
-the great wheat farms of Dakota will soon develop into
-a fifth. This entire territory to-day has eight Senators, twenty-nine
-Representatives and one Delegate in Congress, has over
-11,000 miles of railroad, seventy-seven daily papers and over
-1,100 weekly or monthly publications, and several great cities
-larger than Philadelphia and New York when the United States
-had taken its second census. It has a population greater than
-that of the thirteen colonies which successfully defied the power
-of Great Britain during the Revolution, greater than that of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
-six New England States in the present day. It produces a larger
-amount of breadstuffs than the whole Union yielded when Mr.
-Chandler first came to the territory, and contains more wealth
-than did all the States fifty years ago.</p>
-
-<p>This is a marvelous story of growth. Nothing in the Old
-World has equaled it. Nothing the New has exceeded it. It
-has confounded prophecy. It has outrun imagination. It is the
-achievement of a stalwart race. It is the triumph of faith, of
-zeal, of courage. It dazzles the men of to-day. And it will
-stand for centuries to excite the admiration of the historian and
-the wonder of the future.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Parkman's "Jesuits in North America."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This is Parkman's picture in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER V.<br />
-
-THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY&mdash;RECORD AS AN
-ANTI-SLAVERY WHIG.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_071.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> conspicuous figure in Michigan politics, when
-Zachariah Chandler landed at Detroit and for twenty-five
-years afterward, was Lewis Cass. He was a man of ability
-and many accomplishments, irreproachable in private
-life, and with a claim upon the enduring gratitude of the people
-of the Northwest for his large share in the founding of mighty
-States about the shores of the great lakes. He came to Michigan
-with military distinction, and had added to his laurels civic
-honors as a territorial ruler, as a skilful negotiator with the
-Indians, and as an intrepid explorer. General Cass was a warm
-political and personal friend of Andrew Jackson, and his influence
-made Michigan a strongly Democratic territory and State.
-In 1831 he had been appointed Secretary of War in President
-Jackson's cabinet, and in 1836 he was sent to Paris as the United
-States Minister at the court of Louis Phillippe. The courage,
-vigor and skill of his attack upon the "Quintuple Treaty," which
-embodied Great Britain's theories on the then delicate topic of
-the right of search on the high seas, and which was defeated by
-the refusal of France to ratify the preliminary negotiations,
-made his ambassadorship an event in European diplomacy, and
-gave him a national reputation on this continent. His return to
-Detroit in 1843 was attended by unusual popular demonstrations
-at every important point in his Westward journey. In 1845
-Michigan sent him to the Senate, and in 1848 the Democracy
-nominated him as its candidate for the presidency. That a man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
-who thus made a new commonwealth influential in national politics
-should call about him a strong following and mould public
-sentiment at his own home was natural, and the State of Lewis
-Cass was long regarded as staunchly Democratic. His party held
-control for years of the main avenues of political preferment,
-and not a few young men of parts and ambition who came to
-Michigan as Whigs were led into the ranks of the Democracy
-by the fact that it was the only organization which had honors
-and offices to bestow.</p>
-
-<p>General Cass was a courtly gentleman, dignified in manners,
-who, with a natural boldness of character which never lost
-wholly its power of self-assertion, gradually became ultra-conservative
-in his Democracy. Originally he had anti-slavery
-tendencies, but the Southern drift of his party, which became
-apparent about the time of his return from France, carried him
-with it, and he grew to be one of the most assiduous originators
-and supporters of the series of compromises which so long
-defeated justice and encouraged the aggressions of the slave
-power. The result was that in time the hammer of his personal
-influence in Michigan was broken on the anvil of New England
-ideas, while his name became the symbol of "hunkerism" in the
-Northwest; but in December, 1860, his octogenarian patriotism
-flamed up in the presence of armed treason and executive imbecility,
-and he branded the administration of James Buchanan as
-it deserved by indignantly resigning the portfolio of the department
-of state. No political contrast could well be more vivid
-than that between Lewis Cass and the man who succeeded
-him in the Senate, and replaced him in the political leadership
-of Michigan, representing a greater State, a nobler political
-cause, and instead of the make-shifts of compromise ideas which
-are to-day embodied in the fabric of American civilization.</p>
-
-<p>Zachariah Chandler's father was originally a Federalist, and
-then a Whig. The son brought with him to Detroit Whig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
-sympathies and anti-slavery convictions, but no predisposition
-to political activity. For many years he refused to divert his
-energies from his mercantile pursuits, and took no share in
-party contests, except such as would be natural in the case of
-any enterprising citizen with a lively interest in public questions.
-He was known as a staunch Whig, and he thoroughly identified
-himself with that party when in both Michigan and the
-Union its victories seemed accidental, and its defeats certain.
-Between 1837 and 1848 his name frequently appears among
-the officers of Whig meetings, or as a member of the election
-day vigilance committees of his party, and (very rarely)
-as a ward delegate to Whig conventions. He was a regular
-contributor to the campaign fund, and he did his share of
-work at the polls. At that time the labors of election day
-were not those of persuasion merely. Partisan feeling was bitter,
-and in the population of the growing frontier city, there was a
-strong ruffianly element, which was as a rule Democratic in its
-sympathies. In close contests mobs sometimes gathered about
-the voting places, and sought by jostling and occasional assaults
-to keep away from the ballot-boxes the more timid or fastidious
-of the Whigs. On these occasions Mr. Chandler was among the
-men of strong frames, sinewy arms, and pugnacity of spirit, who
-furnished the Whig muscle to defeat this variety of "Loco-foco
-trick." He and Alanson Sheley (now a well-known Detroit merchant)
-were, with a few others of like strength and stature, the
-Whig body-guard who forced a way for voters through the dense
-crowd, and interposed for the rescue of the threatened. There
-is no lack of amusing anecdotes of this species of service rendered
-by Mr. Chandler to the Whig party; and it was at times
-attended by serious danger. In later years he credited Mr.
-Sheley with having saved his life in one of these election
-disturbances, and frequently recalled reminiscences of the muscular
-exploits of those days. It was not until Mr. Chandler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
-was a Whig of nearly twenty years' standing, that he became
-that party's candidate for any office, or that he actively interested
-himself in its committee work and practical management.
-He cast a void vote for Harrison in 1836, before Michigan had
-been formally admitted; he attended the monster meetings and
-sang campaign songs in the log cabins of 1840, and gave
-then a valid vote to Harrison; he denounced Tyler's political
-treason, and in 1844 cheered for Clay and Frelinghuysen; he
-opposed General Cass in 1848, and at that time delivered his
-maiden speech, in support of "Zach." Taylor; but it was not
-until 1851 that he manifested any especial taste for or skill in
-politics, or that he allowed his name to be used as a candidate
-for position.</p>
-
-<p>The Whigs of Michigan were as a rule of New England
-extraction, and the masses of the party were always staunchly
-anti-slavery in sentiment. They charged General Cass's denunciation
-of the "Quintuple Treaty" to a disposition to seek
-Southern approval by indirectly shielding the slave trade: they
-opposed the annexation of Texas, applauded the Wilmot Proviso,
-and were restive under Southern aggression and slaveholding
-arrogance at the capital. The few Congressmen whom they
-were able to elect voted uniformly for free institutions and
-against the extension of human bondage. Michigan's first Whig
-Senator, Augustus S. Porter, while still new in his seat, opposed
-alone Calhoun's resolutions in "the Enterprise case" (a vessel
-employed in the coastwise slave trade had touched at Port Hamilton
-in the British West Indies, and some negro chattels who
-formed part of her cargo had taken advantage of English law
-to assert their manhood and freedom), and cast a solitary vote
-to lay them upon the table. Of this act Joshua R. Giddings wrote:
-"Seeing that eminent Senators around him interposed
-no objection to the passage of the resolutions, Mr. Porter,
-obeying the dictates of his own judgment and conscience,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
-heroically met the overwhelming influence arrayed against him,
-and showed the most cogent reasons for rejecting the resolutions,
-by exhibiting the absurdity of the attempt to induce the
-British government to acknowledge the laws of slavery and the
-slave trade to exist and be enforced within her ports." Both
-Mr. Porter and William Woodbridge voted against the resolution
-for the annexation of Texas. In the House of the Twenty-seventh
-Congress Jacob M. Howard acted with the friends of
-freedom on questions involving that issue, and in the Thirtieth
-Congress William Sprague, the second Whig Representative, was
-openly classified as a Free Soiler. In 1849 the Whigs and Free
-Soilers united to support Flavius J. Littlejohn for Governor, and
-the Whigs of Michigan as a whole were a body of intelligent
-and conscientious anti-slavery men, and made their political
-weight felt on the side of free institutions.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was from his boyhood radical in his opposition
-to human bondage, and for a time hoped that the Whig party
-of the North could be used to effectually resist the conspiracy
-of the slave power against the territories. His anti-slavery
-activity preceded his appearance in politics. Detroit was an
-important terminus of the "Underground Railroad," that mysterious
-organization which so skilfully and quietly transported
-colored fugitives from the Ohio to Canadian soil, and Mr.
-Chandler, while still absorbed in business, was a frequent and
-liberal contributor to the fund for its operating expenses. He
-manifested an especial interest in the Crosswhite case, which,
-played a conspicuous part in the fugitive slave law agitation
-preceding the compromises of 1850. Adam Crosswhite was the
-mulatto son of a slave mother who was owned by his father, a
-white farmer in Bourbon county, Kentucky. While a boy he
-was given as a servant to his half-sister, a Miss Crosswhite, who
-married a slave-dealer named Stone. Her husband subsequently
-sold her brother for $200, and Crosswhite ultimately became the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
-chattel of a Kentucky planter named Giltner living in Carroll
-county. When he had reached the age of forty-four and had
-become the father of four children, he learned that his master
-was planning to sell a portion of his family. The parental
-instinct drove this man to a step which he had not taken
-through any desire for personal freedom, and he determined
-upon flight. He succeeded in getting his entire family across
-the Ohio in a skiff, and into the hands of the "Underground
-Railway" managers in Indiana. There was a vigorous pursuit,
-and at Newport the fugitives were nearly captured, but Quaker
-shrewdness concealed and protected them, and after weeks of
-stirring adventure, during which the father and mother were
-compelled to separate, they reached Michigan, and became the
-occupants of a little cabin in the eastern part of the present
-city of Marshall. They were quiet and industrious citizens, and
-by thrift and unremitting labor commenced making payments
-on their homestead. In time the history of the fugitives became
-known to their neighbors, and finally some one with the genuine
-spirit of the slave-driver sent to Kentucky information concerning
-their hiding-place. In December, 1846, Francis Troutman
-came to Marshall, ostensibly as a young lawyer in search of
-business, but in fact as Giltner's representative in identifying
-his fugitive slaves and planning their recapture. He did his
-work well, through artifice and with the help of aid which he
-hired at Marshall, but did not succeed in perfectly concealing
-his plans. Crosswhite received warning of the impending danger,
-and both armed himself and arranged with sympathizing
-friends for prompt assistance. The abduction was finally
-attempted early on the morning of Jan. 27, 1847. Troutman
-was assisted by David Giltner, Franklin Ford, and John S. Lee,
-all Kentuckians, and the four men were well armed. Crosswhite
-saw their approach, and succeeded in giving the alarm, but
-before his friends commenced to assemble the Kentuckians broke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
-in the door of his cabin and informed the negroes that they
-must go at once before a magistrate where it was proposed to
-prove the fact of their escape from slavery. While the preparation
-of the children for the winter's ride to the justice's office
-was in progress, a crowd, at first largely composed of colored
-men but soon including many whites, gathered about the cabin,
-and promptly made the fact apparent that they were in no
-mood to permit the proposed restoration of human property to
-its Kentucky owners. The courage of the slave-hunters did not
-prove equal to the occasion, and finally Troutman resorted to
-argument. He harangued the jeering crowd on the sanctity of
-the fugitive slave law and the legality of Giltner's claim, even
-offering as proof of his law-abiding spirit not to take back to
-slavery a child born to the Crosswhites since their escape. The
-response to this proposition to do exact justice by separating an
-infant from its mother may be imagined, and in the end the
-Kentuckians abandoned their attempt. Crosswhite had meanwhile
-complained against them for trespass, and they were then
-arrested, convicted and fined $100. Money was also at once
-raised in Marshall by which the negroes were sent to Detroit
-and thence to Canada. While the excitement was at its hight
-some of the prominent citizens of Marshall joined the crowd,
-and endeavored to restrain them from violence and to convince
-the slave-hunters of the folly of attempting to defy the aroused
-indignation of the community; they were careful, however, to
-avoid any violation of the law. Troutman met their remonstrances
-by a demand for their names. One of them replied,
-"Charles T. Gorham; write it in capital letters." The answer
-of another was, "Oliver Cromwell Comstock, Jr.; take it in
-full so that my father may not be held responsible for what I
-do." Troutman also obtained the name of Jarvis Hurd, these
-three being well-known residents of Marshall and gentlemen of
-pecuniary responsibility. Nothing further took place at the time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
-and in a few days the Kentuckians returned to their State,
-which was soon aflame with wrath at this "Northern outrage."
-Public meetings were held to denounce the "abolition rioters,"
-the most exaggerated accounts of the Marshall release were circulated
-and believed, the event received Congressional attention,
-and finally the State of Kentucky made an appropriation for the
-prosecution of all who were concerned in the escape of the
-Crosswhite family. Troutman returned to Michigan in the summer
-of 1847, and brought an action to recover the value of the
-rescued slaves, in the United States Circuit Court, against a large
-number of defendants; the case as tried, however, was practically
-a prosecution of Messrs. Gorham, Comstock, and Hurd.
-The Kentuckians retained a large array of counsel, including
-John Norvell, the veteran Democratic leader, while the defense
-was represented by Theodore Romeyn, Wells &amp; Cook, and
-Hovey K. Clarke, with Halmer H. Emmons (subsequently United
-States Circuit Judge) and James F. Joy as counsel. Gerrit
-Smith also came from New York to argue the constitutional
-question involved, but the defendants' attorneys did not deem it
-prudent in a jury trial at that time to ally themselves with so
-radical an abolitionist. The case was taken up before Justice
-John MacLean, in 1848, and attracted national attention. The
-first trial took place in the June term and resulted in a disagreement
-of the jury. A second trial followed in November and
-December of the same year and ended in a verdict for the
-plaintiffs of $1,926 and costs; the expenses of defending the
-suits had also imposed heavy pecuniary burdens upon the Marshall
-gentlemen. Mr. Gorham was then a Democrat, and found
-among his party friends a strong feeling that it was important
-at that time and in so conspicuous a case that Michigan should
-manifest a disposition to rigidly enforce the fugitive slave law,
-as these were the years when General Cass's presidential aspirations
-culminated, and when it was essential that his hold upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
-Southern confidence should be preserved. There was no lack of
-private expressions of Democratic sympathy with the defendants,
-and assurances were given that they should not be left to meet
-alone the heavy expenses involved, but among the Democratic
-leaders there was an unmistakable wish that the prosecution
-should be vigorously pushed for the sake of its political effect,
-and this secret pressure had a powerful influence. This case
-interested Mr. Chandler from the outset, and he watched every
-development closely. Early in the proceedings he met Mr.
-Gorham, with whom his acquaintance was then but slight, and
-said to him, "I am satisfied from what I have seen and learned
-that this case is being manipulated in the interest of the Democratic
-party, and that you are to be sacrificed to appease the
-slave power of the South, so that Cass may not be damaged
-by the result. Offer no compromise; fight them through to
-the end; I will stand by you, and see that you do not suffer."
-He was as good as his word, gave and helped to raise money
-for the defense, and attended the trial to the close. Mr. Gorham,
-who received no Democratic aid of importance, became
-one of his firmest and most intimate friends, and when Mr.
-Chandler was appointed Secretary of the Interior Mr. Gorham
-(who had then served five years as United States Minister at
-The Hague) became the Assistant Secretary of that department.
-Of the same period of Mr. Chandler's life this characteristic
-anecdote is told: John Sumner, one of his Jackson customers,
-passed Sunday as his guest in Detroit, and at church listened
-with him to a sermon of pro-slavery flavor, followed by a
-prayer by a visiting clergyman in which the Divine blessing
-was earnestly invoked upon the down-trodden and the oppressed.
-At the conclusion of the services Mr. Chandler stepped to the
-foot of the pulpit, sought an introduction to the utterer of the
-prayer, and said: "Thank you for that prayer! It was all
-that I have heard this morning that was worth hearing."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
-Throughout the days of Mr. Chandler's earnest attachment to
-the Whig party, his anti-slavery feeling was pronounced.</p>
-
-<p>In 1848 Mr. Chandler fleshed his political broadsword with
-one or more speeches in behalf of General Taylor. He had
-been an occasional participant in the debates of the Young
-Men's Society, the training-school for not a few of Detroit's
-eminent men, but in that year for the first time he addressed a
-miscellaneous audience on public questions. His earlier speeches
-showed the strength of the man, and despite some ruggedness
-were effective. In the State election of 1849 Mr. Chandler took
-no active part. In 1850 he was one of the Wayne county
-delegates to the Whig State convention, which met at Jackson
-on the 18th of September, and nominated a ticket headed by
-George Martin, of Kent, for Secretary of State; the following
-campaign was a local one, arousing but little interest, and in it
-Mr. Chandler did not prominently share. On February 19, 1851,
-the Whigs of Detroit held a convention to select a city ticket
-for the charter election in March, and after one informal ballot
-Mr. Chandler was unanimously nominated by them for Mayor.
-This event marks the commencement of his career as a popular,
-shrewd, and successful political leader. The Democratic candidate
-for the Mayoralty was Gen. John R. Williams, a native and one
-of the foremost citizens of Detroit, the president of the Michigan
-constitutional convention of 1835, and the senior officer of the
-State militia. He had been the first Mayor of the city, and had
-held that place for six terms, and was a man of practical ability,
-the owner of a large estate, and popular with the people. His
-personal strength made him a formidable candidate, and his defeat
-not easy of accomplishment. Mr. Chandler's answer to the delegation
-who waited upon him with the question, "Will you run
-on the Whig ticket against John R. Williams?" was, "I will and
-I will beat him too," and he put all his energy into the
-campaign which followed. The Whig convention by resolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
-presented his name to the people of Detroit as that of "a man
-identified with its improvements, prominent in its welfare, and
-interested in its prosperity," and in the Whig journals he was
-warmly commended as "known to every man, woman, and child
-in the city as a man of strict integrity, active and industrious
-business habits, of great liberality of views, both in person and
-sentiment, and of the purest moral character; eminently popular
-and affable in his habits of intercourse with his fellow-citizens,
-his extensive business operations have brought him in daily
-contact with all, through a long course of years." His election
-was also urged on the ground that he was the only candidate
-"known to be in favor of extending the various enterprises
-of sewerage, pure water, pavements and sidewalks, just as
-fast as the needs of a young city shall require," and because
-his "course in his own business, and in relation to the public
-interest, has been an energetic, discreet and efficient prosecution
-of everything upon which he has laid his hands."
-During this canvass Mr. Chandler gave what is believed to be
-the only lecture of his life, and its marked success undoubtedly
-helped him at the ballot-box. It was delivered before the Young
-Men's Society upon February 25, 1851, its theme being "The
-Element of Success in Character." The newspaper report of it
-was as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The theme chosen by Mr. Chandler. "The Element of Success in
-Character," though much worn, was most successfully treated. Intending
-only to discourse from his own observations and experience, his views were
-as philosophical as they were practical. Therein was the charm and <em>takingness</em>
-of the lecture. Without rhetorical flourish the composition was excellent,
-severe in its simplicity and directness, nevertheless abounding in beauty. For
-originality, aptness of quotation and illustration, and felicitous use of language,
-it ranks with the choicest productions before the society. In his own
-person he furnished the very best illustration and proof of success. Such a
-lecture from any one would do good, but how much greater its influence
-when enforced by the living example the lecturer himself affords of the truths
-of his teaching.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler organized his first political battle with characteristic
-thoroughness and system, visited every ward, called upon
-the voters, and made a remarkable personal canvass. The result
-was that when the ballots were counted it was found that he had
-carried every precinct in Detroit and had defeated his opponent
-by 349 majority in a total vote of less than 3,500. He led by
-nearly 400 the average vote of his ticket, and the Democrats
-elected at the same time a large proportion of their candidates.
-The victory was celebrated by a Whig serenade, at which the
-Mayor-elect made a modest and brief speech of thanks. This
-manifestation of personal strength and political skill at once
-attracted State attention, and it became the source of new Whig
-hope.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor continued for one year, but
-was devoid of especial incident, although even now some
-interest will be felt in this official letter to Kossuth, which the
-Hungarian patriot answered with a note of regretful declination:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p>
-<span style="margin-left: 18em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, January 10, 1852.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>To his Excellency Louis Kossuth</em>:<br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: By resolution of the Common Council, it becomes my pleasing
-duty to invite you to visit the city of Detroit and partake of its hospitalities.
-Much as we esteem you personally, highly as we appreciate your public and
-private worth, it is not to these alone that we do homage, but to the great
-principles which you advocate. We hail you as the champion of republicanism
-in Europe, as God's instrument in arousing throughout the world a hatred
-of despotism, as a man who has sacrificed his all, and offers his life upon
-the altar of liberty, as a teacher of "even bayonets to think." We, sir, have
-not been disinterested spectators of your glorious struggle for Hungarian independence.
-We watched with most intense interest the commencement and
-progress of that sanguinary conflict. When we saw the people rising in
-their might, the nobleman and citizen vieing with each other in devotion to
-their country's cause, emulous in sufferings and sacrifices, under such a
-leader, we felt that victory must crown your exertions; and when we saw the
-elements of Despotism uniting to crush this (to them) detested spirit of
-Freedom, when we saw the temporary triumphs of your oppressors, we felt
-that all was not lost&mdash;that the Almighty Ruler of the Universe would neither
-leave nor forsake you in your low estate, that the days of despotism were
-numbered.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Again would I invite you to visit Detroit and partake of its hospitalities.
-Again would I assure you of our deep sympathy for your down-trodden
-country, and I hazard nothing by the assertion that that sympathy will manifest
-itself in a tangible form. Whether our government will act in your
-behalf as a government, is not for me to say; whether it would be proper
-for it to do so, is not for me to discuss at this time. But that you have the
-deep sympathy of our entire population is manifest to all.</p>
-
-<p>With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 14em;">ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><em>Mayor of the City of Detroit</em>.</span><br />
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>At the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor the
-Common Council of Detroit, by unanimous vote, spread upon its
-records this resolution:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Resolved by the Common Council of the City of Detroit</em>, That in retiring from
-the office of chief magistrate of this city the Hon. Zachariah Chandler, by his
-urbanity, fidelity and zeal in the discharge of his official duties for the past
-year, merits the admiration and respect of the Council, and that in retiring to
-private life he carries with him our cordial wishes for his happiness and
-prosperity.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In November, 1852, occurred Michigan's first general election
-under the constitution of 1850. The Democratic candidate for
-Governor was Robert McClelland, who had already held that
-office during the preceding short term. General Cass alone
-surpassed this gentleman in personal strength with his party in
-the State. Mr. McClelland was an upright and able man, who
-had served with distinction in Congress, and had held many
-important offices in Michigan; he subsequently became Secretary
-of the Interior in the cabinet of President Pierce. While a
-member of the House of Representatives he had assisted in
-drafting the original Wilmot Proviso, but he had grown conservative
-with his party, and in 1852 came before the people as
-a warm champion of the compromises of 1850. Personally he
-was a man of some reserve, but affable with acquaintances and
-respected everywhere. He was renominated enthusiastically and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
-with every prospect of an easy re-election. With the single
-exception of William Woodbridge, who was borne into office on
-the Whig tidal-wave of 1839 and 1840, Michigan had chosen an
-unbroken line of Democratic Governors. At the first election
-after its admission to the Union, Stevens T. Mason had a
-majority of 237 in a total poll of 22,299. The term for which
-Governor Woodbridge was chosen (he resigned to take a seat in
-the Senate) was followed by six successive Democratic victories.
-John S. Barry was elected in 1841 with 5,326 majority over his
-Whig competitor, Philo C. Fuller, and two years later he
-defeated Dr. Zina Pitcher by 6,493 votes. Alpheus Felch in
-1845 had 3,807 majority over Stephen Vickery, Whig, and in
-1847 Epaphroditus Ransom was chosen over James M. Edmunds
-by 5,649 votes. In 1849 John S. Barry was again elected,
-defeating Flavius J. Littlejohn, Whig and Free Soiler, by 4,297
-votes in a total poll of 51,377. In 1851, which was the last
-election under the old constitution, Robert McClelland led
-Townsend E. Gidley 6,926 votes. The Liberty party, as a
-distinct organization, also existed six years in Michigan, beginning
-in 1841 with 1,214 votes and ending in 1847 with 2,585.
-Thus from 1841 to 1852 not only did the Democrats control
-Michigan but at every State election had a clear majority over
-all shades of opposition.</p>
-
-<p>In 1852 the chronic difficulties of the Whig situation in
-Michigan were aggravated by the fact that the Baltimore convention
-which nominated Scott and Graham had condemned that
-anti-slavery sentiment of the party, which gave it all its virility
-in the West. The greater portion of the Northern Whigs with
-Mr. Greeley supported the ticket and "spat upon the platform,"
-but some of them abandoned old party affiliations and joined
-the Free Soil Democrats, who put up Hale and Julian as their
-national candidates and in Michigan nominated a full State
-ticket headed by Isaac P. Christiancy. The Whig State conven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>tion
-of 1852 met at Marshall on July 1, and was called to
-order by Henry T. Backus as chairman of the State Central
-Committee, and presided over by Cyrus Lovell of Ionia. In
-the preliminary consultations Mr. Chandler's was the name chiefly
-urged for the head of the ticket, on account of his acquaintance
-throughout the State and the political strength and capacity he
-had shown as a candidate in Detroit. This is an extract from
-the official record of the convention:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>On motion of W. A. Howard of Detroit a ballot was taken for Governor
-and was announced by the tellers as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="ballot">
-  <tr>
-    <td>Z. Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">76</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>H. G. Wells,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>G. A. Coe,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>H. R. Williams,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>J. R. Williams,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George R. Pomeroy,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>On motion of Mr. DeLand of Jackson a formal ballot was had as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="ballot">
-  <tr>
-    <td>Z. Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">95</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>H. G. Wells,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>J. R. Williams,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Blank,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was not present and inquiry was made if it was known
-whether he would accept the nomination. Mr. Wm. A. Howard of Detroit,
-chairman of the delegation from that city, said on the part of that delegation
-that he had seen Mr. Chandler previous to leaving Detroit, and Mr. Chandler
-had said to him that he was not a candidate for any of the offices under
-consideration, that he preferred working in the ranks, but that should the
-convention see fit to nominate him he was with them.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
-<div class="center">
-<ul><li class="center"><strong>Temperance Ticket.</strong></li>
-
-<li>For Governor,</li>
-<li>Zachariah Chandler.</li>
-
-<li>For Lieut. Governor,</li>
-<li>Andrew Parsons.</li>
-
-<li>For Secretary of State,</li>
-<li>George E. Pomeroy.</li>
-
-<li>For State Treasurer,</li>
-<li>Bernard C. Whittemore.</li>
-
-<li>For Auditor General,</li>
-<li>Whitney Jones.</li>
-
-<li>For Attorney General,</li>
-<li>Nathaniel Bacon.</li>
-
-<li>For Sup't of Pub. Instruction,</li>
-<li>U. Tracy Howe.</li>
-
-<li>For Com'r of State Land Office,</li>
-<li>Nathan Power.</li>
-
-<li>For State Board of Education,</li>
-<li>Isaac E. Crary, for the term of six years.</li>
-<li>Grove Spencer, for the term of four years.</li>
-<li>Chauncey Joslin, for a term of two years.</li>
-
-<li>For Member of Congress 1st District,</li>
-<li>William A. Howard.</li>
-
-<li>For Member of Senate,</li>
-
-<li>For Representative,</li>
-
-<li>For Sheriff,</li>
-<li>Henry B. Holbrook.</li>
-
-<li>For Clerk,</li>
-<li>Jeremiah Van Rensselaer.</li>
-
-<li>For Prosecuting Attorney,</li>
-<li>D. Bethune Duffield.</li>
-
-<li>For Judge of Probate,</li>
-<li>Rufus Hosmer.</li>
-
-<li>Circuit Court Commissioner,</li>
-<li>John S. Newberry.</li>
-
-<li>For Register,</li>
-<li>Robert E. Roberts.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Fac-simile of One of the State Tickets Of
-Michigan in 1852.</span></p></div>
-
-<p>The result was hailed with hearty cheering, and Mr. Chandler
-soon formally accepted this nomination and commenced a
-most energetic personal canvass of the State. The Temperance
-party made up a ticket in that year from the Democratic and
-Whig candidates, and Mr. Chandler was also retained as its
-nominee for Governor, but this action was without practical
-importance in the campaign or at the polls. During the fall of
-1852 the Whig nominee for Governor labored unremittingly.
-He visited all the leading towns in the State, and spoke constantly
-from the middle of September until the week before
-election. The list of his appointments included Jonesville, Coldwater,
-Constantine, Cassopolis, Howell, Lansing, Eaton Rapids,
-Hastings, Allegan, Grand Rapids, Ionia, DeWitt, Corunna, Flint,
-Saginaw, Lapeer, Almont, Romeo, Mt. Clemens, Ann Arbor,
-Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek, St. Clair, and Detroit.
-His addresses were vigorous, entertaining and
-telling, and while he neither
-then nor afterward sought
-for the polished sentence or
-rounded period, he showed
-that capacity for plainness
-and force of reasoning and
-for hard-hitting which ultimately
-made his oratory so
-characteristic and effective.
-In this series of speeches
-he dealt largely with the
-national questions of Protection
-and Internal Improvements,
-and also with
-the business aspects of the
-State administration. His
-friends laid especial stress
-upon his strength as "a
-business man of energy,
-integrity and success," and
-urged his election because
-he bore "the reputation,
-well earned by a long
-course of business experience,
-of being a keen and
-shrewd business man of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
-the highest moral tone," and because he was "endowed with
-remarkable business talent," and had been "identified with the
-growth and interests of the State." Mr. Chandler was also
-helped in this contest by his mercantile friendships throughout
-Michigan, and by the natural pleasure with which his fellow
-merchants saw one of their own guild fighting his way to political
-distinction along the paths so largely occupied by men of
-professional callings. As part of the organization of this canvass
-he mailed large quantities of gummed "slips" bearing his name
-to acquaintances in all parts of the State, and this is believed to
-be the first instance in which this now common weapon of
-political warfare was used in the Northwest. The Democrats
-found themselves compelled by this unprecedentedly vigorous
-attack to put forth most strenuous efforts, and General Cass
-labored assiduously to prevent the loss of his own State. So
-pronounced did the opposition of the veteran Democratic leader
-to the head of the Whig ticket become, that Mr. Chandler
-laughingly said to friends by way of comment upon it, "I am
-afraid that it will take General Cass's Senatorial seat to balance
-the account between us."</p>
-
-<p>But the national tide was then overwhelmingly against the
-Whigs, and Southern distrust of General Scott and Northern
-wrath at the circumstances of his nomination brought that party
-to the Waterloo defeat from which it never recovered. Michigan
-cast 41,842 votes for Pierce, 33,859 for Scott, and 7,237
-for Hale. Mr. Chandler received 34,660 votes for Governor
-against 42,798 for McClelland, and 5,850 for Christiancy. He
-thus received 801 more votes than Scott; he also led the entire
-Whig State ticket by from 500 to 4,000 votes, and received
-over 11,000 more votes than had ever been given to any Whig
-candidate for Governor. He had made a resolute fight, and
-again strikingly manifested his personal strength with the people
-and his political ability.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In the Michigan Legislature of 1853, which was chosen at
-the same State election, the Democrats had a majority on joint
-ballot of forty-eight, and the Whig minority included but seven
-Senators and twenty-one Representatives. The term of Alpheus
-Felch as United States Senator expired on March 3, 1853, and
-Charles E. Stuart was chosen as his successor. The Whigs
-gave expression to their high estimate of the value of Mr.
-Chandler's services in the preceding campaign by complimenting
-him with their united vote for the Senate, and the footings of
-the Legislative ballot for that office were:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Legislative ballot">
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="2">SENATE.</th>
-    <th colspan="2" class="bl">HOUSE.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>C. E. Stuart,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">27</td>
-    <td class="bl">C. E. Stuart,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Z. Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="bl">Z. Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="bl">H. K. Clarke,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>This was the last important political action of the Whig party
-of Michigan. Before another State election its formal dissolution
-had been pronounced, and the great body of its members had
-gathered around the cradle of infant Republicanism.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br />
-
-THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_089.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> darkest hour for the anti-slavery cause preceded
-the dawn of 1854. The compromises of 1850 had closed
-that long series of so-called bargains, by which the South
-had forced surrender after surrender from the North in
-the vain hope of preserving by such artificial devices its traditional
-preponderance in the government, so constantly threatened
-by the rapid development of the free States and the marvelous
-settlement of free territory. Behind the Louisiana purchase from
-Bonaparte was slavery's demand for new States to reinforce its
-political strength. Florida was bought from Spain for the same
-reasons. The Missouri compromise of 1820 involved the admission
-of a new slave State to the Union, and the organization of
-Arkansas as a slave territory; it was the work of the advocates
-of slavery extension, and was practically a surrender of free territory
-to bondage, the only consideration being the exclusion of
-slavery from soil on which (judging from all the experience
-of American settlement up to that time) it could not be established
-nor maintained. The annexation of Texas had been forced
-to add to the Union an enormous expanse of slave territory,
-capable, it was hoped, of early division into several slave States.
-The Mexican War was a peculiarly Southern scheme, having as
-its real aim the conquest of an empire which was to include
-human bondage among its established institutions. The futile
-plans for the annexation of Cuba came from the same prolific
-source, and were inspired by the same need of forcing the
-expansion of the political power of the slave South to prevent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
-its being outstripped by the magnificent growth of the free
-North. But the forces of nature prove more potent than human
-devices, and the last speech of John C. Calhoun (read for him
-in the Senate on March 4, 1850,) showed how clearly this fact
-had impressed itself on the ablest and acutest of the Southern
-statesmen. That farewell address sketched minutely the history
-and condition of the steadily-growing disparity between the
-North and the South, declared in effect that the South with its
-institutions could not permit Northern ascendancy, demanded
-from the North constitutional amendments "which would restore
-to the South in substance the power she possessed of protecting
-herself before the equilibrium between the sections was
-destroyed," added that on no other basis could the South safely
-remain in the Union, and said that, if this demand was refused,
-"we would be blind not to perceive that your real objects are
-power and aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accordingly."
-To this candid avowal of the Southern programme (ten
-years later it became evident that Mr. Calhoun had stated then
-the slave power's ultimatum) the answer was the final surrender
-of 1850. The compromise measures of that year pledged the
-United States to the subdivision of Texas into new (slave)
-States, organized Utah and New Mexico without any prohibition
-of slavery within their boundaries, forbade the abolition of
-slavery in the District of Columbia, and set the odious machinery
-of the Fugitive Slave law in operation throughout the North.
-The consideration Freedom received for these concessions was the
-admission of California to the Union (it was evident that nothing
-but invasion and conquest could ever make it a slave State)
-and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia,
-amounting to a removal of the auction blocks of slave dealers
-from the shadow of the Capitol to the narrow streets of decaying
-Alexandria.</p>
-
-<p>The opiate of compromise sufficed to keep still dormant the
-conscience of the North, and the national acquiescence in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
-adjustment was emphatic. The Whig and the Democratic parties
-in 1852 both formally accepted in their platforms the legislation
-of 1850 as a decisive and just settlement of the slavery question,
-and they polled almost 3,000,000 votes, while for the Free Soil
-ticket, representing hostility to slavery extension and to pro-slavery
-compromises, but 155,000 votes were cast. The victory
-of the Democrats, who embodied in much the fullest degree the
-spirit of concession to Southern demands, was an overwhelming
-one. They carried 27 out of the 31 States, and had 254
-electoral votes out of 296, with a clear popular majority over
-the entire opposition. In the Senate they had 14 majority out
-of a membership of 62, and in the House a majority of 84 in
-a total membership of 234. The condition of public sentiment
-then is thus described by the most accurate and graphic historian
-of that era:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Whatever theoretic or practical objections may be justly made to the
-compromise of 1850, there can be no doubt that it was accepted and ratified
-by a great majority of the American people, whether in the North or in the
-South. They were intent on business&mdash;then remarkably prosperous&mdash;on planting,
-building, trading and getting gain&mdash;and they hailed with general joy the
-announcement that all the differences between the diverse "sections" had been
-adjusted and settled. The terms of settlement were, to that majority, of quite
-subordinate consequence; they wanted peace and prosperity, and were no wise
-inclined to cut each other's throats and burn each other's houses in a quarrel
-concerning (as they regarded it) only the <em>status</em> of negroes. The compromise
-had taken no money from their pockets; it had imposed upon them no pecuniary
-burdens; it had exposed them to no personal and palpable dangers; it
-had rather repelled the gaunt spectre of civil war and disunion (habitually
-conjured up when slavery had a point to carry), and increased the facilities
-for making money, while opening a boundless vista of national greatness,
-security and internal harmony. Especially by the trading class, and the great
-majority of the dwellers in seaboard cities, was this view cherished with
-intense, intolerant vehemence.... Whatever else the election of 1852 might
-have meant, there was no doubt that the popular verdict was against "slavery
-agitation" and in favor of maintaining the compromises of 1850.... The
-finances were healthy and the public credit unimpaired. Industry and trade
-were signally prosperous. The tariff had ceased to be a theme of partisan
-or sectional strife. The immense yield of gold in California during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
-four preceding years had stimulated enterprise and quickened the energies of
-labor, and its volume as yet showed no signs of diminution. And though the
-Fugitive Slave law was still denounced, and occasionally resisted by abolitionists
-in the free States, while disunionists still plotted in secret and more
-openly prepared in Southern commercial conventions (having for their ostensible
-object the establishment of a general exchange of the great Southern
-staples directly from their own harbors with the principal European marts,
-instead of circuitously by way of New York and other Northern Atlantic
-ports) there was still a goodly majority in the South, with a still larger in
-the North and Northwest, in favor of maintaining the Union and preserving
-the greatest practical measure of cordiality and fraternity between the free
-and slave States, substantially on the basis of the compromise of 1850.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This was the blackest chapter in the history of the agitation
-for Freedom on this continent. The era seemed to have been
-at last reached of national surrender to slavery's demands, and
-of the purchase of peace by the abandonment of (with the
-promise never to resume) resistance to "the sum of all villainies."
-John Quincy Adams had said that up to his day "the
-preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of slavery" had ever
-been "the animating spirit" of the American government.
-Daniel Webster had bitterly declared in 1848 that there was no
-North in American politics, and that the South absolutely controlled
-the government. Certainly, in 1853, the surface of the
-political situation fully justified the indignant words of Gerrit
-Smith: "Were this government despotic and her religion
-heathen, there might be some hope of republicanizing her
-politics and Christianizing her religion; but now that she has
-turned into darkness the greatest of all political lights and the
-greatest of all religious lights, what hope is left for her?"</p>
-
-<p>It was at this juncture, when its triumph appeared to be
-complete, that slavery fatally overreached itself. The Missouri
-compromise of 1820, which <em>forever</em> prohibited slavery in all of
-the original Louisiana territory north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes
-of north latitude, had remained unquestioned upon the statute
-books for a generation. The South had received the full bene<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>fits
-of its share of that bargain, which added Arkansas and
-Missouri to the ranks of the slave States. In the interminable
-discussions of 1850 there had been no suggestion that the compromise
-measures of that year were intended to either disturb or
-supersede the Missouri compact, and the first message of Franklin
-Pierce congratulated the country on the sense of repose and
-security in the public mind which the compromise measures had
-restored, and added the pledge, "this repose is to suffer no
-shock during my official term, if I have power to avert it."
-Before two months had elapsed, the North heard with astonishment
-and indignation the doctrine laid down in Congress by the
-representatives of the slave power that the Missouri compromise
-had been abrogated by the measures of 1850, and that the vast
-domain between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, rich in
-all material and political possibilities, was open to slaveholding
-settlement. A few days more passed, and it was discovered that
-this claim was receiving the powerful support of the administration,
-and that it would also be championed by Stephen A.
-Douglas, with his formidable energy, personal influence, and rare
-skill in debate, as a step towards the vindication of his dogma
-of "Popular Sovereignty." Of the memorable four months'
-struggle over this issue, the following is a sketch in outline:</p>
-
-<p>Soon after the Thirty-third Congress assembled, in December,
-1853, Senator A. C. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill to
-organize the Territory of Nebraska out of the magnificent region
-between Missouri and Iowa and the Rocky Mountains. It was
-referred to the Committee on Territories, and was reported back
-by Senator Douglas with amendments, none of which, however,
-proposed to repeal the prohibition of slavery included in the
-Missouri compromise. Upon this, Senator Archibald Dixon, of
-Kentucky, a Whig who declared that on the question of slavery
-he knew no Whiggery and no Democracy, but was a pro-slavery
-man, gave notice that he should offer an amendment, providing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
-that the act of 1820 should not be so construed as to apply to
-the territory contemplated by this act, nor to any other territory
-of the United States. Senator Douglas thereupon had the bill
-recommitted, and subsequently reported in an entirely different
-form, creating <em>two</em> territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of
-one, and including the provision that all questions pertaining to
-slavery in the territories and in the new States to be formed
-therefrom should be left to the action of the people thereof
-through their appropriate representatives, and that the provisions
-of the constitution and laws of the United States in respect to
-fugitives from service should be carried into faithful execution
-in all the organized territories the same as in the States. This
-was, equally with Senator Dixon's proposition, a direct violation
-of the provision of the Missouri compromise, which was in these
-words (Section 8): "That in all that territory ceded by France
-to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies
-north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, not
-included within the limits of the State contemplated by this
-act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than as the
-punishment of crime, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited."
-In the last report, however, the pill was sugar-coated
-with Mr. Douglas's catch-word of "Popular Sovereignty."</p>
-
-<p>The territory which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was intended
-to organize was included in this quoted prohibition. That bill
-as introduced, in the section that provided for the election of a
-delegate to Congress from Kansas, had the stipulation:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>That the constitution and all laws of the United States, which are not
-locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within said territory
-as elsewhere in the United States.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>To this the amended bill added the following reservation:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri
-into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which was superseded by the principles
-of the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measure,
-and is declared inoperative.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A similar provision with a like reservation was added to the
-section providing for the election of a delegate from Nebraska.
-A prolonged and brilliant debate followed in the Senate, and
-finally in place of the original reservation the following was
-adopted, on motion of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, by a vote
-of 35 to 10:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri
-into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the
-principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and
-territories, as recognized by the legislation in 1850 (commonly called the compromise
-measure), is hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true
-intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or
-State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly
-free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject
-only to the constitution of the United States.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Senator Chase then moved to add to the above the following:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Under which the people of the territory, through their appropriate representatives,
-may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This amendment was voted down, yeas 10, nays 36, the Senate
-thus declaring its understanding that the people of the new territories
-should <em>not</em> be allowed to prohibit slavery previous to their
-admission as a State. The bill passed on the morning of March
-4th, by a vote of 37 to 14. In the House a separate bill had
-been introduced, but when it came up for consideration the
-Senate bill was substituted for it&mdash;by a parliamentary trick its
-opponents were prevented from offering amendments&mdash;and the
-bill was passed, yeas 113, nays 100. It went back to the Senate,
-in form as an original measure, but in effect the Senate bill, and
-on May 26 was finally passed by that body and was approved
-by President Pierce on May 30. The debate had been a memorable
-one; for the friends of Liberty, while they resisted to the
-last the surrender of what had been once bought for Freedom,
-joyfully recognized the fact that this act would in its logic make
-every compromise repealable, and thus kill in the womb all
-future political bargainings. Benjamin F. Wade said in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
-Senate that "the violation of the plighted faith of the nation
-would precipitate a conflict between liberty and slavery; and
-that, in such a conflict, it will not be liberty that will die in
-the nineteenth century. You may call me an Abolitionist if
-you will; I care little for that, for if an undying hatred to
-slavery constitutes an Abolitionist, I am that Abolitionist. If
-man's determination at all times and at all hazards, to the last
-extremity, to resist the extension of slavery, or any other
-tyranny, constitutes an Abolitionist, I before God believe myself
-to be that Abolitionist." William H. Seward said: "You
-are setting an example which abrogates all compromises....
-It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them now;
-but the proposition has come from another quarter&mdash;from an
-adverse one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of
-compromise are passing from under my feet, and they are
-now, without agency of my own, taking hold again on the
-rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault of mine if they
-do not remain firm." Charles Sumner closed his protest against
-this removal of "the landmarks of freedom" by declaring the
-measure to be "at once the worst and best bill on which Congress
-ever acted&mdash;the worst inasmuch as it is a present victory
-for slavery, and the best bill because it prepares the way for
-the 'All hail hereafter,' when slavery must disappear. Sorrowfully
-I bend before the wrong you are about to perpetrate.
-Joyfully I welcome all the promises of the future."</p>
-
-<p>The response of the North to the abrogation of the Missouri
-compromise justified these predictions. To this overthrow of a
-solemn compact for the purpose of opening a vast empire to
-attempts at slave colonization, men of every shade of anti-slavery
-conviction made answer by eagerly seeking ways of uniting in
-effective resistance to such a crime against civilization. Amid an
-excitement, which grew profounder as the contest progressed, and
-which was fed by the press, the pulpit, and the lyceum, and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
-organized by public meetings, the demand became daily stronger
-for political action on the basis of uncompromising hostility to
-the aggressions of the slave power. Before the Kansas-Nebraska
-controversy was finished the Whig party had ceased to exist, the
-Democracy had become a pro-slavery organization, the era of
-compromise had passed away, and the young giant of Republicanism
-stood on the threshold of the territories commanding
-slavery to stand back. This vast and far-reaching political
-revolution was accomplished through the wholesale sacrifice of
-cherished ties by the friends of free institutions and through
-their hearty union in the new party of Freedom. The State in
-which this fusion of anti-slavery opinion into Republicanism
-was first accomplished was Michigan, and the Republican party
-as a distinct organization was born and christened under the oaks
-of Jackson on the 6th of July, 1854. Political opinion in that
-State was peculiarly ripe for this step. Its Whigs were with but
-rare exceptions staunch anti-slavery men. Even Senator Cass's
-great influence had failed to keep all the Democrats submissive
-to pro-slavery compromises. The Free Soilers were strong in
-character and several thousands in number. Thus when the
-opportunity came for decisive action it found the men ready.</p>
-
-<p>The Free Democrats of Michigan, encouraged by the increase
-in their vote in 1852, and responding to an appeal of the "Independent
-Democrats in Congress" (signed by Salmon P. Chase,
-Charles Sumner, Joshua R. Giddings, Gerrit Smith, Edward Wade,
-and Alexander De Witt) for popular resistance to the attack on
-the Missouri compact, held the first political convention of 1854
-in that State. It met in Jackson, on February 22d, under a call
-issued at Detroit on January 12, and signed by U. Tracy Howe,
-Hovey K. Clarke, Samuel Zug, Silas M. Holmes, S. A. Baker,
-S. B. Thayer, S. P. Mead, J. W. Childs, and Erastus Hussey,
-forming the state central committee of that party. The convention
-was called to order by Hovey K. Clarke, and it organized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
-with Wm. T. Howell of Hillsdale as president. The committee
-on resolutions consisted of Hovey K. Clarke, Fernando C. Beaman,
-Kinsley S. Bingham, E. Hussey, Nathan Power, D. C. Leach,
-and L. Moore, and a committee of twenty-four was appointed to
-nominate a State ticket. The committee on resolutions reported
-a platform prepared by Hovey K. Clarke, declaring freedom
-national and slavery sectional, and denouncing the attempt to
-repeal the Missouri compromise as an infamous outrage upon
-justice, humanity and good faith. The nominating committee
-submitted this list of candidates for the State offices:</p>
-
-<p class="center">Governor&mdash;Kinsley S. Bingham.<br />
-Lieutenant-Governor&mdash;Nathan Pierce.<br />
-Secretary of State&mdash;Lovell Moore.<br />
-State Treasurer&mdash;Silas M. Holmes.<br />
-Auditor-General&mdash;Philotus Hayden.<br />
-Attorney-General&mdash;Hovey K. Clarke.<br />
-Commissioner of Land Office&mdash;Seymour B. Treadwell.<br />
-Superintendent of Public Instruction&mdash;Elijah H. Pilcher.<br />
-Member of Board of Education&mdash;Isaac P. Christiancy.
-</p>
-
-<p>Kinsley S. Bingham was a pioneer farmer of Central Michigan,
-one of the very best representatives of his influential class,
-and a man of sterling sense, strong convictions, and excellent
-abilities. He had served with honor in the State Legislature,
-and had as a Democratic Congressman sustained alone in his
-State delegation the Wilmot Proviso. His nomination was in
-itself the strongest possible appeal to the anti-slavery Democrats
-of the State. The ticket also had upon it the names of gentlemen
-who had in the past acted with the Whigs. The convention
-ratified the reports of its committees, and after listening to
-a few speeches adjourned. It was a significant fact that two
-of the speakers were conspicuous Whigs, Henry Barns of the
-Detroit <cite>Tribune</cite>, and Halmer H. Emmons; Mr. Emmons was
-especially emphatic in his expression of the hope that before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
-day of election "all the friends of freedom would be able to
-stand upon a common platform against the party and platform
-of the slave propagandists."</p>
-
-<p>Cotemporaneously with this organized action of the Free
-Soilers, but outside of it and of all party lines, there were held
-many public meetings throughout Michigan to denounce the
-Kansas-Nebraska act. Some of these were county conventions
-in form, and others were local mass-meetings. One of the latter
-took place at Detroit on the 18th of February; Zachariah Chandler
-was among the many prominent citizens who signed its call,
-and was one of the five speakers from its platform (the others
-were Jonathan Kearsley, Samuel Barstow, James A. Van Dyke,
-and D. Bethune Duffield). The tone of all the speeches was
-wholesomely defiant, and this was also true of the resolutions
-adopted which were reported by a committee consisting of
-Samuel Barstow, Jacob M. Howard, Joseph Warren, James M.
-Edmunds, and Henry H. Le Roy. The effect of this demonstration
-in the metropolis of the State upon public opinion was
-marked, and it and like non-partisan action did much to pave
-the way for the fusion of July. Powerful contributions to the
-same movement came also from the strong and growing current
-of sentiment in that direction throughout the entire North, and
-from the significant results of many of the spring elections.
-Both New Hampshire and Connecticut elected anti-administration
-candidates in March and April, and in Michigan anti-slavery
-coalitions were successful in quite a number of municipal contests,
-notably in the important city of Grand Rapids which chose
-Wilder D. Foster mayor on that issue.</p>
-
-<p>Throughout the spring of 1854 many private conferences
-(Mr. Chandler sharing in them) were held in Michigan among
-representative men of the Whigs, Free Soilers, and Anti-Nebraska
-Democrats to discuss the feasibility of union and
-consider plans for its accomplishment. The early action of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
-Free Soilers was in fact a practical obstacle in the way. That
-party represented but a small element of the anti-slavery sentiment
-of Michigan, and neither the sincerity of its purpose, nor
-its tender of the olive branch by placing Whig names on its
-State ticket, nor the soundness of its platform on the slavery
-question could counterbalance the many reasons why the Whigs
-would not surrender a time-honored organization and march
-bodily into the camp of what they had always regarded as a
-faction of impracticables. There was also much in the State
-situation to encourage Whig hope, for the party there was
-almost solidly anti-slavery and certain to profit by the weakening
-of the enemy through the revolt of the Anti-Nebraska
-Democrats. But there was a vigor of principle and an intelligence
-of sentiment in the Whig party of Michigan which
-encouraged the belief that it would not subordinate essentials to
-a name, and that it would assent to an anti-slavery union under
-conditions not involving any seeming self-degradation. In fact
-it was called upon to make the only real sacrifice involved in
-the desired coalition. The Free Soilers were powerless, and had
-nothing to lose and everything to gain in the new movement;
-the Anti-Nebraska Democrats were condemned by, and without
-influence in, their own party; but the Whigs were strong in
-numbers, and were asked to surrender a historic name, honorable
-traditions and reviving hope for a doubtful experiment. But
-that the hour demanded precisely this act of self-denial was
-clear, and men of resolution and principle grappled with the
-problem of making it possible. Altogether the most important
-work in that direction was done by Joseph Warren, editor of
-the Detroit <cite>Tribune</cite>, then an influential Whig paper, which
-began the publication in its columns of a series of vigorous and
-well-considered articles advocating the organization of a new
-party composed of all the opponents of slavery extension. This
-policy accorded with the drift of public opinion, and, involving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
-as it did the disbanding of both the Whig and Free Soil organizations,
-avoided any appearance of surrender and humiliation.
-Public and private discussion made its wisdom plainer, and the
-proof of its feasibility was followed by steps for its accomplishment.
-An indispensable preliminary was the withdrawal of the
-"Free Democrat" ticket, as this would remove the chief stumbling-block
-in the path of the anti-slavery Whigs. Mr. Warren,
-whose personal labors at this juncture were of the utmost value,
-writes with reference to the spirit with which the Free Soil
-leaders met the demand for this step:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>One of the first and chiefest obstacles to be overcome in order to ensure
-the co-operation of all the opponents of slavery extension in the movement
-looking to the organization of a new party, was to induce the Free Soilers
-to consent to the withdrawal of their ticket from the field, thus placing
-themselves on the same footing as the Whigs (who as yet had made no
-nominations), free from all entangling alliances and in a position to act in a
-way likely to prove most effectual. But formidable as this obstacle seemed to
-be in the beginning, it was promptly removed through the wisely directed
-and patriotic efforts of the prominent leaders of the party. Such men as
-Hovey K. Clarke, Silas M. Holmes, Kinsley S. Bingham, Seymour Treadwell,
-all on the Free Soil ticket, F. C. Beaman, S. P. Mead, I. P. Christiancy,
-W. W. Murphy, Whitney Jones, U. Tracy Howe, Jacob S. Farrand, Rev. S.
-A. Baker, proprietor, and Rev. Jabez Fox, editor of the Detroit <cite>Free Democrat</cite>,
-were especially active and influential in preparing the way for this
-necessary preliminary step.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This readiness of the Free Soil leaders to make the sacrifices
-required on their part bore prompt fruit. The Kansas-Nebraska
-bill was passed by the House on the 22d of May, and three
-days after a stirring call was issued for a mass convention of the
-Free Democrats of Michigan at Kalamazoo on June 21st. The
-village of Kalamazoo had long been a center of anti-slavery
-sentiment, and the agitation against the pending bill had been
-especially vigorous there and in the surrounding counties. The
-call was full of fiery denunciation of the slavery propagandists,
-and its vigor and <em>vim</em> showed how thoroughly the people were
-aroused. The convention itself, owing to bad weather and other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
-inauspicious circumstances, was not a large one, but its character
-and action were significant and important. Among those in
-attendance were four of the candidates on the "Free Democrat"
-ticket, including Kinsley S. Bingham. M. A. McNaughton
-was made president, and Hovey K. Clarke, from the committee
-for that purpose, reported a series of resolutions reviewing the
-disgraceful proceedings of the session of Congress, denouncing the
-Kansas-Nebraska bill as the crowning act of a series of aggressions
-by which slavery had become the great national interest of
-the country, and appealing to the virtue of the people "to
-declare in an unmistakable tone their will that slavery aggression
-upon their rights shall go no further, that there shall be
-no compromise with slavery, that there shall be no more slave
-States, that there shall be no slave territory, that the Fugitive
-Slave law shall be repealed, that the abominations of slavery
-shall no longer be perpetrated under the sanctions of the federal
-constitution, and that they will make their will effective by
-driving from every place of official power the public servants
-who have so shamelessly betrayed their trust, and by putting
-in their places men who are honest and capable, men who
-will be faithful to the constitution and the great claims of
-humanity." A final resolution directed the appointment of a
-committee of sixteen, two from each judicial district, to consult
-with others for the organization of a new party animated and
-guided by the principles expressed in the resolutions, and it
-empowered that committee, in case of the establishment of an
-"efficient organization" of such a character, to surrender the
-"distinctive organization" of the "Free Democrats" and withdraw
-the State ticket nominated on the 22d of February. This
-action, reached after a vigorous discussion, cleared the way for
-the coalition.</p>
-
-<p>A few days before the meeting of the Kalamazoo convention,
-but after its probable course had become apparent, a call had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
-appeared in the columns of the Detroit <cite>Tribune</cite> (it was copied,
-after the Kalamazoo action, by the Detroit <cite>Free Democrat</cite> also)
-for a mass-meeting at Jackson, on July 6, of all the opponents
-of slavery extension. This was signed by several thousand leading
-citizens of Michigan, in all parts of the State, including
-Zachariah Chandler, Jacob M. Howard, H. P. Baldwin, H. K.
-Clarke, Franklin Moore, John Owen, Jacob S. Farrand, Shubael
-Conant, J. J. Bagley, E. B. Ward, R. W. King, James Burns,
-Charles M. Croswell, Allen Potter, Austin Blair, Isaac P. Christiancy,
-Chas. T. Gorham, and others. The signatures filled two
-newspaper columns in close type, and it was announced on the
-last day that several hundred names had been received too late
-for publication. The text of this document was as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-
-<h3>TO THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN.</h3>
-
-<p>A great wrong has been perpetrated. The slave power of this country has
-triumphed. Liberty is trampled under foot. The Missouri compromise, a
-solemn compact, entered into by our fathers, has been violated, and a vast
-territory dedicated to freedom has been opened to slavery.</p>
-
-<p>This act, so unjust to the North, has been perpetrated under circumstances
-which deepen its perfidy. An administration placed in power by Northern
-votes has brought to bear all the resources of executive corruption in its
-support.</p>
-
-<p>Northern Senators and Representatives, in the face of the overwhelming
-public sentiment of the North, expressed in the proceedings of public meetings
-and solemn remonstrances, without a single petition in its favor on their
-table, and not daring to submit this great question to the people, have yielded
-to the seductions of executive patronage, and, Judas-like, betrayed the cause
-of liberty; while the South, inspired by a dominant and grasping ambition,
-has, without distinction of party, and with a unanimity almost entire, deliberately
-trampled under foot the solemn compact entered into in the midst of a
-crisis threatening to the peace of the Union, sanctioned by the greatest names
-of our history, and the binding force of which has, for a period of more than
-thirty years, been recognized and declared by numerous acts of legislation.
-Such an outrage upon liberty, such a violation of plighted faith, cannot be
-submitted to. This great wrong must be righted, or there is no longer a
-North in the councils of the nation. The extension of slavery, under the folds
-of the American flag, is a stigma upon liberty. The indefinite increase of
-slave representation in Congress is destructive to that equality between freemen
-which is essential to the permanency of the Union.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The safety of the Union&mdash;the rights of the North&mdash;the interests of free
-labor&mdash;the destiny of a vast territory and its untold millions for all coming
-time&mdash;and finally, the high aspirations of humanity for universal freedom, all
-are involved in the issue forced upon the country by the slave power and its
-plastic Northern tools.</p>
-
-<p>In view, therefore, of the recent action of Congress upon this subject, and
-the evident designs of the slave power to attempt still further aggressions upon
-freedom&mdash;we invite all our fellow citizens, without reference to former political
-associations, who think that the time has arrived for a <em>union</em> at the North
-to protect liberty from being overthrown and down-trodden, to assemble in
-mass convention on Thursday, the 6th of July next, at 4 o'clock, <span class="smcap">P. M.</span>, at
-Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thought best to concentrate
-the popular sentiment of this State against the aggression of the slave power.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The response to this appeal was the gathering at Jackson, on
-a bright mid-summer day, of hundreds of influential men from
-all parts of Michigan, representing every shade of anti-slavery
-feeling, and thoroughly alive to the importance of the occasion
-and the difficulty of the task projected. The convention far
-outstripped in numbers the preparations for its accommodation,
-and, after filling to excess the largest hall in the town, it
-adjourned to meet in a beautiful oak grove, situated between
-the village and the county race-course, on a tract of land then
-known as "Morgan's Forty." The growth of Jackson has since
-covered this historic ground with buildings, and the spacious
-grove has dwindled to a few scattered oaks shading the city's
-busy streets. A rude platform erected for speakers was appropriated
-by the officers of the convention, and about it thronged
-a mass of earnest men, the vanguard of the Republican host.
-In a body so incongruous and unwieldy, confused purposes, discordant
-views, and conflicting interests were unavoidable, but the
-universal fervor of the fusion sentiment formed a broad foundation
-for harmonious action, and the convention did not lack for
-shrewd and sagacious political managers with the skill to direct
-earnest effort into practical channels. Such differences of opinion
-as there were on questions of policy and as to candidates
-exhausted themselves in private conferences and secret commit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>tee
-deliberations, and the convention itself did its business with
-promptness, without discord, and amid a genuine enthusiasm.</p>
-
-<p>Its temporary chairman was the Hon. Levi Baxter, of Jonesville,
-a pioneer settler of Southern Michigan, and the founder of
-a family of marked prominence in that State. He was well
-known as the master spirit of many important business enterprises,
-had been a Whig and then a Free Soiler, and had been
-elected to the State Senate by a local coalition of both those
-parties in his own county. After a brief address by Mr. Baxter,
-Jeremiah Van Renselaer was chosen temporary secretary, and
-this committee on permanent organization was appointed: Samuel
-Barstow, C. H. Van Cleeck, Isaac P. Christiancy, G. W.
-Burchard, Lovell Moore, James W. Hill, Henry W. Lord, and
-Newell Avery. While they were deliberating, the convention
-adjourned to the oak grove, and there listened to brief speeches
-until a permanent organization was effected with the following
-gentlemen as officers of the first Republican State convention
-ever held:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>President&mdash;David S. Walbridge, of Kalamazoo.</p>
-
-<p>Vice-Presidents&mdash;F. C. Beaman, Oliver Johnson, Rudolph Diepenbeck,
-Thomas Curtis, C. T. Gorham, Pliny Power, Emanuel Mann, Charles Draper,
-George Winslow, Norman Little, John McKinney, W. W. Murphy.</p>
-
-<p>Secretaries&mdash;J. Van Renselaer, J. F. Conover, A. B. Turner.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Walbridge was a prominent merchant of Central Michigan,
-and an exceedingly active and earnest Whig. He had
-already served several terms in the Legislature and was afterward
-a Republican Congressman for four years from Michigan.
-His selection as president of the convention was a wise recognition
-of the important Whig element in its membership. The
-great throng next separated into representatives of the four
-congressional districts, and chose the following committee on
-resolutions: Jacob M. Howard, Austin Blair, Donald McIntyre,
-John Hilsendegen, Charles Noble, Alfred R. Metcalf, John W.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
-Turner, Levi Baxter, Marsh Giddings, E. Hussey, A. Williams,
-John McKinney, Chas. Draper, M. L. Higgins, J. E. Simmonds,
-Z. B. Knight. The chairmanship of this important committee
-naturally fell to Jacob M. Howard, of Detroit, a lawyer of
-eminence and rare powers, the first Whig Congressman from
-Michigan, and a man of deservedly high reputation for intellectual
-vigor and personal integrity. He was afterward for nine
-years a Republican Senator, and at Washington earned national
-distinction as the author of the Thirteenth Amendment and
-by much able and laborious public service. Mr. Howard had
-prepared a draft of a platform in advance of the convention, and
-the committee met to consider it under a clump of trees on the
-outskirts of the grove (at the present intersection of Franklin and
-Second streets in the city of Jackson). No material modifications
-were made in the document, which was adopted substantially as
-written by Mr. Howard, except that Austin Blair proposed to
-add two resolutions relating to State affairs purely. As to the
-expediency of this action there was some difference of opinion,
-and finally Mr. Blair submitted his propositions as a minority
-report, and the convention adopted and thus added them to the
-main platform. Over the resolution formally christening the new
-party "Republican," there was no especial discussion. There had
-already been suggestions made throughout the country that, for
-the new organization evidently about to be born, it might be
-expedient to revive "the name of that wise conservative party,
-whose aim and purpose were the welfare of the whole Union
-and the stainless honor of the American name."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The history
-of this resolution in the Howard platform has been thus
-given with undoubted correctness by Mr. Joseph Warren in a
-published letter: "The honor of having named and christened
-the party the writer has always claimed and now insists
-belongs jointly to Jacob M. Howard, Horace Greeley and himself.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>Soon after the writer began to advocate, through the
-columns of the <cite>Tribune</cite>, the organization of all opponents
-of slavery into a single party, Horace Greeley voluntarily
-opened a correspondence with him in regard to this movement,
-in which he frankly communicated his views and gave him
-many valuable suggestions as to the wisest course to be
-pursued. This correspondence was necessarily very short, as
-it began and ended in June, it being only five weeks from
-the repeal of the compromise, May 30, to the Jackson convention.
-In his last letter, received only a day or two before
-it was to assemble, Mr. Greeley suggested to him 'Republican,'
-according to his recollection, but, as Mr. Howard contended,
-'Democrat-Republican,' as an appropriate name for the proposed
-new party. But this is of comparatively little consequence.
-The material fact is, that this meeting the writer's
-cordial approval, he gave Mr. Greeley's letter containing the
-suggestions to Mr. Howard on the day of the convention,
-after he had been appointed chairman of the committee on
-resolutions, and strongly advised its adoption. This was done
-and the platform adopted."</p>
-
-<p>While the committee on resolutions was absent, the convention
-was addressed by Zachariah Chandler, Kinsley S. Bingham,
-and a number of others. No complete record was made of Mr.
-Chandler's remarks upon this occasion, but the report of the
-convention in the Detroit <cite>Free Democrat</cite>, prepared by its secretary,
-contains this: "We would say in parenthesis that an
-allusion most generously made by Mr. Chandler to Mr. Bingham
-drew from the crowd three rousing cheers for the latter
-gentleman." The Jackson <cite>Citizen</cite> also gave the following
-reference to Mr. Chandler's remarks: "When in the course of
-his speech he gave a brief history of the Wilmot Proviso in
-Michigan, alluding to the anti-slavery resolutions passed by a
-Democratic State convention in 1849, and the resolutions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
-instructions to our Senators and Representatives in Congress
-by the Legislature on the same subject, and then exclaimed
-that 'not one of our Representatives had ever been <em>honest</em>
-enough to carry them out except Kinsley S. Bingham, a spark
-of enthusiasm fired the crowd, the shout of approbation ran
-through the vast assembly, and, if any doubt had previously
-existed as to who should be the man, that doubt was then
-removed." These addresses were followed by the report of the
-committee on resolutions, which was read by Mr. Howard amid
-frequent outbursts of applause, and was as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The freemen of Michigan, assembled in convention in pursuance of a
-spontaneous call, emanating from various parts of the State, to consider upon
-the measures which duty demands of us, as citizens of a free State, to take in
-reference to the late acts of Congress on the subject of slavery and its anticipated
-further extension, do</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolve</em>, That the institution of slavery except in punishment of crime is
-a great moral, social and political evil; that it was so regarded by the fathers
-of the republic, the founders and best friends of the Union, by the heroes and
-sages of the Revolution who contemplated and intended its gradual and peaceful
-extinction as an element hostile to the liberties for which they toiled; that
-its history in the United States, the experience of men best acquainted with
-its workings, the dispassionate confession of those who are interested in it; its
-tendency to relax the vigor of industry and enterprise inherited in the white
-man; the very surface of the earth where it subsists; the vices and immoralities
-which are its natural growth; the stringent police, often wanting in
-humanity and revolting to the sentiments of every generous heart, which it
-demands; the danger it has already wrought and the future danger which it
-portends to the security of the Union and our constitutional liberties&mdash;all
-incontestably prove it to lie such evil. Surely that institution is not to be
-strengthened and encouraged against which Washington, the calmest and wisest
-of our nation, bore unequivocal testimony; as to which Jefferson, filled with
-a love of liberty, exclaimed: "Can the liberties of a nation be ever thought
-secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
-minds of the people that their liberties are <span class="smcap">the gift of God</span>; that they are
-not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble, for my country
-when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; that,
-considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the
-wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that it
-may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no
-attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest!" And as to which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
-another eminent patriot in Virginia, on the close of the Revolution, also exclaimed:
-"Had we turned our eyes inwardly when we supplicated the Father
-of Mercies to aid the injured and oppressed, when we invoked the Author
-of Righteousness to attest the purity of our motives and the justice of our
-cause, and implored the God of battles to aid our exertions in its defense,
-should we not have stood more self-convicted than the contrite publican?"
-We believe these sentiments to be as true now as they were then.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That slavery is a violation of the rights of man as man; that
-the law of nature, which is the law of liberty, gives to no man rights superior
-to those of another; that God and nature have secured to each individual the
-inalienable right of equality, any violation of which must be the result of
-superior force; and that slavery therefore is a perpetual war upon its victims;
-that whether we regard the institution as first originating in captures made in
-war, or the subjection of the debtor as the slave of his creditor, or the forcible
-seizure and sale of children by their parents or subjects by their king, and
-whether it be viewed in this country as a "<em>necessary evil</em>" or otherwise, we
-find it to be, like imprisonment for debt, but a relic of barbarism as well as
-an element of weakness in the midst of the State, inviting the attack of external
-enemies, and a ceaseless cause of internal apprehension and alarm. Such
-are the lessons taught us, not only by the histories of other commonwealths,
-but by that of our own beloved country.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That the history of the formation of the constitution, and
-particularly the enactment of the ordinance of July 13, 1787, prohibiting
-slavery north of the Ohio, abundantly shows it to have been the purpose of
-our fathers not to promote but to prevent the spread of slavery. And we,
-reverencing their memories and cherishing free republican faith as our richest
-inheritance, which we vow, at whatever expense, to defend, thus publicly
-proclaim our determination to oppose by all the powerful and honorable means
-in our power, now and henceforth, all attempts, direct or indirect, to extend
-slavery in this country, or to permit it to extend into any region or locality
-in which it does not now exist by positive law, or to admit new slave States
-into the Union.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That the constitution of the United States gives to Congress
-full and complete power for the municipal government of the territories
-thereof, a power which from its nature cannot be either alienated or abdicated
-without yielding up to the territory an absolute political independence, which
-involves an absurdity. That the exercise of this power necessarily looks to
-the formation of States to be admitted into the Union; and on the question
-whether they shall be admitted as <em>free</em> or <em>slave</em> States Congress has a right to
-adopt such prudential and preventive measures as the principles of liberty
-and the interests of the whole country require. That this question is one of
-the gravest importance to the free States, inasmuch as the constitution itself
-creates an inequality in the apportionment of representatives, greatly to the
-detriment of the free and to the advantage of the slave States. This question,
-so vital to the interests of the free States (but which we are told by certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
-political doctors of modern times is to be treated with utter indifference) is
-one which we hold it to be our right to <em>discuss</em>; which we hold it the duty of
-Congress in every instance to determine in unequivocal language, and in a
-manner to <em>prevent</em> the spread of slavery and the increase of such unequal
-representation. In short, we claim that the North is a <em>party to the new bargain,
-and is entitled to have a voice and influence in settling its terms</em>. And in view of
-the ambitious designs of the slave power, we regard the man or the party
-who would forego this right, as untrue to the honor and interest of the North
-and unworthy of its support.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise," contained in the
-recent act of Congress for the creation of the territories of Nebraska and Kansas,
-thus admitting slavery into a region till then sealed against it by law,
-equal in extent to the thirteen old States, is an act unprecedented in the history
-of the country, and one which must engage the earnest and serious attention
-of every Northern man. And as Northern freemen, independent of all former
-parties, we here hold this measure up to the public execration, for the
-following reasons:</p>
-
-<p>That it is a plain departure from the policy of the fathers of the
-republic in regard to slavery, and a wanton and dangerous frustration of their
-purposes and their hopes.</p>
-
-<p>That it actually admits <em>and was intended to admit</em> slavery into said
-territories, and thus (to use the words applied by Judge Tucker, of Virginia,
-to the fathers of that commonwealth) "sows the seeds of an evil which like
-a leprosy hath descended upon their posterity with accumulated rancor,
-visiting the sins of the fathers upon succeeding generations." That it was
-sprung upon the country stealthily and by surprise, without necessity, without
-petition, and without previous discussion, thus violating the cardinal principle
-of republican government, which requires all legislation to accord with the
-opinions and sentiments of the people.</p>
-
-<p>That on the part of the South it is an open and undisguised breach of
-faith, as contracted between the North and South in the settlement of the
-Missouri question in 1820, by which the tranquillity of the two sections was
-restored; a compromise binding upon all honorable men.</p>
-
-<p>That it is also an open violation of the compromise of 1850, by which,
-for the sake of peace, and to calm the distempered pulse of certain enemies of
-the Union at the South, the North accepted and acquiesced in the odious
-"fugitive slave law" of that year.</p>
-
-<p>That it is also an undisguised and unmanly contempt of the pledge given
-to the country by the present dominant party at their national convention in
-1852, not to "<em>agitate the subject of slavery in or out of Congress</em>," being the
-same convention that nominated Franklin Pierce to the Presidency.</p>
-
-<p>That it is greatly injurious to the free States, and to the Territories themselves,
-tending to retard the settlement and to prevent the improvement of
-the country by means of free labor, and to discourage foreign immigrants
-resorting thither for their homes.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
-<img src="images/i_111.jpg" width="500" height="344" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">"Under the Oaks," Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854.</span></p></div>
-</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>That one of its principal aims is to give to the slave States such a decided
-and practical preponderance in all the measures of government as shall
-reduce the North, with all her industry, wealth and enterprise, to be the mere
-province of a few slaveholding oligarchs of the South&mdash;a condition too
-shameful to be contemplated.</p>
-
-<p>Because, as openly avowed by its Southern friends, it is intended as an
-entering wedge to the still further augmentation of the slave power by the
-acquisition of the other Territories, cursed with the same "leprosy."</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That the obnoxious measure to which we have alluded ought to
-be <em>repealed</em>, and a provision substituted for it, prohibiting slavery in said Territories,
-and each of them.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That after this gross breach of faith and wanton affront to us
-as Northern men, we hold ourselves absolved from all "<em>compromises</em>" (except
-those expressed in the constitution) for the protection of slavery and slave-owners;
-that we now demand measures of protection and immunity for ourselves;
-and among them we demand the <em>repeal of the fugitive slave law</em>, and an
-act to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That we notice without dismay certain popular indications by
-slaveholders on the frontier of said Territories of a purpose on their part to
-prevent by violence the settlement of the country by non-slaveholding men.
-To the latter we say: Be of good cheer, persevere in the right, remember
-the Republican motto, "<span class="smcap">The North will defend you</span>."</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That postponing and suspending all differences with regard to
-political economy or administrative policy, in view of the imminent danger
-that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by slavery, and a thousand miles
-of slave soil be thus interposed between the free States of the Atlantic and
-those of the Pacific, we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert
-and repeal this gigantic wrong and shame.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That in view of the necessity of battling for the first principles
-of republican government, and against the schemes of an aristocracy, the most
-revolting and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed, or man debased,
-we will co-operate and be known as <span class="smcap">Republicans</span> until the contest be
-terminated.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That we earnestly recommend the calling of a general convention
-of the free States, and such of the slaveholding States, or portions
-thereof, as may desire to be there represented, with a view to the adoption of
-other more extended and effectual measures in resistance to the encroachments
-of slavery; and that a committee of five persons be appointed to correspond
-and co-operate with our friends in other States on the subject.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That in relation to the domestic affairs of the State we urge a
-more economical administration of the government and a more rigid accountability
-of the public officers: a speedy payment of the balance of the public
-debt, and the lessening of the amount of taxation: a careful preservation of
-the primary school and university funds, and their diligent application to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
-great objects for which they were created; and also further legislation to prevent
-the unnecessary or imprudent sale of the lands belonging to the State.</p>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That in our opinion the commercial wants of Michigan require
-the enactment of a general railroad law, which, while it shall secure the
-investment and encourage the enterprise of stockholders, shall also guard and
-protect the rights of the public and of individuals, and that the preparation
-of such a measure requires the first talents of the State.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The resolutions were adopted almost unanimously, and thereupon
-Isaac P. Christiancy, as chairman of the committee of
-sixteen appointed by the Kalamazoo convention, came forward
-and announced the absolute abandonment of the State ticket and
-organization of the Free Democracy&mdash;an act which was greeted
-with loud and prolonged applause. A committee of ninety,
-consisting of three from each Senatorial district in the State,
-and including the names of Jacob M. Howard, Moses Wisner,
-Charles M. Croswell, Fernando C. Beaman, and Chas. T. Gorham,
-was next appointed to nominate a State ticket, and the
-convention adjourned until evening. At that session, which was
-held in one of the village halls, a State central committee was
-chosen, and the committee on nominations reported the following
-ticket which was unanimously endorsed by the convention, this
-closing its formal proceedings:</p>
-
-<p class="center">Governor&mdash;Kinsley S. Bingham, of Livingston.<br />
-Lieutenant-Governor&mdash;George A. Coe, of Branch.<br />
-Secretary of State&mdash;John McKinney, of Van Buren.<br />
-State Treasurer&mdash;Silas M. Holmes, of Wayne.<br />
-Attorney-General&mdash;Jacob M. Howard, of Wayne.<br />
-Auditor-General&mdash;Whitney Jones, of Ingham.<br />
-Commissioner of Land Office&mdash;Seymour B. Treadwell, of Jackson.<br />
-Superintendent of Public Instruction&mdash;Ira Mayhew, of Monroe.<br />
-Member Board of Education&mdash;John R. Kellogg, of Allegan.<br />
-(To fill vacancy)&mdash;Hiram L. Miller, of Saginaw.
-</p>
-
-<p>The response of the anti-slavery masses to the action of the
-convention was prompt and cordial. Some of the more earnest
-and enthusiastic Whigs who had hoped that the Northern wing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
-of their party could be transformed into an efficient champion
-of slavery restriction&mdash;Mr. Chandler had shared in this feeling&mdash;at
-first doubted the wisdom of what had been done. They
-found themselves called upon to make large sacrifices of cherished
-traditions and ties, and felt that their representation upon
-the fusion State ticket was not in due proportion to the number
-of votes they would be expected to contribute to its election.
-But this not unnatural feeling of early disappointment had but
-a brief existence among the Whigs of strong anti-slavery convictions.
-As the good faith of the movement, the spontaneous
-character of the popular uprising, and the possibility of accomplishing
-anti-slavery union throughout the North became clear,
-they laid aside all hesitation and joined with sincere ardor in the
-work of Republican organization. Before the close of the summer
-of 1854 the strong leaders and the intelligent rank and file
-of the Michigan Whigs had accepted the new fellowship, and the
-action of the Jackson convention received their hearty acquiescence
-and loyal support. Mr. Chandler rendered valuable service
-in the following campaign as an organizer of Republicanism
-throughout Michigan, and put into this work enough of his
-characteristic vigor to earn from the Democratic papers the title
-of the "traveling agent" of the "new Abolition party."</p>
-
-<p>There was still among the Whigs a small conservative minority
-who, chiefly through the inspiration of pro-slavery sentiment
-and under the leadership of the Detroit <cite>Advertiser</cite>, made a desperate
-effort to prevent the abandonment of their party organization.
-They procured the signing of a circular addressed to the Whig
-committee asking that a State convention should be held, and in
-compliance with this request a call was issued for a convention
-to meet at Marshall on October 4. When it assembled it was
-found that the great majority of its delegates favored union with
-the Republicans. They controlled its proceedings throughout, and
-put in the chair Rufus Hosmer who was then the head of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
-new Republican State central committee, elected a State central
-committee composed of ardent fusionists, defeated the schemes
-for the nomination of a ticket, and issued an address urging the
-Whigs of Michigan to unite in this campaign with all other
-opponents of the spread of slavery. This decisive action made
-the Michigan election of 1854 a contest between Republicanism
-and the Democracy (which held its convention at Detroit on
-September 14, and placed John S. Barry at the head of its
-State ticket).</p>
-
-<p>The local result of the Jackson convention was a permanent
-political revolution. In November the Republicans elected their
-entire State ticket (giving Mr. Bingham 43,652 votes to 38,675
-for Mr. Barry), three of the four Congressmen, and a Legislature
-with an overwhelming majority in both branches against
-the Kansas-Nebraska policy. The Republican ascendancy thus
-established in Michigan has never been impaired. That party
-has been victorious in every State election since 1854; and of
-the Governors since chosen every one who was at that time a
-resident of the State (Henry H. Crapo did not settle in Michigan
-until 1856) was a member of the Jackson convention. Michigan
-has also since sent only Republicans to the Senate; every
-one of them except Thomas W. Ferry (who had barely attained
-his majority in 1854) was a prominent actor in the scenes
-"under the oaks." It has sent seventy-six Republicans and only
-seven Democrats to the House of Representatives, and the
-Republicans have controlled both branches of every Legislature
-since 1854. Iowa is the only State which can point to a similar
-record of uninterrupted Republican victory. In Vermont the
-Democrats have been uniformly defeated, but the opposition
-ticket in 1854 was not called Republican. Of the States which
-have been admitted since 1854, three (Kansas, Nebraska and
-Minnesota) have been steadfastly Republican, but Michigan surpasses
-them in the duration, while she equals them in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
-quality, of her fidelity to the party of Freedom. Each of the
-other Northern States has at least once chosen an anti-Republican
-Governor, while Michigan (with Iowa) has been uniformly
-Republican.</p>
-
-<p>The claim that Michigan was the first State to organize and
-name the Republican party cannot be successfully disputed.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The
-convention "under the oaks" of Jackson ante-dates by a week
-or more all similar bodies. The first Republican convention in
-Wisconsin was held at Madison on July 13, 1854. Its call was
-issued (July 9) after a number of Anti-Nebraska meetings had
-been held in different parts of the State, and invited "all men
-opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the
-extension of the slave power" to take part. This convention
-adopted the following as one of its resolutions:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That we accept the issue forced upon us by the slave power,
-and in defense of Freedom, will co-operate and be known as Republicans.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The Anti-Nebraska men of Massachusetts met in convention
-on July 19 of the same year, and organized the Republican
-party in that State by adopting the following resolution:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That in co-operation with the friends of Freedom in sister States,
-we hereby form the Republican party of Massachusetts.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>But the Republicans did not carry Massachusetts that year,
-the Anti-Nebraska vote being cast almost solidly for the successful
-Know-Nothing ticket. In Vermont, on July 13, 1854,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
-a mass convention was held of persons "in favor of resisting,
-by all constitutional means, the usurpations of the propagandists
-of slavery." Among the resolutions there adopted was one
-which closed with these words: "We propose and respectfully
-recommend to the friends of Freedom in other States to
-co-operate and be known as Republicans." A State ticket
-was nominated, but, the State committees of the various parties
-being empowered "to fill vacancies," a fusion ticket was afterward
-placed in the field, voted for and elected under the name
-of Fusion. On the same day a convention was held in Columbus,
-O., which organized a canvass which swept that State at
-the fall elections; during this campaign most of the Anti-Nebraska
-candidates called themselves Republicans, and the party
-formally adopted that name at the State convention in 1855 which
-nominated Salmon P. Chase for Governor. It will be seen that
-the Jackson convention preceded all these kindred gatherings.
