MEMOIRS OF A 
 SENATE PAGE 
 
 (1855 
 
 1859) 
 
 CHRISTIAN F. gCKLOFF 
 
 1 1 
 
 gdted by 
 PERCIVAL G. MELBOURNE 
 
 Author of " Child s History of the War with Spain " 
 
 Fully Illustrated 
 
 fQroadway Publishing Company 
 835 Broadway, 3\C e w York 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1909. 
 
 BY 
 PERCIVAL G. MELBOURNE 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. PAGE 
 
 Introductory. I 
 
 II. 
 The Scene 3 
 
 III. 
 Page Life 10 
 
 IV. 
 The City From the Capitol Dome 15 
 
 V. 
 
 Senatorial Dignity. A Group of Leading 
 Lights. Mallory s Faith 19 
 
 VI. 
 
 Humorists of the Senate 30 
 
 VII. 
 
 Buildings on the Mall 51 
 
 VIII. 
 Romantic Character of the Great West Indian.. 56 
 
 IX. 
 The Question of Chaplains 65 
 
 X. 
 Douglas; the Demosthenes of the Senate 73 
 
 XI. 
 
 On the Admission of Kansas 78 
 
 XII. 
 
 Dissertations on the Slave 87 
 
 XIII. 
 Charles Sumner: Anti-Slavery Leader...... 96 
 
 M106552 
 
ii CONTENTS. 
 
 XIV. * v 
 
 Assault on Sumner .. 109 
 
 XV. 
 
 Butler s Defense; and Oration on His Death.... 117 
 
 XVI. 
 Judge Wade 129 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Continued Debate on Kansas Affairs 137 
 
 XVIII. 
 Clayton: Scholar and Statesman 157 
 
 XIX. 
 The Lecompton- Swindle 164 
 
 XX. 
 The Adversary of Douglas 174 
 
 XXI. 
 Famous "Mud-Sill" Speech 178 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The Men of Maine +. 184 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 "Hireling Manual Laborers" 194 
 
 XXIV. 
 Andrew Johnson: Tailor-Statesman 205 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Jefferson Davis and Robert Toombs 209 
 
 XXVI. 
 Passing From the Old Chamber 218 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Facing 
 Page 
 
 I. Seward, Crittenden, Houston, Hale 24 
 
 II. Judah P. Benjamin 56 
 
 III. Stephen A. Douglas 74 
 
 IV. Charles Sumner 98 
 
 V. Benjamin F. Wade 130 
 
 VI. Wilson, Hamlin, Johnson, Broderick 194 
 
 VII. Davis, Toombs, Hammond, Breckinridge . . 214 
 
Memoirs of a Senate Page 
 i. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Senate chamber during the period of 
 which this volume treats was the theatre of per 
 haps the most memorable scenes in the history of 
 the upper house of Congress; and the men who 
 swayed the public mind of the North and of the 
 South, by means of mighty words and undaunted 
 acts, furnishing thereby the great prelude to a 
 great war, were men of whom whatsoever is re 
 lated should meet with wide popular interest. In 
 those years the contest over slavery became more 
 and more embittered, the Republican party began 
 taking root in the political field, and a gulf grew 
 wide between the opposite-minded throughout 
 that grave and stolid house. 
 
 As I look down the vista of years, in fancy I 
 see again what struck the plastic mind of youth : 
 many men of giant intellect and singular gifts, 
 grandly outlined on that famous floor; and as 
 the spectacular scenes glide by, I entertain in no 
 less degree the infatuation I felt when as a boy, 
 I heard, day by day, the eloquence of English 
 flowing in unstemmed torrents, and beheld the 
 speakers in all the loftiness of poise and com 
 mand. Secretly, and boylike enough, I had my 
 favorites who arose armed to the teeth and broke 
 
OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 lances in every debate. What schoolboy is not 
 familiar with a score of those illustrious names? 
 
 Quite naturally, in view of what I have already 
 confessed, I afterwards watched and studied the 
 lives, not only of such as were my idols, but of 
 all the senators I had known. Hence, in any 
 lines from this pen touching that time and the 
 actors in it, the substance is the better of course, 
 for the reason that my memory has been kept 
 fresh and my knowledge extended by continual 
 inquiry into the records. 
 
 Whosoever appreciates the genius that can 
 shape men s thoughts, and guide the wills of free 
 people into certain and particular paths ; whoso 
 ever appreciates the talent that can lay tributary 
 to a vexed and difficult problem, an abundance 
 of apt illustrations, wit, satire, and classic fig 
 ures ; whosoever appreciates language incisive as 
 the rapier, and again blunt and unqualified as 
 man s dogged determination, let him follow me 
 through the posterns of half a century, and let 
 the scene be the Senate of the United States. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 II. 
 
 THE SCENE. 
 
 It was a singularly fascinating experience to 
 be present when the Senate convened after the 
 long recess of Congress. The old chamber, deso 
 lated for several months of the year, now opens 
 to new pages of history, and teems with life. 
 Entering from all directions, some of them arm 
 in arm, in couples and in small groups, senatorial 
 lights arrive; representative men from all parts 
 of the Union, men of so many types, of so many 
 conditions of a country s strength and greatness ; 
 coming with the right either of achievement in 
 the world s race, or with approved heritage to 
 fame; and here renewing friendships, there rec 
 ognizing antagonists, they range themselves for 
 the mighty conflicts that may come, in which 
 firm principle is behind the spoken word as the 
 law of nature is behind the booming thunder. 
 
 In those days, the scene was picturesque: wit 
 ness for example on the one hand the figure of 
 General Houston, that great plainsman, wearing 
 a broad sombrero and a vest of leopard skin ; and 
 on the other hand, the classic Charles Sumner, 
 of Boston, exponent of the culture and learning 
 of the gilded metropolis. Or, again, fancy a man 
 
4 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 like Judge Wade, who had fought his way to the 
 fore through adversity in every guise, and then 
 the southern aristocrat, Jefferson Davis, or John 
 C. Breckinridge. Indeed, many strange contrasts 
 were noticeable, and with all those men grouped 
 as the living expressions of a wide country s 
 thought and wish, the place of their assembling 
 was made a glorious ground. 
 
 Sixty-two senators, representing thirty-one 
 States, composed the whole. Mingling with the 
 statesmen were many persons having the privi 
 lege of the floor. John C. Rives, publisher of 
 the Congressional Globe, was prominent; and 
 another equally so, was Col. W. W. Seaton, one 
 of the editors of the National Intelligencer, then 
 the leading newspaper of Washington. A majes 
 tic-looking old soldier, who was known by every 
 one, moved about in the crowd, and his visits 
 were frequent through the sessions. This was 
 General Winfield Scott, the grand old warrior. 
 
 As I reflect upon the scene, I find myself back 
 again, feeling like the rest of the pages, viz.: 
 second in importance only to the senators them 
 selves. 
 
 The hall where cluster so many hallowed 
 memories of patriotic hearts, and in which the 
 Senate was in those days located, is now used for 
 the Supreme Court, and that court was then di 
 rectly underneath in the basement. There was an 
 alluring atmosphere about the place that has per 
 force vanished with past days, personal recollec 
 tions of which must ever fill the heart with deep 
 emotion, for so complete and so tragic were the 
 changes of the succeeding years. On that famed 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE g 
 
 floor were many brave spirits that were soon to 
 be marshalled on other ground in the vain hope 
 of disrupting the nation whose pride they were. 
 The call of duty wrought sadly among friends 
 of long standing. And not only that but we 
 shall not linger here. 
 
 A feature of the old chamber which lent the 
 appearance of comfort and homeliness were the 
 open fires. There were four grates beneath 
 mantel shelves in the corridor back of the Vice- 
 President s desk, and two Franklin stoves with 
 open way, near the main entrance. For fuel we 
 used hickory wood which was brought up and 
 piled on the andirons as it was needed. In front 
 of those crackling fires, standing with their backs 
 to the blaze and their coat-tails spread, many re 
 nowned statesmen have whiled away spare mo 
 ments spinning yarns, exchanging confidences, 
 and poking fun at one another. During these 
 intervals of relaxation, the talk was brimming 
 with keenest wit, and if by chance certain gay 
 hearts were there, a little froth of overmastering 
 fun would rise a- top of it all. This by-play was 
 wholly missed by the public; the walls alone 
 could tell what was said if walls would speak. 
 
 One winter I recall the winter of 1855-56, if 
 I am not mistaken was extremely severe, with 
 frequent snows and the mercury trying hard to 
 get out at the bottom of the tube. Woolen 
 shawls were then the fashionable garment for 
 both men and boys, and they were heavy and 
 warm; of somber hues, principally grey and 
 brown, with a little variety in Scotch plaids. It 
 was a common sight to behold the revered dig- 
 
6 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 nity of the Senate wrapped head and all in these 
 big shawls, and comfortably retaining them in 
 the chamber on very cold days. Many of the 
 older men in their efforts to keep warm made 
 frequent pilgrimages to the open grates, and 
 were far more interested in the state of the fires 
 than in any State of the Union. 
 
 It is amusing to me when I think of those 
 shawls and the grotesque appearance they gave 
 to the wearers; but overcoats were very rarely 
 seen in those times. I remember seeing individu 
 als, great travelers probably, who wore the 
 Talma, the cloak of the French actor. 
 
 Distinctly, the Senate was a black broadcloth 
 assemblage, the cut of the coat being a long 
 frock. Silk hats prevailed among men of the 
 North, and were popular with senators generally, 
 although some southerners and westerners pre 
 ferred the soft black or Kossuth hat. 
 
 Those were the kindly days of quill pens and 
 snuff. The last links of bygone days were slow 
 to be relinquished by the gentlemen of the old 
 school. Steel pens were in use, but many sena 
 tors clung to the quills and were very exacting in 
 their wishes. No other sort of pen would an 
 swer. They did all their own writing, as they 
 had no secretaries then. There was a token of 
 gracious dignity in this personal attention to cor 
 respondence. The old custom of using sand for 
 blotting was also in practice Upon each desk 
 there was a small box of sand for the purpose; 
 the sand being sprinkled over the written sheet 
 which instantly dried the ink and was then 
 brushed back into the receptacle. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 7 
 
 There were two snuff boxes on the Vice-Presi 
 dent s desk, one on each side. In addition to 
 these, some of the pages carried snuff especially 
 for senatorial emergency. I believe four boxes 
 could be counted on in this direction in an ex 
 tremity of need. A number of senators were 
 very fond of snuff. Seward, Foot, Collamer, 
 Cass, Evans, and Butler were so much addicted 
 to its use, they could not speak well without it. 
 
 Singular as it may seem, there was no tele 
 graph office in the Capitol ; the nearest offices be 
 ing the Morse line and the House line of printing 
 telegraph, both under the National Hotel, corner 
 of Pennsylvania avenue and Sixth street. Sena 
 tor Benjamin, for one, had acquired the habit of 
 telegraphing to such an extent that hardly a day 
 passed without his sending one of the pages to 
 the telegraph office with a dispatch. It always 
 meant some small change for the boy that car 
 ried one for him. 
 
 Such luxuries as a bath-room or barber shop 
 were unknown in the building. Potomac water, 
 which later supplied the city, was not yet intro 
 duced. Congress was served for drinking pur 
 poses with spring water which was conducted by 
 a pipe line from a farm beyond the northern 
 limits of the city. For all other purposes, rain 
 water was collected from the roof of the build 
 ing. 
 
 One day in late years, I wandered back to the 
 old haunts in search of a once familiar place, but 
 it was no more. I refer to the "Hole-in-the- 
 Wall." In the rear of the Senate post-office, 
 near the rotunda, was formerly situated this far- 
 
8 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 famed restaurant, which, properly speaking, was 
 the Senate Club. No outsider dared to venture 
 there unless he was accompanied by a member. 
 It was a small room where a colored cook named 
 Carter presided. Upon second thoughts this 
 "Hole-in-the-Wall" should have been called the 
 Democratic Club, because the Senate was con 
 trolled by that party, and in this historic little 
 room, Democratic senators sat at meat discussing 
 their questions with perfect freedom. The Re 
 publicans were very scarce, as that party was in 
 its infancy, and it was seldom that any of them 
 interrupted the meetings. Sometimes after an 
 exciting debate on the floor, the participants 
 would come arm in arm merrily trudging along 
 the golden way that led from the chamber to 
 the cook shop. An amazing change after the 
 high words spoken so short a time before. 
 Strangers seeing these platoons of statesmen 
 making for the post-office in such glee, might 
 have wondered if they were hopeful of very 
 good news awaiting them in the mail; but if they 
 could have glanced behind the scenes and have 
 smelled the savory odors issuing from platter and 
 bowl, they might have said, "No wonder." 
 
 Now the public was refreshed at less expense, 
 with less ado, and less of everything, and at a 
 shorter distance from the Senate chamber. As 
 you went down to the basement, just at the foot 
 of the staircase, there was a stand with such 
 wares for sale as cakes, pies, and beer. It was 
 the only place where a lunch could be had with 
 out going outside of the Capitol. Fastidious 
 persons, however, went either to Whitney s 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 9 
 
 tel, which was on the north side of the grounds, 
 or to Caspari s on the south side. 
 
 At the time I became a page, Jesse D. Bright 
 was President pro tern of the Senate. Mr. 
 King, the Vice-President, who was elected on the 
 ticket with Pierce in 1853, had died. Others I 
 have seen in the Vice-President s chair acting as 
 President pro tern during the 34th and 35th Con 
 gresses were, besides Mr. Bright, "Governor" 
 Firzpatrick, of Alabama, Foot, of Vermont, 
 Wade, of Ohio, and Lafayette S. Foster, of Con 
 necticut. It was usual to change the chair after 
 the business of the morning hour, if not because 
 of the absence of the Vice-President, then merely 
 in compliment to some leader. 
 
 The principal officials connected with the Sen 
 ate were Hon. Asbury Dickens, of North Caro 
 lina, secretary; James M. Jamison, of Virginia, 
 postmaster; Richard Sutton, official reporter; 
 and Col. Deming R. McNair, of Kentucky, ser- 
 geant-at-arms. 
 
IO MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 III. 
 
 PAGE LIFE. 
 
 It was usual to retain a page, providing his 
 work was up to the mark, until he became seven 
 teen years of age. The boys with few exceptions 
 were the sons of widows, and the pay $2.40 a 
 day, including Sundays, during the session, 
 which with extras amounted to over $75 a month, 
 was a neat competence for a small family of 
 modest pretensions. The extra money was usu 
 ally earned by getting up albums of the senators 
 autographs, and subscription lists for the pub 
 lished speeches. When an important speech was 
 delivered, customarily one of the large printing 
 offices would have it for publication. Democratic 
 speeches were printed at the Globe office; and 
 Republican speeches by Buell & Blanchard, 
 whose office was where the old Tremont House 
 stands, corner of Indiana avenue and Second 
 street. We were paid thirty cents per 1000 on 
 an eight page speech, and fifty cents on a sixteen 
 page speech. When Douglas, Seward, Sumner, 
 or some other magic name headed the list as the 
 author of the speech, with a subscription of 50,- 
 ooo copies, it was easy to make as high as thirty 
 dollars on one list. The sergeant-at-arms, who 
 had charge of the pages, required us to form an 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE n 
 
 organization, the presiding officer of which 
 would assign either albums or lists to the several 
 pages. There were about twelve of us. The 
 proceeds we deposited with the treasurer, who 
 held all funds until the end of each month, at 
 which time it was equally divided among us. 
 
 The president of our organization was Arthur 
 P. Gorman. He, as a boy, exhibited those ster 
 ling qualities which developed the man and the 
 distinquished senator. His temperament was 
 very even and kindly, always considerate of the 
 feelings of others; a youth of very few words, 
 except on rare occasions. He was prompt and 
 truthful, ever attentive to what was intrusted to 
 him, and a favorite with all. Some years after 
 he became a senator, I met him on a number of 
 occasions and found him of the same pleasant 
 and cordial disposition. Another page pretty 
 much of Gorman s stripe, was Charles Clement 
 Ivey, known as the page to the Vice-President. 
 Such an attachment existed between himself and 
 Mr. Breckinridge, that on the outbreak of the 
 Civil War he followed his friend South, and 
 when the former Vice-president became a briga 
 dier general in the southern army "Clem" Ivey 
 was appointed an aide on his staff. Among the 
 other pages I am pleased to recall John P. D. 
 Caton, now of the Government Printing Office; 
 Leonard A. Frailey, pay-director of the Navy; 
 Thomas A. Lynch, a naval engineer; and James 
 Y. Potts, chief clerk of the Police Court, of 
 Washington, D. C. The sons of senators, for the 
 sake of the pleasure they derived from the exper 
 ience, often acted as pages, gratuitously. Sena- 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 tor Douglas sons, Robert and Stephen, Jr., and 
 Senator Bright s son Jesse, at different times 
 were volunteers. 
 
 Page life was in those days, and it must be 
 now, the school of manners and manliness. No 
 boy could have spent that much time at the im 
 pressionable age, in such close contact with those 
 high-minded men without taking on to a greater 
 or less extent the attributes of courteous, manly 
 character. We were drilled also in the exercise 
 of care and promptness in the performance of 
 our duties. If a page was called upon to go on 
 an errand, and failed to pay strict attention to 
 what he was told, he would never be called upon 
 by that same senator a second time. So it de 
 volved upon us to lend our ears, eyes, and our 
 whole being to the instructions given. 
 
 So utterly opposed was the Senate to the in 
 trusion of outside influences that the clamorous- 
 ness of a creaking shoe was profoundly pro 
 hibited, on which account all pages were required 
 to were slippers while in the chamber. I hardly 
 think the boys had noisy shoes, but we were on 
 the march so continually, that to prevent the pos 
 sibility of a tumult arising from these quarters, 
 we had to wear the pumps. I understand the 
 regulation is in force to this day. 
 
 As before stated there were no secretaries to 
 senators at that time; so after adjournment each 
 day members had their correspondence to detain 
 them. It was required of the pages to stay until 
 every senator had left the chamber. All letters 
 for the mail were handed to us to be sealed. The 
 table where the sealing w&s done was situated in 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 13 
 
 the lobby, and a candlestick and sealing wax 
 were always at hand. This was a busy bureau 
 in the late afternoons, and as boys will be boys, 
 they made as much fun out of it as was per- 
 missable with quiet behavior, some of them, how 
 ever, going so far in the spirit of daredeviltry 
 that they would flourish the burning stick of wax 
 and let fall the seals where they pleased, some? 
 times, as it would happen, on several letters in 
 the most uncommon spots, in which event the 
 disgrace was hastily dropped in the post-office. 
 Then all the boys lips would have to be sealed, 
 that is, metaphorically speaking. Occasionally, 
 one of the letters bearing an overplus of seals, 
 would crop up unexpectedly, and then woe to the 
 boy who had committed the offence. 
 