-To this statement may be profitably added the testimony of
-Henry Wilson, who, after thoroughly investigating the whole
-subject of the origin of Republicanism, wrote:<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>But whatever suggestions others may have made, or whatever action may
-have been taken elsewhere, to Michigan belongs the honor of being the first
-State to form and christen the Republican party. More than three months
-before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Free Soil convention had
-adopted a mixed ticket, made up of Free-Soilers and Whigs, in order that
-there might be a combination of the anti-slavery elements of the State.
-Immediately on the passage of the Nebraska bill, Joseph Warren, editor of
-the Detroit <cite>Tribune</cite>, entered upon a course of measures that resulted in bringing
-the Whig and Free Soil parties together, not by a mere coalition of the
-two, but by a fusion of the elements of which the two were composed. In
-his own language, he "took ground in favor of disbanding the Whig and
-Free Soil parties and of the organization of a new party, composed of all
-the opponents of slavery extension." Among the first steps taken toward
-the accomplishment of this vitally important object was the withdrawal of the
-Free Soil ticket. This having been effected, a call for a mass convention was
-issued signed by more than 10,000 names. The convention met on the 6th
-day of July, and was largely attended.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
-<p>A platform drawn by the Hon. Jacob M. Howard, afterward United
-States Senator from Michigan, was adopted, not only opposing the extension
-of slavery, but declaring in favor of its abolition in the District of Columbia.
-The report also proposed the name of "Republican" for the new party, which
-was adopted by the convention. Kinsley S. Bingham was nominated for Governor,
-and was triumphantly elected; and Michigan, thus early to enter the
-ranks of the Republican party, has remained steadfast to its then publicly-avowed
-principles and faith.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It is true that the Michigan convention of July 6, 1854, was
-only one development of a vast national agitation. The forces
-that gave it being were at work throughout the continent. Like
-movements were on foot in every Northern State. Kindred
-bodies met in the same month to take the same action. But to
-the men who gathered on that mid-summer day in the oak
-grove at Jackson belongs the honor of being the first to comprehend
-a great opportunity; they were wise enough to improve
-all its possibilities, and there founded and named the party of
-the future.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Israel Washburn in an address at Bangor, Me.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The Senator from Virginia has stated that the Republican party originated in New
-England, from Know Nothingism. It is not true, sir; it had no such origin; it originated
-in no such place and from no such source. The Republican party was born in Michigan,
-on the sixth day of July, 1854. It had no origin from Know Nothingism or any other
-thing, except the outrageous, the infamous repeal of the time-honored Missouri compromise
-by the Congress of that year. It was christened the Republican party at its birth.
-It is perfectly evident the Senator from Virginia knows nothing at all about the Republican
-party, its origin, its ends, or its aims. He does not know anything about its birth or its
-principles. I merely wish to correct the misapprehension on his part that it was born in
-New England or anywhere else out of the State of Michigan. There is where it was born,
-sir; and we glory in the production of such a child.&mdash;<em>Mr. Chandler in the Senate, December
-14, 1859, in reply to Senator Mason, of Virginia.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," volume 2, page 412.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br />
-
-THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_119.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> abrogation of the Missouri compromise was followed
-by the arbitrary enforcement of the Fugitive Slave
-act in important Northern cities, and by a determined
-struggle between freedom and slavery for the possession
-of the virgin soil of Kansas. These phases of "the irrepressible
-conflict" were attended by many exciting incidents which constantly
-strengthened the new anti-slavery party in the North
-and in the end made it the main competitor of the Democracy
-in the presidential election of 1856. The decisive character of
-its victory in Michigan in 1854 made Republicanism especially
-strong in that State, and the events of each successive month of
-1855 and 1856 added to its power both in numbers and in sentiment.
-Throughout this period Mr. Chandler labored, in public
-and in private, and with earnestness and effect, to inspire the
-new party with vigor of conviction and unflinching firmness
-of purpose. No man did more than he to make it thoroughly
-"radical," and his former prominence as a Whig rendered his
-efforts especially fruitful. His earliest Republican speeches did
-not differ from his latest in courage of opinion, in plainness of
-expression, or in manifest sincerity of conviction. On September
-12, 1855, he addressed, with Henry Wilson, an immense mass-meeting
-at Kalamazoo, and denounced the border-ruffian crimes
-in Kansas in the strongest terms. On the 30th of May, 1856,
-he was one of the speakers at a large meeting held in the city
-of Detroit to consider the assault of Preston Brooks upon
-Charles Sumner. He there gave expression to Republican indig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>nation
-in the plainest language. After fitly describing the era
-of pro-slavery murder in Kansas, and the recent crime of
-"a cowardly assassin on the very floor of the Senate of the
-United States," he offered two resolutions, one demanding the
-impeachment of Franklin Pierce for his action in relation to
-Kansas, and a second to expel Rust, of Arkansas, for his attack
-upon Horace Greeley, and Preston Brooks for his assault on Mr.
-Sumner. Then he said in substance:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This is not a time for argument. It is a time for action, for speaking
-boldly and fearlessly.... This assault is upon the entire North. So
-long have craven doughface representatives sat in her places in Congress that
-the South has come to doubt our manhood.... We should uphold the
-hands of our representatives, and tell them that an indignity offered to them
-is an indignity offered to us. [Applause.] ... The resolution calling for
-the impeachment of the President is one proper to be offered. He has connived
-at and aided all this Kansas treachery and wrong. He supports the
-bogus Legislature of Kansas and orders its odious laws enforced. If Thomas
-Jefferson was to read his preamble to the Declaration of Independence in
-Kansas, he could be condemned by those laws to imprisonment in the penitentiary
-for two years.... What the British did at Lexington, the
-United States troops, under the orders of President Pierce, did at Lawrence.
-Our fathers resisted by all means in their power. We should imitate their
-example. What should we do?... We should send enough men there
-to put Kansas in a peaceable condition.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler also said: "Had I been on the floor of the
-Senate when that assault occurred, so help me God, that
-ruffian's blood would have flowed," and he closed by declaring
-that Detroit should send one hundred men to Kansas, and by
-pledging himself, if that was done, to devote his entire income
-while they were there to aiding in their maintenance. He also
-made a forcible speech at a Kansas relief meeting, held in
-Detroit, to greet Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, on June 2, 1856, and
-then headed a subscription paper for the aid of the struggling
-Free State men of that territory with the sum of $10,000.
-Actions and utterances of this kind in the plastic days of Michigan
-Republicanism gave to it that resolute and robust character
-which has been the source of its power.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The first national convention of the Republican party was
-held at Pittsburg on the 22d of February, 1856, under a call
-issued by the chairmen of the Republican committees of Ohio,
-Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
-It was attended by delegates representing twenty-seven States
-and territories, and provided for the national organization of the
-Republican party by creating a general executive committee and
-calling a convention, to meet at Philadelphia on June 17, to
-nominate a presidential ticket. Michigan was represented at
-Pittsburg by a delegation of eighteen, headed by Zachariah
-Chandler, and including Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard,
-and Fernando C. Beaman. Mr. Chandler was also a member of
-the committee which reported the plan for the national organization
-of the Republican party, and he participated briefly in the
-debates of that important gathering. The Michigan convention
-to elect delegates to Philadelphia was held at Ann Arbor, on
-March 8, 1856, and was addressed by Mr. Chandler and other
-prominent Republicans. He was a member of the Philadelphia
-convention, acting as an alternate for Charles T. Gorham, and,
-after Fremont was nominated, formally promised that the electoral
-vote of Michigan should be given for the ticket. He was
-there made the member for his State of the first Republican
-National Committee. The Michigan delegation at Philadelphia
-originally supported Mr. Seward for the presidency, but finally
-joined in the movement to nominate General Fremont on the
-first ballot. For the vice-presidency the majority of the delegation
-supported William L. Dayton, but Mr. Chandler, with
-four others, voted for Abraham Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p>In the following campaign Mr. Chandler was among the
-most active of the Republican leaders. He aided liberally in
-the work of organizing the party throughout the State, and
-spoke at Detroit several times, and at Kalamazoo, Lapeer,
-Port Huron, Adrian, Coldwater, and other of the important<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
-cities and towns of Michigan. He also held one joint discussion
-with Alpheus Felch, at Olivet, on October 16. The tone of
-his public utterances in 1856 will appear from these extracts
-from his speech at Kalamazoo (on August 27) before an
-immense mass-meeting, which was also addressed by Abraham
-Lincoln and Jacob M. Howard:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The Republicans of Michigan stand by the constitution, and when their
-defamers proclaim that they are a disunion party, as they do so often, they
-publish what they know to be a falsehood.... We are determined to
-stand by the constitution in all its parts, and, more than that, to make our
-adversaries stand by it in all and every part.... Our opponents have
-ignored this constitution with but a single exception. And what is that
-exception? It is the key to their character and their principles. In this
-whole instrument they acknowledge but one clause, and that is the right to
-reclaim fugitive slaves from their hard-earned freedom!</p>
-
-<p>We intend to make our opponents stand by this clause: "The citizens
-of each State shall be entitled to the privileges of all the States." But how
-is this at present on the Missouri? The citizens of Massachusetts, of New
-Jersey, of Pennsylvania or of Michigan, if they but presume to enter Kansas,
-are sent back with a guard or murdered in cold blood, while the citizens of
-the South are aided on their way to plant in that beautiful territory the
-accursed blight of slavery. We will make them stand by the constitution in
-all its parts, or, by the Eternal, we will have a different state of things here.
-The oak shall bear other fruit than acorns if the constitution be not upheld.</p>
-
-<p>Here is another clause of that instrument: "Congress shall make no
-law abridging the freedom of speech or the press." How is it in Kansas
-to-day regarding this? If any man shall dare to deny the right to hold
-slaves in that territory he is imprisoned for a term of five years.</p>
-
-<p>Our opponents must also stand by this clause of the constitution: "A
-well-regulated militia being necessary of a free state, the right of the people
-to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." That clause of the constitution
-is trampled under foot, and the Democratic platform in sustaining Pierce's
-administration virtually sustains and endorses the disgraceful outrage.</p>
-
-<p>Here is another clause: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or
-property without due process of law." The whole history of the Kansas matter
-shows how shamefully this clause has been rejected by those who uphold
-the administration.</p>
-
-<p>There are but two candidates for the Presidency and but two platforms.
-The issue&mdash;the only issue&mdash;is: Shall slavery be national? Shall it be under
-our protection, or shall it be under the protection of the slave States only?
-The whole question of platforms is in that. It is the only question....
-The policy of this government for twenty-five years has been pro-slavery.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
-The first act toward breaking that policy was the election of Banks as
-Speaker last winter. It was the first of what I hope will be a series of
-victories.</p>
-
-<p>A few years ago there was great commotion in the land. We were told
-"the Union is in danger." "What shall be done?" That was the first question.
-What was the answer of the men in power? "Use the utmost power
-of the government; the Union must be saved." Armed men went through
-the streets of Boston. Troops were ordered there in great numbers. Ships of
-war were sent to Massachusetts Bay. What was the terrible danger of the
-Union? There was a Negro lost! A slave had run away! A poor African
-had escaped from his master and&mdash;lo, the Union was in danger! "Use all the
-power of the government; the laws must be enforced." Other troops were
-ordered there. The militia were called out. They surrounded the jail. A
-sloop of war was sent. Burns was borne back to his master and the Union
-was saved!</p>
-
-<p>There came a later cry, "the Union is in danger." This time it was
-heard from bleeding Kansas. Armed bands were committing daily depredations.
-This appeal reached the government, and what answer is made by the
-party in power? "I see nothing to call for executive interference." "Nothing?"
-Yet an empire is being crushed. "Nothing?" Yet houses are being
-robbed and burned, and helpless women and children murdered! "No cause
-for interference?" The reason is plain. There was no Negro lost.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Michigan fulfilled the pledge made in her behalf at Philadelphia
-by Mr. Chandler, and gave to the Fremont electors
-71,762 votes, while the Buchanan ticket received but 52,136 and
-the Fillmore strength was only 1,660. The Republicans thus
-more than trebled their majority of 1854, and in this year carried
-all of the four Congressional districts of the State. Their
-victory in the legislative districts was overwhelming, and they
-elected twenty-nine of the thirty-one Senators, and sixty-three
-of the eighty Representatives. The term of Lewis Cass
-as Senator of the United States expired on the 4th of the following
-March, and his State had thus decided that he should
-give place to a representative of its earnest and aggressive
-Republican sentiment. Mr. Chandler was at once recognized as
-the leading candidate for the position by reason of his positive
-qualities, his personal strength with the business classes of the
-State and the masses of the people, and his prominence as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
-representative of the strong Whig element in the Republican
-ranks. The senatorial canvass was an earnest one, but it was
-from the outset clear that Mr. Chandler was the first choice of
-decidedly the largest number of legislators, and that no other
-man possessed his popular following. Some unavailing efforts
-were made to combine against him the friends of all other candidates,
-but the fact that he was also "the second choice"
-of many members defeated this plan, and the Republican caucus
-met at Lansing on January 8, 1857, with his marked lead in
-the contest still unimpaired. Three ballots were taken at its first
-session, the third giving Mr. Chandler a clear majority of all
-the votes cast. The caucus then adjourned until the following
-day, when he received a still stronger support on the fourth
-ballot and was formally nominated on the fifth. The following
-is the record of the balloting:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="balloting">
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2"></td>
-    <th colspan="3" class="bb">FIRST SESSION.</th>
-    <th colspan="2" class="bb">SECOND SESSION.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th class="bl">First<br />Informal<br />Ballot.</th>
-    <th>Second<br />Informal<br />Ballot.</th>
-    <th class="br">Third<br />Informal<br />Ballot.</th>
-    <th>Fourth<br />Informal<br />Ballot.</th>
-    <th class="br">First<br />Formal<br />Ballot.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Zachariah Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-    <td class="tdr">54</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Isaac P. Christiancy,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-    <td class="tdr">22</td>
-    <td class="tdr">33</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Austin Blair,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Moses Wisner,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jacob M. Howard,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Kinsley S. Bingham,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George A. Coe,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>James V. Campbell,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Halmer H. Emmons,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Blank,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Scattering,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Total</span>,</td>
-    <td class="tdr bt">92</td>
-    <td class="tdr bt">95</td>
-    <td class="tdr bt">96</td>
-    <td class="tdr bt">91</td>
-    <td class="tdr bt">88</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>This result was received with the heartiest enthusiasm by
-the Republicans, and the caucus greeted its nominee, when he
-came before it to return his thanks, with prolonged cheering.
-The scene which followed has been thus described by an eyewitness:
-"This was the only time in an acquaintance of nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
-thirty years that I ever saw Mr. Chandler abashed. When
-brought before the caucus he trembled with emotion, and it
-was several minutes before he could compose himself to even
-briefly return his thanks. He has often said that it was the
-only time that his courage and nerve absolutely failed him
-and that he completely broke down. The rejoicing was so
-hearty and unselfish that it overcame him, and he trembled
-like a child." On the 10th of January the two branches of
-the Legislature voted for Senator, the Democrats complimenting
-General Cass with their ineffectual votes. The record of the
-balloting was as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="balloting">
-  <tr>
-    <th></th>
-    <th>SENATE.</th>
-    <th>HOUSE.</th>
-    <th>TOTAL.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Zachariah Chandler,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">27</td>
-    <td class="tdr">62</td>
-    <td class="tdr">89</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Lewis Cass,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Blank,</td>
-    <td class="tdr">&mdash;</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>In the following joint convention of the two Houses the
-resolution, reciting the action taken separately and finally recording
-Mr. Chandler's election, was adopted without any dissent.
-Among the members of the Legislature whose votes made him
-the first Republican Senator from Michigan were Thomas W.
-Ferry, in later years his colleague in the Senate, Omar D. Conger,
-who became afterward a Republican leader in the lower
-branch of Congress, and George Jerome, a most intimate political
-and personal friend throughout life.</p>
-
-<p>The Senate of the Thirty-fifth Congress met in special session
-at Washington, on March 4, 1857, Franklin Pierce having convened
-it at the request of his successor, who was inaugurated
-on that day. The names upon its rolls were these:</p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<ul><li>Clement C. Clay, Jr., and Benj. Fitzpatrick, of Alabama;</li>
-
-<li>Robert W. Johnson and Wm. K. Sebastian, of Arkansas;</li>
-
-<li>David C. Broderick and Wm. M. Gwin, of California;</li>
-
-<li>James Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut;
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></li>
-<li>Martin W. Bates and James A. Bayard, of Delaware;</li>
-
-<li>Stephen R. Mallory and David L. Yulee, of Florida;</li>
-
-<li>Alfred Iverson and Robert Toombs, of Georgia;</li>
-
-<li>Stephen A. Douglas and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois;</li>
-
-<li>Jesse D. Bright and Graham N. Fitch, of Indiana;</li>
-
-<li>James Harlan and Geo. W. Jones, of Iowa;</li>
-
-<li>John J. Crittenden and John B. Thompson, of Kentucky;</li>
-
-<li>Judah P. Benjamin and John Slidell, of Louisiana;</li>
-
-<li>W. P. Fessenden and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine;</li>
-
-<li>Anthony Kennedy and James A. Pearce, of Maryland;</li>
-
-<li>Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts;</li>
-
-<li>Zachariah Chandler and Chas. E. Stuart, of Michigan;</li>
-
-<li>Albert G. Brown and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi;</li>
-
-<li>James S. Green and Trusten Polk, of Missouri;</li>
-
-<li>James Bell and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire;</li>
-
-<li>John R. Thomson and William Wright, of New Jersey;</li>
-
-<li>Preston King and William H. Seward, of New York;</li>
-
-<li>Asa Biggs and David S. Reid, of North Carolina;</li>
-
-<li>Geo. E. Pugh and Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio;</li>
-
-<li>William Bigler and Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania;</li>
-
-<li>Philip Allen and James F. Simmons, of Rhode Island;</li>
-
-<li>Josiah J. Evans and Andrew P. Butler, of South Carolina;</li>
-
-<li>John Bell and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee;</li>
-
-<li>Samuel Houston and Thos. J. Rusk, of Texas;</li>
-
-<li>Jacob Collamer and Solomon Foot, of Vermont;</li>
-
-<li>R. M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, of Virginia;</li>
-
-<li>James R. Doolittle and Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin.</li>
-</ul>
-</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_127.jpg" width="700" height="397" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This Senate met in the old chamber now occupied by the
-Supreme Court, but around which then clustered fresh memories
-of Clay, Webster, Calhoun and their cotemporaries. The Secretary,
-Asbury Dickins, called the body to order, and in the
-absence of John C. Breckenridge, Vice-President elect, James
-M. Mason of Virginia was chosen to preside temporarily. After
-the roll was called of the members with unexpired terms, the
-list of newly-elected Senators was read. As they responded to
-their names they advanced to the front of the presiding officer's
-desk, in groups of four, to take the oath of office. The first
-group were Bates, Bayard, Bright and Broderick; the second
-consisted of Simon Cameron, Zachariah Chandler, Jefferson Davis
-and James Dixon. This scene was the subject, twenty-two
-years later,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> of the most effective speech ever delivered by Mr.
-Chandler; probably no speech ever uttered in the Senate more
-thoroughly touched the popular heart or was more widely read.
-Of the men who were then United States Senators, parts and
-witnesses of this scene, Fitzpatrick, Sebastian, Broderick, Dixon,
-Bates, Mallory, Iverson, Douglas, Bright, Crittenden, Thompson,
-Slidell, Fessenden, Kennedy, Pearce, Sumner, Wilson, Green,
-Hale, Thomson, Wright, King, Seward, Pugh, Wade, Allen,
-Simmons, Evans, Butler, John Bell, Jas. Bell, Andrew Johnson,
-Houston, Rusk, Collamer, Foot, Mason and Durkee (perhaps
-others) preceded Mr. Chandler to the grave. Of this number,
-one (Broderick) was killed in a duel and two committed suicide
-(Rusk killed himself at Nacogdoches, Tex., on July 29,
-1857, and Preston King on August 15, 1865, and while collector
-of the port of New York, jumped heavily weighted into the
-Hudson river).</p>
-
-<p>Of the members of this Senate Hamlin, Wilson (his original
-name was Jeremiah Jones Colbath) and Johnson became Vice-Presidents,
-and Johnson, on the death of Abraham Lincoln,
-became President. Mr. Hamlin was the only one still in the
-Senate at the time of Mr. Chandler's death, and his service had
-not been continuous but was broken by his Vice-Presidential
-term. Sons of Cameron and Bayard were in 1879 in the seats
-occupied by their fathers in 1857. Seward became Secretary of
-State, Cameron Secretary of War, Fessenden Secretary of the
-Treasury, and Harlan and Chandler Secretaries of the Interior.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
-Durkee became Governor of Utah, Jones Minister to Colombia
-and Cameron Minister to Russia. Jones was, on his return from
-Colombia, arrested for treason and confined in Fort Warren.
-Bright was expelled for treasonable correspondence with the
-enemy; Polk was expelled for treason, and Sebastian, who
-retired from the Senate when Arkansas seceded from the Union,
-was also expelled, but after the war, ample proof being furnished
-that he was and always remained true to the Union, the resolution
-of expulsion was rescinded. Doolittle, Trumbull, Dixon and
-Foster, who were Republicans in 1857, afterward joined the
-Democracy, and Mr. Seward also ceased to be in sympathy with
-the party to which he was indebted for his greatest honors.
-Gwin identified himself with the Confederacy, then became
-<em>aide</em> to the unfortunate Maximilian, by whom he was created
-"Duke of Sonora," and is back again at Washington as a
-lobbyist. Douglas and John Bell were defeated candidates for
-the Presidency in 1860. Houston was Governor of Texas when
-the ordinance of secession passed and was deposed from his
-office by the disunion convention.</p>
-
-<p>Jefferson Davis, who swore to support the constitution and
-the Union at the same instant with Mr. Chandler, within four
-years rebelled against the government and became President of
-the so-called "Southern Confederacy." Slidell, the most skilful
-of the disunion leaders, and Mason were appointed by the rebel
-government Commissioners to Great Britain, and while on their
-way across the ocean were seized by Captain Wilkes, commanding
-the United States steamer San Jacinto, taken from the British
-vessel Trent, and carried to Boston harbor, where they were
-confined in Fort Warren on a charge of treason. This seizure
-the Department of State declined to uphold, and on the demand
-of Great Britain the "embassadors" were released. Slidell died
-abroad in merited obscurity. Benjamin became Secretary of War
-of the Confederacy, and after its downfall emigrated to England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
-became a British citizen, and is a prosperous lawyer in London.
-Toombs was Confederate Secretary of State, and is still living
-in Georgia, crying as he did in 1861 "death to the Union."
-Mallory was Confederate Secretary of the Navy, and for a time
-after the war was imprisoned in Fort Lafayette. Hunter was
-also Secretary of State of the Confederacy; since the war he
-has been Treasurer of Virginia, but with the political revolution
-of 1879 retired to private life and poverty. Clay was a Confederate
-Senator and diplomatic agent; in 1865 he was imprisoned
-in Fortress Monroe. Fitzpatrick was the original nominee for
-Vice-President on the Douglas ticket in 1860, but declined; he
-became a rebel but without prominence. Robert W. Johnson
-was a Confederate Senator and afterward practiced law in Washington.
-Yulee (whose original name was David Levy) retired
-from the Senate to join the Confederacy, ceased to be conspicuous,
-and is now president of a railroad in Florida. Iverson was
-a Brigadier-General in the rebel army, as was also Toombs.
-Brown was Captain in the Confederate army and a member
-of the Confederate Senate. Butler died during the following
-recess of Congress, and Evans, his colleague, died before the
-war. All of these Southern Senators, who retired with their
-States in 1861 were afterward formally expelled from the Senate.</p>
-
-<p>When Mr. Chandler entered the Senate the House of Representatives
-was controlled by the Democrats, but out of 234
-members ninety-two were filled with the fresh blood of the
-Republican party. Some of these men were then distinguished,
-and others have become so since, but of the entire number of
-Representatives only twelve yet remain in either branch of
-Congress. Henry L. Dawes is a Senator from Massachusetts,
-Lafayette Grover from Oregon, Justin S. Morill from Vermont,
-Zebulon B. Vance from North Carolina, George H. Pendleton
-from Ohio, and L. Q. C. Lamar from Mississippi. Samuel S.
-Cox, a Representative from Ohio in 1857, is now a Representa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>tive
-from New York. Alex. H. Stephens of Georgia, Alfred
-M. Scales of North Carolina, John H. Reagan of Texas, Otho
-R. Singleton of Mississippi, and John D. C. Atkins of Tennessee
-are again members of the House. Stephens was Vice-President
-of the Confederacy; Scales was Captain, Colonel and
-Brigadier-General in the rebel army; Singleton was Aid-de-camp
-to Gen. Robert E. Lee; and Atkins was Lieutenant-Colonel
-of the Fifth Confederate Tennessee regiment, and afterward a
-member of the Confederate Congress.</p>
-
-<p>Others who were members of the House in 1857 afterward
-added to the reputations they then enjoyed. Schuyler Colfax
-has been Vice-President. A. H. Cragin, R. E. Fenton, Thomas
-L. Clingman, Frank P. Blair, Jr., John W. Stevenson, Edwin D.
-Morgan, Joshua Hill, and George S. Houston have been United
-States Senators. Israel Washburn has been Governor of Maine,
-John Letcher of Virginia, and C. C. Washburn of Wisconsin.
-N. P. Banks was a General in the Union army, and is United
-States Marshal of Massachusetts. Daniel E. Sickles was also a
-General in the Union army and afterward Minister to Spain.
-Francis E. Spinner was for many years Treasurer of the United
-States. John Sherman has been a Senator, and is Secretary of
-the Treasury. Elihu B. Washburne was Minister to France.
-John A. Bingham is Minister to Japan, and Horace Maynard
-to Turkey. Anson Burlingame was Minister to China, and afterward
-the embassador of that empire to negotiate treaties with
-foreign powers. William A. Howard is Governor of Dakota,
-and John S. Phelps of Missouri. The roll of the dead of the
-Thirty-fifth House of Representatives far exceeds that of the
-living.</p>
-
-<p>Zachariah Chandler entered the Senate of the United States
-with an abiding faith in Northern civilization and its right to
-supremacy, with a wise distrust of Southern professions, with a
-just hatred of institutions poisoned by slavery, with a determina<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>tion
-to attack treason wherever found, with an unquestioning
-belief that his cause was right and its defeat impossible, and with
-as resolute a spirit as ever crossed the threshold of the Senate
-chamber. His nature was without an atom of compromise, and
-was strong in the rugged qualities of courage, honesty, sincerity,
-firmness, and moral intrepidity.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "The Jeff. Davis speech," March 3, 1879.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
-
-THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY&mdash;THE ELECTION
-OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_133.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler</span> became a Senator of the United States
-at the time when the Southern followers of John C.
-Calhoun had determined that the preservation of slavery
-was impossible without disunion, and had commenced
-preparations for that desperate measure of defense. The heavy
-vote given to Fremont in the North, the failure of the attempt
-to plant slavery in Kansas, the widening schism in the Democracy
-itself on the issue of slavery-extension, and the certainty
-that the census of 1860 would greatly increase the voting power
-in Congress of the North and Northwest&mdash;all made it plain
-that the South could not reinforce its waning strength with new
-slave States. Its leaders saw that the alternative before them
-was a systematic repression of slavery pointing toward its ultimate
-extinction, or the creation of a new government pretending
-to be a republic but "with its foundations laid, its corner-stone
-resting upon, the great truth that the negro is not equal to
-the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race,
-is his natural and normal condition."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Every civilized instinct
-urged them to assent to peaceful and gradual emancipation, but
-they chose the alternative of disunion from a belief that in no
-other way could the political ascendancy so long enjoyed by the
-ruling classes of the South be maintained. The administration
-of James Buchanan was their period of preparation. Whatever
-of needed assistance his sympathy failed to supply was furnished
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>by his imbecility of purpose. In his Cabinet and in federal
-offices throughout the South active disunionists plotted and
-labored to make all things ready for rebellion and unready for
-its suppression. Chronic compromisers, Northern believers in
-slavery, and State Rights theorists were their useful allies. In
-Congress they threatened and bullied, and month by month
-made the demands of slavery more arrogant and exacting,
-scheming to kindle the war spirit of the South and to widen
-the breach between the sections, until they could offer to the
-North the ultimatum of abject surrender to the slave power or
-disunion and civil strife. The representatives of the North at
-Washington met these early developments of treason in various
-moods; there was no lack among them of those who were inclined
-to submit; there were many who disbelieved in the reality of
-the purpose underlying Southern vaporing and bluster, and this
-class included earnest and able Republicans; but there were
-also some who did not doubt that the slave power would try
-secession before accepting defeat, and who, yielding not one inch
-of the right to menaces, proposed to treat disunion, whether
-threatened or attempted, as treason and to denounce and resist
-it as such.</p>
-
-<p>Early in his Senatorial career Mr. Chandler became convinced
-that the purpose of rebellion was a well-defined one at the
-South, that preparations to make it successful were in active
-progress, and that the longer the crisis was delayed the more
-difficult would be the task of its suppression. Between 1857
-and 1861 his comments to his intimate friends on the outlook
-were exceedingly gloomy, and he often declared that he saw no
-possible escape from war. If the government was to be maintained
-on the basis on which it was founded and was not to be
-revolutionized in the interest of slavery, he believed that an
-armed conflict with the men who had determined to change its
-character was inevitable. He did not underestimate their ambition,
-their desperateness of purpose, or their readiness for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
-violence. But neither in public nor in private did he quail
-before them in any degree, and his only plan of action was the
-simple, straightforward and characteristic one of meeting their
-threats with defiance and their treason with all the force required
-for its punishment. In a time of vacillation, feebleness and
-moral cowardice, and while he was still new in the Senate and
-hampered by his own inexperience and the usages of that body,
-what he did say and all his acts and influence were important
-contributions to that invigorating of Northern sentiment which
-the times so greatly demanded and which alone made possible
-the national uprising of 1861.</p>
-
-<p>As a matter of record, the first time Zachariah Chandler's
-voice was heard in the Senate chamber, he asked that "Cornelius
-O'Flynn have leave to withdraw his memorial and papers from
-the files of the Senate." The first caucus he attended was that
-in which the Republican minority decided to make a vigorous
-protest against the unfairness of its treatment in the appointment
-of the Senate committees of the Thirty-fifth Congress. In his
-first speech he added, on the floor of the Senate, to the protest
-of his party an equally vigorous remonstrance against the complete
-ignoring of the commercial importance of the Northwest in
-the selection of members of the Committee on Commerce. In
-his second speech (on the proposition to increase the army) he
-said in significant language: "If they will show to me that they
-require a force in Utah to put down rebellion I will vote for
-it, I care not whether it be one regiment or one hundred
-regiments." His first prepared address in the Senate was
-delivered on the 12th day of March, 1858, and had as its theme
-that most reckless of the slave power's efforts at self-extension,
-the attempt to force upon Kansas what was known as the
-Lecompton constitution.</p>
-
-<p>This was a pro-slavery instrument, framed by a constitutional
-convention elected and controlled by Border-Ruffians, apparently
-ratified at an election whose managers allowed no one to vote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
-against it but only to vote for it with slavery or for it without
-slavery (even the "without" was fraudulent, because property in
-slaves already in Kansas was in any event guaranteed until
-1864), and overwhelmingly rejected at the only election which
-in any degree fairly represented the opinions of the genuine
-settlers of the territory. Mr. Chandler's speech on this topic,
-the absorbing one of that day, was prepared with much care and
-delivered from manuscript. Portions of it were read to Senators
-Cameron, Wade and Hamlin before it was uttered. While it was
-spoken with the impulsive manner that generally characterized
-his speeches, it was the result of long deliberation and of such
-careful study of phraseology as was necessary to make it explicit
-and forcible. It was listened to by a large audience. Mr.
-Chandler had in private conversation spoken with much vigor
-of the duty of the Republican party in case the Lecompton
-constitution of Kansas was accepted and the new State admitted
-under that instrument, and his remarks had been freely quoted.
-His reputation for radicalism of opinion and plainness of speech
-had also reached Washington, and there was a general interest
-felt in his first prepared address. He began speaking about
-fifteen minutes after the Senate was called to order (in the
-chamber now occupied by the Supreme Court) and held the
-floor for nearly three hours. The spectators included many
-members of the House, among them John Sherman, since Senator
-and Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander H. Stephens,
-afterward Vice-President of the Confederacy, and John A.
-Logan, now well-known as both soldier and Senator. The address
-was one of power and was attended by marked effect.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It contained
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>this description of the fate of three Michigan emigrants
-to Kansas:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Men have been hunted down by sheriffs and by <em>posses</em> from other States,
-by border-ruffians&mdash;everywhere under the color of law. Sir, the State of
-Michigan has over a thousand of her people in Kansas to-day. Three of her
-citizens, and many other good men, have been murdered in cold blood. Two
-of them, Barbour and Brown, I know were as good men as can be found on
-the face of the earth. The other&mdash;Gay&mdash;was Mr. Pierce's Land Agent for
-the territory. He was a Nebraska pro-slavery Democrat. He was met one
-day, with his son, on the road, and asked whether he was for Free-State or
-pro-slavery. He had become a little Free-Statish in his views, and, not
-dreaming of danger, he said: "I am a Free-State man," and he was shot
-down, and his son, in attempting to defend his father, received a bullet in
-his hip, and is now a cripple in Michigan. I speak with some feeling. My
-own constituents, my own people, have been brutally murdered, and I should
-be recreant to my trust if I did not speak with feeling on this subject. I
-know the men from Michigan who are in Kansas to be as good men as can
-be found within these United States, and when any one says the emigrants
-from Michigan to the territory of Kansas are picked from the purlieus of
-cities I tell him he knows nothing about the subject and that it is not true.
-They are as good men as the State of Michigan produces; they are honest
-and brave; they know their rights and, knowing, dare defend them.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>But those parts of the speech which most thoroughly stirred
-his hearers and fell with unaccustomed force on ears which
-rarely heard such defiant tones, were these:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I cannot permit this bill to pass without protest. It was conceived and
-executed in fraud.... It is one of the series of aggressions on the part
-of the slave power which, if permitted to be consummated, must end in the
-subversion of the constitution and the Union.... It strikes a death-blow
-at State sovereignty and popular rights.... When Missouri applied for
-admission as a slave State ... the North objected. They declared it was
-agreed to that no more slave States should be admitted into the Union....
-Agitation ran high. The South then as now threatened a dissolution of the
-Union. The North then as now denied her power to dissolve it....
-During this excitement the hearts of brave men quailed.... A new compromise
-was made.... As a part of this compromise slavery was forever
-prohibited north of 36° 30'.... The compromise was acquiesced in....
-Peace again reigned through the land, ... and this peace continued until
-the discovery of the new doctrine of popular sovereignty.... This is
-called a new compromise.... We are told we must accept it because
-the Union is in danger.... But that set of people who have been in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
-labor and suffering and trial for so long a time on account of the Union have
-passed off the stage. In their places are men who love this glorious Union
-and love it as it was made by the fathers; men who will not whine "danger
-to the Union," but brave men who will fight for this Union to the death....
-The old women of the North who have been in the habit of crying
-out "the Union is in danger" have passed off the stage. They are dead.
-Their places will never be supplied, but in their stead we have a race of men
-who are devoted to this Union and devoted to it as Jefferson and the fathers
-made it and bequeathed it to us.</p>
-
-<p>Any aggression upon the constitution has been submitted to by the race
-who have gone off the stage. They were ready to compromise any principle,
-any thing. The men of the present day are a different race. They will
-compromise nothing; they are Union-loving men; they love all portions of
-the Union; and they will sacrifice anything but principle to save it. They
-will, however, make no sacrifice of principle. Never! Never! No more
-compromises will ever be submitted to to save the Union! If it is worth
-saving, it will be saved; but if you sap and undermine its foundations it
-must topple. It will be the legitimate result of your own action. The only
-way that we ever shall save this Union and make it as permanent as the
-everlasting hills will be by restoring it to the original foundations upon which
-the fathers placed it....</p>
-
-<p>The people of Kansas are almost unanimously opposed to this constitution;
-yet you propose to force it upon them without their consent. It cannot be
-done. The government has not bayonets enough to force a constitution upon
-the necks of any unwilling people.... It is our purpose to avoid the
-shedding of blood upon the soil of the United States by civil war. While I
-will not charge on the supporters of the Lecompton constitution the purpose,
-in civil war, of shedding blood upon the soil of the United States, I do charge
-that they, and they alone, will be responsible for every drop of blood that
-may be shed in consequence of the adoption of that constitution. I trust in
-God civil war will never come; but if it should come, upon their heads, and
-theirs alone, will rest the responsibility of every drop that may flow. I trust in
-God that this question will never be pushed to that extremity, for I would
-have less respect for the people of Kansas than I now have if I supposed
-they would tamely submit to have a constitution thrust down their throats
-without authority of law, and against law, without making resistance. I
-would disown them as the descendants of the men who fought our revolutionary
-battles if I did not think they would resist any illegal attempts to force
-a constitution upon them.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>A speech of such vigor of opinion was not without marked
-effect. There was a disposition among the less radical Republicans
-to rate it as imprudent, and there were some attempts at
-rebuking Mr. Chandler for being so outspoken. He received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
-these criticisms good-humoredly, but felt confident of his position
-and constantly defended it. The effect of his demonstration on
-the Democratic side was marked; the new Senator from Michigan
-surprised his political opponents by the directness and force
-of his attack, but won from them the respect always accorded to
-boldness and candor. Mr. Chandler also showed spirit on little
-as well as great occasions. In the latter part of the following
-April, the Democrats attempted to coerce the Republicans into
-voting upon the same bill for the admission of Kansas. Without
-any ill-temper, but with no lack of earnestness, Mr. Chandler
-arose, and said: "I understand gentlemen on the other side to
-say that no adjournment shall take place until this question is
-disposed of. If that is their determination I can assure them
-that no adjournment will take place until the 7th of June.
-When I say that no adjournment will take place until that
-time, I mean what I say. I propose to take a recess until 9
-o'clock, and I advise gentlemen to bid farewell to their families
-for thirty days at least."</p>
-
-<p>In 1858 fuel was added to the anti-slavery flame by the
-Dred Scott decision, in which the majority of the Judges of the
-Supreme Court affirmed, that as a matter of history the negroes
-at the time of the formation of the constitution "had no
-rights which the white man was bound to respect," that as a
-principle of law neither emancipated slaves nor the emancipated
-descendants of slaves were entitled to claim the rights and
-privileges which the constitution provides for and secures to
-citizens of the United States, and that under a correct constitutional
-construction acts excluding slavery from the territories
-were without validity. This utterance was rendered especially
-obnoxious by the fact that the court, while leaving Dred Scott
-in slavery on the ground that the United States tribunals had
-no jurisdiction in his case, practically asserted jurisdiction for the
-purpose of deciding (outside of the real issues of the trial as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
-limited by its own finding) that Congress could not exclude
-slavery from the territories. In reference to this decision Mr.
-Chandler said in the Senate on the 17th of February, 1859:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>What did General Jackson do when the Supreme Court declared the
-United States Bank constitutional? Did he bow in deference to the opinion
-of the court? No, ... he said he would construe the constitution for
-himself, that he was sworn to do it. I shall do the same thing. I have sworn
-to support the Constitution of the United States, and I have sworn to support
-it as the fathers made it and not as the Supreme Court have altered it. And
-I never will swear allegiance to that.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In October, 1859, "Old John Brown" made his memorable
-attempt to liberate the enslaved negroes of the South by the
-descent upon Harper's Ferry. The rashness of his unaided
-attack on a giant wrong is protected from ridicule by a heroism
-worthy of Thermopylæ and by a death which Sidney's last hours
-did not surpass in moral grandeur. Mr. Chandler, with deep
-respect for Brown's motives and the unique simplicity of his
-character, was earnest in condemnation of his methods and of
-the utter foolhardiness of his effort. Congress was not in session
-when Brown seized Harper's Ferry and convulsed Virginia with
-fright, and Mr. Chandler was not in Washington. When Congress
-did meet in December, Brown had just been hanged, and the
-excitement was still feverish. A Senate committee, consisting of
-Mason of Virginia, Jefferson Davis, Fitch of Indiana, Democrats,
-and Collamer and Doolittle, Republicans, was at once appointed
-to investigate the raid, and while the resolution providing for it
-was under consideration Mr. Chandler made one of his telling
-speeches. In it he thus ridiculed "the reign of terror" at the
-South:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Senators ask us why we have no sympathy with Virginia in this instance.
-Sir, we do not understand this case at all. What are the facts? Seventeen
-white men and five unwilling negroes surround and capture a town of 2,000
-people, with a United States armory, any quantity of arms and ammunition,
-and with 300 men employed in it&mdash;as I am informed, employed in it
-under a civil officer&mdash;and hold it for two days. These I understand to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
-the facts, and you ask, Why have we not sympathy? We do not understand
-any such case as that. The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Brown) asks, What
-would we say if North Carolina and Virginia were to attack the armory at
-Springfield? I do not know what is the population of Springfield, but I will
-guarantee if any seventeen or twenty-two of the Generals ... of the States
-of Virginia and North Carolina were to attack Springfield, if there was not a
-man within five miles of there, the women would bind them in thirty minutes
-and would not ask sympathy and the matter would not be deemed of sufficient
-importance to ask for a committee of investigation on the part of the corporation.
-Why, sir, Governor Wise compared the people of Harper's Ferry to
-sheep, as the public press state. That is a libel on the sheep. For I never saw
-a flock of fifty or a hundred sheep in my life that had not a belligerent ram
-among them. We do not understand any such panic as this. If seventeen or
-one hundred men were to attack a town of the size of Harper's Ferry anywhere
-throughout the region with which I am acquainted, they would simply
-be put in jail in thirty minutes, and then they would be tried for their crimes
-and they would be punished and there would be no row made about it.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The pointed passage of the speech was the one in which he
-thanked a Southern Governor for demonstrating so conspicuously
-that treason was a crime punishable by death. He said,</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I am in favor of the resolution because the first execution for treason
-that has ever occurred in the United States has just taken place. John Brown
-has been executed as a traitor in the State of Virginia, and I want it to go
-upon the records of the Senate in the most solemn manner to be held up as
-a warning to traitors, come they from the North, South, East or West. Dare
-to raise your impious hands against this government, its constitution and its
-laws&mdash;and you hang!... Threats have been made year after year for
-the last thirty years, that if certain events happen this Union will be dissolved.
-It is no small matter to dissolve this Union. It means a bloody revolution
-or it means a halter. It means the successful overturn of this government or
-it means the fate of John Brown, and I want that to go solemnly on the
-record of this Senate!</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>These were the speeches of a man untried in public life and
-still in the early years of his first Congressional term. The
-Senate which he thus addressed listened also to Charles Sumner's
-magnificent philippics&mdash;blows "struck with the club of Hercules
-entwined with flowers," to the philosophic eloquence of Seward
-in his moral prime, to Wade's sturdy fearlessness of speech, to
-the wit of Hale, and to the vigorous oratory of Fessenden. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
-no man measured more accurately than Zachariah Chandler the
-political forces of that day, no man branded the hatching
-treason with his blunt precision and homely power, and no man
-asserted with more boldness the courage and the purpose of the
-North. In that hour resolute words were useful in themselves;
-but the lapse of twenty years has shown that Mr. Chandler was
-then as clear-sighted as he was intrepid in spirit and plain in
-speech.</p>
-
-<p>This unsparing denunciation of treason to plotting traitors
-was not without personal peril. Mr. Chandler became a Senator
-at a time when the South had unleashed its brutality at Washington
-and regarded resistance to its demands as justifying
-violence and insult. Horace Greeley, while visiting Washington,
-was assaulted and injured in the Capitol grounds by Rust
-of Arkansas, on account of some criticisms in the <cite>Tribune</cite> on
-Congressional action. Preston Brooks committed (on the 22d of
-May, 1856) his assault on Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber,
-a crime which was publicly upheld by Toombs, Slidell, Davis
-and other Southern leaders, and which led South Carolina to
-unanimously re-elect the ruffian to the House when he resigned
-after the adoption of a vote of censure. Henry Wilson's denunciation
-of this attack upon his colleague as "brutal, murderous,
-and cowardly" was followed by a challenge from Brooks, to
-which he responded by arming himself and by a note declaring
-that while he repudiated the duelling code he "religiously
-believed in the right of self-defense in the broadest sense."
-John Woodruff, a Connecticut Representative, having stigmatized
-Brooks's act as a "mean achievement of cowardice," was tendered
-a duelling challenge which he declined to receive. Anson Burlingame
-pursued another course. Of the assault on the Massachusetts
-Senator, he said: "I denounce it in the name of the
-constitution it violates. I denounce it in the name of the
-sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was stricken down by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
-blow. I denounce it in the name of humanity. I denounce it
-in the name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounce it
-in the name of that fair play which bullies and prize-fighters
-respect." To this the response was a challenge from Brooks,
-which Mr. Burlingame accepted, and, selecting Canada as the
-spot for the meeting, had the satisfaction of seeing the representative
-of South Carolina chivalry refuse to abide by the code he
-had himself invoked. William McKee Dunn, of Indiana, was
-challenged by Rust, of Arkansas, for words spoken in the House,
-and, naming "rifles at sixty paces" as the weapons, learned that
-such was not the "satisfaction" desired by Southern "gentlemen."
-Owen Lovejoy denounced the crimes of slavery in front of the
-Speaker's desk in the House, with the fists of angry Southerners
-shaking in his face, and amid their yells and threats. Potter, of
-Wisconsin, cooled off the hot blood of Roger A. Pryor by
-accepting his duelling challenge and selecting bowie-knives as
-the weapons. Amid all this there was much chronic servility
-among Northern members to Southern insolence, which gave
-pungent force to Thaddeus Stevens's sarcasm (uttered during the
-prolonged contest over the Speakership of the Thirty-sixth
-Congress) that he could not blame the South for trying intimidation,
-for they had "tried it fifty times and fifty times, and
-had always found weak and recreant tremblers in the North."
-Mr. Chandler entered the Senate with the firm resolution that
-he would not be bullied, that he would not submit to bluster,
-and that if occasion came he would fight without hesitation. His
-decision did not spring from love of quarrel or mere passion, but
-was the fruit of mature reflection and was based upon a clear
-purpose. He saw that the Southerners in Congress vapored and
-threatened for effect; that they believed that Northern men
-would not fight, and that they would be permitted to offer
-unlimited insults without arousing resentment. The public sentiment
-of the North was against duelling or fisticuffs, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
-Southerners supposed&mdash;and sincerely&mdash;that this was the result
-of cowardice and not of conscience. This condition of opinion
-was of decided assistance to the conspirators who were plotting
-disunion at the South, and the stigma of pusillanimity was the
-source of no little practical weakness with the North. Under these
-circumstances Mr. Chandler fully determined&mdash;as did Mr. Wade,
-Mr. Hamlin, Mr. Cameron, and one or two other Senators&mdash;that
-if occasion offered, so that justice should be clearly upon
-his side, he would fight. This was a deliberate purpose, not
-reached through any admiration for fighting men, nor through
-belief in force as a method of argument, but from a conviction
-that the moral effect of such a demonstration of the personal
-courage of Northern representatives would be of service to the
-nation. Mr. Chandler knew himself to be physically capable of
-meeting almost any assailant; he prepared himself for a collision
-by muscular exercise and the practice of marksmanship, and,
-while he did not seek, he made no effort to avoid, an encounter.</p>
-
-<p>On February 5, 1858, there was a personal altercation in the
-House of Representatives between Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania,
-afterward Speaker, and Lawrence M. Keitt, of South
-Carolina, who was killed in battle, during the rebellion, at the
-head of a Confederate brigade. Mr. Harris of Illinois, an Anti-Nebraska
-Democrat, had offered a resolution for the appointment
-of a committee to ascertain by an investigation whether the
-Lecompton constitution was the work in any just sense of the
-people of Kansas. Coming from such a source, the resolution
-would have received a majority of votes in the House, but its
-opponents resorted to parliamentary stratagem to prevent its
-passage, "filibustering" for several hours. Amid the attending
-excitement there was a very heated colloquy between Grow and
-Keitt, which ended in blows on both sides, Keitt being the first
-to strike. Grow resisted, and a general melee followed which
-was participated in by many members. The affair was afterward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
-adjusted, and both apologized to the House but without apologizing
-to each other. This occurrence impressed Mr. Chandler
-deeply, and, as soon as he heard of it, he went to the Hall of
-Representatives, and assured Mr. Grow of his approval and his
-readiness to render any desired aid. It was the first outbreak of
-the kind which came within his personal observation, and confirmed
-him in his belief that it was the duty of the Northern
-minority to resist all encroachments upon their personal and
-official rights. Not long afterward a colloquy occurred in the
-Senate between Simon Cameron and Senator Green of Missouri,
-in which the lie was given, and only the prompt interference
-of Vice-President Breckenridge, who was in the chair, prevented
-a personal altercation. The Democrats were insisting upon a
-vote upon the bill to admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution,
-while the Republicans were endeavoring to secure longer
-time for debate. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning when
-the offensive words were exchanged. Vice-President Breckenridge
-at once rapped with his gavel, and commanded both Green
-and Cameron to take their seats. After order had been restored,
-Senator Green continued his remarks, and, referring to Cameron,
-said: "I will not use a harsh word now; it will be out of
-order. But if I get out of this Senate chamber I shall use a
-harsh word in his (Cameron's) teeth, for there no rule of order
-will correct me.... As to any question of veracity
-between that Senator and myself, in five minutes after the
-Senate adjourns we can settle it." Mr. Cameron's reply was:
-"I desire to say, if these remarks are intended as a threat, they
-have no effect upon me." The debate was continued at length,
-but a small group of Senators was soon after seen in earnest
-conference in a cloak-room. It was composed of Senators
-Chandler, Cameron, Wade and Broderick, and the result of the
-consultation was, that by the advice of his friends Mr. Cameron
-armed himself, and prepared for self-defense in case he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
-attacked by Green. The Senate remained in continuous session
-for over eighteen hours, and for some time after the quarrel.
-Meanwhile Mr. Green's passion cooled, and the expected collision
-did not take place (explanations were ultimately made by both
-in the Senate chamber). But when the Senate adjourned, Mr.
-Chandler accompanied Mr. Cameron to his lodgings, as a measure
-of precaution. Out of this affair grew a formal agreement
-between Mr. Chandler, Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wade, which was
-reduced to writing, and sealed with the understanding that its
-contents should not be made public until after the death of all
-the signers. His copy of this historic document is still among
-Mr. Chandlers papers, but it will not be made public while
-Mr. Cameron lives. Of its purport one,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> who knew intimately
-the men and the circumstances and motives of this act, has
-written:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The assaults of the violent Southern leaders upon some of the ablest and
-purest Republicans in the Senate, known to be non-combatants, finally became
-unbearable to some of the less scrupulous Republicans, until, in the midst of
-one of the most denunciatory tirades of one of the fire-eaters, there was
-noticed a little group of the lately-admitted Republicans in a side consultation
-on the floor of the Senate. Precisely what was said in consultation is not
-known to the writer, nor is it likely that it will transpire during the lifetime
-of either of the three gentlemen engaged. It is, however, known that the
-group was composed of Senators Wade, Cameron, and Chandler; that it was
-agreed between them substantially that the business of insulting Republican
-Senators on the floor of the Senate had gone far enough, and that it must
-cease; and further, that, in case of any renewed insolence to any other
-Republican Senator of the character which had been practiced, it should be
-the duty of one of the three to take up the quarrel and make it his own to
-the full extent of the code&mdash;to the death if it need be. The compact was
-not only made, but signed and sealed, and remains sealed to this day. Its
-import, however, became known, and the demeanor of the Southern fire-eaters,
-though still violent and disloyal, soon after became courteous personally
-toward Republican Senators.</p>
-
-<p>They did, however, feel around a little to ascertain whether the whisperings
-as to the fighting Senators could be relied on. They had a scheme to
-assault Senator Chandler in the street, but a little inquiry as to his strength
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>and skill led to its sudden abandonment. A blustering Southerner took offense
-at the remarks of Senator Wade, who had said in relation to an assertion
-made by him, that such a statement would only come from a liar or a coward.
-Of course this could not be borne by the high-toned cavalier, and his friend,
-or agent, or servitor called on Senator Wade, not with a formal challenge, but
-to ascertain how Wade would probably act in the event of a challenge. As
-soon as Wade pierced the diplomacy of the agent so far as to become aware
-of his purpose, he told him to tell the old coward that he dare not fight.
-This was not quite satisfactory. The agent or spy seemed anxious to know
-what kind of weapons Wade would choose in case of a contest. On learning
-this, Wade said, "rifles at twenty paces, with a white paper the size of a
-dollar pinned over the heart of each combatant; and tell him, if I do not
-hit the one on his breast at the first shot, he may fire at me all day."</p>
-
-<p>These inquiries seemed to cure all further desire on the part of the
-chivalry for personal combats. Threats, however, continued to be made of
-street assaults and caning, generally pointing to the more prominent of the
-non-combatants in the Republican ranks.</p>
-
-<p>Certain of the Republicans went thoroughly armed all the time, and
-these, for weeks together, took turns in walking with their non-belligerent
-colleagues to and from the Capitol, to protect them from personal assault.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The decided practical value of Mr. Chandler's bearing at that
-time and of his known determination to maintain his official
-and personal rights at all physical hazards cannot be doubted.
-It made itself felt among his associates on both sides of the
-Senate chamber, and earned for him early recognition at
-Washington as a bold and staunch leader of his party. Personal
-influence was the natural outgrowth of positive qualities so fearlessly
-displayed, and he became a man whose opinions were
-sought and whose energy in execution was prized by his fellow-Senators.
-A close personal intimacy with Mr. Wade, Mr. Hamlin
-and Mr. Cameron sprang up at this time, and general agreement
-of opinion on public questions led them into concerted action as
-representatives of the more "radical" element. Much of their
-work was beneath the surface and is not a matter of record, but
-the results of their efforts at that crisis to infuse vigor by all
-possible means into the lifeless national sentiment of the North
-and to prepare the people for the coming struggle were important
-and durable.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was heard with interest during the sessions of
-1858-59-60 on other questions than those connected with the
-conflict over slavery. His speech (on Feb. 17, 1859) in opposition
-to the bill appropriating $30,000,000 to "facilitate the acquisition
-of Cuba by negotiation" attracted some attention. Its scope and
-tenor will appear from this extract:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This is a most extraordinary proposition to be presented to the Congress
-of the United States at this time. With a Treasury bankrupt, and the government
-borrowing money to pay its expenses, and no efficient remedy proposed
-for that state of things; with your great national works in the Northwest
-going to decay, and no money to repair them; without harbors of refuge for
-your commerce, and no money to construct them; with a national debt of
-$70,000,000, which is increasing, in a time of profound peace, at the rate of
-$30,000,000 per annum&mdash;the Senate of the United States is startled by a
-proposition to borrow $30,000,000. And for what, sir? To pay just claims
-against the government, which have been long deferred? No, sir; you have
-no money for any such purpose as that. Is it to repair your national works
-on the Northwestern lakes, to repair your harbors, to rebuild your light-houses?
-No, sir; you have no money for that. Is it to build a railroad to the Pacific,
-connecting the Eastern and Western slopes of this Continent by bands of iron,
-and open up the vast interior of the Continent to settlement? No, sir; you
-say that is unconstitutional. What, then, do you propose to do with this
-$30,000,000? Is it to purchase the island of Cuba? No, sir; for you are
-already advised in advance that Spain will not sell the island; more, sir, you
-are advised in advance that she will take a proposition for its purchase as a
-national insult, to be rejected with scorn and contempt. The action of her
-Cortes and of her government, on the reception of the President's message,
-proves this beyond all controversy. What, then, do you propose to do with
-this $30,000,000?... It is a great corruption fund for bribery and for
-bribery only.... But let us admit for the sake of argument that this
-proposition is brought forward in good faith and will be successfully terminated.
-What do any of the Northwestern States gain by the purchase of this island
-of Cuba? I know something of Cuba, something of its soil, something of
-the climate, something of its people, their manners and customs, something
-of their religion and something of their crimes. I spent a winter in the
-interior of the island of Cuba a few years since and can, therefore, speak
-from personal knowledge.... Much of the soil of the island is rich and
-exceedingly productive, but it is in no way comparable to the prairies and
-bottom lands of the great West. You can go into almost any of your territories
-and select an equal number of acres and you will have a more valuable
-State than you can possibly make out of Cuba.... You propose to
-pay $200,000,000 for the island, $10 an acre for every acre of land on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
-it.... You are selling infinitely better lands, and have millions upon millions
-of acres of them, at $1.25 per acre. You propose to pay $200,000,000&mdash;nearly
-$200 a head for every man, woman and child, including negroes, on
-the island. And for what? For the right to govern one million of the refuse
-of the earth.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>During this same period Mr. Chandler was very active in
-helping on the work of Republican organization throughout the
-country. In the campaign of 1858 in Michigan, he spoke
-repeatedly in the larger towns of that State, great audiences
-gathering to hear him, and answering with growing enthusiasm
-his vigorous attacks on the administration and its master, the
-slave power. The result was that Moses Wisner, Republican,
-was elected Governor by a vote of 65,202 to 56,067 for Charles
-E. Stuart, Democrat. The Republicans also carried every Congressional
-district (William A. Howard obtained his seat after a
-contest with George B. Cooper) and had a large majority in both
-branches of the Legislature. That body, on meeting in January,
-1859, elected Kinsley S. Bingham to the Senate, and Michigan
-has always since that year been represented in the upper branch
-of Congress by two Republicans. Charles E. Stuart, whom Mr.
-Bingham succeeded, was a man of ability who had manfully
-refused to support the Lecompton outrage, and with Stephen A.
-Douglas and David C. Broderick had been classed as an Anti-Nebraska
-Democrat. Mr. Bingham was a thorough Republican,
-and during his brief Senatorial term (he died in October, 1861,)
-stood side by side with his colleague on all political questions.</p>
-
-<p>In the Presidential campaign of 1860 Mr. Chandler labored
-with untiring zeal to secure Mr. Lincoln's election. Early in
-the fall he spoke with marked effect in the State of New
-York. Throughout August, September, and October he addressed
-a series of great mass-meetings at different points in Michigan
-(at Hillsdale 8,000 people gathered to hear him, at Cassopolis
-10,000, at Paw Paw 5,000, and at Kalamazoo 20,000). In
-October he visited Illinois, speaking at Mr. Lincoln's home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
-(Springfield) on the 17th of that month.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> His last speech in
-that campaign was made in the Republican wigwam at Detroit
-on November 1, and was alive with the spirit of victory and
-the firm purpose to secure its rewards. On the day of election
-his State answered his appeals with an increased Republican
-majority, giving Lincoln 88,480 votes to 65,057 for Douglas, 805
-for Breckenridge, and 405 for Bell.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Speech of Alexander H. Stephens at Savannah on March 21, 1861, after his election to
-the rebel Vice-Presidency.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Of this speech the New York <cite>Courier and Enquirer</cite> said: "The speech of Mr.
-Chandler on the 12th places him among the first debaters of the country. No more
-unanswerable exposition of the usurpation in Kansas has been made." The Chicago
-<cite>Tribune</cite> said: "Mr. Chandler made his first formal speech in the Senate to-day. That
-body paid him the compliment of unwavering attention through the whole of his able
-and effective speech. The passage in which he described the murder of Brown, Barbour
-and Gay ... excited the sympathies and passions of his audience to a pitch rarely
-observed in parliamentary debate."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The Hon. James M. Edmunds, for many years Commissioner of the Land Office, and
-afterward postmaster of the Senate and of Washington City.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Springfield <cite>Journal</cite> of October 18 said: "Senator Chandler, of Michigan, made
-yesterday one of the best speeches to which our citizens have had the pleasure of
-listening during the campaign.... The meeting was a magnificent one and the
-greatest enthusiasm prevailed."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br />
-
-SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_151.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Zachariah Chandler</span> as a Republican Senator
-was a thorough Whig in both his advocacy of an
-enlightened national system of Internal Improvements
-and his constant and efficient championship of the cause
-of the Protection of American Industries. It has been justly
-said that "the Great West of to-day owes its unequaled growth
-and progress, its population, productiveness and wealth, primarily,
-to the framers of the federal constitution, by which its
-development was rendered possible, but more immediately and
-palpably to the sagacity and statesmanship of Jefferson, the
-purchaser of Louisiana; to the genius of Fitch and Fulton,
-the projector and achiever, respectively, of steam navigation;
-to De Witt Clinton, the early, unswerving and successful
-champion of artificial inland navigation; and to Henry Clay,
-the eminent, eloquent, and effective champion of the diversification
-of our national industry through the Protection of
-Home Manufactures." No man knew better or acknowledged
-more fully the truth of this analysis than Mr. Chandler. His
-own State abounded with evidences of its justice, and his firm
-faith in the protective principle was also strengthened by the
-teachings of his practical mercantile experience and by his
-general commercial sagacity. No State presents to-day more
-abundant proofs of the beneficence of "the American system"
-than Michigan, and no personal contributions to the protection
-of its interests and the diversification of its industries equaled
-those given on every possible occasion by Mr. Chandler throughout
-his prolonged Senatorial service.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Political economy has been well defined as "the science of
-labor-saving applied to the action of communities, its aim
-being to save labor from waste, from misapplication, and from
-loss through constrained idleness." The objects of Protection are
-the ennobling of labor and the enhancing of its productiveness,
-and its method is interdicting an unwholesome competition which
-looks no farther than securing mere cheapness of production at
-whatever cost of human energy, comfort and enlightenment.
-There has never been an intelligent and sincere protectionist
-without a thorough faith in the vast importance and inherent
-nobility of Labor. On this as on all great questions Mr. Chandler's
-convictions were radical, and he was right fundamentally.
-He had been himself a laborer. The store, the farm, the factory,
-the work-shop, are all one in this&mdash;their duties are labor. Mr.
-Chandler knew the worth of free labor. He had witnessed its
-seed-planting and wonderful fruitage of development in Michigan,
-and he honored the strong, hardy, intelligent and self-reliant
-race who were the laborers there, and of whom he was one. He
-had early opportunity to make this plain in the Senate. Hammond
-of South Carolina, a true representative of that turbulent,
-rebellious State and of the embodied insolence of its master class
-and of the man-owner's contempt for free labor, made at this
-time his notorious "mud-sill" speech. "There must be laborers
-in every community, a low, degenerate class, who hew the
-wood and draw the water, ... the mud-sills of society, in
-effect they are slaves;" this was its idea. It was a frank
-avowal of the estimate put by the slaveholding oligarchy upon
-the Northern laborers, upon the men who have made this
-country what it is. Mr. Chandler was then young in the Senate,
-and had spoken but rarely, but to this insult to his constituency
-he was quick to reply. In his speech of March 12, 1858, the
-first in which he addressed the Senate at any length, he said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>It is an attack upon my constituents. Under the Senator's version, under
-his exposition of slavery, nine-tenths of the people of the North are or have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
-been at some time slaves; for nine-tenths of the people of the North have
-at some time been hirelings and laborers. We do not feel degraded by being
-laborers. We believe it to be respectable.... Travel on any road in the
-State of Michigan, and you will find flourishing farms on almost every 160
-acres, with comfortable dwellings, and a high state of improvement and cultivation....
-You will find the owners of these farms with four or five
-sons of their neighboring farmers hired out by the day or the month or the
-year.... These young men go to service or labor until they get money
-enough to buy a farm; then they, too, become the employers of labor....
-These men are never degraded by labor.... They are the
-foundations of society there. Some of these men who are at work by the
-month during the summer on farms are in the Legislature making laws for
-us in the winter.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>There was more of it to the same effect&mdash;honest, indignant
-words in defense of free Northern labor, and in eulogy of the
-men who toiled. And the tone of these portions of the speech
-was wholesomely defiant, without a shade of truckling to
-Southern insolence. Nine years later, in discussing proposed
-tariff amendments in 1867, Mr. Chandler said in the Senate,
-"I thank God we are able to pay good prices to our laborers."
-These utterances indicate the vein in which he always made his
-voice heard and influence felt whenever the interests and rights
-of labor were challenged either by speech or attempted legislation.</p>
-
-<p>The tariff controversy in the United States dates back half a
-century. This republic in its colonial days was agricultural.
-There were no mines nor manufactures. Each house did its own
-spinning and weaving. There were small shops for the making
-and repairing of a few articles, and luxuries and fine goods for
-the rich were imported from the factories of Europe. The great
-labor-saving appliances of the nineteenth century did not exist
-even in imagination. The water power of the country was
-unused and its boundless wealth of minerals unknown. The
-people were farmers or traders. For them the government was
-founded, and apparently there was no contemplation of anything
-beyond. It was years before a change came, but, once begun, it
-hurried with rapid stride, until to-day more than one-twentieth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
-of the entire population of the United States are engaged in
-manufacturing, as many more are employed in occupations connected
-with and dependent upon such enterprises, and the capital
-invested in productive industries exceeds by millions of dollars
-the entire national debt.</p>
-
-<p>These changes as they progressed made new demands upon
-the government. After the development of the steam engine,
-and after later inventions and contrivances had cheapened the
-production of cotton, woolen and other goods, household spinning-wheels
-and looms were silent, and the United States
-imported nearly every manufactured article needed by its people,
-sending out in return the products of its farms and plantations,
-its tobacco, cotton and grain. Year after year this draining process
-went on, the manufacturing towns of Europe growing great
-and prosperous, the United States widening and increasing in
-population, but adding little to its wealth. The mill-owners of
-Europe bought their cotton in South Carolina or Georgia, transported
-it across the Atlantic, made it into cloths, and returned
-them to New York or Charleston. The American purchaser
-paid the cost of both transportations, the cost and profit of
-manufacture abroad, all the profits of middle-men who handled
-the goods, and all the cost of exchanges. By this process
-America toiled, while England and the other manufacturing
-States of Europe reaped the harvest. Thoughtful people, knowing
-that capital employed in production feeds, clothes and lodges
-the industrious workman, adds to the wealth of the nation, adds
-to its strength, adds to its power of resistance, and lessens the
-individual burden of taxation, and comprehending the inevitable
-result of the drain in progress, asked, Is there no way of preventing
-this? They saw the raw material produced in bountiful
-profusion, saw the water power of the country running away
-to the sea unvexed by use, and naturally asked, Is it not possible
-to bring the miners and smelters, the founders, machinists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
-and laborers, the mechanic and manufacturer of every description,
-here, to place them beside the raw material, to utilize this
-wasted power, and to save the losses and attrition that are
-impoverishing the country? When these thoughts took shape in
-the active brains of Americans, the change began. Mills and
-factories sprang up by the water-courses. Tall chimneys, clouds
-of smoke and glowing furnaces came after. Thus American
-manufacturing was born.</p>
-
-<p>But as the first mills and factories were established, these
-discoveries were made: In building a mill in England the
-laborers and mechanics could be hired at wages from twenty to
-forty per cent. lower than prevailed on this continent. The cost
-of machinery, most of it being brought from Europe, was also
-greater. Foreign manufacturers could hire their capital from the
-immense reservoir of Europe, where it had been accumulating
-for centuries, at from four to six per cent. interest. Here the
-borrower must pay eight or ten per cent. or even higher. There
-was another and even graver matter presented to the consideration
-of the pioneer manufacturer. Labor in Europe was cheap&mdash;so
-cheap that, combined with abundant capital and low
-interest, it enabled the foreign manufacturer to pay two ocean
-transportations and yet undersell an American competitor at the
-very door of his own mill. Should the American mechanic
-be asked to toil for the pauper wages of Europe? Should it be
-the policy of this government to gather about its factories the
-hungry-eyed, ill-clad, impoverished, ignorant and hopeless crowds
-which are found in the manufacturing towns of the old world?
-Could American institutions endure this? Where the people are
-all agriculturists, except under very extraordinary circumstances
-they need never want for food, and such circumstances are rarely
-chargeable to misgovernment or to bad laws. The farming
-classes are widely scattered; they are conservative and self-reliant,
-not given to mobs and outbreaks, nor to obeying the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
-will of self-constituted leaders as do men gathered in great
-masses. But the men of mills and shops and factories, unless
-they are well paid, must suffer; and when they suffer their
-discontent threatens society itself. Despotic governments may
-apply the gag of a bayonet or the silence of a musket ball, but
-this is not possible in a republic resting upon the uncompelled
-support of all the people. Plainly, if a government, constituted
-as is this, is to be preserved, the mechanics, the laborers in mills
-and mines, in shops and factories, must be paid enough to
-support themselves and their families in comfort, to educate their
-children and to permit the thrifty to make savings. If the time
-ever comes when the millions of American workers upon whose
-assent this government exists are reduced to the condition of the
-pauper labor of Europe, this republic and its golden promises of
-freedom will most certainly ignobly perish from the face of
-the earth. From such circumstances and ideas as these sprang
-the doctrine, accepted by almost all of the earlier statesmen of
-the republic, that the revenue system of the United States must
-be so modeled as to stimulate domestic manufactures, protect
-them from ruinous foreign competition, and promote that diversification
-of industry which is so essential to the prosperity and
-independence of free labor.</p>
-
-<p>The first tariff measure (passed by the First Congress and
-approved by George Washington) imposed but low duties, but
-in some of its details practically recognized the protective principle,
-and in its preamble declared one of its purposes to be
-"the protection and encouragement of Domestic Manufacture."
-From 1807 to 1815 the United States was in a great degree
-driven from the ocean. A part of that time it was involved in
-a war with Great Britain, with an embargo laid upon its ports.
-During these years the home manufacturer had no foreign competition
-to fear, and factories sprang up to meet the local
-demands, drawing about them laborers and their families, making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
-a quick market for the productions of the soil, and placing consumer
-and producer side by side. But this was the result of
-accident and not of deliberate policy. The scene changed when
-the raising of the embargo brought into the country a flood of
-manufactured articles representing cheap labor, cheap interest and
-cheap capital. Then came the demand for the levying of such
-duties on the products of foreign labor as would protect the American
-manufacturer and enable him to pay a suitable compensation
-to the American workman. The first response to this was the
-tariff of 1816, justly styled "The Planters' and Farmers' Tariff,"
-because it gave protection to coarser commodities which least
-required it, and withheld it from those articles in whose production
-others were to be used. Eight years afterward came
-a third tariff varying little in its general features, but with rates
-of duties slightly increased. Four years later (in 1828) was
-enacted the first thoroughly American protective tariff, but it was
-soon destroyed by the act of July 12, 1832 (the outcome of the
-Nullification controversy), which completely abolished its protective
-features. Within a few months, through the exertions of
-Mr. Clay, this measure was modified by what was known as the
-compromise tariff act, which continued in force until the passage
-of the protective tariff of 1842. This was in time displaced
-by the free-trade tariff, which went into force four years later,
-in June, 1847. It was followed in 1861 (March 23) by the
-Morrill tariff, a thoroughly protective measure, which with some
-modifications yet remains on the statute books.</p>
-
-<p>In 1816, notwithstanding it had just emerged from war, the
-country's industrial condition was at least hopeful, but the consequences
-of the tariff of that year promptly manifested themselves.
-The American manufacturer was undersold at the door of his
-mill by the foreigner; factories closed, wages shrunk and the
-demand for labor diminished. Prices of all kinds of planter's and
-farmer's produce declined in turn, and to industrial prostration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
-was speedily added agricultural depression. Henry Clay pronounced
-the seven years preceding 1824 the most disastrous this
-nation had ever known. But almost from the moment of its
-passage the country felt the impetus of the protective tariff of
-1828. Furnace doors were thrown open; foundries were built;
-the cobwebs that had gathered about factory machinery disappeared
-in the whir of busy wheels; labor came again into
-demand; immigration increased; the products of farms and plantations
-brought good prices; and the public revenue grew until
-the national debt was extinguished. Prosperity thus became
-universal throughout the land. When this protective tariff of
-1828 gave way to the gradual reductions in duties of the compromise
-measure of 1832, there followed a repetition of the
-scenes that succeeded the tariff of 1816. From 1837 to 1842
-mills and furnaces were closed, wages were reduced, laborers
-sought in vain for employment, the poor-houses were filled and
-manufacturers, farmers and planters became bankrupts together.
-Even the public treasury was unable to borrow at home as small
-a sum as $1,000,000 at any rate of interest, and the great banking
-houses of Europe refused it credit, so that it was forced to
-the humiliation of selling its securities at ruinous discounts. The
-passage of the protective tariff of 1842 marks the date of another
-business revival. Old mines were re-worked and new ones were
-opened. Mill-fires were re-lighted and new mills sprang up in
-all directions. Money became abundant, and public and private
-incomes exceeded all precedent. Farmers and planters secured
-easy markets and ample prices for their produce, and laborers'
-homes grew bright with plenty. Then came the Free-Trade
-tariff of 1846 and the commercial decadence which culminated
-in the disasters of 1857. California and its gold delayed the
-catastrophe but could not avert it. From the moment of the
-repeal of the protective tariff, the inflow of British iron and
-cloth began and the receding tide carried back American gold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
-impoverishing the country. Industry was stricken to the earth,
-and day by day saw the dependence of the United States on
-foreign markets growing until when the crash came it was complete.
-The vast flood of gold from California had gone into
-European vaults and in its stead could only be shown receipts
-for foreign goods consumed and the wrecks of American industries.
-The Morrill tariff was followed by an unparalleled mercantile
-and manufacturing development, which not even the
-disastrous effects of an inflated currency (in 1873-76) could
-more than briefly check.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler, who knew well these facts, and had learned
-"the American doctrine" in the days of Clay, had taken his
-seat in the Senate when the crash of 1857 came, and was active
-in demanding and shaping that revolution in the revenue system
-which has made the United States one of the great manufacturing
-nations of the world. He was an ardent champion of the
-Morrill tariff (of 1861), and aided materially in perfecting its
-details, watching with special vigilance those of its provisions
-which affected the vast interests of the Northwest. He believed
-in the largest possible application of the protective principle,
-and favored aiding every American producer and every American
-manufacturer who could complain on valid grounds of foreign
-competition. Every demand for protection, which gave reasonable
-promise of increasing the yield of any staple or of developing
-a new industry, received his energetic support. To any
-revenue measure or proposition, which seemed to him calculated
-to advance foreign at the expense of American interests, he was
-uncompromisingly hostile. The abrogation of the Reciprocity
-treaty with Canada he labored most assiduously to bring about,
-and he resisted with all his characteristic pertinacity each successive
-effort to restore a compact which imposed such heavy
-burdens upon the lumbermen, salt manufacturers, and farmers of
-the Northwest. Throughout his Senatorial term all measures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
-affecting duties in any form or proposing any modification in
-their schedules found him alert, well-informed, and determined
-to maintain the protective policy against any assault.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Very
-much the greater, and undoubtedly the most effective, part of
-his labors for an American tariff was put forth in committee-rooms
-and in the earnest use of argument and influence with
-fellow-Congressmen; he relied much more upon this work than
-upon speech-making for results&mdash;and results he always ranked
-far above display or mere publicity. Still he spoke not unfrequently
-on tariff questions, and a few quotations will illustrate
-satisfactorily his positions and methods. This passage shows how
-radical was his protectionism:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This nation to-day should be an exporter of iron instead of an importer.
-There is no valid reason why we should buy one single pound of iron from
-any other nation on the globe. Our mountains are filled with the purest ores
-on the face of the earth.... If I had my way I would absolutely prohibit
-the introduction of foreign iron.</p></blockquote>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
-<p>The context does not sustain an absolutely literal construction
-of the last sentence. Mr. Chandler had seen Michigan when its
-copper mines were unworked, its limitless riches of iron undiscovered,
-its salt deposits unknown, and its pine forests unfelled.
-He had seen these industries passing through various stages of
-prosperity and disaster as they were affected by prevailing tariffs,
-now shielded by a wise policy of protection and now at the
-mercy of foreign producers, who at times (to use their own
-admission) "voluntarily incur immense losses in order to destroy
-American competition and to gain and keep control of American
-markets." He saw these industries grow from nothing, until
-the annual yield of Michigan's copper mines became 20,266 tons,
-of its iron mines 1,125,231 tons, and of its salt wells 1,885,884
-barrels, and until its lumber product expanded to the enormous
-total of 2,700,000,000 feet in one season. They thus became
-powerful interests, employing a great host of laborers and offering
-support to thousands of families. These facts and the tone
-of what Mr. Chandler said on kindred topics make it plain that
-by the absolute prohibition of the introduction of foreign iron he
-meant not an embargo, but the affording of such ample protection
-to the iron industries of the entire country as would make
-it impossible for the products of foreign cheap labor to compete
-in its markets with those of American labor, and as would make
-the United States a seller and not a buyer of iron and its wares.</p>
-
-<p>With all his earnestness as a protectionist, he kept the interests
-of labor predominant in his consideration of this subject.
-For instance, in some remarks upon the lumber tariff, he said:
-"It is perfectly well known that the great value of lumber is
-in the labor and the transportation, and while we in the United
-States are paying our laborers (in lumber) $2 a day, they are
-in the British Provinces paying but from 75 cents to $1 per
-day." And he steadily voted for such protection of the lumber
-trade as would enable producers engaged in that business to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
-pay large wages, and opposed every suggestion which looked to
-impoverishing or pauperizing the American artisan. He uniformly
-upheld American industry and labor of every kind against
-the competition of the world. He felt that the highest civilization
-can only be secured through that policy of industrial
-diversification which brings consumer and producer side by side,
-and he favored giving it the widest possible scope. He frequently
-declared, "I cannot vote to discriminate against any
-particular branch," and he firmly believed in protecting everything
-his country could produce. His vigilance in caring for all
-interests and his grasp of the practical details of tariff legislation
-will appear from one or two brief citations from speeches made
-in 1867 on proposed modifications of the Morrill tariff. The
-duty on pig-metal was then $9 per ton, and it was proposed
-in the new bill to admit scrap-iron on the payment of a duty
-of $3. On this proposition Mr. Chandler said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The effect of this tariff will be to admit all the rails in the world into
-the United States at a duty of $3 a ton. We will become the recipients of
-all the scrap-iron in the world.... And the effect will be to put out
-every blast furnace in the United States, and stop the mining in every
-mountain in the country.... The expense of re-rolling bars is only
-about $30 a ton. You admit scrap-iron at this nominal duty, and the result
-will be to utterly destroy the revenue you now receive from iron&mdash;you will
-import nothing but at the duty of $3 per ton. This scrap-iron is worth two
-or three times as much as pig-metal. Pig-metal has to be puddled once. It
-costs to-day $28 per ton to put pig-metal into scrap, and yet you put a duty
-of $9 per ton on pig-metal and propose a mere nominal duty of $3 per ton
-on scrap.... This is absolutely abandoning the whole iron interests of
-the United States, save and excepting the rolling-mills.... The State of
-Pennsylvania takes about 300,000 tons of Lake Superior ore to mix with her
-inferior ore, and transports it by water 700 or 800 miles, and afterward by
-land carriage&mdash;a very expensive carriage&mdash;from 50 to 300 miles. This ore is
-mixed with the Pennsylvania ores, and transported then a long distance at very
-great expense. The demand for pig-iron is for rolling.... Calling material
-nothing, it costs the manufacturers $60 per ton of scrap-iron to take
-the ore and the coal from the mine and deliver at the works, every cent of
-which is labor.... There are in the world 100,000 miles of railroads, of
-which 36,000 are in the United States, and 64,000 in the rest of the world.
-These railroads are laid, on an average, with rails weighing 56 pounds to the
-yard, and use 49,000 tons net to the mile. This gives the 64,000 miles abroad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
-3,136,000 tons of iron. This has to be re-rolled on an average once in ten
-years; consequently one-tenth of this amount is let loose upon some country
-every year in the shape of scrap-iron. That would make the amount of railroad
-scrap alone 313,600 tons per annum, which it is proposed to admit at a
-duty of $3 a ton, and which it costs to-day $60 a ton to put in the form of
-scrap in the United States. This is Free Trade in the broadest sense. It is
-worse than that.... It will build up rolling-mills, but it will break
-down every forge in the United States.... It will stop our mines in
-Michigan that yield ores richer than any other in the world.... It will
-make this country the <em>entrepôt</em> for the scrap-iron of the world.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>He would not build up the rolling-mill at the expense of
-the mine and the blast-furnace. He would not build up one
-industry upon the ruins of any other. His many speeches and
-his more numerous votes in the Senate all indicated the same
-clear purpose to avoid discrimination against home interests
-where possible, and to protect everything American against everything
-of foreign production.</p>
-
-<p>One phase of this many-sided question which made a deep
-impression upon Mr. Chandler remains to be mentioned. In
-common with all thoughtful Americans, during the course of the
-rebellion he realized the priceless value of the large-brained,
-energetic and highly-skilled American mechanic. He had marked
-these men in every brigade, upon every field of the war,
-enabling commanders to overcome obstacles which without them
-would have been insurmountable. He had seen mills and factories
-and shops pouring into the storehouses of the government
-the multitudinous articles without which a successful prosecution
-of the war would have been impossible, and that, too, with a
-rapidity which was as amazing as it was unexampled. He was
-from his early manhood a strong protectionist. But when he
-realized what the American working-men had done for the
-country and for freedom, and how its protected trades had served
-the government in its hour of trial, he was still more confirmed
-in the wisdom of the system which fosters American industry
-and secures to the country the priceless heritage of prosperous
-and intelligent laborers and mechanics.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The following letter is written by a gentleman thoroughly familiar with the history
-of tariff legislation at Washington for many years:
-</p>
-<p class="right">WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 5, 1880.</p>
-<p>
-Some eight years ago, when a serious reduction in the copper tariff was proposed, I
-know that Mr. Chandler rendered valuable aid in bringing the facts before the Senate in
-his clear, terse way&mdash;going straight to the mark. Then, as always in practical matters,
-his prompt manner, his business knowledge, and his immense power of will made him the
-man to be called on, and he ever responded to the call, and had a power wonderful indeed
-to "push things." When the act to reduce internal revenue taxes&mdash;which had passed the
-House almost unanimously, and had been perfected by the mutual labors of Congressional
-committees and representative business men&mdash;was before the Senate for final action in
-March, 1868, an effort was made by Senator Fessenden, of Maine, to add to it as a "rider"
-a clause affecting the copper tariff, which would surely have delayed if not defeated the
-measure. Senator Chandler spoke ten minutes, putting concentrated power in his words,
-and showing the great importance of passing the act and the needless mischief that must
-come of saddling it with another question. He succeeded in defeating the Fessenden
-amendment, the act passed without it, and it reduced the annual burden of internal revenue
-taxation some $60,000,000 (all this internal).
-</p>
-<p>
-The Senator's views on tariff legislation were broad and comprehensive, recognizing
-the interdependence of all branches of industry and the importance of such action as
-should bear with equal justice on all: knowing no East, nor West, nor South&mdash;no petty
-and narrow jealousy between farmer and merchant and manufacturer&mdash;but seeking the
-wise care and healthy growth o£ a varied home industry all over the land.
-</p>
-<p>
-On these subjects he showed practical sagacity and the same moral courage and
-bold vigor that marked his great efforts for freedom and justice to all in the last and
-grandest year, which so nobly closed a public career which will live and grow in the minds
-of future generations. Very truly yours,
-</p>
-<p class="right">GILES B. STEBBINS.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER X.<br />
-
-SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE
-OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_164.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Upon</span> the day following that on which Mr. Chandler first
-took his seat in the Senate Judah P. Benjamin of
-Louisiana offered a resolution, from a special committee
-in regard to the formation of committees, amending the
-thirty-fourth rule of the Senate by providing that thereafter the
-standing committees of that body (their members are selected
-by the Senate itself and not by its presiding officer) should be
-appointed at the commencement of each session of Congress.
-The Committee on Commerce then, and from that time until
-the special session in the spring of 1875, consisted of seven
-members. Mr. Benjamin's resolution was adopted, and on March
-9th the standing committees for the special session were, on
-motion of Mr. Seward of New York, announced. The Committee
-on Commerce was composed of Messrs. Clay of Alabama,
-chairman, Benjamin of Louisiana, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs
-of Georgia, Reid of North Carolina, Bright of Indiana, and
-Hamlin of Maine. Mr. Chandler was assigned to the Committee
-on the District of Columbia, of which Mr. Brown of Mississippi
-was chairman. Mr. Hamlin of Maine was also appointed on
-this inferior committee, giving it two Republican members,
-while the Committee on Commerce had but one. The general
-assignment of places to the minority was so inadequate and
-unfair that a Republican caucus (the first Mr. Chandler attended)
-had been called to consider the matter. Mr. Chandler, although
-a new member, was one of its speakers and gave strong expres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>sion
-to his sense of the injustice with which both his party and
-the Northwest had been treated. It was decided to make a
-formal protest against the constitution of the committees, and, as
-a result of this consultation, when Mr. Seward's motion was
-made, Mr. Fessenden of Maine, as the spokesman of the Republicans,
-denounced the unfairness of the majority with force and
-vigor. In his remarks he said "that there was not an individual
-member of the Republican party in the Senate who deemed
-that a just and fair division had been made in the appointment
-of the committees, especially two or three of them." He also
-declared that there was not a just and fair division with reference
-to questions coming before the committees, and then gave
-this illustration: "Take, for instance, the Committee on Commerce.
-On that committee the Republican party, numbering
-twenty out of the sixty-one members of the Senate, is assigned,
-of the whole number of seven, one member.... The
-interests of the whole lake region, the interests of New England
-and of New York, involving, as those large portions of the
-country do, such an infinite superiority of all its commerce,
-are found with only two members out of the seven." Mr.
-Hamlin here corrected Mr. Fessenden's statement, by saying,
-"My colleague is mistaken.... The interests of which he
-speaks have only <em>one</em> member on that committee, not two." Mr.
-Hamlin was right; there was but one member of the Committee
-on Commerce to represent the immense interests of the country
-of the Great Lakes of the Northwest and of the whole of New
-England and New York, and that single member was himself.
-But the Republican protest, well-grounded as it was, proved
-then unavailing.</p>
-
-<p>At the first regular session of the Thirty-fifth Congress,
-beginning in December, 1857, Mr. Allen, of Rhode Island, presented
-under the rule a new list of the standing committees of
-the Senate for adoption. That on Commerce was only changed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
-by the substitution of Mr. Allen for Mr. Bright of Indiana,
-increasing its New England but diminishing its Western membership.
-Messrs. Hamlin, Chandler and Wilson again made vigorous
-remonstrances against the unjust formation of the standing committees
-as a whole. This was Mr. Chandler's first speech in the
-Senate, and it was as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I find in the "Globe" of yesterday the following announcement: "The
-caucus of all parties in the Senate has agreed to constitute the committees
-as follows." And then follows a list in detail. This announcement, as I
-understand it, is incorrect. I believe that no such caucus has been held. I
-am informed that a Democratic caucus was held, and the committees made
-up, leaving certain blanks to be submitted to the Republicans for them to fill.
-They saw fit to fill these blanks, under protest. No such caucus as is
-announced in the statement which I have read was ever held. No assent
-has ever been given by the Republicans of this Senate to any such formation
-of committees as is there announced.</p>
-
-<p>I rise, sir, to protest against this list of committees as presented here.
-Never before, in the whole course of my observation, have I seen a large
-minority virtually ignored in a legislative body upon important committees.
-This is the first time that I have ever witnessed such a total, or almost total,
-ignoring of a large and influential minority. But, sir, whom and what does
-this minority represent? It represents&mdash;I believe I am correct in saying&mdash;more
-than half&mdash;certainly nearly one-half&mdash;of all the free white inhabitants
-of these United States; it represents two-thirds of all the commerce of the
-United States; and more than two-thirds of the revenues of the United
-States; and yet this minority, representing the commerce and revenues of the
-nation, is expected to be satisfied with one place upon the tail end of a committee
-of seven on Commerce. I may almost say that that committee is of
-more importance to the Northwest than all the other committees of this body,
-but the great Northwest is totally ignored upon a committee in which it takes
-so deep an interest. Not a solitary member of this body from that portion of
-the country is honored with a position on that committee, and yet you have
-been told of the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of commerce which is
-there looking for protection to this body.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, we are not satisfied, and we desire to enter our protest against any
-such formation of committees as is here presented. But we would say to the
-gentlemen on the other side of the chamber; You have the power to-day;
-you can elect your committees as you see fit; you can give us one representative
-on a committee of five, or one on a committee of seven, or none on any
-of the committees, if you think proper. Exercise that power in your own
-discretion; but, gentlemen, beware! for the time is not far distant when the
-measure you mete out to us to-day shall be meted to you again.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Senators Pugh, Bayard, Gwin and Brown, from the Democratic
-side, defended the list as presented by Mr. Allen, and his
-resolution for its appointment was adopted by a strict party
-vote of thirty to nineteen. The Republican protests were again
-unheeded by the Senate, but in less than four years Mr. Chandler's
-prediction, that the situation would be reversed, was fulfilled.</p>
-
-<p>Before Mr. Chandler entered the Senate there had been some
-work done by the United States upon the most serious natural
-obstacle to the navigation of the Great Lakes, the tortuous channels
-and extensive shoals at the mouth of the St. Clair river, known
-as the "St. Clair Flats." Largely through Senator Cass's efforts
-an appropriation of $45,000 had been made in the Thirty-fourth
-Congress (it was passed over Franklin Pierce's veto) for
-this work, and this sum had been expended under the supervision
-of Major Whipple in the clearing out of a channel through
-the shoals of about 6,000 feet in length, 150 feet in width, and
-nine feet in depth at low water. This improvement, valuable as
-it was, did not prove at all adequate, and was made much less
-useful in the few following years by a lessening in the depth of
-the water of Lake St. Clair. The rapidly-growing commerce of
-the lakes manifestly demanded the early construction and permanent
-maintenance through these shoals of a first-class ship
-canal, which could be safely used in all conditions of water
-and weather by vessels of the largest class. Mr. Chandler clearly
-perceived the necessity for this important national work, determined
-to rest not until its completion, and commenced at once his
-attack on the great obstacles in its way&mdash;namely, the disposition
-of the older States to undervalue the commercial importance of
-the Northwest, and the traditional hostility of the Democracy to
-all internal improvements. The first measure, which (on January
-14, 1858) Mr. Chandler gave notice of his intention to introduce,
-was a bill "making an additional appropriation for deepening
-the channel of the St. Clair Flats;" when introduced it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
-referred to the Committee on Commerce. There an effort was
-made to strangle it by persistent inaction. Accordingly, on April
-24, Mr. Chandler introduced in the Senate a resolution instructing
-the Committee on Commerce to report back this bill for
-action by the Senate. This resolution not receiving immediate
-consideration, on May 3 he called it up and demanded a vote.
-Mr. Clay, the chairman of the committee, opposed it with much
-temper, and moved to lay it on the table, but this motion was
-lost by one vote. Mr. Clay then attacked Mr. Chandler's resolution
-as insulting to the Committee on Commerce, and said he
-spurned the idea that the committee could be instructed to
-report in favor of a certain appropriation for a certain work,
-and that he should despise himself if he was capable of obeying
-such instructions. Mr. Hamlin, the sole Republican member,
-expressed his gratification at the fact that the Senator from
-Michigan (Mr. Chandler) had offered this resolution; he thought
-that it was appropriate, and that the action of the committee
-called for such instructions. Mr. Clay having inquired, "What
-is the use of having a Cabinet or an engineer corps, if the
-Senate is to take these matters into its own hands?" Mr.
-Hamlin replied, "What is the use of a Senate, if the Committee
-on Commerce, or the Cabinet officers, or the engineer
-corps, are to control these matters?" and insisted that the Committee
-on Commerce was a creature of the Senate, within its
-control, and that if it differed from the Senate in regard to any
-proposition before it, that body had the right to instruct the
-committee what action to take. He added that because the committee
-had agreed to make no appropriation excepting for certain
-specific matters, it did not follow that the Senate must adopt its
-views, and be controlled thereby; that the servant had no right
-nor authority to bind the master, and that the committee was
-the servant of the Senate. Mr. Clay finally yielded the point
-that the Senate had the right to order a committee to report<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
-back the bill, but still objected to the proposition to have it
-instructed to specify a certain amount to be appropriated, and
-Mr. Chandler consented to modify his resolution so as to instruct
-the committee to report back the bill for the action of the
-Senate without recommendation as to the amount of the appropriation.
-Mr. Benjamin, at this point, moved, as a substitute
-for the pending resolution, a general order to the committee
-to report on all public works upon which there had been any
-expenditure, and this motion prevailed. Mr. Chandler, who
-was after a specific point and not a mere generality, accepted
-this as a defeat, and began anew by giving notice on the spot
-that he should ask leave at a subsequent day to introduce a bill
-for the improvement of the St. Clair Flats, making an appropriation
-of $55,000, this being the amount estimated by the
-United States engineers as necessary at that time. On May 10
-he presented this bill, but the Senate refused to refer it, and
-adopted a motion to lay it upon the table. Mr. Chandler met
-this second defeat without discouragement, and later in the session
-did succeed after two efforts in procuring the addition of
-this item of $55,000 to the civil appropriation bill. But the
-threat of an executive veto of the whole measure, if this appropriation
-was not omitted, proved potent with the Senate, and
-it was ultimately stricken out. Mr. Chandler closed his last
-speech on this measure at that session, with a demand for a
-vote by yeas and nays, and these words:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest, and who is not&mdash;for
-we are about making our last prayer here. The time is not far distant
-when, instead of coming here and begging for our rights, we shall extend our
-hands and <em>take</em> the blessing. After 1860 we shall not be here as beggars.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Of this resolute struggle of his first Congressional session,
-Mr. Chandler said in an address at St. Johns, in Michigan, on
-Oct. 17, 1858:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>When I took my seat in the Senate I supposed every section of the
-country would be fairly heard in the details of business. There were twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
-Republican Senators representing two-thirds the revenue, business and wealth
-of the country. How were they placed on committees? Out of seven in the
-Committee on Commerce they had one. I call attention to this fact. It bears
-the mark of design. How does this work?... I introduced at an early
-day a bill appropriating money for the St. Clair Flats, and it went to this
-Southern Committee on Commerce. I procured all the necessary maps and
-plans and estimates, and gave them into their charge. One hundred days
-rolled away and they had not deigned to examine them. I then introduced a
-resolution instructing them to report. Subsequently I introduced a bill myself
-which was laid on the table. By the most untiring efforts I succeeded in
-getting the desired appropriation tacked upon an appropriation bill and passed.
-But the President's friends threatened a veto of the whole bill unless this was
-stricken out&mdash;and that was done. Thus committees were packed against us
-and we were thwarted at every turn. Thousands of dollars can be obtained
-for almost any creek in the South, while the inland seas of the North are
-denied a dollar, and we are left to take care of ourselves the best we can.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress began in
-December, 1858, and on the 21st of that month Mr. Chandler
-moved to take his St. Clair Flats bill from the table. This time
-it was passed by a vote of 29 to 22, and sent to the House where
-it encountered a vigorous opposition but was finally passed,
-its introducer working for it with the utmost energy in the
-committee-rooms, on the floor, and by private solicitation. It
-reached Mr. Buchanan in the last days of that Congress, and he
-killed it by withholding his signature but without a formal veto.
-The Thirty-sixth Congress met in December, 1859, and on the
-4th of January Mr. Chandler's bill to deepen the St. Clair Flats
-channel made its appearance. On February 2 Mr. Buchanan
-informed Congress, in a special message, of his reasons for
-"pocketing" the measure at the last session. This veto took
-the position that the improvement of harbors and the deepening
-of the channels of rivers should be done by the respective States,
-and suggested that Michigan in conjunction with Upper Canada
-should provide the necessary means to carry out the contemplated
-improvements in the channels of commerce between those two
-countries, whereas the plain fact was that the interest of that
-State in such works was a mere tithe of that of the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
-Northwest. Mr. Chandler reviewed this message at length in
-the Senate on February 6, exposing Mr. Buchanan's misstatements
-in detail, and denouncing the Democratic construction of
-the constitution. Jefferson Davis at once came to the defense of
-the veto on constitutional grounds, and a running debate followed
-on the subject between Messrs. Chandler and Bingham of Michigan,
-Hamlin, Crittenden, Davis, Toombs, Wigfall and others.
-Mr. Crittenden condemned the veto, while Toombs and Wigfall
-joined Davis in its defense. Thus the plotters of rebellion
-assumed a hypocritical attitude as defenders of the constitution.
-Their treasonable daggers were yet concealed beneath their Senatorial
-togas, as they stood in their high places and assumed a
-virtue that they never had, that of being patriots with a deep
-regard for the fundamental law of the land. No action followed
-this debate, but on February 20 Mr. Chandler moved that his
-bill be made the special order for the 23d. This motion prevailed,
-but when that day arrived the Senate refused to proceed
-with its consideration, Mr. Chandler protesting against this delay
-in a speech pointing out the necessity for prompt action. On
-March 13 he moved to take the bill from the table but the
-Senate refused. Six days later he renewed the motion with the
-same result. Eleven days after that he did succeed in getting
-the measure made the special order for April 10, but again
-other business displaced it, and so no action was taken before
-adjournment. The second session of this Congress commenced
-in December, 1861, with civil war imminent and no chance for
-the consideration of any project of internal improvement. At
-the meeting of the next Congress the Democracy found itself in
-a petty minority, and remained powerless at Washington for
-many years. As soon as it became plain that rebellion could
-not destroy the life of the nation, Mr. Chandler brought forward
-again his bill for the improvement of the channels at the head
-of Lake St. Clair, and with the powerful support of his col<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>leagues
-and the commercial interests of the Northwest obtained
-without difficulty from Republican Congresses such appropriations
-as were required for the prompt construction of a great
-ship-canal, ranking to-day among the most important and useful
-of the public works of this continent. Its history and statistics
-are given in this extract from an official report for the year
-ending June 30, 1879:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This canal (according to its present plan) was projected by Col. T. J.
-Cram, of the Corps of Engineers, in August, 1866, as the best method of
-improving navigation at the mouth of the St. Clair river. He proposed opening
-the lower tortuous reach of the south channel, and making a direct cut
-from its mouth proper to deep water in Lake St. Clair. His project was
-approved, and construction began on the 20th of August, 1867, under contract
-with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada. The original plan was a straight
-canal 300 feet wide in the clear, and 13 feet deep at low stage of water, protected
-by dykes 5 feet in height and 58 feet wide on top, built of the material
-dredged from the channel and thrown behind a pile and timber revetment.
-The canal was completed in the autumn of 1871, and turned over to the
-charge of Maj. O. M. Poe, Corps of Engineers, on the 11th of December. As
-completed, the banks are 7,221 feet in length, and constructed mostly of
-dredged sand thrown behind a revetment consisting of piling in two rows
-driven 13 feet apart and parallel, and capped with a timber superstructure
-5 feet high, the front row being supplemented with a single row of sheath-piling
-to prevent the sand bank from washing back into the canal. As originally planned,
-the reverse faces of the embankment were to be permitted to
-take their natural slope, but as it was found that the banks if left so would
-be gradually washed away, they were secured eventually by a pile and plank
-revetment. The timbers in the superstructure were carbolized to prevent
-rotting, but the process proved a disastrous failure, owing to its imperfect
-application, and the timbers thus treated are as a general rule at this date
-a mere shell with a core of dry rot. The banks were planted with willows
-and sodded in some places. The history of the work since Major Poe took
-charge, excepting as regards the deepening of the channel for 200 feet of its
-width to a depth of 16 feet, as projected by that officer, has been a monotonous
-routine of stopping leaks on the canal face, due to the imperfection of the
-single row of sheath-piling, which permits the sand to be sucked through by
-passing vessels, and propeller-wheels working near the revetment. These
-leaks have been stopped from time to time at various points by various devices,
-such as marsh sod, etc.... The deepening of the canal was begun under
-Major Poe's direction by contract with Mr. John Brown of Thorold, Canada,
-in June, 1873, and finished September 23, 1878, under the direction of Major
-Weitzel, who had in the meanwhile relieved Major Poe.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_173.jpg" width="700" height="473" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE SHIP-CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS.</p></div>
-</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Up to the time when the canal was turned over as completed to Major
-Poe, it cost in construction and repair $472,837.84. There was subsequently
-expended by Majors Poe and Weitzel $101,533.63, partly in repairs, but mainly
-in deepening the canal; and afterward, up to the close of the present fiscal
-year, $19,162.78 were expended in repairs and protection. It will thus be seen
-that the canal has thus far cost $586,111.56 in construction, improvement and
-repair.... Colonel Cram's original estimate of the cost of this work
-was $428,754. The whole amount appropriated has been $590,000. The
-annual cost of maintenance is $5,000. There are two light-houses on the
-banks.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The value of the commerce which annually passes between
-the willow-clad piers of the canal is estimated by hundreds of
-millions, and in every season its cost has been more than made
-good by the disasters and delays it has averted. Mr. Chandler
-regarded his efforts to secure its construction as the hardest fight
-of his Congressional service, and there is nothing in his public
-life more thoroughly characteristic of the man than the skill,
-energy, and persistence with which he championed this measure
-in the face of the strongest obstacles, and in spite of repeated
-defeats, session after session and Congress after Congress, until
-entire success crowned his labors. Many others co-operated with
-him and aided in securing the ultimate victory; but circumstances
-and his indomitable will placed him at the front in the
-decisive struggle, and this great public work is an enduring
-monument of the value of his services to the vast commercial
-interests of the Northwest.</p>
-
-<p>At the second session of the Thirty-fifth Congress the
-earnest protests of the year before bore fruit, and the Committee
-on Commerce then appointed was composed of Senators Clay of
-Alabama, chairman, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Toombs of Georgia,
-Reid of North Carolina, Allen of Rhode Island, Hamlin of
-Maine, and Chandler of Michigan. This commenced Mr. Chandler's
-connection with that committee; he remained a member of
-it throughout all his Senatorial terms, and was its chairman and
-inspiring spirit during the years of its greatest activity and use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>fulness.
-It is one of the most important standing committees of
-the Senate of the United States, and during Mr. Chandler's
-chairmanship its labors were gradually increased, partly through
-the growing business and commerce of the country, and partly
-by having new topics assigned for its consideration and action,
-because of the prompt attention and rigid scrutiny given to all
-matters coming under the supervision of Mr. Chandler as its
-head. To this committee are referred under the rules nominations
-of collectors of customs, appraisers of merchandise, surveyors
-of customs, of officers appointed to or promoted in the revenue
-marine service, of the chief officers in the life-saving service,
-and of all incumbents of consular positions. It also considers
-bills fixing the compensation of such officers; bills relating
-to marine hospitals and the customs, consular and life-saving
-services; bills concerning the interests of the commercial marine
-of the country, including the registry, enrollment and license
-of vessels, their inspection and measurement, tonnage-tax,
-entrance and clearance fees, names and official numbers, the lights
-to be carried, the steam pressure allowed, the providing of small
-boats and life-saving apparatus on passenger steamers, and
-restrictions upon the number of passengers or kind of freight;
-and bills granting medals for heroic service in saving life in case
-of shipwreck or similar disaster. To it are referred all measures
-for the improvement of rivers and harbors in the interests of
-commerce; for the construction of breakwaters, harbors of refuge,
-ship-canals, and locks for slack-water navigation; for the
-building of bridges across navigable rivers, or other waters of
-the United States; for the establishment of ports of entry and
-ports of delivery; for the establishment of customs collection
-districts or changing the boundaries thereof; granting American
-registers to foreign vessels (usually passed where a wreck of a
-foreign vessel has been purchased and rebuilt by an American
-citizen); and relating to the duties and districts of supervising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
-and subordinate inspectors of steam craft. There is hardly any
-conceivable question relating to vessels of the United States that
-Congress has not power to act upon, and such matters, unless
-pertaining to the naval service, are always referred to the respective
-committees on commerce of the Senate and House, Congress
-as a rule following their recommendations where no
-political question is involved. In addition to an immense mass
-of measures coming under the classes enumerated, the Senate
-Committee on Commerce, during Mr. Chandler's connection with
-it, considered and reported bills to admit ship-building material
-free of duty, to prevent the extermination of the fur-bearing
-seals of Alaska, authorizing the appointment of shipping commissioners,
-and defining a gross of matches. All these facts are
-recited to show the great variety of questions that are referred
-to the Senate Committee on Commerce&mdash;greater than are sent
-to any other Congressional committee.</p>
-
-<p>No particular changes took place in the <em>personnel</em> of this
-committee as already given until in the last year of Buchanan's
-administration. At the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress
-it consisted of C. C. Clay, chairman, Bigler, Toombs,
-Clingman, Saulsbury, Hamlin, and Chandler. Senator Hamlin
-having been elected Vice-President, resigned (in January, 1861)
-his Senatorship, and Mr. Baker of Oregon was appointed to fill
-the vacancy thus caused on this committee. In the middle of
-January Mr. Clay resigned to join the rebellion, and A. 0. P.
-Nicholson of Tennessee was made a member of the committee
-in his place. On the 24th of January, 1861, by the unanimous
-consent of the Senate, the Vice-President filled all the vacancies
-on the standing committees caused by the retiring of the Southern
-Senators, and the Committee on Commerce then, as re-constituted,
-consisted of Senators Bigler, chairman, Clingman, Saulsbury,
-Chandler, Baker, and Nicholson.</p>
-
-<p>At the special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress (in
-March, 1861) the Senate committees were radically reorganized,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
-and the new Committee on Commerce, the first appointed by
-the Republican party, consisted of Zachariah Chandler, chairman,
-Preston King, Lot M. Morrill, Henry Wilson, Thomas L. Clingman,
-Willard Saulsbury, and Andrew Johnson. Mr. Chandler
-continued in the chairmanship until he ceased to be a member
-of the Senate in 1875. Mr. Clingman soon joined the rebels,
-and his place on the committee was filled by Mr. Ten Eyck of
-New Jersey. From session to session changes were made in its
-membership, and among the names on its rolls during the fourteen
-years that Mr. Chandler sat at the head of its table were Edwin
-D. Morgan, James H. Lane, Solomon Foot, Timothy O. Howe,
-James W. Nesmith, Justin S. Morrill, John A. J. Creswell,
-George F. Edmunds, James R. Doolittle, William P. Kellogg,
-George E. Spencer, Roscoe Conkling, William A. Buckingham,
-J. R. West, John H. Mitchell, John B. Gordon, George R.
-Dennis, and George S. Boutwell. Mr. Chandler was succeeded
-in the chairmanship when he left the Senate by Roscoe Conkling
-of New York; soon after he was re-elected in 1879 the Democrats
-regained control, and the Committee on Commerce of
-the Forty-sixth Senate was organized by them. Mr. Chandler
-was made a member of it, and at the time of his death it
-consisted of Senator Gordon of Georgia, chairman, Ransom of
-North Carolina, Randolph of New Jersey, Hereford of West
-Virginia, Coke of Texas, Conkling of New York, McMillan of
-Minnesota, Jones of Nevada, and Chandler of Michigan.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's business principles were carried out in his
-committee work as thoroughly as they had been in his mercantile
-career. He believed that what was worth doing at all was
-worth doing well. It was the custom of the Senate Committee
-on Commerce to assemble formally once a week, for the consideration
-of such petitions and bills as had been referred to it
-for action. Whenever the appointed hour for meeting arrived
-Mr. Chandler was always in his seat, while its other members but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
-rarely displayed anything like his promptitude. It annoyed the
-chairman to have any one late, and it was his custom to proceed
-with business as soon as a quorum was present, or if no quorum
-appeared within fifteen or twenty minutes, to assume that there
-was one and commence work; no protests against this course
-were ever made by the tardy or absent members. The location
-of the room of the Senate Committee on Commerce during Mr.
-Chandler's whole term of Senatorial service was in the northwest
-corner of the capitol, on the floor leading to the galleries.
-Its windows look down upon the city of Washington, with the
-broad, historic Potomac and the forest-crowned Virginia hills
-the distance, and the sunset view from them&mdash;including the blue
-glimmering river, the golden gossamer clouds, the green foliage
-upon the brow of the hills in the extreme horizon&mdash;could never
-be excelled in an artist's most vivid conception.</p>
-
-<p>The first bill reported by Mr. Chandler as chairman of the
-Committee on Commerce was one to provide for the collection
-of duties on imports and for other purposes. He brought it in
-five days after the appointment of the committee at the first
-session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and asked that it should
-be put upon its passage at once. A single objection carried it
-over under the rules until the next day, when it was passed by
-a vote of 36 to 6. The scope of the bill was extensive. It
-provided for confiscating to the United States all vessels belonging
-to rebels, for closing ports of entry in rebellious States, and
-for the employment of additional revenue cutters. It also authorized
-the President under certain circumstances to declare by
-proclamation States, sections, or parts of States, in insurrection
-against the United States, and prohibited all commercial intercourse
-between such insurrectionary States, or parts of States,
-and the rest of the Union so long as the insurrection should
-continue. It was thus among the earliest and most important of
-the war measures.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>It is not necessary to occupy space with the details<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> of the
-enormous mass of business transacted by the Senate Committee
-on Commerce during Mr. Chandler's chairmanship. It was in
-those years that the sentiment of every section, in favor of
-extending the fostering care of the government to the aid of
-internal commerce, was consolidated and organized until it bore
-down all opposition and completely reversed the general policy
-and practice of the United States. How important and complete
-this revolution was will appear from the table of the appropriations
-for river, harbor and kindred improvements made at
-successive Congressional sessions since the foundation of the
-republic.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was the firm friend of an intelligently-planned
-and general system of internal improvements. His labors, and
-those of men like him, have borne fruit in manifold aids to
-commerce scattered over river, lake and ocean&mdash;light-houses,
-breakwaters, harbors of refuge, straightened and deepened channels,
-ship-canals and improved natural highways. He was
-prompt to recognize the claims of all sections, but was especially
-vigilant in regard to the necessities of the Northwest, and his
-memory will long be cherished throughout the region of the
-Great Lakes as that of the most ardent and efficient champion
-of its commercial development.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=" Total Amount of Money Appropriations by Congress">
-    <caption class="bb"><span class="smcap">Table giving the Total Amount of Money Appropriations by Congress
-    for the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors and the Construction
-    of Ship-Canals since the Beginning of the Government</span>:</caption>
-  <tr>
-    <th></th>
-    <th class="tdl">YEARS.</th>
-    <th class="tdr">AMOUNT.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="3" class="br bb">Monroe.</td>
-    <td>1822<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">$34,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1823</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6,150</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1824</td>
-    <td class="tdr">145,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">J. Q. Adams.</td>
-    <td>1825</td>
-    <td class="tdr">40,600</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1826</td>
-    <td class="tdr">88,900</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1827</td>
-    <td class="tdr">160,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1828</td>
-    <td class="tdr">565,300</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8" class="br bb">Jackson.</td>
-    <td>1829</td>
-    <td class="tdr">254,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1830</td>
-    <td class="tdr">377,600</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1831</td>
-    <td class="tdr">637,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1832</td>
-    <td class="tdr">693,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1833</td>
-    <td class="tdr">546,300</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1834</td>
-    <td class="tdr">791,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1835</td>
-    <td class="tdr">505,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1836</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1,198,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Van Buren.</td>
-    <td>1837</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1,681,700</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1838</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1,467,200</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1839</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1840</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Tyler.</td>
-    <td>1841</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1842</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1843</td>
-    <td class="tdr">233,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1844</td>
-    <td class="tdr">701,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Polk.</td>
-    <td>1845</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1846</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1847</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14,220</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1848</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Taylor-Fillmore.</td>
-    <td>1849</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1850</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1851</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1852</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2,099,300</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Pierce.</td>
-    <td>1853</td>
-    <td class="tdr">900</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1854</td>
-    <td class="tdr">140,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1855</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1856<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></td>
-    <td class="tdr">775,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Buchanan.</td>
-    <td>1857</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1858</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1859</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1860</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Lincoln.</td>
-    <td>1861</td>
-    <td class="tdr">....... </td>
-    <td rowspan="15" class="bt bb bl">Term of Z. Chandler<br />
-    as Chairman of the<br />
-    Senate Committee <br />on
-    Commerce.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1862</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">537,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4" class="br bb">Johnson.</td>
-    <td>1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1866</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3,579,700</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1867</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4,816,800</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1868</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1,601,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8" class="br bb">Grant.</td>
-    <td>1869</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2,200,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1870</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4,173,900</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1871</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5,047,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1872</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5,603,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1873</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6,102,900</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5,282,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6,643,500</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5,213,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="3" class="br bb">Hayes.</td>
-    <td>1877</td>
-    <td class="tdr">.......</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8,337,000</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7,912,600</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>TOTAL,</td>
-    <td class="bt tdr">$80,292,270</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th colspan="4" class="bt">NOTES.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="4">This table only includes $750,000 of the $5,250,000 appropriated to pay Capt. James B. Eads for the jetty improvements at the mouth of the Mississippi.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="4" class="bb">The total of these appropriations during the years of Mr. Chandler's term as chairman was $45,610,800, or more than one-half of the entire amount.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mr. Chandler entered the Senate when Congress was under the control of Democratic
-majorities. He was in the minority, but he never feared to assert his views, and
-denounce measures of doubtful advantage to the best interests of the country. The policy
-of the dominant party had been uniformly adverse to internal improvements&mdash;especially
-to making appropriations for harbor and river improvements. Soon after taking his seat,
-Mr. Chandler brought this important subject before the Senate, and insisted upon the
-necessity of fostering and aiding internal commerce. He introduced several measures,
-with this object in view.... These improvements were not then considered; but his
-vigorous speeches and persistent efforts subsequently compelled their partial recognition,
-and Mr. Chandler was placed on the Committee of Commerce, of which he was made
-chairman when the Republican party came into power, and so continued to the end of his
-Senatorial labors. It is not too much to say, for it is only the truth, that to Mr. Chandler's
-untiring zeal in this capacity, the country is indebted for many of those magnificent
-harbor and river improvements, which have been made since the Republican party
-came into power. Says a recent writer&mdash;an excellent authority, "The evidences of their
-utility are seen on every hand, scattered along our seaboard, along our extended lake
-coast, and upon all our rivers. The beneficent effects of these improvements are demonstrated
-by our vastly-increased and increasing commerce, its greater safety, the economy
-with which the work is performed, the extraordinary development of our agricultural
-and mineral resources and the increased compensation of productive labor."
-Reference is thus made to Mr. Chandler's efforts in behalf of those great internal improvements
-in aid of the commerce and internal development of the country, in order to
-demonstrate his peculiar fitness for the position which he has just been commissioned to
-fill.&mdash;<em>Editorial of the Washington Chronicle of Oct. 20, 1875, announcing the appointment
-of Zachariah Chandler as Secretary of the Interior.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> There were no appropriations for these purposes prior to 1822.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> This sum was contained in bills which were passed over the President's veto and
-included the first appropriation for the St. Clair Flats.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br />
-
-THE OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION&mdash;NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITUTIONAL
-RIGHTS.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_182.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> news of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the
-Presidency of the United States&mdash;through strictly constitutional
-methods, by a large majority of the electoral
-vote and by a plurality of over half a million in the popular
-vote&mdash;was received with cheering and expressions of joy in
-many of the Southern cities. The men who exulted there were
-those who believed that with this pretext sectional passion could
-be kindled into instant rebellion, and they at once set about the
-work of consummating disunion before the close of the term of
-the traitorous and imbecile administration of James Buchanan.
-On Nov. 12, 1860, South Carolina ordered the election of a
-convention to take the formal step of secession, and the other
-cotton States promptly followed its example. Congress met on
-the 3d of December, and listened to a message from President
-Buchanan, in which he said: "After much serious reflection I
-have arrived at the conclusion that no power to coerce into
-submission a State which is attempting to withdraw, or has
-actually withdrawn, from the confederacy, has been delegated
-to Congress or to any other department of the Federal government.
-It is manifest upon an inspection of the constitution
-that this is not among the specific and enumerated powers
-granted to Congress; and it is equally apparent that its exercise
-is not 'necessary and proper for carrying into execution'
-any one of these powers." On December 20 South Carolina
-adopted its ordinance of secession. Mississippi did likewise on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
-Jan. 9, 1861, Florida on January 10, Alabama on January 11,
-Georgia on January 18, Louisiana on January 26, and Texas on
-February 1. On Feb. 4, 1861, a convention of delegates from
-the seceding States met in the city of Montgomery and proceeded
-to form and organize the "Southern Confederacy." These events
-were attended by popular demonstrations throughout the South,
-in which the Union was denounced with unstinted bitterness
-and its power defied with the utmost audacity, and by the active
-drilling of the local militia and the organization of large bodies
-of armed men. More than all this, the officers of the United
-States in that section abandoned their positions, and sub-treasuries,
-post-offices, large sums of money, arsenals, arms, ammunition,
-fortifications, and vessels of the United States were seized
-in all the leading cities of the South, and used to prepare for
-war upon the power from which they had been stolen. The
-value of the government property thus confiscated by the rebels
-before the nation fired a shot was not less than $30,000,000.
-On Jan. 5, 1861, the United States steamer Star of the West
-was fired upon in the harbor of Charleston and driven out to
-sea, and within that month a bloodless siege of Fort McRae at
-Pensacola compelled its surrender to rebel forces by a United
-States garrison. Amid these events the traitors in Buchanan's
-Cabinet boldly resigned their portfolios, and Southern Congressmen
-with insolent words left their seats at the capitol "to join
-their States." The President himself was fitly described by
-Henry Winter Davis as "standing paralyzed and stupefied amid
-the crash of the falling republic, still muttering, 'Not in my
-time; not in my time; after me the deluge.'"</p>
-
-<p>There were three ways of meeting these overt acts of high
-treason, namely: (1.) Submitting, either by sympathy and connivance,
-by frank surrender, or by an equally effective supineness.
-(2.) Meekly offering to rampant rebellion the bribe of fresh
-concessions to slavery. (3.) Treating armed secession as treason<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
-and its promoters as traitors, and dealing with it and them as
-such. The first method did not lack for supporters outside of
-the South. Thousands of Northern Democrats justified secession
-and promised the cotton States support. Their papers predicted
-that in case of war "it would be fought in the North,"[A] that
-"no Democrat would be found to raise an arm against his
-brethren of the South,"<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and that "if troops should be raised
-in the North to march against the people of the South, a fire
-in the rear would be opened upon such troops which would
-either stop their march altogether or wonderfully accelerate it."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>
-The Mayor of the great city of New York suggested in his
-annual message that that metropolis might well consider if the
-time did not seem to be at hand when it could profitably throw
-off allegiance to the United States and erect itself into "a free
-city." In public meetings and in party conventions like utterances
-were heard and applauded, all justifying the declaration of
-Lawrence M. Keitt in the city of Charleston that "there are a
-million of Democrats in the North who, when the Black
-Republicans attempt to march upon the South, will be found a
-wall of fire in their front." These sympathizers with rebellion
-were reinforced by the holders of anti-coercion theories, by
-commercial timidity, and&mdash;most unexpectedly&mdash;by some Republican
-sentiment in favor of permitting peaceful separation rather
-than facing civil war. This sentiment was fortunately short-lived
-and not cowardly in its origin, but it found an advocate
-in, and was given public expression by, the most influential
-Republican journalist of that period, Horace Greeley, and it did
-much to encourage rebel arrogance and to distract the national
-councils. But that was the most numerous class which comprised
-the men who proposed to meet actual civil war with servile
-tenders to traitors in arms of new guarantees for slavery and
-with humble petitions for their acceptance. With the meeting
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>of Congress in December, 1860, these gentlemen became the
-conspicuous figures at Washington, and for three months labored
-industriously upon compromise schemes, every one of which was,
-in its essence, a proposition that Freedom should do homage to
-Slavery, and that the verdict of the people at the polls should
-be shamefully reversed to placate men who had deliberately
-plotted treason, and who again and again rejected with frank
-contempt offers of "conciliation." There were some who co-operated
-in these movements for the sake of gaining time and
-keeping the border States out of rebellion until Abraham Lincoln
-was inaugurated, but the great source of the compromise
-clamor of that winter was either some feeling of friendliness to
-the slave power or moral flaccidity.</p>
-
-<p>It need not be said that Mr. Chandler was not found in
-either of these classes. For three years he had regarded this
-crisis as imminent. He did not believe that the South would
-now abandon its cherished dream of independent empire for any
-compromise. He did not propose to shrink back one inch before
-armed rebellion or to surrender one iota of principle to traitorous
-threats. He went to Washington determined to maintain the
-supremacy of the government at every cost, to listen to no plans
-of concession, to offer to disunionists only the alternative of
-obedience to the constitution or the penalties of treason, and to
-labor incessantly to stir into indignant action the slumbering
-sentiment of nationality in the hearts of the Northern people.
-It is in such hours that men of his indomitable stamp step to
-the front, and he became at once a pioneer leader of that
-uncompromising and tireless spirit which was the citadel of the
-Union cause. He spoke but rarely on political questions during
-the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, but was active in
-all the Republican consultations of that eventful period. In
-them he steadfastly opposed any policy that savored of bending
-to or temporizing with rebellion, and in the face of not a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
-Republican demoralization urged that the crisis should be met
-with the spirit of Jackson and of Cromwell. Speaking of this
-session he afterward said: "If I could have had my way, when
-treason was proclaimed on the floor of the Senate the traitor
-would never have gone free from the capitol." With the
-Southern leaders he was frank in his denunciations of their
-course and plans. In a chance conversation at this time with
-the craftiest of their number, Slidell of Louisiana, he asked how
-the pending struggle would end, and Slidell replied, "Oh, we
-will all go out, and the Union will be broken up."</p>
-
-<p>"And what are you going to do with the mouth of the
-Mississippi?" said Mr. Chandler.</p>
-
-<p>"We will, of course, have to seize and hold that," was the
-answer, "but we will not tax your commerce."</p>
-
-<p>To this, Mr. Chandler's indignant response was, "We own
-that river, Mr. Slidell; we bought and paid for it; and, by
-the Eternal, we are going to keep it. It was a desert when
-we bought it, and we will make it a desert again before we
-will let you steal it from us."</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler labored assiduously to thwart the plots of the
-rebel leaders, and to make such preparation as was possible for
-the coming strife. It was at this time that he formed that close
-intimacy with Edwin M. Stanton, which continued until the
-death of "the Carnot of the United States." Mr. Stanton, as
-the Attorney-General of the Buchanan Cabinet in its closing
-months, rendered service of the largest value to the nation by
-urging vigorous measures on his imbecile chief, by boldly confronting
-the traitors who were among his colleagues, and by
-secretly and promptly informing the Republican leaders of each
-new development of the disunion conspiracy as revealed in Cabinet
-consultations. His information and counsels furnished sure guidance
-at a time of the greatest peril, and this it was that led to
-the early appointment by Mr. Lincoln to the Secretaryship of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
-War of a man whom the public then chiefly knew as a minor
-Cabinet officer in a detested administration. Mr. Chandler always
-rated Mr. Stanton's services to the Union cause in the early
-months of 1861 as second only in value to his herculean labors in
-the War Department; placed the highest estimate upon his ability,
-vigor, and patriotism; aided greatly in securing his appointment
-and confirmation as one of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet; remained his
-firm friend and counselor, and was largely instrumental in
-obtaining from President Grant the nomination to the justiceship
-of the Supreme Court which so shortly preceded his death. It
-was also at this time that Mr. Chandler began to distrust the
-political fidelity of Mr. Seward, whose spoken suggestions of
-compromise and whose persistent negotiations with rebel emissaries,
-however diplomatic in origin and intent, were fruitful
-sources of Southern hope and Northern weakness. Time increased
-rather than diminished this dislike, and Mr. Chandler was always
-an impatient critic of Mr. Seward's influence upon the Lincoln
-administration, and saw in the course of the Secretary of State
-of Andrew Johnson's Cabinet only the fulfillment of his own
-suspicions and predictions.</p>
-
-<p>The secret history of these exciting days, teeming with
-incident and concealing many startling revelations, has yet been
-but sparingly written; it is doubtful if the veil will ever be
-more than slightly lifted. Mr. Chandler himself guarded scrupulously
-from public knowledge much that was well known to him
-and a few associates and would have shed light on the hidden
-springs of actions of vast moment. This class of information he
-treated as state secrets, whose perishing with the actors in the
-great drama was desirable for public reasons. A well-known
-Washington journalist, who dined one day with Mr. Chandler
-and Mr. Wade, and listened with interest to their reminiscences
-of "war times," suggested to these gentlemen that their recollections
-should be recorded while they were still fresh for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
-benefit of history, and did succeed at first in obtaining their
-consent to an arrangement by which the two "war Senators"
-were to devote one evening in each week to the relation of the
-inside history of the period between the fall of 1860 and the
-end of Johnson's administration. These narratives were to be
-taken down by a stenographer, whose notes were to be written
-out, carefully compiled, and subjected to the revision of Messrs.
-Chandler and Wade. The manuscript was then to be sealed and
-placed in such keeping as should make it certain that it would
-not be published until the lapse of many years. On the
-following Saturday night the literary gentleman was promptly at
-Mr. Chandler's residence with the stenographer. Mr. Wade
-shortly afterward came in, and at once said: "I have been
-thinking this matter over, Chandler, and you must allow me to
-decline. There is no use in telling what we know unless we
-tell <em>the whole truth</em>, and if I tell the whole truth I shall blast
-too many reputations. These things would be interesting and
-valuable if they were preserved in a book, but they would not
-be as valuable as the reputations that would be destroyed. The
-days we were going to talk about were exciting days, when
-good men made mistakes, and their mistakes ought to be forgotten."
-Mr. Chandler promptly assented, and the reminiscences
-were never written.</p>
-
-<p>In the Senate at this time Mr. Chandler's course was bold
-and straightforward. On Feb. 19, 1861, he denounced on its
-floor "traitors in the Cabinet and imbeciles in the Presidential
-chair." He steadfastly opposed the Crittenden Compromise, well
-described by Charles Sumner as "the great surrender to slavery,"
-and the circumstances of his opposition to "the Peace Congress"
-attracted national attention then and afterward. The Legislature
-of Virginia in January, 1861, adopted resolutions inviting
-a conference of delegates from the various States to meet at
-Washington on February 4, and consider how the pending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>
-"unhappy controversy" could be adjusted by (of course) some
-plan giving "to the people of the slaveholding States adequate
-guarantees for the security of their rights." Twenty-two States
-answered this invitation, and their representatives, presided over
-by John Tyler, deliberated in Washington for nineteen days, and
-in the end recommended to Congress a so-called "compromise
-measure," which was thus justly characterized at the time:
-"Forbearing all details, it will be enough to say that they undertook
-to give to slavery positive protection in the constitution,
-with new sanction and immunity&mdash;making it, notwithstanding
-the determination of the fathers, national instead of sectional;
-and, even more than this, making it one of the essential and
-permanent parts of our republican system." Its origin and its
-avowed object made this body distrusted from the outset by the
-sincere anti-slavery men, who did not believe that it could
-accomplish anything except to still farther debauch the public
-mind of the North. The result proved that it was called in the
-interest of slavery, and was designed to strengthen that system.
-Mr. Chandler from the outset opposed all Republican participation
-in this Congress, and, through the urgent recommendations
-of its Senators, Michigan was one of the five Northern States
-which did not send delegates. But after the Congress had met
-and was at work, it was thought that the friends of freedom on
-its floor might be able to accomplish something if they were
-increased in numbers, and accordingly application was made to
-Mr. Chandler and Mr. Bingham to procure the appointment by
-their State of delegates who could take their seats before final
-action was reached. Under such circumstances those gentlemen
-telegraphed to Lansing a request for the appointment of a
-delegation, and followed the message up with letters of the same
-tenor, which, although in the nature of private communications
-to Governor Blair, were shown at Lansing, and soon appeared
-in the newspapers; they were as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, Feb. 11, 1861.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Governor</span>: Governor Bingham and myself telegraphed you on
-Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to send delegates to
-the Peace or Compromise Congress. They admit that we were right and that
-they were wrong; that no Republican States should have sent delegates but
-they are here, and cannot get away. Ohio, Indiana and Rhode Island are
-caving in, and there is danger of Illinois; and now they beg of us for God's
-sake to come to their rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I
-hope you will send <em>stiff-backed</em> men or none. The whole thing was gotten up
-against my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still I hope as
-a matter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the
-delegates. Truly your friend,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p><em>His Excellency Austin Blair.</em></p>
-
-<p>P. S. Some of the manufacturing States think a fight would be awful.
-Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth
-a rush.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, Feb. 10, 1861.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: When Virginia proposed a convention in Washington, in
-reference to the disturbed condition of the country, I regarded it as another
-effort to debauch the public mind and a step toward obtaining that concession
-which the imperious slave power so insolently demands. I have no doubt, at
-present, but that was the design. I was therefore pleased that the Legislature
-of Michigan was not disposed to put herself in a position to be controlled by
-such influences. The convention has met here, and within a few days the
-aspect of things has materially changed. Every free State, I think, except
-Michigan and Wisconsin, is represented, and we have been assured by friends
-upon whom we can rely, that, if those two States should send delegations of
-true, unflinching men, there would probably be a majority in favor of the
-constitution as it is, who would frown down the rebellion by the enforcement
-of laws. These friends have urged us to recommend the appointment of delegates
-from our State, and in compliance with their request, Mr. Chandler and
-myself telegraphed to you last night. It cannot be doubted that the recommendations
-of this convention will have a very considerable influence upon
-the public mind and upon the action of Congress. I have a great disinclination
-to any interference with what should properly be submitted to the wisdom
-and discretion of the Legislature, in which I place great reliance. But I hope
-I shall be pardoned for suggesting that it may be justifiable and proper by
-any honorable means to avert the lasting disgrace which will attach to a free
-people who, by the peaceful exercise of the ballot, have just released themselves
-from the tyranny of slavery, if they should now succumb to treasonable
-threats, and again submit to a degrading thraldom. If it should be deemed
-proper to send delegates, I think if they could be here by the 20th it would
-be in time. I have the honor, with much respect, to be, Yours truly,</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="right">K. S. BINGHAM.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The Legislature of Michigan refused to follow even these
-recommendations (although an effort to make the two Senators
-themselves delegates received a strong support), and that State
-was not represented at any stage of the abortive Peace Congress.
-On the 27th of February Senator Powell of Kentucky presented
-to the Senate newspaper copies of these letters, and then moved
-to lay aside the army appropriation bill which was pending, in
-order that the Senate could proceed at once to amend the constitution.
-He added that it might "better be at that than be
-appropriating money to support an army that is to be engaged,
-it seems, in the work of blood-letting." Mr. Chandler followed
-by stating that the letter was a private one of which no copy
-had been preserved, but that whether the printed copy was
-accurate or not he adopted it as his, and would at another time
-speak on the questions it involved. He added: "The people of
-Michigan are opposed to all compromises. They do not believe
-that any compromise is necessary; nor do I. They are prepared
-to stand by the constitution of the United States as it
-is, to stand by the government as it is; aye, sir, to stand by
-it to blood if necessary." On the 2d of March Mr. Chandler
-made his promised speech in reply to Mr. Powell. He commenced:
-"I desire to ask the Senator whether, after we have
-adopted this or any other compromise, he is prepared to go
-with me, and with the Union-loving men of this nation, for
-enforcing the laws of the United States in the thirty-four
-States of this Union." Powell's response was: "I am for
-enforcing the laws in all the States that are within the
-Union, but I am opposed to making war on the States that
-are without the Union. I am opposed to coercing the seceded
-States.... We have no right, under the constitution, to
-make war on those States." Upon this frank admission from
-one of its most ardent advocates of the utter fruitlessness of
-compromise, this confession that it would be a sale without con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>sideration,
-Mr. Chandler's comment was: "That is just what I
-expected; it is just what I want the North to know; that
-those men who profess to be for the Union with an 'if' are
-against it under all circumstances." He then quoted the letter
-of Thomas Jefferson written at Paris on Nov. 13, 1787, to
-Colonel Smith, and closing as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>And what country can preserve its liberties if the rulers are not warned
-from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them
-take up arms! The remedy is to set them right as to facts; pardon and
-pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The Tree
-of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and
-tyrants. It is its natural manure.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>And with this authority of Thomas Jefferson on "a little
-blood-letting" as his text, Mr. Chandler spoke nearly an hour,
-denouncing the treason about him with unsparing vigor and
-branding the Democracy as responsible for the impending crime
-against the nation. In the face of such distempers he did not
-hesitate to pronounce war for the suppression of rebellion the
-only adequate remedy. The tone and style of this speech will
-appear from these extracts:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This is not a question of compromise. It is a question whether we have
-or have not a government. If we have a government it is capable of making
-itself respected abroad and at home. If we have not a government, let this
-miserable rope of sand which purports to be a government perish, and I will
-shed no tears over its destruction. Sir, General Washington reasoned not so
-when the whisky rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania; he called out the <i lang="la">posse
-comitatus</i> and enforced the laws. General Jackson reasoned not so when South
-Carolina in 1832 raised the black flag of rebellion; he said: "By the Eternal,
-I will hang them;" and he would have done it.</p>
-
-<p>After these illustrious examples, we are told that six States have seceded,
-and the Union is broken up, and all we can do is to send commissioners to
-treat with traitors with arms in their hands; treat with men who have fired
-upon your flag; treat with men who have seized your custom-houses, who
-have erected batteries upon your great navigable waters, and who now stand
-defying your authority! What will be the result of such a treaty? You
-would stand disgraced before the nations of the earth, your naval officers
-would be insulted by the Algerines, your bonds would not be worth the paper
-on which they are written, to-morrow. If you submitted to this degradation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
-your government would stand upon a par with the governments of South
-America and the Central American States.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, I will never submit to this degradation. If the right is conceded to
-any State to secede from the Union, without the consent of the other States,
-I am for immediate dissolution; and if the State which I have the honor in
-part to represent will not follow that advice, I, for one, upon my own
-responsibility and alone, will resign my seat in this body, and leave this government,
-so soon as I can prepare the small matters I shall have to arrange,
-<em>for emigration to some country where they have a government</em>. I would rather join
-the Comanches; <em>I will never live under a government that has not the power to
-enforce its laws</em>.... I see before me some of those men who have been
-fighting this corrupt organization (the Democratic party) for the last twenty
-years, who now turn about in dismay at the threatened disruption of the
-government. Why are they terror-stricken? Why do they not stand firm
-and denounce you as infamously connected with a plundered treasury instead
-of cowering before your threats? This thing has gone far enough....
-Sir, this Union is to stand; it will stand when your great-grandchildren and
-mine shall have grown gray&mdash;aye, when they shall have gone to their last
-account, and their great-grandchildren shall have grown gray. But the traitors
-who are to-day plotting against this Union are to die. I do not say, literally,
-that they are all to die personally and absolutely; but they are soon to pass
-from the stage, and better and purer men are to take their places. God grant
-that that consummation, "so devoutly to be wished," may be early accomplished!...</p>
-
-<p>For the Union-loving men of this nation, for the true patriots of the
-land, there is no reasonable concession that I would not most cheerfully make;
-but for those men who profess to be Union men and who are Union men
-with an "if"; who will take all the concessions we will give them&mdash;all that
-they demand&mdash;and then turn about and say "your Union is dissolved," I
-have no respect; and for them I will do nothing. For the men who love
-this Union, who are prepared to march to the support of the Union, who will
-stand up in defense of the old flag under which their fathers fought and
-gloriously triumphed, I have not only the most profound respect, but to their
-demands I can scarce conceive anything that I would not yield. But, sir,
-when traitorous States come here and say, unless you yield this or that established
-principle or right, we will dissolve the Union, I would answer in brief
-words&mdash;no concession, no compromise; aye, give us strife even to blood
-before yielding to the demands of traitorous insolence.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This "blood letter" (as it was commonly termed) Mr.
-Chandler was often called upon to meet in the course of his
-subsequent public life, and he never failed to justify its writing
-or to stand by its language. In the extra session of the Senate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
-in March, 1861, John C. Breckenridge alluded to "Senatorial
-threats of blood-letting," and Mr. Chandler retorted by re-reading
-Jefferson's letter and re-asserting the purpose to meet attempted
-treason with force. In the last session of the Thirty-seventh
-Congress (on Feb. 13, 1863) William A. Richardson of Illinois
-said in a debate upon a war loan measure:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The Senator from Michigan, at the outset of this controversy, declared in
-a letter to the Governor of the State of Michigan, that this government was
-not worth a rush without some blood-letting. Standing in array against all our
-history for seventy years, standing in array against the peace of the country
-for seventy years, the constitution itself in every proceeding from that time to
-this being but compromise, he declared at the outset against any compromise
-for the peace of the country, and he is responsible to a very large extent for
-the arbitrament of war that is now upon us. He is responsible for those
-consequences that are now flowing to us from the position assumed then
-strongly by him at the head of a dominant party in the country.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was prompt in meeting this attack, and said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. President: I do not propose to-day to go over my record. It has been
-made before the country and the world. There let it stand. So far as my
-loyalty and devotion to the country are concerned, I doubt if any man ever
-seriously attempted to cast suspicion on them. But, as I said before, my record
-is made. I stand upon it and am proud of it in all its entirety. The Senator
-alluded to the blood-letting letter, as it is called in Michigan. That letter
-has been discussed before the people of that State. Thousands and tens of
-thousands, and, for aught I know, hundreds of thousands of copies of it,
-were scattered broadcast throughout that State. What were the circumstances
-under which that letter was written? We had traitors in this body proclaiming
-from day to-day that this government was then destroyed, and there was
-no rebuke from the Senator of Illinois or his friends. There was no rebuke
-from the administration then in power, whom he aided in placing there. They
-proclaimed that the government was entirely destroyed; and that it should
-never be restored. Senators proclaimed on this floor that you might give them
-a blank sheet of paper and allow them to fill it as they pleased, and still
-they would not live with us under the same government.... Here in
-this hall and in the other chamber, and on the streets wherever you went,
-you heard traitors declare that the government was ended, declare that if
-you attempted to coerce the rebel States it would lead to war. I believed
-then, as I believe now, that they intended to break up this government; that
-they intended a disruption of the nation. And I believed then, as I believe
-now, that without the intervention of armed force to put down armed rebels
-and traitors, your government was destroyed. Believing it, I so wrote to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
-governor of a sovereign State&mdash;a confidential note, it is true, but that is of
-no account. I stand by that letter precisely as it was written. A majority of
-the people of this nation believe to-day, as I believed then, that there was
-and could be but one way to save the nation, and that was by putting down
-armed rebels by force. That is what I believed then, what I believe now.</p>
-
-<p>Another thing the Senator says: Nobody is more responsible for this
-bloody and wicked war than myself. Mr. President, let us look a little into
-the matter of responsibility. There is a responsibility somewhere, and a fearful
-responsibility, for this rebellion and this dreadful war, but that responsibility is
-not upon my soul.... You may go through all the ranks of rebeldom,
-aye, sir, you may take all the officers of your regular army, who have deserted
-by hundreds and violated their oath, and gone into the ranks of the enemy,
-and are fighting to overturn the government; go and poll the whole of them,
-and you cannot find one that ever co-operated with me politically. They are
-all Democrats, every man. Yes, sir, and go among the officers of the navy
-who have deserted and gone over to the enemy, and are now fighting against
-their flag and attempting to overturn this government; poll them, and among
-all the hundreds of them you cannot find a single Republican&mdash;not one. No,
-sir, they are all Democrats, every man. You may go and poll the whole four
-or five hundred thousand men the rebels have now in arms against this government,
-and you cannot find a man who was ever a Republican or who
-even sympathized with the Republicans. They are all Democrats or "Union
-men" such as we had here two years ago, men who had professed to be for
-the Union when their hearts were with the enemies of the government. Sir,
-go among the Northern sympathizers with the rebellion, the men who are
-proclaiming to-day that this government is overturned, and that it will never
-be restored, who are to-day denouncing your currency and saying that your
-money is not worth the paper upon which it is written; search through
-all the sympathizers with this rebellion, and you cannot find a man who
-ever co-operated with me politically&mdash;not one. They are Democrats, but yet,
-forsooth, I am responsible for this war.... I have no responsibility for
-this rebellion, nor have the party with which I act. We have with perfect
-unanimity, in every instance, come up to the support of the government.
-When the government demanded 400,000 men, every single individual on this
-side of the house voted to give them 500,000 men. And when they demanded
-$400,000,000 to support the government, every man on this side of the house
-voted to give them $500,000,000 to save the nation. Sir, we have been ready
-under all circumstances to make any and every sacrifice so that this nation
-might be saved. Our armies are in large force and ably commanded; they
-are ready to advance and crush the hydra-headed monster of rebellion. Aye,
-sir, but we have an enemy insidious and dangerous. The seat of the rebellion is
-to-day not in Richmond, it is among the copper-headed traitors of the North,
-and if this government is overturned, if we should fail in saving the government,
-it will be, not from the force of rebels in our front, but because of the
-accursed traitors in our rear.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In the course of a debate in the Senate on Feb. 16, 1866,
-upon reconstruction topics, Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>When the good and the patriotic, North and South, representing the
-yearning hearts of the people at home, came here in the winter and spring of
-1861, in a peace congress, if possible to avoid this dreadful war, then the
-Senator from Michigan announced to his Governor and the country that this
-Union was scarcely worth preserving without some blood-letting. His cry
-before the war was for blood. Allow me to say that when the Senator's name
-is forgotten because of anything he says or does in this body, in future times
-it will be borne down upon the pages of history as the author of the terrible
-sentiment that the Union of the people that our fathers had cemented by the
-blood of the Revolution and by the love of the people; that that Union, resting
-upon compromise and concession, resting upon the doctrine of equality to
-all sections of the country; that that Union which brought us so much greatness
-and power in the three-quarters of a century of our life; that that
-Union which had brought us so much prosperity and greatness until we were
-the mightiest and proudest nation on God's footstool; that that grand Union
-was not worth preserving unless we had some blood-letting. Mr. President,
-it is not the sentiment of the Senator's own heart; it is the expression of a
-bitter political hostility; but it will carry him down to immortality; he is sure
-of living in history; he has gained that much by it.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>To this Mr. Chandler's response was instant. He said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The Senator from Indiana has arraigned me upon an old indictment for
-having written a certain letter in 1861. It is not the first time I have been
-arraigned on that indictment of "blood-letting." I was arraigned for it upon
-this floor by the traitor John C. Breckenridge, and I answered the traitor
-John C. Breckenridge, and after I gave him his answer he went out to the
-rebel ranks and fought against our flag. I was arraigned by another Senator
-from Kentucky, and by other traitors upon this floor; I expect to be arraigned
-again. I wrote the letter, and I stand by the letter and what is in it. What
-was the position of the country when the letter was written? The Democratic
-party as an organization had arrayed itself against this government&mdash;a Democratic
-traitor in the Presidential chair, and Democratic traitors in every
-department of this government, Democratic traitors preaching treason upon this
-floor and preaching treason in the hall of the other House, Democratic traitors
-in your army and in your navy, Democratic traitors controlling every branch
-of this government. Your flag was fired upon and there was no response.
-The Democratic party had ordained that this government should be overthrown,
-and I, a Senator from the State of Michigan, wrote to the Governor
-of that State "unless you are prepared to shed blood for the preservation of
-this great government the government is overthrown." That is all there was
-in that letter. That I said, and that I say again. And I tell that Senator, if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
-he is prepared to go down in history with the Democratic traitors who then
-co-operated with him, I am prepared to go down on that "blood-letting"
-letter, and I stand by the record as made.</p>
-
-<p>Because I wrote to the Governor of my State that unless he was prepared
-to shed blood for the preservation of this government it was overthrown, now
-I aim to be arraigned as going down to be remembered in history! Yes, sir,
-I shall be remembered, and I am proud of the record. May it stand, and
-stand as long as this government stands! When that Senator and the men
-who co-operated with him shall have gone down to eternal infamy my record
-will be brilliant.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In the closing session of Mr. Chandler's Congressional service
-Senator Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia, in the course of a reply
-(on May 10, 1879) to a declaration of his on the previous day
-that "there were twelve Senators on the other side whose seats
-were obtained and are held by fraud and violence," again read
-and commented upon "the blood letter." Mr. Chandler promptly
-answered as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. President, this is the fourth time since 1861 that allusion has been
-made to a letter written by me to the Governor of the State of Michigan;
-first it appeared in a newspaper published in Detroit; a copy was sent to me
-and a copy was likewise sent to the late Senator Powell. The letter was a
-private note written to the Governor and no copy retained. Senator Powell
-approached me with his copy of the letter and asked if it was correct. I told
-him I did not know; I had written to the Governor of Michigan a private
-note and had kept no copy and could not say whether this was correct or
-not. He told me that if it was a correct copy he would wish to make use of
-it, and if it was not he did not propose to make use of it. I said, "Sir, I
-will adopt it, and you may make any use of it you please." So to-day that
-is my letter. If not originally written by me, it is mine by adoption.</p>
-
-<p>And, Mr. President, what were the circumstances under which that letter
-was written? I had been in this body then nearly four years listening to
-treason day by day and hour by hour. The threat, the universal threat daily,
-hourly, was, "Do this or we will dissolve the Union; if you do not do that
-we will dissolve the Union." Treason was in the White House, treason in
-the Cabinet, treason in the Senate, and treason in the House of Representatives;
-bold, outspoken, rampant treason was daily and hourly uttered. The
-threat was made upon this floor in my presence by a Senator, "You may
-give us a blank sheet of paper and let us fill it up as we please, and then
-we will not live with you." And another Senator stood here beside that
-Senator from Texas and said, "I stand by the Senator from Texas." Treason
-was applauded in the galleries of this body, and treason was talked on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
-streets, in the street cars, in private circles; everywhere it was treason&mdash;treason
-in your departments, traitors in the White House, traitors around
-these galleries, traitors everywhere!</p>
-
-<p>The flag of rebellion had been raised; the Union was already dissolved,
-we were told; the rebel government was already established with its capital
-in Alabama; "and now we will negotiate with you," was said to us. Upon
-what basis would you negotiate? Upon what basis did you call your peace
-convention? With rampant rebellion staring us in the face! Sir, it was no
-time to negotiate. The time for negotiation was past.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, this was the condition of affairs when that letter was written; and
-after Mr. Powell had made his assault upon me in this body for it I responded,
-relating what I have related here now with regard to it, and I said, "I stand
-by that letter," and I stand by it now. What was there in it then, and what
-is there in it now? The State of Michigan was known to be in favor of the
-constitution and the Union and the enforcement of the laws, even to the letting
-of blood if need be, and that was all there was and all there is in that
-letter. Make the most of it!</p>
-
-<p>The Senator from Georgia says that I did not shed any blood. How
-much blood did he shed?<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> [Laughter.] Will somebody inform us the exact
-quantity of blood that the Senator from Georgia shed?</p>
-
-<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Hill</span>, of Georgia: The difference between us is that I was not in
-favor of shedding anybody's blood.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Chandler</span>: Nor I, except to punish treason and traitors. Sir, the
-Senator is not the man to stand up on this floor and talk about other men
-saving their own blood. He took good care to put his blood in Fort Lafayette
-where he was out of the way of rebel bullets as well as Union bullets. He is
-the last man to stand up here and talk to me about letting the blood of others
-be shed.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, I was then, as I am now, in favor of the government of
-the United States. Then, as now, I abhorred the idea of State sovereignty over
-National sovereignty. Then, as now, I was prepared even to shed blood to
-save this glorious government. Then, as now, I stood up for the constitution
-and the Union. Then, as now, I was in favor of the perpetuity of this
-glorious government. But the Senator from Georgia, was, as he testified
-before a committee, "a Union secessionist." I have the testimony here before
-me. Will somebody explain what that means&mdash;"a Union secessionist?" Mr.
-President, I should like to see the dictionary wherein a definition can be found
-of "a Union secessionist!" I do not understand the term. He says they
-have the right to have a solid South, but a solid North will destroy the
-government. Why, Mr. President, the South is no more solid to-day than it
-was in 1857.... It has been solid ever since, and it was no quarrel with
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>the North that made it solid. It was solid because it was determined either
-to "rule or ruin" this nation. It tried the "ruin" scheme with arms; and
-now, having failed to ruin this government with arms, it comes back to ruin
-it by withholding supplies to carry on the government. Sir, the men have
-changed since 1857. There is now but one member on this floor who stood
-here with me on the 4th of March, 1857. The men have changed, the measures
-not at all. You then fought for the overthrow of this government, and
-now you vote and talk for the same purpose. You are to-day, as you were
-then, determined either to rule or ruin this government, and you cannot do
-either.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This letter was also for years constantly quoted and denounced
-by the Democratic press of Michigan with the hope of by this
-means breaking the Senator's hold upon the confidence of the
-people of his State. He uniformly met these attacks, not only
-without the shadow of apology, but with the most emphatic
-defiance. On the stump he repeatedly declared that "that letter
-was a good one," that he would not qualify a sentence nor
-retract a word of it, that he "stood by it" without reservation,
-and that he believed when he wrote it and knew afterward that
-it pointed out the only path in which the nation could then
-walk with honor and with safety. Time has shown that Mr.
-Chandler was right and that the men who deprecated his boldness
-were wrong, and that the real statesmanship of the winter
-of 1860-61 was that which proposed not to parley with, but to
-draw the sword upon, "foul treason." The paper which at that
-time first printed "the blood letter" and made it the text for
-unsparing and constant denunciation of its author was edited by a
-man who grew to be one of the foremost of American journalists,
-and&mdash;always hostile to Republicanism&mdash;published in 1879 the
-chief Northwestern organ of Independent opinion, which said, in
-announcing Mr. Chandler's sudden death in its city: "To
-superior intellectual endowments he united a force of will and
-resolution of purpose that hesitated at no obstacle. Few men
-ever displayed in a more remarkable degree the courage of
-opinions. No dread of unpopularity, no fear of consequences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
-ever troubled him. His famous 'blood-letting letter,' written
-near the opening of the Southern rebellion, was a faithful
-manifestation of the man. When frightened party chiefs of
-the North were running up and down with peace propositions
-to placate Southern fire-eaters and patch up a new truce
-between free civilization and slave barbarism, Zach. Chandler
-stood up in his place in the Senate and in terms of intense,
-bitter scorn, denounced all such efforts as the pitiful manifestations
-of political cowardice and folly. He had no word of
-regret to utter upon the departure of the Southern Senators;
-but told them that the North would whip them back, and that
-in their humiliation the bond of nationality would be strengthened.
-He had no dread of the threatened blood-letting, but
-believed it to be the only way of curing the Southern ulcer,
-and that the nation would afterward be the healthier for it."
-And</p>
-
-<p class="center">"Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges."
-</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Bangor, Me., "Union."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Detroit, Mich. "Free Press."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> An allusion to the common report that, during a secret session o£ the Confederate
-Senate, William. L. Yancey received injuries in a personal encounter with H. H. Hill from
-which he finally died.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br />
-
-THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_201.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Abraham Lincoln</span> reached Washington on the 23d
-of February, 1861, having come from Harrisburg <em>incognito</em>,
-and in advance of the announced time, because of
-threats of assassination. Mr. Chandler was one of the
-first persons informed of his arrival, called upon him at once,
-and was in frequent consultation with him thereafter with reference
-to the formation of his Cabinet and the policy to be
-pursued toward the South. Mr. Chandler earnestly opposed
-placing any but the most uncompromising Union men at the
-head of the departments, urged bold and decisive measures
-toward armed traitors for the sake of the moral effect of such a
-course, and advised the most emphatic declarations in the inaugural
-of the President's intention to enforce the laws at all hazards.
-Mr. Lincoln had seriously thought of inviting two gentlemen
-from the Southern States to seats in his Cabinet, the names
-chiefly considered by him being those of Alexander H. Stephens
-of Georgia, and James Guthrie of Kentucky. Mr. Chandler
-strongly opposed any such concession to the rampant dis-unionism
-of the slave States, and the hostility of the wing of the party
-with which he acted finally led Mr. Lincoln to abandon his
-original plan and select Edward Bates of Missouri and Montgomery
-Blair as the Southern members of the Cabinet. Mr.
-Chandler also advised that Breckenridge, Wigfall, and other
-avowedly disloyal Congressmen should be arrested at once, and
-urged that the "Secession Commissioners," when they came to
-Washington, should be dealt with summarily as traitors and not be
-permitted to even informally negotiate with the Administration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
-He always believed that this summary treatment of rebellion at
-the outset would have greatly curtailed its dimensions, but the
-President was guided by Mr. Seward and others, whose counsels
-were different and who hoped to prevent the impending war by
-mildness. Accordingly the inaugural was almost apologetic in
-tone toward the South; throughout March, men like Stephen
-A. Douglas inquired whether the Administration meant peace or
-war; flagrant treason was still defiantly uttered on the floor of
-Congress, and John Forsyth and M. J. Crawford, embassadors
-from the "Confederacy," spent weeks in Washington holding
-relations with the new Secretary of State which, if not "official,"
-looked like a concession in fact of the practical independence of
-the seceded States. The first official favor Mr. Chandler asked
-from President Lincoln was the appointment of his life-long
-friend, James M. Edmunds, as Commissioner of the General
-Land Office, and Mr. Edmunds was promptly nominated to that
-position and confirmed by the Senate.</p>
-
-<p>At noon on March 4, 1861, Vice-President Hamlin took the
-chair of the Senate and directed the secretary to read this proclamation
-convening an extra session of that body:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-
-<h3>BY THE PRESIDENT of THE UNITED STATES:<br />
-
-A PROCLAMATION.</h3>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Whereas</span>, Objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate
-should be convened at twelve o'clock on the 4th of March next, to receive
-and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the
-Executive: Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States,
-have considered it to be my duty to issue this, my proclamation, declaring
-that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to
-convene for the transaction of business, at the capitol in the city of Washington,
-on the 4th day of March next, at twelve o'clock at noon on that day,
-of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that
-body are hereby required to take notice.</p>
-
-<div class="sidenote">[L. S.]</div>
-
-<p class="hangindent">Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at Washington,
-the 11th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand
-eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United
-States of America the eighty-fifth.</p>
-
-<p class="right">JAMES BUCHANAN.</p>
-
-<p>By the President: <span class="smcap">J. S. Black</span>, <em>Secretary of State</em>.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Sixteen new Senators then took the oath of office, and at
-fifteen minutes past one o'clock James Buchanan and Abraham
-Lincoln entered the Senate chamber, arm in arm, accompanied
-by Senators Foote, Baker and Pearce, members of the Committee
-of Arrangements, and were conducted to seats in front
-of the secretary's desk. In a few moments afterward, those
-assembled in the Senate chamber proceeded to the platform on
-the central portico of the eastern front of the capitol, to listen
-to the inaugural address of the President elect. Then the oath
-of office was administered to him by the Chief Justice of the
-Supreme Court, and the administration of the government by
-the Republican party had commenced. The business of this
-extra session of the Senate was chiefly limited to the confirmation
-of executive appointments, although there were some exciting
-discussions upon the political situation. Mr. Chandler, on taking
-possession (as the new chairman) of the room of the Committee
-on Commerce, had his righteous wrath at the men who had
-availed themselves of their official positions to plot treason against
-the government still further stimulated by finding in one of the
-drawers of the large committee table the original draft of the
-secession ordinance of Alabama, which had been prepared in the
-national capitol by Senator Clement C. Clay, his predecessor in
-the chairmanship of the committee.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> This illustration of Southern
-perfidy Mr. Chandler carefully kept, and at his death it was
-among his private papers. The executive session of the Senate
-closed on March 28, 1861, and Mr. Chandler at once returned to
-Detroit.</p>
-
-<p>At 5.20 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> on April 12, 1861, a mortar in the rebel battery
-on Sullivan's Island in the harbor of Charleston fired a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
-shell into Fort Sumter. This was the announcement to the
-world of the decision of the rebels to delay no longer, but to at
-once</p>
-<div class="center">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i30">"ope<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">"The purple testament of bleeding war."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-<p>On the 13th Major Anderson abandoned the unequal contest,
-and surrendered the blazing ruins of his fortress to Beauregard;
-on the 14th his garrison marched out with the honors of war;
-and on the 15th Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, a
-force which it was believed would trample out rebellion in
-ninety days. The North answered Charleston's cannon and the
-President's appeal with a magnificent assertion of its latent
-patriotism, and the war spirit flamed up in every State. On April
-17 the business men of Detroit held a public meeting at the
-invitation of its Board of Trade, at which the firm purpose to
-support the government in its contest with treason was emphatically
-declared, and all needed assistance in troops and money
-was pledged. Senator Chandler escorted General Cass to this
-gathering, and their entrance, arm in arm, typifying as it did the
-solidification of the Union sentiment of the North, was followed
-by long-continued cheering. Both gentlemen spoke in tones of
-earnest loyalty and amid constant applause. That night the
-following letter was mailed to Washington:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, April 17, 1861.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Simon Cameron.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: One of the most distinguished Democrats in this country<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
-says: "Don't defend Washington. Don't put batteries on Georgetown Heights,
-but shove your troops directly into Virginia, and quarter them there."</p>
-
-<p>Stand by the Union men in Virginia and you will find plenty of them.</p>
-
-<p>By this bold policy you will save Virginia to the Union as well as the
-other border States.</p>
-
-<p>There is but one sentiment here. We will give you all the troops you
-can use. We will send you two regiments in thirty days, and 50,000 in thirty
-days more if you want them. General Cass subscribed $3,000 to equip the
-regiments.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
-<p>There are no sympathizers here with treason, and if there were we would
-dispense with their company forthwith. Your friend,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Michigan justified her Senator's pledges by promptly raising
-and equipping many more troops, than the State was required to
-furnish under the call for 75,000 volunteers, and this correspondence
-soon followed:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, April 21, 1861.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Simon Cameron.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Cameron</span>: ... I will esteem it a very great favor if you
-will officially call for at least one more regiment to go to the front immediately
-from this State. You did not call for but one, but we have got two
-all ready, and have raised $100,000 by private subscription to equip them.
-Truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p>[REPLY.]</p>
-
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, April 29, 1861.<br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Z. Chandler.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: ... It would give me great pleasure to gratify your
-wishes, but this can only be done in one way. The President has determined
-to accept no more for three months' service, but to add to the regular army
-twenty-five more regiments whose members shall agree to serve two years
-unless sooner discharged. This will enable the Department to accept another
-regiment from your State. Truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">SIMON CAMERON, <em>Secretary of War</em>.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>To this suggestion the response was prompt, and the enlistment
-of men and formation of companies for three years' service
-went briskly on, Michigan sending only one three-months' regiment
-to the field. Mr. Chandler was active in stimulating and
-organizing the war movements at home, both by untiring personal
-labor and by liberal subscriptions of money, until the first
-regiments were ready for marching orders. He was one of
-the speakers at an imposing Union meeting held in Detroit on
-April 25, with Lewis Cass in the chair, and he there said: "A
-greater contest than the Revolutionary war is now about to
-take place. It is to be tested whether a republican government
-can stand or not. The eyes of all Europe are upon us, and we
-will convince them that ours is the strongest government on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
-earth." He also made an earnest, and in the end successful,
-effort to procure from the War Department such orders as should
-obtain for the Michigan men an opportunity for prompt service
-against the enemy. It was originally intended to send the regiments
-from his State to Cairo, but his influence accomplished a
-change in this plan and they were directed to report to Washington
-for immediate duty. In May Mr. Chandler went to the
-capital to aid in preparing for their reception and to urge upon
-the authorities, who were then declining the profuse offers of
-troops, the importance of accepting all the regiments tendered
-by his own and other States and of promptly attacking the constantly
-growing rebellion by invading its territory and interfering
-with the organization of its armies. On the 17th of May, 1861,
-the First Regiment of Michigan Volunteers arrived in Washington,
-Col. O. B. Willcox commanding. They were met at the
-depot by Senator Chandler and escorted to quarters he had aided
-in securing for them in a business block on Pennsylvania Avenue.
-Mr. Chandler was active in providing for their comfort, purchased
-supplies for them out of his own private purse, was present at
-their parade when they were formally mustered into the service
-of the United States by Adjutant-General Thomas, and asked
-the Secretary of War to send them at once to the front for
-active duty. His request was complied with and this regiment
-was prominent in the first important military movement of the
-war.</p>
-
-<p>After he had seen the Michigan troops well cared for, Mr.
-Chandler, on the 19th of May, in company with Senators Wade
-and Morrill and John G. Nicolay, the private secretary of President
-Lincoln, sailed for Fortress Monroe to visit General Butler,
-and see the condition of his newly-organized army. On the
-following day the party started to return on the steamer Freeborn,
-and as they were passing through Hampton Roads heard
-heavy cannonading, which proved to be an artillery duel between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
-the steamer Monticello and a battery erected by the rebels at
-Sewell's Point, where the Elizabeth river empties into Hampton
-Roads. The Freeborn went at once to the assistance of the
-Monticello, and being of light draft approached within 300
-yards of the battery and opened fire with her guns. The columbiads
-of the Virginians were soon disabled, and the rebels were
-scattered in every direction, Mr. Chandler pronouncing the spectacle
-"the best ball-playing he had ever seen." On her voyage
-up the Potomac the Freeborn seized two suspicions boats, and
-found them loaded with a company of fifty rebel soldiers on
-their way to join "the Confederate army." Both vessels were
-brought to the Navy Yard at Washington and they were the
-first prizes taken during the war, and the men on board were
-the first rebel prisoners captured.</p>
-
-<p>On the night of the 23d of May, the Union forces at Washington
-crossed the Potomac and proceeded to seize and fortify
-advantageous positions on Virginia soil. The First Michigan
-accompanied the famous Zouave regiment by ferry-boats to
-Alexandria, taking possession of that city in the night. Mr.
-Chandler went with the Michigan men, and was the only civilian
-who was allowed to accompany this wing of the expedition. He
-was with a detachment of soldiers who surprised and captured a
-party of forty rebel dragoons, including four officers, and he was
-in Alexandria when Colonel Ellsworth fell and private Brownell
-instantly avenged his death. Of this event, since obscured by
-four years of carnage, but which then first brought to excited
-millions some sense of the dreadful realities of war, he was the
-first to bear the news to the authorities at Washington.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler remained at the capital some weeks, working
-industriously in helping on the preparations for war, and urging
-the most vigorous and sweeping measures upon the Administration.