 A time comes to every boy when he feels it is 
 the golden moment of his life. It came to me in 
 this way. Senator Bigler, of Pennsylvania, 
 called me one day, and pleasantly said : "My son, 
 here is an important letter which I wish you to 
 place in the hands of President Buchanan. Now 
 be careful not to make any mistake in its delivery 
 to him in person." I informed the sergeant-at- 
 arms of the import of my errand, and leaving the 
 Capitol, proceeded on my way to the White 
 House, in an omnibus. The great weight of re 
 sponsibility which rested upon me, seemed to 
 make it harder for the horses to pull, and I sat 
 there meditating upon the whole matter when 
 suddenly at a point nearly opposite Willard s, I 
 observed the President walking on the pavement 
 in front of the hotel. I was out of the omnibus 
 in a hurry, and approaching His Excellency with 
 
14 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 my hat in hand, said: "Mr. Buchanan, I have 
 been directed by Senator Bigler to give you this 
 letter in person." The President smiled, thanked 
 me, and opened it. I stood there with my hat 
 in hand, scarcely daring to breathe in the august 
 presence, until I saw his eyes turned on me and 
 heard him say "No answer ;" and overcome with 
 excitement took the next bus back to the Cap 
 itol. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 15 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CITY FROM THE CAPITOL DOME. 
 
 Fifty years ago, looking down upon the "mag 
 nificent distances" from the dome, the seat of 
 our national government presented very little of 
 attractiveness. There was Pennsylvania avenue, 
 a dirt road, whose surface was undulating, caus 
 ing vehicles to toss upon its bosom like ships at 
 sea. At Second treet it crossed Tiber Creek on 
 a wooden bridge. There were no street cars, the 
 public being conveyed in omnibuses which ran 
 on this thoroughfare from the Capitol to old 
 High street, Georgetown. Senators who did not 
 possess private carriages, yet wishing to ride, 
 were thrown upon the alternatives of an omni 
 bus or a hired hack. Hacks were always to be 
 found standing in front of the hotels. The Jehu 
 of that period was the anthropoidal form of a 
 species that evolved into the highwayman of re 
 cent years. 
 
 On the west embankment of the Tiber, adja 
 cent to the "Avenue," stood the serene old B. 
 & O. railroad station, where the "lightning ex 
 press" ever and anon rumbled in with its human 
 freight from overland afar; and travelers com 
 ing with perfect impunity and carpet bags, for 
 an invasion of the Capital city and the halls of 
 
16 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Congress, eddied along the great thoroughfare, 
 all agog to pass through thick and thin to find 
 out just what Congress did and how it fared at 
 Washington; and often with the other object 
 also, of seeking office in the departmental ser 
 vice. The small hotels and boarding houses 
 along the south side of the avenue accommodated 
 these transients as a rule ; and most of their time 
 while sojourning here was divided between the 
 Capitol and the hotels where senators lived, 
 standing around waiting for the chance of a pri 
 vate interview. The hotels principally patronized 
 by senators were all located on "the avenue," 
 they were Willard s, Brown s, the Kirkwood 
 House, the National, and the St. Charles. 
 
 The view up the Mall began with the Botani 
 cal gardens, a spot that seemed to have been 
 plucked out of the heart of a tropical land and 
 planted in our midst. Always a favorite resort 
 for members of Congress, it was with pride that 
 they conducted their visiting friends through its 
 pleasant precincts. Beyond stood the Smith 
 sonian Institution, whose architectural grace and 
 beauty has surely never been surpassed in any 
 public edifice. The next object, and the last to 
 arrest our attention on the line of the Mall, was 
 the uncompleted Washington Monument, a mere 
 block standing 144 feet in air, and waiting there 
 for Congress to do something. ^ 
 
 Far toward the western horizon, Georgetown 
 loomed up with a haze hanging over its house 
 tops, the unmistakable sign of industry. On its 
 waterside, the spars of tall ships were visible; 
 for it was a port of some consequence in the trad- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 17 
 
 ing world, and many vessels from the West In 
 dies, with cargoes of sugar, molasses, fruits, and 
 tobacco, dropped anchor here. On the high 
 banks of the river above the town rose the grace 
 ful spires of Georgetown College, at that time 
 as well as now, an institution of repute. 
 
 In a course running nearly east and west, and 
 just south of "the avenue" the murky waters of 
 the Chesapeake and Ohio canal washed down and 
 emptied into the Tiber. Bordering this water 
 way were lumber and wood yards; and during 
 the summer time, scows and pungies brought 
 down watermelons, unshipping them at points 
 along by the market. Darkies had good old 
 times on the edge of this canal, their dusky pres 
 ence completing the picture of the Southland. 
 
 To the northwest of the Capitol, within a 
 radius of not more than six or seven squares, 
 was a section of the city where senatorial resi 
 dence was chiefly desired. Many of those well- 
 constructed houses stand to-day to mark the so 
 cial center of this period. On I street, imme 
 diately west of New Jersey avenue, three noble- 
 looking houses with broad fronts and generously 
 wide doors and windows, were built by the three 
 friends Senators Douglas, Rice and Breckin- 
 ridge. Douglas resided in the end house on the 
 west, whose lovely old garden with stately trees, 
 speaks in these days with the language of its 
 deep foliage, and tells of the gracious women 
 and courtly men who strolled out on the velvet 
 lawn and yielding to the appeal of lovely even 
 ings engaged themselves in happy converse until 
 late hours. (This house in after years became 
 
i8 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 the residence of the Apostolic Delegate, and the 
 one owned by Breckinridge became the home of 
 General Grant, subsequently of General Sher 
 man, and latterly of Mayor Emery.) Two other 
 houses renowned for lavish hospitality were the 
 homes of Ex-Mayor Seaton, on E street, and 
 that of Ex-Mayor Gales, on the heights north of 
 the city. Numbering among their guests were 
 many persons of high standing in official life and 
 in letters. 
 
 To the east of the Capitol, and directly facing 
 it, stood a row of fashionable boarding houses, 
 where quite a colony of Congressional people 
 were lodged. At the corner of First and A street, 
 northwest, was situated the "old Capitol," a 
 building which, when the British burned the for 
 mer Capitol in 1814, was fitted up for the tem 
 porary use of Congress. Surveying the panora 
 ma lastly from the dome, one spot on the eastern 
 outskirts of the city, draws our attention. It is 
 the Congressional Cemetery with its remarkable 
 headstones, so closely allied to our subject by rea 
 son of its having received 
 
 "Each in his narrow cell forever laid" 
 
 many whose voices once rang in legislative halls, 
 and are now stilled to eternity. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 19 
 
 SENATORIAL DIGNITY A GROUP OF LEADING 
 LIGHTS MALLORY S FAITH. 
 
 With the possible exception of the United 
 States Supreme Court, the most dignified body in 
 our land was, and is now, the Senate at Wash 
 ington. There is no other place where a body of 
 legislators uphold so high a standard in this re 
 gard. They are also exceedingly sensitive on 
 the score of having honor and respect paid to 
 their deliberations. This is carried to such an ex 
 tent that even when not in session and but few 
 occupy their seats, rapt solemnity reigns over the 
 hall. It was always so as I remember. And so 
 all-pervading was the sensation of awe, that an 
 outsider scarce dared whisper. His imagination 
 without control was loosed ; it seemed to him that 
 from every nook and corner spectres of a past 
 age peered out as if they lurked there as guard 
 ians of the old order of things. 
 
 Every senator has a duty self-imposed, of 
 using all his endeavors in support of the sover 
 eign dignity that has become proverbial. One 
 day I recall, a few minutes after adjournment, a 
 representative from the House came into the 
 chamber, and taking the seat of an absent mem 
 ber, leaned back nonchalantly and put his feet up 
 
20 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 on the desk. He was a tall man and conspicu 
 ously longer from his waist down than from that 
 point up ; so much so indeed, that he might have 
 been said to be long of limb. It was Representative 
 Farnsworth, of Illinois, of whom I speak; and 
 his attitude at that moment was not only grossly 
 at variance with the traditions of the Senate, but 
 very awkward to say the least. Senator Wilson, 
 though a friend of Mr. Farnsworth s, was quick 
 to notice the unusual scene. He directed me, as 
 I happened to be near, to go to the gentleman and 
 say that was not the proper position for anyone 
 to assume while in the Senate chamber. I re 
 peated the message as it was given, whereupon 
 Mr. Farnsworth took his feet down and laugh 
 ingly said: "You re more dignified over here 
 than we are in the House." He was certainly 
 right about that. 
 
 Senator Wilson was an index of decorum, al 
 ways preserving an austere manner in the cham 
 ber. He represented the proud old common 
 wealth of Massachusetts, and he represented her 
 with statesmanship the highest. His was a most 
 remarkable beginning, and the pattern of his life 
 was like that of many of America s famous men. 
 Through hardship and struggle he fought the 
 battle on the hill of life, inch by inch, ever press 
 ing forward to new ground until at length he 
 reached the summit of success. Born in a small 
 town of New Hampshire, in a home of poverty, 
 he was forced at the early age of ten years, to 
 seek an apprenticeship to a farmer named Wil 
 son. His own name was Jeremiah Colbath, but 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 2t 
 
 he adopted his benefactor s name by special act 
 of legislature. Eleven years were spent in agri 
 cultural pursuits, each year serving to strengthen 
 him more and more in the hardihood of New 
 England character. By the time of the expira 
 tion of his indentures, he had read nearly one 
 thousand volumes, chiefly of history and biogra 
 phy, and these books to the ambitious youth be 
 came the templets upon which he fashioned his 
 career. He now set out and walked to Natick, 
 where he addressed himself to the occupation of 
 shoemaking. As a shoemaker he had ample op 
 portunity for thought, which by long use formed 
 in his character a valuable attribute. Some years 
 later we find him a prosperous shoe manufac 
 turer. In 1840, he became active in General Har 
 rison s campaign, making a great many speeches, 
 and helping to win the victory which swept him 
 into the State legislature. In 1855, he was elected 
 to the United States Senate, to fill the vacancy 
 occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Everett. 
 The Whig party of Massachusetts was to the 
 backbone a party of aristocrats, dominated by 
 men of culture and education, and although pro 
 fessing to advocate the cause of the working 
 masses, they carefully avoided too close contact 
 with them. Mr. Everett a man of high birth 
 and advanced scholarship, an associate of the 
 English nobility had long represented the party 
 in the Senate. Now the Natick shoemaker as 
 pired to fill the vacant seat. It was considered a 
 disgrace to the old commonwealth, but Henry 
 Wilson was elected nevertheless, and while he 
 was not a man of letters such as Edward Everett, 
 
22 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 he was a dignified gentleman, a master of politi 
 cal questions, a fearless and faithful legislator, 
 and was twice re-elected. An untiring worker 
 during the Civil War, when he was chairman of 
 the Committee on Military Affairs, he earned the 
 title of "The Soldier s Friend." In 1872, Mr. 
 Wilson became Vice-President of the United 
 States on the ticket with General Grant. 
 
 The following ringing words spoken by him in 
 reply to a speech of a southern senator in which 
 it was claimed that "hireling manual laborers" 
 were essentially slaves, reflect so much upon his 
 own life that they are not out of place in this 
 sketch, although somewhat in advance of the dis 
 cussion : 
 
 "Sir, I am the son of a "hireling manual la 
 borer/ who with the frosts of seventy winters on 
 his brow, lives by daily labor. I, too, have been 
 a hireling manual laborer. Poverty cast its 
 dark and chilling shadow over the home of my 
 childhood ; and want was sometimes there an 
 unbidden guest. At the age of ten years, to aid 
 him who gave me being in keeping the gaunt 
 spectre from the hearth of the mother who bore 
 me, I left the home of my boyhood and went 
 forth to earn my bread by daily labor." 
 i At the American National Council, held in 
 Philadelphia in 1855, Mr. Wilson, the logical 
 leader of the opponents of slavery, while making 
 an address, observed a southerner to cross the 
 hall with a revolver in hand, and approach very 
 near him, where he took a seat, with the intention 
 of a threat. The slaveholder had misjudged his 
 man, for the insult was rebuked in these round 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 23 
 
 sentences : "Threats have no terror for free men. 
 I am ready to meet argument with argument, 
 scorn with scorn, and if need be blow with blow. 
 It is time the champions of slavery in the South 
 realize the fact that the past is theirs, the future 
 ours." 
 
 There is but a word necessary to be said in 
 introducing the New York senator, William H. 
 Seward. The Secretary of State in Lincoln s 
 cabinet, is commonly recognized as one of the 
 most notable of American statesmen. Lofty in 
 thought, cool in judgment, rock-grounded in ar 
 gument, he was decidedly impressive as a 
 speaker. His course was always deliberate and 
 wise. Very thorough in style, a model lawyer, 
 an unflinching advocate, and a man of great 
 gravity in all transactions, Mr. Seward easily 
 ranged with the forefront of the leaders in the 
 Senate. He was conspicuous in the great de 
 bates, and as one of the chief factors in the 
 cause of abolition, he was unyielding even on 
 infinitely small points where pro-slavery con 
 testants might possibly gain an inch. He took a 
 firm stand on the remarkable Kansas question, 
 as will be seen in the pages following. 
 
 On one occasion (February, 1856) in a speech 
 on an appropriation bill, he alluded to the Senate 
 in these words : 
 
 "I confess, therefore, sir, to an earnest desire, 
 a strong desire, to retain for the House of Rep 
 resentatives the privileges and rights which it has 
 exercised from the foundation of the government 
 to this |_.,day. ,^I am not amongst those who under- 
 
24 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 value the patriotism, or the intelligence, or the 
 virtue of the Senate of the United States. No 
 man is more reverential of the virtue of the dead 
 of past ages, or of their wisdom, than I am; no 
 man is less likely to be extravagant in praises of 
 their wisdom than I am ; no man is less likely to 
 be extravagant in praises of the wisdom and vir 
 tue of the living; yet, sir, I am one of those who 
 regard it as amongst the caprices, and the follies, 
 and the absurdities of this age, that we are ac 
 customed to suppose our fathers were wiser than 
 we are, or more virtuous than we are. Sir, I 
 think that the sun of heaven never shone upon a 
 body of more patriotic men than that which I 
 have the honor to address. It is for me a pride 
 which I shall carry to my grave, that I was 
 deemed worthy bv the State to which I belong, to 
 be associated, by their act, as a member of this 
 august body. So far from its having deteri 
 orated I believe it has gained both in virtue and 
 in wisdom." 
 
 Elected first to succeed Henry Clay, John J. 
 Crittenden, the distinguished Kentuckian, served 
 his State in the Senate many years; was twice 
 appointed Attorney General of the United States, 
 served a term as Governor of his State, and was 
 a senator again in the 34th and 35th Congress. 
 He was not only one of the ablest men of Ken 
 tucky, but one of the ablest of American states 
 men. Broad-minded, generous, and brave, he 
 was an advocate of measures looking to the 
 pacification of the whole country at the time 
 when difficulties were arising between the sec- 
 
a 
 
 WLUAU H. 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 JOWN }, CRlTTENDEN. 
 P. HALE. . 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 25 
 
 tions, as an example of which patriotic princi 
 ples, the following noble address, made March 
 17, 1856 (at the age of seventy-one), in a re 
 joinder to Senator Toombs, of Georgia, is 
 quoted : 
 
 "I am neither of the Democratic nor of the 
 Republican party. I wear no party shackles. I 
 am here as the Senator of "Old Kentucky" 
 brave and noble old commonwealth. My ambi 
 tion is to act in her spirit and by her inspiration. 
 I did not come here to act in the character of a 
 partisan. 
 
 "Long service and experience in public affairs 
 have divested me of much of the misconception, 
 the prejudice, and the passion that belongs to the 
 partisan; and upon lately taking my seat here, 
 probably in the last term of my public service, it 
 was my intention and my hope to act rather the 
 part of patriot than that of party man. 
 
 "I am a true son of the South ; may prosperity 
 fill all her borders, and sunshine forever rest 
 upon her head, but for all this, I do not love the 
 Union the less. I am a true citizen of the United 
 States ; I claim the whole of it as my great coun 
 try; and for the preservation of that Union 
 which makes it so, I will always be ready to say 
 and do. It is in this spirit, sir, that I have en 
 deavored humbly to do my duty my duty to the 
 South, and my duty to the whole country." 
 
 The Chippewa Indians, and in fact the Sioux 
 and Winnebago tribes also, whose lands covered 
 a greater portion of Minnesota, had an unfail 
 ing friend in the Senate in the person of 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 one whom they called in their strange tongue a 
 name which is rendered "White Rice" in English. 
 Henry M. Rice, senator from Minnesota, was 
 that friend. He was a staunch American, and in 
 his characteristics he bore the trace of that sturdi- 
 ness which animated the frames of our early 
 pioneers. His birthplace was Waitsfield, Ver 
 mont. At the age of twenty he emigrated to the 
 frontier town of Detroit, and two years later 
 shouldered a pack and trudged two hundred miles 
 westward to a part of the country but little more 
 than a wilderness. He became a trader, and for 
 many years controlled the trading interests of 
 that region. In the early days, back in Vermont, 
 he had studied law, and in this new country he 
 applied his knowledge of that profession toward 
 securing the passage of many laws, and the fram 
 ing of a State constitution, preparatory to the 
 admission of Minnesota into the Union. His 
 election to the United States Senate was an honor 
 wholly due to one who had rendered such valu 
 able service to the State. 
 
 He was such a man as suited the environment 
 of the Minnesota wilds, where he had followed 
 the old Indian trails, and had by kind contact 
 cemented many friendships around the campfires. 
 He had dwelt and had hunted with the redskins 
 long enough to learn the traits of their character, 
 and to know their needs and, therefore, their 
 deserts. He grasped within the compass of his 
 broad sense of right, a full appreciation of a de 
 clining race in the tenants of the wigwam ; and in 
 the Senate of the United States he was a force 
 working to the advancement of the cause of those 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 27 
 
 tribes whose trust he had won in fair and manly 
 intercourse upon the far borders of the north 
 west. 
 
 "White Rice" went in and out among them in 
 their haunts, as one who wore a wampum in 
 token of high privilege and power in their coun 
 cils and in their hearts. 
 
 In the island of Trinidad, Stephen Russell 
 Mallory was born. His boyhood was spent at 
 Havana until the death of his father when the 
 widow and her son removed to Florida. Al 
 though his father was a native of Connecticut, 
 Stephen Mallory had resided with Spanish- 
 Americans for so many years and had married a 
 Cuban lady, there was every reason for his hold 
 ing in his heart the most tender feelings toward 
 these Castilian people. He was senator from Flor 
 ida from 1851 to 1861, when he joined the Con 
 federacy. In 1858, he was proffered the appoint 
 ment of Minister to Spain, but declined. 
 