-He believed and said repeatedly that the call for
-75,000 men for three months was a mistake. He was no opti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>mist,
-and never thought that a rebellion, so carefully organized
-and left so long undisturbed, could be subdued without a
-desperate and bloody struggle. He thought that 500,000 rather
-than 75,000 volunteers should have been called for to serve
-through the war, and judged that the effect of such a proclamation
-upon the country, and particularly upon the South,
-would have been salutary, as showing the determination of
-the government to crush the rebellion at once and forever.
-While the raw levies of volunteers were massing in Washington
-in May and June, there was a lamentable lack of discipline and
-organization. The commissary department of the army was
-feeble and inefficient, and there was a want of proper and sufficient
-food for the soldiers. Mr. Chandler's executive capacity
-was very useful then to the Secretary of War in assisting in
-the organization of a commissariat and in procuring supplies and
-equipments, and he spent no small sum in obtaining food for
-the soldiers when the regular rations were not forthcoming.
-Although entirely without military training, Mr Chandler's business
-experience, his quick perception, and his clear judgment
-made his services at this period of confusion and mismanagement
-of great value to the country. In June he returned to Michigan
-for a few days, and on the 21st of that month spoke (with the
-Hon. Charles M. Croswell) at Adrian, on the occasion of the
-presentation by the ladies of that city of a stand of colors to a
-volunteer regiment in camp there.</p>
-
-<p>On the 4th of July, 1861, the Thirty-seventh Congress met
-in extra session, and adjourned on the 6th of August, after
-having enacted laws to increase the army and navy, and to
-provide the means and authority necessary for the vigorous prosecution
-of the war. The scope of the work undertaken by this
-Congress was far greater than that of any preceding session.
-Many of the members had but little experience in legislative
-matters, but their patriotism was sincere and ardent, and their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
-acts embodied the national purpose to maintain the integrity of
-the republic at any cost. On the second day of the session Mr.
-Chandler said in the Senate:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I desire to give notice that I shall to-morrow or on some subsequent day
-introduce a bill to confiscate the property of all Governors of States, members
-of the Legislature, Judges of Courts, and all military officers above the rank
-of lieutenant who shall take up arms against the United States, or aid or abet
-treason against the government of the United States, and that said individual
-shall be forever disqualified from holding any office of honor, emolument or
-trust under this government.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This bill was introduced on July 15, and was referred to the
-Committee on the Judiciary; it reported back a measure of
-much narrower scope, which was passed, and is known as the
-confiscation act of 1861. The origin of Mr. Chandler's bill was
-the fact that John Y. Mason of Virginia, who had been expelled
-from the Senate for treason, owned a large amount of property
-in Pennsylvania, and so indignant were the people of the county
-in which it was located at his treachery, that a guard was kept
-over it constantly to prevent its destruction by a mob. Mr.
-Chandler believed it was important that the government should
-be enabled to legally seize for its own use such property as this;
-there were also many officers of the army and navy who were
-undecided whether to go with the rebellion or remain at their
-posts. He wished to add to the penalties of treason to affect
-them, as well as those wealthy citizens of Washington and
-Maryland who had formerly been in office and who sympathized
-with the rebellion and gave the South as much encouragement
-as they dared. His proposition proved then too vigorous to
-obtain the endorsement of his colleagues, but within a year its
-principle received Congressional sanction. During this session
-(on July 18) Mr. Chandler said in the Senate with characteristic
-force:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The Senator from Indiana says there are three parties in the country. I
-deny it, sir. There are but two parties, patriots and traitors&mdash;none others in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
-this body nor in the country. I care not what proposition may be brought
-up to save the Union, to preserve its integrity, patriots will vote for it; and
-I care not what proposition you may bring up to dissolve the Union, to break
-up this government, traitors will vote for that. And those are the only two
-parties there are in the Senate or the country.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It is not necessary to add that Mr. Chandler voted at this
-session for every measure to organize armies and to raise means
-for their maintenance, and that he favored at all times vigorous
-and summary measures in dealing with the enemies of the
-republic.</p>
-
-<p>General McDowell's "invasion of Virginia" on May 23 was
-followed by several weeks of military inactivity on the Potomac,
-broken only by a dash of the Union cavalry into Fairfax Courthouse
-and the skirmish at Vienna, where a regiment of Ohio
-troops, who were backed on a railroad train into a rebel ambuscade,
-lost twenty men. On July 16 the Union army began a
-forward movement against the rebels who were found in position
-about and along a creek known as Bull Run. After a short and
-indecisive engagement on that day, General McDowell commenced
-to concentrate his forces for an attack on Beauregard's line, but
-various delays prevented any definite movement until Sunday,
-July 21. On that date was fought the battle of Bull Run,
-ending in a complete Union defeat, attended by severe losses
-and a panic-stricken retreat by many regiments, and followed
-by great national dismay and alarm. An inquiry into the
-blundering strategy, political half-heartedness, and poor generalship,
-which were the causes of this unnecessary and most serious
-reverse, are foreign to the purpose of this work. Mr. Chandler
-was one of a large number of members of Congress who joined
-the army on the eve of battle, and watched its progress to the
-final disaster. The First Michigan was among the regiments
-engaged in the thickest of the fight, and the Second and Third
-were in the brigade of Gen. I. B. Richardson, which acted as a
-rear-guard in the retreat of the army and prevented defeat from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
-becoming a total rout. Mr. Chandler himself aided in halting
-and rallying the panic-stricken fugitives,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and reached Washington
-late at night, covered with mud and wearied with travel
-and hunger. He drove at once to the White House, where he
-found Mr. Lincoln despondent, exhausted with his labors, and
-greatly depressed by the defeat and the loss of life involved.
-Mr. Chandler urged upon the President the necessity of vigorous
-measures, the wisdom of calling for more troops, and the certainty
-that the North would follow the Administration in meeting
-a reverse with undismayed and redoubled energies. He asked
-Mr. Lincoln to issue an order for the enrolling of 500,000 men
-at once, "to show to the country and the rebels that the government
-was not discouraged a whit, but was just beginning to
-get mad." Mr. Chandler's vitality, the timely vigor of his
-bold words, and his overwhelming earnestness acted as a tonic
-upon the over-burdened Executive, and he left Mr. Lincoln
-cheered, encouraged and resolute. The governors of the loyal
-States were at once appealed to for more troops, and the answer
-of the North to Bull Run was the rush of tens of thousands of
-men into camp and the organization of great armies along the
-Potomac, the Ohio and the Mississippi. Secretary Stanton, who
-knew of this midnight interview, estimated its effect upon the
-course of events as of the utmost importance, and repeatedly
-said that Mr. Chandler's opportunely-manifested courage and
-vigor then saved the Union from a great peril.</p>
-
-<p>In the task of reorganizing the army after Bull Run, of
-clearing Washington of fugitives, and of extracting order from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
-chaos, Mr. Chandler rendered important aid to the authorities,
-and after the adjournment returned to Michigan and threw his
-strong energies into the work of raising and equipping troops.
-This letter (which was not followed by any practical results,
-owing to various causes) is of interest as showing the spirit of
-those days:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Aug. 27, 1861.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Cameron</span>: A Colonel Elliott, member of the Canadian Parliament,
-is desirous of raising a regiment of Canadian cavalry for the war against
-treason. I don't know how the Administration may look upon this proposition,
-but there are many reasons in favor of its acceptance.</p>
-
-<p>1. Colonel Elliott is a brave and experienced officer.</p>
-
-<p>2. He is in favor of the closest union between the Canadas and the
-United States, and believes that this fraternal union upon the battle-field would
-tend strongly to cement a yet closer connection.</p>
-
-<p>3. It would satisfy England that hands-off was her best policy.</p>
-
-<p>The moment it is proven that black men are used in the Southern army
-<em>against us</em>, I propose to recruit a few regiments of negroes in Canada myself to
-meet that enemy, and I think this would be an opening wedge for the movement
-of emancipation.</p>
-
-<p>My colleague will introduce Colonel Elliott to you and explain more at
-length. Truly, your friend,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>To this same period also belongs this characteristic defense of
-his State and the Northwest against what Mr. Chandler believed&mdash;and
-with reason&mdash;to be an unjust statement:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<em>To the Editor of the New York World</em>:<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>My attention has been called to an article in your valuable and patriotic
-paper in which you say: "The extreme Northern States, from Maine to Michigan,
-have not done their duty, and it is high time that State pride aroused
-them to emulate the noble example of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode
-Island." As I am sure you would not willingly do injustice to Michigan, I
-ask you to state editorially, the population and the number of regiments in
-the field for the war from each of the States whose example is to be emulated.
-Michigan had at Bull Run one three-months' regiment (now recruiting
-and in for the war) and three regiments for the war, <em>and not a private soldier
-in camp in the State</em>. Since that time she has sent seven regiments for the
-war, making ten regiments now present in the army, in addition to which
-she furnished to other States over 2,000 men, <em>now in the field</em>, for the reason
-that the government would accept no more men from Michigan at that time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
-and the patriotic ardor of our citizens could not be restrained. We have now
-in camp nearly 4,000 men, and shall send two regiments this week and two
-more within a few days.</p>
-
-<p>The Northwest has done her whole duty; how is it with the East? The
-Northwest has exceeded every call made upon her, and yet you lack men
-and are denuding over 2,000 miles of border territory of troops for the defense
-of Washington. If New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New
-England States cannot defend Washington, in God's name what can they do?
-The Northwest will defend the lines from the mountains of Virginia to the
-Rocky Mountains. She will sweep secession and treason from the valley of
-the Mississippi, aye, <em>and will defend the Potomac, too, if she must</em>. But is not
-this Union worth as much to New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts as
-to the Northwest? Why, then, so tardy in supplying troops? Had five of
-the forty Northwestern regiments now on the Potomac been with Lyon he
-would have won the battle and cleared Missouri! Had five been with Mulligan
-he would now be in possession of Lexington! Could ten of them be
-sent into Kentucky to-morrow (in addition to what they have) they would
-clear the State of secession in ten days, and threaten Tennessee! Could ten
-be sent to Rosecrans he would clear the mountains of Virginia and threaten
-the rear of the grand army! But, no; this cannot be done&mdash;because the
-East will not do her duty. If she does not at once, the whole world will
-cry shame. Respectfully, your obedient servant,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Sept. 30, 1861.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>During the Congressional recess he also sent this letter of
-characteristic suggestions to the Secretary of War:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Nov. 15, 1861.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: The time for delivering a battle upon the Potomac has
-now passed, and something <em>must and can be done</em>. In my opinion the following
-plan is still feasible, and will close the war:</p>
-
-<p>Let Rosecrans be ordered immediately to Kentucky with his army of veteran
-Northwestern troops. Substitute an equal or larger number of Eastern
-troops with an Eastern general, who will act strictly upon the defensive. Send
-your Northwestern troops now upon the Potomac to Cairo <em>at once</em>. Send Pope
-(if he is the man) to Missouri with sufficient arms to supply all the Northwestern
-regiments in readiness to march on the 1st day of December. Let an
-abundance of transports and material be provided at Cairo and St. Louis, by
-that date (December 1st).</p>
-
-<p>Give the order, "Forward," and <em>then cut the wires</em>.</p>
-
-<p>Stop all official communication with the Army of the Northwest. That
-army, if thus untrammeled, will <em>spend New Year's day in New Orleans</em>, <em>via</em>
-Memphis, and will reach Washington <em>via</em> Richmond by the 1st of May next.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In the meantime Sherman, Butler, and Burnside can take care of South
-Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and North Carolina will fall of itself with
-Virginia and the Gulf States.</p>
-
-<p>Is this plan feasible?</p>
-
-<p>None but a traitor will say you Nay, for you and I know that 200,000
-Northwestern soldiers, with Rosecrans's and Lyon's veterans, <em>can</em> and <em>will go
-wherever they are ordered</em>, and <em>on time</em>.</p>
-
-<p>As to your Army of the Potomac, select 100,000 men of your city regiments
-which look well on parade, and keep them for reviews. Send the
-balance to the Gulf States. We want none of them out West.</p>
-
-<p>We will, by recruiting during the winter, keep our Grand Army up to
-200,000 men, and furnish garrisons as fast as needed for captured towns.
-Very truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Congress re-assembled for its regular session in December,
-1861, and Mr. Chandler was called upon (on Jan. 17, 1862) to
-present the credentials of the Hon. Jacob M. Howard as his
-colleague from Michigan, <em>vice</em> Kinsley S. Bingham, who had
-died suddenly in the preceding October. Mr. Howard remained
-a Senator for ten years, winning distinction in that position.
-Throughout his term his relations with his colleague were intimate
-and cordial, and the foremost merchant and the first lawyer
-of Michigan stood side by side in the Senate in the support of
-every important measure which had for its object the encouragement
-of loyal sentiment, or the strengthening of the military and
-financial arms of the government, or the prompt suppression of
-the rebellion.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Mr. Clay (C. C. Clay, Jr., of Alabama), chairman of the Committee on Commerce,
-drew up in the room of that committee the original ordinance of secession for the State of
-Alabama, while he, a rebel traitor, was drawing the pay of this government. It was drawn
-upon government paper, written with government ink, and copied by a clerk drawing $6
-a day from this government. I found it in that room and I have it now.&mdash;<em>Zachariah
-Chandler in the Senate, April 12, 1864.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> This undoubtedly refers to Lewis Cass.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Whatever credit there was in stopping the rout (at this point) is due wholly to
-Senators Chandler and Wade, and Representatives Blake, Riddle, and Morris. These gentlemen,
-armed with Maynard rifles and navy revolvers, sprang from their carriages some three
-miles this side of Centreville, and, presenting their weapons, in loud voices commanded the
-fugitives to halt and turn back. Their bold and determined manner brought most at that
-point to a stand-still. Many on horseback, who attempted to dash by them, had their
-horses seized by the bits. Some of the fugitives who were armed menaced these gentlemen.
-None, however, were permitted to pass until the arrival of the Second New Jersey
-Regiment, on its way to the battle-ground, turned back the flying soldiers and teamsters.&mdash;<cite>Washington
-Intelligencer, July 22, 1861.</cite></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
-
-THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_215.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">During</span> the Congressional recess of the autumn of 1861
-gross mismanagement led to the annihilation at Ball's
-Bluff of a brigade of Union troops, led by Senator
-Edward D. Baker of Oregon. They had been sent
-across the Potomac in flat-boats and skiffs, were left without
-adequate support, and, being surrounded by a vastly superior
-force of rebels, were driven to the edge of the river, and there
-either killed, wounded, captured, or driven into hiding places
-along the banks. Their commanding officer, who displayed
-throughout a high order of personal courage, was shot at the
-head of his line before the final rout. General Baker was a
-man of eloquence and many gallant qualities, and his death
-created a profound impression; that he was sacrificed by military
-incapacity cannot be doubted.</p>
-
-<p>Congress met on Dec. 2, 1861, and on the first business day
-of the session Mr. Chandler offered a motion for the expulsion
-of John C. Breckenridge, who had at last joined the rebels, and
-it was unanimously adopted. On December 5 he introduced this
-resolution:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Resolved</em>, That a committee of three be appointed to inquire into the disasters
-at Bull Run and Edward's Ferry (subsequently changed to Ball's Bluff),
-with power to send for persons and papers.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler said, in explanation of his motion, that these
-reverses had been attributed to politicians, to civilians, to everything
-but the right cause, and that it was due to the Senate
-and to the country that they should be investigated and that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
-blame should rest where it belonged. After some discussion the
-Senate adopted the resolution with only three dissenting votes,
-first amending it by providing for a joint committee of both
-branches, and by enlarging the scope of its inquiries so as to
-include "the conduct of the war." The House concurred in the
-action, and the famous "Committee on the Conduct of the War"
-was thus created. On December 17, Mr. Chandler moved that
-the Vice-President should appoint the Senate members, adding:
-"I do not know what the parliamentary usage may be in a case
-of this kind. If that usage would give me the position of
-chairman, I wish to say that, under the circumstances, I do not
-wish to accept it." Mr. Chandler had also privately requested
-Mr. Hamlin to appoint Senator Wade to the chairmanship, saying
-it was important that a lawyer should be given that place, and
-his desires were followed in both respects. The first committee,
-as announced at that time, consisted of the following Congressmen:
-On the part of the Senate, Benjamin F. Wade, Zachariah
-Chandler and Andrew Johnson; on the part of the House,
-Daniel W. Gooch of Massachusetts, John Covode of Pennsylvania,
-George W. Julian of Indiana, and Moses F. Odell of
-New York. Of the original committee, George W. Julian is
-the only one who survived Mr. Chandler. When Andrew Johnson
-was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, he resigned
-his position upon the committee, and Senator Joseph A. Wright
-of Indiana took his place. Mr. Wright served but a year, and
-after the expiration of his term the Senate branch of the committee
-in the Thirty-seventh Congress consisted of only Mr.
-Chandler and Mr. Wade. William Blair Lord, now one of the
-official reporters of the House of Representatives, was appointed
-its clerk and stenographer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 684px;">
-<img src="images/i_217.jpg" width="684" height="700" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN 1862.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The tone of the Congressional discussion upon Mr. Chandler's
-proposition shows that this was regarded as an exceedingly
-important step, for the resolution clothed the committee with
-powers of very unusual magnitude, which, if abused, must have
-seriously embarrassed the Administration. Mr. Lincoln and Secretary
-Cameron, as well as General Scott and General McClellan,
-opposed its appointment at the outset, but Mr. Chandler took
-prompt and successful measures to assure the President that, if
-the plans of its projectors were carried out, the committee would
-be used only to strengthen the hands of the Executive, and
-promised that it should be made a help and not a hindrance to
-the vigorous prosecution of the war. On this point the Hon.
-James M. Edmunds, who was thoroughly informed as to the
-secret history of that period, has said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The writer knows that the Administration was not without fear that this
-was an unfriendly measure. A member of the Cabinet expressed such fears<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
-to him, and said that the President had not only expressed doubts as to the
-wisdom of the movement, but also fears that the committee might, by
-unfriendly action, greatly embarrass the Executive. On being told by the
-writer that the measure was not so intended, but, on the contrary, that it was
-the intention of the mover to bring the committee to the aid of the Administration,
-he expressed much gratification, and said it was of the utmost
-importance to bring such purpose to the knowledge of the President in some
-authoritative way, and at the earliest moment possible. This conversation was
-at once reported to Senator Chandler, whereupon both he and Senator Wade
-went immediately to the President and the Secretary of War, and assured
-them that it was their purpose to bring the whole power of the committee to
-the aid of the Executive. From this moment the most cordial relations existed
-between the committee and the Administration.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p></blockquote>
-
-<p>President Lincoln and Secretaries Cameron and Stanton ultimately
-placed great reliance upon the committee, and constantly,
-throughout the war, it gave them the most valuable assistance.
-Mr. Wade and Mr. Chandler were deeper in the confidence of
-Secretary Stanton, from their connection with it, than were any
-other members of Congress, and differences of aim and opinion
-between them were exceedingly rare.</p>
-
-<p>Upon organizing for work the committee found itself confronted
-with an enormous task, inquiries into every phase of the
-organization and management of the Union armies being referred
-to it for consideration. "Upon the conduct of the war," to quote
-from its own report, "depended the issue of the experiment
-inaugurated by our fathers, after the expenditure of so much
-blood and treasure&mdash;the establishment of a nation founded
-upon the capacity of man for self-government. The nation
-was engaged in a struggle for its existence; a rebellion,
-unparalleled in history, threatened the overthrow of our free
-institutions, and the most prompt and vigorous measures were
-demanded by every consideration of honor, patriotism, and a
-due regard for the prosperity and happiness of the people."
-And its sphere of duty was the constant watching of the details<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
-of movements, upon whose result depended such vast interests, as
-well as the safety of thousands of lives. The committee, in laying
-out its work, followed the suggestion of Mr. Chandler, which
-was, first, to obtain such information in respect to the conduct
-of the war as would best enable them to point out the mistakes
-which had been made in the past, and the course that promised
-to ensure the avoidance of their repetition; second, to collect
-such information as the many and laborious duties of the President
-and Secretary of War prevented them from obtaining, and
-to lay it before them with those recommendations and suggestions
-which the circumstances seemed to demand. Working
-in such a field, the committee soon became a second Cabinet
-council, and its proceedings were constantly at the President's
-hand. Its sessions were nearly perpetual, and almost daily its
-members were in consultation with the President or the Secretary
-of War. Many of its transactions were never committed to
-paper, and, as the members were sworn to the strictest secrecy,
-will never be revealed. Secretary Stanton was frequently present
-while the committee was in session, and its door was always
-open to him. There was never any lack of harmony between
-him and its chief members, but, on the contrary, the utmost confidence
-was exchanged, and this committee was the right arm
-of the War Department in the darkest days of the rebellion.
-Repeatedly, after the examination of some important witness,
-did Mr. Chandler or Mr. Wade go at once to the White House
-with the official stenographer, when Mr. Stanton would be sent
-for and the stenographic notes of the evidence would be read to
-the President and Secretary of War for their information and
-guidance. From such conferences there sprang many important
-decisions, and the files and records of the committee were constantly
-referred to and relied upon as sources of exceedingly
-useful knowledge and hints both at the White House and at the
-War Department.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Many subjects presented themselves for investigation, any
-one of which would, in ordinary times, have required the exclusive
-attention of a separate committee, and to follow out every
-line of inquiry suggested was manifestly a practical impossibility.
-Therefore the committee decided not to undertake any investigations
-into what might be considered side issues, but to keep
-their attention directed entirely to the essential features of the
-war, so that they could ascertain and comprehend the necessities
-of the armies and the causes of disaster or complaint, and
-the methods of supplying the one and remedying the other.
-Attempts were made repeatedly to use its power to punish enemies
-or to avenge private grievances, but its members adhered resolutely
-to the straightforward course originally marked out as the
-path of its duty.</p>
-
-<p>The first subject which the committee carefully inquired into
-was the defeat at Bull Run. Many witnesses were examined,
-chiefly officers who were engaged in the battle&mdash;Generals Scott,
-McDowell, Meigs, Heintzelman, Butterfield, Fitz-John Porter,
-and others. The testimony was very voluminous, but the committee
-reached an early and unanimous opinion as to the causes
-of the disaster. Their report, written by Mr. Wade, said: "That
-which now appears to have been the great error was the
-failure to occupy Centreville and Manassas at the time Alexandria
-was occupied, in May. The position at Manassas
-controlled the railroad connections in all that section of the
-country.... The next cause of disaster was the delay in
-proceeding against the enemy until the time of the three
-months' men was nearly expired. The enemy were allowed
-time to collect their forces and strengthen their position by
-defensive works.... There had been but little time
-devoted to disciplining the troops and instructing them, even
-in regiments; hardly any instruction had been given them in
-brigade movements, and none at all as divisions." General<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
-McDowell prepared a plan of campaign, which was approved by
-the Cabinet, and the 9th of July was fixed upon as the day for
-the advance; but the movement did not commence until a week
-later than the appointed time. Transportation was deficient, and
-there was much delay resulting from lack of discipline among
-the troops, and when the battle came the Union forces were
-fatigued and not in good fighting condition. "But," said the
-report, "the principal cause of the defeat was the failure of
-General Patterson to hold the troops of General Johnston in
-the valley of the Shenandoah." Patterson had 23,000 men,
-while Johnston had but 12,000. Still, Patterson disobeyed the
-orders of General Scott, which were to make offensive demonstrations
-against General Johnston so as to detain his army at
-Winchester, and if he retreated to follow him and keep up the
-fight. Those orders were repeated every day for more than a
-week in the telegraphic correspondence between Scott and Patterson.
-Finally, General Scott heard of a large force moving from
-Patterson's front, and telegraphed, "Has not the enemy stolen a
-march on you?" To this Patterson replied, "The enemy has
-stolen no march upon me," while at that very time his large
-army was watching an empty camp and Johnston was far on his
-way to reinforce the rebels at Manassas. Patterson did not discover
-that Johnston had gone until he was miles distant, and
-the consequence was that McDowell had both Beauregard and
-Johnston to fight, while Patterson, with 23,000 men, was lying
-idle in his camp. This is the substance of the report of the
-Committee on the Conduct of the War on the battle of Bull
-Run, and was the official announcement to the country of the
-inefficiency of the organization and generalship of the Army
-of the Potomac.</p>
-
-<p>But before the committee was organized the men who were
-responsible for this failure had been displaced, and General
-McClellan had been made the commander-in-chief. He had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
-taken the reins of authority amid national acclamations, and was
-then at the height of a remarkable popularity, which it is now
-known was adroitly stimulated for political purposes by the conservative
-press. But on the investigation into the second subject
-taken up by the committee (the disaster at Edward's Ferry or
-Ball's Bluff) facts came to the knowledge of its members which
-created the suspicion in their minds that General Stone, who
-was charged with the blame of that defeat, and who, as the
-scape-goat, was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette, was
-not alone responsible for the calamity, but that the real fault
-would be found higher up. This suspicion they were never able
-to substantiate by absolute proof, and it was not expressed in
-any of their reports.</p>
-
-<p>The third topic taken up by the committee was the military
-management of the Western Department, under General Fremont.
-This was an inquiry of special importance, for the reason that
-that officer, upon taking command at St. Louis, issued a proclamation
-declaring free all slaves whose masters were engaged in
-rebellion against the United States. This order caused a great
-excitement throughout the country, and the Republican party
-was widely divided in opinion as to its legality and propriety.
-President Lincoln was conservative on the question, and revoked
-the Fremont order, much to the disappointment of Mr. Chandler
-and the other more "advanced" Republicans. Hence the
-committee approached the subject with unusual interest, and,
-after a thorough investigation, made an elaborate report. That
-part of this document which relates to General Fremont's order
-in regard to slaves was signed by Messrs. Wade, Chandler, Julian,
-and Covode, and showed the ground on which these gentlemen
-then stood with regard to emancipation; it was as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>But that feature of General Fremont's administration which attracted the
-most attention, and which will ever be most prominent among the many
-points of interest connected with the history of that department, is his procla<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>mation
-of emancipation. Whatever opinion may be entertained with reference
-to the time when the policy of emancipation should be inaugurated, there can
-be no doubt that General Fremont at that early day rightly judged in regard
-to the most effective means of subduing this rebellion. In proof of that, it is
-only necessary to state that his successor, when transferred to another department,
-issued a proclamation embodying the same principle, and the President
-of the United States has since applied the same principle to all the rebellious
-States; and few will deny that it must be adhered to until the last vestige of
-treason and rebellion is destroyed.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The committee heartily endorsed General Fremont's administration,
-declaring it to have been "eminently characterized by
-earnestness, ability, and the most unquestionable loyalty." They
-also examined into various minor military matters and movements,
-including, particularly, rebel barbarities and the return of
-slaves to their masters by the army.</p>
-
-<p>It was as a member of the Committee on the Conduct of
-the War in the Thirty-seventh Congress, and from the evidence
-taken in its inquiries, that Mr. Chandler obtained the mass of
-information which enabled him to make the most important of
-his war speeches, that of July 16, 1862, in which he exposed so
-conclusively General McClellan's utter incompetence. Ample as
-was the foundation of facts upon which rested this effective
-arraignment of conspicuous incapacity, the attack was one requiring
-genuine boldness, for it defiantly invited a storm of
-denunciation and, if it had failed of justification by the event,
-would have certainly ended its maker's political career. Notwithstanding
-his tardiness, his timidity, his inefficiency as a
-commander in the field, and his political sympathy with the
-more unpatriotic classes of the Northern people, General McClellan
-was still strong with the people and entrusted with great
-powers. The Democracy warmly commended his sentiments and
-methods, and labored incessantly to prevent any diminution of
-his hold upon the public confidence. The Army of the Potomac
-yet regarded him as "the young Napoleon," and its corps commanders
-were, with but few exceptions, his personal adherents.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
-The long-suffering President was submitting with patience to
-his unjust complaints, after having labored incessantly to stimulate
-into activity his chronic sluggishness, fearful, with characteristic
-over-caution, lest his summary removal should divide the
-North and breed a dangerous disaffection in the face of the
-enemy among his troops. Many who did not believe in the
-sincerity or ability of the man also smothered their distrust, for
-fear that criticism would only weaken the common cause and
-with the hope that even in his nerveless hands the mighty
-weapon of the national resources would at last fall&mdash;even if by
-its own weight only&mdash;on the enemy with decisive force. At
-this juncture, and under these circumstances, Mr. Chandler, with
-characteristic vigor of statement and plainness of speech, placed
-before the Senate and the country the demonstration of McClellan's
-imbecility.</p>
-
-<p>Originally Mr. Chandler believed that McClellan's selection
-as the practical successor of General Scott was a wise one, and
-hoped to see his organizing capacity in camp supplemented by
-enterprise and courage in the field. Distrust first sprang up with
-the persistent inaction of the Army of the Potomac throughout
-the last months of 1861, and it was strengthened by contact
-with the man himself and the study of his character and his
-plans. An illustration of how this change of opinion was brought
-about is given in an incident which occurred in the room of the
-Committee on the Conduct of the War. That committee sent
-for General McClellan as soon as they took up matters relating
-to his command, in order to consult with him informally as to
-the situation. This was in January, 1861, while he was in
-Washington "organizing" his army, and while there was no
-little impatience felt because he did not move. He was not
-formally summoned before the committee then, but simply called
-in for general consultation. After the regular business was
-finished, Mr. Chandler asked him bluntly why he did not attack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
-the rebels. General McClellan replied that it was because there
-were not sufficient means of communication with Washington;
-he then called attention to the fact that there were only two
-bridges and no other means of transportation across the Potomac.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler asked what the number of bridges had to do
-with an advance movement, and McClellan explained with much
-detail that it was one of the most important features of skillful
-strategy that a commander should have plenty of room to retreat
-before making an attack. To this Mr. Chandler's response was:</p>
-
-<p>"General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before
-you strike at the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room
-so that you can run in case they strike back!"</p>
-
-<p>"Or in case you get scared," added Senator Wade.</p>
-
-<p>The commander of the Army of the Potomac manifested
-indignation at this blunt way of putting the case, and then proceeded
-at length to explain the art of war and the science of
-generalship, laying special stress upon the necessity of having
-lines of retreat, as well as lines of communication and supply,
-always open. He labored hard to make clear all the methods
-and counter-methods upon which campaigns are managed and
-battles fought, and, as he was an accomplished master of the
-theory of war, succeeded in rendering himself at least interesting.
-After he had concluded, Mr. Wade said:</p>
-
-<p>"General, you have all the troops you have called for, and
-if you haven't enough, you shall have more. They are well
-organized and equipped, and the loyal people of this country
-expect that you will make a short and decisive campaign. Is
-it really necessary for you to have more bridges over the Potomac
-before you move?"</p>
-
-<p>"Not that," was the answer, "not that exactly, but we must
-bear in mind the necessity of having everything ready in case
-of a defeat, and keep our lines of retreat open."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>With this remark General McClellan left the room, whereupon
-Mr. Wade asked:</p>
-
-<p>"Chandler, what do you think of the science of generalship?"</p>
-
-<p>"I don't know much about war," was the reply, "but it
-seems to me that this is infernal, unmitigated cowardice."</p>
-
-<p>The committee, after this interview, made a careful inquiry
-into the strength of the rebel forces confronting the elaborate
-intrenchments about Washington, and became convinced that the
-army at and about Manassas was a handful compared with the
-magnificent body of troops under McClellan's command. They
-submitted these facts to the President and his Cabinet at a
-special session held for that purpose, and urged the importance
-of an instant advance. With one single exception (a Cabinet
-officer) the heads of the departments and the committee agreed
-that an offensive movement from the line of the Potomac into
-Virginia was important and must be made. General McClellan
-promised that his army should start, but it did not. Toward the
-close of the winter the President ordered a general advance, but
-the Army of the Potomac still remained immobile. Finally, on
-March 10, under the peremptory orders of the President, it did
-advance to Centreville and found there deserted camps, wooden
-guns, weak intrenchments, and traces of the retreat of not more
-than a single full corps of rebel troops. It was during this most
-aggravating delay that members of the committee had another
-characteristic interview with General McClellan. On the 19th of
-February a sub-committee waited upon the Secretary of War<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> to
-ask why the army was idle, and why the city of Washington
-and the North side of the Potomac river were crowded with
-troops when the enemy was all in Virginia. Mr. Wade said
-that it was a disgrace to the nation that Washington was thus
-allowed to remain to all intents and purposes in a state of siege
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
-To this Secretary Stanton replied that the committee could not
-feel more keenly upon this subject than did he, that he did not
-go to bed at night without his cheek burning with shame at this
-disgrace, and that the subject had received his earnest attention,
-but he had not been able to change the situation as he wished.
-General McClellan was then sent for, and Secretary Stanton
-stated to him the object of the visit, and repeated the inquiries
-as to why an advance movement was not made into Virginia,
-the rebels driven away from Washington, and the soldiers who
-were idle in their camps in and around the city sent to active
-duty.</p>
-
-<p>General McClellan answered that he was considering the
-matter, but that instant action was impossible, although he hoped
-that he would soon be able to decide what ought to be done.
-The committee asked what time he would require to reach a
-decision. He replied that it depended upon circumstances; that
-he would not give his consent to have the troops about Washington
-sent over to the Virginia side of the Potomac without
-having their rear protected more fully, and better lines of retreat
-open; that he designed throwing a temporary bridge across the
-river as soon as possible, and making a permanent structure of
-it at his leisure. That would make three bridges, and then the
-requisite precautions would be completed.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Wade replied, with great impatience, that with 150,000
-of the best troops the world ever saw, there was no need of
-more bridges; that the rebels were inferior in numbers and condition,
-and that retreat would be treason. "These 150,000 men,"
-Mr. Wade said, "could whip the whole Confederacy if they were
-given a chance; if I was their commander I would lead them
-across the Potomac, and they should not come back until they
-had won a victory and the war was ended, or they came in
-their coffins." Mr. Wade spoke strongly and plainly throughout
-the interview, and the Secretary of War endorsed every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
-word he uttered. The committee had another conference with
-Secretary Stanton on the following day at his residence, at which
-it was decided that they should co-operate with him in an effort
-to persuade President Lincoln either to displace McClellan or to
-compel him to commence an active campaign at once. On the
-25th of February this conference with the President was held,
-and it was followed by others, Senators Chandler and Wade
-finally threatening to make the laggardness of the commander of
-the Army of the Potomac a subject of debate in the Senate,
-and to offer a resolution directing the President to order an
-advance forthwith. The first result was what the committee
-were so anxious to accomplish. In March, the armies commenced
-to move, and McClellan, at last taking the field in person, pushed
-out to Centreville, and then followed up this delayed advance
-by his flank movement to the Peninsula, driving the rebels out
-of Yorktown by a month's work with the shovel, and following
-General Johnston up to Williamsburg, where a bloody victory
-was won, but its fruits were left ungathered. This campaign
-was short, bloody, and blundering, ending with the battle of
-Malvern Hill, which was also deprived of its proper importance
-by McClellan's failure to follow up his advantage with a prompt
-advance upon Richmond, and which thus in the end amounted
-to but little more than another Union reverse. Mr. Chandler
-always firmly believed that had McClellan moved toward the
-rebel capital and not toward his gunboats after Malvern Hill,
-the war would have been shortened by two years.</p>
-
-<p>When it first became evident that General McClellan was,
-by sullenness and incapacity, throwing away advantages gained
-by the heroism of his troops on the Peninsula, Mr. Chandler
-determined to denounce him on the floor of the Senate, but was
-restrained by Mr. Stanton, who urged that, while the campaign
-was still in active progress, there was yet some hope of a change
-for the better, and that to destroy confidence in a commanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
-officer under such circumstances might injure the army in the
-field. After Malvern Hill these reasons ceased to have force,
-and Mr. Chandler commenced the careful preparation of his
-speech. This time the Secretary of War endorsed the timeliness
-as well as the truth of the <em>expose</em>, and the Committee on the
-Conduct of the War by formal vote authorized the use of the
-testimony taken before it and not yet made public. After he
-had gathered and grouped the facts which formed the basis of
-his arraignment, Mr. Chandler submitted them to a friend upon
-whose good judgment and sincerity he greatly relied, and asked:</p>
-
-<p>"Knowing all these facts, as I do, what is my duty?"</p>
-
-<p>The answer was: "Beyond all question, these facts ought
-to be laid before the country, for the knowledge of them is
-essential to its safety. But they will create a storm that will
-sweep either you or McClellan from public life, and it is more
-than probable that you will be the victim."</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler said: "I did not ask your opinion of the
-consequences, but of my duty."</p>
-
-<p>To this it was replied: "The speech ought to be made, and
-no one else will make it."</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler simply said: "It will be made to-day; come
-and hear it." And he did make it, in the midst of a running
-discussion on a bill "to provide for the discharge of state
-prisoners and others," which was the special order in the Senate
-for that day (July 16, 1862).</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler commenced by briefly reciting the history of
-the appointment of the committee, and then gave from the
-evidence taken at its sessions a compact summary of the causes
-of the Bull Run disaster, fortifying each point with citations
-from the testimony. After closing this part of his speech he
-proceeded to review the Ball's Bluff catastrophe, saying:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Were the people discouraged, depressed? Not at all. Untold thousands
-rushed into the shattered ranks, eager to wipe out the stain and stigma of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
-that defeat (Bull Run). From the East, the West, the North, and the Middle
-States, thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands came
-pouring in, until the government said, "Hold, enough." The Army of the
-Potomac, denuded in August of three-months' men and scarcely numbering
-50,000 efficient men, swelled in September to over 100,000, in October to
-150,000, in November to 175,000 and upward, until, on the 10th day of
-December, the morning rolls showed 195,400 men, and thirteen regiments
-not reported, chiefly intended for the Burnside expedition, but all under
-the command of General McClellan. During the months of October, November,
-and December, the weather was delightful and the roads fine. The
-question began to be asked in October, when will the advance take place?
-All had the most unbounded confidence in the army and its young general,
-and were anxiously waiting for a Napoleonic stroke. It came, but
-such a stroke! That a general movement was being prepared the whole
-country had known for weeks; but when the terrific blow was to be struck
-no one knew save the commander of the Army of the Potomac. The nation
-believed in its young commander; the President relied upon him, and all,
-myself included, had the most unbounded confidence in the result of the
-intended movement. It came! On the 21st of October, McCall's division,
-12,000 strong, was ordered to Drainesville upon a reconnoissance. Smith's
-division, 12,000 strong, was ordered to support him. McCall's reconnoissance
-extended four miles beyond Drainesville, and to within nine miles of Leesburg.
-Stone, on Sunday, was informed of McCall's and Smith's advance, and directed
-to make a slight demonstration upon Leesburg. How? He could do it in
-but one way, and that was by crossing the river and moving upon it. [Mr.
-Chandler here introduced a mass of testimony and official orders to show that
-Col. E. D. Baker, whom General Stone sent across the Potomac at Ball's
-Bluff, had ample reasons to believe that he would be sustained in that advance,
-and reinforced if necessary. He proceeded:] Thus it is shown that Colonel
-Baker had reason to expect reinforcements, for the enemy were to be pushed
-upon their flank by General Gorman.</p>
-
-<p>At two o'clock on Monday morning Colonel Devens crossed the river upon
-a reconnoissance with 400 men at Ball's Bluff, opposite Harrison's Island, as
-directed by General Stone. At daylight Colonel Baker was ordered to cross
-to the support of Colonel Devens. I have read his orders. One scow and
-two small boats were their only means of transportation. At eight o'clock on
-Monday morning the fight commenced by Colonel Devens, and Colonel Baker
-was placed in command, as is alleged, with discretionary orders. Colonel
-Baker knew that Smith and McCall were at Drainesville, or within striking
-distance, that our troops were crossing at Edward's Ferry, or, in other words,
-that 40,000 effective men were within twelve miles of him, and that at least
-30,000 were upon the Virginia side of the Potomac, and that, in the nature of
-things, he must be reinforced. He did not know that at half-past ten A.M.,
-of Monday, or two and one-half hours after Colonel Devens commenced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
-fight, the divisions of Smith and McCall commenced their retreat by the
-express orders of General McClellan. He knew that Colonel Devens was contending
-with greatly superior forces, and, like a gallant soldier as he was, he
-hastened to his relief with all the force he could cross with his inadequate
-means of transportation.</p>
-
-<p>Colonel Baker has been charged with imprudence and rashness; but
-neither the facts nor the testimony support the charge. Instead of rashly or
-imprudently advancing into the enemy's lines, as was alleged, he did not move
-ten rods from the Bluff, and the only sustaining witness to this charge was
-one officer, who swore that he thought Colonel Baker imprudently exposed
-himself to the enemy's bullets. This kind of rashness is usually pardoned
-after the death of the perpetrator. At two o'clock <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> Colonel Baker found
-himself in command of about 1,800 men upon Ball's Bluff, including Devens's
-men and three guns, and the fighting commenced. The alternatives were fight
-and conquer, surrender, or be captured. That noble band of heroes and their
-gallant commander understood these terrible alternatives as well upon that
-bloody field as we do now, and nobly did they vindicate their manhood.
-During all those long hours, from two o'clock <span class="smcap">P. M.</span> until the early dusk of
-evening, the gallant Baker continued the unequal contest, when he fell pierced
-by three bullets and instantly expired. A council of war was called (after
-the frightful death-struggle over his lifeless remains and for them), and it
-was decided that the only chance of an escape was by cutting through the
-enemy and reaching Edward's Ferry, which was at once decided upon; but,
-while forming for the desperate encounter, the enemy rushed upon our little
-band of heroes in overpowering numbers, and the rout was perfect....
-How many were killed in battle, how many drowned in the relentless river,
-will never be correctly known; suffice it to say, our little force was destroyed.
-Why was this little band permitted to be destroyed by a force little more
-than double its numbers in presence of 40,000 splendid troops? Why were
-McCall and Smith ordered back at the very moment that Baker was ordered
-to cross? If we wanted Leesburg, McCall could have taken it without the
-loss of a man, as his movement in mass had already caused its evacuation,
-and the enemy did not return in force until after McCall had retreated. If
-we did not wish to capture Leesburg, why did we cross at all? Of what use
-is "a slight demonstration" even, without results? These are questions which
-the people will ask, and no man can satisfactorily answer. Why were not
-reinforcements sent from Edward's Ferry to Colonel Baker? The distance
-was only three-and-a-half miles. We had 1,500 men across at two o'clock
-on Monday, and the universal concurrent testimony of officers and men is that
-a reinforcement of even 1,000 men&mdash;some say 500, and one gallant captain
-swears that with 100 men he could have struck them upon the flank,&mdash;would
-have changed the result of the day. Why were not reinforcements
-sent? Stone swears, as I have already shown, that there were batteries
-between Edward's Ferry and Ball's Bluff which would have utterly destroyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
-any force he could have sent to Baker's relief, and that Baker knew it. But
-Stone was not sustained by a single witness; on the contrary, all swear that
-there were not, to their knowledge, and that they did not believe there were
-any, and a civilian living upon the spot, and in the habit of passing over the
-ground frequently, swears there were none; and again, Stone, when questioned
-as to the erection of forts under the range of his guns upon his second
-examination, swears positively that there is not a gun now between Edward's
-Ferry and Ball's Bluff, and never has been. Why, then, were not reinforcements
-sent from Edward's Ferry? Let the men who executed and planned this
-horrible slaughter answer to God and an outraged country. General Banks
-swears that his orders were such from General McClellan, that, upon his arrival
-at Edward's Ferry, although his judgment was against crossing, he did not
-feel himself at liberty to decline crossing, and he remained upon the Virginia
-side until Thursday.... So much for the wholesale murder at Ball's
-Bluff.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler next attacked General McClellan's disastrous
-procrastination. Describing the lapse of an army of 150,000
-men into a state of chronic inaction in its intrenchments about
-Washington after the Ball's Bluff disaster, he laid before the
-Senate and the country documents which proved these facts: In
-October, 1861, the Navy Department requested that 4,000 men
-might be detailed to hold Matthias Point on the lower Potomac,
-after the gunboats should have shelled out the rebels, who were
-then in possession, and thus in control of the navigation of
-that important river. General McClellan agreed to furnish the
-infantry; twice the Navy Department prepared its vessels for the
-expedition, but the troops did not report for duty, so that, finally,
-the gunboats were necessarily detailed for other service, and the
-unnecessary, expensive and humiliating blockade of the Potomac
-continued for months. Mr. Chandler then proceeded:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Why was this disgrace so long submitted to? No man knows or attempts
-to explain. Month after month one of the most splendid armies the world
-had ever seen, of 200,000 men, permitted itself and the national capital to be
-besieged by a force <em>never</em> exceeding one-half its own number.</p>
-
-<p>During the month of December, the nation became impatient. The time
-had arrived and passed when we were promised a forward movement. The
-roads were good, the weather splendid, the army in high condition, and eager
-for the fray. How long the roads and weather would permit the movement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
-no man could predict; still there was no movement. The generals, with great
-unanimity, declared that the army had reached its maximum of proficiency
-as volunteers, but still there was no movement. Under these circumstances,
-the Committee on the Conduct of the War asked an interview with the President
-and Cabinet, and urged that the winter should not be permitted to pass
-without action, as it would lead to an incalculable loss of life and treasure by
-forcing our brave troops into a summer campaign, in a hot and to them
-inhospitable climate. The President and Cabinet were united in the desire
-that an immediate advance should be made, but it was not made, although
-we were assured by General McClellan that it would be very soon, that he
-had no intention of going into winter quarters, and he did not! While the
-enemy erected comfortable huts at Centreville and Manassas for their winter
-quarters, our brave and eager troops spent the most uncomfortable winter ever
-known in this climate under canvas, as thousands and tens of thousands of
-invalid soldiers throughout the length and breadth of the land will attest.
-Why did not the army move in all December, or why did it not go into
-winter quarters? No man knows, nor is any reason assigned.</p>
-
-<p>On the 1st day of January, 1862, and for months previous to that date,
-the armies of the republic were occupying a purely defensive position upon
-the whole line from Missouri to the Atlantic, until on or about the 27th
-of January the President and Secretary of War issued the order forward.
-Then the brave Foote took the initiative, soliciting 2,000 men from Halleck to
-hold Fort Henry after he had captured it with his gunboats. They were
-promptly furnished, and Henry fell; then Donelson, with its 15,000 prisoners;
-then Newbern, and the country was electrified. Credit was given where credit
-was due. Do-nothing strategy gave way to an "immediate advance upon the
-enemy's works," and the days of spades and pickaxes seemed to be ended.
-On the 22d of February a forward movement upon our whole line was
-ordered, but did not take place. The Army of the Potomac was not ready;
-but on the 10th of March it moved, against the protest of the commanding
-general and eight out of twelve of the commanders of divisions; but the President
-was inexorable, and the movement must be made. It proceeded to
-Centreville, and there found deserted huts, wooden artillery, and intrenchments
-which could and can be successfully charged by cavalry. It proceeded
-to Manassas, and found no fortifications worthy of the name, a deserted, abandoned
-camp, and dead horses for trophies. The enemy, less than 40,000 men,
-had leisurely escaped, carrying away all their artillery, baggage, arms, and
-stores. Our Army of the Potomac, on that 10th day of March, showed by
-its muster-roll a force of 230,000 men. Comment is needless! The Grand
-Army of the Potomac proceeded toward Gordonsville, found no enemy,
-repaired the railroad, and then marched back again.</p>
-
-<p>Why this Grand Army of the Potomac did not march upon Richmond has
-never been satisfactorily explained, and probably never will be. One reason
-assigned was lack of transportation; but there were two railroads, one by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
-way of Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, the other via Manassas and Gordonsville,
-which could have been repaired at the rate of ten miles per day,
-and our army was ample to guard it. Had this overwhelming force proceeded
-directly to Richmond by these lines, it would have spent the 1st day of May
-in Richmond, and ere this the rebellion would have been ended. This grand
-army, <em>ably</em> commanded, was superior to any army the world has seen for five
-hundred years. Napoleon I. never fought 130,000 men upon one battle-field.
-Yet this noble army was divided and virtually sacrificed by some one. Who
-is the culprit?</p>
-
-<p>Before the advance upon Manassas, General McClellan changed his plans,
-and demanded to be permitted to leave the enemy intrenched at Centreville
-and Manassas; to leave the Potomac blockaded, and to take his army to
-Annapolis by land, and there embark them for the rear of the enemy to
-surprise him. In the council of war called upon this proposition, the commanding
-general and eight out of twelve of the commanders of divisions (and
-here permit me to say that I am informed that seven out of the eight generals
-were appointed upon the recommendation of General McClellan) voted that it
-was not safe to advance upon the wooden guns of Centreville, and to adopt
-the new plan of campaign. The President and the Secretary of War overruled
-this pusillanimous decision, and compelled McClellan to "move immediately
-upon the enemy's works." He marched, and the trophies of that
-memorable campaign are known to the Senate and the country.</p>
-
-<p>At Fairfax, General McClellan changed his plan and decided not to
-advance upon the rebels with his whole force, but to return to Alexandria,
-divide his army, and embark for Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. It was
-decided that 45,000 men should be left for the defense of the capital, and he
-was permitted to embark. After much delay (unavoidable in the movement of
-so vast a force, with its enormous material) the general-in-chief himself
-embarked. Soon after he sailed it came to the knowledge of the Committee
-on the Conduct of the War that the capital, with its vast accumulation of
-material of war, had been left by General McClellan virtually without defense,
-and the enemy's whole force, large or small, was untouched in front. [Mr.
-Chandler here introduced the official testimony to prove that General McClellan
-had so denuded Washington as to compel the President to interpose and
-detain General McDowell's corps for its adequate defense. He then said:]
-The country has been deceived. It has been led to believe that the Secretary
-of War or somebody else has interfered with General McClellan's plans, when
-he had an army that could have crushed any other army on the face of the
-earth. One hundred and fifty-eight thousand of the best troops that ever
-stood on God's footstool were sent down to the Peninsula and placed under
-command of General McClellan; and yet the whole treasonable press of the
-country has been howling after the Secretary of War because of his alleged
-refusal to send reinforcements to General McClellan. As I said the other day,
-he has sent every man, every sabre, every bayonet, every horse, that could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
-be spared from any source whatever to increase that grand army under
-General McClellan in front of Richmond. Why did he not enter Richmond?
-We shall see.... It is not for me, sir, to state the strength of
-McClellan's army at this time; but I know it is 158,000 men, less the number
-lost by sickness and casualties. Does any man doubt that this army, ably
-handled, was sufficiently strong to have captured Richmond and crushed
-the rebel army? I think not, if promptly led against the enemy; but instead
-of that, it sat down in malarious swamps and awaited the drafting, arming,
-drilling, and making soldiers of an army to fight it, and in the meantime our
-own army was rapidly wasting away. Unwholesome water, inadequate food,
-overwork, and sleeping in marshes, were rapidly filling the hospitals, and
-overloading the return boats with the sick. Sir, we have lost more men by
-the spade than the bullet, five to one, since the army started from Yorktown
-under McClellan. Had the soldiers been relieved from digging and menial
-labor by the substitution of negro laborers, the Army of the Potomac would
-to-day, in my estimation, contain 30,000 more brave and efficient soldiers than
-it does. Had it been relieved from guarding the property of rebels in arms,
-many valuable lives would have been saved. Yorktown was evacuated after a
-sacrifice of more men by sickness than the enemy had in their works when our
-army landed at Fortress Monroe. The battle of Williamsburg was fought by a
-small fraction of our army, and the enemy routed. During the battle, General
-McClellan wrote a dispatch, miles from the field of battle, saying he should
-try to "hold them in check" there.... He would try to "hold them in
-check!" He could not hold them. He could not stop his eager troops from
-chasing them. After a small fraction of his army had whipped their entire
-force and had been chasing them for hours, he penned that dispatch and sent
-it to the Secretary of War, and, if I remember aright, it was read in one of
-the two houses of Congress. As you may suppose from that dispatch, there
-was no great eagerness in following up that victory. Three Michigan regiments
-were not only decimated, they were divided in twain, in that bloody
-battle at Williamsburg. They fought there all day without reinforcements.
-One Michigan regiment went into the trenches and left sixty-three dead
-rebels, killed by the bayonet, weltering in their blood. But who has ever
-heard, by any official communication from the head of the army, that a Michigan
-regiment was in the fight at Williamsburg? I do not blame him for not
-giving credit where credit is due, for I do not believe he knew anything more
-of that fight than you or I.</p>
-
-<p>When that battle was fought and won, all the enemy's works were cleared
-away, and we had an open road to Richmond. There was not a single fortification
-between Richmond and Williamsburg. All we had to do was to get
-through those infernal swamps, march up, and take possession of Richmond.
-What did we do? We found the worst swamp there was between Richmond
-and Williamsburg, and sat right down in the center of it and went to digging.
-We sacrificed thousands and tens of thousands of the bravest troops that ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
-stood on the face of God's earth, digging in front of no intrenchments, and
-before a whipped army of the enemy. We waited for them to recruit; we
-waited for them to get another army. They had a levy <i lang="fr">en masse</i>. They were
-taking all the men and boys between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five, and
-magnanimously we waited weeks and weeks and weeks for them to bring
-these forced levies into some sort of consistency as an army. The battle of
-Fair Oaks was fought. There the enemy found again a little fraction of our
-army, very much less than half, and they brought out their entire force. I
-have it from the best authority that they had not a solitary regiment in or
-about Richmond that was fit to put in front of an enemy that they did not
-bring to Fair Oaks and hurl upon our decimated army. Again the indomitable
-bravery of our troops (of the men, of private soldiers, the indomitable
-energy of Michigan men and New Jersey men&mdash;but I will not particularize,
-for all the troops fought like lions), and the fighting capacity of our
-army not only saved it from being utterly destroyed by an overwhelming
-force, but gave us a triumphant victory. The enemy went back to Richmond
-pell-mell. I have been informed by a man who was there at the time, that
-two brigades of fresh troops could have chased the whole Confederate army
-through the city of Richmond and into the James river, so utter was their
-rout and confusion.</p>
-
-<p>And what did we do then? We found another big swamp, and we sat
-down in the center of it and went to digging. We began to throw up
-intrenchments when there were no intrenchments in our front, no enemy that
-was not utterly broken. We never took advantage of the battle of Fair Oaks.
-Again Michigan soldiers were cut to pieces by hundreds. Go into the Judiciary
-square hospital in this city, and you will find more than half the occupants
-are Michigan men who were shot at Fair Oaks and Williamsburg, men
-who stood until a regiment of 1,000 men was reduced to 105, and even then
-did not run. Sir, these men have been sacrificed, uselessly sacrificed. They
-have been put to hard digging, and hard fare, and hard sleeping, and if there
-was any hard fighting to do they have been put to that; and, besides all
-this, at night they have had to guard the property of rebels in arms. They
-have been so sacrificed that two or three of the Michigan regiments to-day
-cannot bring into the field 250 men each out of 1,000 with whom they started.</p>
-
-<p>Fair Oaks was lost; that is to say, we won a brilliant victory, but it did
-us no good; we did not take advantage of it. Of course it would have been
-very unfair to take advantage of a routed army [laughter]; it would not
-have been according to our "strategy." We magnanimously stopped, and
-commenced digging. There was no army in our front, there were no
-intrenchments in our front; but we did not know what else to do, and so we
-began to dig and ditch, and we kept digging and ditching until the rebels had
-impressed and drilled and armed and made soldiers of their entire population.
-But that was not enough; they sent Jackson up on his raid to Winchester,
-and we waited for him to come back with his twenty or thirty thousand men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
-We heard that Corinth was being evacuated, and of course it would have
-been very unfair to commence an attack until they brought their troops from
-Corinth, and so we waited for the army at Corinth to get to Richmond.
-After the rebels had got all the troops they ever hoped to raise from any
-source, we did not attack them, but they attacked us, as we had reason to
-suppose they would. They attacked our right wing, and, as I am informed
-upon what I must deem reliable authority, they hurled the majority of their
-entire force upon our right wing of 30,000 men, and during the whole of that
-Thursday our right wing of 30,000 men held their ground, and repulsed that
-vast horde of the enemy over and over again, and held their ground at night.
-Of course you will say a reinforcement of twenty or thirty thousand men was
-sent to these brave troops that they might not only hold their ground the
-next day, but send this dastardly army into Richmond a second time, as at
-Fair Oaks. No, sir, nothing of the sort was done.</p>
-
-<p>At night, instead of sending them reinforcements, they were ordered to
-retreat. That was "strategy!" The moment they commenced their retreat, as
-is said in the dispatches, the enemy fought like demons. Of course they
-would. Who ever heard of a retreating army that was not pursued by the
-victors like demons, except in the case of rebel retreats? No other nation
-but ours was ever guilty of stopping immediately after a victory. Other
-armies fight like demons after a victory, and annihilate the enemy, but we
-do not. Our left wing and center remained intact. A feint was made upon
-the left and center, and I have here, not the sworn testimony, but the statement
-of one of the bravest men in the whole Army of the Potomac&mdash;I will
-not give his name, but a more highly honorable man lives not&mdash;that when
-his regiment was ordered under arms, he had no doubt that he was going to
-march into Richmond. He believed the whole force of the enemy had
-attacked our right wing; he believed there was nothing but a screen of
-pickets in front; and he thought that now our great triumph was to come off.
-His men sprang into line with avidity, prepared to rush into Richmond and
-take it at the point of the bayonet. He never discovered his error until he saw
-a million and a half dollars' worth of property burned in front of his regiment,
-and then he began to think that an advance upon Richmond was not
-intended. And it was not! We had been at work there and had lost 10,000
-men in digging intrenchments; we had spent months in bringing up siege
-guns, and we abandoned those intrenchments without firing one gun. Our
-army was ordered to advance on the gunboats instead of on Richmond. This
-colonel told me that his regiment fought three days and whipped the enemy
-each day, and retreated each night. The left wing and center were untouched
-until they were ordered to retreat. No portion of our vast force had been
-fought except the right wing under Porter, and they whipped the enemy the
-first day.</p>
-
-<p>This is called strategy! Again, sir, I ask, Why was this great Army of
-the Potomac of 230,000 men divided? Human ingenuity could not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
-devised any other way to defeat that army; Divine wisdom could scarcely
-have devised any other way to defeat it than that which was adopted. There
-is no army in Europe to-day that could meet the Army of the Potomac when
-it was 230,000 strong, the best fighting material ever put into an army
-on the face of the earth. Why was that grand army divided? I simply
-charge that grave and serious errors have been committed, and, as I have said,
-no other way could have been devised to defeat that army. If the 158,000
-men that were sent to General McClellan had been marched upon the enemy,
-they could have whipped all the armies the Confederates have, and all they
-are likely to have for six months. One hundred and fifty-eight thousand men
-are about as many as can be fought on any one battle-field. One hundred and
-fifty-eight thousand men are a vast army, a great deal larger army than that
-with which Napoleon destroyed 600,000 of the Austrians in a single year.
-One hundred and fifty-eight thousand men ably handled can defeat any force
-the Confederates can raise; and that is the force that went down to the
-Peninsula. But, sir, it lay in ditches, digging, drinking rotten water, and
-eating bad food, and sleeping in the mud, until it became greatly reduced in
-numbers, and of those that were left very many were injured in health. Still
-they fought; still they conquered in every fight, and still they retreated,
-because they were ordered to retreat.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, I have deemed it my duty to present this statement of facts to the
-Senate and the country. I know that I am to be denounced for so doing,
-and I tell you who will denounce me. There are two classes of men who
-are sure to denounce me, and no one else, and they are traitors and fools.
-The traitors have been denouncing every man who did not sing pæans to
-"strategy," when it led to defeat every time. The traitors North are worse
-than the traitors South, and sometimes I think we have as many of them in
-the aggregate. They are meaner men; they are men who will come behind
-you and cut your throat in the dark. I have great respect for Southern
-traitors who shoulder their muskets and come out and take the chances of the
-bullets and the halter; but I have the most superlative contempt for the
-Northern traitors, who, under the pretended guise of patriotism, are stabbing
-their country in the dark.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The effect of this speech was profound. It enraged McClellan's
-friends to the highest pitch; it was not supported at the
-time by any like utterance in Congress, and at first many who
-believed it to be true condemned, or at least deprecated, the
-fierceness of the attack; but those who knew that "the young
-Napoleon" at heart preferred a pro-slavery compromise to the
-conquest of a durable and honorable peace, and who had marked
-with righteous indignation the attempt of his <em>claquers</em> to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
-the Secretary of War the scape-goat for his own blunders,
-greeted with enthusiasm the signal courage of the man who, in
-the face of abuse, prejudice, and popular blindness, dared to tell
-with words of rugged force this story of disastrous imbecility.
-Mr. Chandler disregarded the remonstrances of weak friends, and
-met without quailing the storm of vituperation he had invited.
-Events made themselves his justifiers and within four months<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>
-President Lincoln, with the full approval of the patriotic masses
-of the North, relieved General McClellan from all command and
-abruptly terminated his military career. Nothing contributed
-more to this salutary change than Mr. Chandler's arraignment, of
-which it has been well said, that "with words resembling battles
-he told the American people that they were leaning upon a
-broken reed, that 'the idol of the soldiers' was as incapable of
-helping them as the idols of the heathen, and that McClellan
-was only digging graves for the brave men who followed him
-and a last ditch for the cause he defended; he shocked by his
-language the mass of the people into a right comprehension of
-the death's dance this military Jack-o'-lantern was leading
-them through the swamps of Virginia."</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler, who took this step after full deliberation and
-not from any passing impulse, rated the McClellan speech as
-his most important public service, alike in its necessity, its timeliness,
-and its results. He also felt that it involved more real
-hazard, and made larger demands upon his courage, than any
-other act of his Senatorial career, for such relentless invective
-could scarcely fail to mortally wound either its object or its
-maker. Had time shown that he had uttered calumnies and not
-the sober truth, he would have been inevitably driven from
-public life; and even when he spoke, the men who thoroughly
-doubted McClellan were still a small minority. History has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
-shown that his indictment was as true in substance as it was
-unsparing in terms and bold in spirit.</p>
-
-<p>Two other matters naturally group themselves with this
-speech: Mr. Chandler distrusted McClellanism in the Army of
-the Potomac as thoroughly as he did McClellan. The investigations
-of this committee convinced him that General Pope's
-campaign was so unfortunate because of the insubordination of
-General McClellan's friends among the corps commanders, and
-led him to believe that the same cause crippled the movements
-of both Burnside and Hooker, who, if faithfully supported, would
-have won decisive victories. So strong were his convictions on
-these points, that when General Grant became commander-in-chief
-he called upon the Secretary of War and requested him to
-make out a list of the incompetent, suspected and insubordinate
-generals of the Army of the Potomac, to be furnished to that
-officer so that he would be able to place them where they could
-do the least harm in the service. This Secretary Stanton promised
-to do. A few days afterward Mr. Chandler called again at
-the War Department, and, learning that this had not yet been
-done, said, "I will make out the list myself and send it to
-Grant;" and he did so, Major-Gen. C. C. Washburn being its
-bearer. Mr. Chandler carefully studied and vigilantly watched
-the Fitz-John Porter case, and approved of the findings of the
-court-martial, except the failure to inflict the death penalty,
-which he believed that the character and consequences of Porter's
-action fully merited. The attempt to secure the reversal of this
-verdict and the re-instatement in the army of the dismissed officer
-aroused his sternest indignation, and he fought it resolutely at
-every stage&mdash;and successfully, while he remained in the Senate.
-He spoke at length on this subject in that body on Feb. 21,
-1870, declaring that he did so in fulfillment of a voluntary
-pledge given some years before in the same chamber to General
-Pope, "that justice should be done to him and to his campaign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
-in the valley of Virginia, even although I were called upon to
-vindicate him from my seat in the Senate." After rehearsing
-the facts connected with Pope's movement, which was planned to
-create a diversion of Lee's army for the extrication of McClellan's
-forces from the Peninsula, in conformity with the suggestion
-of Gen. James S. Wadsworth, and showing that Pope had frequently
-requested to be relieved from the hazardous work laid
-out for him and that he had only a force of 42,000 men scattered
-between Harper's Ferry and Acquia Creek, Mr. Chandler
-said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I asked him in the presence of the committee: "What is to prevent you
-from being struck by a superior force of the enemy and overwhelmed?" Said
-he: "Nothing on earth is more probable than that I shall be struck by a
-superior force and shall be whipped; but I will keep my troops near the
-mountains, and there are no ten miles where there is not a gulch up which
-I can take my men and small-arms, and, by abandoning my artillery and
-baggage, save my men; I shall probably be whipped, but it must be done."
-Any military man can see and appreciate the difficulties and responsibilities of
-so desperate a campaign. "Yet," said he, "it must be done."</p>
-
-<p>Well, sir, General Pope started on that campaign. Had he announced to
-the newspaper press of Washington, or of the North, the number of his men
-or his object, the object itself would have been defeated. General Pope did
-what I believe is allowable in war: he perpetrated a <i lang="fr">ruse de guerre</i>. He sent
-his scouts all through the mountains of Virginia proclaiming that he had an
-army of 120,000 men. And, sir, he fooled the newspaper correspondents of
-the city of Washington and of the whole North. General Pope, when he
-started on that campaign, had no more idea of going to Richmond than he
-had of following Elijah to Heaven in a chariot of fire without seeing death.
-He started with one single object, and that was to save the army of McClellan,
-or to do all that was in his power to save it. He massed his troops, and
-that terrible battle of Cedar Mountain was fought; and by that battle he not
-only fooled the people of this country, but he fooled the rebels. The rebels
-believed that he had 120,000 men, and that, unless they fought him and
-crushed him before he could unite with the Army of the Potomac, their cause
-was lost; and he drew upon his shoulders with that little force the whole
-rebel army, so that, when McClellan started for Yorktown, there was not
-even a popgun fired at his troops. The <em>ruse</em> was a perfect success, and, as I
-told General Pope then, "I consider that your campaign has been one of the
-most brilliant that has been fought up to this time"&mdash;which was February,
-1863&mdash;"you saved two armies; you first saved the Army of the Potomac, and
-then you saved your own."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Sir, General Pope fought for eleven days, fought night and day, fought
-the whole rebel army with his little force, his force never having exceeded
-70,000 men,&mdash;comprising not simply his own army, but also General Burnside's
-forces, and the 20,000 men who had in thirty days been brought up
-from the Army of the Potomac, and of whom Porter's corps was part. The
-force which he had met with these was that originally in his front, but overwhelmingly
-augmented by that rebel force from which McClellan, with his
-90,000 men, had to be delivered by a demonstration in their rear. He
-fought for time. He defended every brook, every barn, every piece of woods,
-every ravine. He fought for time for the Army of the Potomac to reach him
-and unite with him, so as to crush the advancing and overwhelming force of
-the rebels.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler then reviewed at length (and with copious
-citations from the testimony of eye-witnesses and the official
-orders) the facts as to Fitz-John Porter's course in Pope's campaign,
-adding extracts from the reports of rebel officers which
-had come into the possession of the government since the war,
-and closed as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. President, if I had more time I should like to go more fully into
-this subject; but I cannot. The court, after forty-five days spent in careful
-investigation, brought in unanimously the verdict against Porter. Many of
-the members of that court were in favor of sentencing him to suffer death.
-It is rumored, and many believe, that the only reason the death-penalty was
-not inflicted was the fear that Mr. Lincoln, whose kindness of heart was so
-well-known, would not execute the sentence; and, hence, they unanimously
-brought in the verdict they did. It was first carefully examined <em>seriatim</em> by
-the then Secretary of War and the President. No more just tribunal ever
-investigated a case, I presume to assert, than this tribunal, and there its finding
-stands.</p>
-
-<p>It may be asked, How came it that a misunderstanding, almost as universal
-as complete, was suffered to be put upon the country? General Pope
-himself says: "The next day it (my report) was delivered to General Halleck;
-but by that time influences of questionable character, and transactions
-of most unquestionable impropriety, which were well known at the time,
-had entirely changed the purposes of the authorities. It is not necessary,
-and, perhaps, would scarcely be in place, for me to recount these things."</p>
-
-<p>It is as well known to others present as to me that, during that gloomy,
-eventful Sunday which succeeded the last battle on Saturday, the 30th of
-August, the President and Mr. Stanton were overrun and overcome with
-statements that, unless McClellan was restored to command "the army would
-not fight." These statements came from men who did not mean it should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
-fight, who could not in the exigency of the moment be displaced. The President
-was able afterward to relieve McClellan and court-martial Porter. Had
-he lived, he would have seen justice to General Pope awarded also. It
-remains for me, while I live, to do my portion of that duty.</p>
-
-<p>There is one other point to which I wish to allude. During this very trial&mdash;during
-the very pendency of the trial&mdash;Fitz-John Porter said, in the presence
-of my informant, who is a man whom most of you know, and who is to-day
-in the employment of Congress, and whose word I would take as soon as I
-would most men's&mdash;though I told him I would not use his name, but I will
-give his sworn testimony, taken down within two minutes after the utterance
-was made&mdash;Fitz-John Porter said in his presence: "I was not true to Pope,
-and there is no use in denying it." Mr. President, what was "not true to
-Pope"? If he was not true to Pope, whom was he true to? Being true to
-Pope was being true to the country; "not true to Pope" was being a traitor
-to the country. Sir, "not true to Pope" meant the terrible fight of the 30th
-of August, with all the blood and all the horrors of that bitter day; "not
-true to Pope" meant the battle of Antietam, with its thousands of slain and
-its other thousands maimed; "not true to Pope" meant the first battle of
-Fredericksburg, with its 20,000 slain and maimed; "not true to Pope" covered
-the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, and all the dreadful
-battles that followed. Had Fitz-John Porter been true to his government,
-Jackson would have been destroyed on the 29th of August, and on the 30th
-the rebels could scarcely have offered any resistance to our victorious army.
-"Not true to Pope" meant 300,000 slain and 2,000,000,000 of additional dollars
-expended.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, I wish to put this on the record for all time, that it may remain.
-Let Fitz-John Porter thank God that he yet lives, and that he was not living
-at that time under a military government. I told General Pope, in the first
-interview I had with him, that I had but one fault to find in the whole conduct
-of the campaign. He asked, "What is that?" Said I, "That you ever
-allowed Fitz-John Porter to leave the battle-field alive!"</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In 1877 Porter at last succeeded, by the most persistent
-effort, in obtaining the order for the re-examination of his case,
-and when Mr. Chandler re-entered the Senate in 1879, he found
-himself confronting an organized movement to secure that officer's
-restoration to his old rank with full pay since the date of his
-dishonorable dismissal from the army. To this contemplated
-action he proposed to offer the most strenuous resistance, and the
-last volumes he drew from the Congressional Library were
-authorities he wished to consult in the preparation of his argument
-against the reversal of the Porter finding.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's positive opinions in the McClellan and Porter
-cases were shared by his colleagues of the Committee on the
-Conduct of the War of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and are
-justified by their elaborate reports covering the history of the
-Army of the Potomac from the battle of Ball's Bluff to the
-close of the Fredericksburg campaign. The Thirty-eighth Senate
-adopted a resolution continuing the existence of this committee,
-and, the House concurring, the old members, so far as they
-were in Congress, were re-appointed. Senator Harding of Oregon
-took the place of Mr. Wright, and afterward Mr. Buckalew
-of Pennsylvania succeeded Mr. Harding. From the House, Mr.
-B. F. Loan of Missouri was appointed as the successor of Mr.
-Covode. Wm. Blair Lord was re-elected clerk and stenographer.
-This committee also devoted much of its time to the troubles
-of the Army of the Potomac. General Burnside had resigned
-the command because of a misunderstanding with the President,
-brought about by the interference of Gens. John Cochrane
-and John Newton, and General Hooker was appointed in his
-place, with General Halleck as commander-in-chief. But Halleck
-disliked Hooker, and forced his resignation by overruling
-his plans and countermanding his orders, General Meade succeeding.
-The committee examined closely into this matter,
-reaching the conclusion that Hooker had not been fairly dealt
-with, and incidentally disposing of the false statement then current
-that that officer was intoxicated at the battle of Chancellorsville,
-and was defeated from that cause. The committee condemned
-Hooker's removal, and Mr. Chandler firmly believed in
-his courage, patriotism and ability, and regarded him as the
-victim of circumstances. These facts make it an interesting
-coincidence that these two men&mdash;both bold, frank and positive
-in their respective spheres of public activity&mdash;should have died
-sudden and painless deaths within the same week.</p>
-
-<p>The committee did not believe that the selection of General
-Meade for the command of the Army of the Potomac was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
-fortunate one, and doubted his ability to properly control his
-subordinates. While there is no reference to the matter in their
-report on this subject, it is a fact that they recommended the
-removal of General Meade from command, and the re-instatement
-of Hooker. On the 4th of March, 1864, Mr. Chandler
-and Mr. Wade called upon the President, and told him that they
-believed it to be their duty, impressed as they were with the
-testimony the committee had taken, to lay a copy of it before
-him, and in behalf of the army and the country demand the
-removal of General Meade, and the appointment of some one
-more competent to command. The President asked what general
-they could recommend; they said that for themselves they would
-be content with General Hooker, believing him to be competent,
-but not being advocates of any particular officer, they would say
-that if there was any one whom the President considered more
-competent, then let him be appointed. They added that "Congress
-had appointed the committee to watch the conduct of
-the war; and unless this state of things should be soon changed
-it would become their duty to make the testimony public
-which they had taken, with such comments as the circumstances
-of the case seemed to require." General Meade was
-not removed, but General Grant was, within a week, given command
-as general-in-chief, and assumed personal direction of
-the movements of the Army of the Potomac.</p>
-
-<p>During 1864 and 1865 the committee (besides considering
-many minor matters) also investigated, with care:</p>
-
-<p>1. The disastrous assault upon Petersburg on July 30, 1864;
-their report exonerated General Burnside from the responsibility
-for the repulse, and held that the disaster was attributable to
-the interference with his plans of General Meade, whose course
-in the matter was severely censured.</p>
-
-<p>2. The unsuccessful expedition of 1864 up the Red river in
-Louisiana, which the committee (Mr. Gooch dissenting) emphatically
-condemned.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>3. The first Fort Fisher expedition, the committee, in its
-report, approving of General Butler's course in withdrawing from
-the projected assault.</p>
-
-<p>During the inquiry into the Petersburg fiasco, the sub-committee
-were in session at General Grant's headquarters, and
-Mr. Chandler was his guest, renewing there an early acquaintance
-and laying the foundations of their future close friendship.
-Some incidents of their intercourse were characteristic.</p>
-
-<p>General Sherman had just reached Savannah, and the mystery
-of the objective point of his great "march to the sea" had thus
-been solved for the public. This memorable exploit was discussed
-at length between General Grant and Mr. Chandler. The
-former said that the suggestion was Sherman's, and so was the
-entire plan of the campaign. Sherman had urged it for a long
-time before he (Grant) would consent, but finally the conditions
-were ripe, and the order was given. General Grant added that
-Sherman was the only man in the army whom he would have
-entrusted this campaign to, as he was especially adapted for
-such a command, and said: "Congress ought to do something
-for Sherman. He deserves a great deal more credit and honor
-than he has ever received." "What can we do for him?"
-asked Mr. Chandler. "Increase his rank," was the reply. "We
-have made you lieutenant general," responded Mr. Chandler,
-laughingly, "and I suppose we could make him a general, and
-thus put him over you." "Do it," said Grant, promptly. "If
-he carries this campaign through successfully, do it. I would
-rather serve under Sherman than any man I know." General
-Grant also said that when he received a dispatch that Thomas
-had attacked Hood, he felt that a great victory was already
-won. He added: "I did not have any anxiety about the
-result; when Thomas attacks, a victory is sure. He is a slow
-man, but he is the surest man I know. Once in motion, he
-is the hardest man to fight in this army. He never precipi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>tates
-a battle unless he is all ready, and knows his points, and
-you may rest easy when he attacks, for the next news will
-be the enemy's rout. When Thomas once gets in motion the
-rebels have not force enough to stop him."</p>
-
-<p>Upon the final adjournment of the Thirty-eighth Congress
-(on March 4, 1865) it continued the existence of the Committee
-on the Conduct of the War for ninety days, in order to afford
-it time to finish its work. During this period it closed up some
-pending inquiries and prepared its final reports. Its last action
-was an examination into General Sherman's unauthorized and
-unfortunate negotiations with General Johnston, which the committee
-disapproved and that officer's superiors promptly repudiated.
-The final report of the committee bears the date of the
-22d of May, 1865, and its closing passages are as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Your committee, at the close of the labors in which the most of them
-have been engaged for nearly four years past, take occasion to submit a few
-general observations in regard to their investigations. They commenced them
-at a time when the government was still engaged in organizing its first great
-armies, and before any important victory had given token of its ability to
-crush out the rebellion by the strong hand of physical power. They have
-continued them until the rebellion has been overthrown, the so-called Confederate
-government been made a thing of the past, and the chief of that
-treasonable organization is a proclaimed felon in the hands of our authorities.
-And soon the military and naval forces, whose deeds have been the subjects
-of our inquiry, will return to the ways of peace and the pursuits of civil life,
-from which they have been called for a time by the danger which threatened
-their country. Yet while we welcome those brave veterans on their return
-from fields made historical by their gallant achievements, our joy is saddened
-as we view their thinned ranks and reflect that tens of thousands, as brave as
-they, have fallen victims to that savage and infernal spirit which actuated
-those who spared not the prisoners at their mercy, who sought by midnight
-arson to destroy hundreds of defenseless women and children, and who hesitated
-not to resort to means and to commit acts so horrible that the nations
-of the earth stand aghast as they are told what has been done. It is a matter
-for congratulation that, notwithstanding the greatest provocations to pursue a
-different course, our authorities have ever treated their prisoners humanely
-and generously, and have in all respects conducted this contest according to
-the rules of the most civilized warfare....</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Your committee would refer to the record of their labors to show the
-spirit and purpose by which they have been governed in their investigations.
-They have not sought to accomplish any purpose other than to elicit the truth;
-to that end have all their labors been directed. If they have failed at any time
-to accomplish that purpose, it has been from causes beyond their control.