 The Senate having under consideration a bill 
 providing for the acquisition of Cuba by nego 
 tiation (February, 1859), Mr. Mallory made an 
 inspired address in defence of the Cubans and 
 their religion. In part he spoke as follows : 
 
 "It is said that Cubans are Catholic and there 
 fore averse to, and unfitted for, liberty, and that 
 the Catholic Church is hostile to freedom. An 
 assertion so irreconcilable with the truth of his 
 tory scarcely merits a serious answer ; but, sir, if 
 this charge shall ever be made under circum 
 stances requiring a response, Heaven grant that 
 the Church may have the privilege of confronting 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 her enemies here before the freest and greatest 
 forum upon the earth. As one of her humblest 
 followers, and a most indifferent one, I regret to 
 say perhaps the only one in the body, I stand 
 always ready in her defence; but, sir, she needs 
 no defence. There she stands, with her historic 
 truth and traditionary love of eighteen centuries 
 clustering around her head, her annals illustrated 
 and adorned by the proudest names and monu 
 ments of earth; her teachings sublime and uni 
 versal, her morning sacrifices to the everliving 
 God. It is also alleged that the Cubans are igno 
 rant; that they are satisfied with Spanish domin 
 ion, and desire no change. Sir, I profess to know 
 something of the Cubans, and I feel bound to re 
 mind those gentlemen who have dealt here in 
 wholesale abuse and in some inuendoes against 
 their indisposition to liberty, against their inca 
 pacity for self-government, against their ignor 
 ance and superstition, that in of about six hun 
 dred thousand whites they sustain one daily jour 
 nal at least having nine thousand daily circula 
 tion; while in the mother country there is not a 
 single paper that has two thousand, and that daily 
 journal, about the size of our Journal of Com 
 merce, is twice the size of any in Spain. They 
 have sought the United States upon every occa 
 sion ; and those you have seen here are fair speci 
 mens of the Cubans. In private virtues, I do not 
 believe they will compare unfavorably with our 
 people. The spirit of hospitality rests upon 
 every Creole mansion in Cuba. Most especially 
 does it to an American. The miserable pretense 
 has been set up, and sometimes urged here that 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 29 
 
 this people crushed and downtrodden as they are, 
 do not desire a change of government. It is the 
 most preposterous presumption on earth, that a 
 people thus welcoming the sun in her coming, 
 and her vesper bells cheering his departure 
 throughout the bounds of earth. Sir, let the 
 charge be seriously made, and its refutation will 
 be found in every forum and upon every field 
 where freedom has been lost or won." 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 VI. 
 
 HUMORISTS OF THE SENATE. 
 
 He who brightens the dull path of logic with a 
 glimmer of absurdity, or a humorous reflection 
 here and there, makes it much easier for himself 
 to be understood, oftentimes; and it enables him 
 to take a fresh hold upon his audience. A little 
 nonsense was always relished by the Senate, and 
 in that body there were some master wits. "Sam" 
 Houston, of Texas, John P. Hale, of New Hamp 
 shire, and "Bob" Johnson, of Arkansas, were the 
 most noted. Others there were who recognizing 
 the force of humor could not refrain from 
 sprinkling their speeches with drollery ; and some 
 again were funny when they were in serious 
 mood. For instance, fancy a leader in parlia 
 mentary debate, rising and creating almost a 
 tumult by rapping vigorously for one of the 
 pages to bring him snuff ; for the pages who car 
 ried snuff boxes had a bean which kept the con 
 tents moist and in good condition, better than the 
 senators themselves could keep it. 
 
 I remember some men who were very excep 
 tional characters. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was 
 one. He was often comical, though he may not 
 always have intended to be so. He wore a wig of 
 reddish hue, and when he waxed warm over an 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 31 
 
 argument, this wig would slip a trifle to one side, 
 giving him, to say the least, a wry look. Then 
 he had a habit of ordering a glass of lemonade 
 to be placed before him while making a speech, 
 and would take a sip of it after each dry remark. 
 
 Robert W. Johnson, or "Bob" Johnson, as he 
 was called, had the true sense of the ridiculous. 
 He was a man of generous impulses, and those 
 genial traits that endear one to his fellows. A 
 good speaker, he was not blind to the openings 
 where a little fun could be inserted, and he made 
 the Senate roar with laughter. At two o clock 
 one morning (in 1856), when there was a dead 
 lock, and everybody was drowsy, he roused them 
 to almost continuous laughter. 
 
 He said: 
 
 "It is now two o clock. One of our rules is 
 that no member shall speak more than twice in 
 any one debate the same day, without the leave of 
 the Senate. Whether this rule has been ob 
 served or not, I shall not say, but as I have de 
 clared, it is now two o clock." 
 
 A Senator: "It wants four minutes of that 
 hour." 
 
 Mr. Johnson : "That is very near it. I wish to 
 ask whether it is supposed that a vote will be 
 taken on this bill after a while? There is no 
 doubt whatever, judging from the deep-toned 
 feeling which exists here (laughter), and from 
 the exhibit of the numerous and well-filled seats 
 and benches around me( renewed laughter) that 
 the excitement of the debate stirs to the very 
 depths the feelings of everyone on both sides of 
 the House. Not one seat is vacant, for I see 
 
32 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 them all filled. (Laughter.) Does not this cir 
 cumstance justify us in coming to a vote? 
 
 "Sir, the hour is late. In fact I might have 
 said the same thing with perfect truth, two hours 
 ago. It was a late hour then, the session has been 
 protracted to an unusual and extraordinary 
 period. I have listened with great pleasure, and 
 I hope with much instruction, to the many views 
 which have been presented by various senators; 
 but I think we have at last got more than enough 
 of a good thing. The rules prescribe how often 
 a senator is permitted to speak on a single sub 
 ject on the same day. I have already read that 
 rule. It may be, sir, that there is a great deal 
 which has not been said that ought to be said on 
 this subject. It may be that the theme is far from 
 being exhausted. It may be that the public mind 
 needs enlightenment. It may be that the Senate 
 requires light. Perhaps speaking will afford that 
 light. I have no doubt of it, from the evident 
 attention which we find here from the great num 
 ber who wait and listen. (Laughter.) This 
 should satisfy us that that which is spoken wisely 
 and well must have its effect, and may turn the 
 tide on this question. I do not know by what spirit 
 we are to be governed, or what direction our 
 votes are to be borne. At this late hour, two 
 o clock, I see the chamber so full, and hear all 
 aro:md me the voice of discontent portraying to 
 everyone the deep interest which the subject ex 
 cites, and I hear it from the recesses of the 
 chamber behind us, that I am sure we will soon 
 have the vote. I am sorry that gentlemen should 
 think it necessary to teach others, and force their 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 33 
 
 convictions on them, in the midst of the evident 
 misery, the great excitement, and the almost rag 
 ing madness produced by this debate on those 
 who are listening to it in every window, and all 
 around the chamber. (Laughter.) Sir, I do not 
 believe that any senator is disposed to violate the 
 fourth rule, which says that no member shall 
 speak more than twice in one debate on the same 
 day ! This is a gentle intimation that no gentle 
 man is expected to detain the Senate unneces 
 sarily. May we not apply that principle to the 
 debate on this subject? It has lasted from the 
 first Monday of December until the present hour. 
 I do not think it is reasonable to require us to 
 listen to the discussion night and day. Sir, if we 
 could have profound silence in the Senate for a 
 moment, I believe we could hear all around us the 
 outpourings of profound conviction, earnest 
 sighs, deep breathings. (A voice: Of the sleep 
 ers. ) telling us with a strong voice, that the hour 
 is late, and that we are not all qualified to sit here 
 forever, though we may sit patiently as the sen 
 ator from Michigan (Mr. Cass) certainly does, 
 notwithstanding the fact that he is the oldest man 
 amongst us; but he cannot last forever. I trust 
 we shall at once come to a vote, and have no more 
 speeches on this subject, unless some speech 
 which will bring this crisis to a determination, 
 and settle the question of the very existence of 
 the Union. What is the use of continuing the 
 debate? Who has an idea that it is of impor 
 tance to pass this bill, unless it be adopted by the 
 House of Representatives? Some southern men 
 are said to be opposed to it ; and I doubt exceed- 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ingly whether the bill will be passed by the 
 House, though it may be adopted by the Senate. 
 Senators will pardon me for having called 
 their attention to the fourth rule. Of course the 
 senator from New York (Mr. Seward), who I 
 perceive desires to obtain the floor, will not un 
 derstand me as applying to him, for I believe he 
 has not spoken more than two or three times 
 to-day and to-night. (Laughter.) I hope that 
 other gentlemen will be admonished by his exam 
 ple. I trust in view of the high exctement which 
 now exists here, that no gentleman will lend a 
 hand to increase it. (Laughter.) 
 
 Now as for that skill in the sharp encounters 
 of debate, which often depended on humor to 
 blunt the poisoned shaft and toss it harmless at 
 one s feet, John P. Hale was without a match. 
 His was the chasseur style quick in action ; first 
 troubling the enemy at this point, then suddenly 
 rallying on a fresh ground, outwitting him at 
 every stand, until he is forced to retire. With 
 courage, wit, and eloquence, he was a formidable 
 opponent. 
 
 During the discussion of a bill in relation to a 
 railroad along Pennsylvania avenue from George 
 town to the Capitol (in January, 1859), Mr. Hale 
 held the floor one afternoon and gave the Senate 
 an amusing talk, which, if it did not accomplish 
 much, caused them some diversion. 
 
 Mr. Hale: Mr. President. 
 
 The President pro tempore: The Senator 
 from Maine. 
 
 Mr. Hale : The chair is mistaken about where 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 35 
 
 I live. I live very near to the line of Maine ; it s 
 only about four miles from where I live in New 
 Hampshire. I have sat here this afternoon some 
 what impatiently. I am opposed to working on 
 Saturday afternoons. When I was a boy I never 
 used to go to school on Saturday afternoon. I 
 always vote to adjourn over Saturday, and I 
 always shall, for I think we shall be able to do 
 the public business better in that mode. I have 
 sat here all this afternoon impatiently under these 
 debates on this little two-mile horse railroad. It 
 has looked to me as if the Senate of the United 
 States are rather coming down when they devote 
 a whole day, and an extraordinary day of ses 
 sion to it; but since I have heard the Senator 
 from Michigan, I am converted entirely. I think 
 the day has been well spent, and it would be well 
 to spend a little more time on this subject, and for 
 that reason I have got up. (Laughter.) 
 
 The suggestion the Senator from Michigan 
 (Mr. Stuart) made which converted me is, that 
 it is a question which towers up above all horse- 
 railroads, and all Pacific railroads, and magnetic 
 telegraphs, and everything of that sort, because 
 in his imagination and he has given it to us 
 gravely, deliberately, and emphatically it is a 
 question whether the Senate has anything to do 
 with the legislation of the country or not. Now, 
 sir, I am for the Senate ; and if that is the ques 
 tion, and if it is that which is involved in this 
 horse-railroad, I am against it. (Laughter.) 
 
 The President pro temporo rapped with his 
 gavel. 
 Mr. Hale: You did not knock at me, sir did 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 you? (Laughter.) I confess that the question 
 presents itself to me in an aspect entirely differ 
 ent. It presents itself to my mind in a much 
 more terrific aspect than any view in which I 
 have been in the habit of looking upon it. But, 
 sir, I think the Senator from Michigan is mis 
 taken. I cannot but think that the privilege and 
 prerogatives of the Senate will be preserved 
 whether this horse railroad be incorporated or 
 not. I do not think their track will go through 
 the Capitol grounds, or in any other way inter 
 fere with us : and even if this railroad bill should 
 be passed to-night, we shall come here at twelve 
 o clock on Monday, and commence the discharge 
 of our functions exactly as well as if the bill had 
 not passed. . . . 
 
 Mr. Stuart (of Michigan). I am not at all 
 surprised at the argument of the Senator from 
 New Hampshire, and I do not at all regret it. I 
 am not surprised that he should have assured me 
 and the Senate that he had been here to-day and 
 did not know who was arguing one side and who 
 the other on this question, because I found him 
 asleep over there in his chair (laughter), his 
 head lying back, of course he knew nothing. 
 
 Mr. Hale: Mr. President. 
 
 The President pro tempore: Will the Senator 
 from Michigan yield to the Senator from New 
 Hampshire ? 
 
 Mr. Hale : Never mind ; I shall get it in a mo 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Stuart: It did not amaze me for a mo 
 ment that the Senator should misrepresent all I 
 said. It is his habit. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 37 
 
 Mr. Hale : I call him to order, sir. 
 
 The President pro tempore : The Senator will 
 take ins seat. W ill the Senator from New Hamp 
 shire state his question of order ? 
 
 Mr. Hale : He says it is my habit to misrepre 
 sent ; and that is an impeachment of my integrity 
 on the floor, which he has no right to make. 
 That s the ground for calling him to order. 
 
 The President pro tempore: Will the Senate 
 say whether the Senator from Michigan is in 
 order or not? 
 
 Mr. Davis : I think the point of order is clearly 
 well taken by the Senator from New Hampshire. 
 I do not think it senatorial for one Senator to say 
 to another that he misrepresents anything. 
 
 Mr. Hale: He said I not only did it, but that 
 it was my habit. 
 
 The President pro tempore : The Senator from 
 Michigan has the floor. 
 
 Mr. Stuart : I am very sorry that the Senator 
 from New Hampshire should have so changed his 
 feelings. 
 
 Mr. Hale : I call for the rule of the Senate to 
 be enforced. 
 
 Mr. Pugh: What is it? 
 
 Mr. Hale : I called the Senator to order. The 
 Chair should either decide it, or submit it to the 
 Senate. 
 
 The President pro tempore : The Chair submit 
 ted to the Senate whether the Senator from 
 Michigan should proceed in order. The Chair 
 heard no objection, and took it for granted that 
 it was the sense of the Senate that the Senator 
 from Michigan should proceed in order. 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Mr. Hale : I did not so understand. 
 
 The President pro tempore : The Senator from 
 Michigan has the floor. 
 
 Mr. Stuart : I was remarking that I was a lit 
 tle surprised that the Senator from New Hamp 
 shire should have so changed his own feelings. 
 He waked up in a most mirthful sympathy just 
 now. He was full of glee and made a very vio 
 lent effort to see if he could not make a little fun 
 out of the remarks I made. He is now changed 
 in his tone entirely; he is an offended Senator; 
 he has waked up cross. That is remarkable ; be 
 cause when a gentleman introduces in a body of 
 this sort a scene of drollery, he mars the whole 
 play when he undertakes to change it to one of 
 anger ; it should be carried out. Now everybody 
 knows the attention that is paid by the Senator 
 from New Hampshire to all business; that he is 
 always in his seat, always knows what is going 
 on, never speaks but to enlighten the Senate, 
 never leaves the Senate unnecessarily to go into 
 his State or elsewhere. Indeed, sir, he is one of 
 those lights of the body that the Senate can 
 scarcely get along without; and therefore I felt 
 that when the Senator stated I had said the only 
 question presented here to-day was a question in 
 volving the rights of the Senate, the Senate 
 was bound to believe that, notwithstanding my 
 argument was entirely the reverse. I said I had 
 heard that argument that the Senate must not 
 amend a bill because it would be lost in the House 
 of Representatives. I did not say that the ques 
 tion presented to the Senate was one whether it 
 would maintain its own powers of legislation or 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 39 
 
 not. I said no such thing. I said that the argu 
 ment carried out must mean that and nothing 
 more. I said it emphatically, the Senator says. 
 I hope I said it respectfully to every Senator ; and 
 to the body; and if in arguing questions here, I 
 shall deem it proper to speak directly to the point 
 in a logical way, and for purposes of useful 
 legislation, instead of thrusting myself in the 
 arena like a clown at a circus, I must be excused 
 for preferring that plain mode to the other. 
 
 Mr. Clay: I move that the Senate adjourn. 
 ("Oh, no!") It is a quarter to five o clock, and 
 I think this farce is likely to be turned into a 
 tragedy, and I hope the Senate will adjourn. The 
 motion was not agreed to, there being on a divi 
 sion ayes 14, noes 21. 
 
 Mr. Hale : Mr. President, all personal matters 
 are disagreeable to me. I want to state now I 
 do not go into anybody s motives but the Sena 
 tor from Michigan misstates entirely and totally 
 the remark which I made, upon which he based 
 what I suppose he calls wit, and I am willing to 
 let it go on; and that was that I did not know 
 upon which side gentlemen had been arguing 
 here. 
 
 Mr. Davis : I think the Senator is committing 
 the very breach of decorum for which he called 
 the Senator from Michigan to order. 
 
 Mr. Hale : I did not say he misrepresented. 
 
 Mr. Davis : You said misstated, which is some 
 what more harsh. I hope the Chair will enforce 
 the rules of order. 
 
 The President pro tempore : The Chair will de 
 clare the Senator out of order, and the Senate 
 
40 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 will determine whether he shall proceed in order. 
 Those in favor of the Senator proceeding 
 
 Mr. Crittenden : I wish to say a word on that 
 subject. I certainly desire the order of debate 
 to be preserved as much as anybody, but although 
 I acknowledge the term "misstate" sounds 
 harshly, it does not imply that it is done inten 
 tionally. 
 
 Mr. Hale : Certainly not. 
 
 Mr. Crittenden: I may misstate a case which 
 I do not understand. I examined a little once 
 as to this very question. When you say a gentle 
 man has misstated, you mean only that he has 
 stated erroneously, but not misrepresented or 
 misstated intentionally. I consider it not out of 
 order at all, but within the strictest rules of order. 
 
 The Presiding Officer : Those in favor of the 
 Senator proceeding in order will say "Ay." The 
 question was decided in the affirmative. 
 
 Mr. Hale: I did not mean to be out of order, 
 and I carefully weighed the word so as not to be 
 out of order. I recollect reading a work of Dean 
 Swift, in one of his travels in one of the nations 
 that he went into, and he said they were so truth 
 ful that they had no word to represent falsehood ; 
 and when they wanted to say it they would simply 
 say a man said the thing which was not ; and that 
 they said to get around the word "falsehood," 
 which was not in their language. Using the 
 phraseology of that learned English writer, I will 
 simply say that the Senator from Michigan has 
 said the thing which was not. He stated that I 
 had said I did not know which side gentlemen 
 had been arguing upon in the Senate. I said no 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 41 
 
 such thing; thought no such thing; intended no 
 such thing. I said that outsiders, friends of these 
 different companies, had been at me the one and 
 the other ; and I took so little interest in it that I 
 did not know which was for one and which was 
 for the other. I spoke of what occurred outside 
 of the Senate, and not of what took place in it; 
 and, therefore, I will admit that, if the basis had 
 been true, the Senator from Michigan would 
 have made a very witty speech, and that his 
 censure would have been well applied. Now, sir, 
 I shall not undertake to reply to any insinuations 
 and innuendoes of the Senator from Michigan. 
 I will let them all go. I plead guilty to the charge 
 of not mingling in every subject that comes up 
 from the incorporation of a railroad, or a pen 
 sion, to every great scheme that is brought before 
 the country; and if there is to be any impeach 
 ment of my intelligence, or any want of attention 
 to the affairs which belong to the Senate, from 
 the fact that my voice is not heard on everything, 
 in season and out of season, early and late, logi 
 cally, or illogically. I plead guilty, and leave to 
 the Senator from Michigan, or anybody else that 
 is desirous of it, any laurels that may be won in 
 such a contest. I have none of them; but if the 
 Senator thinks I have been asleep, I have this to 
 say ; I know some clergymen sometimes find fault 
 with their parishioners and audience for going to 
 sleep, but I think when a clergyman has a sleepy 
 audience he has no right to complain. If the 
 speaker has not vitality and energy enough to 
 keep his hearers awake, I think they do wisely in 
 going to sleep. (Laughter.) I have always 
 
4? MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 thought so, and I do not mean that as any re 
 proach to anybody who speaks in the Senate ; but 
 if there is anybody in the Senate that has made 
 his voice heard in season and out of season, and 
 has failed to keep his audience awake, I think 
 he had better examine his own powers a little, 
 instead of finding fault with the audience. 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 Mr. Stewart: I concur with the Senator en 
 tirely and that gives me an opportunity of con 
 gratulating myself particularly for being able to 
 wake him up. Until I spoke, sir, he was asleep, 
 sound and snoring. (Laughter.) I presume if 
 I had not spoken, he would have slept until this 
 time, for I believe I am the only man in the Sen 
 ate that he takes especial pains to interfere with, 
 and hereafter it will be known when it is neces 
 sary to wake up the great light of the East, I will 
 speak and he will awake, and the country will be 
 enlightened ; they can be amused, the whole scene 
 in the Senate can be changed; if argument will 
 not answer, buffoonery will be resorted to. 
 