-Their work is before the people, and by it they are willing to be judged.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The volumes which contain the official record of the proceedings
-of the Committee on the Conduct of the War are and
-always must be regarded as the most valuable single magazine
-of historical material relating to the Great Rebellion. They have
-been liberally used in the preparation of every important account
-of our civil strife yet published, and the men, who shall in the
-light of another century estimate the greatness and significance
-of that "throe of progress," will inevitably look in their pages
-to the graphic narratives of those who were parts of memorable
-movements and actors in famous battles as a means of information,
-and to the conclusions of those who prosecuted inquiries so
-zealously when the events were yet fresh in the memory as a
-source of guidance. Infallibility is not a human attribute, and the
-work of this committee was not free from misapprehension and
-mistake. Time, which has shown some of its errors and will
-correct others, has also sustained the essential justice of its
-most important conclusions, which will stand unreversed on the
-pages of impartial history.</p>
-
-<p>But the chief value of the labors of this committee is not
-to be found in its collection of rich materials for the future
-chronicler. To its unrecorded but potent influence upon the
-conduct of the war, adequate justice has not yet been done. Its
-unwearied investigations constantly exposed corruption, incompetence,
-and insubordination, and placed in the hands of the
-authorities the means of discovering and punishing the knavish,
-the weak, and the disloyal. Its activity was a perpetual prompter
-to energy, and a vigilant detective by the side of inefficiency
-and disaffection. As the result of its labors, the unsuccessful,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
-the half-hearted, and the traitorous gave way to the able and
-the patriotic; because of the knowledge of its relentless questioning,
-indolent men were vigilant, and laxity was transformed
-into vigor. Its unremitting labors stayed up the hands of the
-War Secretary in the heaviest hours of his great task, and usefully
-informed the counsels and shaped the decisions of the
-White House. If its every session had been permanently secret,
-and not a line of its proceedings existed as a public record,
-there would still remain an ineffaceable transcript of the results
-of its action in the correcting of mistakes of organization and
-that crushing of sham generalship which alone made final victory
-possible.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> In "The Republic" magazine of April, 1875.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Edwin M. Stanton had succeeded Simon Cameron on Jan. 13. 1862.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> On Nov. 7, 1862.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
-
-THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_250.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Conscription</span>, taxation, and the reverses of the
-Union arms in the summer of 1862 in Virginia and
-elsewhere materially affected the political currents of
-the ensuing fall, and the tide of reaction against the
-war feeling reached its highest flood in the closing elections of
-that year. Horatio Seymour was then chosen Governor of New
-York; the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana
-and Illinois gave anti-Republican majorities, and ten of the
-principal Northern States, which in 1860 rolled up over 200,000
-Republican majority, gave over 35,000 to the Opposition, while
-the footings of their Congressional delegations showed a Democratic
-majority of ten replacing a Republican preponderance of
-forty-one. In Michigan a successful effort was made to fuse all
-the "conservative" elements in a so-called "Union movement,"
-which obtained some support from lukewarm Republicans and
-was thus enabled to manifest unusual strength. Its platform was
-dissent from "radical" measures in general, and the force of its
-attacks was centered upon Senator Chandler and his record, as
-representing the most aggressive type of Republicanism. He
-accepted this challenge unhesitatingly, and fought the campaign
-through without a hint at retraction or an apologetic word. He
-defended the "blood letter" and the "McClellan speech" on
-every stump; he repeated before the people the bold utterances
-with which he had stirred the Senate; he declared to every
-audience that his record he would not qualify by a hair's
-breadth, and that by it he was prepared to stand or fall; and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
-denounced with unstinted severity the weakness of some of his
-critics and the disloyalty of others.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The brunt of the battle in
-his State fell upon him, and the vigor and courage of his personal
-canvass attracted widespread attention. He spoke in all
-the leading cities of Michigan during the campaign, and worked
-uninterruptedly until the day of election. The result was the
-casting of 68,716 votes for the Republican State ticket to 62,102
-for the "Union" candidates, and the choice of five Republicans
-out of the six members of Congress, and of a Legislature constituted
-as follows: Senate&mdash;18 Republicans and 14 Fusionists;
-House&mdash;63 Republicans and 37 Fusionists. This Legislature, on
-assembling in January, 1863, re-elected Mr. Chandler to the
-Senate in accordance with the unmistakable wish of his party
-and the universal expectation. The most strenuous efforts were
-made to detach Republican support from him, but they failed
-utterly. In the caucus the vote was taken <i lang="la">viva voce</i>, and it was
-unanimous for Mr. Chandler. In the Legislature he received the
-support of the representatives of his party as well as that of
-one or two members chosen by the Fusionists. The Opposition
-selected a candidate of Republican antecedents, and its vote was
-divided as follows: James F. Joy, 45; Alpheus Felch, 2; Hezekiah
-G. Wells, 1; Solomon L. Withey, 1. In his address of
-thanks before the nominating caucus, Mr. Chandler said: "I do
-not claim my re-election as a personal tribute. It is, rather, a
-tribute to principle. It indicates that the patriotic sons of
-Michigan stand firm in support of the government and a vigorous
-prosecution of the war."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Not only did he thus modestly measure the significance of
-his re-election, but he bent every energy to make that felt
-which the people meant. Strafford's motto of "Thorough"&mdash;although
-the spirit was that of Hampden and Pym and not of
-the apostate Earl&mdash;expresses the fixity of purpose and the ardor
-of zeal with which he strove to make irresistible the blows of the
-Union against its assailants. Before the people, on the floor of
-the Senate, within the White House, at the private offices of
-the War Department, in committee-room, and as part of his
-daily intercourse with men of all ranks and classes, he urged the
-use of every resource for the defense of the nation and demanded
-the sternest punishment of those who had dared</p>
-<div class="center">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i8">"to lay their hand upon the ark<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">"Of her magnificent and awful cause."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-<p>As a Senator his vote was recorded for every important war
-measure, relating to the revenues, the finances, and the armies
-of the Union. Upon the great questions of public policy which
-bore so powerfully on the progress of the struggle he uniformly
-led his party. At the first Congressional session of the war he
-urged the employment of confiscation as a legitimate and effective
-weapon for checking and punishing rebellion; the measure he
-introduced at that time proved to be too sweeping to receive
-an immediate enactment, but within a few months Congress did
-advance on this subject to his ground. When General Butler
-declared that the slaves who fled to his camp from work upon
-the rebel intrenchments were "contraband of war," and reported
-his action to the authorities at Washington and asked for instructions,
-Mr. Chandler was one of the first to appreciate the adroit
-wisdom of that epigrammatic construction of military law, and
-his co-operation with Secretary Cameron in urging the approval
-of General Butler's action upon the President and General Scott
-was very valuable and effective. Immediately after the battle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
-Bull Run he, with Mr. Sumner and Mr. Hamlin, called upon
-Mr. Lincoln with a proposition to organize and arm the colored
-people. Mr. Chandler even then favored the full exercise of the
-President's constitutional war powers, and urged that they should
-be used, first, to set the slaves free; and, second, to make the
-slaves themselves aid the work of abolishing slavery and maintaining
-the Union. He believed that this institution was the
-backbone of the South, that the war was brought on to save
-it from the civilizing tendencies of the age, and that among
-the first steps taken by the Federal government, when thus
-assailed by slavery, should be the proclaiming of freedom to all
-bondsmen and the guaranteeing of the protection of the government
-to the free. He argued that such a policy, promptly
-declared, would produce chaos in the South, would subject the
-Confederate government to the danger of local uprisings of the
-negroes, and would thus make victory easy. But the Administration
-was not prepared to take a step so far in advance of
-popular opinion, and for some months the prevailing policy was
-one which prohibited the soldiers of the Union from protecting
-or harboring fugitive slaves, and in some instances made slave-hunters
-of the troops. When General Fremont, on the 31st of
-August, issued his proclamation in Missouri, declaring free all
-slaves belonging to persons engaged in the rebellion, Mr. Chandler
-was among those who most heartily approved this step. The
-President was alarmed, as he feared the country was not ready
-for such an act, and greatly modified the Fremont proclamation,
-as he also did a still more sweeping order of General Hunter in
-the following May. Mr. Chandler's disappointment at this was
-extreme, but within a few months he saw emancipation resorted
-to by the Administration as a war measure, and a death-blow
-dealt to "the relic of barbarism." That part of the report for
-1861 of Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, which urged the
-most summary attacks upon the institution of slavery as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
-surest means of dealing mortal blows to the rebellion, and which
-Mr. Lincoln suppressed, Mr. Chandler heartily endorsed, and
-every manifestation by Northern commanders of a disposition to
-make their armies defenders of the slave system aroused his
-indignation. The act of March 13, 1862, prohibiting by an
-article of war the use of the troops for the returning of fugitive
-slaves to their masters, he earnestly supported, and the act of
-April 16, 1862, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia,
-was a measure in which he especially interested himself, and
-whose final passage he celebrated by an entertainment given to
-its most devoted friends at his rooms in the National Hotel of
-Washington. The abortive colonization schemes which were tried
-about this time, at Mr. Lincoln's urgent recommendation, Mr.
-Chandler privately opposed as utterly inadequate and as a mere
-diversion of force into useless channels, but for public reasons
-he made no open resistance to the experiment. For the laws of
-June 19, 1862, forever prohibiting slavery in the territories, and
-of June 28, 1864, repealing the fugitive slave statutes, it need
-not be said that he labored with unflagging industry.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was very active in advocating the use of
-colored troops as soldiers, being months in advance of the
-Administration in this respect; he urged this policy upon the
-authorities unsuccessfully for weeks, and then worked earnestly
-to secure legislation from Congress authorizing the enrollment
-and enlistment of negroes. This movement was so strenuously
-resisted at the capitol that in the end a compromise was effected
-upon a bill, which was approved on July 16, 1862, authorizing
-the receiving of colored men as laborers in the army to dig
-trenches and do other work of non-combatants. But after the
-Emancipation Proclamation black men were accepted as soldiers
-by order of the President, and regularly enrolled and paid. Mr.
-Chandler always believed that that proclamation and the enlistment
-of freedmen in the army were two of the most powerful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
-blows at the rebellion, and often remarked, when talking upon
-the subject, that they were worth 300,000 men. While the controversy
-over this important step was unsettled, General Butler,
-at New Orleans, found himself in need of reinforcements, and
-was actually compelled to organize and arm several regiments of
-colored soldiers, whom he knew to be especially well adapted to
-the performance of a certain class of duties in that region which
-could not be done by soldiers from the North, who were not
-acclimated. This step on his part followed his definite refusal,
-under instructions from Washington, to permit General Phelps to
-do the same thing (that officer resigning for this very reason.)
-While the correspondence on this whole topic was in progress
-with the authorities, General Butler appealed to Senator Chandler,
-writing him long letters showing the sanitary necessity of
-having negro garrisons in some localities, and touching upon the
-other phases of the question. He also asked the Senator's aid
-in securing arms and equipments for these colored troops, and
-obtained from him valuable assistance in pushing on the requisitions
-at the War Department in defiance of official "red tape."
-On this general question Mr. Chandler said in the Senate, on
-June 28, 1864:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I believe that this rebellion is to be crushed, is to be exterminated, and I
-believe that every man who favors it, whether he be a member of this body
-or a member of the Southern army, is to be crushed and to be exterminated,
-unless he repents. That is what I believe.... I thank God the nation has
-risen to the point of using every implement that the Almighty and common
-sense have put in its hands to crush the rebellion.... We do not need
-another man from north of the Potomac. Let us bring the loyal men of the
-South in to put down treason in the South, and there are men enough and
-more than enough to do it. We have heard enough about not using black
-men to put down this rebellion. I would use every thing that God and nature
-had put in my hands to put down this rebellion; but first I would use the
-black element, bring every negro soldier who can fight into the army. A
-negro is better than a traitor. I say this advisedly. I consider a loyal negro
-better than a secession traitor, either in the North or the South. I prefer
-him anywhere and everywhere that you please to put him. A secession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
-traitor is beneath a loyal negro. I would let a loyal negro vote; I would let
-him testify; I would let him fight; I would let him do any other good thing
-and I would exclude a secession traitor.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The seizure of the rebel emissaries, Mason and Slidell, by
-Captain Wilkes, on the British steamer Trent, was heartily
-applauded by Mr. Chandler, and he opposed with much earnestness
-their surrender at the demand of Great Britain. Mr
-Seward's policy in the matter seemed to him to be humiliating
-and the possibility of a second war, in case Captain Wilkes was
-sustained, he did not dread, believing that the nation would
-treble its military strength in the face of such a danger, that
-the South would suffer from an alliance with a country so long
-regarded as the hereditary foe of the American people, and that
-the end would be the conquest and annexation of the British
-American provinces. He was greatly incensed by Great Britain's
-prompt concession of belligerent rights to the South and by its
-blustering bearing in the Trent case, and at one time suggested
-a policy of non-intercourse with that power, which he regarded
-as an inveterate enemy. In later years he advocated the most
-vigorous pushing of "the Alabama claims," and at the time of
-the British war with Abyssinia offered in the Senate a resolution
-recognizing King Theodore as a "belligerent" in the general
-terms of the Queen's proclamation of May, 1861 in regard to
-the Confederacy. He never ceased to believe that the United
-States, in the settlement of its war claims with Great Britain,
-ought to have refused to accept anything less than the annexation
-of the Canadas.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler in the Senate favored imposing severe penalties
-on the gold gambling in Wall street, which affected so injuriously
-the national credit. In the preparation of the internal revenue
-laws of 1862, imposing a large number of taxes and affecting
-vast interests, he gave exceedingly valuable aid, his own business
-experience and his familiarity with commercial details making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
-his suggestions practical in form and wise in scope. Every
-measure to secure the stringent enforcement of the laws for the
-punishment of treason received his hearty support, and his
-denunciation of traitors and their open or secret allies continued
-to be vigorous and unsparing.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> His industry time alone seemed
-to restrain, for his zeal was inexhaustible and his magnificent
-physical powers bore the tremendous strain unyieldingly. His
-public record during the four years of the war makes it possible
-to apply to him, without extravagance, Lord Clarendon's description
-of Hampden: "He was of a vigilance not to be tired out or
-wearied by the most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed
-on by the most subtle or sharp, and of a personal courage
-equal to his best parts."</p>
-
-<p>The "little, nameless, unremembered acts" of these days were
-of no slight aggregate importance and thoroughly illustrate the
-characteristics of the man. There was no reasonable service that
-he was not quick to render to any volunteer who applied to him
-for aid. A blue uniform gained for its wearer prompt admittance
-to his room and a careful hearing for any request. Repeatedly
-private soldiers saw him leave men of rank and influence
-to listen to their stories, and lay aside matters of pressing
-moment to act upon their complaints or relieve their distress.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>He visited the hospitals to seek out Michigan men whom he
-could help, and to see that they were properly provided for,
-while their applications for furloughs and for discharges, if
-entrusted to his care, were so pushed as to obtain prompt action
-from the authorities in spite of routine and official tardiness.
-He advanced large sums of money to help destitute and invalid
-soldiers homeward,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> or to aid the friends of fallen or wounded
-men upon their melancholy errands. Upon all occasions he was
-especially attentive to the humblest applicants, and the ease of
-the private soldier in distress and need touched his sympathies
-the most quickly. His was a familiar figure in all the departments,
-often accompanied with a squad of sick, crippled, even
-ragged, veterans, in search of delayed furloughs, or of arrears of
-pay, or of the medical examinations preceding invalid discharges,
-or of some service which "red tape" had delayed. In the words
-of one who possessed abundant opportunities for obtaining knowledge,
-"This could be said of Mr. Chandler to a greater extent
-than of any other public man I ever saw, that he would spare
-no pains in doing even little things for men who were of the
-smallest consequence to one in his position. He would take
-great trouble in hunting up minor matters for enlisted men,
-and this it was that made him so popular among the soldiers."
-His activity in their behalf was not limited by State lines; he
-answered any appeals that came to him, although he was especially
-prompt and vigilant in helping the "Michigan boys."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>At the War Department Mr. Chandler was as well known
-as (and was reputed to be scarcely less powerful than) the Secretary
-himself. Mr. Stanton's brusqueness never daunted him,
-and few stood upon such terms of privileged intercourse with
-that no less irascible than great man. Repeatedly he elbowed
-his way through the crowded ante-chamber of the Secretary's
-office, pushed past protesting orderlies, strode up to Mr. Stanton's
-private desk, and obtained by emphatic personal application
-some order which subordinates could not grant in a case needing
-prompt action.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Where other men would have encountered
-rebuff he rarely failed. In connection with this phase of his
-public activity these letters are of interest:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 16em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Mich., July 29, 1862.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Brigadier-General Richardson, of this State, is reported as
-being absent from duty without leave. This is not true. He is absent on sick
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>leave, and is not able to join his command. Will you not, in accordance
-with the wishes of the whole delegation, assign him to the command of
-Michigan soldiers now being raised? His presence here, and the assurance
-that he is to command, will greatly stimulate enlistments. We are proud of
-him as one of the best fighting generals of the army. Very truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, July 31, 1862.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>: There is a fine company of ninety-five splendid men guarding <em>three
-rebel prisoners</em> at Mackinac. Would it not be well to put those rascals in
-some tobacco warehouse or jail and send these troops where they are needed?
-General Terry would like a command in some other division than the one he
-is in. Can you not accommodate him? The soldiers at Mackinac are anxious
-for active service and are well drilled. Very truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 20em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Aug. 9, 1862.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Adjutant-General Thomas.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Are the boys of the Michigan First (Bull Run prisoners)
-exchanged yet? I promised them it should be done at once, and now find
-them enlisting again under the supposition that it has been done. The list is
-with the Secretary of War. Our quota is full, and our blood is up. They
-were yesterday paying $10 for a chance to enter some of the regiments. Very
-truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Aug. 28, 1862.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Wm. A. Howard.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Will you say from me to the Secretary of War that I deem
-it of vital importance that some one be authorized to open and examine rebel
-correspondence passing through the Detroit postoffice? Mr. Smith (of the postoffice)
-informs me that letters come through directed to rebels at Windsor.
-Truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, Nov. 15, 1863.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I telegraphed you to-night to send heavy guns and ammunition
-to the lakes. The reason was this: Upon examination I found that
-we could improvise a navy in about two hours which could cope with any
-rebel armament which could be placed upon the lakes, <em>if we had big guns</em>. But
-my investigation furnished one 68-pounder, condemned, and four 32-pounders,
-without powder, at Erie; and this was our whole armament on the lakes,
-except one 32-pounder upon the Michigan, and a few 6, 10 and 12-pounders.
-We must have guns of large calibre at each of the principal ports. If you
-cannot spare eleven-inch guns immediately send us some eight-inch or some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
-old 68-pounders, with ammunition. A tug, costing not over $30,000, with
-one eleven-inch gun on board and a crew of twenty men, could destroy a
-million dollars' worth of property on the lakes every twenty-four hours, and
-we would be powerless. She would sink the Michigan with one judiciously-placed
-shell. We are not alarmed, but we want big guns and <em>must have them</em>.
-The lake marine is scarcely second to the ocean in tonnage and value, and it
-must be protected. We had no idea of our defenses until the late scare.
-Truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's influence with public men and in the private
-councils of the nation's leaders at Washington was throughout
-the war always invigorating. From the very outset, and while
-the patriotic instinct of the North was "still, as it were, in the
-gristle and not yet hardened into the bone," he urged upon the
-executive authorities summary measures, and the striking of hard
-and quick blows. He advised them to arrest traitors while their
-treason was still in the bud. He urged them to make early and
-incessant attacks on the enemy, and counseled implicit reliance
-on the devotion and loyalty of the North. The Union cause
-saw no hour so dark that the eye of his courage could not penetrate
-its gloom; the rebellion won no victory that shook his
-absolutely "dauntless resolution." Every suggestion of peace
-except on the basis of Freedom and the national supremacy he
-denounced. Every hint of conciliating armed traitors he scouted
-as, in Hosea Biglow's phrase, mere "tryin' squirt-guns on the
-infernal Pit." To the real statesmanship of that period he thus
-gave expression in a public dinner at Washington early in
-1863: "We must accept no compromise; a patched-up peace
-will be followed by continued war and anarchy." He chafed
-like a caged lion before half-heartedness, imbecility and delay.
-His sincerity and his earnestness revived the discouraged and
-aroused hope, and his strong convictions inspired men of weaker
-moral fibre with something of his own inflexibility. He never
-hesitated to use plain words in dealing with the nation's enemies,
-he never lost faith, and he never admitted the possibility of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
-defeat. At the White House his visits were ever welcome, his
-advice received, and the virility of his understanding and the
-fervor of his patriotism recognized. Mr. Chandler appreciated to
-the full extent the innate strength of Abraham Lincoln's remarkable
-character and its rare loftiness, and, different as were their
-dispositions and widely divergent as often were their opinions, he
-never lost confidence in the President's aims and never ceased to
-be one of his trusted counselors. Many features of executive
-policy he condemned plainly and boldly to the President himself,
-but frankness and sincerity prevented his criticisms from
-becoming unpalatable, and Mr. Lincoln often acknowledged his
-indebtedness to the practical wisdom and the tireless zeal of the
-Michigan Senator.</p>
-
-<p>Cecil said to Sir Walter Raleigh, "I know that you can toil
-terribly." This Mr. Chandler did through those eventful years.
-His labor was without cessation. The great demands upon the
-energies of the public man were equaled by appeals for private
-effort which he would not decline, and in every channel of
-profitable work for the Union cause he made his strong will and
-his aggressive vitality felt. Industry, so unusual and efficient,
-multiplied the power of his Roman firmness, and these qualities,
-guided by his strong understanding, high courage, sincerity of
-conviction, and the ardor of his patriotism, made him a leader
-of men in years when leadership without strength was impossible.
-His impress is upon the events of that era, and of the war for
-Emancipation and the Union he could say with Ulysses, "I
-am part of all that I have met." Through the tempest of civil
-strife his strong spirit battled its way unflinchingly to the goal,
-and title was fitly bestowed in the people's knighting of Zachariah
-Chandler as "The Great War Senator."</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> I pity the man who, in this hour of peril, stands back and says, "this is an abolition
-war, and I won't go." ... There are but two classes of men now in the United States,
-and there are no middle men; these two classes are patriots and traitors. Between these
-two you must choose. A man might as well cast himself into the gulf that separated
-Dives from Lazarus as to stand out in this hour of trial.&mdash;<em>Speech at Ionia on September 6.</em>
-</p>
-<p>
-It has taken time to educate us. If we had won certain victories the war would have
-been over, but the cause would have remained. The proclamation pronouncing emancipation,
-for which God bless Abraham Lincoln, is educating the people, and soon we will be
-ready to go forward.... We can never secure a permanent peace until we strike a
-death-blow at the cause of the war.&mdash;<em>Speech at Jackson on October 7.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Extract from a debate in the Senate on April 12, 1864:
-</p>
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">Mr. Powell</span>, of Kentucky: The Senator from Michigan, if I understood him, said that
-I was now the friend of traitors?
-</p>
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler</span>: You did understand me properly. You have been the friend of
-traitors, and I voted to expel you, as a traitor, from this body.
-</p>
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">Mr. Powell</span>: Do I understand you to say that I am now the friend of traitors and
-of treason?
-</p>
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler</span>: You co-operated with traitors, and I have never known you to cast
-a vote that was not in favor of rebellion.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> It is exceedingly gratifying to witness the marked attention Mr. Chandler bestows on
-soldiers. One day I happened to be in his room, when a major-general and a senator
-came in. Shortly after a sprightly young soldier came to the door. When about to enter,
-the young man hesitated to interrupt their conversation, but Mr. Chandler at once gave
-his attention to the soldier, who, on being asked to take a seat and tell what he desired,
-said he was a paroled prisoner and wished a furlough home, and that he had been told
-that all he had to do was to apply to him and he would be sure to get it. Mr. Chandler
-immediately took his papers and secured the furlough for him.&mdash;<em>Washington letter of 1863.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Mr. Chandler said that during the late war, while he was in Washington, he loaned
-our soldiers several thousands of dollars, in small sums of from $2 to $10 each, but that
-the whole amount was repaid to him with the exception of about $10, and he was satisfied
-that the poor men who owed him that small amount had given their lives for their country.&mdash;<em>Hon.
-M. S. Brewer in the House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1880.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> This tribute comes from a well-known officer of the Michigan volunteer regiments:
-</p>
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Detroit</span>, February 3, 1880.</p>
-<p>
-Could all the acts of kindness and aid rendered by Senator Chandler to the soldiers
-of Michigan, their families and friends, during the war, and especially to those who filled
-the ranks, be gathered together and written out, the volumes that contained them would
-be large and numerous. No soldier, however humble, ever applied to him, when in distress
-or trouble, that he did not receive a patient hearing and, if possible, speedy aid. No soldier's
-wife, father, mother, or other kin ever wrote him a letter that was not answered.
-To these facts there are thousands who can testify to-day, and many thousands more who
-could do so were they not in their graves.
-</p>
-<p>
-In those dark days he was always sanguine of the final triumph of our armies, and
-he always assured the soldiers of his positive convictions that in the end they would be
-victorious. None except those who had experience can ever know what cheerful assurances
-and hopeful words from those high in authority did to nerve men for the work of severe
-campaigns.
-</p>
-<p>
-The trials and fatigues of army life, and the uncertainty of the final results, were
-lessened vastly by the assuring words of brave, indomitable men like Zachariah Chandler.
-All honor to his memory, as also to the memory of his great associates in high places
-during those memorable days!
-</p>
-<p class="right">R. A. ALGER.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> This anecdote is related by a prominent Michigan officer: I accompanied Senator
-Chandler once to the War Department to secure the re-instatement of a paymaster who,
-it had been clearly ascertained, had been unjustly dismissed. The papers were in the possession
-of the proper bureau, and action had been promised, but was delayed. A great
-body of eager applicants were gathered about the Secretary's door, which was guarded by
-two sentries with crossed bayonets. He pushed rapidly through the mass of people to the
-entrance of the private office, where the sentinel said, "The Secretary is very busy, Mr.
-Senator." "I know he is," was Mr. Chandler's response, and laying a hand on each bayonet
-he pushed them up over our heads, opened the door, and we were in Mr. Stanton's
-presence. Once there, he commenced a vigorous denunciation of the tardiness of the
-Department, upbraided the Secretary because no action had yet been taken in the case
-according to promise, and astonished me by the earnestness of his criticisms. Mr. Stanton
-heard him pleasantly, said when he stopped, "Are you all through, Chandler?" and then
-gave the order we needed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br />
-
-THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_263.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> Republican reverses of the fall of 1862 were not
-repeated in 1863. Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the anti-draft
-riots in New York, and the formal acceptance of
-Vallandigham as a trusted party leader by the Democracy
-stimulated and strengthened the Union spirit of the North, and
-the State elections of that year were emphatic endorsements of
-the party of freedom and of its policy. The political verdicts of
-the spring of 1864 were equally gratifying to the friends of liberty
-and the advocates of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and,
-with the accession of General Grant to the command of the
-Union armies and his "advance all along the line," it became
-evident that nothing but discord among the Republicans could
-deprive them of a sweeping victory in the presidential election.
-The masses of that party were unequivocally in favor of Mr.
-Lincoln's renomination; the common people saw one of themselves
-in the White House and fully met his firm trust in them
-with an answering confidence. But among men of influence
-within the Republican ranks there was an exceedingly earnest
-opposition to his second candidacy. Some of this sprang from
-rival aspirations; more of it from disappointed office-seeking and
-from personal pique; but there was outside and above such considerations
-a strong feeling, entirely disinterested in origin and
-honorable in character, and held by thousands of sincere men,
-that the President was unduly conservative in policy and that a
-man of more aggressive temperament ought to be elected in his
-stead. There were also not a few experienced politicians who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
-regarded the personal opposition to Mr. Lincoln as sufficiently
-formidable to jeopard party success, and who were inclined to
-think that the selection of some candidate who was not identified
-with the existing Administration, and thus would not be
-compelled to defend its acts, was demanded on the ground of
-superior "availability." The anti-Lincoln wing of the party at
-that time included such men as Mr. Chase and Mr. Greeley, was
-represented by many of the leading newspapers, including the
-entire New York press except the <cite>Times</cite>, and counted among
-its especially active members not a few of the most earnest and
-devoted of the original Abolitionists.</p>
-
-<p>In this chaotic condition of party sentiment a call appeared
-(in April, 1864) addressed "To the Radical Men of the Nation,"
-and requesting them to meet by representatives in convention at
-Cleveland, O., on May 31. Those of its signers who were best
-known were B. Gratz Brown, Lucius Robinson, John Cochrane,
-Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George B. Cheever,
-James Redpath, Wendell Phillips and Emil Pretorious. Its tone
-will appear from this paragraph:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The imbecile and vacillating policy of the present Administration in the
-conduct of the war, being just weak enough to waste its men and means to
-provoke the enemy, but not strong enough to conquer the rebellion&mdash;and its
-treachery to justice, freedom and genuine democratic principles in its plan of
-reconstruction, whereby the honor and dignity of the nation have been sacrificed
-to conciliate the still-existing and arrogant slave power, and to further
-the ends of unscrupulous partisan ambition&mdash;call in thunder tones upon the
-lovers of justice and their country to come to the rescue of the imperiled
-nationality and the cause of impartial and universal freedom threatened with
-betrayal and overthrow.</p>
-
-<p>The way to victory and salvation is plain. Justice must be throned in
-the seats of national legislation, and guide the executive will. The things
-demanded, and which we ask you to join us to render sure, are the immediate
-extinction of slavery throughout the whole United States by Congressional
-action, the absolute equality of all men before the law without regard to
-race or color, and such a plan of reconstruction as shall conform entirely to
-the policy of freedom for all, placing the political power alone in the hands
-of the loyal, and executing with vigor the law for confiscating the property of
-the rebels.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This document was widely published, and the New York
-<cite>Tribune</cite> in advance approved the calling of this convention,
-although it did not in the end support its action. The call was
-answered by about 350 persons from fifteen States; while very
-few of them were men of more than limited reputation, yet
-they made up a body representing widespread convictions
-strongly and sincerely held. Ex-Governor W. F. Johnston of
-Pennsylvania was the temporary and Gen. John Cochrane of
-New York the permanent presiding officer of the convention.
-It nominated John C. Fremont for President, and General Cochrane
-for Vice-President, and adopted a platform exceedingly
-radical in terms, including declarations in favor of unconditional
-emancipation, a one-term presidency, the Monroe doctrine, and
-the wholesale confiscation of the property of the rebels. Two
-letters were received by it which at the time produced a strong
-impression. In one of them, Lucius Robinson, then Comptroller
-of New York, severely condemned "a weak Executive and Cabinet,"
-and urged the nomination of General Grant, "a man who
-has displayed the qualities which give all men confidence." In
-the second, Wendell Phillips attacked a Republican administration
-with that polished invective which had made him one of
-the most formidable assailants of the slave power. He wrote:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>For three years the Administration has lavished money without stint and
-drenched the land in blood, and it has not yet thoroughly and heartily struck
-at the slave system. Confessing that the use of this means is indispensable,
-the Administration has used it just enough to irritate the rebels and not
-enough to save the state. In sixty days after the rebellion broke out the
-Administration suspended <i lang="la">habeas corpus</i> on the plea of military necessity&mdash;justly.
-For three years it has poured out the treasure and blood of the
-country like water. Meanwhile slavery was too sacred to be used; that was
-saved lest the feelings of the rebels should be hurt. The Administration
-weighed treasure, blood, and civil liberty against slavery, and, up to the
-present moment, has decided to exhaust them all before it uses freedom
-heartily as a means of battle.... A quick and thorough reorganization of
-States on a democratic basis&mdash;every man and race equal before the law&mdash;is
-the only sure way to save the Union. I urge it, not for the black man's sake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
-alone, but for ours&mdash;for the nation's sake. Against such recognition of the
-blacks Mr. Lincoln stands pledged by prejudice and avowal. Men say, if we
-elect him he may change his views. Possibly. But three years have been a
-long time for a man's education in such hours as these. The nation cannot
-afford more. At any rate the constitution gives this summer an opportunity
-to make President a man fully educated. I prefer that course.</p>
-
-<p>The Administration, therefore, I regard as a civil and military failure,
-and its avowed policy ruinous to the North in every point of view. Mr. Lincoln
-may wish the end&mdash;peace and freedom&mdash;but he is wholly unwilling to
-use the means which can secure that end. If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected I do
-not expect to see the Union reconstructed in my day, unless on terms more
-disastrous to liberty than even disunion would be. If I turn to General Fremont,
-I see a man whose first act would be to use the freedom of the negro
-as his weapon; I see one whose thorough loyally to democratic institutions
-without regard to race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose clear-sighted
-statesmanship and rare military ability justify my confidence that in
-his hands all will be done to save the state that foresight, skill, decision, and
-statesmanship can do.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Generals Fremont and Cochrane promptly accepted the nominations
-thus tendered them. General Fremont resigned his
-commission in the army before doing so, and in his letter of
-acceptance accused the Administration of "incapacity and selfishness,"
-of "managing the war for personal ends," of giving to
-the country "the abuses of a military dictation without its unity
-of action and vigor of execution," and of "feebleness and want
-of principle" in its dealings with other powers. He further
-vindicated the Cleveland action by declaring that, "if Mr. Lincoln
-had remained faithful to the principles he was elected to
-defend, no schism could have been created," and added: "If
-the convention at Baltimore will nominate any man whose past
-life justifies a well-grounded confidence in his fidelity to our
-cardinal principles, there is no reason why there should be any
-division among the really patriotic men of the country." There
-was a lack of any popular response to this demonstration, and
-it at once appeared&mdash;and, in fact, this was the sum of the
-original expectations of its shrewder promoters&mdash;that this movement
-was only formidable as a rallying point for any serious
-disaffection which might spring up in the future.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The "Union National" convention assembled at Baltimore
-on June 7, with every State, except those still wholly in possession
-of the rebels, represented upon its floor. It adopted a
-platform denouncing any peace by compromise, endorsing the
-Administration, and demanding the abolition of slavery by constitutional
-amendment. Abraham Lincoln was renominated for
-the Presidency, receiving every vote save that of the delegation
-of Missouri radicals who supported General Grant, and Andrew
-Johnson was on the first ballot nominated for Vice-President as
-the representative of the Union men of the South. The response
-of the masses and the leading papers of the Republican organization
-to this action was prompt and hearty; but, notwithstanding
-this encouraging fact, the political horizon grew rapidly darker.
-General Grant was in that summer fighting a series of bloody
-battles on and about the banks of the James, whose immediate
-results were indecisive, the attendant steady reduction of Lee's
-available force not being then apparent at the North. In like
-manner, Sherman was forcing his way through the mountainous
-regions between Chattanooga and Atlanta, winning no great victories
-and losing thousands of men; the mortal effects of his
-blows at the rebels are evident now, but could not be seen then.
-General Early, in July, swept down the Shenandoah and over the
-Potomac, burning Chambersburg and threatening the defenses of
-Washington, finally making good his retreat. In the face of this
-military situation, so encouraging to discontent and so calculated
-to invite criticism, the premium on gold rose rapidly to its
-highest war point. This disastrous depreciation of the paper
-money of the government was materially helped by the unexpected
-resignation, on June 30, of Secretary of the Treasury
-Salmon P. Chase. Differences of opinion as to some details of
-department management were assigned as the cause of this step,
-but its real origin was much deeper, and Mr. Chase's course was
-universally ascribed, and was undoubtedly due, to lack of sym<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>pathy
-with and confidence in the Administration. The effect of
-a change in so important a position at such a critical moment
-was profound, and it gave a powerful stimulus to Republican
-disaffection. This was followed by the abortive peace negotiations
-at Niagara Falls with C. C. Clay, J. P. Holcombe and G.
-N. Sanders. That this was a crafty scheme to place the Administration
-in a false position before both the North and the South
-cannot now be doubted. It failed to yield all that its projectors
-hoped, but it did ensnare Mr. Greeley most disagreeably, and it
-had the effect of furnishing the enemy with grounds for charging
-the President with being "hostile to peace except on
-impossible conditions." It also materially augmented the public
-restlessness and deepened the vague apprehensions which naturally
-sprang from such exhibitions of cross-purposes among the
-leaders of the national cause. Another event followed which was
-of still graver moment:</p>
-
-<p>The problem of the reconstruction of the Southern States
-after the defeat of the rebel armies was from the outset surrounded
-with grave difficulties, and the views held upon this
-subject by the ablest Republicans were diverse and conflicting.
-Bills and resolutions embodying various theories of reconstruction
-were presented in Congress early in the war, but nothing was
-done with them, and no definite policy was fixed by enactment
-or even determined upon in private consultations. On Dec. 8,
-1863, and in connection with the transmission to Congress of his
-third annual message, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation offering
-amnesty to all rebels (with a few conspicuous exceptions) who
-should take an oath of loyalty, and declaring that whenever, in
-any of the seceded States, persons to the number of not less
-than one-tenth of the votes cast in such States at the presidential
-election of 1860, having first taken and abided by the
-prescribed oath, should re-establish a State government, republican
-in form and recognizing the permanent freedom of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
-slaves, it should "be recognized as the true government of the
-State." This plan Mr. Lincoln explained and defended at length
-in the message, and under it provisional governments were soon
-organized in Louisiana and Arkansas, and application was made
-for the admission of their Senators and Representatives to Congress.
-The President's action in this respect did not receive
-congressional sanction and was not endorsed by the majority of
-his supporters at the capitol. Many held that the subject was one
-which was wholly within the control of the legislative branch of
-the government, and that his proclamation was itself an unwarrantable
-assumption of authority by the Executive. Others
-objected strenuously to the "one-tenth clause," as oligarchical in
-tendency and certain to leave the real advantages of position
-within easy reach of the disloyal majority in any State thus reconstructed.
-As a rule those who opposed Mr. Lincoln's scheme
-favored establishing provisional governments in the South until
-there should spring up a loyal majority, which could be safely
-trusted with political power. Congress, therefore, referred the
-message and proclamation to special committees, refused to recognize
-the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, and passed on the
-last day of the session a reconstruction act differing radically in
-terms from the President's plan. Its bill provided that provisional
-governors should be appointed with the consent of the Senate,
-that an enrollment of white male citizens should be made when
-armed resistance ceased in any State, and that when a majority of
-the citizens so enrolled took the oath of allegiance the loyal
-people should be entitled to elect delegates to a convention to
-establish a State government; upon the adoption of an anti-slavery
-constitution by such a convention it was to be certified to
-the President, who, with the assent of Congress, was to recognize
-the government thus established as "the lawful State government."
-This measure the President defeated by withholding his
-signature. On July 8, 1864, he issued a second proclamation upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
-the subject, setting forth that he had not signed this bill because
-"less than one hour" intervened between its passage and the
-adjournment of Congress, and because he was not ready by its
-approval to be inexorably committed to this or any other specific
-plan of reconstruction which would set aside the <em>quasi</em>-governments
-of Louisiana and Arkansas and thus repel their citizens
-from further efforts in the same direction. He added that he
-was not yet prepared to admit the "constitutional competency
-of Congress to abolish slavery in the States," although he did
-earnestly desire that it should cease through the adoption of a
-constitutional amendment. The proclamation closed by declaring
-that he was satisfied with the terms of the bill, and by pledging
-the hearty co-operation of the Executive with all who might
-avail themselves of the method therein laid down to return to
-their places in the Union. In response to this proclamation,
-which treated the process of reconstruction as a matter of executive
-discretion merely, there was published early in August a
-vigorously worded and cogently argued manifesto, addressed "To
-the Supporters of the Government," and signed by Senator Benjamin
-F. Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis, as
-chairmen of the committees of their respective houses upon the
-<em>status</em> of the rebel States. This document commenced with the
-declaration that its authors had "read without surprise, but not
-without indignation," the President's proclamation, and proceeded
-as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The President, by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the
-electoral votes of the rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition.
-If those votes turn the balance in his favor, is it to be supposed that his
-competitor, defeated by such means, will acquiesce? If the rebel majority
-assert their supremacy in those States, and send votes which elect an enemy
-of the government, will we not repel his claims? And is not that civil war
-for the presidency inaugurated by the votes of rebel States? Seriously
-impressed with these dangers, Congress, "the proper constitutional authority,"
-formally declared that there are no State governments in the rebel States, and
-provided for their erection at a proper time; and both the Senate and House<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>
-of Representatives rejected the Senators and Representatives chosen under the
-authority of what the President calls the free constitution and government of
-Arkansas. The President's proclamation "holds for naught" this judgment,
-and discards the authority of the Supreme Court and strides headlong toward
-the anarchy his proclamation of the 8th of December inaugurated. If electors
-for President be allowed to be chosen in either of those States, a sinister light
-will be cast on the motives which induced the President to "hold for naught"
-the will of Congress rather than his governments in Louisiana and Arkansas.
-That judgment of Congress which the President defies was the exercise of an
-authority exclusively vested in Congress by the constitution to determine what
-is the established government in a State, and in its own nature and by the
-highest of judicial authority binding on all other departments of the government....
-A more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the
-people has never been perpetrated. Congress passed a bill; the President
-refused to approve it, and then by proclamation puts as much of it in force
-as he sees fit, and proposes to execute those parts by officers unknown to the
-laws of the United States and not subject to the confirmation of the Senate!
-The bill directed the appointment of provisional governors by and with the
-advice and consent of the Senate. The President, after defeating such a law,
-proposes to appoint without law, and without the advice and consent of the
-Senate, military governors for the rebel States! He has already exercised this
-dictatorial usurpation in Louisiana, and he defeated the bill to prevent its
-limitation....</p>
-
-<p>The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance which the supporters
-of his administration have so long practiced, in view of the arduous
-conflict in which we are engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political
-opponents. But he must understand that our support is of a cause and not
-of a man; that the authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected;
-and that the whole body of the Union men of Congress will not submit to be
-impeached by him of rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes
-our support, he must confine himself to his executive duties&mdash;to obey and
-execute, not make the laws&mdash;to suppress by arms armed rebellion, and leave
-political reorganization to Congress.</p>
-
-<p>If the supporters of the government fail to insist on this, they become
-responsible for the usurpations which they fail to rebuke, and are justly
-liable to the indignation of the people, whose rights and security, committed
-to their keeping, they sacrifice. Let them consider the remedy for these
-usurpations, and, having found it, fearlessly execute it!</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The damaging force of this attack was undoubted. Mr.
-Wade was a veteran of the anti-slavery "Old Guard," and was
-known through the North to be as sturdy, true and honest as
-he was "radical" in his Republicanism. No man sat in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
-House who surpassed&mdash;but few men then in public life equaled&mdash;Henry
-Winter Davis in mental vigor, in brilliant accomplishments,
-and in moral fearlessness. Originally sent to Congress by
-the Maryland "Americans," it was his vote which elected Mr.
-Pennington to the Speakership in 1859; to the formal censure of
-that act by his Legislature he replied by telling the men who
-voted for it to take their message back to their masters, for
-only to their masters, the people, would he reply. He made a
-magnificent fight against secession in his State, and waged there
-a still more gallant battle for emancipation, winning both. In
-the House he spoke always with force, often with impassioned
-eloquence, and the Republican ranks contained no champion
-more ardent in patriotism or more firmly attached to the fundamental
-principles of Freedom. The formal uniting of these two
-men, both able, influential and unquestionably sincere, in strictures
-so severe upon the President, materially invigorated the
-"radical" opposition to the Baltimore ticket, increased Republican
-discouragement, and furnished the Opposition with additional
-ground for accusing the President of the gross use of arbitrary
-power. The series of events thus recapitulated naturally gave to
-the action of the Cleveland convention a fresh importance, and
-by the fall of 1864 it had become a factor of moment in the
-political calculations of the year.</p>
-
-<p>Greatly encouraged by the evident demoralization of the
-dominant party, the Democrats held their national convention at
-Chicago on August 29. Its platform in effect declared the war
-"a failure," and its ticket consisted of George B. McClellan,
-representing war without vigor, and George H. Pendleton, representing
-peace by compromise. The most conspicuous figure on
-its floor was Clement L. Vallandigham, a banished traitor <em>posing</em>
-as a martyr, and the sedition which was thinly disguised in its
-deliberations was boldly shouted to cheering mobs about its hall
-and in front of the great hotels which its delegates thronged.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
-The character and action of this body made clear the issues of
-1864; in Mr. Seward's apt language, the people were called upon
-to decide whether they would have "McClellan and Disunion or
-Lincoln and Union." To make the latter the accepted alternative
-was impossible without complete Republican harmony, and
-to restore that fully and promptly was plainly a matter of the
-first importance. This task was undertaken by Mr. Chandler,
-whose relations with all parties peculiarly fitted him for the
-work. He was a pronounced "radical," and had steadfastly
-opposed many features of Mr. Lincoln's policy;<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> but honest disagreement
-of opinion had not impaired his full confidence in
-the man, and that firm grasp upon the practical aspects of all
-political questions, which was one of his marked characteristics
-then as always, prevented him from putting in jeopardy essentials
-by unduly magnifying differences as to details. To the
-wisdom of renominating Mr. Lincoln he assented, and his election
-he believed necessary to the preservation of the government.
-With Mr. Wade he was on terms of the closest intimacy; both
-Mr. Davis and General Fremont were his personal friends; and
-his record and public attitude gave him a claim upon the attention
-of the "radicals" everywhere. His qualifications as a
-mediator were thus numerous and apparent, and were rounded out
-by his political experience and sagacity.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler commenced work by visiting Mr. Wade at his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
-home in Ohio, being accompanied thither by his intimate friend
-and adviser, the Hon. George Jerome of Detroit. The Ohio
-senator's vigorous common sense was Mr. Chandler's ally in the
-long interview that followed, and it only required a thorough
-review of the situation to convince him that, if Lincoln was
-defeated, the Union cause, and not an individual, would be the
-sufferer. Mr. Wade, however, urged that Mr. Lincoln himself
-should make some sacrifices of opinion and preference in the
-face of the common danger, that the "radical" element of the
-Republicans was entitled to more considerate treatment at his
-hands, and that, at least, his Cabinet, which was wholly within
-his control, should not contain men who were obnoxious to the
-stanchest members of his own party. Mr. Wade then denounced
-in the strongest terms the presence in and influence upon the
-Administration of Montgomery Blair, whom he believed to be at
-heart a Democrat. Later years have shown how well-grounded
-were the doubts then felt of Mr. Blair's political trustworthiness,
-doubts which were, even in 1864, general and strong enough to
-lead the Baltimore convention to declare in its platform that it
-regarded "as worthy of public confidence and official trust only
-those who cordially endorsed" its principles. Mr. Wade readily
-agreed, as the result of this conference, to pursue any course
-that should command the approval of his associate in the manifesto,
-and Mr. Chandler left him to visit Mr. Lincoln at
-Washington and Henry Winter Davis at Baltimore. He obtained
-from the President what were practical assurances that Mr. Blair
-should not be retained in the Cabinet in the face of such strong
-opposition if harmony would follow his removal. Mr. Davis
-promptly recognized the logic of the situation, and expressed his
-willingness to accept Blair's displacement as an olive branch and
-give his earnest support to the Baltimore ticket.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler next proceeded to New York, and opened
-negotiations there with the managers of the Fremont movement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
-He had expected Mr. Wade to join him, but was disappointed
-in this; he met at the Astor House the Hon. David II. Jerome
-of Saginaw and the Hon. Ebenezer O. Grosvenor of Jonesville,
-with whom he frequently counseled, and he also obtained the
-assistance of George Wilkes of the <cite>Spirit of the Times</cite>. Mr.
-Wilkes was well known as the master of a pure and vigorous
-English, and no war correspondent equaled him in accurate, lucid
-and graphic descriptions of important movements and famous
-battles. The public, however, did not know the extent of his
-political ability, of his skill in affairs and of his patriotic energy,
-and these qualities proved of the highest usefulness to Mr.
-Chandler in the completion of his delicate mission. Without the
-aid so intelligently and zealously rendered by Mr. Wilkes, Mr.
-Chandler doubted whether complete success would have been
-possible. The negotiations were protracted for some days, but
-ultimately the leaders of the Fremont organization agreed that,
-if Mr. Blair (whom General Fremont regarded as a bitter
-enemy) left the Cabinet and all other sources of Republican
-opposition to the Baltimore nominees were removed, the Cleveland
-ticket should be formally withdrawn from the field. While
-these conferences were in progress Mr. Chandler learned that the
-editor of one of the influential evening papers of New York,
-who had originally doubted the propriety of Mr. Lincoln's
-renomination, had concluded that his election was not possible
-and had prepared "a leader" urging his withdrawal, the holding
-of a second convention, and Republican union upon either General
-Fremont or some other candidate who could command the
-solid party support. It was not until the day of the intended
-publication of the article and after it was in type that Mr.
-Chandler learned of its existence, and then by instant and earnest
-efforts he obtained its withholding until the result of his
-labors could be known. Ultimately all obstacles yielded to his
-persistence and skill, and he started for the capital to inform<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
-Mr. Lincoln of the close of the negotiations and to ask the fulfillment
-of the assurances concerning Mr. Blair's removal. On
-reaching Washington he went instantly to the White House, was
-admitted to an immediate private interview with the President
-in preference to a great throng of visitors, and reported in detail
-the successful result of his labors. On the day of this call upon
-Mr. Lincoln (Sept. 22, 1864) the newspapers published General
-Fremont's letter withdrawing his name as a presidential candidate.
-In it he said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The presidential contest has in effect been entered upon in such a way
-that the union of the Republican party has become a paramount necessity.
-The policy of the Democratic party signifies either separation or re-establishment
-with slavery. The Chicago platform is simply separation. General
-McClellan's letter of acceptance is re-establishment with slavery. The Republican
-candidate is, on the contrary, pledged to the re-establishment of the
-Union <em>without</em> slavery, and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure
-of his party will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues I
-think that no man of the Liberal party can remain in doubt. I believe I am
-consistent with my antecedents and my principles in withdrawing&mdash;- not to aid
-in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election
-of the Democratic candidate. In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to
-hold exactly the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider
-that his administration has been politically, militarily and financially a failure,
-and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret to the country.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>On the following day this correspondence took place:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Executive Mansion, Washington</span>, Sept. 23, 1864.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Hon. Montgomery Blair.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: You have generously said to me more than once that,
-whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal.
-That time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction
-of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness
-has been unsurpassed by that of any friend, and while it is true that the war
-does not seem greatly to add to the difficulties of your department, as to those
-of some others, it is not too much to say, which I most truly can, that in the
-three years and a half during which you have administered the general postoffice
-I remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith.
-Yours as ever,</p>
-
-<p class="right">ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</p></blockquote>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Postoffice Department</span>, Sept. 23, 1864.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: I have received your note of this date referring to my
-offer to resign whenever you would deem it advisable for the public interest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
-that I should do so, and stating that in your judgment that time has come.
-I now, therefore, formally tender my resignation of the office of Postmaster-General.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot take leave of you without renewing the expression of my gratitude
-for the uniform kindness which has marked your course toward me.</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Yours truly,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 31em;">M. BLAIR.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>To the President.</em><br />
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Blair's resignation was accepted by the majority of
-Republicans throughout the North as a "cleansing of the Cabinet,"<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>
-and party lines were at once re-formed. The "radicals"
-became earnest supporters of the Baltimore ticket, no Republican
-demand for a new nomination or a second convention appeared,
-Mr. Davis ceased his trenchant criticisms, and Mr. Wade took
-the stump and made a series of exceedingly effective speeches in
-Ohio and Pennsylvania. Military success also came with its
-powerful help. General Sherman crowned his campaign by the
-capture of Atlanta, General Grant drew the coils of "the anaconda"
-daily tighter about the rebel capital, and General Sheridan
-fairly "swept" Early from the valley of the Shenandoah.
-The results of the September elections had been dubious in
-significance, but those of October were decisive Republican victories
-and preceded an overwhelming triumph in November. Mr.
-Chandler (who had in 1863 taken an active share in the campaigns
-in New York and Illinois,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Michigan not holding any
-general election in that year) returned from his labors of mediation
-to his own State and spoke to almost daily mass-meetings
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>in its chief towns throughout the month of October. Michigan
-gave to the Lincoln electors a majority of 16,917, and sent only
-Republicans to the Thirty-ninth Congress. Mr. Chandler's contribution
-to this result was not unimportant, but it was of
-meagre value compared with his labors upon a broader field in
-healing grave dissensions and in quietly removing a cause of danger
-which was deeply founded, and which, although now almost
-forgotten, was then of no slight actual proportions and of very
-serious possibilities. It was characteristic of the man that this
-self-prompted and successful service, one of the greatest he ever
-rendered to Republicanism, was rarely mentioned by him afterward,
-and never as if it was more than was due to the cause of
-his political faith nor as if it gave him any especial claim upon
-the party gratitude.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Mr. Chandler explained the ground of his opposition to the ten per cent. loyal basis
-plan of reconstruction proposed by Mr. Lincoln for the admission of Louisiana and Arkansas.
-There were not more than seven or eight members of the Senate with him at the
-beginning of the session on that question, although there was a large majority before its
-close. The Democrats did not believe in this ten per cent. doctrine, and they voted with
-those who did not believe in admitting those States without guarantees. This admission
-was finally prevented by a night of filibustering. Only six Republicans remained and voted
-during that night. The result, however, proved that those six men were right, and that
-Mr. Lincoln and the others were wrong. If Louisiana and Arkansas had been admitted,
-then we would have been compelled to admit all the other States in the same way, and
-to-day we would have eleven rebel States in the Union. Those two States, Louisiana and
-Arkansas, had become the most intensely rebel of all the States that were in rebellion.&mdash;<em>Report
-of his speech, before the Republican caucus at Lansing on Jan. 6, 1869.</em></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Mr. Greeley's comment in the New York "Tribune" was: "Precisely why Mr. Lincoln
-thought this action called for at this moment, rather than at any other time in the
-last four months, we are not told." This chapter shows that Mr. Chandler could have
-"told" him.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> If the North had been a unit the rebellion would long ago have been crushed. But
-the rebels found out we were not a unit at any time, so they persevered, so they invaded
-Pennsylvania, so they hoped to take Washington, and to raise insurrection all over the
-land. The only hope of the South to-day is in the traitors of the North.... They will
-fail in the contest. Instead of having established a slave empire they will have, by their
-own acts, destroyed all the securities that slavery ever possessed. They will have swept
-away all the compromises by which slavery has been tolerated by a forbearing people.&mdash;<em>Senator
-Chandler at Springfield, Ill., on Sept. 7, 1863.</em></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
-
-THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON&mdash;RECONSTRUCTION AND
-IMPEACHMENT.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_279.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">On</span> the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was
-assassinated at Ford's theater in the city of Washington.
-The universal grief was fitly described by Disraeli,
-who said, in the British Commons, that the character
-of the victim and the circumstances of his death took the event
-"out of all the pomp of history and the ceremonial of diplomacy;
-it touched the heart of nations and appealed to the
-domestic sentiment of mankind." Its effect upon the American
-people was profound, and it deepened vastly the public
-appreciation of the essential barbarity of the prejudices, passions
-and ambitions which had plunged the republic into civil war.</p>
-
-<p>The members of the Committee on the Conduct of the War
-returned on the evening of this crime from Richmond, having
-made an unsuccessful attempt to visit North Carolina for the purpose
-of taking testimony in regard to the Fort Fisher expedition.
-On the following morning they met, and addressed a formal
-note to Andrew Johnson, who had, while a Senator, served upon
-that committee, expressing the wish of his "old associates" to
-call upon him and acquaint him with "many things which they
-had seen and heard at Richmond." They were promptly admitted
-to his apartments at the Kirkwood House, and were among
-the first to talk freely with the man who had been so tragically
-made President of the newly-restored Union. Mr. Johnson had
-just been sworn into office by Chief Justice Chase in the
-presence of some of the Cabinet and a few Congressmen, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
-naturally the conversation chiefly turned upon the pursuit of the
-assassins, and the proper punishment of the men who had
-inspired or countenanced this crime, as well as of its actual committers.
-As a sequel of this conference, an important meeting
-was held on the following day (Sunday, April 16, 1865) in the
-President's rooms. By appointment Senators Chandler and Wade
-and John Covode (an original member of the Committee on the
-Conduct of the War, then a contestant for a seat in the House)
-called upon Mr. Johnson, and proceeded to consider with him
-what policy should be pursued toward the chiefs of the conquered
-rebellion. They believed that the public interest required
-that examples should be made of a few of the more guilty of
-the Southern traitors, and urged such a course upon the President.
-They found him&mdash;confronted as he was with the danger
-of assassination, and recollecting his own sufferings as a Southern
-Unionist&mdash;eager for measures of extreme rigor, and were compelled
-at the outset to seek to moderate a violence of intention
-on his part, which was certain to defeat the aim they were
-anxious to secure, namely: that of impressing the public with a
-sense of the justice as well as the severity of the punishment of
-deliberate and inexcusable treason. Andrew Johnson's disposition
-was to give to the contemplated proceedings rather a revengeful
-than a sternly retributive complexion. The relations of Mr.
-Chandler, Mr. Wade and Mr. Covode with their former fellow-committeeman
-were then exceedingly intimate, and they labored
-to restrain his vehemence and to direct his determination into a
-channel of action which should be just and not passionate, and
-should thus yield wholesome influences. It had been suggested
-that Davis and other fugitive rebels should be allowed to escape
-to Mexico or Europe, and the question of their punishment thus
-evaded; this plan was promptly condemned by all the participants
-in the conference, and there was a general agreement that
-the leaders of the rebellion should be arrested as rapidly as pos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>sible
-and held to answer for their offenses. The next question
-that arose related to the best method of procedure after these
-men had been captured, and then it was decided than Gen.
-Benjamin F. Butler should be sent for to give his advice as a
-lawyer. Mr. Covode undertook this errand and soon returned
-with him. Mr. Chandler then stated to General Butler the subject
-of the conference, and the President added that he was
-anxious to make a historical example of the leading traitors, for
-its moral effect upon the future, and took exceedingly extreme
-ground on this point, much more so than the other gentlemen
-were willing to approve. All of those present expressed their
-opinions in turn, after Mr. Johnson had concluded, and all agreed
-upon one point, namely: that in the case of the seizure of
-Jefferson Davis he should be summarily punished by death. Mr.
-Chandler remarked, with emphasis:</p>
-
-<p>"You have only to hang a few of these traitors and all will
-be peace and quiet in the South. A few men have done the
-mischief, and the masses of the people were misled by them.
-They have put the country in great peril to gratify their
-political ambition and they ought to suffer the penalty of
-treason as a warning to all men hereafter."</p>
-
-<p>To this Andrew Johnson replied that Mr. Chandler could
-not know the full enormity of the crime Davis and his associates
-had committed, that Northern men could never realize
-the sufferings the rebellion had brought upon the loyal people
-of the South, and that no punishment could be too severe. He
-added that he was determined that a precedent should be established
-that would be forever a terror to such men as had conspired
-to overthrow the government.</p>
-
-<p>After some further conversation, the President asked General
-Butler for his professional opinion, as to whether Davis, Benjamin,
-Floyd, Wigfall, and the other civil officers of the Confederacy,
-could be tried by a military commission. General Butler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
-replied that if they could be arrested in the insurrectionary
-States&mdash;in any locality under military control and where no civil
-authority existed or was recognized&mdash;they could be arraigned
-before such a tribunal, but a court of this character would
-have no jurisdiction if the criminals should get upon foreign
-soil, or, before being apprehended, reach any district where the
-civil law was in force. Mr. Chandler then urged that Davis
-should, by all means, be secured before he had a chance to leave
-the seceded States; and inquired as to the situation of the troops
-in the South and the probability of their defeating an attempt by
-Davis to fly through Mexico, or by boat on the Gulf. President
-Johnson replied that no way was open for his escape, but that
-he would be captured, dead or alive. The supposition that Davis
-was implicated in the assassination plot was then discussed with
-some difference of opinion, and finally the President asked General
-Butler to indicate a plan for the prosecution and punishment
-of Davis and his associates, for the use of the government.
-General Butler consented and the conference ended.</p>
-
-<p>With the preparation of the memorandum thus requested,
-General Butler occupied almost his entire time for several weeks,
-investigating precedents, and examining authorities with the
-utmost thoroughness. During this work he was repeatedly in
-consultation with Mr. Chandler, who saw all of his notes and
-made many suggestions; before its completion, Davis had been
-captured and sent to Fortress Monroe. General Butler's plan
-was submitted to President Johnson in the latter part of May,
-1865. It was long and elaborate, was based upon an exhaustive
-examination of the history of all military tribunals, and set forth
-in substance these propositions:</p>
-
-<p>1. That Davis could be tried by a military commission, having
-been captured while in rebellion in a locality where no
-lawful civil authority existed. This tribunal could sit at Fortress
-Monroe, where Davis was a prisoner, as that was still within the
-military lines.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>2. That this commission should be composed of the thirteen
-officers of the highest rank in the army; this provision would
-have made it consist of Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant; Major-Generals
-H. W. Halleck, W. T. Sherman, George G. Meade,
-Philip H. Sheridan, George H. Thomas, and Brigadier-Generals
-Irwin McDowell, Wm. S. Rosecrans, Philip St. George Cooke,
-John Pope, Joseph Hooker, W. S. Hancock, and John M.
-Schofield.</p>
-
-<p>3. That in case of conviction, before the sentence should
-be executed, Davis should be allowed an opportunity to appeal
-to the Supreme Court of the United States; this would silence
-criticism, secure Davis all his legal rights, and establish a precedent
-which might stand for all time.</p>
-
-<p>4. That the only doubt that existed as to the conviction of
-Davis was to be found in the question of the jurisdiction of the
-military commission.</p>
-
-<p>5. That the prosecution should hold Davis's assumption of
-military authority against the United States as the overt act of
-treason, and that his military orders, his commissions of officers,
-his official announcements of himself as "commander-in-chief of
-the military and naval forces of the Confederate States," his official
-reviews of troops, the official reports made to him by commanders
-of armies in rebellion, should be proven to establish
-the case.</p>
-
-<p>6. That the record of the oaths taken by him as an officer
-in the United States army, as a Senator, and as Secretary of
-War, should be shown with evidence that he had violated them.</p>
-
-<p>7. That the various acts of cruelty to prisoners of war committed
-by his orders should be proven; other minor counts
-could also be introduced in the indictment to secure an accumulation
-of charges.</p>
-
-<p>General Butler's memorandum further set forth that the
-prosecution should expect to be met by the defense:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>1. With the question of jurisdiction.</p>
-
-<p>2. With an attempt to prove the right of secession.</p>
-
-<p>3. With the claim that the duty of allegiance to a state was
-superior to the duty of allegiance to the general government.</p>
-
-<p>4. With the claim that the acts of which Davis was accused
-were performed by him as the head of a <i lang="la">de facto</i> government,
-to which office he had been elected under forms of law.</p>
-
-<p>5. With the further point that the recognition of this <i lang="la">de facto</i>
-government by the United States in the exchange of prisoners,
-in the acceptance of terms of surrender, in the observance of
-flags of truce, and in correspondence of various kinds, amounted
-to such a recognition of the existence of a government with
-which it was at war, as must prevent the United States from
-claiming that participation therein was treason.</p>
-
-<p>These were the chief points which General Butler thought
-the defense would set up, and in his brief he grouped a powerful
-array of precedents and decisions upon which the prosecution
-could rest its case and meet these objections. During the early
-stages of this work, Mr. Chandler, General Butler and others,
-who firmly held that stern punishment should be meted out to a
-few conspicuous rebels&mdash;not in a spirit of vengeance, but from
-a belief that salutary results would follow if it should be established
-as a historical fact that in the United States treason is a
-high crime whose penalty is death&mdash;were constantly anxious
-lest the President should by some violent act or word destroy
-the moral effect of their position. In public he said repeatedly
-at this time that "the penalties of the law must be in a
-stern and inflexible manner executed upon conscious, intelligent
-and influential traitors," but his private utterances far outstripped
-this language, and were often scarcely less than bloodthirsty.
-Mr. Chandler, on one occasion, came away from the
-White House greatly disturbed by Mr. Johnson's disposition to
-treat this subject with mere anger, and characteristically said to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>
-Senator Wade and Mr. Hamlin, "Johnson has the nightmare, and
-it is important that he should be watched." General Butler's
-memorandum Mr. Chandler heartily approved as clear in scope,
-just in spirit, and certain to prove effective in operation, but, by
-the time it was fully completed, a great change had taken place
-in the disposition of the President. In April he was in favor
-of hanging every body; in June he was opposed to hanging any
-one. He finally ignored entirely the memorandum which General
-Butler had drawn up at his request, and decided that Davis
-should be tried by the civil authorities at Richmond, where his
-crimes had been committed. As a result the arch-rebel was
-allowed to remain in prison at Fortress Monroe for nearly two
-years, because of the lack of a civil court competent to take
-jurisdiction of his case. In 1866 he was indicted and arraigned,
-and in 1867 was admitted to bail; a year later a <i lang="la">nolle prosequi</i>
-was entered, and the case against him dismissed. Before this
-matter had reached its second stage even, Mr. Chandler had
-become convinced that Andrew Johnson had determined to
-desert the party which had elevated him to the vice-presidency,
-and with that knowledge ceased to act as his adviser and became
-one of the most active of his political enemies. The leniency of
-the course finally pursued toward Davis Mr. Chandler then and
-afterward regarded as a grave public mistake, and believed that
-the failure to enforce the death penalty where it was so
-thoroughly deserved was exceedingly unfortunate in its influence
-upon popular opinion, and did more than any other one cause
-to encourage the disloyal classes of the South in their plans for
-ultimately recapturing the political supremacy they had forfeited
-by rebellion.</p>
-
-<p>Precisely the causes which led Andrew Johnson so quickly
-back into close fellowship with the men whom he had regarded
-as his inveterate enemies will never be known. It is probable
-that originally they were slight, but his temperament rapidly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
-widened disagreement into irreconcilable hostility. His maudlin
-speech on Inauguration-day so incensed many of his supporters
-that the Republican senators, at a formal gathering, actually considered
-a proposition (urged by Mr. Sumner) to request him to
-resign the office he had disgraced. The conference decided
-against such a step, but Mr. Johnson heard of the movement,
-and regarded those who approved it with much bitterness; his
-hatred of them undoubtedly fed his growing dislike for the
-party of which they were influential leaders. Again, he was a
-thorough representative of the "poor whites" of the South. He
-felt their jealousy of the planting aristocracy which monopolized
-political power in his section, and this made him such a vigorous
-opponent of the secession conspiracy which that oligarchy organized
-and led. But he also shared in the prejudice of his own
-class against the negroes, and, when he saw the disposition of
-the Republicans to accord to the freedmen equal rights and
-privileges before the law, he refused to join in that movement
-and set doggedly about defeating such plans. Precisely how
-great Mr. Seward's influence over him was at this time is not
-clear, but it is certain that the change in his attitude toward
-Republicanism was simultaneous with the slow recovery of his
-Secretary of State from the blows of Payne's dagger. His
-combative obstinacy also made him fiercely resent the vigorous
-criticisms which his "policy" of reconstruction invited when first
-announced; Congress did not meet for months after his accession
-to the presidency, and its leaders were not in position to check
-his course, either by organized remonstrance or by legislative
-interposition; the rebels who had been denouncing him savagely
-were prompt to flatter his vanity and to offer promises of support;
-and, as a result, when the Thirty-ninth Congress met on
-December 4, 1865, the break between the President and the
-Republican party had passed beyond mending. Mr. Johnson
-entered at once upon that shameful course, which included the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
-betrayal of those who had trusted him and the disgrace of his
-high office by lamentable public exhibitions of passion and boorishness,
-and which led to great and durable public injury by
-trebling the difficulties surrounding the delicate and important
-work of reconstructing the "Confederacy." Mr. Chandler's distrust
-of the President commenced with his change of tone in
-regard to the punishment of treason and with the first manifestation
-of his intention to assume full control of reconstruction
-and to practically restore the rebels to power in the subdued
-States. They had one stormy interview at the White House, in
-which Mr. Chandler, after touching upon the implicit character
-of his confidence in the President during their senatorial service,
-denounced his new course as a violation of his sacred pledges
-and a base surrender to traitors, and left him indignantly and
-forever. From that time he regarded Andrew Johnson as a
-public enemy, whose opportunities for evil were to be lessened
-by every possible lawful restriction. He did not oppose the
-efforts made by his more hopeful associates in December, 1865,
-to re-establish harmony between the Capitol and the White
-House, but he predicted their failure. All the legislation which
-diminished Johnson's power for harm he ardently supported. The
-bills to admit Nebraska and Colorado (the Colorado bill failed at
-this time) he was especially active in pushing, from a belief that
-it was important to increase the Republican ascendency in the
-Senate while there was an uncertainty as to how much strength
-the "Johnson men" proper (Senators Doolittle, Dixon, Norton,
-and Cowan) might develop. It was largely through Mr. Chandler's
-untiring exertions, also, that the Fortieth Senate elected
-Benjamin F. Wade as its President, and thus made him the
-acting Vice-President of the United States, a position of the
-very highest responsibility in the then critical state of national
-affairs.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler aided in shaping and passing the reconstruction
-measures of 1866-'67-'68, not for the reason that they precisely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
-embodied his ideas of the true method to be pursued, but
-because they presented a plan upon which the Republicans
-could be united, which was practicable, and which promised to
-reorganize the Southern States on the basis of the supremacy
-of the loyal elements in their population. When Andrew Johnson
-took the first step in unfolding his "policy" (by his general
-amnesty proclamation and by the appointment of a provisional
-governor for North Carolina, both acts bearing the date of May
-29, 1865) the "Confederacy" had ceased to exist, its chieftain
-was a captive, its armies were prisoners of war on parole, its
-capacity for resistance had been consumed in the furnace of
-battle, but its bitterness still glowed and the prejudices and
-ambitions which gave it being were undestroyed. The amnesty
-proclamation relieved, with a few exceptions, those who bore
-arms against the government and the most virulent supporters of
-rebellion who remained at home from all pains and penalties on
-the sole condition that they should subscribe to an oath of
-future loyalty. The provisional government proclamations permitted
-all persons thus amnestied, who were voters according to
-laws of the States previous to the rebellion, to elect delegates
-to conventions to amend the local constitutions and restore the
-States to their "constitutional relations with the federal government."
-By this process the loyal colored men of the South
-were denied the right to participate in the work of reconstruction
-and the entire machinery of reorganization was placed in
-the control of men whose hands were yet red with Union blood.
-Their discretion was only hampered by three conditions, compliance
-with which was made essential to the presidential approval
-of their work. They were required to annul the secession ordinances,
-to formally recognize the abolition of slavery, and to
-repudiate all debts created to promote rebellion. Beyond this,
-the disloyal classes of the South were left in undisputed mastery
-of the situation. The control of the insurgent States, and of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
-lives and fortunes of the loyalists, white and black, were surrendered
-absolutely to the men who but a few weeks before had
-been wrecked in the catastrophe which overwhelmed the rebellion.
-That they were prompt to improve this unexpected, undeserved
-and mistaken leniency need not be said. Their use of
-their new power was both presumptuous and intolerant. In
-elections, which proscribed Union men as unworthy of trust, conventions
-were chosen which accepted ungraciously the mere fact
-of emancipation, and which repudiated the rebel debts only under
-repeated presidential compulsion. State governments were then
-organized, which placed men whose disloyalty had been conspicuous
-in responsible positions, and which sent unamnestied leaders
-of the rebellion in the field and in council to Washington as
-claimants of Congressional seats. The State legislation which followed
-embodied in shameful laws the unquenched diabolism of
-the slave power. In statutory phraseology these enactments
-declared, "politically and socially this is a white man's government,"
-and, impudently asserting that Congress was without any
-power over the matter, the men who had, in form, admitted the
-death of slavery proceeded to establish peonage in its stead. No
-body of laws adopted by any civilized nation in this century has
-equaled in studied injustice and cruelty those by which the
-"Johnson governments" of 1865 and 1866 sought to prevent the
-freedmen from rising from the level of admitted and hopeless
-inferiority, and to convince the blacks that in ceasing to be slaves
-they had only become serfs. Colored people were denied the right
-to acquire or dispose of public property. It was made a crime for
-a negro to enter a plantation without the consent of its owner
-or agent. Freedmen were declared vagrants, and punished as
-such for preaching the gospel without a license from some regularly
-organized church. Colored men failing to pay capitation
-tax were declared vagrants and the sale of their services was permitted
-as a penalty. Black persons were prohibited from renting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
-or leasing lands except in incorporated towns or villages. Their
-owning or bearing arms was declared to be a violation of the
-peace. For a negro to break a labor contract was made an
-offense punishable by imprisonment. Colored laborers on farms
-were prohibited from selling poultry or farm products, and it
-was made a misdemeanor to purchase from them. This class
-was also denied the right of forming part of the militia, and it
-was made an offense for any freedman to enter a religious or
-other assembly of whites, or go with them into any rail car or
-public conveyance. White persons "usually associating themselves
-with freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes" were also
-declared to be vagrants in the eye of the law. The colored people
-were prohibited from practicing any art, trade or business
-except husbandry, without special license from the courts. And
-most infamous of all were the statutes for the compulsory
-apprenticeship of colored children with or without the consent
-of parents, which practically re-established over the next generation
-of the freed people slavery with the whipping-post and
-overseer's lash. One State by joint resolution tendered thanks
-to Jefferson Davis "for the noble and patriotic manner in which
-he conducted the affairs of <em>our</em> government while President of
-the Confederacy," and other resolutions were adopted declaring
-that "nothing more is required for the restoration of law and
-order but the withdrawal of federal bayonets." [The fell spirit
-and tendency of the reaction which was thus revealed found still
-more significant expression in the revolting butchery in and
-around the Mechanic's Institute of New Orleans on the 30th of
-July, 1866.] Some of these infamous measures were adopted in all
-the insurrectionary States, others in only some of them, but
-without exception the new Southern governments which Andrew
-Johnson's "policy" created were founded upon the traditions
-of the slave system and the memories of "the lost cause." The
-objection that the President had, in thus taking the work of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
-reconstruction into his own hands, usurped authority devolved
-upon Congress by the constitution, was a strong one, but it
-received but little popular attention. Anger at the results of
-that "policy" obscured the mere disapproval of its methods.
-When it was seen that the rebellion had merely changed its
-theater of action, and that what it lost on the battle-field it
-proposed to secure by legislation, there was but one opinion
-among the masses of the people who had heartily supported the
-war and were sincerely anxious to preserve its fruits. Their
-emphatic demand was that the illegal and reactionary governments
-set up by the President should be overturned, and the South
-reconstructed in the interests of loyalty and liberty. Congress,
-as part of its stubborn contest with Andrew Johnson, undertook
-this work. It refused to recognize the pretended State governments
-or to admit their Congressmen. It divided the territory
-of the conquered States into five military districts, and placed it
-under the control of the army until a juster system of reconstruction
-could be applied. It then provided that in the calling
-of conventions to frame new constitutions colored men should be
-permitted to vote; that those revised instruments must confer
-the elective franchise upon all loyal colored people and all
-whites not disfranchised for rebellion; that the work of the conventions
-must be submitted to the colored and white people not
-disfranchised for approval; that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
-Amendments to the national constitution must be ratified; and
-that the State constitutions so adopted must be submitted to and
-accepted by Congress. Upon this general plan the South was
-reconstructed, not without much friction, not wholly to the satisfaction
-of the men who marked out this course of procedure,
-but with the faith (or at least the trust) on their part that it
-would restore that section to the Union with genuinely free
-institutions, that it would protect the emancipated slave in his
-rights, and that it would substitute for disloyal communities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>
-States controlled by those whose interests and traditions lay with
-the national cause. The reconstruction laws were not vengeful
-in character; the aim of the men who passed them was not
-retaliation, not even retribution except in so far as the application
-of mild penalties to treason might increase the security of
-the future. To prevent a repetition of the terrible struggle
-which had just closed was the aim; that a political system had
-been devised, which both recognized human rights, and by its
-natural operations would exclude from political power the men
-who had plunged the country into civil war, was the hope.
-Within ten years the scheme failed utterly, and what it was
-designed to prevent had been accomplished upon its ruins. No
-body of laws can maintain itself in the face of organized murder
-and terrorism which authority refuses to either punish or
-prevent.</p>
-
-<p>The reconstruction measures, while they commanded Mr.
-Chandler's general assent, were laxer in details than he would
-have made them. He felt, as Thaddeus Stevens said, that much
-that they ought to have contained was "defeated by the united
-forces of self-righteous Republicans and unrighteous Copperheads,"
-but held that the bills which were passed deserved support
-as a whole on the ground that it was not wise to "throw
-away a great good because it is not perfect." Schuyler Colfax
-closed one of his speeches upon this subject as follows:
-"Loyalty must govern what loyalty preserved." Mr. Chandler
-complimented him warmly and said, "You got it all into one
-sentence," and that doctrine and the belief in equal rights for
-citizens of every color guided his share of the work upon all
-measures affecting reconstruction. His chief regret was that the
-process of this reorganization was not prolonged until the loyal
-sentiment of the South had become strong enough and intelligent
-enough to maintain itself. If his wishes had prevailed, the
-provisional governing of that section would have been continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
-until the education of the blacks, the death of the rebel leaders,
-and the extinguishment by time of the prejudices and animosities
-of the war had accomplished such a wholesome revolution
-in sentiment throughout that section as would in itself have been
-a loyal and durable reconstruction. As this was not possible, he
-spared no effort to make successful the experiment which was
-attempted; if others had been as resolute and faithful as he, it
-would not have failed. He did not share in the disposition of
-so many Republicans to abandon what had been just commenced
-because of the imperfection of its first fruits. He stood manfully
-for the maintenance by Northern opinion and by the aid
-of the United States of the loyal State governments of the
-South, not claiming they were faultless, but because they were
-based on justice and were far better than that which would take
-their place if they fell. When they were assailed by assassination,
-by massacre, and by systematic terrorizing, he believed that
-it was the duty of the general government to use all its authority
-and all its force to protect its citizens in their rights and to
-prevent the harvesting by unpunished traitors of the fruits of
-atrocities as brutal and bloody as Saint Bartholomew. The policy
-of political murder triumphed finally at the South, not through
-any weakness of such men as he, nor through any failure upon
-his part to denounce that vast crime. He labored strenuously to
-kindle Northern opinion into such a flame of just wrath as
-would have made impossible that victory of organized brutality.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler, was often described by political opponents as
-"the relentless enemy of the South;" nothing was farther from
-the fact. That small minority of the Southern people, who
-ruled that section with oligarchical power before and during
-the war, who organized and led the rebellion, and who have
-now regained supremacy by outrage and murder, he always distrusted
-and attacked. But the great majority of the people of
-the South&mdash;the blacks whom those men rob of their rights and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>
-the whites whom they mislead&mdash;he profoundly pitied, and their
-cause he espoused. For them he demanded equal rights before
-the law, a free ballot box, the common school, and an opportunity
-to prove their manhood. Those who resisted a policy so
-just and civilizing he was quick to denounce in unstinted terms,
-and upon them he did not waste conciliation. They&mdash;not "the
-South"&mdash;found him the inappeasable, but still "the avowed, the
-erect, the manly foe."</p>
-
-<p>In the elections of 1866 the issues were chiefly those connected
-with reconstruction, and Mr. Chandler as usual spoke in
-his own and other Western States, exposing the malign results
-of Mr. Johnson's "policy" and in advocacy of the Congressional
-plan and the Fourteenth Amendment. The general tenor of his
-speeches will appear from this extract from an address delivered
-at Detroit, at the close of the political campaign:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>These perjured traitors are permitted to live here, but we say to them
-they can never again hold office unless Congress by a two-thirds vote shall
-remove the disability; why, a man who has committed perjury alone, right
-here in Michigan, you would not allow to testify before a justice of the
-peace in the most petty case. But we forget the perjury of the rebels
-which would send them to the State prison, we forget the hanging which
-follows treason, and say to them simply, that for the future they can never
-hold office. Personally I am not in favor of the last clause of this section
-which gives Congress the power to remove this disability by a two-thirds
-vote. I would have let this race of perjured traitors die out, out of office,
-and educate the rising generation to loyalty. But it is in the amendment
-and I advocate its adoption as it is.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Often during the progress of the obstinate struggle between
-Andrew Johnson and Congress his attempts to evade law and
-his encroachments upon the powers vested in the legislative
-branch of the government led to the serious consideration in the
-House of Representatives of the question of impeachment. Several
-resolutions ordering the preferring of charges against him at
-the bar of the Senate were presented without action, but on the
-7th of January, 1867, the Hon. J. M. Ashley of Ohio offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
-a preamble, beginning, "I do impeach Andrew Johnson, Vice-President
-and acting President of the United States, of high
-crimes and misdemeanors. I charge him with usurpation of
-power and violation of law in that he has corruptly used the
-appointing power; ... corruptly used the pardoning
-power; ... corruptly used the veto power; ...
-corruptly disposed of public property; ... and corruptly
-interfered in elections." With this preamble was a resolution
-referring the charges to the Judiciary Committee to inquire if
-the President had been guilty of acts which were "calculated to
-overthrow, subvert or corrupt the government." By a vote of
-108 yeas to 39 nays this reference was ordered, but no report
-was made until November 25, 1867, and then a resolution of
-impeachment was submitted by Mr. Boutwell in behalf of
-the majority of the committee. On December 7, this resolution
-was rejected by a vote of 57 to 108. Encouraged by this result
-Mr. Johnson, who had suspended Edwin M. Stanton from the
-Secretaryship of War during the Congressional recess of 1867,
-and whose action had been disapproved by the Senate under the
-Tenure of Civil Office act, undertook to force Mr. Stanton out
-by a second suspension on February 21, 1868, accompanied by
-an order appointing Gen. Lorenzo Thomas Secretary <i lang="la">ad interim</i>.
-Mr. Stanton declined to acknowledge the President's power to
-take this step, refused to give place to General Thomas, and for
-many days and nights remained in constant occupation of the
-department offices. The House of Representatives at once
-arraigned the President before the Senate for this attempted
-violation of the Tenure of Office act, and his trial followed.
-Chief Justice Chase presided; the proceedings lasted from February
-25 until May 26, 1868; and in the end Mr. Johnson was
-acquitted, exactly the number of Republican Senators necessary
-to defeat conviction voting with the Democratic minority.
-These proceedings Mr. Chandler watched with the liveliest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
-interest, and the failure of the impeachment was one of the
-most bitter disappointments of his political career. He sincerely
-believed that Johnson's course fully merited a verdict of
-"guilty," and he felt that the great difficulties surrounding the
-problem of the loyal reconstruction of the South would disappear
-if the executive department of the government was administered
-with the Jacksonian vigor and patriotism of Benjamin F.
-Wade. Mr. Stanton's refusal to permit the President to displace
-him without the consent of the Senate he endorsed with the
-utmost heartiness, and, while the Secretary remained in his office
-to prevent its seizure by Mr. Johnson's <i lang="la">ad interim</i> appointee, Mr.
-Chandler spent night after night with him, and did all that was
-possible to strengthen his resolution and to lighten his voluntary
-confinement. On one occasion, when there were signs of an
-intention on the part of the claimant to use force, Mr. Chandler,
-General Logan, and a few others gathered together about
-a hundred trusty men, who occupied the basement of the department,
-and there did garrison duty until the danger was past.
-During Johnson's trial Mr. Chandler was not forgetful of his
-position as a judge, and was an attentive listener to the evidence
-and the arguments before and in the court of impeachment.
-He was restive under the length of the proceedings, however,
-and did advise the managers on the part of the House to push
-the case along as rapidly as possible, urging that the public
-interest required the ending of the general suspense. He felt
-then, and said afterward, that the delay was used to effect combinations
-with, and apply pressure to, individual Senators, which
-would induce them to favor acquittal. That this was done he
-never doubted, and he repeatedly denounced in the strongest
-terms, both in public and private, the action of the seven
-Republicans (Senators Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes, Henderson,
-Fowler, Ross and Van Winkle) who voted "not guilty" with
-the Democrats and the "Johnson men." He was especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>
-indignant at the course of Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull,
-and on several occasions in after years came into sharp personal
-collision with them during the Senate debates. The final failure
-of the impeachment movement he felt as a blow. One who
-knew him well has said: "He believed that republican government
-was at stake and impeachment a necessity. Never was
-there a time when he came so near despairing of the republic
-as at that event."</p>
-
-<p>The Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses remained in
-nearly continuous session for over three years "watching the
-White House." Outside of the exciting political topics which
-received so large a share of their attention, they were compelled
-to deal with important financial, commercial and material
-questions affecting vitally the general interest. The currency and
-public debt demanded simplification; the tax system was to be
-changed from a war to a peace footing; the commercial wrecks
-of many years called for a bankrupt law; bounties were to be
-equalized, pensions provided, and war claims adjusted on wise
-bases; neglected internal improvements clamored for renovation
-and extension; the ocean commerce required national care; and
-innumerable minor interests, long neglected under the stress of
-civil war, needed instant attention. Mr. Chandler worked with
-characteristic energy and practical wisdom in all these branches
-of legislative activity, and rendered public services of varied and
-permanent usefulness.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
-
-THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT&mdash;THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL
-COMMITTEE.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_298.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">In</span> the presidential election of 1868 Mr. Chandler was
-even more than usually active, both as an organizer and
-speaker. He delivered nearly forty addresses in his own
-State, which gave to the Grant and Colfax ticket 31,492
-majority, and elected a Republican Congressman in each of its
-six districts. The Legislature chosen at the same time had 66
-Republican majority upon joint ballot, and re-elected Mr. Chandler
-for his third Senatorial term, the Democratic vote being cast
-for the Hon. Sanford M. Green of Bay City. In the Republican
-caucus there was practically no opposition to Mr. Chandler's
-renomination, and he received on the first and only ballot 78
-votes, 13 other ballots being cast for seven gentlemen by way of
-personal compliment. The inauguration of President Grant, on
-March 4, 1869, renewed Mr. Chandler's influence with the executive
-branch of the government, and the political and personal
-friendship between him and the modest, resolute, and illustrious
-soldier who succeeded Andrew Johnson grew mutually stronger
-and more appreciative from that day.</p>
-
-<p>Very much of the legislation of President Grant's first term,
-which received Mr. Chandler's vigilant attention and absorbed no
-small share of his energy, related to the details of the public
-business, and furnishes no biographical material of permanent
-interest. He supported the Fifteenth Amendment in all its stages,
-and also the Civil Rights bills, which he regarded as incomplete,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
-but still as the taking of steps in the direction of justice.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> It
-was his firm purpose to contribute his share toward making
-American citizenship mean something, for both black and white,
-and, if life was spared, to cease not his labors until the humblest
-freeman in the United States should be in firm possession of
-every natural and constitutional right, should have free access to
-an honest ballot-box, should suffer no proscription for his political
-opinions, and should be amply protected in his liberty to
-think, say, go, and do as he pleased within the limitations laid
-down by law for the regulation of the conduct of all. The battle,
-in which he was so eager and stalwart a leader, will not be
-finished until that result is forever secured.</p>
-
-<p>Early in General Grant's term the friends of Edwin M.
-Stanton determined to secure for him such an official appointment
-as should be congenial to his tastes and guarantee him an
-adequate support in old age. His iron constitution resisted the
-enormous labors of the civil war successfully. For many months
-he worked from fifteen to twenty hours in each day; his assistant
-secretaries were energetic and trained men of affairs, but
-their strength successively gave way in attempting to keep up
-with their chief. When the strain was finally withdrawn, it was
-perceived that his own powers were greatly exhausted. Rest
-restored their tone somewhat, and he made one or two legal
-arguments and public addresses, which showed that his intellectual
-vigor was undiminished, but these efforts were followed by
-extreme nervous prostration. Under these circumstances, Mr.
-Stanton's friends determined to secure for him a judicial
-appointment. For such a position he was qualified by eminent
-professional attainments, and this fact and the permanency of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>
-tenure made the tender of a place upon the bench grateful to
-him. Accordingly, when Judge Grier resigned his position as a
-member of the Supreme Court, Mr. Stanton's appointment to
-the vacant Associate Justiceship was at once urged upon President
-Grant. Mr. Chandler was very active in this matter and
-pressed it with all his energy. The effort was successful, and
-on Dec. 20, 1869, this nomination was sent to the Senate and
-promptly confirmed. Four days afterward, and before his commission
-was made out, Mr. Stanton's overtaxed constitution
-broke down, and he died after a brief illness, in the fifty-fifth
-year of his age, as thorough a sacrifice to the nobility of his
-own patriotic devotion during the war as the bravest soldier who
-fell on any of its battle-fields. During his fatal illness, Mr.
-Chandler was a frequent watcher at his bedside, and was one of
-the last persons with whom the dying statesman conversed.
-After his death it was found that the man who had controlled
-the disbursement of hundreds of millions had died poor, and had
-not left an estate adequate to the support of his children. Congress
-directed a year's salary of a Justice of the Supreme
-Court to be paid to his heirs. Mr. Chandler and others of his
-friends also set on foot a movement to raise a national memorial
-fund. A meeting of Republicans was called at the residence of
-Congressman Samuel Hooper of Massachusetts, and a committee
-was there appointed who collected over $140,000 (Mr. Chandler
-contributing $10,000 and President Grant $1,000), which was
-invested in United States bonds and placed in the hands of a
-few trustees, of whom Surgeon-General Barnes of the army
-was chairman, for the benefit of the Stanton family.</p>
-
-<p>During General Grant's term the subject of "war claims"
-commenced to attract national attention. Originally the Republican
-Congresses dealt liberally with the South in the matter of
-compensation for damages inflicted upon its loyal citizens during
-the rebellion. By a series of carefully-guarded laws (and by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
-few private relief measures passed to meet exceptional cases) a
-large sum was paid to residents of the rebel States who suffered
-war losses, and were able to produce satisfactory proof of their
-fidelity to the Union. In this matter the national government
-certainly went to the extreme verge of generosity. The experience
-attending the disbursement of the money thus appropriated
-established conclusively the fraudulent and outrageous character of
-a large percentage of these claims. In thousands of cases investigation
-showed conclusively that arrant rebels were willing to
-swear that they had been "Union men," and that small losses
-had, by false affidavits, been magnified into great sums. As reconstruction
-broke down, and the survivors of the rebellion gained
-in strength at the Capitol, a new danger arose. No statute of limitations
-barred the indefinite presentation of claims to Congress,
-and it soon became evident that, not merely Southern loyalists,
-but avowed rebels who suffered losses in the war were looking to
-the general government for compensation for the damages which
-their own treason had invited. The movement on the Treasury
-in their interest did not take on the form of an attack in front,
-but by the flank. It commenced with plausible applications for
-the "relief" of Southern institutions and corporations, and not
-of individuals. It further manifested itself in propositions for
-such a relaxation of the terms of the laws and regulations governing
-this class of claims as would abolish all distinctions of
-"loyalty" and put the "Confederate" upon an equal footing
-with the Union applicant for this kind of "relief." The precise
-dimensions of this scheme, which has been well characterized as
-"an attempt to make the United States pay to the South what
-it cost it to be conquered in addition to what it cost to conquer
-it," have not yet fully appeared, but the cloven hoof has
-been sufficiently revealed to justly arouse and alarm the loyal
-sentiment of the North. Mr. Chandler's record upon this question
-affords a striking illustration of the soundness of his judg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>ment
-as to the scope and tendency of any particular line of
-public policy. When this subject first demanded attention, he
-took the position which his party substantially assumed ten years
-later. His clear and practical mind saw what the consequences
-would be of any general reimbursement of war losses, and he
-strenuously resisted the taking of any false steps at the outset.
-Thus, on March 2, 1865, upon the bill to pay Josiah O. Armes
-for the destruction of property within the rebel lines, he said in
-the Senate:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I hope this bill will not pass the Senate.... If you pass it, if you
-set this precedent, if you say to every rebel and every loyal man, and every
-man throughout the South, by the passage of this bill, that you intend to pay
-for every dollar of property that has been destroyed by order of our generals,
-you will give a more fatal blow to the credit of the government than by any
-other act that you can perform in this body. I should look upon the passage
-of this bill as a national calamity, and one that we cannot afford at this time
-to bring on our heads. It will do more to shake the faith of our own citizens
-and of the moneyed centers of the world in the credit of your securities than
-any other act you could perform.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>In his address before the Republican caucus which renominated
-him for the Senate in January, 1869, he also said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The moment this government begins to allow claims for damages accruing
-to individuals during the war in the South, it is placed in a position of great
-peril. Every rebel in the South who lost a haystack or barn by fire during
-the war will prove his loyalty and secure damages. It requires the greatest
-vigilance to prevent some of these claims from being allowed, as they are
-continually being pressed upon Congress, and probably will be for many
-years. The laws of war do not require nor justify the allowance of this class
-of claims even to loyal men. If they are loyal, then they have served the
-government, and that is compensation enough. If they are disloyal, they have
-no claim.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>These quotations indicate his original position on this issue,
-taken in the days when it had received but the slightest public
-attention. They are exactly in the line of the vigorous utterances
-upon the same topic which formed one of the important
-features of his public addresses in 1879, when the subject had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
-aroused marked popular interest, and other leaders had stepped
-up to the platform he had so long occupied.</p>
-
-<p>But Mr. Chandler did more than strenuously oppose the payment
-of the "war claims" of Southern disloyalists; his farsightedness
-placed in their path a serious practical obstacle. In
-1873, a Colonel Pickett, who had been confidentially connected
-with the War Department of the "Confederacy," came to Washington
-and offered to sell to the authorities a vast quantity of
-the archives of the rebel government, which he had secreted
-before the capture of Richmond. Congress was not in session,
-and the Secretary of War, having no authority in law, refused to
-buy the documents. Mr. Chandler was in that city at the time,
-and Pickett was referred to him as a man of means and as one
-who would be apt to appreciate the importance of such a purchase.
-After one or two calls, Mr. Chandler determined that the
-matter deserved investigation at least. He asked for a schedule
-of the documents and for a statement of their prices. Pickett
-promptly furnished the former and offered to sell them for
-$250,000. Mr. Chandler, after a careful examination of the
-schedule, replied with a proposition that, if the papers corresponded
-with the list furnished, he would pay $75,000 for them.
-This offer was at last accepted, and Mr. Chandler deposited that
-sum in a Washington bank, subject to Pickett's order after a
-thorough examination of the documents had been made. Confidential
-clerks were at once set at work upon them, and it was
-found that they even surpassed their owner's representations as to
-value. The purchase was therefore completed, and the documents
-became the private property of Mr. Chandler, who had
-them locked up in a vault. When Congress met, a bill was
-passed authorizing the Secretary of War in general terms to
-purchase the archives of the Confederate government if it was
-ever possible, and appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. As
-soon as the bill became a law Mr. Chandler transferred the doc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>uments
-to the Secretary of War, and they are now in the
-possession of that department and constitute one of the most
-valuable and useful features of its record of the rebellion. The
-amount that has been saved to the government by this purchase,
-in furnishing evidence to defeat rebel claims, already exceeds
-many-fold the original price. Case after case in the Quartermaster-General's
-office, before the Southern Claims Commission,
-and before the Court of Claims has been defeated by evidence
-found among these papers.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> One single conspicuous instance
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>in which they saved to the Treasury more than four times their
-entire cost attracted much deserved attention at the time. On
-Nov. 16, 1877, an effort was made by leading Southern Democrats
-in the House of Representatives to pass under a suspension
-of the rules, and without debate, a joint resolution, ordering
-the immediate payment of several hundred thousand dollars to
-mail contractors in the rebel States who forfeited their contracts
-at the commencement of the rebellion. An objection from the
-Hon. Omar D. Conger prevented action on that day, but the
-resolution came up again on Feb. 15, 1878. Representative John
-H. Reagan of Texas, who had been the Postmaster-General of
-the rebel Cabinet, then took charge of the measure, and assured
-the House that the resolution was a purely formal matter, that
-it only provided for the payment of liabilities incurred before
-the war commenced, and that the rebel government had never
-paid these men for the same services. The Hon. Edwin
-Willits of Michigan, by a timely examination of the phraseology
-of the resolution, discovered that it provided for the payment of
-these contractors, not down to the actual beginning of the rebellion,
-but until May 31st, 1861, many weeks after the rebel
-government had been formed and after the firing upon Fort
-Sumter. Calling attention to this fact, he obtained the further
-postponement of the consideration of the resolution. When it
-came up again (on March 8, 1878) Mr. Willits came to the
-House armed with a volume of the rebel statutes and with
-important extracts from documents contained in the rebel
-archives. With this evidence he demonstrated in ten minutes'
-time, beyond question, that the rebel government had assumed
-the payment of this class of claims, that it confiscated United
-States money and applied it to that purpose, that the men so
-paid agreed to refund to the rebel treasury any money subsequently
-given them on this account by the United States, and
-that the joint resolution was but an attempt to pay a second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>
-time contracts already paid and also properly declared forfeited
-through treason. The scene attendant upon this <em>expose</em> was a
-dramatic one, and it resulted in the virtual abandonment then of
-the measure by those who were responsible for it. This result
-would not have been possible, had not the rebel archives thus
-opportunely yielded up their secrets. Their possession by the
-government is undoubtedly worth millions to the Treasury.</p>
-
-<p>In 1871, the second term of Jacob M. Howard, as Senator
-from Michigan, expired, and Thomas W. Ferry, then a member
-of the House of Representatives, was chosen as his successor.
-With his new colleague Mr. Chandler's relations were always
-close and cordial, and upon the questions of reconstruction, equal
-rights, and the national supremacy their accord was complete.
-Mr. Ferry rapidly attained distinction in the upper branch of
-Congress, and was for several successive years the President <i lang="la">pro
-tempore</i> of the Senate. The death of Vice-President Wilson
-in 1875 made him Acting Vice-President of the United States,
-and he held that responsible position throughout the trying
-weeks of the electoral dispute of 1876-'7, when his good sense,
-the perfect discretion of his course, and the dignity and impartiality
-with which he discharged duties of the gravest character
-amid vast and dangerous excitement, both deserved and received
-universal praise. Mr. Ferry was re-elected during this critical
-period, and, as Mr. Chandler's term as Secretary of the Interior
-was then about to close, it was suggested in some quarters that
-Michigan should send him back to the Senate in Mr. Ferry's
-stead. The quality of Mr. Chandler's fidelity as a friend and of
-his estimate of Mr. Ferry's public usefulness were shown in the
-fact that, anxious as he avowedly was to become again a Senator,
-these suggestions obtained from him only peremptory negatives,
-and his advice and influence contributed to Mr. Ferry's unopposed
-re-election. Mr. Howard died suddenly at Detroit from
-apoplexy shortly after the close of his Senatorial service. As<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>
-further illustrating the nature of the friendship existing between
-him and his colleague from Michigan, and the estimation in
-which he was held by the eminent men with whom he came in
-contact, this private letter from Mr. Chandler to President
-Grant, with an endorsement made thereon by the latter, is here
-given:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, Sept. 21, 1870.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: Secretary Cox has done my colleague an unintentional
-but a serious injury.</p>
-
-<p>In 1869 the whole Michigan delegation united in recommending the Rev.
-W. H. Brockway, one of the most popular Methodist clergymen in the State,
-for Indian Agent.</p>
-
-<p>He was nominated and confirmed, but acquiesced in the transfer of Indian
-affairs to the military. Since the adjournment of Congress, my colleague
-made a personal request to the Secretary of the Interior, that the Rev. Mr.
-Brockway be commissioned as Indian Agent for Michigan. Instead of sending
-the commission, he has sent a man from New Jersey to attend to our Indian
-affairs. This has given offense to the most numerous and powerful religious
-denomination in the State and seriously injured my colleague. I ask for my
-colleague that the New Jersey commission may be immediately revoked, and
-Mr. Brockway may be at once commissioned....</p>
-
-<p>It is really important that this be done at once. Very respectfully, your
-obedient servant,</p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p><em>To President U. S. Grant.</em></p>
-
-<p>AUTOGRAPHIC ENDORSEMENT BY PRESIDENT GRANT.</p>
-
-<p>Referred to the Secretary of the Interior.</p>
-
-<p>I think Mr. Brockway might with great propriety be assigned to the
-Indian agency in his own State, to which he has once been appointed and
-confirmed.</p>
-
-<p>He is a minister, and therefore the new rule adopted will not be violated
-by his appointment.</p>
-
-<p>I want, besides, to accommodate Senator Howard, whom I regard as an
-able supporter of the Republican party and of the Administration.</p>
-
-<p>
-Sept. 22, 1870.
-</p>
-<p class="right">U. S. GRANT.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was a member of one or two of the special
-Congressional committees appointed to investigate those atrocious
-political murders which made infamous the return of the disloyal
-classes to power in the South. This general subject received no
-small share of his attention; the facts which investigation dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>closed
-deepened his conviction of the essential barbarity of much
-that passes for civilization in that section, and added to the
-inflexibility of his opposition to a political system, which was
-responsible for the atrocious crimes of the Ku-Klux-Klan, "the
-Mississippi plan," the White League, and the "rifle clubs," and
-for the horrible massacres of Colfax and Coushatta, of Hamburg
-and Ellenton.</p>
-
-<p>Two of his speeches in the Senate in 1871 and 1872
-attracted general attention and were widely republished. One of
-them was delivered on January 18, 1871, in reply to Mr. Casserly
-of California, who had challenged a comparison between the
-records of the Republican and Democratic parties. In the course
-of twenty minutes Mr. Chandler rapidly sketched the services of
-the Republican party in defeating the Democratic plot to surrender
-the territories to slavery, in crushing a Democratic
-rebellion, in emancipating four million slaves, in building a
-trans-continental railway to the Pacific coast, in inviting the settlement
-of the Great West by a homestead law, in establishing
-the national banking system, in maintaining the public credit
-against Democratic attack, and in reconstructing the South on
-the basis of freedom and loyalty. He closed as follows:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>These measures were carried, not with the Democratic party, but in spite
-of the Democratic party. Sir, we are not to be arraigned here and put on
-the defensive, certainly not by that old Democratic party.</p>
-
-<p>And now, Mr. President, they ask us to do what? To forgive the past
-and let by-gones be by-gones. You hear on the right hand and on the left,
-from every quarter, "Let by-gones be by-gones; let us forget the past and rub
-it out." Sir, we have no disposition to forget the past. We have a record of
-which we are proud. We have a record that has gone into history. There
-we propose to let it stand. We never propose to blot out that record. There
-are no thousand years in the world's history in which so much has been
-accomplished for human liberty and human progress as has been accomplished
-by this great Republican party in the short space of ten years. Blot out that
-record? Never, sir, never! It is a record that will go down in history
-through all times as the proudest ever made by any political party that ever
-existed on earth. But, sir, do gentlemen of the Democratic party want to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>
-blot out their record? I do not blame them for wanting to, for that record
-is a record of treason. It, too, has gone into history, and there it must stand
-through all ages. Sir, the young men of this country are looking at these two
-records, and they are making up their minds as to which they desire their
-names to go down to history upon; and I am happy to say that of the young
-men now coming upon the stage of action, nine out of every ten are joining
-this great Republican party. They desire that their record shall be associated
-with those who saved this great nation, and not with those who attempted
-its overthrow. The day is far distant when that old Democratic party that
-attempted to overthrow this government will again be entrusted with power
-by the people of this nation.... Mr. President, if this record of the two
-parties does not please my Democratic friends, I have only to say to them
-that they made it deliberately and they have got to stand by it.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>On June 6, 1872, Mr. Chandler replied in the Senate to that
-part of Mr. Sumner's elaborate attack upon General Grant in
-which he declared that Edwin M. Stanton had said, in his last
-days, "General Grant cannot govern this country." The excessive
-egotism, which marred Mr. Sumner's character and which
-inspired that unfortunate speech, was always a cause of impatience
-with Mr. Chandler, and this display of it aroused his anger.
-In his reply, he challenged squarely the credibility of Mr. Sumner's
-statement. He first read from Mr. Stanton's reported
-speeches, to show that their enthusiastic and repeated commendation
-of General Grant by name proved that Mr. Sumner's
-assertion that Mr. Stanton had also said, "In my speeches I
-never introduced the name of General Grant; I spoke for the
-Republican cause and the Republican party," was exactly contrary
-to the fact. He then proceeded:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. President, I had occasion with Mr. Wade, formerly Senator from
-Ohio, as member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, to see Mr.
-Stanton, I think once a day on an average, during the whole war, and I was
-in the habit of visiting him up to the time of his death, and never, under any
-circumstances, did he express in my presence any but the highest opinion of
-General Grant, both as to his military capacity and as to his civil capacity.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, on the Friday before the death of E. M. Stanton, I had
-occasion to visit him in company with two friends, members of the other
-House, one Hon. Judge Beaman, then a member for Michigan, the other
-Judge Conger, now a member from Michigan. We had that day a long inter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>view
-of not less than an hour and a half, wherein Mr. Stanton expressed the
-highest opinion of President Grant, both as to his military and civil capacity.
-I awaited an interview with these parties before making this statement, and
-their recollection is the same as my own. I have likewise held two or three
-interviews with Senator Wade since then, and his recollection of the expressions
-of the late E. M. Stanton is equally strong as my own to-day. Mr.
-Stanton said, in the presence of two witnesses, "The country knows General
-Grant to be a great warrior; I know he will prove a great civilian." ...</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, the relations between the President of the United States and
-the late Secretary Stanton were of remarkable kindliness. Never did I hear
-either express any but the highest esteem and regard for the other.... I
-think the last interview he ever had was the interview with me in the
-presence of these two living witnesses.... Surgeon-General Barnes was
-his attending physician at the hour of his death. According to his testimony,
-from the hour I last saw him up to the time of his death, there was no
-change, so far as can be known.</p>
-
-<p>In another part of this speech the President is arraigned as a great gift-taker.
-Sir, General Grant was a great taker. Few men have ever been as
-eminent as takers. He took Fort Donelson with some twenty or thirty
-thousand soldiers; and he took Shiloh, and took Vicksburg, and took the
-Wilderness, and took Murfreesboro' and Appomattox and all the rebel material
-of war. He, with his army, took the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves.
-And, sir, after he had taken the vitals out of the rebellion, he was urged by
-his friends to accept a small donation to take himself out of the hands of
-poverty, a thing that has been done by all nations and by all grateful peoples
-in all ages of the world. Sir, he is to be arraigned as a great gift-taker
-because he accepted the voluntary contributions of a grateful people!</p>
-
-<p>Why, sir, there were few men of capacity, few men of fitness to occupy
-positions under this government who did not subscribe, gratefully, anxiously
-subscribe, to that fund to relieve U. S. Grant from his poverty. And yet, he
-is to be arraigned here as a gift-taker, as though that was a crime!</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, there are two classes of people in this world, and we see
-specimens of them both. We have great <em>o-ra-tors</em> and great men of business.
-On this floor our <em>o-ra-tors</em> have occupied the time of this session to the exclusion
-of business, and while these <em>o-ra-tors</em> have been wasting the time of this
-body to the detriment of the business of the nation, willing to indulge in
-windy orations at the expense of the government, U. S. Grant, President of the
-United States, has been managing the affairs of this nation better than they
-were ever managed before. While your <em>o-ra-tors</em> were here delivering windy
-words, he was paying the national debt faster than these <em>o-ra-tors</em> could
-count it. While they were <em>o-ra-ting</em>, he was negotiating treaties and attending
-to the civil service of the nation. While they were <em>o-ra-ting</em> on this floor
-during the war, he was winning victories in the bloodiest part of the fight.
-And now, while they are <em>o-ra-ting</em> on this floor, he is endearing himself to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
-the hearts of the whole people of this land as no other man ever did.
-Stanton was prophetic; he is not only great in war, but he is greater as a
-civilian.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The act of March 3, 1873, which raised the annual salaries
-of Congressmen from $5,000 to $7,500, gave also to this increase
-a retroactive effect and made it apply to the members of Congress
-who passed the measure and whose official terms ended
-on that very day. Public opinion did not approve of any aspect
-of this change, but it condemned vehemently the voting by
-Congressmen to themselves of $5,000 each for services already
-rendered and in addition to liberal salaries fixed at the time of
-their acceptance of office. So emphatic were the manifestations
-of popular wrath at both this act and its methods, that the next
-Congress promptly repealed "the salary grab," as it was commonly
-called. Mr. Chandler's integrity and good sense kept him
-from any participation in this obnoxious performance. He
-opposed the increase of compensation earnestly in the Senate,
-voted against it at all stages of the contest, and refused to
-accept his "back pay." When the bill had been passed and the
-increased salary had been placed to his credit on the Senate
-books, he went to the Treasury with his colleague and they
-deposited the difference between the old and the new rate to
-the credit of the government, writing the following letter to the
-Secretary of the Treasury:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, March 28, 1873.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>: Herewith find drafts on the Treasury, one of $3,906.80 payable to
-Z. Chandler, the other of $3,920, to T. W. Ferry, being avails of retroactive
-increase of salary passed during the expiring days of and for the Forty-second
-Congress, and this day placed in our hands by the Secretary of the Senate.</p>
-
-<p>Not willing to gain what we voted against, we request that the same be
-applied toward the cancellation of any of the six per cent. interest-bearing
-obligations of the nation. Lest such return be distorted into possible reflection
-upon the propriety of dissimilar disposition by others, you will oblige us much
-by giving no publicity to the matter. Very respectfully, yours,</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER,<br />
-T. W. FERRY.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The amount refunded was the exact difference between the
-sums allowed under the old and the increased rate. The new
-law gave an increase of salary for the term, without mileage.
-The old law allowed $5,000 less salary, but gave mileage in
-addition. Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ferry took the amount due
-them under the old system, and returned the additional sum
-which was allowed them under the new. The spirit of scrupulous
-honesty which dictated this proceeding is shown in the last
-sentence of the joint letter, asking that publicity might not be
-given to their action. They took this step voluntarily and not
-under any constraint from public opinion.</p>
-
-<p>In the general elections of 1870 and 1872 Mr. Chandler was
-exceedingly active, making the usual number of public addresses,
-and also devoting much time to organization and to the general
-distribution of political literature. The latter branch of
-party effort had become the special province of the Republican
-Congressional Committee. For more than twenty years there
-have been two distinct executive organizations within the Republican
-party, independent of each other, but always working in
-harmony, namely: The National Committee, and the Congressional
-Committee. The latter is composed of a Representative
-in Congress from each State, chosen by the Republican members
-of the respective delegations. No man can serve upon this committee
-unless he holds a seat in Congress, and States which have
-no Republican Congressmen are unrepresented in its membership.
-Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds were the founders
-of the Congressional Committee as a practical and influential
-working body; their plans and efforts first made it a power in
-American politics, and it remained under their joint control
-until Mr. Chandler became chairman of the National Committee.
-The special objects which it aimed to accomplish were the
-securing of a uniform treatment of political topics by newspapers
-and speakers throughout the country, and the circulation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>
-(under the franking privilege, or otherwise) of instructive and
-timely documents. During the reconstruction era it also devoted
-much attention to the work of Republican organization in the
-South, where special efforts were necessary to form into effective
-voting masses the emancipated slaves, not yet freed from the
-blindness of bondage or familiar with the responsibilities of citizenship.
-But the great aim of the committee&mdash;all else that it
-did was subsidiary to that&mdash;was the circulation of political literature.
-This end it sought to reach by two methods: First, by
-the publication and mailing to individuals and to local committees
-in all parts of the country of such Congressional speeches
-as treated thoroughly and effectively any phase of the current
-political situation; second, by furnishing the Republican press,
-through the medium of weekly sheets of carefully prepared matter,
-with accurate information as to the facts underlying existing
-issues and with suggestions as to their best treatment before the
-people. Obviously this work could be done to much better
-advantage at Washington than elsewhere, for the capital city is
-the focus of the thousand currents of political opinion and the
-depository of the official statistics of the nation. Hence it was
-deemed wise to establish a system of guidance from that point
-of the public discussions of each national campaign, so that
-increased intelligence, cohesion, and efficiency could be given to
-the general attack on the enemy; this idea&mdash;which is, in brief,
-that the systematizing of the political education of the people is
-an important element of well-planned party warfare&mdash;James
-M. Edmunds always held tenaciously; aided by Mr. Chandler's
-friendship, influence, means, and co-operation, he proved its
-soundness most conclusively.</p>
-
-<p>Early in his Senatorial service Mr. Chandler was made the
-chairman of this committee, and Mr. Edmunds its secretary. The
-two men were admirably matched. Mr. Edmunds was a natural
-planner, keen in his intuitions, shrewd in observation, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
-skillful judge of the bearing and tendency of party and public
-policies. In determining what was the most promising line of
-attack, where the weakest points of the enemy's lines were to
-be found, wherein the strength of any position lay, or what
-strategy would make victory the most certain and complete, he
-had no superior. When his acute and experienced judgment was
-reinforced by Mr. Chandler's vigor in execution, influence with
-public men, and large wealth great results never failed to follow.
-These two men quickly made the Congressional Committee
-one of the most powerful agencies of party warfare known in
-American politics. In many campaigns its influence was almost
-literally felt in every Northern township, and its labors were
-not without some effect, more frequently greater than less, in
-unifying and invigorating the contest in every Congressional
-district from Maine to Texas and Florida to Oregon. Its work
-was done quietly, but most thoroughly; its managers rather
-shunned than courted publicity; and the people at large, who
-were informed and inspired by its labors, knew nothing of its
-methods and activity, hardly the fact of its existence. From
-1866 to 1874 Mr. Chandler was very active in connection with
-this committee, and never failed to provide the agencies and the
-resources for the adequate carrying on of its work. When its
-treasury grew empty his private check made good any deficiency,
-and repeatedly his advances upon its account reached tens of
-thousands of dollars. His confidence in Secretary Edmunds was
-implicit, and the latter's mature recommendations never failed
-because of any lack of means. In 1870 the work of this committee
-was especially productive; its value became much more
-clearly apparent then than had ever been the case before,
-and Mr. Chandler repeatedly said to the President and other
-Republican leaders, "Judge Edmunds is the Bismark of this
-campaign." In 1872 Mr. Edmunds first suggested the necessity
-of meeting the Greeley movement by the thorough searching of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>
-the files of the New York <cite>Tribune</cite> and of Mr. Greeley's record,
-for the ample material therein contained which would make
-impossible his support by the Democratic masses. Mr. Chandler
-approved of this plan, and promised that the money needed
-should be forthcoming. Before all the work was completed, his
-advances had reached nearly $30,000. At times, in the course
-of efforts of this character, Mr. Edmunds guided the pens of
-upward of three hundred writers gathered under his general
-supervision, while the results of their labors informed the editorial
-pages of thousands of Republican newspapers, and thus
-reached millions of voting readers. For some time, also, a
-monthly periodical named <cite>The Republic</cite> was issued, which preserved
-in durable form the most careful and elaborate articles
-prepared under the committee's supervision. This work of the
-political enlightenment of the people, clearly the most rational
-agency of party warfare, has never been executed on this continent
-with the thoroughness, intelligence and efficiency which
-marked the labors of the Congressional Committee when Mr.
-Chandler was at its head and Mr. Edmunds was its executive
-officer.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_315.jpg" width="700" height="686" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>JAMES M. EDMUNDS.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The man whose name is so closely coupled in these pages
-with that of Mr. Chandler deserves the grateful and lasting
-remembrance of the Republican party. James M. Edmunds was
-a natural politician of the best type. Patriotic instincts and sincere
-convictions were interwoven with his nature. The party
-whose tendencies satisfied those instincts, and whose policies most
-nearly accorded with those convictions, he served loyally and
-with rare capacity; more than this, he served it unselfishly. He
-cared nothing for prominence, and never sought after reputation.
-He made no speeches, he rarely shared in any public demonstration,
-he held no conspicuous positions, he manifested no personal
-ambition, but for twenty years he was the trusted counselor of
-famous men at the capital, his influence was felt in national
-legislation and party movements, and important events with
-which his name never was and never will be connected received
-the impress of his acute observation and sagacious judgment.
-Especially in Republican political management was he a wise
-and strong "power behind the throne." Mr. Edmunds was a
-native of Western New York, but emigrated to Michigan in
-1831. He was for many years a prominent business man at
-Ypsilanti, Vassar and Detroit, in that State, and was always
-politically active. The Whigs sent him repeatedly to the Legislature,
-and made him their (unsuccessful) candidate for Governor
-in 1847. He was chairman of the Republican State Central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
-Committee from 1855 to 1861, and Controller of the city of
-Detroit for two of those years. At the commencement of Mr.
-Lincoln's administration he removed to Washington, and was
-there successively Commissioner of the General Land Office,
-Postmaster of the Senate, and Postmaster of the city of Washington.
-Personally he was a tall and spare man, exceedingly
-plain in his manners and simple in his tastes, utterly without
-either the liking for or faculty of display, retiring in disposition,
-firm of purpose, of strict integrity, and exact in his dealings and
-habits. Mr. Edmunds's remarkable strength as a politician consisted
-in his experience, in his lack of any personal aspirations,
-in his skill in controlling men and the accuracy of his judgment
-as to their motives, and in an almost prophetic ability to
-reason out the probable direction and effect of any given plan
-of action. He became a man whom those charged with great
-responsibilities could profitably and safely consult, and his well-considered
-and shrewd advice often had decisive weight at the
-White House, on the floors of Congress, and in the private councils
-of eminent men. Outside of the Congressional Committee,
-he did much campaign work in directing organization and suggesting
-plans. He was one of the founders of the Union
-League, and directed its operations during the years of its great
-political usefulness in the South. It may be said without exaggeration
-that no single member of the Republican party ever
-rendered it services as great and as slightly requited as were
-those of James M. Edmunds.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's close friendship with Mr. Edmunds covered
-a period of nearly half a century, and included an implicit confidence
-in the man himself and in his prudence and the sagacity
-of his judgment. The comment made upon their intimacy by
-one who knew them both well was, "Sometimes it seemed to
-me that no man could be as wise as Mr. Chandler believed
-that Judge Edmunds was." They were in almost constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
-consultation upon public questions, their co-operation was ever
-hearty, and this friendship the Senator valued as a priceless possession.
-"In death they were not divided;" the dispatch, which
-announced that Mr. Chandler's busy life had ended so suddenly
-in Chicago, came to Mr. Edmunds while infirm in health;
-it affected him powerfully, and his spirit did not pass from
-under the shadow of this blow; within a few weeks his own
-death followed.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> To a letter of confidence and congratulation, written to him at the time of his last
-Senatorial election, by a committee of the colored citizens of East Saginaw, Mich., Mr.
-Chandler replied (under date of Feb. 20, 1879): "I hope to be able to assist in the grand
-but unfinished work of securing equal political rights for every citizen of this country,
-black as well as white, South as well as North."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> The value of this class of documents will further appear from two quotations from
-the official "Digest of the Report of the Southern Claims Commission upon the Disallowed
-Claims," only two being taken where many might be. "Claim No. 193" was preferred
-before this Commission by W. R. Alexander of Dickson, Ala., for $13,443, for cotton
-and horses furnished to the Union army. Mr. Alexander produced evidence to show, and
-swore himself, that he had been a consistent Union man. The Digest (1 vol., p. 55) says:
-"Among the papers of the rebel government found at Richmond is a letter, now in the
-War Department, a copy of which Adjutant-General Townsend has furnished to us. It
-reads as follows:
-</p>
-<p class="right">"'<span class="smcap">Dickson</span>, Ala., August 1, 1861.</p>
-<p>
-"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: I have heard that the War Department was scarce of arms, and I have taken
-it upon myself to look up all the old muskets I can find and I now send them to you,
-and I hope they will kill many a Yankee. I have had one musket fixed to my notion,
-which I send with the others for a model. All here are delighted with our victory, both
-white and black. Yours, respectfully,
-</p>
-<p class="right">WM. R. ALEXANDER.</p>
-<p>
-"P. S. I send these guns, ten in number, to the Ordnance Department, Richmond,
-Virginia.
-</p>
-<p class="right">W. R. A.</p>
-<p>
-<em>"The Hon. L. P. Walker."</em>
-</p>
-<p>
-"On October 11, 1872, the counsel for the claimant, John J. Key, Esq., appeared
-before the Commissioners and requested that the claim be withdrawn, admitting the disloyalty
-of the claimant. The claim is rejected."
-</p>
-<hr class="tb" />
-<p>
-"Claim 135" was preferred by J. P. Levy of Wilmington, N. C., for $10,000. After he
-had sworn to his own loyalty, he was called upon to face some letters found in the rebel
-archives. The Commission say (p. 33, 1 vol., Digest): "The original letters were furnished
-the Commission by the War Department from the captured rebel archives, and
-copies of several of them were filed with this report.... We have in them the
-claimant at the outbreak of the war calling upon the rebel government to punish the
-superintendent of his brother's plantation for insulting the rebel flag; and, again, asking
-the rebel Congress to pass a law granting him his brother's plantation on account of his
-signal service to the rebel cause; and, again, offering a ship, to be commanded by himself,
-for the rebel service; also, tendering for the benefit of the rebel army, patent
-fuse train and soda baking-powders, and boasting and complaining of the large amount
-due him from the rebel government for supplies for the rebel army. And now this
-shameless traitor, perjurer and swindler comes before us and swears, with brazen effrontery,
-that the government of the United States owes him, as a loyal adherent to the
-cause of the Union and the government throughout the war of the rebellion, for supplies
-furnished the army, the sum of $10,000. We reject this claim."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
-
-THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_319.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">In</span> 1873 the bubble of an irredeemable currency, inflated
-prices, and wild speculation burst in the United States,
-and the era of universal shrinkage, commercial collapse,
-and industrial stagnation began. The financial condition
-of the government and the people at once became the absorbing
-topic of public discussion, and for five years the questions connected
-with the currency and the national credit were those
-which most completely absorbed popular attention. Mr. Chandler's
-share in the prolonged controversy over the financial problem
-was a conspicuous one; he came into it equipped with clear
-ideas and a consistent record; he contended for the causes of
-rational finance and public honesty without wavering in the
-face of the strongest opposition, and without any departure from
-sound doctrine; and he saw the courage and persistence of those
-with whom he acted finally rewarded by the enlightenment of
-the people, the restoration of a convertible currency, and the
-raising of the credit of the United States to the highest standard.
-For obvious reasons his record upon all the phases of "the
-financial question" can be most satisfactorily treated in a single
-chapter. That record will show that he began at a point to
-which many other public men were brought only by years of
-education, and it well illustrates the clearness of his conceptions
-of the principles underlying questions connected with what may
-be called the practical departments of statesmanship.</p>
-
-<p>Not the least of the difficulties, which at the outset confronted
-the administration of Abraham Lincoln, was the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>
-the public treasury was empty and the national credit impaired.
-In October, 1860, the government had contracted a five per
-cent. loan of $7,000,000 at a small premium; four months later,
-a six per cent. loan had been sold with difficulty at about ninety
-cents on the dollar. It was true, by way of offset, that the
-country was in a generally prosperous condition. The commercial
-wrecks of 1857 had disappeared, crops were abundant, and general
-business had become again remunerative. This was an
-element of national strength, but it was not a quickly available
-resource. War meant large immediate expenditure, for which
-the means must be promptly provided. There was no time to
-create and organize upon an extensive scale the machinery of
-direct taxation, and some doubts were then felt as to whether
-the people would not grow restive under any general imposition
-of new burdens. The entire stock of coin in the North was
-estimated at but about $121,000,000, while the paper money in
-existence was exclusively composed of the notes of state banks
-organized under diverse and often insecure systems, and much of
-it circulated only at a discount. This condition of the currency
-created the fear that the rapid negotiation of large government
-loans could not be accomplished without the serious derangement
-of the money market; the withdrawal of considerable sums from
-circulation, even temporarily, business men believed would be
-impossible without great injury to domestic enterprise and commerce.
-All these circumstances forced the government (which
-found itself facing absolutely without preparation organized
-rebellion) to resort at once to the issue of a national paper currency
-in the form of non-interest-bearing treasury notes of
-small denominations. Congress, at its extra session in July,
-1861, passed the necessary act for this purpose, and $50,000,000
-of these notes ($10,000,000 more were subsequently authorized)
-were placed in circulation; originally they were made redeemable
-in coin on demand at any United States sub-treasury, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
-thus violated none of the established principles of sound finance.
-This expedient facilitated the negotiation of loans, and provided
-"the sinews of war" for 1861. But, when Congress met in
-December of that year, it had become plain that the struggle
-would be of indefinite duration, and that past expenditures would
-be greatly exceeded in the months to come. To add to the
-embarrassments of the situation, at about this time the banks of
-the North suspended specie payments, and the Treasury Department
-was compelled as a matter of self-protection to also stop
-redeeming in coin its own notes then outstanding. It was as a
-means of escape from this emergency, that the first issue of
-greenbacks was authorized (by the act of Feb. 25, 1862). These
-notes were not redeemable on demand, but to secure their free
-circulation they were made a "legal tender" for all purposes
-except the payment of duties and of the interest on the public
-debt. The abandonment of the self-operating method of redemption
-and the resort to the compulsion of the "legal tender"
-enactment, as a means of keeping these notes in circulation,
-constituted a step which the Thirty-seventh Congress took with
-extreme reluctance. A small minority of its members resisted
-this measure to the last, but what seemed to be the overshadowing
-necessities of the situation and the earnest appeals of
-Secretary Chase finally forced the passage of the law. Mr.
-Chandler was one of those who, without approving of the principle
-of this legislation, still voted for it, on the ground that it
-was essential to the public safety at that moment and justified by
-the urgency of the situation. But he regarded it as a temporary
-expedient, a mere plan for an emergency, and not as a permanent
-policy. The first act authorized the issue of $150,000,000
-of "greenbacks" and directed the retiring of the $60,000,000
-of treasury notes previously paid out; this $150,000,000 Mr.
-Chandler believed it was possible to so control and use as to
-avoid the evils inseparable from inflation. But the proposition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
-double the amount of "greenbacks," which came in less than
-half a year from the Treasury officials, he strenuously opposed.
-On June 17, 1862, he offered this resolution in the Senate:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p><em>Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives</em>, That the amount
-of "legal tender" treasury notes authorized by law shall never be increased.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>On the following day he called up this resolution, and said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The effect of the recommendation (to issue $300,000,000 of "legal tender"
-notes) has been most disastrous. The mere recommendation, without any
-action of Congress on the subject, has created such a panic, and has so convinced
-the moneyed centers of the world that we are to be flooded with this
-paper, that gold has risen in price from two and three-quarters to seven per
-cent. premium. National credit is precisely like individual credit. It is based,
-first, on the ability to pay; and, second, upon the high and honorable principle
-which would induce the payment of a liability. When the proposition to issue
-treasury notes was first made, it was received with great apprehension by
-Congress and by the nation.... There was at that time a vacuum for
-$50,000,000 that must be filled from some source.... I then believed
-that $100,000,000 was requisite, and that $100,000,000 was enough. I believe
-so now. When you issue $100,000,000 of currency you must either find a
-vacuum or you must create one for it. A hundred millions in addition to
-the existing circulation would at any time create great disturbance in the
-financial condition of this country.... The moment you authorize the
-issue of $300,000,000 your coin will rise to ten or twelve per cent., and your
-notes will full to 90 or 85. The result will be that the government will be
-paying just so much more for every article it purchases than it would if you
-kept your circulating notes at or about the value of coin.</p>
-
-<p>Again, the moment you reduce the value of these notes, even to the point
-at which they now stand, even to seven per cent. discount, you drive out of
-circulation the coin of the country. The temptation is too strong to be
-resisted to use something else besides coin for change and for small circulation.
-Are we to be reduced to a shin-plaster circulation, as is the case
-to-day all through the South? That will be the result if you force upon
-the country an amount of circulating notes beyond its requirements....
-I consider it a duty we owe to the country, a duty we owe to ourselves,
-to proclaim that under no circumstances shall a currency, irredeemable in
-coin, beyond the present issue of $150,000,000, be thrust upon the money
-markets of the country.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>But the pressure toward a reckless currency expansion was
-irresistible, and the pending bill passed. Mr. Chandler's prophe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>cies
-were promptly verified, for the gold premium rose and
-the "shin-plaster currency" made its appearance with but little
-delay. Moreover, these issues only stimulated the thirst they
-were intended to quench, and the general inflation of prices soon
-again produced an apparent scarcity of currency. Early in 1863
-a demand came from Mr. Chase for authority to increase the
-"greenback" circulation to $400,000,000. Congress granted this
-application, but Mr. Chandler opposed it, saying in the Senate:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>When the first proposition was made to issue $150,000,000 of treasury
-notes, I favored it; but when the proposition was made to increase that to
-$300,000,000, I opposed it.... I prophesied what the result of thus thrusting
-$300,000,000 of irredeemable paper upon an already overstocked market
-would be. I said it would carry up coin to an unlimited extent. The result
-has proved that my predictions were true. Now it is proposed to issue
-$400,000,000; we propose to thrust them upon an already over-supplied market....
-It is our duty to protect the people, so far as in our power,
-from this great depreciation in the specie value of the circulating medium,
-and this we can only do by decreasing its volume.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The general positions which he stated thus early Mr. Chandler
-firmly held throughout every stage of the subsequent contest
-over the "currency question." He believed that irredeemable
-paper money, although issued by the government itself and made
-a "legal tender" by supreme authority, was an unmixed evil;
-that only the most imminent peril could justify an even temporary
-resort to its use; that it ought never to be employed except
-within narrow limits; that any excessive issues, if made, should
-be promptly called in; that it should be made redeemable on
-demand in coin, "the money of the world," at the earliest possible
-moment; and that ultimately it should be wholly withdrawn
-from circulation by the issuing power. Accordingly, he opposed
-the propositions to still further increase (to $450,000,000) the
-issue of "greenbacks," supported the principle (while objecting
-to some of the details) of the act of April 12, 1866, ordering
-their steady contraction, and was opposed to the act of Feb. 4,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>
-1868, stopping such contraction. The reduction in the volume
-of the "greenbacks" he believed to be an indispensable preliminary
-to the resumption of specie payments, saying in the
-Senate: "The government will never resume so long as it has
-$400,000,000 of outstanding demand notes." As he opposed
-during the war excessive issues of the "greenbacks," so after
-it closed he steadily favored the reduction of their volume
-with the view to the early restoration of their convertibility and
-their final redemption and canceling. The hesitating and halting
-policy, which perpetuated all the unwholesome influences of
-inflation and added to the severity of the inevitable collapse,
-was followed against his protest and in the face of predictions,
-which were inspired by his intimate knowledge of natural commercial
-laws, and were verified by the event.</p>
-
-<p>In the constant discussions of financial measures during the
-war, Mr. Chandler did not earnestly oppose the frequent resort
-to the issue of irredeemable paper without offering as a substitute
-policies which he believed would yield relief, equally adequate,
-much less costly, and far less unwholesome in tendency.
-He proposed to provide the means for meeting the enormous
-expenditures required of the government by more thorough
-direct taxation and by larger loans; and he believed that
-increased imposts, by strengthening the credit of the government,
-would greatly improve its standing as a borrower in the money
-markets of the world. Briefly, the policy which he favored, in
-lieu of the mass of temporary expedients which were adopted,
-was this: (1.) Declare that the issue of "legal tender" treasury
-notes should not exceed $150,000,000, and thus stop their depreciation
-by ending all fear of their inflation. (2.) Tax freely,
-and by this means convince the world that the United States
-could and would redeem its treasury notes and pay the interest
-and principal of its bonds. (3.) Use the credit thus created to
-borrow on the most advantageous terms, and avoid all measures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>
-that might in any way tend to impair the negotiable value of,
-or the general confidence in, the national securities. He developed
-these general ideas repeatedly in his speeches and votes,
-while questions relating to them were before Congress. On May
-30, 1862, he said in the Senate:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>We voted at an early day in the session that we would raise a tax of
-$150,000,000 from all sources.... What was the result of that vote?
-On the very day that that solemn pledge was given to the country and the
-world ... the six per cent. bonds of the United States stood at 90 cents
-on the dollar in the city of New York. To-day with an expenditure of
-more than a million dollars a day, ... under this simple pledge in
-advance, of what you would do, your bonds have gone up from 90 cents
-to above par, and are now sought for, not only at home but abroad. If you
-violate that solemn pledge given to your country and to the world, what
-will be the effect on your securities? Let Congress violate that pledge, and
-you will see your bonds not only not worth 104½ but you will see them below
-85.... The world abroad does not believe your simple asseveration that
-you would impose a tax, but the people of this Union do and consequently
-they themselves have carried your bonds from 90 to 104½. But the world
-does not take them. Impose your tax; carry out your solemn pledges, and you
-will see your bonds eagerly sought for in the moneyed centers of the world....
-I hope we shall not only carry out this pledge which we have given,
-but I care not if we exceed it.... Under this pledge ... you are
-now able to borrow money at six per cent. instead of seven and three-tenths,
-and you are to-day reaping the reward of your pledge of good faith.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>All just tax measures Mr. Chandler vigorously supported, as
-furnishing the solid basis of national credit and public integrity,
-and time established the ability and the willingness of the people
-to sustain this war burden. Had the heavy taxation been accompanied
-by an adherence to sound principles in the management
-of the currency and a resort to borrowing when needed, it
-would have reduced the cost of conquering the rebellion by at
-least $1,000,000,000, probably by nearly one-half.</p>
-
-<p>The maintenance of the public credit at a high standard was
-exceedingly important during the war, but it was of no less
-moment after the collapse of the rebellion, and is as great
-to-day as it has ever been. On no public question was Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
-Chandler more vigilant and outspoken than on this. Any attack
-on the integrity of the national promise represented by the
-bonds of the United States he denounced vigorously, whether
-it took on the form of the taxation of these securities, or of
-propositions to pay them in depreciated currency, or of bald
-repudiation. On May 20, 1862, he said, upon the proposition to
-tax the bonds:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I believe it to be for the best interest of the government&mdash;not for the
-benefit of moneyed men, not for the benefit of moneyed institutions, but for
-the benefit of this government&mdash;to proclaim in advance that we will never
-tax these bonds. I believe we shall receive the <i lang="la">quid pro quo</i> now, to-day, or
-whenever we negotiate. It is for our interest, not for the interest of moneyed
-institutions, to offer these bonds. Here is the best security in the world, and
-we proclaim to the world, if you take these bonds they shall never be taxed.
-I believe we shall realize more to-day, or to-morrow, or this year, or next year,
-for these bonds by that course, than if we were to impose a tax of one and
-a-half, or three, or five, or any other per cent. These bonds are negotiable.
-We are the negotiators. They are not in the hands of third parties. We are
-to borrow for our daily wants, ... and I believe it to be for the interest
-of the government to declare in advance that there shall never be a tax of
-any sort, kind or description upon these bonds which we are now offering to
-the world in such enormous quantities.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler said, in 1868, in a public address at Battle
-Creek, Mich., (on August 24):</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The national debt is a sacred obligation upon this government, and it is
-to be paid, every dollar of it. But it is a Democratic debt, every dollar. If
-anybody should talk of repudiation it should be the Republican party, who had
-no instrumentality in creating it. But did you ever hear a Republican talk of
-repudiating it? It is a large debt. It is the price we pay for government.
-Is the government worth the cost? If it is, then the debt is not only an
-honest debt, but it has been worthily contracted. The Democrats propose to
-pay this debt in greenbacks, and they propose to pay the greenbacks by
-issuing more greenbacks. What do we gain by that? Issue $2,500,000,000
-more greenbacks and they would not be worth the paper they are printed on,
-because the supply would flood the country and be greater than the demand....
-It is a measure of fraudulent repudiation. In five or ten years the
-country might recover financially, but we would never wipe out the national
-disgrace that would follow that repudiation. It means the absolute annihilation
-of all values. These extra issues would be utterly worthless.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler accordingly voted for the act of March 18, 1869,
-which formally declared that the United States would redeem
-its "greenbacks" and pay the interest and principal of its long
-term bonds in coin, and which was simply a new pledge that
-the government would do what it was already honorably bound
-to do both by fair construction of its own legislation and by
-the explicit and repeated promises of its agents. The full maintenance
-of the public faith, both as a matter of honor and of
-wise policy, he always upheld, and saw his arguments sustained
-and his prophecies made good in the steady improvement of the
-nation's credit and the refunding of its debt at greatly reduced
-rates of interest.</p>
-
-<p>Of the national banking system Mr. Chandler was an original
-supporter. He regarded it as certain to become a lasting
-feature of the fiscal system of the United States, and as destined
-to ultimately furnish the paper money of the Union. The
-uniformity of its circulation, the security afforded to bill-holders,
-and the excellent results attending its method of governmental
-supervision, he considered as unanswerable arguments in favor
-of its permanent maintenance. It was his firm opinion that
-ultimately these banks would furnish all the national currency,
-and that their notes would supplant the "greenbacks." If
-national banking should be kept free, and redemption in coin
-required by law, he believed that the result would be a
-thoroughly-secured and readily-convertible paper currency, whose
-volume would be controlled by commercial demand and not by
-legislative caprice or political agitation, and which would lubricate
-and not obstruct the machinery of trade.</p>
-
-<p>When the national bank bill first made its appearance in
-Congress, Mr. Chandler (in February, 1863) favored it as a
-measure of relief offering a quick market for $300,000,000 of
-government bonds, and as sure to supply "a better currency
-than the local banks now furnish." Holding the views he did,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
-he supported the measures which promised to substitute bank
-notes for "greenbacks," although he opposed those which contemplated
-any expansion of the aggregate volume of both issues.
-For instance, in 1870, when the inflation element in Congress
-introduced a bill to add $52,000,000 to the national bank circulation
-(banking was not then free, it not being deemed prudent
-to leave the issue unlimited while all the paper money was
-irredeemable), he offered on January 31 an amendment to make
-the sum $100,000,000 and to withdraw "greenbacks" to an
-amount equal to the bank notes issued under this provision. He
-said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>The simple effect of my proposition, if adopted, will be to keep the circulation
-to a dollar where it is. If no new banks are started, no greenbacks are
-withdrawn, and if banks are started anywhere, then an amount of greenbacks
-must be withdrawn equal to the amount of national bank bills put in circulation.
-Should the whole $100,000,000 be taken we will be just $100,000,000
-nearer to specie payments than we are to-day, ... and in the meantime
-the amount of national currency will not be changed in the slightest degree.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Sumner</span>: There is salvation in that.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chandler</span>: Of course there is salvation in it; that is why I offer it.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>All proposals made at the time to increase the aggregate
-paper circulation he resisted, saying:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>That is a step in the wrong direction.... If you let it go out that
-this is to be the policy of Congress, you will see gold go up
-immediately, ... because it will show that the Congress of the United States is in
-favor of expansion instead of a reduction of the currency.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>After the panic of 1873, when there was such a universal
-clamor for further inflation, and scores of propositions were
-introduced to add many millions to the existing volume of
-"greenbacks" and of bank notes, Mr. Chandler again insisted at
-all proper opportunities that resumption was the most essential
-step toward financial soundness, and that the substitution of bank
-notes for "greenbacks" would aid greatly both in reaching and
-in maintaining specie payment. On Feb. 18, 1874, he offered an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
-amendment to a pending bill, directing "the Secretary of the
-Treasury to retire and destroy one dollar in 'legal tender' notes
-for each and every dollar of additional issue of bank notes,"
-and spoke upon this proposition at length. He did not urge it
-as a complete remedy for the existing situation (contraction and
-resumption would alone furnish that), but he said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>This is a step in the right direction. In 1865 I advocated upon this floor
-the substitution of bank notes for greenbacks as a step toward the resumption
-of specie payments, and a rapid step toward that resumption. I am now simply
-advocating what I advocated then.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's wishes on this subject were not gratified at
-that time nor during his life, but before his death he saw the
-demand that the Treasury should cease to be a bank of issue
-approved by the soundest financial sentiment of the country.
-His belief, that the paper money of the Union should be furnished
-by commercial institutions operating under properly regulated
-governmental supervision, that is, by the national banking
-system perfected and enlarged, has been long held by the
-ablest and clearest students of monetary problems in the United
-States; it is to-day constantly growing in popular strength, and
-the result it aims at will form part of any durable settlement of
-"the currency question."</p>
-
-<p>In 1873 the vacillating and halting financial policy of the
-nation&mdash;which had tried and abandoned contraction, and while
-looking toward the resumption of specie payments had, in fact,
-retreated from it&mdash;bore fruit in speculative collapses, followed
-by a panic in business circles and widespread commercial disaster.
-Congress met amid the crumbling of unsound enterprise, and
-was called upon to meet a terrified demand for a renewed inflation
-of the already excessive volume of irredeemable paper. To
-cure the fever, men demanded more miasma. To repair the ruin,
-which all history proved to be the natural result of an oversupply
-of currency, it was proposed to still further increase that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
-supply. Measures to this end were introduced at once, and
-pushed with great vehemence. They were sustained by a misled
-but powerful public sentiment, which was especially strong in
-the West and influenced the great mass of that section's representatives
-at Washington. Mr. Chandler never served his country
-better than he did in that hour. Unmoved by the clamor about
-him, and refusing to listen to the cries of even his own people
-when they demanded false leadership, he firmly resisted every
-measure of inflation and every suggestion that added embarrassments
-to the business of the future, or increased the difficulties
-of preserving the public faith. The pressure in favor of the
-inflation bill which President Grant vetoed was unusually strong.
-The Western Congressmen were almost a unit for its passage,
-but no solicitations, no force of numbers, prevented Mr. Chandler
-from opposing and denouncing it. His speech in opposition to
-this bill (on Jan. 20, 1874) commenced with one of his terse
-sentences, which went straight to the marrow of the situation,
-and furnished a motto for the cause he championed. It was,
-"We need one thing besides more money, and that is better
-money." This phrase furnished the text for many addresses and
-editorials, and stood upon the title-page of the weekly circular
-issued by the friends of a sound currency in Boston during the
-controversy which preceded the passage of the Resumption act
-of 1875. In the same speech Mr. Chandler said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>To insure prosperity we ought to have something permanent, something
-substantial. Then the business of the country will conform itself to the facts
-and regulate itself accordingly. This panic (of 1873) was exceptional, as
-indeed all panics are. A panic among men is precisely like a panic among
-animals. I once saw 2,000 horses stampede, and they were just as the same
-number of thousands of men would be in a panic. It is the feeling of
-animal fear, and one encourages the other, and so it goes on until it becomes
-a perfect insane rush for something, nobody knows what. Prior to this late
-panic, as is well known, many of our capitalists had over-invested in wild
-railroad schemes; they had undertaken to do impossible things; when the
-panic struck them it ought not to have had the least effect outside of Wall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>
-street and operators in railroad stocks. But the panic swept like a tornado
-all over the land, affected values everywhere, values of all kinds. Whoever
-had money in bank sought to draw it out and hide it away. The panic was
-universal, and yet this nation was never more prosperous than it was the day
-before the panic struck. And to-day there is as much money in the Union
-as there was then. Every dollar that was here then is here now. Besides,
-the enormous borrowers, the men who would pay any price for money&mdash;one-half
-per cent. a day, one per cent. a day, or any other given price&mdash;have failed
-and gone out of the market. And now the money is seeking the legitimate
-channels of commerce for interest and use.... The best time for the
-resumption of specie payment that has occurred since the suspension was
-in 1865, at the close of the war, when gold had fallen from over 200 to 122.
-In a few days values had shrunk, and the people of the nation were comparatively
-out of debt, and were ready then for a resumption of specie payments,
-but the government was not. The government owed more than $1,000,000,000,
-that was maturing daily in the shape of compound interest notes, seven-thirties
-and other obligations that must be funded or disposed of. Hence
-the government was not prepared for specie payments at that time, although
-the people were.... From that day to this we have been drifting
-and floating further and further away every hour from the true path&mdash;the
-resumption of specie payments. I have advocated from the first the earliest
-possible payment in coin. I believe there is no other standard of value
-that will stand the test, and I believe the time has arrived, or very nearly
-arrived, for coming to it. I have not the same timidity in fixing a date
-that some of my friends on this floor have. I believe that if we were to
-resolve to-day that we would resume the payment of our greenbacks in coin
-on the 1st day of January, 1875, and authorize the Secretary of the Treasury
-to borrow $100,000,000 in coin to be used in the redemption of the greenbacks,
-and sell no more gold until the 1st of January, 1875, on that day we
-would have $200,000,000 of coin in the Treasury for the redemption of the
-greenbacks. I am not particular as to date. I merely suggest the 1st of
-January, 1875. But I would accept an earlier date than that if it were
-deemed more advisable, but certainly I would not extend it more than six
-months thereafter....</p>
-
-<p>It is no part of the business of this government to issue an irredeemable
-currency. We cannot afford to place ourselves beside the worn-out governments
-of Europe&mdash;we cannot afford to place ourselves on a par with Hayti
-and Mexico. We are too rich a people to do it; and it is a disgrace to us
-as a nation that we have allowed it to continue one single hour beyond the
-hour when it was in our power to remedy the wrong.</p>
-
-<p>The proposition to increase our paper currency is a step in the wrong
-direction, and I, for one, am utterly opposed to taking even one step in the
-wrong direction when I know what the right direction is.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>As part of the same general discussion, Mr. Chandler made
-a carefully prepared financial speech in the Senate on Feb. 18,
-1874, in which he first graphically sketched the history of "wild-cat
-banking" in Michigan, and then said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>After the failure of these banks the cry was still, "More money; and we
-must have more money; the country is suffering for more money." The cry
-was responded to, and more money was furnished. The Treasury of the
-State of Michigan, already owing $5,000,000, undertook to furnish more
-money, and the State issued treasury notes <i lang="la">ad libitum</i>, and the "more money"
-men got more money until the value of the state treasury notes, which have
-been paid to the last dollar at par, ran down to thirty-seventy cents on the
-dollar; and almost every city in the State, including the city of Detroit,
-responded to the cry of "more money," and issued shin-plasters; and individuals,
-realizing that "more money" was needed, issued shin-plasters. So
-the State of Michigan was flooded with more money.</p>
-
-<p>Well, sir, you can see at a glance that the State of Michigan needed more
-money. We had as a people been speculating almost to a man. It was not
-confined to the merchant, the banker, the man of wealth; but the mechanic,
-the farmer, the laborer, every man who could buy a piece of property of any
-sort, kind, or description, bought it, ran in debt, laid out a town, sold the
-lots, gave a mortgage, and then wanted "more money" to pay that mortgage.</p>
-
-<p>When the collapse came it was absolute; there was no mistake about it;
-the collapse was perfect. Then the people of Michigan had enough of "more
-money;" and when our constitutional convention met, as it did a few years
-later, they put into the constitution a clause prohibiting the Legislature forever
-from chartering a bank or affording the means of furnishing "more
-money;" and the people acquiesced in it. They had enough of the "more
-money" cry; and for twenty-five years there was no more cry in the State
-of Michigan for irredeemable money.... The losses to which I have
-referred did not fall upon the moneyed men of the State of Michigan, the
-men who were in sound condition. They fell upon the laboring man, the
-farmer, and the mechanic. They fell upon the men who could least afford to
-submit to the loss. So it is now. Why, sir, our values are fixed by a foreign
-market, and in coin. There is not a bushel of corn or a bushel of wheat
-raised in Indiana, or Illinois, or Michigan, the value of which is not fixed by
-the foreign value in coin of that particular article. When you enhance the
-cost of production by an inferior currency you put that loss upon the producer,
-and the loss falls not upon the wealthy man, but upon the laborer and
-producer. Money will take care of itself all over the world. If it is not safe in
-this country, it will find a country where it is safe, and it will go to that
-country, no matter where that may be. Hence, capital requires no protection
-whatever from this body; money will take care of itself; but the poor man,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>
-the laboring man, the man who submits to all the losses from this depreciated
-currency, is the man who suffers all the pain and all the injury that are
-inflicted by this false legislation....</p>
-
-<p>Now, sir, we come to the crash of 1873. On the 15th day of September,
-1873, this nation was in a more prosperous condition than perhaps it had
-been for the last twenty-five years. Every branch of industry was prosperous,
-every interest of the people was prosperous; but in a day, at the drop of the
-ball at twelve o'clock on the 16th of September, the panic struck. What
-produced this tremendous panic and crash in this great and prosperous country?
-It was over-speculating in railroad securities. It was by men undertaking
-to do what it was utterly impossible for them to do, to wit, for
-individuals to float untold millions by their own credit; and when the people
-became alarmed for fear the crash would come, the crash came, and there
-was no salvation from it. But, sir, on that very self-same day the nation
-was more prosperous than it had been for the last twenty years in all its
-interests&mdash;business, banking and every other. The crash ought not to have
-extended one yard beyond Wall street and the few producers of railroad iron
-who were manufacturing for these defunct railroads. But, sir, the panic was
-so great that it spread until it became universal, and values sank until there
-seemed to be no bottom, and everybody was affected throughout the length
-and breadth of this broad land.</p>
-
-<p>But, Mr. President, that panic was of short duration. Many failures took
-place, and particularly among stock and railroad operators; but the main
-business of the country still went on with a few notable exceptions. Some
-manufacturers stopped for the want of money; others stopped for the want of
-credit. The men that had been issuing their paper without intending to pay
-it, issuing millions of dollars of paper which they knew they could not meet
-at maturity, trusting in luck to meet their obligations&mdash;those men cannot
-borrow money; their lines are full everywhere; nobody will loan them
-money; but, sir, upon undoubted security money is to-day cheaper than it
-has been at any time for the last twenty years. These great borrowers, without
-the expectation of paying at maturity, are to-day all out of the market.
-No man will loan money to a person who does not pay at maturity. Every
-man that desires to borrow money for legitimate business can borrow it to-day
-cheaper than he could borrow it at any time in the last twenty years. Sir,
-you may legislate for this class who have over-speculated, you may legislate
-for the benefit of the men who have built factories, built steamboats, built
-mills, bought mills, bought mines, bought everything for sale, and given their
-paper knowing they could not meet it unless they could borrow the money
-over again; you may legislate them $100,000,000 or $1,000,000,000, and you
-will not help them in the slightest degree....</p>
-
-<p>Now, Mr. President, I will ask the attention of the Senate while I show
-the effect upon the purchasing value of money of issuing your greenback circulation
-from the day it was first issued to the present time. In 1862 we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>
-commenced the issue of greenbacks. In January, 1862, the premium on
-gold was 2.5 per cent.; in February it was 3.5; in March, 1.8; in April,
-1.5; in May, 1.3; in June, 6.5; in July, 15.5; in August, 14.5; in September,
-18.5; in October, 28.5, in November, 31.1; in December, 32.3. It will
-be remembered that the then circulating medium (which was at that time
-state bank notes) amounted to about $200,000,000. This circulation was
-increased during the year 1862 by the addition of $147,000,000 in greenbacks,
-and that increase of circulation carried the value of gold from 102.5 on the
-1st of January to 132.3 on the 31st day of December following.</p>
-
-<p>In 1863 the necessities of the government compelled us to increase the
-greenback circulation to a yet larger extent. We issued during that year
-$263,500,000 additional, carrying up our greenback circulation to $411,200,000,
-in addition, of course, to our bank circulation, whatever it may have been.
-During the month of January of that year the premium on gold was 45.1 per
-cent.; during February, 60.5; March, 54.5; April, 51.5; May, 48.9; June, 44.5;
-July, 30.6; August, 25.8; September, 34.2; October, 47.7; November, 48;
-December, 51.1. In other words, the average rate of premium upon gold
-during that whole year was 45.2 per cent. I hold in my hand a paper showing
-the cash value of this emission for 1863. The emission of greenbacks at
-that time was $411,200,000. The average premium on gold was 45.2 per cent.
-The actual cash purchasing value of that $411,000,000, during the year 1863,
-was $283,195,000, and that was the whole purchasing value of that money
-during that year.</p>
-
-<p>Then we come to the next year, 1864. That year, we increased our circulating
-medium by the addition of $237,900,000, making the whole amount
-$649,100,000. In 1864 the price of gold was, in January, 155.5; February,
-158.6; March, 162.6; April, 172.7; May, 176.3; June, 219.7; July, 258.1, or less
-than 40 cents on the dollar in coin for your greenbacks after you had carried
-the amount up to $649,000,000. In August the price was 254.1; in September,
-222.5; in October, 207.2; in November, 233.5; in December, 227.5. There
-is not a man here who does not remember, nor is there a farmer or mechanic
-throughout the length and breadth of the land who does not remember, that
-he then paid 60 cents for cotton goods that he had been in the habit of buying
-for 12½ cents, and that he paid for everything else in the same ratio. The
-merchant took care that he met with no loss; but the laboring man, the
-farmer, the man of muscle, was the man who submitted to this great loss,
-while the merchant and while every man with money took care of himself.</p>
-
-<p>During that year the average price of gold was 203.3 per cent., or your
-money was a fraction less than 48½ cents on the dollar during the whole year.
-You had out that year $649,100,000, and the value of gold was 203.3, and
-the purchasing value of your $649,100,000 was $319,281,000, and that was the
-whole of it.</p>
-
-<p>In 1865 you again increased the volume of your circulating medium by
-the amount of $49,800,000; making the whole amount of your circulation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>
-$698,900,000. During the month of January, 1865, the price of gold was
-216.2; during February, 205.5; in March, 173.8; in April, 148.5; and after
-that it stood at 135.6, 140.1, 142.1, 143.5, 143.9, 145.5, 147, 146.2. The average
-of the year 1865 was 157.3; and what was the purchasing value of your
-greenbacks that year? Every man here will remark that that year we were
-disposing of our bonds at the rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a month;
-money was passing through the Treasury almost without limit. We had
-$1,000,000,000 that must be negotiated, and negotiated at once&mdash;seven-thirties
-and compound-interest notes and other floating liabilities that must be funded;
-and during that year the war had closed, and while we were negotiating at this
-enormous rate, the price of gold fell to 153.3, and during that year the purchasing
-value of our circulation attained a higher rate than during any other
-year. That year, although our circulation of greenbacks was $698,900,000,
-and the premium on gold 57.3, the actual purchasing value of that $698,900,000
-was $444,310,000.</p>
-
-<p>In 1866 we retired $90,000,000, leaving $608,900,000, and the average premium
-on gold that year was 40.9 per cent. The purchasing value of the
-$608,900,000, with the premium on gold at 40.9, was $432,150,000.</p>
-
-<p>The next year, 1867, we retired $72,300,000, and premium on gold fell to
-38.2. So we went on reducing until we got down to $400,000,000, and then
-we struck 14.9, 11.7, 12.4 and 14.7 as the premium on gold. There the matter
-has stood, and I have here from year to year, the purchasing value for
-each year....</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, what we want is purchasing value, because the intrinsic
-value is measured by the purchasing value. There is not a bushel of wheat
-that goes from your State or from mine the purchasing value of which is not
-fixed by the gold value on the other side of the Atlantic. We are shipping
-millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of our agricultural products
-every year, and the value of these products is fixed in gold on the other
-side of the Atlantic; and yet by this increase of circulation we enhance the
-value of everything that the producer raises, but when the product comes to the
-market its value must be fixed by its price in gold across the Atlantic....</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, I know of no way to substitute the Treasury of the United
-States for the banking experience of the last ten centuries. We have the
-experience of the past, we have the experience of our own nation, we have
-the experience of the world. Now, do we propose to throw aside this experience,
-and to launch our boat upon a wild and uncertain sea, an ocean of
-expansion and no payments?</p>
-
-<p>Sir, there are very few persons within the range of my acquaintance
-who desire expansion of an irredeemable currency. Certainly the people of
-Michigan have had abundance of experience of that kind. But wherever
-you go you will find two classes of men who are making a great noise about
-"more money." One is the speculator, the impecunious speculator, who has,
-perhaps, bought real estate and given a mortgage, and thinks that his only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
-chance is to reduce the value of your currency until it falls so low that the
-people would rather take his land than hold your money; and the other is
-the man who has issued his paper without intending to pay when it matures,
-and who can borrow no more money upon any terms until he pays what he
-already owes.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>On the 14th of January, 1875, the act for the resumption
-of specie payments became a law. Mr. Chandler was a member
-of the Senate when this bill passed. He had but one objection
-to it; the time fixed for resumption was unnecessarily remote.
-Neither present exigency nor needed preparation required the
-delay, and he believed it to be opposed alike to economy,
-patriotism, and public honor. But it was the best that could be
-secured; insistence upon an earlier date would have divided the
-friends of resumption, prevented the passage of any bill at that
-time, and postponed the day of specie payments. For these
-reasons Mr. Chandler favored the measure, and a few weeks later,
-when he retired from the Senate, it was with the consciousness
-that he had only voted for an irredeemable and inconvertible
-currency to meet the imperious exigencies of civil war, that
-he had opposed its undue expansion, that he had sustained
-every measure of contraction calculated to lessen the difficulties
-of the return to a sound basis, and that he finally had crowned
-his Senatorial career by support of a measure which insured
-the return of the government to the constitutional standard of
-values.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
-
-SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_337.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">Eighteen</span> Hundred and Seventy-four was a year of
-unusual political disaster. The prevalent commercial
-depression both naturally and seriously injured the party
-in power, and this and other causes combined to produce
-a general relaxation of Republican vigor, which bore its
-inevitable fruit in a series of damaging reverses in the fall elections
-throughout the Union. The contest in Michigan was
-complicated by an organized movement on the part of the
-opponents of Prohibition to secure a repeal of that State's
-stringent law against the liquor traffic, and to more surely reach
-that end its License League formed an alliance with the Democracy,
-by which the latter was greatly aided. The result was that
-the Republican plurality upon the State ticket was reduced to
-5,969 in a total vote of 221,006, that three of the nine Congressional
-districts were carried by the Opposition, and that a
-Legislature was chosen in which the Republican majority upon
-joint ballot was but ten. Upon this body, so closely divided,
-devolved the choice of an United States Senator. To a man of
-Mr. Chandler's positive qualities and aggressive methods an
-active public life was impossible without creating strong enmities,
-and the attention which, had he been more subtle, he
-would have given to conciliating hostility his direct nature preferred
-to devote to showing appreciation of friendship. The
-equality of parties in the Legislature, and the passing disposition
-among Republicans to look with disfavor upon what has been
-since termed "stalwart leadership," supplied the local opposition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>
-to Mr. Chandler with the looked-for opportunity for successfully
-resisting his re-election. Michigan Republicanism as a whole
-gave him its usual hearty support, and, so far as the contest was
-waged within the recognized lines of partisan warfare, his personal
-triumph was flattering and signal. In the regular caucus
-he received fifty-two votes against five ballots cast for three
-other candidates, and his nomination was made unanimous with
-but one dissenting voice. A small Republican minority refused
-to participate in the caucus, and after a prolonged and exciting
-struggle a combination was formed between six of these men
-and the solid Democratic and Liberal Opposition, which (on the
-second ballot in the legislative joint convention) gave precisely
-the necessary majority of all the votes cast to Isaac P. Christiancy,
-then one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan.
-Mr. Christiancy was an original Republican, but had in
-some instances in the past so far satisfied the Democrats by his
-public course that he had been once re-elected to the Supreme
-Bench without opposition, his name having been placed at the
-head of the Democratic State ticket after his nomination by his
-own party. This fact materially facilitated the coalition which
-secured Mr. Chandler's defeat. Like results in pending Senatorial
-contests in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska showed
-that more than merely local influences had contributed to bring
-about this event.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler, with that strong faith in his own position
-which was so useful a characteristic of the man, did not believe
-that his defeat was possible until it was accomplished. His disappointment
-was keen, but he bore it manfully, and, assuring
-his friends that he should be "a candidate for <em>that seat</em> when
-Judge Christiancy's term ended," he started for Washington to
-close up his eighteen years of continuous Senatorial service.
-Many and sincere were the expressions of grief among earnest
-Republicans everywhere at what seemed to be the abrupt termina<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>tion
-of the public career of so influential a man. Mr. Chandler
-himself was as strongly affected by his fear that Republicanism
-might have received a severe blow from the method by
-which his re-election had been prevented as by any sense of
-mere personal failure. In a letter written in the following
-March, in response to an invitation from the great majority of
-the Republican legislators of Michigan to address them on political
-topics, he said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Thanking you cordially for your continued confidence, I assure you most
-sincerely that when I enlisted in the Republican ranks it was for the whole
-war, which, I trust, is to be continued until the complete and final triumph
-of Republican principles, the pacification of the whole people, and the establishment
-of equal and exact justice for all men in every section of our common
-country. It will be my pride to prove to my friends, and to my
-enemies, if there are such, that I can be useful as a private soldier. In all
-the future contests of the Republican party with its opponents you may order
-me into the ranks with full confidence that I will respond with all my time,
-if need be, and with such ability as I can command.... We shall not
-yield in the forum the great principles which have triumphed in the field,
-nor shall we further waste in internal strife the strength which should be
-organized against our opponents. I have faith in the future of our country,
-because of my confidence in the continued success of the Republican party.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Ultimately it became evident that his defeat in 1875 was not
-a personal calamity, he himself afterward saw that it had opened
-the way for him to broader fields of public usefulness, and that
-in what then seemed to be a fall he had in fact only "stumbled
-up stairs."</p>
-
-<p>After the termination of Mr. Chandler's third Senatorial
-term (on March 3, 1875), his name was connected, both in current
-rumor and in the deliberations of influential men, with
-several prominent positions. It was at one time predicted that
-he would be nominated for the St. Petersburg embassy, and at
-another that he would succeed Mr. Bristow as Secretary of the
-Treasury. Ground was not lacking for both reports, but the
-appointment which was actually made involved a far more complete
-test of his faculty of administration than would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
-attended either of the others. The Interior Department is the
-most complex division of the executive branch of the government.
-A great diversity of interests are under its charge, and its duties
-are dissimilar, widely ramified, and encumbered with a perplexing
-multiplicity of details. During President Grant's second term
-this Department, notwithstanding the personal honesty of Secretary
-Columbus Delano, had fallen into bad repute. It sheltered
-abuses and frauds which tainted the atmosphere, but were not
-hunted down and removed by its chiefs. From the scandals
-which this state of affairs created, Mr. Delano finally sought
-escape by a resignation, which took effect on Oct. 1, 1875. General
-Grant, who was determined to appoint to the place a man
-whose integrity, sagacity and vigor should make it certain that
-he would not tolerate incompetence and rascality among his subordinates,
-tendered the position to Mr. Chandler. After some
-hesitation, and no little urging by his friends, that gentleman
-accepted, and on Oct. 19, 1875, his commission as Secretary of
-the Interior was executed and sent to him. (His nomination
-was, on the meeting of Congress in December, promptly confirmed
-by the Senate, all of the Republican and three of the
-Democratic Senators voting affirmatively, with only six Democrats
-recorded in the negative). Mr. Chandler entered at once
-upon the discharge of his new and difficult duties. No man
-could have had less of the professional "reformer" about him&mdash;in
-fact he was not chary of expressing the most contemptuous
-skepticism concerning much that paraded itself as "reform"&mdash;but
-the exemplification which he gave of practical reform was
-at once thorough and brilliant. Without ostentation, without the
-faintest savor of cant, he went at his work in unpretentious,
-business-like, manful, and clear-sighted fashion. A firm believer
-himself that "corruption wins not more than honesty," he gave
-durable lessons on that theme in every bureau of the Interior
-Department.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_341.jpg" width="700" height="664" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first step of Mr. Chandler's administration was the infusion
-of new blood. He applied to James M. Edmunds for aid
-in the selection of a Chief Clerk, and was by him advised to
-tender that important position to Alonzo Bell, then holding a
-place in the Treasury. What followed illustrates some of Mr.
-Chandler's methods of transacting business:</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Bell, at his desk in the Winder Building, received a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>
-dispatch on the afternoon of Nov. 8, 1875, which read: "The
-Secretary of the Interior desires to see you." On the next
-morning at nine o'clock he was in waiting in the ante-chamber
-of Secretary Chandler's office, and shortly thereafter that gentleman
-entered. In a few moments Mr. Bell was summoned
-into his room, and Mr. Chandler said, "Good morning, Mr. Bell.
-I suppose General Cowen (the then Assistant Secretary) has
-told you what the business with you is?" Mr. Bell answered,
-"I have had a very pleasant talk with him, but there has been
-no business alluded to by us." Mr. Chandler then said, "I have
-concluded to appoint you Chief Clerk of the Interior Department;
-will you accept?" "Yes, sir," was the reply. "Very
-well," said Mr. Chandler, "go ahead." Mr. Bell went at once to
-the Treasury, filed his resignation, and within an hour returned
-to the office of the Secretary of the Interior. He found him in
-conference with two Senators, and this conversation followed:
-"Mr. Secretary, I have taken the oath and I am ready to go
-to work." "Very well, do you know where to find the Chief
-Clerk's room?" "No, sir." "Well, sir, it won't take long to
-look it up." Mr. Bell started on the search for it, and within a
-few moments had relieved the gentleman temporarily in charge,
-taken possession of its desk, and commenced business. Mr.
-Chandler, also on recommendation of Mr. Edmunds, promoted
-John Stiles from a minor place to the Appointment Clerkship.
-The Assistant Secretaryship of the Department he requested the
-President to tender to Charles T. Gorham of Michigan, who had
-lately relinquished the embassy of the United States at The
-Hague. He believed that Mr. Gorham's business training, practical
-ability and personal attachment to himself would greatly
-aid in the reorganization of the Department, and only felt
-doubtful as to whether that gentleman would accept the position.
-In the end, Mr. Gorham was induced to take it, and the Assistant
-Attorney-Generalship was given to Augustus S. Gaylord of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>
-Saginaw, well-known to Mr. Chandler as a good lawyer and a
-vigilant and trustworthy man. These changes in his executive
-staff the new Secretary of the Interior regarded as an essential
-part of the work of investigation and purification which was to
-be accomplished.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
-
-<p>Within less than one month after the commencement of Mr.
-Chandler's term, all the clerks in one of the important rooms
-in the Patent Office were summarily removed. Examination
-had supplied satisfactory proof of dishonesty in the transaction
-of the business under their care, and the Secretary concluded
-that all of them were either sharers in the corruption or lacked
-the vigilance necessary for their positions, and he declared
-every desk vacant. To the Hon. Jay A. Hubbell, whom he
-met on the evening of the day upon which he had taken this
-vigorous step, he said, "I have been 'reforming' to-day. I
-have emptied one large room and have left it in charge of a
-colored porter, who has the key, who cannot read and write,
-and who is instructed to let no one enter it without my orders.
-I think the public interests are safe so far as that room is
-concerned until I can find some better men to put into it."