 "Sam" Houston was one of the gentlest and 
 most kindly natures I have ever known. A true 
 friend and a gallant gentleman. Day after day, 
 during spare moments, he sat there in his seat 
 carving hearts out of soft pine wood. They were 
 pieces about the size of the hand. When he had 
 completed one of these works of art, he would 
 summon a page, and pointing toward some fair 
 spectator in the gallery, would say: "Give this 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 43 
 
 to that lady up there, with General "Sam" Hous 
 ton s compliments. Needless it is to add that 
 these souvenirs were quickly accepted and highly 
 prized. The blocks from which they were whit 
 tled, were especially prepared for the general by 
 the Senate cabinetmaker (Mr. Griffith). 
 
 At church (the E Street Baptist, Washington), 
 the aisles would be choked with people at the 
 close of service, waiting for a chance to get near 
 the big Texan, who always occupied a pew near 
 the pulpit. And there he would stand, his com 
 manding figure wrapped in a Mexican blanket, in 
 cold weather, meeting the people as they came 
 forward, speaking kind and sensible words to 
 each one, from the lowest to the highest. 
 
 His history is so universally known, as the 
 leader of a force of invincible men, as a general, 
 as the President of Texas, as governor, we hardly 
 consider it necessary to dwell upon any period of 
 his life, either before or after he was in the Sen 
 ate. 
 
 He was a great fun-maker. Once (in April, 
 1856), he related the following story in illustra 
 tion of a point in debate : 
 
 "It reminds me, Mr. President, of a trial which 
 took place not very far from here, before a 
 magistrate endowed with a good portion of com 
 mon sense and considerable integrity, but not a 
 highly educated man not a metaphysician. When 
 the parties appeared before him, after hearing the 
 testimony on the side of the plaintiff, seeing a 
 good deal of excitement around him, he ordered 
 the court to adjourn, and went out hastily with 
 some bustle. Oh! said the people, stop, stop, 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Squire, you are not going? Yes/ said he, I 
 have heard enough. But/ they said, you have 
 heard only one-half the case/ Yes/ replied he; 
 but to hear both sides of a case always confuses 
 me, and I cannot give my decision. I am off ! >! 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 Apropos of the additions making to the Cap 
 itol, in the year 1858, he addressed the Senate, 
 with some poignancy not altogether void of hu 
 mor, touching upon the statuary designed for the 
 ornamentation of the new structure. 
 
 Mr. President: I am not acquainted with the 
 details of extending the wings of the Capitol ; but 
 there is one circumstance to which my attention 
 has been drawn, and on which I should like to 
 obtain information ; and that is, who are the 
 sculptors that are employed in the shanties out 
 here, in preparing the different statues for their 
 appropriate places in the new Capitol? I have 
 observed some of them ; and the Goddess of Lib 
 erty, I believe, is one. I am an admirer of stau- 
 ary, but I cannot say that I am a critic, or even 
 an amateur in that department of art. It does 
 seem to me that it is a figure which makes rather 
 a queer display in the Capitol. In the first place, 
 I object to its attitude, it appears to me to be in 
 anguish drawn back in the most ungraceful and 
 ungainly attitude for a lady. (Laughter.) It 
 appears to be in torment; and had it been physi 
 cal, I should have imagined that it really had a 
 boil under the arm. (Laughter.) Take it all in 
 all take the tout ensemble I have seen nothing 
 resembling it. Instead of the bare feet with san 
 dals, it is represented with a very formidable pair 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 45 
 
 of russet brogans, that would suit very well for 
 laborers in the swamps of the South. That is 
 one of the most queer and ridiculous things I 
 have ever seen to represent human nature. I 
 have never seen a wax figure but what was 
 equally graceful and rather more beautiful and 
 artistic in its appearance. 
 
 Then there is an Indian woman, or squaw, to be 
 more technical, seated on a slab of marble. That 
 may be very well executed, but she has a little 
 papoose in her arms and its little head is sticking 
 out like a terrapin s (laughter) without reclining 
 gracefully on the arm. She has a blanket, or 
 something, holding it up ; and its little neck, with 
 out the least curve or grace, is very stiff like an 
 apple on a stick. (Laughter.) Now, sir, I think 
 of it, that throughout all ages, as long as this 
 Capitol shall stand, or this Union exist, which I 
 hope is to be forever, that poor little Indian has 
 to sustain a heavy head with that little neck, and 
 without a mother s aid to hold it reclining on her 
 arms. (Laughter.) Any person who will look at 
 that must be agonized. Sir, the scenes around us 
 in this building ought to inspire cheerfulness and 
 pleasure. Instead of that, a contemplation of this 
 figure will inflict agony on every human being of 
 sensibility. 
 
 And then there is a poor Indian boy, who looks 
 as if he were of Oriental stock. He has a large 
 shell on his shoulders ; end in his agonizing atti 
 tude, water is to spout continually on him. He is 
 in the most servile, miserable, cruel agonizing 
 attitude in which I ever saw a creature. It will 
 inspire us with feelings of anguish if we should 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ever see these figures displayed about the Capitol. 
 I would like to have the gentleman of the Senate 
 go and see them, before they are placed in a situ 
 ation where they will have to be removed: be 
 cause it will cost something to place them there. 
 I insist that, at least, there ought to be an amend 
 ment for the purpose of providing curtains to 
 hang in front of them, so that they may never be 
 seen. I am a man of sympathy; I feel for hu 
 man suffering, and could not contemplate one of 
 these three figures without the extremest agony. 
 
 They are in torment; you would suppose they 
 were representations of some criminal that had 
 committed an unpardonable offense, for which he 
 was doomed to perpetual agony. I object to 
 their going into this Capitol, or being about it. I 
 do not know the artist; I cannot exactly say 
 whether he is a native no, sir, I know he is not 
 a native; for a native artist, observing nature as 
 it is in our forests and in our wilds for we all 
 more or less pass through forests and see nature 
 animal, vegetable, mineral, all around us 
 could not have fancied such sketches as these are, 
 I object to them unequivocally; I can never sub 
 mit to them. 
 
 General Houston, like all men with a keen sense 
 of humor, was sympathetic and kind. The In 
 dians, among whom he had lived a great deal, 
 claimed his protection. He had witnessed the 
 degradation of brave chieftains, due to the 
 agency of hideous vice, introduced into the camps 
 by white men. He made a speech in Jan. 1855, 
 on the Indian. 
 
 "They are a people isolated in their interests, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 47 
 
 and solely dependent for protection and justice 
 upon the Government of the United States. The 
 Indians have been charged with an aggressive 
 and hostile spirit toward the whites, but we find, 
 upon inquiry, that every instance of that sort 
 which has been imputed to them has been in 
 duced and provoked by the white man, either by 
 acts of direct aggression upon the Indians, or by 
 his own incaution, alluring them to a violation of 
 the security of the whites." After citation of 
 numerous instances, in which he alludes to early 
 days, Houston said : "The course which has been 
 pursued, since the days of William Penn to the 
 present moment, has not been entirely successful 
 in conciliating the Indians. But under the man 
 agement of Washington, of the first Adams, of 
 Madison, of Monroe, of the second Adams, of 
 Jackson, and of Polk, we have, with few excep 
 tions, been very successful in maintaining peace 
 with them. The suggestions made by our fath 
 ers in relation to their civilization and humaniza- 
 tion are exemplified and illustrated in the present 
 condition of the southern tribes, who have re 
 ceived the greatest benefits of the light shed on 
 them ; and they have responded to it by the culti 
 vation of mind, by the development of resources, 
 both physical and intellectual, which reflect luster 
 on their character. 
 
 When Texas was annexed to the United States, 
 these Indians on account of faith having been 
 maintained with them by the then Executive of 
 Texas, refused to meet and confer with the com 
 mission sent to them by the President of the 
 United States until they had the sanction of the 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Government of Texas ; and the symbols of confi 
 dence were put in the hands of the commission 
 ers before the Indians would treat with them. 
 Take an illustration. One of their chiefs, with 
 his wife and child, and twelve men came to Fort 
 Belknap, some one hundred and fifty or two hun 
 dred miles west of the fort at Hamilton s Val 
 ley. Property had been stolen by Indians. It 
 was not known which of thirteen different tribes 
 had taken it, for outlaws occasionally congre 
 gated from each, half a dozen of them stealing 
 off from their tribes without the influence of their 
 chiefs operating upon them. They were outlaws, 
 careless of the destiny of their tribes, and reck 
 less of the crimes they might commit, so long as 
 they could gratify their cupidity, and recompense 
 their daring. These men had taken some prop 
 erty. Dragoons came on in the direction of the 
 Red River, and reached Fort Belknap. So soon 
 as they arrived, the officer said to the chief : Sir, 
 I retain you as a prisoner. It is true you came 
 here under a white flag; but I am an officer. I 
 have the power; I take you prisoner, and you 
 must stay here a prisoner until the horses are 
 brought back. Your men must stay, too, except 
 one, whom I will send to your tribe with the in 
 telligence of the fact. The chief said : My tribe 
 have not committed the robbery ; it is a great dis 
 tance from me ; it is in another direction. I come 
 from the rising sun ; that is toward the setting 
 sun ; I was far from it ; you are between me and 
 it ; I did not do it. But, said the officer, you are 
 a prisoner. The officer put him in the guard 
 Jiouse, Imprisonment is eternal infamy to an In- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 49 
 
 dian. A prairie Indian would rather die a thou 
 sand deaths than submit to the disgrace of im 
 prisonment. You may wound and mutilate him 
 as you please, you may crush every limb in the 
 body of a prairie Indian, and if he can make no 
 other resistance he will spit defiance at you when 
 you come within his reach. This chief meditat 
 ing upon his deep disgrace, knowing that he was 
 irreparably dishonored, unless he could wash out 
 his stains with blood, resolved that night that he 
 would either die a free man or rescue himself 
 from dishonor. He rose in the night. He would 
 not leave his wife and child in the hands of his 
 enemy; so he took his knife, and stabbed his 
 squaw and little one to the heart. Not a groan 
 was heard, for he well knew where to apply the 
 poignard. He went and shot down the sentinel, 
 rushed upon the superior officers, was shot, and 
 perished like a warrior, in an attempt to wipe a 
 stain from his honor. His men fled, and re 
 turned to their tribe, but it was to bring blood, 
 carnage, and conflagration upon our settlements. 
 They came not again as brothers to smoke the 
 calumet of peace, but with brands in their hands 
 to set fire to our houses. Contrast that with previ 
 ous years; contrast it with the harmony which 
 had before existed, and you see the lamentable 
 results of sending, as Indian agents, army 
 officers, to take charge of Indians, men who know 
 nothing about the Indian character. Sir, while 
 people are seeking to civilize and Christianize 
 men on the banks of the Ganges, or the Jordan, 
 or in Burrampootah, why should not the same 
 philanthropic influence be extended through soci- 
 
Jo MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ety, and be exerted in behalf of the American In 
 dians? Is not the soul of an American Indian, 
 in the prairie, worth as much as the soul of a man 
 on the Ganges, or in Jerusalem ? Surely it is." 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 51 
 
 VII. 
 
 BUILDINGS ON THE MALL. 
 
 Within recent years, encroachment upon the 
 Mall has been attended with so little opposition, 
 a few remarks by the chairman of the District 
 Committee (A. G. Brown, of Miss.) on the mo 
 tion to reconsider the vote by which the location 
 of the District armory was changed from the 
 Mall to Judiciary Square, may be of interest. 
 
 Mr. Brown : I do not mean to worry the Sen 
 ate with this question, though I really think it is 
 of consequence. The site on which it is proposed 
 to erect this building, as I remarked before, con 
 tains seventeen acres of ground, lying directly be 
 tween the Capitol and the Potomac river. This it is 
 proposed to spoil, as I think, with this building 
 and to give it up as a mere parade ground. The 
 interests involved, in my opinion, greatly exceed 
 the simple question of the $30,000 which happens 
 to have been appropriated. If gentlemen will 
 take the trouble to look into the past history of 
 our legislation, they will find that when you 
 erected your Treasury Department which is a na 
 tional building it was put on the President s 
 Square. Why was it not placed on the Mall? 
 Because at that day the President and those who 
 had the location of that building believed it to be 
 
$2 MEMOIRS Of A SENATE PAGE 
 
 x 
 
 right to preserve the Mall from encroachment. 
 At a later day, when you built the Patent Office 
 why was not that put upon the Mall ? It was not 
 done because the gentleman who had control of 
 public affairs then thought that this reservation 
 ought to be preserved. When you built your 
 Post Office Department, why did you buy the 
 ground on which it was erected, instead of taking 
 the Mall which you owned? 
 
 My friend from California asks me I hardly 
 like to stop to answer such a question why do 
 we wish to preserve it? Sir, why does Philadel 
 phia pay large sums of money for public parks? 
 Why has New York within the last twelve 
 mouths paid $6,000,000 for a public park! Why 
 is Boston Common to-day considered the beauty 
 and glory of that ancient city? Because these 
 reservations, in the course of time, as cities grow 
 large and old, become the very lungs through 
 which your population breathe. That is the rea 
 son why we wish to preserve this reservation. 
 When you located your Military Asylum why 
 did you not put it on the Mall? You selected a 
 site in the neighborhood of this city and paid 
 $50,000 for the ground on which to locate it. 
 Two years ago, when you were about to locate 
 the Lunatic Asylum, why was not that put there ? 
 Then you paid a large sum of money for ground 
 upon which to locate that building. Now, sir, 
 when you are about to erect buildings for the 
 War, State, and Navy Departments national 
 buildings why do you not pxit them there? It 
 seems nothing is to go there but this poor, little 
 miserable armory ; and it is to be placed there be- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 53 
 
 cause certain men desire to use the Mall as a 
 parade ground for their holiday soldiers 
 ground which has been held sacred which was 
 first laid off by the Father of his Country, as I am 
 prepared to show. I have the plan of the city 
 signed by George Washington himself, with his 
 own sign manual, laying oft" and preserving this 
 ground for the public use. For fifty years it has 
 been preserved intact, with two exceptions. You 
 placed the Smithsonian Institution there, and I 
 think it very much out of place. If I had been 
 here at the time I should have opposed its being 
 located there. 
 
 You also provided for placing the Washington 
 monument there, and you could not have put in 
 a more proper place; but no building ought to 
 have gone there. What will be the next plan sug 
 gested? Somebody will propose to put the mar 
 ket house there; and by and by somebody will 
 wish to have the jail removed there. Then some 
 one will wish the school houses to be put there, 
 because it will make a pretty playground for the 
 children ; then you will have a blind asylum there, 
 because the children will be able to get fresh air. 
 Better reasons can be given for putting any of 
 these buildings there than for desecrating this 
 reservation by giving it up for a parade ground." 
 
 Mr. Hale s remarks : 
 
 "It is rarely that I have heard a speech with 
 which I coincided bO entirely and totally as the 
 speech which fell to-day from the honorable Sen 
 ator from Mississippi (Mr. Brown). Now, I hope 
 when we have such sage counsels from the chair 
 man of the committee who has the District of 
 
54 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Columbia under his charge, we shall follow him 
 and take his advice. When this Capitol shall be 
 completed, we shall be under the necessity of 
 buying at a very large expense portions of land 
 which we once gave away, and which ought to be 
 a part, and must be a part, of the grounds at 
 tached to the Capitol. When these wings are 
 completed, you will have to buy at an enormous 
 expense, land which we gave away for a mere 
 song, or less than a song. Now, when we have 
 seen what has been the result of our dealing with 
 the public grounds here, I trust Congress will 
 stay its hand, and not build an armory on this 
 ground, which was intended to be public reserva 
 tion forever. If an armory is wanted, let it be 
 put somewhere else than on that spot, which was 
 intended for a public garden and for a public 
 place of resort. That was intended to be a place 
 for the display of the beauties and riches of na 
 ture, and not for the exhibitions of war. I wish 
 to see no plumes waving there but those of Na 
 ture and her flowers. I trust what was intended 
 to be an ornamental, public reservation, will not 
 be disfigured by anything of this sort. I have not 
 a word to say against the militia of the District. 
 I hope they will have all the accommodation 
 which they need ; but I ask senators if they are 
 willing to see these public parks and grounds, 
 which we have been preserving and ornamenting 
 at great expense, made a place for rendezvous of 
 militia trainings? I trust not; but such will be 
 the result if you do not prohibit the erection of 
 buildings on this site. Compared with the use 
 for which these grounds were intended, the ques- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 55 
 
 tion of what little damages we shall have to pay 
 the contractors, does not deserve to be taken into 
 consideration. I would rather pay them the whole 
 $30,000 than have them erect their structure on 
 the ground from which this resolution proposes 
 to remove it. I do not wish it to be there, and I 
 would rather it were anywhere else than there. 
 For this reason I shall vote against the reconsid 
 eration. Judiciary Square is already occupied. 
 The City Hall is there, and the Infirmary or Hos 
 pital is there. The chairman of the committee 
 says it is a convenient place on which to put this 
 structure ; and everybody who has been in the city 
 for any length of time knows that the City Hall, 
 which stands on Judiciary Square, is the general 
 place for the rendezvous of the military com 
 panies of the District. 
 
 Whenever I have heard the drums beating, 
 calling the companies together, I think I have 
 generally seen the gallant colonel of the volunteer 
 militia of the District parading with his forces 
 before the City Hall. They go there now when 
 there is no armory, and they probably will go 
 there when there is an armory." 
 
56 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 VIII. 
 
 ROMANTIC CHARACTER OF THE GREAT WEST 
 INDIAN. 
 
 He was peerless as an orator. To listen to him 
 was like listening to music; he spoke with such 
 ease, with such eloquence, and entirely without 
 notes, save at times he might have a book or a 
 single sheet from which he desired to quote. He 
 engaged in all the important debates; and was a 
 master in every maneuver of parliamentary art. 
 He was senator from Louisiana Judah P. Ben 
 jamin by name. Not only a great speaker, but a 
 constitutional lawyer of mark; one of the best 
 English scholars of his day, and a man of wide 
 and tender sympathies. But aside from all this, 
 his character was romantic to an exceptional de 
 gree. Romantic in the sense that it guided his 
 life through so many strange and wonderful 
 paths, and toward such high and noble objects. 
 
 His parents were English Jews, who sailed 
 from their native land with New Orleans as their 
 destination. It was the year 1811 and the port of 
 New Orleans was blockaded by the English fleet. 
 So the passengers were landed in St. Croix, in 
 the West Indies. Here, on this island fanned by 
 tropical breezes, Judah was born. After some 
 time the family came to the States, and at the 
 
P, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 57 
 
 age of 14, Judah entered Yale. He remained 
 there three years, when he decided to go with his 
 parents to New Orleans. In that city at the age 
 of 21, he was admitted to the bar. He then en 
 gaged in practice for some years, but without 
 signal success. At length producing the "Digest 
 of Reported Decisions of the Supreme Court of 
 the Territory of New Orleans," he began to 
 mount the ladder of fame. He was soon after 
 ward admitted to practice before the United 
 States Supreme Court, where he conducted his 
 cases with such ability as to draw forth this tes 
 timonial from Chief Justice Taney: "Senator 
 Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana was first before 
 the Supreme Court, and second before no other 
 court in the country." 
 
 In a debate in the Senate, in June, 1858, he ex 
 changed some hot words with Jefferson Davis, 
 the affair almost leading to a duel. Mr. Benja 
 min had questioned the interpretation of a cer 
 tain portion of a House bill of appropriation, 
 which Mr. Davis answered with a sneer. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin : It s very easy for the Senator 
 from Mississippi to give a sneering reply to what 
 was certainly a very respectful inquiry. 
 
 Mr. Davis: I considered it as an attempt to 
 misrepresent a very plain remark. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin: The Senator is mistaken, and 
 has no right to state any such thing. His man 
 ner is not agreeable at all. 
 
 Mr. Davis: If the Senator happens to find it 
 disagreeable I hope he will keep it to himself. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin: When directed to me I will not 
 keep it to myself. I will repel it instanter. 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Mr. Davis : You have got it, sir. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin: That is enough, sir. 
 
 The day after this Mr. Davis apologized on 
 the floor of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Davis : "When I used the expression which 
 was taken to have been in a sneering tone, as to 
 the $100,000 appropriation, it is due to myself 
 and to others that I should say that there was 
 nothing offensive intended, and I think it due to 
 myself that I should say that I am incapable of 
 committing a wanton aggression on the feelings 
 of any man. I always feel pained, nay, more, I 
 feel humiliated, when I am involved in any per 
 sonal controversy with anybody. It is my wish 
 with every Senator to hold friendly and cordial 
 relations. There is an infirmity which sometimes 
 may involve me, when my attention is directed 
 simply to the transaction of a public affair, into 
 controversies which partake more or less of a 
 personal character. I regret it whenever it oc 
 curs. Toward the Senator from Louisiana I had 
 no other feelings than those of kindness and re 
 spect; it was not until I thought he exhibited 
 anger toward myself that I felt it. Then it is 
 true, I intended to be offensive. Anger is con 
 tagious; the manifestation of it by one is very 
 apt to engender it in another. The whole transac 
 tion has been clearly presented by the Senator 
 from Maryland, and I think it is due to the Sen 
 ate that I should say to them that neither on that 
 nor upon any other occasion have I ever intended 
 at any time to bring into the discussion of the 
 Senate a feeling, if I had, which might be mani 
 fested outside of the chamber; and in response 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 59 
 
 to the remarks of the Senator from Maryland, I 
 have only to say, that if my manner is unfortu 
 nate, and it is sometimes, as my best friends have 
 told me, of a character which would naturally 
 impress others with the belief that I intended to 
 be dogmatic and dictorial, it is the result of the 
 characteristic of my mind, connected with the 
 fact that I have not been trained to debate. My 
 pursuits have not led one to minute discussions 
 and when I get up to address the Senate, it is but 
 simply to state a conviction ; and when I am not 
 matched with one as skillful, as acute by nature, 
 and as trained by his profession, as the Senator 
 from Louisiana, it is but natural that I should 
 appear to have been the hasty man in the debate, 
 whilst he must have the advantage resulting 
 from that skill which his training gives." 
 
 Mr. Benjamin: "Mr. President, it is certainly 
 a matter of no small embarrassment to reply pub 
 licly to the observations which have been made 
 by the Senator from Mississippi as well as those 
 of the Senator from Maryland. I think I may 
 appeal with perfect confidence to my brother Sen 
 ators that upon no occasions have they observed 
 in my deportment toward them in the Senate, 
 anything but the most courteous manner. Pa 
 tient, myself, of any differences of opinion in 
 debate, it is but natural that I expect a similar 
 forebearance, on the part of others, and I have 
 endeavored upon all ocasions, that my manner 
 toward my brother Senators should be such that 
 whilst we differ in opinion upon important sub 
 jects, there should be left no sting in the debates 
 which might occur between us, that none but the 
 
60 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 kindliest and best feeling may exist. I have 
 listened with great satisfaction to the statement 
 of the Senator from Mississippi. I think it does 
 him honor, I will say, sir, that I was utterly sur 
 prised when I found him charging me yesterday 
 with misrepresentations of his remarks. That 
 surprise has been accounted for this morning by 
 the statement made by the Senator from Mary 
 land. We were speaking of different papers ; we 
 were each advised of a different state of facts; 
 and, under the circumstances, it is less surprising 
 to me now than it was then, that the Senator 
 from Mississippi could by any possibility have 
 supposed that I was endeavoring to misrepresent 
 his remarks. I will say further that I did feel at 
 the time that there was an asperity, an undue 
 asperity, in the manner and tone of the Senator 
 from Mississippi toward me. Feeling so, it was 
 but natural, as he himself has said, that I should 
 express resentment, in relation to it, tempered, I 
 trust, by the tone of dignity which ought always 
 to be observed in the Senate, and by that respect 
 for my fellow-members which it is my desire al 
 ways to manifest. I am very much gratified to 
 hear this morning that his feelings toward me 
 have been such always as he has stated. I am 
 sure I have had for him none but sentiments of 
 esteem, and I may add, candidly, admiration. I 
 say it without flattery. I shall be very happy to 
 forget everything that has occurred between us, 
 except the pleasant passage of this morning." 
 
 Mr. Hayne (South Carolina) : "I arise, gentle 
 men, in the cause of humanity, to say but one 
 word. I congratulate the Senate upon the arnica- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ble manner in which this business has been ac 
 commodated ; and I would say but a single word, 
 especially in reference to my young friends. 
 Whenever they are called to the field, in a case 
 like this, let them always select sensible seconds, 
 as their friends, who in the first instance, must 
 decide whether blood ought to be spilt; and if 
 blood ought not to be spilt the responsibility will 
 be upon the seconds. That is all, sir." 
 
 When the provisional government of the Con 
 federacy was started in its course, in February, 
 1861, Jefferson Davis appointed Mr. Benjamin to 
 his cabinet as Attorney General. The with 
 drawal of the State of Louisiana from the Union 
 had been formally proclaimed by Mr. Slidell. 
 However the leave-taking of Mr. Benjamin, in a 
 speech delivered February 4, 1861, was notable. 
 
 Rebellion! the very word is a confession; an 
 avowal of tyranny, outrage and oppression. It 
 is taken from the despots code, and has no terror 
 for other than slavish souls. When, sir, did mil 
 lions of people, as a single man, rise in organized, 
 deliberate, unimpassioned rebellion against just 
 ice, truth, and honor ? ... Traitors ! Treason ! 
 ay, sir, the people of the South imitate the glory 
 in such treason as glowed in the soul of Hamp- 
 den; just such treason as leaped in living flame 
 from the impassioned lips of Henry; just such 
 treason as encircles with a sacred halo the undy 
 ing name of Washington ! ... 
 
 Great God! sir, since when has the necessity 
 arisen of recalling to American legislators the 
 lessons of freedom taught in lisping childhood by 
 loving mothers ; that pervade the atmosphere we 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 have breathed from infancy; that so form part 
 of our very being, that in the absence we would 
 lose the consciousness of our own identity ! 
 Heaven be praised that all have not forgotten 
 them; and when we shall have left these fami 
 liar halls, and when force bills, blockades, armies, 
 navies, and all the accustomed coercive appliances 
 of despots shall be proposed and advocated, voices 
 shall be heard from this side of the chamber that 
 will make its very roof resound with the indignant 
 clamour of outraged freedom. . . . 
 
 And now to you Mr. President, and to my 
 brother Senators on all sides of the Chamber, 
 I bid a respectful farewell; with many of those 
 from whom I have been radically separated in po 
 litical sentiment, my personal relations have been 
 kindly, and have inspired me with a respect and 
 esteem that I shall not willingly forget; with 
 those around me from the Southern States, I 
 part as men part from brothers on the eve of a 
 temporary absence, but to you, noble and gener 
 ous friends, who, from beneath other skies, pos 
 sess hearts that beat in sympathy with ours; to 
 you, who have made our cause your cause, and 
 from many of whom I feel I part forever, what 
 shall I, can I, say? Naught, I know and feel, is 
 needed for myself ; but this I will say for the peo 
 ple in whose name I speak to-day ; whether pros 
 perous or adverse fortunes await you, one 
 priceless treasure is yours the assurance that 
 our entire people honor your names, and 
 hold them in grateful and affectionate mem 
 ory. But with still sweeter and more touching 
 return shall your unselfish devotion be rewarded. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 63 
 
 When in after days, the story of the present 
 shall be written; when history shall have passed 
 her stern sentence on the erring men who have 
 driven their unoffending brethren from the shel 
 ter of their common home, your names will derive 
 fresh luster from the contrast; and when your 
 children shall hear repeated the familiar tale, 
 their very souls will stand a-tiptoe as they glory 
 in their lineage from men of spirit as generous 
 and of patriotism as high hearted as ever illus 
 trated or adorned the American Senate. 
 
 Mr. Benjamin held three portfolios at different 
 times, and lastly that of Secretary of State. He 
 was universally declared "the brains of the Con 
 federacy." Upon the flight of the President and 
 his cabinet, the cause having been lost, we see the 
 great West Indian we cannot refrain from call 
 ing him that separated from the party and es 
 caping in a little open boat off the coast of Flor 
 ida. Gone forever from the land where he had 
 risen to such eminence, where his name had been 
 so much honored, he was now a wanderer upon 
 the face of the globe, with no home, no country, 
 no aims. One thing only was his solace the 
 star of hope, hope born of a nature too transcend 
 ent to allow any change or chance of fortune to 
 wreck his gallant career. He landed on the beach 
 somewhere in the Bahama Islands, and eventually 
 sailed to Bermuda, from whence he took passage 
 on a steamer bound for Liverpool. In England 
 he made his permanent residence, and though 
 fifty years of age, was not too disspirited to be 
 gin the study of English law. He became a 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 student at Lincoln s Inn, and consequently and 
 unavoidably a master in English law. 
 
 His wife and children resided in Paris, while 
 he plodded along in London with a half -respecta 
 ble legal practice. But all this while he was pre 
 paring a work which he published under the title, 
 "A Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Prop 
 erty," which was adopted as an authority on that 
 subject in the English courts. His success was 
 now guaranteed, he became queen s counsel, his 
 arguments were noted, and he soon decided to 
 appear in cases solely before the House of Lords 
 and the Privy Council. 
 
 Finally in 1883, his health failing, he retired to 
 Paris to spend the remainder of his life with his 
 family there. On the occasion of his departure 
 from London, he was tendered a farewell ban 
 quet at the Inner Temple, which was a notable 
 event. Thus is completed the story of this un 
 usual man. Truly as Jefferson Davis said of him, 
 he was "a Hebrew with Egyptian principles." In 
 him the flexibility of the Jew was combined with 
 qualities that come only by inspiration and illum 
 ination such as are so extraordinary in the mys 
 terious "man of the Nile Valley." 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 65 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF CHAPLAINS. 
 
 On December 7, 1857, which was the first day 
 of the session (of the 35th Congress), a resolu 
 tion was offered to change the former mode of 
 selecting a regular chaplain for the Senate. The 
 custom had been to agree upon some clergyman 
 of Washington, who officiated at the opening of 
 each day s session; but for divers reasons many 
 senators became dissatisfied, and after some dis 
 cussion adopted the plan of inviting the clergy 
 of the District of Columbia in general, without 
 regard to creed, to officiate in turn. 
 
 There was much interest manifested in this 
 arrangement. The plan operated in such a way 
 as to provide one day, for example, an Episco 
 palian, the next day a Roman Catholic, or a Jew 
 ish Rabbi, and went the rounds of all the denomi 
 nations. I remember seeing ecclesiastics in the 
 black robe of the Jesuit, others in the white robe 
 of the Dominican, and still others vested or not 
 vested according to their church authority. 
 
 The discussion was opened by Jacob Collamer, 
 or Judge Collamer, of Vermont, whose gravity 
 and weight of character always controlled more 
 ardent natures and caused him to be called "The 
 Nestor of the Senate." 
 
66 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 The resolution was offered by Senator Mason, 
 of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. Collamer. This resolution requests the 
 President to invite all clergymen to whom the 
 office may be acceptable to officiate as Chaplains. 
 It seems to me that it will be somewhat imprac 
 ticable to carry it out and that it will give a great 
 deal of trouble to our President. The office might 
 be acceptable to clergymen from every part of 
 the Union visiting friends here, and that would 
 be constantly interfering with any arrangements 
 which might be made with the clergymen of the 
 city on whom we could rely. If we relied on the 
 clergymen of the city, they could arrange among 
 themselves the order in which they should offi 
 ciate; whereas, if the invitation be extended to all 
 clergymen, we never can know when they are to 
 attend and when not. I therefore move that the 
 words, "of the City of Washington" be inserted 
 after the word, "clergymen." 
 
 Mr. Mason. It would be better to insert the 
 words, "of the District of Columbia." 
 
 Mr. Collamer. I have no objection to that. 
 
 Mr. Mason. I accept the modification. I have 
 no choice in the matter one way or the other. I 
 offered the resolution in order that we might dis 
 pose in this general way of the subject of a Chap 
 lain to the Senate. Every Senator, I have no 
 doubt, has had some experience (I think it is very 
 unfortunate, but perhaps it is incident to the sub 
 ject matter) that a sort of competition has grown 
 up by the usage of the Senate in electing a Chap 
 lain, which I have thought is not altogether con 
 sistent with the office of a clergyman or a pastor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 67 
 
 I will not say, by any means, a competition so 
 much among the clergymen themselves, perhaps, 
 as amongst Senators, who desire to prefer partic 
 ular persons ; but the fact is that it has become a 
 matter of that kind, and it is not entirely agree 
 able to me, certainly, and I dare say is not to 
 other Senators, to have that state of affairs exist 
 ing. 
 
 My idea of the practice that will arise under 
 this resolution, especially now, since it is confined 
 to the clergymen of the District of Columbia, is 
 that the President of the Senate, at the com 
 mencement of each session of Congress, will sub 
 mit to the clergymen of the District that those to 
 whom the office may be agreeable shall arrange 
 among themselves and prescribe the mode in 
 which they shall alternate, in order that we may 
 have their services every morning as usual, and 
 that the service so proffered shall be gratuitous 
 which is the true footing, I have always under 
 stood, of a clergymen s position. Whether there 
 may not be a proper acknowledgment of the ser 
 vices of these gentlemen at the end of the session, 
 every Senator will decide for himself. My own 
 opinion is fixed on that point. 
 
 Mr. Biggs. Mr. President, I understand, from 
 the remarks of the honorable Senator from Vir 
 ginia, that the design and object of this resolu 
 tion is substantially to abolish the office of Chap- 
 Ian as it has heretofore existed under the prac 
 tice of the Senate, and to invite the clergymen of 
 this District to open the daily sessions of this 
 House with prayer. I am apprehensive, however, 
 that there may be some difficulty in attaining this 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 object, on account of the wordings of the resolu 
 tion. I am glad the Senator from Virginia has 
 introduced the resolution. It seems to be a very 
 appropriate one, in view of all the circumstances 
 that surround the Senate and the practice that has 
 heretofore obtained on the subject. I would sug 
 gest, however, in order to avoid any difficulty 
 hereafter, that the resolution be amended so as to 
 attain, beyond all doubt, what is desired by my 
 self, as well as, I believe, by the Senator from 
 Virginia, by adding to it the words: "And that 
 the office of Chaplain of the Senate is hereby 
 abolished." 
 
 Mr. Mason. I do not understand that there is 
 any such office as Chaplain to the Senate. 
 
 I do not remember whether there is a rule on 
 the subject; but the usage of the Senate has been 
 (in conformity, I suppose, to the general public 
 opinion of the land) that our duties here should 
 be commenced by a proper appeal to the Almighty 
 every morning; but I do not look upon it as an 
 office. I certainly do not at all contemplate inter 
 fering with the usage of opening our delibera 
 tions in the morning with Divine services ; but on 
 the contrary, to continue it and place it on what 
 seems to me a more reputable and more proper 
 footing. If the honorable Senator were to offer a 
 proposition to abolish the office, it would perhaps 
 engender some difference of opinion among Sen 
 ators which I would rather avoid. 
 
 Mr. Biggs. My object is precisely the same as 
 that of the Senator from Virginia. I am decid 
 edly with him as to the manner of opening the 
 daily sessions with prayer. I think it is entirely; 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 69 
 
 proper. But if I understand the usage of the 
 Senate connected with the rules of this body and 
 some joint resolutions that have been passed by 
 both Houses, the office of Chaplain is recognized. 
 So far as I am concerned, my object will be at 
 tained if the effect of this resolution will be to 
 rid us of the office without introducing any 
 amendment at all and I understood the Senator 
 from Virginia in the resolution designs that. That 
 being the design and effect of the resolution, my 
 object is accomplished. 
 
 Mr. Mason. If there be any rule in relation to 
 the Chaplain, I ask that the Chair direct it to be 
 read ; and if it be inconsistent with his resolution, 
 I propose to repeal it. 
 
 Mr. Hamlin. There is a joint rule on the sub 
 ject between the two Houses. 
 
 The Secretary. It is a provision passed at each 
 session. 
 
 The President pro tempore. The Chair is not 
 aware of any rule for the joint action of both 
 Houses on this subject. 
 
 Mr. Mason. I was not. 
 
 Mr. Clay. I am opposed to the adoption of 
 this resolution, believing, as I do, that it will 
 prove both unwise and inexpedient in practice. 
 The Senator from North Carolina, as I under 
 stand him, contemplates procuring the services of 
 a Chaplain without any remuneration whatever. 
 I do not so understand the Senator from Vir 
 ginia. I think we should not "muzzle the ox that 
 treadeth out the corn." I believe that "the la 
 borer is worthy of his hire" I think we shall find 
 if we adopt this resolution, and it shall be con- 
 
70 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 strued as it is understood by the Senator from 
 North Carolina, that patriotism will fail, that 
 even religion will fail, to induce men to come 
 here every day gratuitously to pray for this body. 
 I think, if we intend and desire to have the ses 
 sions of this body opened with daily prayer, we 
 can only achieve that desire by employing and 
 paying a man for that purpose. I do not myself 
 see any serious objection to that. In these de 
 generate days, I know none of the clergy who 
 live purely by charity, who take their staff and 
 walk abroad, getting their daily meals and their 
 clothing, as wayfaring men, from every good Sa 
 maritan they may meet. I know, in my own 
 State, that all the stationed clergy receive regular 
 salaries or compensation for their services. I 
 understand that it is so in this city. What right 
 have we to expect that the clergymen of this 
 city, purely for the honor of the thing or purely 
 for the sake of serving God, will come here and 
 open our sessions with service without any com 
 pensation whatever? There is an old adage, and 
 a very true one, that "what is everybody s busi 
 ness is nobody s business." And if we adopt the 
 resolution of the gentleman from Virginia, and 
 empower you, sir, or the Vice-President, to in 
 vite the clergymen of this city generally to offi 
 ciate, we shall find that oftentimes we shall have 
 to go to work without prayers. I trust that the 
 resolution will not be adopted. 
 
 Mr. Seward. Mr. President, I hope the hon 
 orable Senator who last addressed the Senate will 
 reconsider the opinion he has formed on this sub 
 ject, and suffer this resolution to pass. I have 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 71 
 
 felt ever since I have been here, that it brought 
 scandal on the cause of the Christian religion to 
 have an active canvass here for Chaplain. And I 
 am very glad that there is a mode proposed by 
 which that scandal can be hereafter removed. 
 