-To the remonstrances which followed this action he was resolutely
-deaf, and to some influential friends of one of the men
-thus displaced he said significantly, "That man is competent
-enough; if he thinks that the cause of his removal should be
-made public, he can be accommodated; I don't advise him to
-press it." Later in Mr. Chandler's term, and without warning,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>
-the monthly pay-rolls of the Patent Office employes were
-placed in the custody of a new officer, and the full name and
-city address of every one who signed them was taken. The
-result was that for upward of a score of names no owners
-appeared, and it was thus found that money had been dishonestly
-drawn in the past by some one through the device of fictitious
-clerkships. It was also ascertained that in a few cases work
-requiring expert skill had been given to unqualified persons who
-had "farmed it out" to others at reduced rates, and were thus
-receiving pay without rendering service. These disclosures led to
-further prompt removals of those implicated in the frauds, and
-to the eradication of the abuses thus exposed. In this bureau
-some change of methods was also made which simplified the
-transaction of business, and increased the facilities for procuring
-patents while lessening their cost to the public.</p>
-
-<p>The Bureau of Indian Affairs Mr. Chandler found to be
-more utterly unsavory in reputation than any other division
-of his Department. Besides securing a new Commissioner and
-Chief Clerk, he instituted a series of quiet inquiries into the
-methods of doing business there, and soon determined upon
-removing a number of subordinates, whose records were unsatisfactory
-and whose surroundings were suspicious. He then sent
-for the Commissioner and notified him of this decision, but that
-officer replied that they were the most valuable men he had,
-and that it would be almost impossible to conduct the business
-of the bureau without them. The urgency of his protest finally
-induced Mr. Chandler to delay action for a few days. While
-matters were in this state of suspense, President Grant, who
-was watching with keen interest the examination into the Interior
-Department offices, said to its Secretary, "Mr. Chandler,
-have you removed those clerks in the Indian Bureau whom we
-were talking about?" Mr. Chandler replied, "No, sir; the
-Commissioner said it would be almost impossible to run the office<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
-without them." The President answered, "Well, Mr. Secretary,
-you can shut up the bureau, can't you?" The answer was,
-"Yes, sir." "Well then," said General Grant, "have those men
-dismissed before three o'clock this afternoon, or shut up the
-bureau." Mr. Chandler went over to the Department, sent for
-the Commissioner, told him that the suspected clerks must go
-that afternoon if the bureau was closed as the result, and gave
-the necessary orders of removal which were promptly executed.
-In regard to the dismissal of these men, he said, "I haven't
-evidence that would be regarded in a court as sufficient to
-convict them of fraud or dishonesty, but to my mind the
-proof of their crookedness is strong as Holy Writ." This was
-only one of many instances in which President Grant actively
-interested himself in the work of hunting out fraud, and there
-was no step which Mr. Chandler took in the direction of honest
-and cheaper administration in which he was not cordially and
-powerfully sustained at the White House.</p>
-
-<p>The "Indian Attorneys" also came under and felt the
-weight of the new Secretary's just displeasure. One of the
-glaring impositions practiced upon the ignorant aborigines was
-that of inducing them, winter after winter, to send "agents" to
-Washington to look after their interests, upon representations
-made to them that the government would otherwise deprive
-them of some of their rights. Many of these men were paid
-eight dollars a day and their expenses, while others contracted
-for certain sums secured on the property of the Indians. In
-fact, these "attorneys" rendered no needed service and preyed
-upon the ignorance of their clients. These men Mr. Chandler
-banished from his Department; he also declined to allow the
-payment of claims preferred by representatives of the Indians
-for "expenses incurred in procuring legislation," on the ground
-that such outlay was illegal and immoral. His decision on these
-points was embodied in this order (addressed on Dec. 6, 1875,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>
-to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and still governing the
-proceedings of that bureau), which saved large sums of money
-to the Indians:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Hereafter no payment shall be made and no claim shall be approved for
-services rendered for or in behalf of any tribe or band of Indians in the procurement
-of legislation from Congress or from any State Legislature, or for
-the transaction of any other business for or in behalf of such Indians before
-this Department or any bureau thereof, or before any other Department of the
-government, and no contract for the performance of such services will hereafter
-be recognized or approved by the Indian Office or the Department.
-Should legal advice or assistance be needed in the prosecution or defense of
-any suit involving the rights of any Indian or Indians, before any court or
-other tribunal, it can be procured through the Department of Justice.</p>
-
-<p>This regulation will govern the Indian Office, and application for compensation
-for such services must not be forwarded to the Department for
-action hereafter, it being understood that the regularly-appointed Indian
-Agent, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior
-are competent to protect and defend the rights of Indians in all respects,
-without the intervention of other parties, and without other compensation than
-the usual salaries of their respective offices.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's experience as Secretary of the Interior made
-him a firm believer in President Grant's policy of seeking to
-civilize the American savages by dealing with them through the
-agency of the Christian churches. Originally he favored turning
-the management of Indian affairs over to the military arm of
-the government, but actual contact with this knotty problem
-convinced him that the so-called "peace policy" was, with all
-its conceded imperfections, the true one. He held that, if firmly
-adhered to and improved as experience should dictate, it would
-ultimately yield the largest and best returns. To make any
-policy successful he knew that honest and competent service was
-indispensable, and that he spared no efforts to secure.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_347.jpg" width="700" height="498" alt="" />
-<div class="caption">
-
-
-<ul><li>President Grant.</li>
-<li>Lot M. Morrill.</li>
-<li>Hamilton Fish.</li>
-<li>G. M. Robeson.</li>
-<li>J. D. Cameron.</li>
-<li>Alphonso Taft.</li>
-<li>Z. Chandler.</li>
-<li>J. N. Tyner.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>PRESIDENT GRANT'S CABINET&mdash;1876-'77.</p>
-
-<p>[From a Sketch by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett.]</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In the Pension Bureau there was also some wholesome investigation,
-and the efficiency of its administration and the vigilance
-of its scrutiny into fraudulent claims upon the government were
-materially increased, with the result of saving to the Treasury
-hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. In the Land Office
-a series of extensive frauds in what was known as "Chippewa
-half-breed scrip" were discovered during the first six months of
-Mr. Chandler's term. The matter was one that had been brought
-to the attention of the Department under other Secretaries, but
-no detection of rascality had followed. Mr. Chandler ordered a
-thorough investigation, which was pushed vigorously by Mr.
-Gorham and Mr. Gaylord. The end was the breaking up of a
-strong and corrupt combination, the prompt removal of all
-officers connected with its past operations, and the reporting of
-the facts to the proper Congressional committees for further
-action. The Secretary also ordered a consolidation of the seven
-stationery divisions of the Department into one central office,
-securing thereby a lessened cost of management which was and
-is worth $20,000 annually to the Treasury.</p>
-
-<p>The result of this exhibition of executive vigor need not be
-described in detail. Under the impetus of shrewd insight, disciplined
-business habits, and firm purpose, the <em>morale</em> of the
-various bureaux improved rapidly. Abuses withered up, inefficiency
-became industry, and fraud took flight.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The Interior
-Department became a strongly-officered and well-administered
-branch of the government. Men saw that it had at last a head
-who meant that his subordinates should be honest and should
-render efficient service, and who could push his intentions into
-acts. Mr. Chandler, who had originally doubted as to whether
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>he could still command his old mercantile faculty of mastering
-and managing a host of details, convinced both himself and
-others that this was still one of his powers. His administration
-made evident the benefits of the supervision of the public business
-by a practical man of affairs, and no member of President
-Grant's Cabinets made a record more enviable for unostentatious
-and efficient discharge of duty.</p>
-
-<p>The anecdotes of Mr. Chandler's Cabinet service are many
-and entertaining. He commenced by arming himself for the
-chronic battle of all heads of departments with the claimants of
-patronage. One of his first orders prohibited clerks from recommending
-applicants for position, and another provided him with
-a statement of the number of employes in the Department from
-each Congressional district. A memorandum book, containing
-this information, was constantly by his side, and was used almost
-daily. A Congressman would apply for the appointment to a
-clerkship of some constituent whom he was anxious to oblige or
-assist. The record would be produced, and something like this
-conversation would follow: "You see your quota is full, but
-that don't matter; pick out any man you want me to remove
-and I'll put your man in his place at once." "But," the Congressman
-would reply, "I can't do that. If I ask you to turn
-out any of these men I shall get myself into hot water." "You
-don't mean to say that you're asking me to get myself into
-hot water for you?" the Secretary would answer, and with this
-weapon, thus used half banteringly but still effectively, he, with
-perfect good-nature, turned aside the Congressional pressure for
-positions.</p>
-
-<p>He also carefully kept memoranda of the official records of
-his subordinates, and charges against any one of them coming
-from responsible sources were certain to be thoroughly investigated.
-But no man could be more wrathful at mere backbiting
-or at efforts for the secret undermining of reputation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
-His repugnance to injustice was no less keen than his sense of
-justice. One afternoon a man of clerical aspect and garb called
-at his office, and said, after introducing himself, "Mr. Chandler,
-I presume it is your intention to have none but correct people
-in your Department."</p>
-
-<p>"That is my intention."</p>
-
-<p>"Well, do you know, sir, that you have a woman in one of
-the bureaux of your Department who is of bad character."</p>
-
-<p>"No, sir, I do not know that I have any such persons in my
-Department."</p>
-
-<p>"I thought you didn't know it, Mr. Chandler, and so I
-decided to come and inform you."</p>
-
-<p>The name of the clerk in question was then given and the
-charges against her made still more explicit. Mr. Chandler
-listened quietly, and finally picked up a pen and handed it to
-his caller, saying, "Just put that down in writing, sir, and I
-will dismiss the woman." The accuser hesitated and said, "Now,
-I hope, Mr. Chandler, you will not connect my name with this
-matter. I don't want to be known." The Secretary thereupon
-leaned back in his chair and said, "You know all about this
-woman and I know nothing about her, except what you state
-to me; but you want me to put a stain on her reputation
-upon charges you are unwilling to even substantiate with your
-name. Never! Leave the office." Upon the abrupt departure
-of the visitor so dismissed, Mr. Chandler turned to one of his
-clerks and said, "He belongs to that class of informers who are
-always willing to stand behind and ruin a person, but who
-don't want to be known. I don't propose to be a party to any
-such transaction."</p>
-
-<p>A contractor, whose rascality had been conclusively exposed
-and whose contract had been unceremoniously annulled, came to
-him one day to remonstrate. The conversation ran in this wise.</p>
-
-<p>"Mr. Secretary, I have been badly used&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"I'm glad of it," interrupted Mr. Chandler; "you're a
-scoundrel, and it's time you were getting your deserts."</p>
-
-<p>The man attempted explanation, but Mr. Chandler was too
-impatient to listen, and finally sent him away with orders to
-write a letter setting forth his grievances, which should be
-investigated. "Although," added he, as the contractor retired,
-"it's my opinion that the worst treatment you could get would
-be too good for you."</p>
-
-<p>In the few cases where genuine hardship followed his quick
-decisions and their enforcement, he was ready to make good the
-injury he had not intended to inflict. One morning a prominent
-officer of the army entered Mr. Chandler's office with a small
-pamphlet in his hand and said, "What kind of a fool is it, Mr.
-Secretary, that you have at your door distributing tracts?"
-Upon Mr. Chandler's denying all knowledge of this variety of
-colportage, he said, "Here is a tract a fellow out there gave me,
-and told me to read it, and said it might be good for my soul."
-Mr. Chandler was nettled at this violation of discipline, and
-made inquiries which showed that one of the clerks was distributing
-tracts about the Department under circumstances that
-implied neglect of his official duties, and thereupon he was dismissed.
-In a short time an earnest letter came to the Secretary
-from the wife of the displaced man describing the distress that
-had been brought upon their home, whereupon Mr. Chandler
-directed his re-instatement, saying, as he issued the order, "I
-guess he won't circulate any more tracts. I don't object to
-their distribution, but when a man is doing the government
-business he should give that his attention." For a clerk discharged
-because of dishonesty, no amount of personal solicitation,
-even by close friends of Mr. Chandler, availed anything. At
-one time when he was most vehemently and persistently urged
-to restore a suspected and dismissed subordinate, he finally said
-to the Senator who was pressing the matter, "There is but one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>
-way by which you can have that man re-appointed, and that
-is to first have me turned out."</p>
-
-<p>In the early part of his term a letter came to Mr. Chandler
-from a man in California, who had a case pending before the
-Department upon an appeal from the Commissioner of the Land
-Office. He wrote that if the Secretary would decide that case
-in favor of the appellant, he would remit $300 in gold. Mr.
-Chandler read it and said to his clerk, "Call the attention of
-the Attorney-General to that, cite the law that man has
-violated, and ask the Department of Justice to prosecute the
-fellow," and this course was taken. At about the same time,
-a dispatch came from the Pacific coast stating that a man was
-at San Francisco who claimed to be Mr. Chandler's brother, and
-was seeking to borrow money on that statement. To this Mr.
-Chandler's answer was this telegram: "I have no brother.
-Arrest the scoundrel."</p>
-
-<p>By the clerks, whose official record satisfied him, he was
-universally liked. He was easily approached, ready to listen,
-quick to perceive, and prompt in decision. He scarcely ever gave
-reasons, but his rapid judgment was rarely found to require
-reversal or even revision. With those who did business with
-the Department on honest principles, and only asked for
-promptitude and efficiency in its service, his popularity was great
-and deserved. The fact that he was at its head was kept constantly
-fresh in the minds of all. Soon after the commencement
-of his term he exchanged offices with the Commissioner of
-Patents, thus obtaining an apartment much more desirable than
-the one previously occupied by the Secretaries. One of the
-Patent Office <em>attaches</em>, in replying to the comment of somebody
-who expressed surprise at the fact that this change had not been
-sooner made, said, "To tell the truth we have generally regarded
-the Secretary himself as an interloper in the Department. Mr.
-Chandler has started a new order of things."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 519px;">
-<img src="images/i_353.jpg" width="519" height="550" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR'S OFFICE.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>While the investigating mania was at its height, the House
-Committee on the Expenditures of the Interior Department
-determined to look into his books and business system. He
-accordingly received from them a formal letter asking what time
-would be convenient for the investigation. The Chief Clerk
-submitted this communication to Mr. Chandler, who said, "Tell
-them to come down any day, and I want you to put the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>
-room we have at their disposal, and give them all the facilities
-you can to investigate the affairs of any bureau of the Department
-that they want to look into. If they can find anything
-wrong that I haven't found, I shall be very much obliged to
-them. They will be pumping a dry well. The work is done."
-The committee came, but only held a few brief sessions, and
-finally never concluded their labors and never made a report in
-relation thereto.</p>
-
-<p>Active as were Mr. Chandler's party sympathies, and little
-disposed as he was to consult his political opponents as to his
-course, or to admit them to any share in the patronage at his
-disposal, he did not manage the Department upon merely partisan
-principles. He did not make removals of Democratic
-subordinates except for cause; he never appointed any Republican
-whom he did not believe to be thoroughly upright and
-competent. That to fill any vacancy he always sought to find
-the right kind of Republican was true. His civil service theories
-stopped with honesty and efficiency, and did not exclude pronounced
-political sympathy with the appointing power nor party
-activity. Still, he did not on any occasion enforce the payment
-of political assessments by his subordinates, and their work for the
-Republican cause was left voluntary in character. The nearest
-approach to mere partisanship in his use of the appointing power
-was the giving of places in the Department to crippled soldiers
-who had been discharged from the employment of the House of
-Representatives by the Democratic Door-keeper, and even in
-that it was far more the indignation of the patriot than of the
-Republican that stirred him. At the close of Mr. Chandler's
-Secretaryship, the clerks of the Department waited upon him
-in a body, and thanked him for the kindness they had received
-at his hands. While farewells were being exchanged Mr. Schurz,
-the new Secretary, came in and was introduced to his staff of
-subordinates. Mr. Chandler then said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Secretary, I welcome you to this office. When I came here this
-Department was greatly tainted with corruption, especially in the Patent Office
-and the Indian Bureau. With the aid of the gentlemen you see around you,
-I have been able to cleanse it, and I believe, as far as I am able to ascertain,
-that no abuses exist in the bureaux I have named. I had to use the knife
-freely, and I believe this Department stands to-day the peer of any department
-of the government.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler further commended the corps of employes as
-honest, faithful men, and Mr. Schurz replied:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>I think I am expressing the general opinion of the country when I say
-you have succeeded in placing the Interior Department in far better condition
-than it had been in for years, and that the public is indebted to you for the
-very energetic and successful work you have performed. I enter upon the
-arduous duties with which I have been entrusted with an earnest desire to
-discharge them conscientiously, and I shall be happy when leaving the Department
-to have achieved as good a reputation for practical efficiency as you
-have won. I thank you, sir, for this cordial welcome, and I will say to the
-gentlemen to whom you have introduced me that they shall have my protection;
-and I ask from them the same faithful assistance they have given you.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The tribute which Secretary Schurz at the outset thus paid
-to the practical efficiency of his predecessor merely expressed the
-public verdict which greeted the close of Mr. Chandler's term.
-Examination did not compel any modifying of this praise, and
-after Mr. Chandler's death his successor in the Interior Department&mdash;a
-man very exacting in judgment and one with whom
-his political differences had been numerous&mdash;again said: "In
-the course of the last two years I have frequently discovered
-in the transaction of public business traces of his good judgment
-and his energetic determination to do what was right."</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> This massive edifice is popularly known as "The Patent Office," because its main
-halls are occupied by the magnificent model rooms of the Bureau of Patents.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Much of Secretary Chandler's confidence arises from the well-known integrity and
-personal reliability of the several gentlemen sustaining the nearest official relation to him,
-all of whom were selected by his own free choice, and from his own personal knowledge
-of these essential characteristics. General Gorham did not seek the office of Assistant
-Secretary; the office sought him, and Mr. Chandler himself would take no denial. So,
-also, of Mr. Gaylord, his able and untiring Assistant Attorney-General for the department.
-And the same is true of Mr. Partridge, his discreet and trusted private secretary. Surrounded
-by such aids he well knows that no material interest can suffer by any temporary
-contingency, such as the one which now occurs.&mdash;<em>Washington dispatch to the Philadelphia
-"City Item" of Oct. 20, 1875</em> (<em>referring to Mr. Chandler's temporary absence</em>).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> No appointment was ever more thoroughly justified by the result than Mr. Chandler's.
-It gave him a new field for his energy and his masterly executive ability, and it is
-conceded that he made the best Secretary of the Interior that the nation has had in our
-day. He made no boasts of what he intended to accomplish, but instituted reforms and
-uprooted abuses. He hated dishonest men, and they feared him.&mdash;<em>Gen. J. R. Hawley, in the
-"Hartford Courant."</em>
-</p>
-<p>
-On no occasion was Mr. Chandler known to use his official position for his own
-pecuniary gain&mdash;directly or indirectly. His death has ended a long career of public service
-in executive and legislative capacities, and throughout his hands were ever clean of
-unjust or illegitimate gain&mdash;nor did his bitterest political foe (and no man evoked stronger
-personal criticism) ever charge, or ever suspect him, with making personal profit out of
-his political station and opportunities.&mdash;<em>T. F. Bayard in the Senate, Jan. 28, 1880.</em></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XX.<br />
-
-THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876&mdash;AT HOME&mdash;THE MARSH FARM
-NEAR LANSING.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_356.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> Michigan delegation to the Cincinnati Convention
-of 1876 selected Mr. Chandler as the member of the
-National Republican Committee for their State, and at
-the first formal meeting of that body (at Philadelphia,
-early in July) he was chosen its chairman after a close triangular
-contest between his friends and those of the Hon. A. B.
-Cornell and Gen. E. F. Noyes. The committee at once opened
-rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, with its Secretary,
-the Hon. R. C. McCormick of Arizona, in immediate
-charge. Mr. Chandler made frequent visits to the headquarters
-throughout the campaign, superintending the general plan of
-operations and meeting with the executive committee; as election-day
-approached his attendance became more constant.</p>
-
-<p>Originally he felt confident of Republican victory, not
-believing that in the centennial year the American people would
-render a political verdict whose result would be the restoration
-of the disloyal classes of the South to national supremacy.
-But, in September, evidences of Republican apathy in the important
-States of Ohio and Indiana&mdash;more especially in the former,
-which was the home of the Presidential candidate&mdash;greatly disturbed
-him, and made it plain that the situation was critical.
-It had become evident that organized brutality would give all
-the close Southern States to the Democrats and even make
-doubtful those which were strongly Republican, and that the
-merchantable and criminal classes of New York city would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>
-so used as to also cast the electoral vote of that great State for
-the Opposition. The gravity of the prospect then brought out
-Mr. Chandler's best qualities of party leadership. Prompt aid
-was rendered in Ohio, and the National Committee did more than
-its full share (Mr. Chandler making large personal advances) to
-carry that State in the important October election. After the
-serious loss of Indiana, measures were at once instituted to
-organize the party for decisive work on the Pacific Slope, to see
-that in those Southern States where there was any hope all lawful
-measures were taken to defeat the plans of "the rifle clubs"
-and "the white leagues," and to carry New York if that was
-possible. Nothing was spared that would arouse the spirit of
-the party, and Mr. Chandler saw that the means were forthcoming
-for every effort that promised to make success more
-certain.</p>
-
-<p>The elections showed that the calculations of the managers
-of the Republican campaign were accurate, and were also adequate
-to "snatching victory from the jaws of defeat." The
-effort to save New York failed, and it and the neighboring
-States rewarded with their electoral votes the unscrupulous and
-subtle skill of Governor Tilden's personal canvass. But the
-Republican victories beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the resolute
-resistance offered in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida,
-to the seizure of those States by political crimes ranging from
-shameless fraud to wholesale massacre, still left success with
-the Republicans after a contest without an American parallel
-in obstinacy, bitterness and excitement. Mr. Chandler showed
-throughout the prolonged electoral dispute "the courage which
-mounteth with the occasion," and his firmness, vigor and activity
-were among the important factors in the work of saving the
-fruits of the so narrowly-won victory. As soon as the smoke
-lifted from the battle-field his dispatch appeared, "Hayes has
-185 votes and is elected," and he maintained that position to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>
-the end without a shade of faltering. Knowing that the Republicans
-were rightfully entitled to the electoral votes of, at least,
-Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, he
-determined that in the three States where the existence of
-Republican officials afforded some ground for hope nothing
-should be left undone to deprive fraud and violence of their
-prey, and he pushed every measure which seemed needed to
-uphold the Republicans of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina
-in their lawful rights. In some of the important closing phases
-of this exciting contest his counsels were not followed. The
-Electoral Commission act was not a measure that he approved.
-Firmly believing in the constitutional power of the President of
-the Senate to count the electoral votes and announce the result,
-he held the position that that officer should discharge that duty,
-and that the candidate thus constitutionally declared elected
-should be duly inaugurated at all hazards; and revolutionary
-threats were without effect upon his firm purpose. The negotiations
-between the opposing party leaders which attended the
-closing hours of the struggle, and which culminated in the
-abandonment by the new administration of the Republican State
-governments of the South, received no sanction from him. He
-regarded such a policy as essentially perfidious, and as clouding
-the title of Mr. Hayes to his high office, a title which Mr.
-Chandler believed to be as clear as that possessed by any President
-chosen since the formation of the constitution. Much else
-that attended the surrender of the South to the bitter enemies
-of the republic he deprecated as exceedingly harmful to the
-party of his faith, as unwise in tendency, and as unjust in principle.
-He was not demonstrative in his criticisms upon the new
-"policy," and his retirement to private life enabled him to
-maintain a general silence upon the subject. But his disapproval
-of a "conciliation," which he regarded as cowardly in its treatment
-of friends and as foolish in its manifestation of undeserved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>
-confidence in enemies, was profound.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Within two years the
-vindication of his opinions was complete.</p>
-
-<p>The indebtedness of the Republicans to Mr. Chandler's attitude
-and efforts in the presidential election of 1876 and the
-subsequent electoral dispute can scarcely be exaggerated. Without
-his firmness, the spirit with which he held his party up to
-the thorough assertion of its rights, the liberality with which he
-advanced the large sums required for legitimate expenditures,
-and the influence of his indomitable resolution, the final victory
-would have been at least vastly more difficult of attainment, if
-not actually impossible. In him the enemy never found the
-slightest traces of failing will or flagging strength. While the
-excitement was at its height, a Democratic periodical published
-a cartoon, in which Mr. Chandler was caricatured as standing
-colossus-like over a yawning chasm, holding up an elephant,
-labeled "The Republican Vote," by a double-handed grasp upon
-its tail. The humor of the rough sketch greatly delighted its
-subject, and he kept it with him for the entertainment of his
-friends. He first saw it after one of the Cabinet sessions, when
-it was produced by President Grant and passed through the
-hands of the other Secretaries, until it reached Mr. Chandler,
-who, after looking it over, said, gravely pointing out his position
-in the cartoon: "Mr. President, one of three things is certain:
-either the rocks upon which my feet are resting will crumble, or
-the elephant's tail will break, or I shall land the animal." Into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
-the methods of his work he never feared examination. No
-cipher dispatch disclosures have cast infamy upon his name, and
-eager investigation by his political enemies still left his personal
-honor untainted.</p>
-
-<p>After the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term of Cabinet service,
-he remained in Washington for several weeks, and then
-accompanied General Grant to Philadelphia, and was one of the
-party who escorted the Ex-President down the Delaware when,
-on May 17, 1877, he commenced his tour around the world.
-The next two years were spent by Mr. Chandler in Michigan.
-His only prolonged absence from his Detroit home during this
-period was caused by a two months' trip to the California coast
-in June and July of 1877. A special car was placed at his service
-by the Pacific Railroads (he was one of the earliest and
-most energetic supporters of the trans-continental railway project),
-and he was accompanied by Charles T. Gorham of Marshall,
-H. C. Lewis of Coldwater, and S. S. Cobb of Kalamazoo.
-Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the
-Yo Semite Valley were visited during the journey, and everywhere
-Mr. Chandler was welcomed with noteworthy public
-and private entertainments; his attractive social qualities shone
-throughout the jaunt. Not a great traveler, yet he saw during
-his life much of the world. In 1875, in company with Senators
-Cameron, Anthony and others, he visited the leading
-cities of the South. During one of the Congressional recesses
-of his second term, he passed some months in Europe, and
-while still in active business he spent a winter in the West
-Indies. His knowledge of the resources and points of interest
-of the Worth and Northwest was extensive and thorough.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p>
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_361.jpg" width="700" height="515" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The marsh farm, which Mr. Chandler bought near the city
-of Lansing, and the experiments in extensive and systematic
-drainage which he made thereon, always received a generous
-share of his attention when he was in Michigan. This enterprise
-was one in which he unhesitatingly made large investments
-with the view of settling definitely questions of manifest public
-importance. In 1857 the State of Michigan gave to its Agricultural
-College the public lands in the four townships of Bath,
-De Witt, Meridian, and Lansing, which were designated on the
-surveyor's maps as "swamp lands;" in the main the sections
-covered by the grant were marshy, although their rectilinear
-boundaries included some solid ground. Mr. Chandler purchased
-from the college and other owners a farm of 3,160 acres, located
-four miles (by railroad) from Lansing, in the towns of Bath
-and De Witt in Clinton county; it included about 1,900 acres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>
-of marsh meadow, 500 acres of tamarack swamp, and 800 acres
-of oak-opening uplands. The marsh was traversed by a slender
-water-course, deviously connecting some small lakes with a stream
-known as the Looking-glass river. The upland portion of the
-farm was thoroughly fertile, but its development and cultivation
-did not specially interest Mr. Chandler, except as furnishing
-the needed base for his experiments upon the marsh. He said:
-"Michigan contains thousands of acres of precisely this kind of
-land. The drainage of this particular marsh is difficult, as much
-so as is the case with any land in this peninsula which is not
-a hopeless swamp. If this tract can be reclaimed, others can
-be, and I propose to give the experiment of reclamation a
-thorough trial. I have the money, and I believe I have the
-pluck. If I succeed, it will be a good thing for the State, for
-it will show how to add millions of dollars worth of land
-to its farms. If I fail, it will also be a good thing, for it will
-settle an open question, and no man need repeat my attempt."
-He pushed this experiment vigorously from the time of its
-commencement until his death, and gave to it his frequent personal
-supervision: His investments in the marsh farm soon
-came to be counted by many tens of thousands of dollars.
-Originally, practical farmers were inclined to regard his operations
-as sheer folly, but as they saw the purpose, methods and
-thoroughness of his work, a just appreciation of its aim followed.
-Mr. Chandler never disguised the character of this enterprise.
-Repeatedly he said to visitors at the farm and to friends,
-"I have a theory&mdash;that is a remarkably expensive thing to
-have&mdash;and I propose to test it here; it will make me poorer,
-but it may make others richer some time." The public value
-of his experiment he believed to be great, and that fact he was
-quick to make prominent whenever it seemed necessary.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_363.jpg" width="700" height="428" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE "BIG DITCH" (WINTER SCENE).</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The general plan of drainage operations consisted in connecting
-by a large ditch Park lake (which has an area of 235 acres)
-with the Looking-glass river. This main ditch was constructed
-by straightening the bed of Prairie creek, and possessed descent
-enough to ensure a slow current in wet seasons. It is about
-four miles in length, and averages fourteen feet in width by
-four in depth. At intervals of forty rods are constructed
-lateral ditches, as a rule five feet in width at the top by three
-in depth. This part of the work had not been completed at
-the time of Mr. Chandler's death, but still the lateral ditching
-had reached about fifty miles in aggregate length, and had well
-drained about 1,000 acres in the western end of the marsh near
-the outlet into the Looking-glass. In that portion of the farm
-the first results of the drainage&mdash;the rotting down of the peaty
-surface of the marsh into a vegetable mold&mdash;have already
-manifested themselves satisfactorily. The extent to which this
-decomposition will continue is not completely tested, nor does
-it yet appear what will be the full measure of the arability of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
-soil, which will be created by this process, supplemented by the
-tile draining which will follow the subsidence of the marsh to a
-permanent level. This peaty surface varies from two and a half
-feet to a rod in depth and promises to become an enormously
-productive soil. The experiments thus far tried upon it have
-resulted hopefully. Much of the native grass furnished excellent
-hay, and stock fatted upon it thoroughly with no more than the
-usual allowance of grain. The tame grass sown was chiefly Fowl
-Meadow and Timothy. The former Mr. Chandler had seen growing
-in Holland on reclaimed land, and he determined to give it
-a trial; he was only able to find the seed in the Boston market,
-and there paid for it four dollars per bushel of eleven pounds.
-It is a species of Red Top, and soon yielded from one and a
-half to two tons of excellent hay per acre. For four seasons
-this seeding-down with tame grasses was tried with satisfactory
-results, and then other experiments followed. In the fall of
-1878, twelve acres of marsh, then well seeded-down with grass,
-were thoroughly plowed by Superintendent Hughes, who, in the
-following season, raised thereon corn, potatoes, rutabagas and
-oats. The results conclusively showed that the marsh possessed
-general productiveness, although the experiment itself was marred
-by the unseasonable frosts of 1879. The corn looked well at
-the outset, but was severely injured in the end. The potato
-crop was a good one, and the yield of oats was also large. In
-the fall of 1879 another tract of twelve acres was plowed, and
-the same experiment was put in process of repetition. Superintendent
-Hughes is of the opinion that within another year,
-the reclaimed marsh will produce 100 bushels of corn to the
-acre. A short time before his death, Mr. Chandler said that,
-in view of the success which had attended the experiments
-already tried, he now felt confident that in time his farm would
-be pointed out as an ague-bed transformed into one of the most
-valuable pieces of property in Central Michigan, and would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>
-demonstrate the reclaimability of large tracts of swamp land in
-that State. About 500 acres of the marsh are seeded with Fowl
-Meadow grass; about 300 acres of this is mowed, and the remainder
-is used for pasturage. Over 400 tons of excellent hay were
-cut there in the season of 1879.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
-<img src="images/i_365.jpg" width="500" height="379" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE SUPERINTENDENT'S HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Outside of the interest attaching to it by reason of the
-drainage experiments, the Chandler farm would deserve notice
-as one of the most thoroughly equipped and stocked of the new
-farms of Michigan. It is traversed by a state road, and by
-the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad (which has established
-a signal station near the farm-house). Its buildings are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>
-located upon the highest ground. They are substantially constructed,
-and surrounded with all the evidences of thrift. The
-main house of the farm, which is occupied by the superintendent
-and his family, is a commodious frame structure, two stories in
-height, and conveniently partitioned off into spacious and airy
-apartments. Near it is the house-barn (32 by 54 feet in dimensions)
-with sheep-sheds adjoining. About a half-mile to the
-east are two tenant houses, occupied by families employed on the
-farm. On the east side of the state road, at a distance of half
-a mile, is a large barn, erected in 1879; its main portion is 41
-by 66 feet in dimensions, with a wing 38 by 90 feet; its height
-is 44 feet to the ridge; attached are sheds 250 feet in length
-and "L" shaped. This barn is largely used for storage purposes,
-and will receive 250 tons of hay. The basement of its wing is
-divided into 60 cattle stalls, 30 on each side, with a broad passage
-through the center. The stalls are ingeniously arranged in
-the most improved style, and with a special regard for cleanliness.
-In the basement of the main barn is a large root cellar
-(capable of holding 2,000 bushels of potatoes, turnips, etc.),
-stabling accommodations for eight horses, two large box-stalls
-for stallions, a feed-room 20 by 25 feet in size, numerous calf-pens,
-and many other conveniences. Located above are two
-granaries, each 12 by 28 feet in dimensions. Attached to the
-barn, but in a separate building, is a 12-horse-power engine,
-used for cutting feed, and for other farm purposes. A large
-automatic windmill and pump supply water in abundance.</p>
-
-<p>The farm is well stocked; on it are seventeen horses, including
-"Mark Antony," an imported Normandy stallion, which is
-a fine specimen of the Percheron breed. There are also 120
-head of handsome graded cattle on the farm, 300 sheep graded
-from Shropshire Down bucks, and 23 pure-bred Essex swine.
-In wagons and implements of every kind the equipment is complete,
-and all are of the best manufacture and most improved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>
-quality. The force of laborers on the farm as a rule includes
-five men in summer and three in winter, large gangs being
-employed during the two months of the haying season, and also
-when there is any extensive fencing or ditching enterprise to be
-pushed.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_367.jpg" width="700" height="531" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE MAIN BARN OF THE MARSH FARM.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's experiments were closely watched by the
-farmers of Michigan. Visits were frequent from them singly,
-in small parties, and in club or grange excursions to the marsh,
-and they always met a hospitable reception. Letters of inquiry
-also came from many parts of the State, giving evidence of the
-widespread character of the interest felt. Mr. Chandler himself
-when in Michigan visited the farm at least once a month,
-inspecting the work thoroughly, discussing plans with the super<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>intendent,
-making suggestions, and giving orders. His experience
-as a farmer in his boyhood furnished ideas which were yet useful
-and a judgment which was well-informed; still he was ready
-to welcome all innovations that promised good results, and he
-closed many discussions with his superintendents by remarking,
-"If you come at me with facts, that is enough; I never argue
-against them." At the farm he also found the most congenial
-relaxation. He would come there jaded out with the excitement
-and labor of political contest and public life; in stout clothing
-and heavy boots he would scour the meadows, examine ditching,
-look up the stock, oversee labor, and work himself if there was
-an inviting opportunity. A day or two of this life would bring
-rest, hearty appetite, and sound sleep, would relieve his nerves
-from tension, and restore his vital powers to their natural
-activity. He always rated his visits to the marsh farm as a certain
-and delightful tonic.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 481px;">
-<img src="images/i_369.jpg" width="481" height="500" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN WASHINGTON.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In private life Mr. Chandler kept up the habits which
-marked his public career. His voluminous correspondence was
-never neglected. Napoleon's method of leaving letters unopened
-for three weeks, because within that time most of them would
-need no replies, he reversed. As a rule, every communication
-addressed to Mr. Chandler was promptly answered; to even
-mere notes of compliment brief responses were sent. Of course
-this practice made a confidential secretary indispensable, and that
-position was held for some years by a Mr. Miller; after his
-death (in 1870) it was discreetly and faithfully filled by George
-W. Partridge. Matters entrusted to Mr. Chandler's care by constituents
-always received early attention; the same statement is true
-of applications from the humblest stranger who preferred a claim
-upon his attention, and it includes political enemies as well as
-friends. Mr. Chandler regarded meeting these demands as part
-of his public duties; no other prominent man of his day gave
-to such matters a tithe of the time and energy devoted to them
-by him, and this was one source of his hold upon the popular
-affection. Of course much labor was involved, but this was
-offset by the fact that in all his duties he was regular, punctual
-and systematic; his mercantile training helped him greatly in
-this respect, and it was said of him truly, "He has never been
-excelled as a 'business Senator' at Washington." While not a
-student, he was a man who prepared for every important action.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>
-In his speeches he aimed at nervous strength and effectiveness.
-For oratorical finish he cared nothing, but simple language, terse
-sentences, some plain word whose meaning was an argument in
-itself&mdash;these he sought for unceasingly. He apologized for the
-length of one of his brief speeches because he had not had time
-to make it shorter. Not rarely he would put into a sentence of
-ten Saxon words the power of a philippic, and this rough
-missile would crush where mere rhetoric would have only irritated.
-Mr. Chandler never failed as a speaker to command the
-popular attention, and his force and the simplicity of his diction
-were greatly aided by the sincerity which illuminated them.
-The vigor and truth of conviction, which made him so ardent a
-champion of the party of his political faith, marked his speeches,
-and made his appeals potent with his hearers. "His words
-were simple and his soul sincere." In fact, his sincerity and
-honesty were the salient qualities of the man. His was not a
-faultless character; but it was above baseness, and it was free
-from affectation, from cant, and from hypocrisy. The record of
-his public life recalls Emerson's estimate of Bonaparte: "This
-man showed us how much may be accomplished by the mere
-force of such virtues as all men possess in less degree&mdash;namely,
-by punctuality, by personal attention, by courage, and
-by thoroughness." But more honorable to his memory is the
-fact that concerning the man himself can be justly quoted
-Carlyle's eloquent tribute to Burns: "He is an honest man....
-In his successes and his failures, in his greatness and
-his littleness, he is ever clear, simple and true, and glitters
-with no lustre but his own. We reckon this to be a great
-virtue&mdash;to be, in fact, the root of most other virtues."</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p>
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_371.jpg" width="700" height="486" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN DETROIT.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's social nature was a hearty one. His manners
-were easy, he was affable with all, and he was without the
-slightest tinge of aristocratic tastes or prejudice. No false dignity
-surrounded him; with his friends his laugh was ready; he liked
-a game of whist, enjoyed a good story, found pleasure in social
-gatherings, was entertaining in conversation, and easily gave
-way to the natural jollity of his spirits. Exact and stern as he
-often was, his intimates found him a most agreeable companion
-Few men have ever bound friends to themselves more firmly.</p>
-
-<p>He surrounded his homes with the comforts that wealth
-could supply, and yet was not ostentatious. His Washington
-residence he purchased for about $40,000 in 1867 from Senor
-Bareda, the Peruvian Minister. It is located on H between
-Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and is a handsome house with
-spacious parlors and dining room upon the first floor; commodious
-apartments occupy the upper stories, which are connected by
-rich staircases of black walnut. Mr. Chandler's office was located
-in the basement, and has been the scene of many important consultations
-between famous men on questions of party policy and
-public concern. His Detroit home was the mansion on the
-Northwest corner of Fort and Second streets, which he built in
-1855-'56. It is situated in spacious grounds, and is of the plain
-Roman style of architecture, which aims at the simple in outline
-and massive in effect. A semi-circular drive and path
-lead to it through the gate-ways of a heavy and handsome
-fence and into a large <i lang="fr">porte cochere</i>. Thence wide stone steps
-rise through solid mahogany doors to a broad hall, whose floor
-of inlaid woods is partly hidden by rich rugs. On the right
-is the drawing room, a spacious apartment furnished in blue and
-gold, and abounding in tasteful ornaments and handsome paintings.
-In it stands Randolph Rogers's marble bust of Mr.
-Chandler, executed about 1870. Opposite and connected by
-folding doors are the library and dining room. The former's
-shelves are well filled with the best works of standard authors,
-including many ancient chronicles seldom found in private book
-collections. Back of the dining room and across a transverse
-hallway is the apartment that was Mr. Chandler's private office;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>
-its walls are literally covered with shelving containing Congressional
-annals and reports and many public documents. The
-appointments of the numerous other rooms are tasteful and complete,
-and all the surroundings of the house are in keeping with
-its quiet elegance. In 1858 Mr. Chandler met there with an
-accident of nearly fatal results. He followed his little daughter
-upon a search for some escaping gas, and was caught with her
-in a room in which a large mass of that inflammable vapor was
-exploded by a lighted candle. To add to the danger of the situation
-the door was closed upon them by a frightened servant.
-Mr. Chandler seized his child and sheltered her from serious
-danger, and groped his way out blinded and scorched. It was
-then found that his hands and face were badly burned, and the
-loss of his eyesight was threatened. Careful treatment and his
-vigorous constitution ultimately brought about a full recovery,
-and the only traces left of the casualty were some slight affections
-of the facial muscles and an unusual pallor of countenance.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's domestic life was a thoroughly happy one.
-He married Letitia Grace Douglass of New York, a noble
-Christian woman, whose social accomplishments blended dignity
-with grace, and who met to the full her large share of the
-exacting duties attendant upon public life and high station.
-Their only child was a daughter, Mary Douglass Chandler, who
-was married, while her father was a Senator, to the Hon. Eugene
-Hale of Ellsworth, Maine. She inherited many of her father's
-traits, and his affection for her was rooted in the inner fibres of
-his strong nature. Her children, his three little grandsons, often
-knew him as a rollicking playfellow, and he counseled with her
-freely and often, and she shared in his confidence as well as his
-love. Throughout his life he expressed his appreciation of the
-devoted attachment of his wife and child by many acknowledgments
-that do not belong to a public chronicle; his will left his
-great estate to them as his sole heirs, "share and share alike."</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> In the fall of 1877 Mr. Chandler delivered the annual address before the Branch
-County Agricultural Society, and while in Coldwater was the guest of the Hon. Henry C.
-Lewis of that city, who invited a few friends to meet him socially. In the course of the
-conversation Mr. Chandler said that he was going to his Lansing farm to spend a few days.
-His reticence in regard to the Hayes administration was then a matter of remark, and the
-Hon. C. D. Randall said to him: "Well, Mr. Chandler, when you get out in the center of
-your great farm and alone, you will have a fine opportunity to express your opinion
-about the Hayes 'policy.'" Mr. Chandler's reply was: "No, sir; that Lansing farm
-will never answer my purpose. To do that I shall have to be on the top of a high hill
-behind the meeting-house and with the wind blowing the other way!" The audience
-responded with a hearty laugh.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> The heavy black lines in this map are the boundaries of the farm; the waving lines
-indicate the border of the uplands surrounding the marsh. The drainage is from Mud
-Lake via "the big ditch" to the Looking-glass river. The lateral ditching (of which
-there are over fifty miles) is shown on the plat by the fine lines.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
-
-THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878&mdash;MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
-SENATE&mdash;"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_374.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> township elections in Michigan in April, 1878,
-revealed an astonishing growth in the number of the
-advocates of an irredeemable paper currency. "Hard
-times," Democratic disgust over the result of the electoral
-dispute, and Republican disappointment at "the Southern
-policy" of the new administration greatly relaxed existing party
-ties, and made the way ready for the expounders of the seductive
-theory that prosperity depends upon a great volume of the
-currency, and that large issues of paper bearing the government
-stamp must greatly add to individual wealth. Throughout the
-West and South, Republican and Democratic leaders had fostered
-these fallacious ideas, and thus prepared the field of public sentiment
-for this "Greenback" sowing. In Michigan the result
-was that the National party (which in 1876 gave only 9,060
-votes to Peter Cooper for President) in April, 1878, cast over
-70,000 votes for its township candidates, elected a large number
-of supervisors in the most populous counties of the State, and
-showed greater strength than either of the old parties in four
-Congressional districts. This was the gravest situation the Republicans
-of Michigan had ever been called upon to face. A conference
-of their representative men was at once held, at the call
-of the State Central Committee, and the situation was thoroughly
-discussed. Among those participating was Gov. Charles M.
-Croswell, who said that he believed that the party should boldly
-declare for a sound currency, and resist with all its power the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>
-further spread of financial heresy; for himself, he preferred
-defeat on that platform to a victory won by any surrender to
-false theories. The endorsement of his views was substantially
-unanimous, and an aggressive campaign was determined upon.
-The State Convention was promptly called, and met in Detroit on
-June 13. It was the ablest political gathering ever held in Michigan,
-and its delegates included the foremost men of the party
-from every county. Mr. Chandler presided; Governor Croswell
-was renominated at the head of a strong State ticket; a platform,
-admirable for its soundness of doctrine and clearness of
-statement<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> (its author was Frederick Morley, formerly editor of
-the Detroit <cite>Post</cite>), was adopted; and Mr. Chandler was, amid the
-prolonged cheering of the convention, placed at the head of
-the State Committee. He had at that time about completed his
-plans for a European journey, and it was suggested to him by
-friends that his chairmanship of the National Committee afforded
-a valid excuse for declining this new appointment, which would
-make him responsible for the result of a doubtful fight, with the
-certainty that defeat would greatly impair his political prestige.
-To this advice Mr. Chandler simply replied, "If Michigan Republicanism
-goes down, I will go with it." He promptly canceled
-all other engagements, appointed his confidential secretary, G. W.
-Partridge, secretary of the committee (with the consent of its
-members), and threw his energy and vigor into that State campaign.
-The contest that followed under his leadership preserved
-the spirit of the convention and upheld the doctrines of the
-platform. The financial question was discussed in every phase
-"upon the stump" and by the press. Mr. Chandler himself
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>spoke in all the leading cities of the State, and was seconded
-by many other orators, including James G. Blaine, James A.
-Garfield, and Stewart L. Woodford, whose addresses were masterly
-examples of the candid, luminous and popular treatment
-of a topic usually regarded as too abstruse and dry for profitable
-public discussion. The courage and honesty of this fight
-were justly rewarded. The Republicans carried the State by
-over 47,000 plurality, and elected every Congressional candidate
-and a Legislature with a large Republican majority upon
-joint ballot. The victory was a signal one. In no Western
-State had financial heresy ever been as resolutely grappled with
-and as thoroughly beaten, and his prominent share in this battle
-must rank among Mr. Chandler's most unselfish and honorable
-public services.</p>
-
-<p>An unforeseen but almost poetically just result of this
-triumph was his own return to Congress. Senator Christiancy's
-failing health compelled him in the winter of 1879 to seek
-(under physician's advice) rest and a change of climate. The
-President offered him the embassadorship at Berlin, or at Mexico,
-or at Lima, and he finally decided to accept the latter. His
-nomination was sent to the Senate on Jan. 29, 1879, and confirmed
-without reference to a committee. On February 10, his
-resignation as Senator was laid before the Michigan Legislature,
-and on the 18th that body filled the vacancy by election. With
-the earliest hints of the possibility of Senator Christiancy's retirement,
-Republican opinion and the popular expectation had
-agreed that Mr. Chandler would be chosen for the remaining
-years of what the Republicans of Michigan had unsuccessfully
-sought to make his fourth term. This was regarded as due
-to him, as still more due to the party which had in 1875 been
-deprived of its choice, and as securing the restoration to public
-activity of a man of national influence and prominence, at an
-hour when the sagacity of his political judgment had been vin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>dicated
-by the alarming attitude of the South, and when the
-sturdiest qualities of leadership were needed in Washington.
-The legislative action reflected this strong current of public sentiment.
-In the Republican caucus (held in the new Capitol of
-that State), Mr. Chandler was nominated for Senator on the
-first formal ballot, receiving sixty-nine of the eighty-nine votes
-cast. In the Legislature he was elected by the vote of every
-Republican in his seat in either branch.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_377.jpg" width="700" height="600" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE MICHIGAN CAPITOL AT LANSING.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>On Feb. 22, 1879, Mr. Chandler's credentials were presented
-and read in the Senate, and he was escorted by Senator Ferry
-to the Vice-President's desk, where the official oath was administered
-to him by William A. Wheeler. He took the seat upon
-the outer row of the Republican side, which he had occupied in
-other Congresses. The circumstances of his return to public life
-attracted national attention, and his re-appearance in the Senate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>
-was everywhere accepted as significant of the growth of Republican
-courage and resolution. But what followed outstripped all
-expectation and was dramatic in its accessories. Upon February
-28, he first addressed the Forty-fifth Senate, speaking briefly
-upon a bill providing for pension arrears, and in advocacy of an
-amendment to make more efficient the methods of detecting
-pension frauds by taking expert examiners from one part of the
-country and sending them to another. In this connection he
-referred to his own experience as Secretary of the Interior, saying
-that he had declared that with $100,000 to so use he
-could save $1,000,000 to the Treasury yearly. Upon the same
-day, he also spoke briefly upon the Sundry Civil Appropriation
-bill, opposing a proposition in it to re-open a settled claim
-of the war of 1812, based on expenditures made by some of the
-older States for military purposes. He spoke from recollection
-of a discussion in 1857, when this matter came up, and showed
-that the principal of the claims had been already paid, and that
-this was an attempt to collect compound interest. This measure,
-which Mr. Chandler repeatedly opposed during his Senatorial
-career, was again defeated at this time. On March 1, a proposition
-to pay Georgia over $72,000 compound interest upon
-advances alleged to have been made in 1835-'38 in the Creek,
-Seminole and Cherokee wars was strenuously and successfully
-opposed by him. On the 28th of February, a bill had been
-passed by the Senate making appropriations for the arrearages of
-pensions. To this an amendment was offered and adopted
-extending to those who served in the war with Mexico the provisions
-of the law passed in 1878, giving pensions to the surviving
-soldiers of 1812. This amendment was adopted without
-full consideration, and on the evening of Sunday, March 2, a
-motion was made and carried for a reconsideration. Then an
-amendment was offered excluding persons who served in the
-Confederate army or held any office under the "Confederacy"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>
-from the benefits of this bill. This amendment was defeated
-by the votes of the Democrats and two Southern Republicans.
-Another amendment was offered by Senator Hoar excluding
-Jefferson Davis from the benefits of any pension bill. An astonishing
-debate followed. For some hours the Senate Chamber
-rang with fervent eulogies upon the arch-rebel of the South.
-Senator Garland declared that Davis's record would "equal in
-history all Grecian fame and all Roman glory." Senator Maxey
-pronounced him "a battle-scarred, knightly gentleman." Senator
-Lamar characterized the proposition as a "wanton insult," springing
-from "hate, bitter, malignant sectional feeling, and a sense
-of personal impunity;" he added, "The only difference between
-myself and Jefferson Davis is that his exalted character, his
-pre-eminent talents, his well-established reputation as a statesman,
-as a patriot, and as a soldier enabled him to take the
-lead in a cause to which I consecrated myself;" he further
-declared that Davis's motives were as "sacred and noble as ever
-inspired the breast of a Hampden or a Washington." Senator
-Harris pronounced him "the peer of any Senator on this floor."
-"I will not," said Senator Coke, "vote to discriminate against
-Mr. Davis, for I was just as much a rebel as he." Senator
-Ransom said, "I shall not dwell upon Mr. Davis's public services
-as an American soldier and statesman. He belongs to
-history, as does that cause to which he gave all the ability of
-his great nature." There was no lack of Republican protest
-against this apotheosis of unrepentant treason, but it was not
-wholly free from a certain deprecatory tone. The Senators who
-spoke in support of Mr. Hoar's proposition rather remonstrated
-against than denounced the assumption that it was their duty to
-quietly assent to legislation which would place the unamnestied
-and still defiant representative of the Great Rebellion on the pension-rolls
-of the nation. After the debate had lasted for over
-two hours, Mr. W. E. Chandler of New Hampshire, who was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>
-watching its progress from the reporters' gallery, said to Senator
-E. H. Rollins of his State, "Tell Zach. Chandler that he is the
-man to call Jeff. Davis a traitor." Mr. Rollins delivered the
-message, which was received with a nod of acquiescence in the
-direction of the gallery. Senator Morgan of Alabama was
-speaking at the time, with Senator Mitchell of Oregon in the
-chair. As Mr. Morgan closed, Senator Chandler rose and said:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>Mr. President, twenty-two years ago to-morrow, in the old Hall of the
-Senate, now occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States, I, in company
-with Mr. Jefferson Davis, stood up and swore before Almighty God that
-I would support the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Jefferson Davis
-came from the Cabinet of Franklin Pierce into the Senate of the United States
-and took the oath with me to be faithful to this government. During four
-years I sat in this body with Mr. Jefferson Davis and saw the preparations
-going on from day to-day for the overthrow of this government. With treason
-in his heart and perjury upon his lips he took the oath to sustain the government
-that he meant to overthrow.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, there was method in that madness. He, in co-operation with other
-men from his section and in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, made careful preparation
-for the event that was to follow. Your armies were scattered all
-over this broad land where they could not be used in an emergency; your
-fleets were scattered wherever the winds blew and water was found to float
-them, where they could not be used to put down rebellion; your Treasury
-was depleted until your bonds bearing six per cent., principal and interest
-payable in coin, were sold for 88 cents on the dollar for current expenses, and
-no buyers. Preparations were carefully made. Your arms were sold under
-an apparently innocent clause in an army bill providing that the Secretary of
-War might, at his discretion, sell such arms as he deemed it for the interest
-of the government to sell.</p>
-
-<p>Sir, eighteen years ago last month I sat in these halls and listened to
-Jefferson Davis delivering his farewell address, informing us what our constitutional
-duties to this government were, and then he left and entered into the
-rebellion to overthrow the government that he had sworn to support! I
-remained here, sir, during the whole of that terrible rebellion. I saw our
-brave soldiers by thousands and hundreds of thousands, aye, I might say
-millions, pass through to the theater of war, and I saw their shattered ranks
-return; I saw steamboat after steamboat and railroad train after railroad train
-arrive with the maimed and the wounded; I was with my friend from Rhode
-Island (Mr. Burnside) when he commanded the Army of the Potomac, and
-saw piles of legs and arms that made humanity shudder; I saw the widow
-and the orphan in their homes, and heard the weeping and wailing of those
-who had lost their dearest and their best. Mr. President, I little thought at
-that time that I should live to hear in the Senate of the United States eulogies
-upon Jefferson Davis, living&mdash;a living rebel eulogized on the floor of the
-Senate of the United States! Sir, I am amazed to hear it; and I can tell the
-gentlemen on the other side that they little know the spirit of the North
-when they come here at this day, and, with bravado on their lips, utter eulogies
-upon a man whom every man, woman, and child in the North believes
-to have been a double-dyed traitor to his government.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
-<img src="images/i_381.jpg" width="550" height="370" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON "JEFF." DAVIS.</p>
-
-<p>[In the Senate Chamber, at 3 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, Monday, March 3, 1879.]</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This speech was made at about the hour of half-past three
-in the morning of Monday, March 3, 1879. But few people
-were in the galleries at that time, and the Senate had lapsed
-into a listless state. Mr. Chandler's bearing as he arose to speak,
-and the first sentence that resounded through the Senate Chamber
-in his strong voice, aroused instant attention. The spectators
-above listened with new and eager interest, Senators came in
-from the lobbies and cloakrooms, sleep was shaken off by drowsy
-<em>attaches</em>, and his closing words "a double-dyed traitor to his
-government" fell in ringing tones upon an intent audience and
-were answered by an applause from the galleries which the
-gavel of the presiding officer could not check. His excited
-hearers listened eagerly for a reply, but none came. After
-some silent waiting the presiding officer stated the pending
-question, and was about to put it to vote. Senator Thurman
-then rose and began the discussion of another branch of the
-subject, and no answer was attempted to Mr. Chandler's just
-denunciation of the eulogizing of the man, whose past history
-and present attitude unite to make him at once the representative
-of treason's crimes and the embodiment of its unrepentant
-spirit. When the vote was taken, one majority was given for
-Mr. Hoar's amendment, and after that result the original amendment
-itself was defeated.</p>
-
-<p>This speech was a masterpiece in its way&mdash;in its brevity, in
-its skillful use of the speaker's early official association with
-Jefferson Davis, in its vivid epitome of the history of American
-treason, and in the rugged power of its simple language. It
-most profoundly stirred the people. It may be said without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>
-exaggeration that years had passed since any Congressional utterance
-had received such public attention. Democratic and Southern
-denunciation of Mr. Chandler followed abundantly, but this was
-wholly overshadowed by the enthusiasm of the response of the
-patriotic sentiment of the Union to his indignant refusal to
-let treason raise its head in insolence without branding it as
-it deserved. The Northern press reprinted the speech with
-unstinted praise. Public men hastened in person, by telegraph,
-and through the mails to tender their congratulations. Letters
-of fervent thanks poured in by the hundreds; from utter
-strangers, from the rich and the humble, from veteran soldiers,
-from mothers whose sons were buried on Southern battle-fields,
-from the colored men, from the Republicans of the South, from
-every State and Territory came the expressions of gratitude for
-the utterance given at so opportune a moment and with such
-force to the loyal feeling of the republic. It was this spontaneous
-approval of the masses of the people that Mr. Chandler
-especially prized.</p>
-
-<p>On March 18, 1879, the extra session of the Forty-sixth
-Congress commenced, and the Democrats made their abortive
-attempt to force the repeal of the laws relating to the supervision
-of national elections by withholding appropriations. Their reactionary
-programme (the striking of the last vestige of the war
-measures from the statute books was even threatened) and revolutionary
-menaces aroused the North, and in the end they
-quailed before the rising popular wrath. Mr. Chandler denounced
-their schemes vigorously on the floor of the Senate, even charging
-explicitly that twelve of the Southern Senators "held their
-seats by fraud and violence." He also earnestly opposed all
-propositions to compel the unlimited coinage of the silver dollar
-of 412½ grains, a measure which would have given to the
-country a superabundance of silver currency of depreciated value
-to the exclusion of gold. His last Congressional speech was this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>
-carefully prepared and forcible "arraignment of the Democratic
-party," of which tens of thousands of copies were circulated
-throughout the Union in the following campaign:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>We have now spent three months and a half in this Capitol, not without
-certain results. We have shown to the people of this nation just what the
-Democratic party means. The people have been informed as to your objects,
-ends, and aims. By fraud and violence, by shot-guns and tissue ballots, you
-hold a present majority in both Houses of Congress, and you have taken an
-early opportunity to show what you intend to do with that majority thus
-obtained. You are within sight of the promised land, but like Moses of old
-we propose to send you up into the mountain to die politically.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. President, we are approaching the end of this extra session, and its
-record will soon become history. The acts of the Democratic party, as manifested
-in this Congress, justify me in arraigning it before the loyal people of
-the United States on the political issues which it has presented, <em>as the enemy
-of the nation</em> and as the author and abettor of rebellion.</p>
-
-<p>1. I arraign the Democratic party for having resorted to revolutionary
-measures to carry out its partisan projects, by attempting to coerce the Executive
-by withholding supplies, and thus accomplishing by starvation the
-destruction of the government which they had failed to overthrow by arms.</p>
-
-<p>2. I arraign them for having injured the business interests of the country
-by forcing the present extra session, after liberal compromises were tendered
-to them prior to the close of the last session.</p>
-
-<p>3. I arraign them for having attempted to throw away the results of the
-recent war by again elevating State over National Sovereignty. We expended
-$5,000,000,000 and sacrificed more than 300,000 precious lives to put down
-this heresy and to perpetuate the <em>national life</em>. They surrendered this heresy
-at Appomattox, but now they attempt to renew this pretension.</p>
-
-<p>4. I arraign them for having attempted to damage the business interests
-of the country by forcing silver coin into circulation, of less value than it
-represents, thus swindling the laboring-man and the producer, by compelling
-them to accept 85 cents for a dollar, and thus enriching the bullion-owners at
-the expense of the laborer. Four million dollars a day is paid for labor alone,
-and by thus attempting to force an 85 cent dollar on the laboring-man
-you swindle him daily out of $600,000. Twelve hundred million dollars are
-paid yearly for labor alone, and by thus attempting to force an 85-cent dollar
-on the laboring-man you swindle him out of $180,000,000 a year. The
-amount which the producing class would lose is absolutely incalculable.</p>
-
-<p>5. I arraign them for having removed without cause experienced officers
-and employes of this body, some of whom served and were wounded in the
-Union army, and for appointing men who had in the rebel army attempted
-to destroy this government.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>6. I arraign them for having instituted a secret and illegitimate tribunal,
-the edicts of which have been made the supreme governing power of Congress
-in defiance of the fundamental principles of the constitution. The
-decrees of this junta are known although its motives are hidden.</p>
-
-<p>7. I arraign them for having held up for public admiration that arch-rebel,
-Jefferson Davis, declaring that he was inspired by motives as sacred
-and as noble as animated Washington; and as having rendered services in
-attempting to destroy the Union which will equal in history Grecian fame
-and Roman glory. [Laughter on the Democratic side and in portions of the
-galleries.] You can laugh. The people of the North will make you laugh on
-the other side of your faces!</p>
-
-<p>8. I arraign them for having undertaken to blot from the statute-book
-of the nation wise laws, rendered necessary by the war and its results, and
-insuring "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to the emancipated freedmen,
-who are now so bulldozed and ku-kluxed that they are seeking peace in
-exile, although urged to remain by shot-guns.</p>
-
-<p>9. I arraign them for having attempted to repeal the wise legislation
-which excludes those who served under the rebel flag from holding commissions
-in the army and navy of the United States.</p>
-
-<p>10. I arraign them for having introduced a large amount of legislation
-for the exclusive benefit of the States recently in rebellion, which, if enacted,
-would bankrupt the national Treasury.</p>
-
-<p>11. I arraign them for having conspired to destroy all that the Republican
-party has accomplished. Many of them breaking their oaths of allegiance
-to the United States and pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
-honors to overthrow this government, they failed, and thus lost all they
-pledged.</p>
-
-<p><em>Call a halt.</em> The days of vaporing are over. The loyal North is aroused
-and their doom is sealed.</p>
-
-<p>I accept the issue on these arraignments distinctly and specifically before
-the citizens of this great republic. As a Senator of the United States and as
-a citizen of the United States, I appeal to the people. It is for those citizens
-to say who is right and who is wrong. I go before that tribunal confident
-that the Republican party is right and that the Democratic party is wrong.</p>
-
-<p>They have made these issues; not we; and by them they must stand or
-fall. This is the platform which they have constructed, not only for 1879 but
-for 1880. They cannot change it, for we will hold them to it. They have
-made their bed, and we will see to it that they lie thereon.</p></blockquote>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> The Michigan Republicans have done well. Their platform has about it the clear
-ring of honest conviction, undulled by any half-hearted and halting compromise. So lucid
-and courageous an enunciation of the financial creed of the Republican party has certainly
-not been made this year, nor has the irreconcilable hostility of the party to all
-forms of tampering with public credit and national honor been so resolutely and judiciously
-stated as by the Detroit Convention.&mdash;<cite>New York Times, June 14, 1878.</cite></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></p></div></div>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
-
-THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879&mdash;MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS&mdash;DEATH AND
-FUNERAL.</h2>
-
-
-<div>
-  <img class="drop-cap" src="images/i_386.jpg" height="100" alt="" />
-</div>
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap">The</span> closing hours of the Forty-fifth Congress and the
-extra session of the Forty-sixth may be said to have
-revealed Mr. Chandler to the country. While he had
-been well known he had not been truly known. He then
-became a central figure in the public attention. His utterances
-were universally discussed, and with discussion came a juster
-appreciation of the man. The people at last saw him as he was,
-the possessor of strong common-sense, a cool and indefatigable
-worker, a sagacious and fearless leader, a man who had never
-sacrificed principle to policy, who had never compromised with
-crimes against liberty or the nation's honor, whose most malignant
-enemies had not accused him of being influenced by corrupt
-motives, and one gifted with the rare capacity of saying the
-right thing at the right time in terse, impromptu sentences, in
-epigrams which became political mottoes.</p>
-
-<p>The campaign of 1879 followed closely upon the mid-summer
-adjournment of Congress, and invitations to address the people
-came to Mr. Chandler from a score of States. No public speaker
-was in more urgent demand, or aroused a keener interest. The
-popular gatherings, which, during the summer and fall, greeted
-his every appearance from the shores of the Great Lakes to the
-Atlantic seaboard, amounted to a genuine ovation. His first
-address was delivered before the Republican State Convention of
-Wisconsin, at Madison, on July 23. In August he made six
-speeches in Maine to immense mass meetings. In September he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>
-visited Ohio, and spoke at Sandusky, Toledo, Warren, Cleveland,
-and other important points. His audiences in that State were
-uniformly large, and his Warren speech was delivered in the
-afternoon to an enormous crowd, one of the greatest ever called
-together upon such an occasion in the Western Reserve. He
-was greatly pleased by an invitation, which came to him at about
-this time, from Senator G. F. Hoar, to visit Massachusetts in
-October. It was unexpected, and he had believed that the
-Republican leaders in the Bay State were inclined to look upon
-him with distrust. He accepted it promptly, and spoke to enthusiastic
-audiences in Boston, Worcester, Lynn and Lowell. Some
-brief remarks made at a dinner of the Middlesex Club, in which
-he urged the national importance of the pending contest, were
-especially useful in stimulating Republican activity and directing
-it into proper channels. He next addressed meetings in New
-York at Flushing, Albany, Troy, Potsdam, Lowville and Buffalo,
-amid increasing public interest. On returning home from that
-State in the last days of October, he revisited Wisconsin, and
-spoke to great crowds at Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Janesville,
-returning to Chicago, where, on the evening of October 31st, he
-made the last address of his life.</p>
-
-<p>The striking evidences of his hold upon the popular confidence,
-which manifested themselves during the summer and fall
-of 1879, led to the frequent mention of Mr. Chandler as a possible
-presidential candidate in 1880. His friends in his own
-State were eager to formally present his name to the National
-Convention, and the Republican press of Michigan united in
-earnestly advocating such a course. This movement also manifested
-strength in other States, and steadily increased in importance
-up to the hour of his death. Although Mr. Chandler was
-not insensible to this growing sentiment, little or nothing was
-done by him to promote it; he favored the renomination of
-General Grant, and the presidential ambition he rated as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>
-most fatal malady to which public men are subject.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> To one
-friend, who spoke of the popular feeling and his own desire in
-this matter, Mr. Chandler replied: "You may vaccinate me with
-the presidency and scratch it deep, but it won't take." To
-another he said: "No! no! Men recover from the small-pox,
-cholera and yellow fever, but never from the presidential fever.
-I hope I will never get it." The movement in that direction,
-which his death so abruptly checked, was spontaneous and sincere,
-and that it was growing in strength was undoubted. What limit
-that growth might have reached and with what result can only
-be conjectured.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
-<img src="images/i_389.jpg" width="700" height="415" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO.</p>
-
-<p>[Where Mr. Chandler died on the night of October 31, 1879.]</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Repeatedly, during the arduous labors of the year, did Mr.
-Chandler's physical powers manifest signs of rebellion against
-excessive effort. In one of his Ohio speeches his voice suddenly
-failed, compelling him to cease speaking. He suffered several
-times from what seemed to be violent attacks of indigestion,
-and was on one or two occasions dangerously distressed by
-them. At Janesville he caught a severe cold, but when he
-reached Chicago, on the last day of his life, he seemed to be in
-his usual robust health, and showed but slight signs of fatigue.
-Those who called upon him on that day at the Grand Pacific
-Hotel noted his fine spirits. His address in that city was
-delivered before the Young Men's Auxiliary Republican Club in
-McCormick Hall, and he never spoke with more animation, nor
-more effectively. The audience applauded almost every sentence,
-and under that stimulus he rose to even more than his usual
-fervor of speech. His ringing sentence, "The mission of the
-Republican party will not end until you and I, Mr. Chairman,
-can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mexico,
-make Black Republican speeches wherever we please, vote
-the Black Republican ticket wherever we gain a residence, and
-do it with exactly the same safety that a rebel can travel
-throughout the North, stop wherever he has a mind to, and
-run for judge in any city he chooses," was followed by cheer
-after cheer, until the entire audience was standing and shouting.
-After closing his speech, Mr. Chandler returned to the Grand
-Pacific Hotel; a few friends chatted with him in his rooms for
-a short time, and at about midnight Representative Edwin
-Willits of Michigan, who had been one of his hearers, made a
-short call, and congratulated him upon the power of his closing
-appeal. After that, no man saw Mr. Chandler alive. At seven
-o'clock on the following morning, in accordance with orders, one
-of the employes of the hotel knocked at his door. There was
-no answer, and a look over the transom showed a figure lying
-in an unnatural attitude on the edge of the bed with the feet
-almost touching the floor. In alarm the room was entered with a
-pass-key, and Mr. Chandler was found in a half reclining posture,
-with his coat about his shoulders, unconsciousness having apparently
-seized him while he was attempting to rise and summon
-help. Medical aid was promptly at hand, but life was extinct.
-"A Power had passed from earth." Zachariah Chandler was
-dead!</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 521px;">
-<img src="images/i_391.jpg" width="521" height="700" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>BUST PROFILE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p>[A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's plaster cast.]</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The news spread at once throughout the great city in which
-he had so suddenly fallen; friends were soon by his bedside,
-while a large crowd gathered about the hotel. A coroner's jury
-was at once impaneled, listened to the testimony of the physicians,
-and returned a verdict that death had resulted from
-cerebral hemorrhage. Impressions of the features were taken by
-Leonard W. Volk, the eminent sculptor, and the lifeless body
-was then arranged by kind, if strange, hands for the funeral
-casket. Before its removal to Detroit, thousands who cherished
-the memory of the man looked mournfully upon the dead face.</p>
-
-<p>The telegraph bore the intelligence of this sudden death
-promptly throughout the country, and the announcement was
-answered by unusual demonstrations of national grief. Throughout
-the cities and towns of Michigan, at Washington, and in
-many other places where his name was well known, the insignia
-of mourning were at once displayed. Public men sent prompt
-dispatches of sympathy to his family, upon whom the blow had
-fallen with prostrating force. Especially significant were the
-newspaper tributes to the memory of the bold, resolute, and successful
-leader of men, whose star had not set, but had gone out
-at the zenith. The President of the United States issued this
-official order:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Executive Mansion, Washington</span>, Nov. 1, 1879.</p>
-
-<p>The sad intelligence of the death of Zachariah Chandler, late Secretary of
-the Interior, and during so many years Senator from the State of Michigan,
-has been communicated to the government and to the country, and, in proper
-respect to his memory, I hereby order that the several executive departments
-be closed to public business, and their flags, and those of their dependencies
-throughout the country, be displayed at half-mast on the day of his funeral.</p>
-
-<p class="right">R. B. HAYES.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>From the Executive Mansion also came this dispatch of personal
-condolence:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 15em;"><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, D. C., Nov. 1, 1879.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>Mrs. Z. Chandler.</em><br />
-</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Hayes joins me in the expression of the most heartfelt sympathy
-with you in your great bereavement.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="right">R. B. HAYES.</p></blockquote>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">
-<img src="images/i_393.jpg" width="427" height="700" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p>GEN. U. S. GRANT'S TRIBUTE.</p>
-
-<p>[His endorsement on W. A. Gavett's official notification, as a member of the
-Detroit Commandery K. T. to attend Mr. Chandler's funeral.]</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The following proclamation was published by the Governor
-of Michigan:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><span class="smcap">Executive Office, Lansing</span>, Nov. 1, 1879.</span><br />
-<br />
-<em>To the People of Michigan</em>:<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>An eminent citizen has suddenly been taken from us. Zachariah Chandler
-was found dead in his room at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago early
-this morning. For nineteen years he has represented this State in the National
-Senate. He held this exalted position at the most perilous period in the
-history of the nation, and unfalteringly supported every measure for the maintenance
-of the Union. A member of the Cabinet under the recent administration
-of President Grant, he proved himself a public officer of keen sagacity,
-of incorruptible integrity and of admirable ability. A resident of Michigan
-during the whole period of his manhood, he has been active in advancing the
-interests of the State and promoting its growth. By his energy he secured a
-competence, and by his integrity the confidence of all. A statesman and a
-leader among men, he combined in an unusual degree qualities which commanded
-respect and admiration. Taken from us so unexpectedly, we cannot
-but deeply feel and deplore his loss. I, therefore, as a tribute to his memory
-and to his public services, hereby direct the several State offices to be closed
-to public business, the flags to be displayed at half-mast, and the other demonstrations
-of public grief usual to be made, on the day of his funeral.</p>
-
-<p class="right">CHARLES M. CROSWELL.</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>An unofficial tribute, highly prized by Mr. Chandler's friends,
-was that of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who wrote upon the reverse
-of a funeral order issued by the Detroit Commandery of Knights
-Templar (shown him by W. A. Gavett) these lines:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>A nation, as well as the state of Michigan, mourns the loss of one of
-her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved
-by his associates and respected by those who disagreed with his political
-views. The more closely I became connected with him the more I appreciated
-his great merits.</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 29.5em;">U. S. GRANT.</span><br />
-<br />
-<span class="smcap">Galena</span>, Ill., Nov. 9, 1879.<br />
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>On the morning of Sunday, November 2, an escort of the
-militia and of the people of Chicago accompanied the body of
-the dead Senator from the Grand Pacific Hotel to the depot, and
-delivered it to a committee of prominent citizens of Michigan,
-who had arrived to receive it. The burial-case was wrapped
-in the national flag, and, when it had been placed in the car, its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>
-lid was opened and the face exposed. The train stopped at
-Niles, Kalamazoo, Marshall, Jackson, and Ann Arbor, and at each
-place crowds came on board to look at the remains. When
-Detroit was reached, thousands of grief-stricken people were at
-the depot, and in solemn procession they joined the military
-escort in the march to the Chandler mansion. There a few
-loving friends received and looked upon the silent and lifeless
-form. To gratify the earnest desire of the many who wished
-to behold again the strong, earnest face of Zachariah Chandler
-before it was forever covered from mortal sight, the body was
-removed on the morning of November 5 to the City Hall, where
-it lay until one o'clock; a guard of honor kept watch at the
-head and foot of the casket, and on either hand, for five hours,
-a double file of men and women passed in steady march. Thousands
-of mournful glances were given at the placid face of the
-dead, and many affecting incidents made touching this parting
-tribute of the people. Then, from the City Hall, the body was
-borne to the Fort street residence for the last time. The day
-was cold and blustering; a blinding snow-storm set in. Yet
-the streets were thronged by the sad multitude, while every
-train brought from Michigan and from other States hundreds
-to increase the sorrowing concourse; among them were men
-of great reputations founded on useful and honorable public
-careers. After impressive funeral services at the house, the
-remains of Michigan's great Senator, escorted by the militia of
-Detroit and of the neighboring cities, by the United States
-troops, by civic societies, by Governors, Senators, Congressmen,
-Legislators of Michigan and of other States, and by hundreds
-of friends, passed slowly through the streets draped in mourning,
-and lined with dense crowds of people who braved the
-storm to pay this last honor to Zachariah Chandler. At the
-gates of Elmwood Cemetery the militia and civic societies halted,
-presenting arms as the hearse rolled slowly on under its trees.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>
-Upon a high knoll, fronting on Prospect Avenue, it halted;
-the coffin was drawn slowly out, poised a moment over an open
-grave, lowered to its resting-place, and "I am the resurrection
-and the life" rose up in solemn tones above the sobbings of
-family and friends. Living green branches and flowers fell softly
-down upon the casket, and a new mound grew up beside where
-Senator Chandler's brother already lay.</p>
-
-<p>Thus was Zachariah Chandler buried. Living, he was honored.
-Dead, he was mourned. Though dead, his labors and his
-example remain, and they form his fittest monument.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> This letter, written to a prominent Republican of the Pacific coast, did not reach the
-gentleman to whom it was addressed until after Mr. Chandler's death, and was then given
-to the public:
-</p>
-<p class="right">                         <span class="smcap">REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE</span>, }<br />
-<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;"><span class="smcap">DETROIT</span>, Mich., Sept. 23, 1879.&nbsp; &nbsp;  }</span></p>
-<p>
-<span class="smcap">MY DEAR SIR</span>: Your favor of 11th inst. is at hand, and contents noted.
-</p>
-<p>
-The prospects for the success of the Republican party in the national election next
-year look much more favorable now than they did the year preceding the election in 1876.
-Republicans are united, and earnestly preparing for success as the only hope of saving the
-country from the shot-gun rule of the Confederate Democracy. The Tammany bolt
-promises to give us New York both this year and next.
-</p>
-<p>
-Ohio is sure to go Republican, and there is hardly a doubt that every Northern State
-having a general election this fall will score a victory in favor of a free ballot and an honest
-count.
-</p>
-<p>
-Each Territory is entitled to two delegates in the National Republican Convention,
-under the rules heretofore adopted. I am under the impression now that Grant's chances
-for the nomination are better than those of any other person; but unless he is nominated
-without a contest he will be out of the field, and there will be a trial of strength between
-the friends and supporters of a few stalwart radicals.
-</p>
-<p>
-No unknown man of lukewarm sentiments or obscure antecedents will be nominated.
-</p>
-<p>
-It is very possible that Michigan will present a name in the convention as well as
-Maine, New York, Ohio, and perhaps other States; but I know nothing special in regard
-to the matter, only that, if General Grant is a candidate, no one else will be. Very truly,
-yours,
-</p>
-<p class="right">Z. CHANDLER.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ci" id="Page_ci">[Pg ci]</a></span></p></div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cii" id="Page_cii">[Pg cii]</a><br /><a name="Page_ciii" id="Page_ciii">[Pg ciii]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>APPENDIX.</h2>
-
-
-
-
-<h3>THE LAST SPEECH<br />
-
-OF<br />
-
-ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,<br />
-
-<span class="smcap">Delivered in McCormick Hall, in the City of Chicago, on the
-Night of his Death, October 31, 1879.</span></h3>
-
-<p class="center">[Republished by permission of Ritchie &amp; Williston, Stenographers, Room 23, Howland
-Block, Chicago.]
-</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens</span>: It has become the custom of
-late to restrict the lines of citizenship. In the Senate of the United States
-and in the halls of Congress you will hear citizenship described as confined
-to States, and it is denied that there is such a thing as national citizenship.
-I to-night address you, my fellow-citizens of Chicago, in a broad sense as
-fellow-citizens of the United States of America. [Applause.] A great crime
-has been committed, my fellow-citizens&mdash;a crime against this nation, a crime
-against republican institutions throughout the world; a crime against civil liberty,
-and the criminal is yet unpunished&mdash;that is to say, he is not punished
-according to his deserts. [Applause.] And I shall to-night devote myself
-chiefly to the history of a crime, and shall endeavor to hold up the criminal
-to your execration. [Renewed applause.]</p>
-
-<p>But, first, it is proper for me to allude to certain matters of national
-importance, which are at this present moment living issues. Twelve years ago
-an idea was started in the neighboring State of Ohio, called the "Ohio
-idea," which spread and bore fruit in different States. That idea was to pay
-something with nothing. [Laughter] From this Ohio idea sprang up a
-brood of other ideas. For example, the greenback idea, an unlimited issue
-of irredeemable currency, and a party was inaugurated in different States
-called the greenback party. It took root in Michigan last year, had a
-vigorous growth, put forth limbs, blossomed liberally, bore no fruit, and died.
-[Laughter and cheers.] Therefore, I shall pay no attention to the greenback
-party. It is not a living issue. [Laughter.] But the Ohio idea is still a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_civ" id="Page_civ">[Pg civ]</a></span>
-living issue, and even during the last session of Congress a demand was
-made, and persistently made, to repeal the Resumption act that had been in
-existence for years. The resumption of specie payment was virtually accomplished
-when, in 1874-5, that Resumption act became a law, for at that time
-we made that act so strong that there was no power on earth that could
-defeat the resumption of specie payments after it had once been inaugurated.
-[Applause.] We authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to use any bonds
-ever issued by the government, and in any amount that was necessary, to
-carry forward to success specie payments, as soon as the time arrived for
-the resumption. We carefully guarded that law. True, we are under an
-obligation to the man who executed the law, but the resumption of specie
-payments was as much a fixed fact when that law was signed as it is to-day,
-and all the powers on earth combined could not break that resumption when
-it had once been inaugurated.</p>
-
-<p>But this Ohio idea, as I said, was to pay off your bonds with greenbacks.
-Well, my fellow-citizens, we have paid off $160,000,000 of your bonds in
-greenbacks within the last sixty or ninety days, and what more do you want?
-Ah! But the Ohio idea was something different from that. It was, as I said
-before, to pay something with nothing, and up to the final adjournment of
-the last regular session of Congress the attempt was still made to issue irredeemable
-paper and force it upon the creditors of the nation. Now, if this
-paper which they propose to issue in paying off the bonds of your government
-was properly and truthfully described, it would read thus: "The
-government of the United States for value received"&mdash;for it was for value
-received; no greenback was ever issued except for value received; no bond
-of the government was ever issued except for value received&mdash;"for value
-received, the government of the United States promises to pay nothing to
-nobody, never." [Applause and laughter.] That was the paper with which
-it was proposed by these men, entertaining then, and now entertaining the
-"Ohio idea," to redeem the bonds of your government.</p>
-
-<p>Now, you have heard, I presume, here in Chicago, the denunciation of the
-holders of your government bonds. The "bloated bondholder" was a term of
-reproach, both on the floor of Congress and in the streets of Chicago and all
-over these United States. But who were the bloated bondholders? Why,
-my friends, every single man who has a dollar in the savings bank is a bloated
-bondholder, for there is not a savings-bank in the land, which ought to be
-entrusted with a dollar, whose funds are not invested in the bonds of your
-government. [Applause.] There is not a widow or orphan who has a fund
-to support the widow in her widowhood and the orphan in its orphanage, in
-a trust company, who is not a bloated bondholder; for there is not a trust
-company in the land that ought to be trusted which has not a large proportion
-of its funds in the bonds of your government. Every man who has his
-life insured, or his house insured, or his barn, or his lumber, or who has any
-insurance, is a bloated bondholder; for there is not an insurance company,
-life, fire, marine, or of any other class of insurance, that ought to be trusted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cv" id="Page_cv">[Pg cv]</a></span>
-which has not its funds invested in bonds of your government. You may
-go to the books of the Treasury to-morrow and inquire and you will find
-ninety-nine men who own $100 and less of the bonds of your government,
-directly or indirectly, where you will find one man who owns $10,000 or
-more. And these men, entertaining the Ohio idea, would ruin the ninety-nine
-poor men for the possible chance of injuring the one-hundredth rich man.
-And yet you may destroy the bonds of the rich man and you do him no
-harm, for he has but a small amount of his vast wealth in the bonds of your
-government, while the poor man, owning $100 or under as his little all, is
-utterly ruined. [Applause.]</p>
-
-<p>You would not find a man, woman, or child in America who would
-touch the kind of paper I have described, if proffered to them. You say you
-would stop the interest on your bonded debt. Very well! The holder of your
-bonds would say: "You do not propose to pay any interest. I hold a bond
-for value received, with a given amount of interest payable on a given day.
-Now I will hold your bonds until you men entertaining the Ohio idea are
-buried in your political graves, and then I will appeal to an honest people,
-to an honest government, to pay an honest debt." [Applause] "But," say
-these men, "pay off your foreign bonds." I see men before me who remember
-the days of General Jackson, and they likewise remember that in the time
-of General Jackson the government of France owed to the citizens of the
-United States $5,000,000, which France did not refuse to pay, but neglected
-to pay. It ran along from decade to decade, unpaid. General Jackson sent
-for the French minister and said: "Unless that $5,000,000 due to the citizens
-of the United States is paid, I will declare war against France." [Applause.]
-General Jackson was remonstrated with. It would disturb the commercial
-relations, not only of this country, but the world. Said he, "Unless France
-pays that $5,000,000, by the Eternal, I will declare war against France."
-[Applause.] Every man, woman and child and the King of France knew
-that he would do it, and the $5,000,000 was paid to the United States. It is
-not $5,000,000 that your government owes to the citizens of the world, but it
-is more than fifty times five million, and it is scattered in every nation with
-which we have commercial relations, or where money is found to invest
-in your bonds. You say you will stop the interest on those bonds. How
-long do you think it would be before a British fleet would come sailing to
-your coast, followed by a French fleet, and a German fleet, and a Russian,
-and an Austrian, and a Spanish and an Italian fleet, and the British Admiral
-would step ashore and say: "I have $50,000,000 of the bonds of this
-government belonging to the citizens of Great Britain, which I am ordered
-to collect!" The answer is: "Your account is correct, sir. The government
-of the United States owes just $50,000,000 to the citizens of Great
-Britain, and here is your money, sir."</p>
-
-<p>[Mr. Chandler, suiting the action to the word, held out a sheet of paper
-with $50,000,000 written upon it, and the audience burst out into loud and
-long-continued laughter.]</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cvi" id="Page_cvi">[Pg cvi]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The British Admiral looks at it and says: "What's that?"</p>
-
-<p>"Why, money. Don't you see? Why, it is a first mortgage on all the
-property of all the citizens of all the United States." [Laughter.] "Don't
-you see the stamp of the government?" [Laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>Says the Admiral: "Where is it payable?"</p>
-
-<p>"Nowhere." [Laughter and applause.]</p>
-
-<p>"To whom is it payable?"</p>
-
-<p>"Nobody." [Laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>"When is it made payable?"</p>
-
-<p>"Never." [Renewed laughter and cheers.]</p>
-
-<p>"Why," says the Admiral, "I don't know any such money. My orders
-are to collect this $50,000,000 in the coin of the world, and unless it is so
-paid my orders are to blockade every port of these United States, and here
-are all the navies of the earth to assist me, and to burn down every city
-that my guns will reach."</p>
-
-<p>Honesty is the best policy with nations as well as with individuals.
-[Cheers.] "Well," they say, "perhaps you are right about this bond business.
-It is an open question, and we will abandon that, but the national
-banks&mdash;down with the national banks! [Laughter and applause.] Abolish
-national banks and save interest." What do you want to abolish the national
-banks for? That is a living issue to-day&mdash;a present proposition of the
-Democratic party that I propose to hold up to your abhorrence before I get
-through to-night. What do you want to "down with the national banks"
-for? I was in the Senate of the United States when that national banking
-law was passed. I was a member of that body and voted upon every proposition
-made in it. I had had a little experience in state banks myself.
-[Laughter and applause.] Michigan had a very large state bank circulation
-at one time [loud applause], and we called that "money" in those days
-wild-cat money [laughter], and it was very wild. [Renewed laughter and
-applause.] Chicago also had a little experience in those days as well as
-Michigan. In those days it was necessary for any man liable to receive a
-five-dollar note to carry a counterfeit detector with him for three purposes.
-First, to ascertain whether there ever was such a bank in existence. [Laughter
-and applause.] Second, to ascertain whether the bill was counterfeit, and,
-third, to ascertain whether the bank had failed [laughter]&mdash;and as a rule it
-had failed. [Laughter and applause.] Now, we had two objects in view in
-getting up that national banking law. First, we wanted to furnish an absolutely
-safe circulating medium, so that no loss could ensue to the bill-holder.
-Second, we wanted to furnish a market for our bonds which had become
-somewhat of a drug. We might just as well have put in state bonds as
-security for those bank notes. It would have been just as legal, just as right,
-but we didn't know which one or how many of those rebel States would
-repudiate their bonds, and therefore we didn't put in any. [Laughter and
-applause.] We might just as well have put in railroad bonds, but we didn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cvii" id="Page_cvii">[Pg cvii]</a></span>
-know how many railroads would default in their interest. We might just as
-well have put in real estate, but we didn't know whether the neighbors of
-the banker would appraise the real estate at its actual cash-selling value.
-[Applause and laughter.] And therefore we put in the bonds of your government
-at 90 cents on the dollar; so that to-day for every single 90 cents of
-national bank notes afloat there is 100 cents&mdash;(worth 102½ cents)&mdash;of the
-bonds of your government deposited with the Treasurer of the United States
-for the redemption of the 90 cents. [Applause.] And you don't know and
-you don't care whether the bank is located in Oregon, in Texas, in South
-Carolina, Mississippi, New York or Illinois, because you know there is 102½
-cents to-day of the bonds of your government deposited with the Treasurer
-of the United States for the redemption of every 90 cents of national bank
-notes you hold. You don't know and you don't care whether the bank whose
-note you have in your pocket failed yesterday, last week, or last year, or
-whether it ever failed. And you never find that out, for if trouble comes the
-bonds are sold and your bank notes are redeemed the day after, or the week
-after, or the year after your bank has failed, precisely the same as though it
-had never failed. [Applause.]</p>
-
-<p>Now you say, "Call in your bonds; abolish the national bank notes."
-Very well! You pass a law to-morrow repealing the charters of all your
-national banks. Call in the national bank notes! Every national bank in
-America takes the exact amount of the circulation which it has, either in silver
-or gold or greenbacks, to the Treasury, leaves it there to redeem its notes,
-takes the bonds and distributes them among the stockholders of that bank,
-and the day after you have called in every national bank note that you have
-out, you pay the self-same amount of interest on your bonds that you paid
-the day before, not one farthing more nor less. You don't gain one cent, but
-you lose $16,500,000 of taxes paid this year and last year and every year upon
-the stock of the national banks to national, state and municipal governments.
-[Applause.] You gain nothing, and you lose $16,500,000. You distress the
-whole community of these United States by compelling your banks to call in
-$850,000,000, now loaned and now being used in commerce, manufactures and
-all the industries of the nation. You distress the people by forcing a recall
-of that amount. No, my friends, in my judgment you had better devote
-yourselves to something you understand, and let the national banks alone.
-[Applause and laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>But they say, "There is one thing that we know we are right on, and
-that is the free coinage of silver." Every man who holds 85 cents worth of
-silver shall go to the Treasury or the mints of the United States and take a
-certificate of deposit for 100 cents, which shall pass as money. This was the
-Warner bill. This the Democratic party as a party was committed to, and is
-committed to, and on the very last day of the extra session by a majority
-vote of one, and only one, in the Senate of the United States we substantially
-laid that bill upon the table, every Republican voting aye, and every Demo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cviii" id="Page_cviii">[Pg cviii]</a></span>crat,
-except four or five, voting no. [Applause.] Now, to-day, the laboring
-man can take gold or silver or paper, as he chooses, for his day's labor. I
-am in favor of the dual standard. I am in favor of a silver dollar with 100
-cents in it. I am in favor of an honest dollar anywhere you can find it
-[cheers], and I stand by an honest dollar. To-day the laboring man can
-take gold or silver or paper, and they are all of equal value, because they are
-all interchangeable into each other. The paper dollar costs nothing; a silver
-dollar costs the government 85 cents&mdash;a fraction more now; it has been a
-fraction less. But all three are of equal value. Now the very moment you
-commence issuing those certificates of deposit freely to every man having
-bullion you banish gold from your circulating medium and make it an article
-of traffic and nothing else; and you have but a single standard, and that is a
-depreciated standard. Now there is paid out in these United States every day
-for labor alone $4,000,000. By compelling the substitution of the silver dollar
-alone, you swindle the laboring man out of $600,000 a day. The laboring
-man who receives a dollar gets but 85 cents. The man who receives $10 a
-week gets $8.50, and no more. The farmer who sells a horse, or the man who
-sells a load of lumber, or a load of wheat, or anything else amounting to $100,
-receives but $85, and no more. You have but one single standard, and that
-the silver standard, which, having banished gold, is worth precisely the metal
-that is in it. Who is benefited by this substitution? Why, my friends, not
-a living mortal is benefited, except the bullion-owner and the bullion-speculator.
-I do not charge these men with being bribed to pass that law,
-because I have no proof of it; but I do say that the bullion-owners and the
-bullion-speculators can afford to pay $10,000,000 in bullion for the privilege
-of swindling the laboring men of the country out of 15 per cent. of all their
-earnings. [Applause.] They say, "That may all be true; we don't know
-how it is; we have not been bribed"&mdash;and I never knew a man that would
-own up that he was bribed in my life. [Laughter.] I don't say that they
-are, but I do say that they are engaged in a mighty mean business. [Laughter
-and applause.]</p>
-
-<p>But there is another question which is of vital interest to every man,
-woman and child in America, and that is this question of the enormous rebel
-claims against your government. I hold in my hand a list of the claims now
-before the two houses of Congress, and being pressed&mdash;cotton claims, claims
-for the destruction of property, for quartermaster's stores, for every conceivable
-thing that war could produce. I have a list of claims right here [holding
-up several sheets of paper containing names and amounts] aggregating many
-hundreds of millions. And the only thing to-day&mdash;the Senate and the House
-both being under the control of those Southern rebels&mdash;the only protection,
-the only barrier between the Treasury of the United States and those rebel
-claims is a presidential veto [cheers], and thank God for the veto! [Long-continued
-applause.] But these claims are not all. There are claims innumerable
-which they dare not yet present. You may go through every State in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cix" id="Page_cix">[Pg cix]</a></span>
-the South, and somewhere, hidden away, you will find a claim for every slave
-that ever was liberated. In the files of the Senate and the House you will
-find demands for untold millions of dollars to improve streams that do not
-exist&mdash;where you will have to pump the water to get up a stream at all.
-[Laughter and applause.] Demands for untold millions to build the levees of
-the Mississippi river! We have already given the Southern people 32,000,000
-of acres of land which would be reclaimed by those levees, and now they
-propose to bankrupt your Treasury by telling you, people of the North, to
-build the levees to make the lands which you gave them valuable.</p>
-
-<p>To show you that I am not over-stating this idea of Southern claims, I
-will read you a petition which is now being circulated throughout the South:</p>
-
-<p>"We, the people of the United States, most respectfully petition your
-honorable bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section of the
-United States may be paid for all their property destroyed by the governments
-and armies on both sides, during the late war between the States, in
-bonds, bearing 3 per cent. interest per annum, maturing within the next one
-hundred years."</p>
-
-<p>Every soldier who served in the Northern army has been paid. Every
-dollar's worth of property furnished to the Northern army has been paid for.
-Every widow or orphan of a wounded soldier entitled to a pension has been
-pensioned, so that there is no claim from the North; but this means that you
-shall do for the South precisely what you have done for your own soldiers.</p>
-
-<p>But I have not yet reached the milk in this cocoa-nut. [Laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>"And we also petition that all soldiers, or their legal representatives, of
-both armies and every section, be paid in bonds or public lands for their
-lost time [laughter], limbs, and lives while engaged in the late unfortunate
-civil conflict." [Laughter and applause.]</p>
-
-<p>That all soldiers be paid for their lost time while fighting to overthrow
-your government! That they shall be paid for their lost limbs and their lost
-lives while fighting to overthrow your government!</p>
-
-<p>Ah, my fellow-citizens, they are in sober, serious, downright earnest.
-They have captured both houses of Congress, and the only obstacle to the
-payment of these infamous claims is the presidential veto, and there is not a
-man before me who has not a personal, direct interest in seeing to it that the
-rebels do not capture the balance of Washington. [Applause.] These rebel
-States are solid&mdash;solid for repudiating your debt, solid for paying these rebel
-claims; they have repudiated their individual debts through the bankrupt
-law; they have repudiated their State debts by scaling, and then refusing to
-pay the interest on what has been scaled; they have repudiated their municipal
-debts by repealing the charters of their cities, towns, and villages. And
-do you think they are more anxious to pay the debt contracted for their
-subjugation than they are to pay their own honest debts? I tell you, No.
-They mean repudiation, and do not mean that your debt shall be of any more
-value than their own. When you trust them you are making a mistake, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cx" id="Page_cx">[Pg cx]</a></span>
-I do not believe you will ever do it again. [Laughter and applause, and
-voices: "We won't!"]</p>
-
-<p>But we have a matter under consideration to-night of vastly more importance
-than all the financial questions that can be presented to you, and that is,
-Is this or is it not a Nation! We had supposed for generations that this was
-a Nation. Our fathers met in convention to frame a constitution, and they
-found some difficulty in agreeing upon the details of that constitution, and for
-a time it was a matter of extreme doubt whether any agreement could be
-reached. Acrimonious debate took place in that convention, but finally a
-spirit of compromise prevailed, and the constitution was adopted by the
-convention and submitted to the people of these United States. Not to the
-States, but to the people of the United States, and the people of the United
-States adopted the constitution that was framed by the fathers, and for many
-long years the whole people of the United States believed that we had a
-Government. The whisky rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania, and was put
-down by the strong arm of the Government, and we still believed that we
-had a Government. We continued in that belief until the days of General
-Jackson, when South Carolina raised the flag of rebellion against the Government.
-Armed men trod the soil of South Carolina and threatened that unless
-the tariff was modified to suit their views they would overthrow the Government.
-This was under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, in carrying out
-his doctrine. Old General Jackson took his pipe out of his mouth when he
-was told that Calhoun was in rebellion against the Government, and said:
-"Let South Carolina commit the first act of treason against this Government,
-and, by the Eternal, I will hang John C. Calhoun!" and every man, woman,
-and child in America, including Calhoun, knew that he would do it, and the
-first act of treason was not committed against the Government, for even the
-State of South Carolina, under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, had bowed
-to its power.</p>
-
-<p>We remained under that impression until I first took my seat in the
-Senate on the 4th day of March, 1857. Then, again, treason was threatened on
-the floor of the Senate and on the floor of the House. They said then: "Do
-this or we will destroy your Government. Fail to do that, and we will
-destroy your Government." One of them in talking to brave old Ben. Wade
-one day repeated this threat, and the old man straightened himself up and
-said: "Don't delay it on my account." [Laughter.] Careful preparations
-were made to carry out these treasons. Jefferson Davis stepped out of the
-Cabinet of Franklin Pierce, as Secretary of War, into the Senate of the
-United States, and became chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.
-There was an innocent-looking clause in the general appropriation bill which
-read that the Secretary of War might sell such arms as he deemed it for
-the interest of the government to dispose of. Under that apparently innocent
-clause, your arsenals were opened; your arms and implements of war went
-together with your ammunition; your accoutrements followed your arms; your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxi" id="Page_cxi">[Pg cxi]</a></span>
-navy was scattered wherever the winds blew and sufficient water was found
-to float your ships, where they could not be used to defend your government.
-The credit of the government, whose 6 per cent. bonds in 1857 sold for 122
-cents on the dollar, was so utterly prostrated and debased that in February,
-1861&mdash;four years afterward&mdash;bonds payable, principal and interest in gold,
-bearing 6 per cent., were sold for 88 cents on the dollar, with no buyers for
-the whole amount. Careful preparations were made for the overthrow of
-your government, and when Abraham Lincoln [cheers] took the oath of
-office as President of the United States [cheers], you had no army, no navy,
-no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, nothing to protect the national
-life. Yet with all these discouragements staring us in the face, the Republican
-party undertook to save your government. [Applause.] We raised your
-credit, created navies, raised armies, fought battles, carried on the war to a
-successful issue, and, finally, when the rebellion surrendered at Appomattox,
-they surrendered to a Government. [Applause.] They admitted that they had
-submitted their heresy to the arbitrament of arms and had been defeated,
-and they surrendered to the government of the United States of America.
-[Applause.] They made no claims against this government, for they had
-none. In the very ordinance of secession which they had signed they had
-pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the overthrow of
-this government, and when they failed to do it, they lost all they had pledged.
-[Cries of "Good."] They made no claims against the government because
-they had none. They asked, and asked as a boon from the government of
-the United States, that their miserable lives might be spared to them.
-[Applause.] We gave them their lives. They had forfeited all their property&mdash;we
-gave it back to them. We found them naked and we clothed them.
-They were without the rights of citizenship, having forfeited those rights, and
-we restored them. We took them to our bosoms as brethren, believing that
-they had repented of their sins. We killed for them the fatted calf, and
-invited them to the feast, and they gravely informed us that they had always
-owned that animal, and were not thankful for the invitation. [Great laughter
-and cheers.] By the laws of war, and by the laws of nations, they were
-bound to pay every dollar of the expense incurred in putting down that
-rebellion. Germany compelled France to pay $1,000,000,000 in gold coin for a
-brief campaign. The seceding States were bound by the laws of war and by
-the laws of nations to pay every dollar of the debt contracted for their subjugation,
-but we forgave them that debt, and, to-day, you are being taxed
-heavily to pay the interest on the debt that they ought to have paid.
-[Applause.] Such magnanimity as was exhibited by this nation to these
-rebels has never been witnessed on earth [applause], and, in my humble
-judgment, will never be witnessed again. [Cheers.] Mistakes we undoubtedly
-made, errors we committed, and I will take my full share of responsibility
-for the errors, for I was there, and voted upon every proposition; but, in my
-humble judgment, the greatest mistake we made, and the gravest error we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxii" id="Page_cxii">[Pg cxii]</a></span>
-committed was in not hanging enough of these rebels to make treason forever
-odious. [Prolonged cheers.] Somebody committed a crime. Either those
-men who rose in rebellion committed the greatest crime known to human law,
-or our own brave soldiers, who went out to fight to save this government,
-were murderers. Is there a man on the face of the earth who dares to get
-up and say that our brave soldiers, who bared their breasts to the bullets of
-the rebels, were anything but patriots? [Cheers.]</p>
-
-<p>And now, after twenty years&mdash;after an absence of four years from the
-Senate&mdash;I go back and take my seat, and what do I find? The self same
-pretensions are rung in my ears from day to-day. I might close my eyes
-and leave my ears open to the discussions that are going on daily in
-Congress, and believe that I had taken a Rip Van Winkle sleep of twenty
-years. [Applause.] Twenty years ago they said, "Do this or we will shoot
-your government to death! Fail to do that or we will shoot your government
-to death!" To-day I go back and find these paroled rebels, who have
-never been relieved from their parole of honor to obey the laws, saying: "Do
-this! obey our will, or we will starve your government to death! Fail to
-obey our will, and we will starve your government to death!" Now, if I
-am to die, I would rather be shot dead with musketry than be starved to
-death. [Laughter and applause.]</p>
-
-<p>These rebels&mdash;for they are just as rebellious now as they were twenty
-years ago&mdash;there is not a particle of difference&mdash;these rebels to-day have
-thirty-six members on the floor of the House of Representatives, without one
-single constituent, and in violation of law those thirty-six members represent
-4,000,000 people, lately slaves, who are as absolutely disfranchised as if they
-lived in another sphere, through shot-guns, and whips, and tissue ballots; for
-the law expressly says, wherever a race or class is disfranchised they shall not
-be represented upon the floor of the House. [Applause.] And these thirty-six
-members thus elected constitute three times the whole of their majority upon
-the floor of the House. Now, my fellow-citizens, this is not only a violation
-of law, but it is an outrage upon all the loyal men of these United States.
-[Applause.] It ought not to be. It must not be. [Applause.] And it shall
-not be. [Tremendous cheers.]</p>
-
-<p>Twelve members of the Senate&mdash;and that is more than their whole
-majority&mdash;twelve members of the Senate occupy their seats upon that floor
-by fraud and violence, and I am saying no more to you in Chicago than I
-said to those rebel generals to their faces on the floor of the Senate of the
-United States. [Enthusiastic applause.] Twelve members of that Senate
-were thus elected, and with majorities thus obtained by fraud and violence
-in both houses, they dare to dictate terms to the loyal men of these United
-States. [Applause.] With majorities thus obtained they dare to arraign the
-loyal men of this country, and say they want honest elections. [Laughter and
-applause.] They are mortally afraid of bayonets at the polls. We offered
-them a law forbidding any man to come within two miles of a polling place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxiii" id="Page_cxiii">[Pg cxiii]</a></span>
-with arms of any description, and they promptly voted it down [laughter and
-applause], for they wanted their Ku-Klux there. They were afraid, not of
-Ku-Klux at the polls, but of soldiers at the polls. Now, in all the States
-north of Mason and Dixon's line and east of the Rocky Mountains there is
-less than one soldier to a county. [Laughter.] There is about two-thirds of
-a soldier to a county. [Laughter and applause.] And, of course, about two-thirds
-of a musket to a county. [Laughter.] Now, would not this great
-county of Cook tremble if you saw two-thirds of a soldier parading himself
-up and down in front of the city of Chicago. [Loud and long-continued
-applause and laughter.] But they are afraid to have inspectors. What are they
-afraid to have inspectors for? The law creating those inspectors is imperative
-that one must be a Democrat and the other a Republican. They have no power
-whatever except to certify that the election is honest and fair. And yet they
-are afraid of those inspectors, and then they are afraid of marshals at the
-polls. Now, while the inspectors cannot arrest, the marshals under the order
-of the court can arrest criminals; therefore, they said: "We will have no
-marshals." What they want is not free elections, but free frauds at elections.
-They have got a solid South by fraud and violence. Give them permission to
-perpetrate the same kind of fraud and violence in New York city and in Cincinnati
-and those two cities with a solid South will give them the presidency of
-the United States; and once obtained by fraud and violence, by fraud and
-violence they would hold it for a generation. To-day eight millions of people
-in those rebel States as absolutely control all the legislation of this government
-as they controlled their slaves while slavery was in existence. Through
-caucus dictation now I find precisely what I found twenty years ago when I
-first took my seat in Congress. In a Democratic Congress, composed of
-twenty-eight Southern Democrats and sixteen Northern Democrats, they
-decreed that Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois should be degraded and disgraced
-from the Committee on Territories, and there were but just two Northern
-Democratic senators who dared even to enter a protest against the outrage.
-To-day there are thirty-two Southern Democratic senators to twelve Northern,
-and out of the whole twelve there is not a man who dares protest against
-anything. [Applause.] I say, that through this caucus dictation, these eight
-millions of Southern rebels as absolutely control the legislation of this nation
-as they controlled their slaves when slavery existed.</p>
-
-<p>Now, if every man within the sound of my voice should stand up in this
-audience and hold up his right hand and swear that a rebel soldier was better
-than a Union soldier, I would not believe it. [Laughter and applause.] I
-would hold up both of my hands and swear that I did not believe it. [Cheers.]
-And yet, to-day, in South Carolina, in Alabama, in Louisiana, in Mississippi
-and in several other States the vote of a rebel soldier counts more than two
-of the votes of the brave soldiers of Illinois; for they vote for the negro as
-well as for themselves, and their vote weighs just double the weight of that
-of the brave soldier in Illinois. It is an outrage upon freedom, an outrage
-upon the gallant soldiers of Illinois and Michigan. [Applause.]</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxiv" id="Page_cxiv">[Pg cxiv]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Now, my fellow-citizens, I have undertaken to show you the condition
-in which the country was placed when the Republican party assumed the reins
-of power. When the Republican party took the reins of power, the country
-had no money, no credit, no arms, no ammunition, no navy, no material
-of war. When the Republican party took the reins of power in its hands,
-there was no nation poor enough to do you reverence. You were the
-derision of the nations of the earth. You had but one ally and friend on
-earth, and that was little Switzerland. [Applause.] Russia sent her fleet
-to winter here for her own protection, but there was not a nation on God's
-earth, that did not hope and pray that your republican government might be
-overthrown, and there was no nation on earth poor enough to do you reverence.
-We fought that battle through; we raised the nation's dignity, and the
-nation's honor, the national power and the national strength, until now,
-to-day, after eighteen years of Republican rule, there is no nation on earth
-strong enough not to do you reverence. [Loud and continued applause.]
-We took your national credit when it was so low that your bonds were
-selling at 88 cents on the dollar, bearing six per cent. interest and no takers,
-and we elevated your credit up, up, up, up, up until to-day your four per cent.
-bonds are selling at a premium in every market of the earth. [Applause.] So
-your credit stands higher than the credit of any other nation. [Applause.] We
-saved the national life and we saved the national honor, and yet, notwithstanding
-all this, there are those who say that the mission of the Republican
-party is ended and that it ought to die. If there ever was a political organization
-that existed on the face of this globe, which, so far as a future state
-of rewards and punishments is concerned, is prepared to die, it is that old
-Republican party. [Cheers.] But we are not going to do it. [Laughter and
-applause.] We have made other arrangements. [Renewed laughter and
-cheers.]</p>
-
-<p>The Republican party is the only party that ever existed, so far as I have
-been able to ascertain&mdash;so far as any record can be found, either in sacred or
-profane history&mdash;it is the only party that ever existed on earth which had
-not one single, solitary, unfulfilled pledge left [cheers]&mdash;not one [renewed
-cheers]; and I defy the worst enemy the Republican party ever had to name
-one single pledge it gave to the people who created it which is not to-day a
-fulfilled and an established fact. [Cheers.] The Republican party was created
-with one idea, and that was to preserve our vast territories from the blighting
-curse of slavery. We gave that pledge at our birth, that we would save those
-territories from the withering grasp of slavery, and we saved them. [Voices.
-"Yes, we did."] It is our own work. We did it. [Cheers.] But we did
-more than that; we not only saved your vast territories from the blighting
-curse of slavery, but we wiped the accursed thing from the continent of North
-America. [Tremendous cheering.] We pledged ourselves to save your national
-life, and we saved your national life. We pledged ourselves to save your
-national honor, and we saved your national honor. [Applause.] We pledged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxv" id="Page_cxv">[Pg cxv]</a></span>
-ourselves to give you a homestead law, and we gave you a homestead law.
-[Applause.] We pledged ourselves to improve your rivers and your harbors,
-and we improved your rivers and your harbors. [Applause.] We pledged
-ourselves to build a Pacific railroad, and we built a Pacific railroad.
-[Applause.] We pledged ourselves to give you a college land bill, and we
-gave it to you; and, not to weary you, the last pledge ever given and the
-last to be fulfilled was that the very moment we were able we would redeem
-the obligations of this great government in the coin of the realm, and on the
-first day of January, 1879, we fulfilled the last pledge ever given by the
-Republican party. [Cheers and long-continued applause.]</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding all this, you say: "Your mission is ended and you
-ought to die." [Laughter and applause.] Well, my fellow-citizens, if we
-should die to-day, or to-morrow, our children's children to the twentieth
-generation would boast that their ancestors belonged to that glorious old
-Republican party [applause] that wiped that accursed thing, slavery, from
-the escutcheon of this great government. [Cheers.] And they would have
-a right to boast throughout all generations.</p>
-
-<p>Senator Ben. Hill of Georgia said, in my presence, that he was an
-"ambassador" from the sovereign State of Georgia [laughter] to the Senate
-of the United States. Suppose Ben. Hill should be caught in Africa or India,
-or some of those Eastern nations, and should get into a little difficulty, do
-you think he would raise the great flag of Georgia over his head [laughter]
-and say: "That will protect me." [Renewed laughter and applause.] My
-fellow-citizens, you may take the biggest ship that sails the ocean, put on
-board of her the flags of all the States that were lately in the rebellion against
-this government, raise to her peak the stars and bars of the rebellion, start her
-with all her bunting floating to the breeze, sail her around the world, and you
-would not get a salute of one popgun from any fort on earth. [Loud and
-continued laughter and applause.] Take the smallest ship that sails the ocean,
-mark her "U. S. A."&mdash;United States of America&mdash;raise to her peak the
-Stars and Stripes, and sail her around the world, and there is not a fort or a
-ship-of-war of any nation on God's footstool that would not receive her with
-a national salute. [Cheers.] And yet the Republican party has done all this.
-We took your government when it was despised among the nations, and we
-have raised it to this high point of honor; and yet you tell us we ought to
-die. [Laughter and applause.]</p>
-
-<p>Suppose there was a manufacturing concern here that failed about the
-year 1837, and the citizens of Chicago thought it very important that it be
-reorganized and resume business. You would buy the property for fifty cents
-on the dollar and reorganize it under your general laws, elect officers, and
-look about for a competent man to manage it. Finally you find what you
-believe to be the very man for that business and put him in possession. He
-finds that the machinery is not up to the progress of the age, and goes and
-buys new. He brings order out of confusion, he manages the business so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxvi" id="Page_cxvi">[Pg cxvi]</a></span>
-that the stock of the concern rises to par; dividends are paid semi-annually
-and they grow larger and larger. The stock rises to two hundred, and none
-for sale. After eighteen years of successful management the manager comes
-in with his account-current and his check for the half-yearly dividend, and
-lays it before the president and the directors. The president has had a little
-conversation with his directors, and says:</p>
-
-<p>"This statement is very satisfactory, but we have concluded that after the
-first day of July next we shall not require your services any longer."</p>
-
-<p>"Why," says the manager, "what have I done?"</p>
-
-<p>"Nothing that is not praiseworthy. We will give you a certificate that
-we think you have managed this establishment with great ability and great
-success. We will certify that we think you have no equal in the city of
-Chicago or State of Illinois. Everything you have done is praiseworthy, and
-we give you full credit for it; but eighteen years ago one of our employes
-was caught stealing and sent to the penitentiary. He has now served his
-time out, and we propose to put him in your place." [Prolonged laughter
-and cheers.] Wouldn't you say that the president and all of the directors
-should be put into a lunatic asylum on suspicion at once? [Applause and
-laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>Now, I tell you, Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Republican party is
-not ended. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, Mr. Chairman, that it has just
-begun. [Cheers.] I tell you, furthermore, that it will never end until you
-and I can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mexico, make
-black Republican speeches wherever we please [applause], vote the black
-Republican ticket wherever we gain a residence [cheers], and do it with
-exactly the same safety that a rebel can travel throughout the North, stop
-wherever he has a mind to, and run for judge in any city he chooses.</p>
-
-<p>[This hit at the Democratic candidate for judge of the Cook County
-Superior Court, who was a rebel soldier during the war, set the audience
-wild, and they cheered and swung their hats and handkerchiefs frantically.]</p>
-
-<p>I hope after you have elected him judge he won't bring you in a bill for
-loss of time. [Laughter.]</p>
-
-<p>You are going to hold an election next Tuesday which is of importance
-far beyond the borders of Chicago. The eyes of the whole nation are upon
-you. By your verdict next Tuesday you are to send forth greeting to the
-people of the United States, saying, that either you are in favor of honest
-men, honest money, patriotism, and a National Government [cheers], or that
-you are in favor of soft money, repudiation, and rebel rule. [Cheers.] It is
-a good symptom, Mr. Chairman, to see 600 young men like you in line,
-prepared to carry the flag of the Republican party forward to victory.
-[Cheers.] It is a good symptom to see 600 young men like my friend, the
-chairman here, in the front ranks, ready to fight the battles of their country
-now, and vote as they shot during the war. [Cheers.]</p>
-
-<p>Now, I want every single man in this vast audience to consider himself a
-committee of one to work from now until the polls close on Tuesday next.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxvii" id="Page_cxvii">[Pg cxvii]</a></span>
-[Cheers.] Find a man who might stay away, who has gone away and might
-not return; secure one man besides yourself to go to the polls and vote the
-Republican ticket; and if you cannot find such a man, try to convert a sinner
-from the error of his way. [Applause.] You have got too much at stake to
-risk it at this election. The times are too good. Iron brings too much.
-Lumber is too high. Your business is too prosperous. Your manufactories
-are making too much money for you to afford to turn this great government
-over to the hands of repudiating rebels. You cannot do it. Shut up
-your stores. Shut up your manufactories. Go to work for your country, and
-spend two days, and on the night of election, Mr. Chairman, send me a dispatch,
-if you please, that Chicago has gone overwhelmingly Republican. [Loud
-cheers.]</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxviii" id="Page_cxviii">[Pg cxviii]</a></span></p>
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">The Doric Pillar of Michigan.</span><br />
-
-A MEMORIAL ADDRESS,<br />
-
-<span class="smcap">Delivered in the Fort Street Presbyterian Church, Detroit,
-Mich., Thursday Morning, Nov. 27, 1879</span>,</h3>
-
-<p class="center">BY</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Rev. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.</span></p>
-
-
-<p>"There were giants in the earth in those days," is the simple record of
-the age before the flood.</p>
-
-<p>There has been no age without its giants; not, perhaps, in the narrow
-sense of great physical stature, but in the broader sense of mental might,
-capacity to command and control. Such men are but few, in the most favored
-times, and it takes but few to give shape to human history and destiny. Their
-words shake the world; their deeds move and mold humanity; and, as
-Carlyle has suggested, history is but their lengthened shadows, the indefinite
-prolonging of their influence even after they are dead.</p>
-
-<p>One of these giants has recently fallen, at the commanding signal of One
-who is far greater than any of the sons of men, and at whose touch kings
-drop their sceptre, and, like the meanest of their slaves, crumble to dust.</p>
-
-<p>This giant fell among us. We had seen him as he grew to his great
-stature and rose to his throne of power. He moved in our streets; he spoke
-in our halls; in our city of the living was his earthly home, and in our city of
-the dead is his place of rest. He went from us to the nation's capital, to
-represent our State in the Senate of the republic; he belonged to Michigan,
-and Michigan gave him to the Union; but he never forgot the home of his
-manhood. Here his dearest interests clustered, and his deepest affections
-gathered; and here his most loving memorial will be reared. As he belonged
-peculiarly to this congregation, surely it is our privilege to weave the first
-wreath to garland his memory.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxix" id="Page_cxix">[Pg cxix]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The annual Day of Thanksgiving is peculiarly a national day, since it is
-the only one in the year when the whole nation is called upon by its chief
-magistrate to give thanks as a united people. By common consent, it is
-admitted proper that, on that day, special mention be made of matters that
-affect our civil and political well-being. There is therefore an eminent fitness
-in a formal commemoration upon this day of the life and labors of our
-departed Senator and statesman.</p>
-
-<p>With diffidence I attempt the task that falls to me. The time is too
-short to admit even a brief sketch of a life so long in deeds, so eventful in
-all that makes material for biography; a life full, not only of incidents, but
-of crises; moreover, I am neither a senator nor a statesman, and feel incompetent
-to review a career which only the keen eye of one versed in affairs of
-state can apprehend or appreciate in its full significance; but, if you will
-indulge me, I will, without conscious partiality or partisanship, calmly give
-utterance to the unspoken verdict of the common people as to our departed
-fellow-citizen; and try to hint at least a few of the lessons of a life that
-suggests some of the secrets of success.</p>
-
-<p>History is the most profitable of all studies, and biography is the key of
-history. In the lives of men, philosophy teaches us by examples. In the
-analysis of character, we detect the essential elements of success and discern
-the causes of failure. Virtue and vice impress us most in concrete forms;
-and hence even the best of all books enshrines as its priceless jewel the
-story of the only perfect life.</p>
-
-<p>To draw even the profile of Mr. Chandler's public career the proper limits
-of this address do not allow. There is material, in the twenty years of his
-senatorial life, which could be spread through volumes. His advocacy of the
-great Northwest, whose champion he was; his master-influence, first as
-a member, and then as the chairman of the Committee of Commerce;
-his bold, keen dissection of the Harper's Ferry panic; his sagacious organization
-of the presidential contests; his plain declarations of loyalty to the
-Union as something which must be maintained at cost both of treasure and
-of blood; his large practical faculty for administration, made so conspicuous
-during stormy times; his efficiency as a member of the standing Committee
-on the Conduct of the War; his exposure of those who were responsible for
-its failures, and his defense of those who promoted its successes, his marked
-influence in changing not only the channel of public sentiment, but the
-current of events; his watchful guardianship of popular interests, political
-and financial; his intelligence and activity in senatorial debates; his attentive
-and persistent study of the problem of reconstruction; and his fearless
-resistance to all Southern aggression and intimidation, are among the salient
-points of that long and eventful public service, whose scope is too wide to
-allow at this hour even a hasty survey.</p>
-
-<p>But, happily, it is quite needless that in such a presence I should trace
-in detail the events of his life; to us he was no stranger; and the mark he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxx" id="Page_cxx">[Pg cxx]</a></span>
-has made upon our memory and our history is too deep not to last. His footprints
-are not left upon treacherous and shifting quicksands; and no wave of
-oblivion is likely soon to wash them away.</p>
-
-<p>Zachariah Chandler had nearly completed his sixty-sixth year; forty-six
-years he had been a resident of the City of the Straits. New Hampshire was
-the State of his nativity: Michigan was, in an emphatic sense, the State of
-his adoption. In our city his first success was won in mercantile pursuits,
-where also was the first field for the exhibition of his energy, ability and
-integrity. Here, as this century passed its meridian hour, he passed the great
-turning-point in his career; and his large capacities and energies were
-diverted into a political channel. First, Mayor of the city, then nominated
-for Governor; when, more than twenty years ago, a successor was sought for
-Lewis Cass in the Senate, this already marked man became the first representative
-of the Republican party of this State in that august body at
-Washington. There, for a period of eighteen years, he sat among the
-mightiest men of the nation, steadily moving toward the acknowledged leadership
-of his party, and the inevitable command of public affairs. After three
-terms in the Senate, his seat was occupied for a short time by another; but,
-upon the resignation of Mr. Christiancy, he was, with no little enthusiasm,
-re-elected, and was in the midst of a fourth term, when suddenly he was
-no more numbered among the living. It may be doubled whether, at this
-time, any one man, from Maine to Mexico, swayed the popular mind and
-will with a more potent sceptre than did he; and many confidently believe
-and affirm that, had death spared him, he would have been lifted by the
-omnipotent voice and vote of the people to the Presidency of the Republic.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler took his seat in the Senate in those days of strife when the
-storm was gathering, which, on the memorable 12th of April, 1861, burst
-upon our heads, in the first gun fired at Fort Sumter. He entered the Senate
-chamber, to take the oath of office, in company with some whose names are
-now either famous or infamous for all time. On the one hand, there was
-Jefferson Davis; on the other Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Sumner, Benjamin
-F. Wade and Simon Cameron.</p>
-
-<p>Those were days when history is made fast. Every day throbbed with
-big issues. Kansas was a battle-ground of freedom; and the awful struggle
-between State Sovereignty and National Unity was gathering, like a volcano,
-for its terrible outbreak. The Republican Senator from Michigan took in, at
-a glance, the situation of affairs. Devoted as he was to the State, whose able
-advocate and zealous friend he was; earnest and persistent as he was, in promoting
-the commercial and industrial interests of the lake region; he was yet
-too much a patriot to forget the whole country; and as the great conflict,
-which Mr. Seward named "irrepressible," moved steadily on toward its
-crisis, he armed himself for the encounter and planted his feet upon the rock
-of unalterable allegiance to the Union; and from that position he never
-swerved.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxi" id="Page_cxxi">[Pg cxxi]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was a zealous party-man; in the eyes of some he was a
-partisan, in the strenuous advocacy of some measures; but I believe that
-when history frames her ultimate, impartial verdict, she will accord to him a
-candid, conscientious adherence to what he believed to be a fundamental principle,
-absolutely essential to our national life. He saw the South breathing
-hot hate toward the North, planning and threatening to rend the Union
-asunder. To him it was not a question simply of liberty and slavery, of
-sectional prejudice, of political animosity; but a matter of life or of death.
-He saw the scimitar of secession raised in the gigantic hand of war&mdash;but
-what was it that it was proposed to cleave in twain at one blow? A living,
-vital form! the body of a nation, with its one grand framework, its common
-brain and heart, its network of arteries and veins and nerves. It was not
-dissection as of a corpse&mdash;it was vivisection as of a corpus&mdash;that sharp blade,
-if it fell, would cut through a living form, and leave two quivering, bleeding
-parts, instead. Divide the nation? Why, the same mountain ranges run
-down our eastern and western shores; the same great rivers, which are the
-arteries of our commerce, flow through both sections. Our republic is a unit
-by the decree of nature, that marked our nation's area and arena by the lines
-of territorial unity, a unit by the decree of history that records one series of
-common experiences; and, aside from the decree of nature and of history, it
-is one by the decree of necessity, for we could not survive the separation.
-Those were the decisive days, and they showed whose heart was yearning
-toward the child; and God said, as he saw a unanimous North pleading with
-Him to arrest the falling sword and spare the living body of a nation's life&mdash;"Give
-her the child, for she is the mother thereof!"</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler has been charged with violent and even vindictive feeling
-toward what he deemed disloyalty and treason.</p>
-
-<p>You have heard the story of the Russians, chased by a hungry pack of
-wolves, driving at the height of speed over the crisp snow, finding the beasts
-of prey gaining fast upon them, and throwing out one living child after
-another to appease the maw of wolfish hunger, while the rest of the family
-hurried on toward safety.</p>
-
-<p>There are sagacious statesmen that have declared, for a quarter of a
-century, that State Rights represents the pack of wolves and the Sovereignty
-of the Union the imperilled household. For scores of years, the encroachments
-of the South became more and more imperious and alarming.</p>
-
-<p>Concession after concession was made, offering after offering flung to the
-sacrifice, but only to be followed by a hungrier clamor and demand for
-more; and, at last, even men of peace said, "We must stop right here and
-fight these wolves;" and, when it becomes a question of life and death, men
-become desperate.</p>
-
-<p>I have never supposed myself to be a strong partisan. As a man, a citizen,
-and a Christian, I have sought to find the true political faith, and, finding
-it, to hold it, firmly and fearlessly. The question of the unity of our nation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxii" id="Page_cxxii">[Pg cxxii]</a></span>
-and the sovereignty of the national government has ever seemed to me to be
-of supreme moment, transcending all mere political or party issues; and, as a
-patriot, I cannot be indifferent to it.</p>
-
-<p>When the long struggle between State Rights and National Sovereignty
-grew hot and broke out into civil war, it was a matter of tremendous consequence
-that the Union be preserved. History stood pointing, with solemn
-finger, to the fate of the republics of Greece and Switzerland, reminding us
-that confederation alone will not suffice to keep a nation alive. Mexico, at
-our borders, was a warning against dismemberment or the loss of the supremacy
-of a republican unity. And men of all parties forgot party issues in
-patriotic devotion. It may be a question whether State Sovereignty, however
-fatal to national life, deserved the hideous name of treason, before the war.
-But, after the matter had been referred to the arbitrament of the sword, and
-had been settled at such cost of blood and treasure, it can never henceforth
-be anything but treason, again to raise that issue. Hence, even men that
-were temperate in their opposition to Southern aggressions before the war,
-now are impatient. They set their teeth with the resolution of despair, and
-say, "We make no further effort to escape this issue, and we throw out no
-more offerings of concession. We shall fight these wolves; and either State
-Rights or National Sovereignty shall die."</p>
-
-<p>This was Mr. Chandler's position; if it was a mistaken one, it is the
-unspoken verdict of millions of the best men of all parties in the whole country;
-and every new concession to this great national heresy is only making
-new converts to the necessity of a firm and fearless resistance.</p>
-
-<p>Some one has suggested that the old division of the church into militant
-and triumphant is no longer sufficient; we must add another, namely, the
-church termagant. In our country both sections were militant, and one was
-triumphant; the other has been very termagant ever since. General Grant, at
-his reception in Chicago, declared that the war for the Union had put the
-republic on a new footing abroad. A quarter of a century ago, by political
-leaders across the sea, "it was believed we had no nation. It was merely
-a confederation of States, tied together by a rope of sand, and would give
-way upon the slightest friction. They have found it was a grand mistake.
-They know we have now a nation, that we are a nation of strong and
-intelligent and brave people, capable of judging and knowing our rights,
-and determined on all occasions to maintain them against either domestic or
-foreign foes; and that is the reception you, as a nation, have received
-through me while I was abroad."</p>
-
-<p>On the same day we have a significant voice from the South, General
-Toombs, in response to a suggestion that Governors of various States and
-prominent Southern men should unite in congratulations to the ex-President
-on his return, telegraphs in these words: "I decline to answer except to
-say, I present my personal congratulations to General Grant on his safe
-return to his country. He fought for his country honorably and won. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxiii" id="Page_cxxiii">[Pg cxxiii]</a></span>
-fought for mine and lost. I am ready to try it over! Death to the
-Union!"</p>
-
-<p>Here we have simply two representative utterances; one is the voice of a
-solid North; the other is, we fear, the voice of a South that is much more
-"solid" than we could wish. It is no marvel if, after a war of so many
-years, that cost so many lives and so much money, and left us to drag
-through ten years of a financial slough, loyal men are impatient and even
-angry, when they discover that the question is still an unsettled one, and that
-we have not even conquered a peace! Even the interpretation now attached
-to this seditious utterance by General Toombs himself, that "the result of
-war was death to the Union, and that the present government is a consolidated
-one, not a confederacy," does not essentially relieve the matter.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler could not brook what he regarded as sentiments rendered
-doubly treasonable by the fact that a long, bitter but successful war had
-burned upon them with a hot iron the brand of treason. He fought those
-sentiments, and it was as under a black flag that announced "no quarter."
-But this does not prove malicious or vindictive feeling toward misguided men
-who hold such views. There is a difference between fighting a principle
-and fighting a person. In fact the only way to prevent fighting men is often
-a vigorous and timely opposition to their measures. And if we wish to
-avoid another war, and that a war of extermination, the ballot must obviate
-the necessity for the bullet: we must stand together, and by our voice and
-vote, by tongue and pen, by our laws and our acts, in the use of every
-keen weapon, exterminate the heresy of State Rights. We need not do this
-in hate toward the South: a true love even for the South demands it, for
-to them as to us it is a deadly foe to all true prosperity and national
-existence. How can a man who candidly looks upon the present attitude
-of the South as both suicidal and nationally destructive be calm and cool?
-The philippics of Demosthenes were bitter, but they were the mighty beatings
-of a heart that pulsed with the patriotism that could not see liberty
-throttled without sounding a loud and indignant alarm. The North owes a
-big debt to every man who at this crisis will not suffer an imperilled
-republic to sleep.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was not a college graduate. His early training was got in
-the New England common school and academy. Yet he was in a true sense
-an educated man: for education is "not a dead mass of accumulations," but
-self-development, "power to work with the brain," to use the hand in cunning
-and curious industries, to use the tongue in attractive and effective
-speech, to use the pen in wise, witty or weighty paragraphs. Somehow he
-had learned to hold, with a master hand, the reins of his own mind, and
-make his imagination and reason and memory and powers of speech obey his
-behests. That is no common acquirement: it is something beyond all mere
-acquirement; it is the infallible sign and seal of culture. His addresses, even
-on critical occasions, were unwritten, and, in some cases, could not have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxiv" id="Page_cxxiv">[Pg cxxiv]</a></span>
-elaborated, even in the mind; yet in vigor of thought, logical continuity and
-consistency, accuracy of diction, and even rhetorical grace, few public speakers
-equal them.</p>
-
-<p>The power to command the popular ear is a rare power, whether it be a
-gift of nature or a grace of culture. With Mr. Chandler it was held and
-wielded as a native sceptre. He had the secret of rhetorical adaptation; he
-could at once go down to the level of the people and yet lift them to his
-level. They understood what he said and knew what he meant. He threw
-himself into their modes of thought and habits of speech; he culled his
-illustrations mainly from common life. If he sacrificed anything, it was
-rhetorical elegance, never force; his one aim was to compel conviction.</p>
-
-<p>The simplicity of his diction was a prime element and secret of his power.
-He did not speak as one who had to say something, but as one who had
-something to say, and whose whole aim was to say it well; with clearness,
-plainness, force and effect. If he could not have both weight and lustre, he
-would have weight.</p>
-
-<p>Walter Scott has exposed the absurdity of "writing down" to children,
-and shown that it is really writing up, to make oneself so simple as to be
-plain even to the child-mind. Simplicity is the highest art. To have thought
-faintly gloom and glimmer through obscure language, like stars through a
-haze or mist, may serve to impress the ignorant with a supposed profundity
-in the speaker; but it is no more a sign of such profundity than muddy
-water signifies depth in a stream; it may suggest depth because you can see
-no bottom, but it means shallowness! It is a lesson that all of us may learn
-through the life of our departed Senator, that the first element of good speaking
-is thought; and the second a form of words fitting the thought, which,
-like true dress, shall not call attention to itself but to the idea or conception
-which it clothes. Any man who is long to hold the ear of the people must
-give them facts and thoughts worth knowing and thinking of, in words which
-it will not take a walking dictionary or living encyclopædia to interpret, or a
-philosopher to untangle from the skein of their confusion.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was such a man, a man for the people. Free from all
-stately airs and stilted dignities, he took hold of every political and national
-question with ungloved hands. He understood and used the language of home
-life, which is the "universal dialect" of power. His speeches were packed
-with vigorous Saxon. He thought more of the short sword, with its sharp
-edge and keen point and close thrust, than of the scholar's labored latinity,
-with its longer blade, even though it might also have a diamond-decked hilt;
-and in this, as in not a few other conspicuous traits, he was master of the
-best secrets that gave the great Irish agitator, O'Connell, his strange power
-of moving the multitude. His last speech, even when read, and without
-the magnetism of his personal presence, may well stand as the last of his
-utterances.</p>
-
-<p>The simplicity of Mr. Chandler's style of oratory amounted to ruggedness,
-in the sense in which we apply that word to the naked naturalness of a landscape,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxv" id="Page_cxxv">[Pg cxxv]</a></span>
-whose features have not been too much modified by art. There is in
-oratory an excessive polish, which suggests coldness and deadness. Some
-speakers sharpen the blade until there is no blade left, the mistaken carefulness
-of their culture brings everything to one dead level of faultlessness;
-there is nothing to offend, and nothing to rouse and move. Demosthenes
-said that kinésis&mdash;not "action," but motion, or rather that which moves&mdash;is
-the first, second, third requisite of true oratory. He is no true speaker who
-simply pleases you: he must stir you to new thought, new choice, new
-action.</p>
-
-<p>We must beware of the polish that is a loss of power, and, like a lapidary,
-not grind off points, but grind into points. Demosthenes was more
-rugged than Cicero; but he pricked men more with the point of his oratorical
-goad. Men heard the silver-tongued Roman and said, "How pleasantly
-he speaks!" They heard the bold Athenian and shouted, "Let us go and
-fight Philip!"</p>
-
-<p>Carlyle says, "He is God's anointed king whose simple word can melt a
-million wills into his!" That melting wills into his own is the test of
-eloquence in the orator; and a rugged simplicity has held men in the very
-fire of the orator's ardor and fervor, till they were at white heat, and could he
-shaped at will; while the most scholarly display of culture often leaves them
-unmoved, to gape and stare with wonder, as before the splendors of the
-Aurora Borealis, and feel as little real warmth. Emerson is right: "There is
-no true eloquence unless there is a man behind the speech," and men care not
-what the speech is if the man be not behind it, or, on the other hand, what
-the speech is, if the man be behind it! And so it is that Richard Cobden
-compelled even Robert Peel, who loved truth and candor, to become a
-convert to his free-trade opinions; and so it was that John Bright, another
-model of a simple utterance with a sincere man behind it, swayed such a
-mighty sceptre over the people of Britain. The mere declaimer or demagogue
-may win a temporary hearing; but the man who leaves a lasting impress on
-the mind of the people must have in himself some real worth.</p>
-
-<p>To Mr. Chandler's executive ability reference has been made. It was
-never better illustrated than in his vigorous and faithful administration as
-Secretary of the Interior. It was Hercules in the Augean stables again&mdash;purging
-the department of incompetency and dishonesty. He sent a flood
-through the Patent Office, that swept all the clerks out of one room;
-and another through the Indian Bureau, that cleaned out its abuses and
-exposed its frauds. It is said that the reconstruction of that department
-saved millions annually to the treasury of the nation. Mr. Schurz, in becoming
-his successor, paid a very handsome tribute to the retiring Secretary,
-acknowledging the great debt of the country to Mr. Chandler's energy and
-fidelity, and modestly declaring that he could hope for no higher success than
-to keep and leave the department where he found it.</p>
-
-<p>If there be any one thing for which the Senator from Michigan stood
-above most men it was in this practical business ability. He had, in rare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxvi" id="Page_cxxvi">[Pg cxxvi]</a></span>
-union, "talent" and "tact." His good sense, clear views, ready and retentive
-memory, prompt decision, patience and perseverance, quick discernment and
-instinctive perception of the fitness of ways to ends, qualified him for energetic
-and successful administration anywhere. Webster said, "There is always
-room at the top." Even the pyramid waits for the capstone, which must be,
-itself, a little pyramid. And he who has inborn or inbred fitness for the top
-place will find his way there; no other will long stay there, even if some
-accident lifts him to the nominal occupancy of such a position.</p>
-
-<p>He had rare tact, that indefinable quality of which Ross says, that "it is
-the most exquisite thing in man." Literally it means "touch," and is suggested
-by the delicacy often found in that mysterious sense. It describes,
-though it cannot define, the nice, skillful, innate discernment and discrimination
-which tells one what to say and do, even on critical occasions; how to
-reach and "touch" men, when a blunder would be fatal. This wisdom of
-instinct may be cultivated but cannot be acquired; and it seems to be close
-of kin with that common sense which, though by no means exceedingly
-"common," represents a sound intuitive sense in common matters, such as
-would be the common sense or verdict of wise and sagacious minds.</p>
-
-<p>The Senator impressed men as one whose powers were varied and versatile.
-Thomas F. Marshall, the "Kentucky orator," maintained that fine
-speaking, writing and conversation depend on a different order of gifts. "A
-speech cannot be reported, nor an essay spoken. Fox wrote speeches;
-nobody reads them. Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays; nobody listened.
-Yet England crowded to hear Fox, and reads Mackintosh. Lord Bolingbroke
-excelled in all, the ablest orator, finest writer, most elegant drawing-room
-gentleman in England."</p>
-
-<p>Whether or not this philosophy be sound and this estimate correct, we
-shall all agree that few men combine power of speech with force in composition
-and grace in conversation. Our departed Senator certainly had more than the
-common share of versatility. That last speech at Chicago thrilled a vast
-audience when spoken, and kindled a flaming enthusiasm; yet it reads like
-the compact and complete sentences of the essayist.</p>
-
-<p>Versatility, however, is not to be coveted where it implies a lack of concentration.
-An anonymous writer has left us a very discriminating comparison
-of two great British statesmen. He likens Canning's mind to a convex speculum
-which scattered its rays of light upon all objects; while he likens
-Brougham's to a concave speculum which concentrated the rays upon one
-central, burning, focal point. There are some men who possess, to a considerable
-degree, both the power to scatter and the power to gather the rays. At
-times they exhibit varied and versatile ability, they touch delicately and skillfully
-many different themes or departments of thought and action; but when
-crises arise which demand the whole man, they become in the best sense men
-of one idea, for one thought fills and fires the soul; every power is concentrated
-in one burning purpose.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxvii" id="Page_cxxvii">[Pg cxxvii]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Senator, whose deserved garland we are weaving, was one of these
-men. There were times when he seemed to turn his hand with equal ease to
-a score of employments; now giving wise counsel in gravest matters, now
-playfully entertaining guests at his table; now studying the deep philosophy of
-political economy, now holding a Senate in rapt attention; now reorganizing
-a department of state; now pushing a new measure through Congress; now
-closeted with the President over the issues of a colossal campaign, and again
-conducting a pleasure excursion; to-day leading on the hosts of a great
-party, and to-morrow managing the affairs of an extensive farm. But, when
-the destiny of the nation hung in the balance, or history waited with uplifted
-pen to record on her eternal scroll the final decision of some great question,
-he gathered and condensed into absolute unity all the powers of mind and
-heart and will, and flung the combined weight of his whole manhood into the
-trembling scale. When he felt that a thing must be, a mountain was no
-obstacle to surmount, a host of foes no occasion for dismay. With intensity
-of conviction, with contagious courage and enthusiasm, with indomitable
-resolution, with tireless energy of action, he went ahead, and weaker men had
-to follow; his conviction persuaded the hesitating, his courage emboldened
-the timid, his determination inspired the irresolute. He was the unit that, in
-the leading place, makes even the cyphers swell the sum of power.</p>
-
-<p>It is no slight praise of Mr. Chandler to say that he was a man of
-industry; the results he reached were won by work. There is a great deal
-of blind talk about genius. That there is such a thing, apart from the practical
-faculty of application, even great men have doubted or boldly denied;
-but certain it is that there is such a thing as the genius of industry, and that
-rules the world! Alexander Hamilton disclaimed any other genius than the
-profound study of a subject. He kept before him a theme which he meant to
-master, till he explored it in all its bearings and his mind was filled with it.
-Then, to quote his words, "the effort which I make the people are pleased
-to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."</p>
-
-<p>And so for us all there is no royal road to a true success. We must
-simply plod on, along the plain, hard, plebeian path of honest toil, and climb
-up the hills, if we would get on and up at all. Spinoza grandly says that
-that there is no foe or barrier to progress like "self-conceit and the laziness
-which self-conceit begets." We venture to add that no conceit is surer to
-beget laziness than the conceit of "conscious genius." Our peril is to learn
-to do our work easily; that means poor work, if indeed any work at all,
-shallow acquirements, superficial attainments, and no real scholarly or heroic
-achievements.</p>
-
-<p>Our regretted Senator did not despise honest work, and never claimed to
-be a genius. He had a hearty contempt for all that aristocracy of intellect
-that frowns on mental toil.</p>
-
-<p>He spoke without manuscript, and without memorizing; or, as we say,
-"extempore." That is another much-abused word. Extemporaneous speech<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxviii" id="Page_cxxviii">[Pg cxxviii]</a></span>
-is not the utterance of words that shake the world, or any considerable part
-of it, unless such speech be the fruit not of that time, but, as Dr. Shedd
-says, "of all time previous." But when the orator first becomes master of
-his theme and then of the occasion, and is thus fitted to deal with the real
-vital issues before the people, he may, without having put pen to paper, or
-having framed a single sentence beforehand, often find himself master also
-of his audience. The careful study of his subject, the habit of thinking in
-words, and of weighing words when he reads and talks, scoops out a channel
-in the mind; and when he rises to speak he finds his thought flowing naturally
-and easily in this channel.</p>
-
-<p>No man can carefully read Mr. Chandler's public utterances without
-detecting a brevity and terseness, a simplicity and plainness, an accuracy and
-vigor, and often a rhetorical beauty, which shew care in preparation. These
-qualities are not the offspring of indolence. Years of drill lie back of the
-exact and daring touches with which the artist makes the canvas speak and
-the marble breathe; and the extempore speech of the eloquent orator tells of
-long, hard discipline that has taught him how to think and how to talk; it
-may have taken him fifty years to learn how to hold and sway an audience
-at will for fifty minutes. The ease and grace of true oratory are the signs of
-previous exertion; of that systematic exercise of the intellect that has suggested
-for our training schools the name, gymnasia. The laws of brain and
-of brawn do not differ much in this respect. Men are not born athletes,
-either in mind or muscle; and to all who have a true desire to succeed, in
-any sphere of life, the one voice that, with the growing emphasis of the
-successive centuries, speaks to us, is, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do
-it with thy might." Your sword may be short; "add a step to it!" it may
-be dull; add force to the blow or the thrust. There is no encouragement
-from history, more universally to be appropriated by us, than the testimony
-she furnishes to the power and value of honest endeavor. To will and to
-work is to win. The highest endowments assure no achievements; all success
-is the crown of patient toil!</p>
-
-<p>While thus speaking a word in favor of hard work, one word of caution
-and of qualification may not be out of place. I think God means that the
-sudden decease of public men when in life's prime, shall not be without
-warning. No thoughtful man fails to feel the force of this fact that somehow
-the average duration of human life, especially on these shores and among
-men of mark, is shortening; and that apoplexy, paralysis, angina pectoris,
-cerebral hemorrhage, and softening of the brain are amazingly common among
-brain-workers. The fatality among journalists is especially startling.</p>
-
-<p>We are a fast-living and a fast-dying people. Our habits are bad. We
-work hard half the time and worry the other half. We eat and sleep irregularly;
-we tax our powers unduly, keeping the bow bent until the string snaps
-simply from constant tension, lack of relaxation. We turn night into day,
-without restoring the balance by turning day into night. We live in an atmosphere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxix" id="Page_cxxix">[Pg cxxix]</a></span>
-of excitement, and push on to the verge of death before we know our
-peril or realize our risk. We are tempted to put stimulus in the place of
-strength, that we may do, under unnatural pressure, what we cannot do by
-nature's healthy powers. Instead of repairing the engine, we crowd fuel into
-the boiler and get up more steam; and, by and by, something breaks, or
-bursts, and the machinery is a wreck.</p>
-
-<p>I believe it is not hard work that kills us, so much as work under wrong
-conditions. To do, with the aid of even mild stimulants, like tea and coffee,
-not to say tobacco, opium, quinine, etc., what we cannot do by the natural
-strength, is the worst kind of overwork; and yet our public men are subject,
-to such strain, that they are almost driven to such resorts. Where they ought
-to stop, and sleep and rest, they "key up" with a kind of artificial
-strength, and get the habit of unnatural wakefulness; and then wonder why
-they are victims of insomnia.</p>
-
-<p>Professor Tyndall, one of the most tireless men of brain in our day, says
-to the students of University College, London: "Take care of your health!
-Imagine Hercules, as oarsman in a rotten boat; what can he do there but,
-by the very force of his stroke, expedite the ruin of his craft! Take care
-of the timbers of your boat!" And Dr. Beard adds: "To work hard without
-overworking, to work without worrying, to do just enough without
-doing too much&mdash;these are the great problems of our future. Our earlier
-Franklin taught us to combine industry with economy; our 'later Franklin'
-taught us to combine industry with temperance; our future Franklin&mdash;if
-one should arise&mdash;must teach us how to combine industry with the art
-of taking it easy."</p>
-
-<p>The qualities that fitted Mr. Chandler for the conduct of affairs were,
-however, not purely intellectual; they belonged in part to another and a
-higher order, viz.: the emotions and affections.</p>
-
-<p>He had great intensity of nature. Even his political opponents could not
-doubt the positiveness of his conviction and the profoundness of his sincerity;
-and here, as Carlyle justly says, must be found the base blocks in the structure
-of all heroic character. It is no small thing to be able to command even
-from an antagonist the concession and confession of one's sincerity. Candor
-atones for a host of faults. Men will, at the last, forgive anything else in a
-man who tries to be true to his own convictions and to their interests. The
-utterances of impulse and even of passion, stinging sarcasm and biting ridicule,
-unjust charges and assaults, all are easy to pardon in one whose sincerity and
-intensity of conviction betray him into too great heat; men would rather be
-scorched or singed a little in the burning flame of a passionate earnestness
-than freeze in the atmosphere of a human iceberg&mdash;beneath whose rhetorical
-brilliance, they feel the chill of a cold, calculating insincerity and hypocrisy
-that upsets their faith in human honesty.</p>
-
-<p>He was also peculiarly independent and intrepid. The determination to
-be loyal, both to his convictions and to his country, inspired him to a bold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxx" id="Page_cxxx">[Pg cxxx]</a></span>
-brave utterance and invested him with a courage and confidence that were
-almost contagious. We cannot but admire the political fidelity expressed by
-Burke, in his famous defense before the electors of Bristol, when he said: "I
-obeyed the instructions of nature and reason and conscience; I maintained
-your interests, as against your convictions." Few men have ever dared to
-say and do what Mr. Chandler has, in the face of such political risks and
-even such personal peril. One brief address delivered by him in the Senate,
-soon after he resumed his seat, will stand among the classics of our language,
-and, if I may so say, among the "heroics" of our history.</p>
-
-<p>He was also a man of great political integrity. In the long career of a
-public life spanning more than a quarter of a century, no suspicion of dishonesty
-or disloyalty has ever stained his character or reputation. Michigan
-may safely challenge any Senatorial record of twenty years to surpass his,
-either in the quantity or quality of public service.</p>
-
-<p>Those who knew him best affirm that he was, politically and personally,
-an incorruptible man. The position of a legislator is one of proverbial peril.
-From the days of Pericles and Augustus till now, the men who make laws
-and guide national affairs are peculiarly in danger of defiling their consciences
-by "fear or favor." Bribery sits in the vestibule of every law-making assembly.
-Greed holds out golden opportunity for getting enormous profits from
-unlawful or questionable schemes and investments. Ambition lifts her shining
-crown, and offers a throne of commanding influence if you will bow down
-and worship, or even make some slight concession in favor of, the devil.
-Only a little elasticity of conscience, a little blunting of the moral sense; a
-little falsehood, or perjury, or treachery, under polite names; a lending of
-one's name to doubtful schemes; and there is a rich reward in gains to the
-purse and gratifications to the pride, which more than pay for the trifling
-loss of self-respect. And so not a few who go to Congress with unsullied
-reputation, come back smutched with their participation in "Credit Mobilier"
-and "Pacific Railroad" schemes, or any one of the thousand forms of fraud.</p>
-
-<p>So far as I know, Mr. Chandler has never been charged with complicity
-as to dishonest and disgraceful measures such as have sometimes made the
-very atmosphere of the Capitol a stench in the nostrils of the pure and good.
-His name does not stand on the pay-roll of Satan, but with the honored few
-whose eyes have never been blinded by a bribe and whose record has never
-been blotted with political dishonor.</p>
-
-<p>To have simply done one's duty is no mean victory. To stand&mdash;like the
-anvil beneath the blows of the hammer&mdash;and firmly resist the force of a
-repeated temptation is grand and heroic. To be venal is no venial fault; no
-price which can be weighed in gold can pay a man for the sale of one ounce
-of his manliness. Conscience is a Samson, whose locks are easily shorn, but
-they never grow again; whose eyes, once put out or seared with a hot iron,
-no prayer will restore. And men, as great and wise as Bacon, have like him
-been compelled to confess to their own meanness and the mercenary character
-of their virtue.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxi" id="Page_cxxxi">[Pg cxxxi]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>One of the worst signs of the times is this corruptibility of popular
-leaders. One of the greatest of European journals moves like a weather-vane,
-just as the day's wind blows. Much of the best talent of Europe is for
-sale for or against despotism. Some of the most gifted men in the House of
-Lords are of plebeian birth, bought by the bribe of a title, as Harry
-Brougham himself was, when his great influence became a terror to the aristocracy;
-and the Duke of Newcastle is said to have bought one-third of the
-House of Commons. There is scarce a measure, however infamous, that may
-not be pushed through our common councils and legislative bodies if the
-lobbyists are only "influential and numerous," and the money is only plenty
-enough. Let us give God thanks for every man in the community who is
-not on the auction block to be knocked down to the highest bidder. In these
-days of abounding fraud and falsehood, men are beginning to feel the value
-of simple honesty. We have, in our admiration of the genius of intellect,
-forgotten the genius of goodness, which has power to inspire men with heroism.
-Better to strengthen a few timid hearts in loyalty to principle than to
-have deserved the encomium of Augustus, who "found Rome brick, and left
-it marble." The Earl of Chatham refused to keep a million pounds of government
-funds in the bank and pocket the proceeds; as Edmund Burke, on
-becoming paymaster-general, first of all introduced a bill for the reorganization
-of that department of public service, refusing to enrich himself, through
-the emoluments of that lucrative office, at public expense.</p>
-
-<p>No wonder George the Second should have said of such "honesty" that
-it is an "honor to human nature!" Such words were worthy of a king, but
-it is only a crowned head bowing to royal natures that need no crown to tell
-that they are kingly. The distinguished Hungarian exile will never be forgiven
-for saying that he would praise anything and anybody to aid Hungary.
-There is an instinct in the great heart of humanity which not even wickedness
-kills, that no quality is so fundamental to character as absolute loyalty
-to truth, it is the base-block of the whole structure; and great has been
-many a "fall," where there is no better foundation than the treacherous and
-shifting quicksands of what is called "policy," and which is to many the only
-standard of honesty.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler was known in politics as an enthusiastic and radical advocate
-of his party and its measures. It was not in him to do anything by
-halves, and it is difficult to see why one may not as naturally be zealous in
-politics as in religion; in fact, none are more likely to charge upon him partisanship
-than those who in their attachment to the opposite party shew their
-own lack of moderation.</p>
-
-<p>It has been well said that religion demands "a faith, a polity and a
-party." The faith and the polity belong to it as necessary features; the party
-is that on which it depends for organization and onward movement. There
-is a philosophy, a political creed and economy, which are to the state what
-religion is to the church; and no man can be a patriot without a political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxii" id="Page_cxxxii">[Pg cxxxii]</a></span>
-faith and polity and party; though he may stand alone, he represents all
-three. He may be in the largest sense a patriot, and adopt the sublime motto
-of Demosthenes, "Not father, nor mother, but dear native land!" yet his
-patriotism may compel him, us he looks at the matter of his country's interest,
-to take a position on the side of a political party, and to hold it in the
-face of ridicule and reproach and even of a pelting hail of hate. Others may
-not be wrong in their espousal of a different political creed, but he is not
-wrong, but right, in his honest adherence to his. It is so in religion; an
-honest, intelligent man is loyal to his own denomination, yet is he none the
-less, because of that, a Christian in the breadth of his charity.</p>
-
-<p>In fact, religion is not the only sphere where self-sacrifice, for duty and
-for conscience, may be pressed even to martyrdom. St. Ignatius, facing the
-wild beasts in the arena, calmly said, "I am grain of God; I must be
-ground between teeth of lions to make bread for God's people." That was
-the grand confession of a Christian martyr. Tell me, how much lower down
-in the scale of the heroic does he belong who, for the sake of the best good
-of a constituency blinded by passion or prejudice, like the great English
-statesman, consents to be hurled from his shrine as the idol of the people,
-and calmly says, "I am under no obligation to be popular, but I am under
-bonds to myself to be true!" When Regulus refused to buy his own liberty
-and life, at the cost of Rome's disgrace, and persuaded the Senate to reject
-the very overtures which he was commissioned to convey, himself returning
-as his pledge required him if the negotiations were unsuccessful, and surrendering
-himself to the will of his enemies that Carthage might put him to
-death by slow torture, it seems to me something like the martyr-spirit burned
-in that bosom. And, if there be nothing akin to moral martyrdom in bravely
-standing in one's place and boldly holding one's ground, advocating what one
-believes to be the only true creed in politics, and the only true policy for the
-country, in face of sneer and threat, daring the blade and the bullet, the
-open affront and the secret assault, for the sake of being true to one's self and
-to one's native land&mdash;if there be nothing sublime and heroic in all this, the
-verdict of reason is unsound.</p>
-
-<p>This lamented statesman had also a genial temper, which won for him a
-host of friends. Public men are prone to one of two extremes; either the
-hypocritical suavity of the demagogue, or the arbitrary bluntness and curtness
-of the despot. Some swing away from the fawning airs of the puppy, but it
-is toward the repulsive manners of the bear. The man who, as you tip your
-hat with a polite good morning, sweeps by, saying, "I haven't time," is too
-often the typical man of affairs, who thinks the quick dismission of applicants
-and intruders is the price of all energetic public service. It is said of
-the great French statesman, Richelieu, that he could say "No." so gracefully
-and winningly, that a man once became applicant for a position, upon which
-he had not the least claim, just to hear the great Cardinal refuse. If common
-testimony may be trusted, Michigan's esteemed Senator seldom lost the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxiii" id="Page_cxxxiii">[Pg cxxxiii]</a></span>
-hearty cordiality and courtesy of his manners, even under the fretting friction
-of public cares.</p>
-
-<p>I am tempted to add that, though a representative Republican, Mr.
-Chandler was, in the best sense, a democrat. He weighed a man according
-to the worth of his manhood. He could recognize true manliness beneath a
-black skin as well as a white one, and behind the rough dress of a poor man,
-as behind broadcloth; and, because he was the friend of humanity and of
-human rights, you will find some of his warmest friends among the common
-people and in the lower ranks.</p>
-
-<p>I think both justice and generosity demand that among the tributes we
-weave for him, there should be distinct and emphatic mention of this simplicity
-of character. He was a man among men. From the first, he had none of those
-assumptions of conscious superiority that mark the aristocrat. If anything,
-he was rather careless than careful of his dignity, and would sooner shock
-than mock the fastidious airs and tastes of those who prate about culture, or
-pride themselves on their "nobility." Fox quaintly said, of the elder Pitt,
-that he "fell up stairs" when he was elevated to the peerage. Many a man
-cannot stand going up higher. He becomes haughty, proud; he affects dignity,
-he lords it over God's heritage, he becomes too big with conscious
-superiority. Like Jeshurun, he waxes fat and kicks. He falls up stairs, if not
-down.</p>
-
-<p>The warm, soft, genial side of Mr. Chandler's nature was unveiled in
-social life and most of all in the domestic circle. The play of his smile, the
-roar of his laughter, the delicacy and tenderness of his sympathy, his stalwart
-defense of those whom he loved, the childlike traits that drew him to
-children and drew children to him, none appreciate as do those who knew
-him best as friend, husband and father. The man of public affairs, he could
-lay one hand firmly on the helm of state, while with the other he fondly
-pressed his grandchildren to his bosom, or playfully roused them to childish
-glee.</p>
-
-<p>This aspect of his many-sided character makes his death an irreparable
-loss to his own household. Even the great grief of a nation cannot represent
-by its "extensity," the intensity of the more private sorrow that secludes
-itself from the public eye. He was, to those whom he specially loved, both
-a tower for strength, and a lover and friend for comfort and sympathy.
-Those who were "at home" with him and especially those who were the
-peculiar treasures of his heart, knew him as no others could. Happy is the
-minister who forgets not his parish at home&mdash;the church that is in his own
-house&mdash;and happy is the public man, whose private life is not simply the
-revelation of the hard, coarse and unattractive side of his character.</p>
-
-<p>That is I am sure no ordinary occurrence, which has made forever memorable
-the Calends of this November. Death, however frequent and familiar
-by frequency, can never, to the thoughtful, be an event of common magnitude;
-the exchange of worlds cannot be other than a most august experience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxiv" id="Page_cxxxiv">[Pg cxxxiv]</a></span>
-But this death has about it colossal proportions; it stands out and apart like
-a mountain in a landscape. It is recognized as a calamity not only to a
-household, but to the city, the State, the Nation; and it may be doubted
-whether, since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, any single announcement
-has so startled the public mind and moved the popular heart as when on the
-1st day of November it was announced that Zachariah Chandler was found
-sleeping his last sleep.</p>
-
-<p>Ulysses S. Grant is a man of few words&mdash;and like his shot and shell
-they weigh a good deal and are well aimed. Let us hear his verdict on Mr.
-Chandler:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>"A nation, as well as the State of Michigan, mourns the loss of one of
-her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved
-by his associates and respected by those who disagreed with his political
-views. The more closely I became connected with him the more I appreciated
-his great merits.</p>
-
-<p class="right">U. S. GRANT.</p>
-
-<p>"<span class="smcap">Galena</span>, Ill., Nov. 9, 1879."</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It is evident that it is no ordinary man who has departed from among
-us. It is not "a self-evident truth that all men are created equal," if we
-mean equality of gifts and graces, capacity, opportunity or even responsibility;
-and the people of these United States do not need to be told that Mr. Chandler
-was no common man. It was by no accident that he held in succession,
-and filled with success, posts of such importance and trusts of such magnitude.
-He did not drift into prominence; he rose by sheer force of character
-and by the fitness of things. Born to be a leader, endowed with those qualities
-that mark a man destined to leadership, having rare business faculty, and
-sagacity, tact and talent, large capacity for organization and administration,
-his hand was naturally at the helm.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler's leadership reached beyond and beneath the visible conduct
-of affairs. As Moses was the inspiration, of which Aaron was the expression,
-he was often the power behind the throne. He who has now left us, forever,
-belonged to the illustrious few who were the special counselors of Mr. Lincoln
-and the instigators of many of his wisest and best measures. There is an
-inner history of the war which has never been written and never will be.
-The lips that alone could disclose those secrets are fast closing in eternal
-silence, and the scroll will find no man worthy to loose its seals.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Chandler could not have been wholly ignorant of the risk he ran in
-his laborious and prolonged campaign-work; but when his country seemed in
-peril his tongue could not keep silence. Just before starting on his last journey
-westward, he said to me: "In my judgment the crisis now upon us is
-more important than any since Lee surrendered, and as grave as any since
-Sumter was fired on." Those who knew him best will not be surprised that,
-with such an impression of the magnitude of the issues now before the
-American people, he could not spare himself, but gave himself without reserve
-to his country, sacrificing his life itself on the altar of his own patriotism.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxv" id="Page_cxxxv">[Pg cxxxv]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>And so our stalwart statesman has fallen, and we have a new lesson on
-human mortality. Anaxagoras, when told that the Athenians had condemned
-him to die, calmly added, "And nature, them!" All our riches, honors, dignities
-cannot stay the steps of the great destroyer. The manliest and mightiest
-leaders, and the humblest and meanest followers bow alike to the awful mandate
-of death. And as Massilon said at the funeral of the Grand Monarch,
-"God only is great!"</p>
-
-<p>Of how little consequence after all are all the things that perish. Temporal
-things derive all their true value from their connection with the invisible
-and eternal. How small will all appear as they recede into the dim distance
-at the dying hour and the world to come confronts us with its awful decisions
-of destiny! What grandeur and glory are imparted to our humblest sphere
-of service, here, when touched and transformed by the power of an endless
-life!</p>
-
-<p>We have reason to be glad that the popular recognition of Mr. Chandler's
-abilities and services has been so prompt and hearty as to afford him not a
-little satisfaction. Posthumous tributes are sometimes melancholy memorials,
-reminding us of the monumental sepulchres of martyr-prophets.</p>
-
-<p>Robert Burns's mother said about his monument, as she bitterly remembered
-how the poet of Ayr had been left to starve, "Ah, Robbie, ye asked
-them for bread and they hae ge'en ye a stane!" It can never be said that
-our departed Senator had to wait for another generation to pronounce a just
-or generous verdict upon his career; the trophies of victory and of popular
-esteem were strewn along the whole line of his march; and his last tour of
-the Northwest was a perpetual ovation.</p>
-
-<p>There is to my mind no little inspiration of comfort in the fact that not
-even human malice can falsify history. Men sometimes get more than their
-share of praise or of blame while they live; but sooner or later the cloud of
-incense or the mist of prejudice clears away and the real character is more
-plainly seen. We can afford to leave the final verdict to another generation
-if need be, grateful as it is to be appreciated by the generation which we
-seek to serve.</p>
-
-<p>But it is still more inspiring to know that God rules this world, and
-reigns over the affairs of men. If He marks the flight and the fall of the
-sparrow, we may be sure that no man rises to the seat of power or sinks to
-the grave without His permission.</p>
-
-<p>God is not dead, and cannot die. Generations pass away while He
-remains the same. His hand is on the helm, whatever human hand seems to
-have hold, and is still there when the most trusted helmsman relaxes his
-dying grasp. If God's hand is not in our history, all its records are misleading,
-and all its course a mystery. Admit the divine factor, and, from the
-strange unveiling of this hidden Western world until this day, our national
-life appears like one colossal crystal; it has unity, transparency and symmetry.
-We can understand Plymouth Rock, the revolution, the French and Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxvi" id="Page_cxxxvi">[Pg cxxxvi]</a></span>
-wars, the war of 1812, the great rebellion, the Kansas problem and the California
-problem, the Indian question and the Chinese question, Romanism and
-Communism, Eastern conservatism and Western radicalism, the freedmen and
-the emigrant, state rights and national sovereignty&mdash;all are the subordinate
-factors whose harmonizing, reconciling, assimilating factor is the divine purpose
-and plan in our history. My friends, the republic has a divine destiny
-to fulfill. The Great Pilot is steering the ship of state for her true haven.
-Scylla threatens on one side, Charbydis on the other; but He knows the
-channel. The stormy Euroclydon may strike her, tear her sails to tatters and
-snap her ropes like burnt tow, and splinter her masts to fragments; but He
-holds the winds in his fists. Let us not fear. We have only to love, trust
-and obey the God of our Fathers and He will guide us safely and surely
-through all darkness and danger. The sins that reproach our people are the
-only foes we have to fear; the righteousness that exalts a nation the only ally
-we need to covet. If the people of Michigan would rear a grand monument
-to the heroic men who have adorned our history, let us be true to the principles
-which they have defended, and to the God who gave them to us as His
-instruments.</p>
-
-<p>The <span class="smcap">Doric Pillar of Michigan</span> has fallen; but the State stands, and
-God can set another pillar in its place. There is stone in the quarry&mdash;columns
-are taking shape to-day in our homes and schools and churches; and
-in God's time they shall be raised to their place. Let us only be sure that in
-the shrine of our nation God finds a throne, and not the idols of this world,
-and not even the earthquake shock shall shatter the symmetric structure of
-the Republic.</p>
-
-<div id="transnote">
-
-<div class="chapter"></div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-
-<h2>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h2>
-
-
-<p>Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.</p>
-
-<p>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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