 The form which is suggested by the Senator 
 from Virginia commends itself entirely to my 
 approbation ; and the more so because to me it is 
 not new. So long as I have been acquainted with 
 public affairs in the State of New York, or for 
 nearly all that period certainly for fifteen or 
 twenty years there has been no single appoint 
 ment of a chaplain by the Legislature of New 
 York; but each House of the Legislature, either 
 severally or the two houses together, pass a reso 
 lution substantially like this, intimating their de 
 sire that the clergyman of the City of Albany, 
 the State capital, to be designated by the presid 
 ing officer or officers, shall alternately perform 
 this religious service for the two Houses, at such 
 times and under such arrangement as may be 
 agreeable to them. 
 
 The difficulty which is suggested by the honor 
 able Senator from Alabama does not exist there, 
 because their resolution always closes with a pro 
 vision that the usual amount per diem shall be 
 distributed amongst the clergymen who perform 
 the service, in proportion to the number of days 
 they attend. Such an amendment to this resolu 
 tion would remove from it all objection, and 
 would be perfectly proper. For once, I should 
 have no objection to it; but, at the same time, I 
 am quite willing that that part of the subject 
 shall be postponed until we have made an experi- 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ment of the new mode ; and then, at the close of 
 the session, an appeal can be made to the Senate 
 in regard to the chaplains. I have no doubt it will 
 be responded to as well at the end of the session 
 as at the commencement. My desire is that the 
 old system shall be changed, and I am quite 
 willing to adopt the one now proposed. 
 
 Mr. Mason. Perhaps it is becoming, having 
 offered the resolution, that I should say a single 
 word in reply to the honorable Senator from Ala 
 bama. I have not conferred with the clergymen 
 of the city of Washington or the District at all. 
 I did show what I proposed to do to the reverend 
 and excellent gentleman who was Chaplain at the 
 last session (Rev. Wm. Hill), who happened to 
 be present, who is one of the clergymen of this 
 city, and he said he was satisfied it would be con 
 sidered a compliment, and a very grateful one to 
 the clergy of the District. I have just learned, 
 what I am told is an undoubted fact, that the first 
 clergyman who officiated in the Continental Con 
 gress, was the late Bishop White of Pennsyl 
 vania, and he did it on the express condition that 
 no compensation should be offered. 
 
 I think, appreciating as I do the office of a 
 clergyman although they are a class of our fel 
 low citizens with whom it has not been my for 
 tune to be very much connected in any way, but 
 I do appreciate their office it will be peculiarly 
 acceptable to the clergymen if presented in this 
 form. 
 
 The President pro tern put the question on the 
 resolution, and it was adopted. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 73 
 
 X. 
 
 DOUGLAS I THE DEMOSTHENES OF THE SENATE. 
 
 I can see him now as he sat there in that seat. 
 He had a massive head covered with rich brown 
 hair, a high forehead and deep-set eyes that were 
 dark and full of fire. His complexion was 
 healthy; he was smooth shaven, had a clean-cut 
 mouth, square chin, and lines that gave him an 
 expression of sadness. He was broad-shouldered, 
 and deep-chested; a little below the average 
 height; and his voice of baritone pitch and ex 
 tremely pleasing. 
 
 In debate he was unconquerable. With the 
 rapidity of lightning, his alert mind perceived the 
 strength or weakness of a point, and when he was 
 unable to turn an argument to his own advantage 
 he would hopelessly befog it for anyone else. 
 Without ornament of speech, he was master of 
 rugged English; he never halted, never used a 
 simile, never fell back on parallels of ancient his 
 tory. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was an 
 other Demosthenes. 
 
 We read that Demosthenes was vehement in 
 reasoning, but was without any appearance of 
 art. He railed against Philip of Macedon, boldly, 
 defiantly, and with the spirit of freedom. He was 
 the foremost man in the State ; his principal fame 
 
74 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 resting upon his great orations. The likeness be 
 tween the two statesmen, the ancient and modern, 
 is apparent, particularly in their style of oratory. 
 
 Douglas was called the "Little Giant" because 
 of his marvelous ability and comparatively small 
 person. At the threshold of his Congressional 
 career, which began in the House of Representa 
 tives, he became the object of all eyes. Socially 
 he was undrilled ; nevertheless, with his keen ob 
 servation, his sense of proportion, and natural wit, 
 he soon took rank in Washington society. He 
 liked better to be with men, though, ana to feel 
 the touch of comradeship. He would even grow 
 to call them by their first names. One day going 
 up to Mr. Beverly Tucker, the prominent Vir 
 ginian, he put his arm upon his shoulder, and 
 said, in his outspoken way, "Bev, old boy, I love 
 you." "Douglas," he returned, "will you always 
 love me?" "Yes, I will/ "But," persisted 
 Tucker, "will you love me when you get to be 
 President?" "I will. What will you want me to 
 do for you?" "Well," said Tucker, "when you 
 get to be President, all I want you to do for me is 
 to pick some public office, a nice one, and put 
 your arm around my neck, just as you are doing 
 now, and call me Bev." It is needless to say that 
 Mr. Douglas enjoyed the humor of Mr. Tucker s 
 remarks. That would be putting it mildly. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas was born in Vermont, in 
 1813, a descendant of true American stock. The 
 family, however, was of Scotch origin, as the 
 name implies, and was such stock as helped to 
 make our land what it is in robust strength. 
 
 His grandfather fought with Washington, and 
 
/y, DOUGUA& 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 75 
 
 was with him that hard winter at Valley Forge. 
 When Stephen was an infant, his father died. He 
 then, with his widowed mother, went to live with 
 an uncle on a New England farm. He grew up 
 a delicate child. Not having the means of acquir 
 ing an academic education, and seeing the future 
 to hold naught for him save what he could get out 
 of it by dint of hard labor, he trudged one day to 
 a small town and apprenticed himself to the trade 
 of cabinetmaking. Little did he dream that an 
 other day not very far distant when in the zenith 
 of his powers, he would be in the race to become 
 the maker of cabinets of men. 
 
 He abandoned his chosen trade after two years, 
 on account of his health, which was not hardy 
 enough for the demands made upon it. Some 
 time afterwards he headed West and resolved 
 never to turn back until he could show evidences 
 of success. Eventually settling in Illinois, and 
 taking up the practice of law, for which he had 
 prepared in the office of a Mr. Andrews, in 
 Cleveland, he made so decided a success as to 
 open for himself a public career that placed him 
 at the age of thirty in the United States Senate. 
 
 Through all the hardships of his early life, and 
 later in his wanderings through the West, he was 
 good-humored and hopeful. In the year 1843, 
 Mr. Douglas was elected to Congress. As a rep 
 resentative from that progressive State, he had 
 her every interest at heart, but refrained from 
 entering the debates of the House. However, 
 with an eye to the future, he watched carefully, 
 absorbed much, and was heard speaking to some 
 purpose in the years following. 
 
 In the Senate, March 20, 1856, as chairman of 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 the Committee on Territories, he introduced the 
 bill "to authorize the people of the Territory of 
 Kansas to form a constitution and State govern 
 ment, preparatory to their admission into the 
 Union, when they have the requisite population." 
 
 Mr. Douglas said : 
 
 Mr. President: I will ask the indulgence of 
 the Senate for such length of time as the subject 
 may require, provided my strength does not fail 
 me, while I submit some views in vindication of 
 the majority report. ... In the first place, 
 however, as we have taken up for consideration 
 the bill reported by the Committee on Territories. 
 ... I shall give a brief exposition of the pro 
 visions and principles of the bill. 
 
 The first section provides that, when the Ter 
 ritory of Kansas shall contain ninety-three thou 
 sand four hundred and twenty inhabitants, to be 
 ascertained by a census taken in conformity with 
 law, a convention may be called by the legislature 
 of the Territory to form a constitution and State 
 government. . . . 
 
 I have been absent for the reason that the state 
 of my health did not render it prudent for me to 
 be present, and for the further reason that it had 
 been distinctly understood and unanimously 
 agreed after a brief discussion, that all further 
 discussion of the subject should be postponed for 
 one week, and then to be resumed on the bill now 
 under consideration, when according to the cour 
 tesies of the Senate, as well as the rules of par 
 liamentary proceedings, I would be entitled to 
 open the debate as the author of the report and 
 bill, and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Col- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 77 
 
 lamer), as the author of the minority report, 
 would be entitled to reply, after which the sub 
 ject would be open for free discussion by any 
 senator who might desire to participate in it. 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XL 
 
 ON THE ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 
 
 The debate on the question of admission of 
 Kansas was so protracted, and the feeling on both 
 sides so bitter, that it must be acknowledged the 
 contest was one of the chief causes that led ulti 
 mately to secession and the Civil War. 
 
 The question was how Kansas should be admit 
 ted. Should it come in with "outlaw slavery" or 
 not? Should it come in with its own constitution, 
 if that constitution favored slavery? Abolition 
 ists were strongly opposed to its admission if it 
 proved thereby an extension of slavery in the 
 Union; whereas the slavehokling South arrayed 
 all her forces in battle line to conduct the new 
 State into the Union as a sister, or kindred State. 
 Mr. Douglas fought with all his courage, which 
 was colossal, to allow "State sovereignty." If 
 the constitution embodied slavery, and was the 
 will of the people, it should be upheld, and he 
 stood ready to uphold it. 
 
 President Pierce had yielded to the pressure 
 brought to bear by the slaveholding element, and 
 in his message to Congress antagonized the anti- 
 slavery contestants. Senator Seward took up the 
 cause of abolition, and in the course of his speech, 
 April 9, said : 
 
 "In like manner the President assails and stig- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 79 
 
 matizes those who defend and maintain the cause 
 of Kansas as "men of narrow views and sec 
 tional purposes engaged in those wild and 
 chimeral schemes of social change which are gen 
 erated one after another in the unstable minds of 
 visionary sophists and interested agitators" 
 "mad men, raising the storm of frensy and fac 
 tion," "sectional agitators," "enemies of the Con 
 stitution, who have surrendered themselves far 
 as to a fanatical devotion to the supposed inter 
 ests of the relatively few Africans in the United 
 Slates, as totally to abandon and disregard the 
 interests of the twenty-five millions of Ameri 
 cans, and trample under foot the injunctions of 
 moral and constitutional obligation, and to en 
 gage in plans of vindictive hostility against those 
 who are associated with them in the enjoyment 
 of the common heritage of our free institution." 
 Sir, the President s defence on this occasion, if 
 not a matter simply personal, is at least one of 
 temporary and ephemeral importance. 
 
 Possibly, all the advantages he will gain by 
 transferring to his accuser, a portion of the popu 
 lar prejudice against abolition and abolitionists 
 can be spared to him. It would be wise, however, 
 for those whose interests are inseparable from 
 slavery, to reflect that abolition will gain an 
 equivalent benefit from the identification of the 
 President s defence with their cherished institu 
 tion. Abolition is a slow but irrepressible upris 
 ing of principles of natural justice and human 
 ity, obnoxious to prejudice, because they conflict 
 inconveniently with existing material, social and 
 political interests. It belongs to others than 
 
80 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 statesman, charged with the case of present in 
 terests, to conduct the social reformation of man 
 kind in its broadest bearing. I leave to Aboli 
 tionists their own work of self-vindication. I 
 may, however, remind slaveholders that there is 
 a time when oppression and persecution cease to 
 be effectual against such movements ; and then 
 the odiom they have before unjustly incurred be 
 comes an element of strength and power. 
 
 Christianity, blindly maligned during three cen 
 turies by Pretors, Governors, Senates, Councils, 
 and Emperors, towered above its enemies in a 
 fourth ; and even the Cross on which its Foun 
 der had expired, and which therefore was the em 
 blem of its shame, became the sign under which it 
 went forth evermore thereafter, conquering and 
 to conquer. Abolition is yet in its first century. 
 The president raises in his deference a false issue, 
 and elaborates an irrevelant argument to prove 
 that Congress has no right or power, nor has any 
 sister State any right or power, to interfere 
 within a slave State by legislation, or force to 
 abolish slavery therein as if you, or I, or any 
 other responsible man, ever maintained the con 
 trary. The President distorts the Constitution 
 from its simple text, so as to make it expressly 
 and directly defend, protect, and guarantee Afri 
 can slavery. Thus he alleges that "the Govern 
 ment" which resulted from the Revolution was 
 a federal Republic of the free white men of the 
 colonies ; whereas, on the contrary, the Declara 
 tion of Independence asserts the political equality 
 of all men ; and even the Constitution itsdf care 
 fully avoids any political recognition not merely 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 81 
 
 of slavery, but of the diversity of races. The 
 President represents the Fathers as having con 
 templated and provided for a permanent increase 
 of the number of slaves in some of the States, 
 and therefore forbidden Congress to touch slav 
 ery in the way of attack or offense, and as having 
 therefore also placed it under the general safe 
 guard of the Constitution; whereas the Fathers, 
 by authorizing Congress to abolish the African 
 slave trade after 1808, as a means of attack, in 
 flicted on slavery in the States a blow, of which 
 they expected it to languish immediately, and 
 ultimately to expire. 
 
 Mr. Douglas was in the center of the fight all 
 the time. He spoke defiantly as follows : 
 
 I do not intend to prolong this debate. I wish 
 to bring these gentlemen to the test. When they 
 taunt us with being cut down, one by one, gradu 
 ally but certainly diminishing until we shall have 
 been swept away, all we ask of you is to bring 
 your men up to the line ; stand up to your princi 
 ples; redeem your pledges. You need not trou 
 ble yourself about finding a man the standard 
 bearer on our side, who is not thoroughly com 
 mitted to our creed on all points. You need not 
 fear that our candidate will not stand firmly and 
 immovably upon the Kansas bill. 
 
 You need not have any fear that he will not 
 take issue with you on every one of the points 
 which you tender "No more slave States," "the 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 abolition of the slave trade between the States," 
 and the "abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia." Upon each and all of them you need 
 have no fear that our candidate will not stand 
 firmly, immovably and unequivocally upon the 
 Democratic platform. 
 
 Give us a man for your standard bearer who is 
 in like identified with your side of each of these 
 issues. Do not take a man uncommitted, with the 
 hope of getting votes from both sides, and then 
 cheating somebody. Why point to the deserters 
 from the Democratic ranks who have become 
 your leaders, as evidence that you are Demo 
 crats? You might as well talk of the Christianity 
 of Omer Pasha because he was Christian before 
 he apostatized and turned Turk. By this preten 
 sion you confess that you are in the wrong. You 
 claim as a merit that the deserters from our 
 ranks to yours were once as pure and patriotic as 
 we now are. I wish to understand the precise 
 position. Does the merit consist in the fact that 
 you were once Democrats or does it consist in the 
 fact that you have since betrayed your party and 
 your principles ? Is it the Democracy which you 
 once had, but have since lost, or is it the deser 
 tion, which constitutes your high claims to popu 
 lar favor ? It seems even now, that you are more 
 proud of what you once were than what you are 
 now. 
 
 That is the argument. I was in hopes that you 
 had faith enough in the justice of your own 
 cause and consciousness of its strength and in 
 herent truth, to be able to stand upon that, and 
 to make it a matter of pride and boast, as the 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 83 
 
 Senator from New York did the other day, when 
 he said he was an Abolitionist. The Senator, 
 however, gave us an illustration which, perhaps, 
 may be satisfactory to him, but I am afraid will 
 not be entirely so to all the members of his party. 
 He reminded us that, while it took Christianity 
 three centuries to be recognized by the princes of 
 Europe, and while he argued that abolitionism 
 was as certain to triumph as Christianity, yet this 
 was but the first century of Abolitionism. Allow 
 me to tell the Senator from New York that he 
 disappointed the expectations of some of his fol 
 lowers when he intimated to them that they must 
 wait two hundred years longer before they tri 
 umphed and got possession of the spoils of gov 
 ernment. (Laughter.) If the Senator is aiming 
 at the reputation of being a martyr to his cause, 
 I think he is adopting the proper course; and 
 when I am sure it is only at the honors of martyr 
 dom that he is aiming, I shall be better reconciled 
 to his position. 
 
 Although I have no ambition to be considered 
 a martyr, I have respect for those who cherish 
 such a hope ; and I wish all these modern martyrs 
 to remember that it is a fundamental principle of 
 martyrdom, that no man shall seek his reward un 
 til two hundred years after his death! (Laugh 
 ter.) 
 
 In that sense the Senator from New York did 
 not object to be called an Abolitionist. He was 
 looking to the honors of martyrdom and fancy 
 ing to himself how much he should enjoy at the 
 time when they should be thrown upon him ; but 
 the Senator from Massachusetts seems to claim 
 
84 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 that they are to reap their reward now. I like 
 that mode of fighting better. Let us have a fair 
 issue now an issue on principles and on men. 
 . . . Let there be no endeavor to cover up the 
 main issues under the irregularities which may 
 have occurred at the election in Kansas. Let 
 there be no equivocation upon the plea of dis 
 turbances of a temporary character that may have 
 arisen here and there ; but give us an issue on the 
 great undying principles involved in the contest 
 the equality of the States the right of self-gov 
 ernment everywhere under the Constitution the 
 right of each State to come into the Union, with 
 slavery or without it, as it pleases the right of 
 the citizens of each State holding slaves to insist 
 upon the return of fugitives, in obedience to the 
 Constitution the right of every man to enjoy 
 every privilege, and insist upon the fullfilment of 
 every obligation conferred or imposed by the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Again, let us have no equivocation in meeting 
 the issue, whether a clause in the constitution of 
 a new State, directing the Legislature to pass a 
 particular law, is to be called a constitutional pro 
 vision, or by some other name. The Senator 
 from Massachusetts tells us (following the lead 
 of the Senator from New York the other day) 
 that he is opposed to that clause which declares 
 that a free negro shall never go into the new 
 State of Kansas. He does not deny but that 
 there was a provision submitted for decision at 
 the time when the Constitution was adopted, 
 whether negroes should be admitted to go there 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 85 
 
 or not, it was decided in the negative by those 
 who voted at the election. He does not deny, 
 therefore, but that clause becomes a part of the 
 constitution of Kansas in the event that Kansas 
 is admitted with the Topeka constitution, but he 
 says that clause is a barbarous provision, and he 
 would like to know my opinion of it. I gave my 
 opinion the other day. I stated that Illinois had 
 a similar clause in her constitution; she had a 
 right to put it there ; it was our business, and not 
 yours; and if Massachusetts does not like it let 
 her do as she pleases within her own limits, so 
 that she does not violate the Constitution of the 
 United States. We do not believe in the equality 
 of the negro, socially or politically with the white 
 man. You may practise it, but do not try to force 
 the negro on an equality with us in our State. 
 Our people are a white people; our State is a 
 white State ; and we mean to preserve the white 
 pure, without any mixture with the negro. 
 
 If you wish your blood and that of the African 
 mingled in the same channel, we trust that you 
 will keep at a respectable distance from us, and 
 not try to force that on us as one of your domes 
 tic institutions. (Laughter and applause in the 
 galleries.) Now, sir, I am willing that the peo 
 ple of Kansas shall decide that question for them 
 selves, as they will have a right to do when they 
 form their constitution, I hold that it is their 
 right to do as they please, so that they do not 
 violate the Constitution of the United States, and 
 to come into the Union with such a constitution 
 as they please. You say no. You say it is your 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 right and duty, under the Constitution of the 
 United States, to inspect the constitution of Kan 
 sas; and if you find slavery there, or any other 
 obnoxious provision which creates an inequality 
 between the negro and the white man, you will 
 vote to exclude such State. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 87 
 
 XII. 
 
 DISSERTATIONS ON THE SLAVE. 
 
 The affairs of Kansas, when stripped of all 
 controversy upon constitutional questions, re 
 vealed in bold outline the one great, central ob 
 ject the slave. 
 
 This creature was held up to inspection from 
 the viewpoints of physiology, psychology, and 
 theology, by a senator from Iowa, Mr. Harlan, 
 who was at his best and upon familiar ground; 
 and he treated the subject with profound doc 
 trine gathered from many books, which, in for 
 mer years, had stood as walls around him, while 
 he sat in the president s chair in a Methodist in 
 stitution of learning. He spoke with some 
 warmth as follows : 
 
 The power of Congress to exclude slavery 
 from all the Territories of the United States, not 
 embraced within the limits of any State, being 
 established or conceded, I enquire, secondly, 
 whether this power ought to be exercised in the 
 establishment of territorial governments where 
 slavery did not previously exist? In the discus 
 sion of this proposition, I desire to probe the sub 
 ject to the core. I prefer to brush away the sur 
 face rubbish, and to lay the foundations of the 
 superstructure on the solid rock. 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Is slavery right? Is it in accordance with the 
 principles of natural justice? The time has been 
 when very few in the country defended the moral 
 right of one man to hold another in perpetual 
 bondage. Its continuance hitherto has been de 
 fended by citing the difficulties that surrounded 
 the question of emancipation. But the passage 
 of the Kansas-Nebraska law has wrought a sad 
 change, I fear, in the moral tone and temper of 
 this discussion. Members of Congress now tell 
 you that the enslavement of the African race by 
 the Anglo-Saxon is no evil; that it is a blessing; 
 that it is the natural condition of the two races; 
 that an enlightened philanthropy requires the en 
 slavement of the African; that he belongs to an 
 inferior race; that he cannot stand the shock of 
 contact with his superiors; that annihilation is 
 the only alternative. 
 
 As the African is presented to my mind by the 
 traveller and the historian and by personal obser 
 vation, I am compelled to admit the inferiority; 
 but if the right of the Anglo-Saxon to enslave 
 him depends on his manifest inferiority, it be 
 comes the duty of every Senator to examine 
 closely the nature of that inferiority. Is it the 
 result of the enslavement of his ancestry for 
 more than a thousand years ; or is it the natural 
 specific difference developed in an analysis of the 
 elementary laws of matter and of mind ? 
 
 In laying the foundation of new states, this 
 problem is worthy of the careful attention of the 
 proudest and wisest statesman on the floor of the 
 American Senate ; for in its solution he legislates, 
 by its influence, for the whole human race not 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 89 
 
 only for the thousand millions of people that now 
 live, but for the teeming millions as they shall 
 continue to come and go while life shall last. 
 That each may arrive at a correct decision of the 
 nature of the admitted inferiority of the African 
 to the Anglo-Saxon, I request Senators to allow 
 me to refer them to their early elementary read 
 ing to a succinct view of this subject, derived 
 from standard writers on physical, mental, and 
 moral science from such works as are used in 
 the colleges, academies, and seminaries of learn 
 ing all over the country such works as are 
 placed in the hands of the student of law, of 
 medicine, and theology. 
 
 Physiologists tell us that there is no specific 
 difference in the physical structure of the two 
 races, that the solid parts of their bodies are con 
 sisted of the same number of bones and joints, 
 similarly located and distributed ; that there is not 
 a muscle, or tendon, or ligament, or vein, or 
 artery, or secretion, or absorbent, or nerve of 
 motion, or volition, found in the organism of one 
 that does not exist in the other; that each pos 
 sesses the same senses of sight, of touch, of 
 taste, of smelling and of hearing, that each pos 
 sesses the same specific means of mastication, 
 digestion, and procreation. There are, however, 
 physical differences. The skin of one is black 
 of the other white ; the hair of one, fine and knot 
 ted of the other, coarse and straight, the lips of 
 one, thick and protruding, of the other, thin and 
 compressed, and prespiratory exhaltations of the 
 one are said to be more odorous than of the 
 other. But these are all said to be superficial 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 modifications of the same specific faculties and 
 functions. No specific organ has been omitted 
 or added. 
 
 We are told by writers on mental science that 
 the natural sensibilities are aroused in both by the 
 use of the same organs; that the African and 
 Anglo-Saxon alike experience pleasure in the 
 mastication of food, in the inhalations of frag 
 rant odors, in the exercise of the sense of touch, 
 in gazing at the beauties of creation, and in 
 listening to the melody and harmony of sounds; 
 that the same sounds and colors, and motions, 
 and heights, and depths, and expanses, and mani 
 festations of power, that elevates the feelings of 
 one to a key of grandeur or sublimity, overwhelm 
 the other with kindred emotions. They tell us 
 that in each they find the same specific desires, 
 instincts, appetites and passion; that each may 
 love, and hope, and fear, and hate may be en 
 vious, jealous, and revengeful; that in each they 
 discover the faculty of perception, of conception, 
 of memory, of imagination, of belief, and of will ; 
 that each experience paternal, fraternal, and 
 filial affection ; that each experiences emotions of 
 humanity, of patriotism, and of piety. 
 
 From this physical and mental analysis, it will 
 be perceived that each organ may be weaker in 
 one race than in the other; but that in other re 
 spects they do not materially differ. The anat 
 omy of one is the anatomy of the other; the 
 mental science that describes the laws of mind 
 of the one delineates the spiritual nature of the 
 other; the moral philosophy that analyzes the 
 moral emotions of the one, reveals the moral fac- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 91 
 
 ulties of the other. All the laws of health and 
 culture applicable to the one are applicable to the 
 other. The same physician that prescribes for 
 the African slave in his hovel, on a bed of straw, 
 prescribes with equal success for his master, in a 
 stately mansion, on a couch of down. The same 
 minister of righteousness who soothes the sor 
 rows, and assuages the griefs, and energizes the 
 hopes of the slave, when the shadows of death 
 hover around him, administers, with equal suc 
 cess, the consolations of the same Gospel to the 
 man of whiter skin. 
 
 The manifest inferiority of the African to the 
 Anglo-Saxon does not consist in a generic or 
 specific difference. It is that kind of inferiority 
 which doubtless the enlightened statesman would 
 expect to find among the descendants of those 
 who had been doomed to absolute servitude from 
 time immemorial. His body is less symmetrical; 
 his face less beautiful; his appeties, passions, in 
 stincts, and desires, less manageable; his percep 
 tions less acute; his perceptions less clear; his 
 memory, consciousness, belief, powers of reason 
 ing and will, more feeble; his love of parents, of 
 offspring, of man, of country, of truth, of honor, 
 of justice, of God, less reliable. But is any one 
 of these absent? If so, what element of manhood 
 has been omitted? None; not one! "But if he 
 is inferior to the white man in this sense" if his 
 body is weak, his mind feeble, his moral sensibili 
 ties obtuse does that confer the right on the 
 man of strong body of vigorous intellect, and 
 of acute moral sensibilities to seize, overawe, and 
 enslave him? Is it might that determines the 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE! 
 
 right? Because you have the power, may you 
 of right enslave your fellow men? Is this the 
 voice of northern gallantry and southern chiv 
 alry! 
 
 It might do for Louis Napoleon, as he sits on 
 a usurped throne, to claim the right, because he 
 has the power to control the destinies of other 
 men. It might do for Alexander, the Czar of 
 Russia, as he sits enthroned where the old Wiz 
 ard of the North spirited the liberties of Europe, 
 to make might the measure of right. But will it 
 do for the American Senate to indorse and de 
 fend this doctrine of tyrants, discarded by our 
 fathers to place this country, in the eyes of the 
 civilized nations, on the platform of the despots 
 of the Old World, which has so long been the 
 object of our ridicule and scorn? If not, you 
 must return to the doctrine of the fathers of the 
 Republic, and defend the weak against the 
 aggressor of the resolute and powerful. It will 
 not do to deny the privileges of freedom to all 
 who are your inferiors in physical, mental and 
 moral strength. Adopt this doctrine, and the 
 Anglo-Saxon must proceed to enslave the world ; 
 for he is now, doubtless, the strongest race on 
 the globe. 
 
 This treatment of the subject did not meet 
 with general approbation, and his colleague, Mr. 
 Jones, replied to him with some contrary state 
 ments. 
 
 Mr. President : In the discussion of the ques 
 tion of the equality of races, which my colleague, 
 I believe, has been the first to introduce to the 
 notice of the Senate, he seems to have volun- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 93 
 
 teered his aid to our political Abolitionists with 
 an alacrity which indicates his consciousness of 
 great powers to defend his position. Without in 
 quiring into the propriety or necessity of the dis 
 cussion, at this time and in this place, I shall en 
 deavor to show that there are established facts 
 which prove the unsoundness of his views; but 
 in doing so, I can not avoid feeling a kind of em 
 barrassment produced by a comparison, unfavor 
 able to myself, of the profound scientific, theo 
 logical, and legal attainments of my colleague, 
 with my own humble pretensions. It is known to 
 the Senate that I am a plain, practical man, and 
 have passed my public life here in practical legis 
 lation, entertaining and encouraging no doctrines 
 nor opinions which are revolting to the instincts 
 of honest common sense, or opposed to those de 
 ductions which are drawn from the truth of his 
 tory. I must then oppose this common sense and 
 those deductions, to my colleague s scientific, the 
 ological and legal researches. 
 
 In my limited historical reading I have failed 
 to find any fact to sustain the opinions and be 
 lief of my colleague, that the negro race are cre 
 ated equal in powers of mind with the white. 
 More than a thousand years ago, before our bar 
 barian ancestors received an impulse towards 
 civilization by contact with the Romans, the ne 
 gro of Africa had had the advantage of observ 
 ing the most advanced and refined nations which 
 then existed. He saw the learning and genius of 
 Egypt, the refinement of Persia, the wisdom and 
 glory of Greece and of Rome, long before the 
 barbarous tribes of Britain, our ancestors 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 emerged from their darkness by aid of the light 
 which was held up to them by the new born on 
 the banks of the Tiber. For a time extending 
 further back than is noted upon the historic page, 
 the negro has beheld the light of civilization 
 but he has not followed it ; and in his native land, 
 the tribes who have given slaves to Europe, and 
 America, are now what they have ever been. It 
 would seem, indeed, that these tribes are the 
 veritable descendants of Ham, cursed in his son 
 Canaan by the Almighty, driven out from the 
 presence of his father with the vengeance of God 
 marked upon his brow and doomed to be the 
 servant of servants forever. Mr. President, it is 
 a truth that nature, in the munificence of her 
 economy, withholds nothing from her children 
 needful to their welfare; and we find that she 
 has not bestowed upon the negro race a solitary 
 historical character not one. That race have 
 had no poet to perpetuate their history they 
 have no history. The Greek, the Roman, the 
 English, and many other nations, whose history 
 can be traced back to barbarism and idolatry, 
 have given to the world poets, statesmen, moral 
 ists, philosophers, mechanics, and inventors, 
 whose labors are immortal. The black tribes of 
 Africa have given nothing useful nor brilliant to 
 the mental mind and to this day they are the 
 same stupid idolaters that they were found to be 
 when first visited by the Christian missionary; 
 worshipping leaks, onions, snakes, and filthy in 
 sects, and looking upon the ourang-outang as 
 the Jupiter of their lesser deities. The race has 
 no history, except that of the providence of God, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 95 
 
 written by his servants, marking it out as the 
 victim upon which the nations of the earth have 
 alternately glutted their revenge and satiated 
 their thirst for gain. At this time they are in a 
 state of deeper degradation than any of the 
 heathen nations of the earth. Without even the 
 instincts of decency, they wander ungoverned, 
 naked, and as filthy in their persons as the brute. 
 
 This has been, as is now, their condition in 
 their native country; and all efforts of Christian 
 ity for their benefit and enlightment have been 
 abortive. No individuals of the race have ad 
 vanced a single step from their degradation and 
 darkness except those who were placed in the 
 condition now occupied by them in the Southern 
 States. Here the gospel of Christ is elevating 
 his hopes and illuminating his soul. Thus much 
 for the history of the race as I have read it. 
 
 My colleague having convinced himself of the 
 mental equality of the negro and white man, ap 
 peals to the obligations of Christianity to protect 
 the slave in his weakness. 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XIII. 
 
 CHARLES SUMNER ! ANTI-SLAVERY LEADER. 
 
 The chief aim of Henry Wilson was the over 
 throw of slavery, and as one of the leaders of 
 the North, he waged continual war upon the pro- 
 slavery power. His colleague, Charles Sumner, 
 at his side, fought fearlessly, unrelentingly. 
 These two were the acknowledged captains of 
 abolition. 
 
 Classic Charles Sumner would have been far 
 better pleased had he been left to his delightful 
 studies, instead of being thrust into the savage 
 fight in the United States Senate; but the State 
 of Massachusetts demanded that he, with his 
 masterful talents, should have a voice in the 
 councils of the nation. 
 
 Born at Boston (in 1811) of most excellent 
 family; and graduated from Harvard, where he 
 entered at the age of fifteen, and where he ex 
 celled in the classics and oratory, he was a splen 
 did representative of the conservative old com 
 monwealth. 
 
 After graduation, he had pursued the study of 
 law, and then to complete his education with 
 higher polish, he had spent some time in France 
 attending lectures by the most noted savants. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 97 
 
 . .*< 4 
 
 In Faneuil Hall, Boston, at a public meeting 
 called to protest against the Fugitive Slave bill 
 of 1850, he delivered an oration that was the 
 most glowing, the most masterly, he had ever 
 made. He described a famous painting by Tin 
 toretto. 
 
 "There is a legend of the Church still living 
 on the admired canvass of a Venetian artist, that 
 Saint Mark, descending from the skies with 
 headlong fury into the public square, broke the 
 manacles of a slave in the very presence of the 
 judge who decreed his fate. This is known as 
 the Miracle of the Slave/ and grandly has art 
 illumined the scene. Should Massachusetts here 
 after in an evil hour be desecrated by any such 
 decree, may the good Evangelist once more de 
 scend with valiant arm to break the manacles of 
 the slave." 
 
 The striking grace of the figure won the pub 
 lic heart, and Mr. Sumner always afterwards re 
 ferred to it as the speech that made him senator. 
 A copy of this painting used to hang upon the 
 wall of the dining-room in his Washington 
 home. 
 
 His speeches were always prepared with great 
 care, for he was not a ready debater. While he 
 presented his side of an argument with force, he 
 polished and repolished every sentence before 
 hand. The boldness of his words drew forth 
 much applause. One afternoon while he was 
 making one of his sharp attacks, Mr. Douglas 
 walking up and down behind the Vice-President s 
 desk, remarked to a friend: "Do you hear that 
 man? He may be a fool, but I tell you that man 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 has pluck. I wonder whether he knows himself 
 what he is doing? I am not sure whether I 
 should have the courage to say those things to 
 the men who are scowling around him." 
 
 Slightly over six feet in height, with broad 
 figure and graceful bearing, Mr. Sumner was 
 prepossessing to a degree. His features, like his 
 nature, were classical ; he wore no beard, except 
 ing a slight growth of side-whiskers ; and his hair 
 grew in masses over a handsome forehead. This 
 graphic sketch of the man must suffice here; his 
 distinguished character is well known among 
 American readers. 
 
 On May 19 and 20, 1856, after the debate on 
 the Kansas bill had been opened, he delivered his 
 speech, which became famous as "The Crime 
 Against Kansas." The correspondent of the 
 New York Evening Post, described it thus: 
 "There is but one opinion among all competent 
 judges as to the unexampled feast of eloquence 
 which has been enjoyed in the Senate for the past 
 two days, from the lips of Senator Sumner. . . . 
 He has exhibited the most signal combination of 
 oratorical splendors, which, in the opinion of a 
 veteran senator, has ever been witnessed in that 
 Hall. . . . Not only were the galleries thronged 
 to their utmost capacities with ladies and gentle 
 men, but all the doorways blocked up with listen 
 ers who hung in breathless suspense upon his 
 eloquence." . . . 
 
 The speech, in part: 
 
 Mr. President: You are now called to re 
 dress a great wrong. Seldom in the history of 
 nations is such a question presented. . . . 
 
SU MM E.R 
 
 ). ) 
 
rij 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 99 
 
 Yes, sir, when the whole world, alike Christian 
 and Turk, is rising to condemn this wrong, 
 making it a hissing to the nations, here in our Re 
 public, force ay, sir, force is openly employed 
 in compelling Kansas to this pollution, and all for 
 the sake of political power. There is the simple 
 fact, which you will vainly attempt to deny, but 
 which in itself presents an essential wickedness 
 that makes other public crimes seem like public 
 virtues. 
 
 In opening this great matter, I am not in 
 sensible to the austere demands of the occasion; 
 but \e dependence of the crimes against Kan 
 sas upon the slave power is so peculiar and im 
 portant that I trust to be pardoned while I im 
 press it by an illustration which to some may 
 seem trivial. It is related in northern mythology, 
 that the God of Force, visiting an enchanted re 
 gion, was challenged by his royal entertainer to 
 what seemed a humble feat of strength merely 
 Sir, to lift a cat from the ground. The God 
 smiled at the challenge and calmly placing his 
 hand under the belly of the animal with superhu 
 man strength strove, while the back of the feline 
 monster arched far upwards even beyond reach, 
 and one paw actually forsook the earth, when at 
 last the discomfitted divinity desisted ; but he was 
 little surprised at his defeat, when he learned that 
 this creature, which seemed to be a cat, was not 
 merely a cat, but that it belonged to, and was a 
 part of the great Terrestrial Serpent which in its 
 innumerable folds encircled the whole globe. 
 Even so the creature whose paws are now 
 fastened upon Kansas, whatever it may seem to 
 
loo MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 be, constitutes in reality part of the slave power, 
 with it loathsome folds now coiled about the 
 whole land. Thus do I exhibit the extent of the 
 whole contest, where we encounter not merely 
 local resistance, but alas the unconquered sus 
 taining arm behind. But from the vastness of 
 the crime attempted, with all its woe and shame, 
 I derive well-founded assurance of commen 
 surate effort by the aroused masses of the coun 
 try, determined not only to vindicate right against 
 wrong, but to redeem the Republic from the 
 thraldom of that oligarchy which prompts, di 
 rects, and concentrates the distant wrong. 
 
 Such is the crime and such the criminal which 
 it is my duty to expose; and, by the blessing of 
 God, this duty shall be done completely to the 
 end. But this will not be enough. The apolo- 
 
 fies which, with strange hardihood, are offered 
 Dr the crime must be torn away, so that it shall 
 stand forth without a single rag or a fig-leaf to 
 cover its vileness. And, finally the true remedy 
 must be shown. The subject is complex in rela 
 tions, as it is transcendent in importance; and 
 yet, if I am honored by your attention I hope to 
 present it clearly in all its parts, while I conduct 
 you to the inevitable conclusion that Kansas must 
 be admitted at once, with her present constitu 
 tion, as a state of this Union, and give a new 
 star to the blue field of our National Flag. And 
 here I derive satisfaction from the thought, that 
 the cause is so strong in itself as to bear even 
 the infirmities of its advocates ; nor can it require 
 anything beyond that simplicity of treatment and 
 moderation of manner which I desire to cultivate. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 101 
 
 Its true character is such that, like Her 
 cules, it will conquer just so soon as it is recog 
 nized. 
 
 My task will be divided under three different 
 heads: first, The Crime Against Kansas, in its 
 origin and extent; secondly, The Apologies for 
 the Crime ; and thirdly, The True Remedy. 
 
 Before entering upon the argument, I must say 
 something of a general character, particularly in 
 response to what has fallen from senators who 
 have raised themselves to eminence on this floor 
 in championship of human wrong: I mean the 
 Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler) and 
 the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas), who, 
 though unlike as Don Quixote and Sancho 
 Panza, yet, like this couple, sally forth together 
 in the same adventure. I regret much to miss the 
 elder Senator from his seat ; but the cause against 
 which he has run a tilt, with such ebbulition of 
 animosity, demands that the opportunity of ex 
 posing him should not be lost; and it is for the 
 cause that I speak. The Senator from South 
 Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and 
 believes himself a chivalrous knight, with senti 
 ments of honor and courage. Of course he has 
 chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, 
 and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely 
 to him, though polluted in the sight of the 
 world, is chaste in his sight: I mean the harlot 
 slavery. For her his tongue is always profuse in 
 words. Let her be impeached in character, or 
 any proposition be made to shut her out from 
 the extension of her wantonness, and no extrava 
 gance of manner or hardihood of assertion is 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 then too great for this senator. The frenzy of 
 Don Quixote in behalf of his wench Dulcinea del 
 Toboso is all surpassed. 
 
 The asserted rights of slavery, which shock 
 equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fantastic 
 claim of equality. If the slave States cannot en 
 joy what, in mockery of the great fathers of the 
 Republic, he misnames equality under the Con 
 stitution in other words, the full power in the 
 National Territories to compel fellow-men to un 
 paid toil, to separate husband and wife, and to 
 sell little children at the auction-block then, sir, 
 the chivalric Senator will conduct the State of 
 South Carolina out of the Union! Heroic 
 knight! Exalted Senator! A second Moses come 
 for a second exodus ! ... The Senator dreams 
 that he can subdue the North. He disclaims the 
 open threat, but his conduct implies it. How lit 
 tle that Senator knows himself or the strength 
 of the cause which he persecutes ! He is but mor 
 tal man ; against him is immortal principle. With 
 finite power he wrestles with the infinite, and he 
 must fall. Against him are stronger battalions 
 than any marshalled by mortal arm, the inborn, 
 ineradicable, invincible sentiments of the human 
 heart; against him is Nature with all her subtle 
 forces ; against him is God. Let him try to sub 
 due these. 
 
 Passing from things which, though touching 
 the very heart of the discussion, are yet prelim 
 inary, I press at once to the main point. 
 
 The men who strive to bring back the Govern 
 ment to its original policy, when Freedom and 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 103 
 
 not Slavery was national, while Slavery and not 
 Freedom was sectional, he arraigns as sectional. 
 This will not do. It involves too great a perver 
 sion of terms. I tell that Senator that it is to 
 himself, and to the organization of which he is 
 the committed advocate/ that this epithet be 
 longs. I now fasten it upon them. For myself I 
 care little for names; but, since the question is 
 raised here, I affirm that the Republican party of 
 the Union is in no just sense sectional, but, more 
 than any other party national, and it goes forth 
 to dislodge from the high places that tyrannical 
 sectionalism of which the Senator from South 
 Carolina is one of the maddest zealots. 
 
 In closing the exposition of the crime, he said : 
 Slavery stands erect, clanking its chains on 
 the Territory of Kansas, surrounded by a code 
 of death, and trampling upon all cherished liber 
 ties, whether of speech, the press, the bar, the 
 trial by jury, or the electoral franchise. And, sir, 
 all this is done, not merely to introduce a wrong 
 which in itself is a denial of all rights, and in 
 dread of which mothers have taken the lives of 
 their offspring not merely, as is sometimes said, 
 to protect slavery in Missouri, since it is futile 
 for this State to complain of Freedom on the side 
 of Kansas, when Freedom exists without com 
 plaint on the side of Iowa, and also on the side of 
 Illinois but it is done for the sake of political 
 power, in order to bring two new slaveholding 
 Senators upon this floor, and thus to fortify in 
 the National Government the desperate chances 
 
104 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 of a wrong oligarchy. As the gallant ship voy 
 aging on pleasant summer seas, is assailed by a 
 pirate crew, and plundered of its doubloons and 
 dollars, so is this beautiful Territory now as 
 sailed in peace and prosperity, and robbed of its 
 political power for the sake of slavery. Even 
 now the black flag of the land pirates of Mis 
 souri waves at the mast-head; in their laws you 
 hear the pirate yell and see the flash of the pirate 
 knife; while incredible to relate, the President, 
 gathering the slave power at his back, testifies a 
 pirate sympathy. 
 
 "Emerging from all the blackness of this 
 crime, where we seem to have been lost, as in a 
 savage wood, and turning our backs upon it, as 
 upon desolation and death, from which, while 
 others have suffered, we have escaped, I come 
 now to the apologies which the crime has found. 
 Sir, well may you start at the suggestion, that 
 such a series of wrongs, so clearly proved by 
 various testimony, so openly confessed by the 
 wrong-doers, and so widely recognized through 
 out the country, should find apologists. But par 
 tisan spirit, now, as in other days, hesitates at 
 nothing. Great crimes of history have never 
 been without apologies The massacre of St. Bar 
 tholomew, which you now instinctively condemn, 
 was at the time applauded in high quarters. 
 
 As it concerns the events that followed 
 the speech, another passage referring to Senator 
 Butler, is quoted : 
 
 *" " With regret I come again upon the Senator 
 from South Carolina, (Mr. Butler), who omni- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE log 
 
 present in this debate, overflowed with rage at 
 the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied 
 for admission as a State; and with incoherent 
 phrases, discharged the loose expectoration of his 
 speech now upon her representative and then 
 upon her people. There was no extravagance of 
 tne ancient Parliamentary debate which he did 
 not repeat; nor was there any possible deviation 
 from truth which he did not make with so much 
 of passion, I am glad to add as to save him from 
 the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the 
 Senator touches nothing which he does not disfig 
 ure with error sometimes of principle, some 
 times of fact. He shows an incapacity of accur 
 acy, whether in stating the Constitution or in 
 stating the law, whether in the details of statistics 
 or the deversion of scholarship. He cannot ope 
 his mouth,, but out there flies a blunder, 
 
 Were the whole history of South Carolina 
 blotted out of existence, from its very beginning 
 down to the day of the last election of the Sen 
 ator to his present seat on this floor, civilization 
 would lose I do not say how little, but surely less 
 than it has already gained by the example of Kan 
 sas in that valiant struggle against oppression, and 
 in the development of a new science of emigration, 
 . . . Throughout this infant Territory there 
 is more of educated talent, in proportion to its 
 inhabitants, than in his vaunted State. Ah, sir, 
 I tell the Senator, that Kansas, welcomed as a 
 Free state, a ministering angel shall be to the Re 
 public, when South Carolina, in the cloak of dark 
 ness which she hugs, lies howling/ ... In 
 the name of the Constitution outraged, of the 
 
106 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Laws trampled down, of Justice banished, of Hu 
 manity degraded, of Peace destroyed, of Free 
 dom crushed to earth and in the name of the 
 Heavenly Father, whose service is per fact Free 
 dom, I make this last appeal. 
 
 Whittier, the revered poet, among others, 
 wrote to Mr. Sumner congratulating him. His 
 letter ran thus 
 
 I have read and re-read thy speech, and 
 I look upon it as thy best. A grand and ter 
 rible philippic, worthy of the great oc 
 casion; the severe and awful truth which 
 the sharp agony of the crisis demand 
 ed. It is enough for immortality. So far 
 as thy own reputation is concerned, nothing 
 more is needed. But this is of small impor 
 tance. We cannot see as yet the entire 
 results of that speech, but everything now 
 indicates that it has saved the country. 
 
 One answer to these attacks was made by the 
 "Little Giant," who arose to the occasion well 
 equipped, more though with derision than with 
 choler. 
 
 Mr. Douglas: I shall not detain the Senate 
 by a detailed reply to the speech of the Senator 
 from Massachusetts. Indeed, I should not deem 
 it necessary to say one, but for the personalities 
 in which he has indulged, evincing a depth of 
 malignity that issued from every sentence, mak 
 ing it a matter of self respect with me to repel 
 the assaults which have been made. As to the 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 107 
 
 argument, we have heard it all before. Not a 
 position, not a fact, not an argument has he used, 
 which has not been employed on the same side 
 of the Chamber this year, and replied to by me 
 twice. I shall not follow him, therefore, because 
 it would only be repeating the same answer which 
 I have twice before given each of his positions. 
 He seems to get up a speech, as in Yankee land 
 they get up a bed quilt. They take all the old 
 calico dresses of various colors, that have been 
 in the house from the days of their grandmothers, 
 and invite the young ladies of the neighborhood 
 in the afternoon and the young men to meet 
 them at a dance in the evening. They cut up 
 these pieces of old dresses and make pretty fig 
 ures, and boast of what beautiful ornamental 
 work they have made, although there was not a 
 new piece of new material in the whole quilt. 
 (Laughter.) Thus it is with the speech which 
 we have had rehearsed here to-day in regard to 
 matters of fact, matters of law, and matters of 
 argument everything but the personal assaults 
 and malignity. I beg pardon ; there is another 
 point. We have had another dish of the classics 
 served up classic allusions, each one only dis 
 tinguished for its lasciviousness and obscenity 
 each are drawn from those portions of the 
 classics which all decent professors in respect 
 able colleges cause to be suppressed, as unfit for 
 decent young men to read. Sir, I cannot repeat 
 those obscene vulgar terms which have been 
 used at least a hundred times in that speech. It 
 seems that his studies of classics have all been in 
 
io8 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 those haunts where ladies cannot go, where gen 
 tlemen never read Latin. (Laughter.) I have 
 no disposition to follow him in that part of his 
 speech. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 109 
 
 XIV. 
 
 ASSAULT ON SUMNER. 
 
 Three days later, on May 23, Mr. Surnner sat 
 at his desk shortly after the adjournment of the 
 Senate, busy with some correspondence. As I 
 recollect the incident, Representative Preston 
 Brooks, who was the nephew of Senator Butler, 
 came into the chamber by the front entrance and 
 immediately went to Mr. Sumner s seat, which 
 was one or two to the left, in the back row. No 
 attention was paid to Mr. Brooks, I am sure, as 
 visitors from the House came in frequently and 
 roved about on the Senate floor; but in a few 
 minutes loud talking was heard, and Mr. Sumner 
 was seen to rise, while Mr. Brooks struck him 
 over the head with a cane, the cane breaking into 
 pieces. The Senator attempted to shield himself 
 with his hands, but directly uttered a cry of dis 
 tress, which brought several persons to his rescue. 
 Mr. Sumner laid apparently senseless on the 
 floor. In attempting to rise, the desk was 
 wrenched from its fastenings. The greatest 
 excitement followed, and all business was for 
 some days practically suspended. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, provoked almost beyond utterance, 
 
no MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 called the attention of the Senate to the brutal 
 assault upon his colleague, in these words : 
 
 Mr. President. The seat of my colleague is 
 vacant to-day. The seat is vacant to-day for the 
 first time during five years of public service. 
 Yesterday after a touching tribute to the memory 
 of a deceased member of the House of Represen 
 tatives, the Senate adjourned. My colleague re 
 mained in his seat busily engaged in his public 
 duties. While thus engaged, with pen in hand, 
 and in a position which rendered him utterly in 
 capable of protecting or defending himself, Mr. 
 Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House of 
 Representatives approached his desk unobserved, 
 and abruptly addressed him. Before he had time 
 to utter a single word in reply, he received a 
 stunning blow upon the head from a cane in the 
 hands of Mr. Brooks, which made him blind and 
 almost unconscious. Endeavoring, however, to 
 protect himself, in rising from his chair his desk 
 was overthrown, and while in that condition, he 
 was beaten upon the head by repeated blows, until 
 he sank upon the floor of the Senate exhausted, 
 unconscious, and covered with his own blood. 
 He was taken from this chamber to the ante 
 room, his wounds were dressed, and then by 
 friends he was carried to his home and placed 
 upon his bed. He is unable to be with us to-day 
 to perform the duties that belong to him as a 
 member of this body./ Sir, to assail a member of 
 the Senate, out of this chamber, for words spoken 
 in debate is a grave offence, not only against the 
 rights of the Senator, but the Constitutional priv 
 ileges of this House; but, sir, to come into this 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE in 
 
 chamber and assault a member in his seat until 
 he falls exhausted and senseless on this floor, is 
 an offence requiring the prompt and decisive ac 
 tion of the Senate. Senators, I have called your 
 attention to this transaction. I submit no motion, 
 I leave it to the older Senators, whose character 
 whose position in this body, and before the 
 country, eminently fit them for the task of devis 
 ing measures to redress the wrongs of a member 
 of this body, and to vindicate the honor and dig 
 nity of the Senate." 
 
 On motion of Senator Seward, of New York, 
 the following resolution, after being amended, 
 was passed as follows : 
 
 "Resolved. That a committee of five be elected 
 by the Senate to inquire into the circumstances at 
 tending the assault on the person of the Hon. 
 Charles Sumner, a member of the Senate, in the 
 Senate chamber yesterday ; and that said commit 
 tee be instructed to report a statement of the 
 facts, together with their opinion thereon to the 
 Senate." 
 
 The Baltimore Sun, of May 27, published the 
 testimony of Mr. Sumner in the investigation of 
 the assault, which implicated certain Senators, 
 who immediately upon seeing it in print, took 
 occasion to publicly deny what Mr. Sumner had 
 said. 
 
 Mr. Slidell. (La.) If the Senate will indulge 
 me for a moment, I wish to make a personal 
 explanation. I find in the Baltimore Sun of 
 this morning, a statement which purports to have 
 been the testimony given by Mr. Sumner before 
 a committee of investigators of the House of 
 
H2 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Representatives, and which contains some 
 matters that concern me. I am not dis 
 posed to attribute what Mr. Sumner has 
 said to any deliberate intention to create a 
 false impression in the public mind, but such 
 must be the inference from the passage in the 
 testimony of Mr. Sumner, to which I now beg 
 leave to call the attention of the Senate; and I 
 will simply explain my own position in the mat 
 ter, without making any comments on Mr. Sum- 
 ner s course. It is unnecessary for me to read 
 the introductory part of this testimony. Mr. 
 Sumner says, speaking of having received blows 
 from Mr. Brooks: 
 
 Other persons were about me, offering friendly 
 assistance; but I did not recognize any of them, 
 others were at a distance, looking on, and offer 
 ing no assistance, of whom I recognized only Mr. 
 Douglas, of Illinois; Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, 
 and I thought also my assailant standing between 
 them. I was helped from the floor, and con 
 ducted into the lobby of the Senate where I was 
 placed upon a sofa. Of those who helped me 
 there I have no recollection. 
 
 As I entered the lobby I recognized Mr. Slid- 
 ell, of Louisiana, who retreated ; but I recognized 
 no one else until I felt a friendly grasp of the 
 hand which seemed to come from Mr. Campbell, 
 of Ohio (H.R.). 
 
 The two other Senators who are mentioned in 
 the same connection can explain their own posi 
 tions. As regards, however, my friend from 
 Illinois, I am enabled to speak, while defending 
 myself from the imputation conveyed by this 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 113 
 
 statement, I am enabled to speak with great cer 
 tainty of his position in the matter. 
 
 The Senate will recollect that we adjourned at 
 an early hour on that day. I went into the ante 
 room where I found my friend from Illinois (Mr. 
 Douglas), Governor Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, 
 and Mr. J. Glancy Jones, of Pennsylvania, in con 
 versation. They were seated. I approached 
 them and asked them if they were engaged in 
 any particular or private conversation. On re 
 ceiving a negative response, I sat down and joined 
 them in conversation. We had been there some 
 minutes I think we were alone in the ante-room 
 when a person (if I recollect aright, it was Mr. 
 Jones, a messenger of the Senate) rushed in ap 
 parently in great trepidation, and said that some 
 body was beating Mr. Sumner. We heard this 
 remark without any emotion ; for my own part I 
 confess I felt none. I am not disposed to partici 
 pate in broils of any kind. I remained very quiet 
 ly in my seat ; the above gentlemen did the same ; 
 we did not move. A minute or two afterwards 
 another person passed through the Chamber and 
 said that Mr. Sumner had been very badly beaten. 
 Hearing that the atfray was over, and 
 hearing that Mr. Brooks was concerned in the 
 matter, I felt a little more interest for I had 
 really supposed that it was some ordinary scuf 
 fle. I did not know from what cause it originated 
 and was not disposed to meddle in it. I then 
 came into the Senate Chamber, passing through 
 the side door at the back of my seat. I found, 
 I think, at least sixty or seventy people on the 
 floor of the Senate Chamber perhaps more. A 
 
H4 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 crowd surrounded the second chair on the other 
 side of the lobby, and I was told that Mr. Sum- 
 ner was there extended in a state of insensibility, 
 prostrate on the floor. ... I was ap 
 proaching the door of the reception room with a 
 view of passing out and going home, having no 
 longer any inducement to remain in the Senate, 
 when I met Mr. Sumner in the doorway of the 
 reception room, leaning on two persons whom I 
 did not recognize. His face was covered with 
 blood. I am not particularly fond of scenes of 
 any sort. I have no association or relations of 
 any kind with Mr. Sumner; I have not spoken 
 to him for two years. I did not think it neces 
 sary to express my sympathy or make any ad 
 vances toward him. If I had continued I should 
 have crossed his path, and interrupted his pro 
 gress to a sofa; he was evidently faint and weak. 
 I very naturally turned in another direction ; and, 
 instead of passing through the ante-room, entered 
 the Senate Chamber in this direction (through 
 the side door). I have stated very briefly my 
 connection with this matter." 
 
 Mr. Douglas: Mr. President, I deem it my 
 duty to submit a statement. A moment or two 
 before the Senate adjourned on that day, my col 
 league in the other House, Colonel Richardson, 
 sent for me to hold a conversation in the recep 
 tion room. He came to the door of the Senate 
 Chamber, and I went to the reception room, and 
 sat a considerable time with him. ... As 
 Colonel Richardson arose to leave, I started to go 
 with him, when Governor Fitzpatrick, of Ala 
 bama, and Mr. J. Glancy Jones, of Pennsylvania, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 115 
 
 who were sitting on a settee at the other end of the 
 reception room, called me to them. . . . 
 Mr. Slidell came in, as he states, and while we 
 were talking there, one of the messengers rushed 
 through, and remarked as he passed, that some 
 body was beating Mr. Sunnier. I arose involun 
 tarily to rny feet. My first impression was to 
 come into the Senate Chamber and help to put 
 an end to the affray, if I could; but it occurred 
 to my mind in an instant, that my relations with 
 Mr. Sumner were such that if I came into the 
 hall, my motives would be misconstrued, perhaps, 
 and I sat down again. ... I remember 
 seeing Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, sitting about 
 where he now sits; Mr. Pearce, of Maryland, 
 about where he now sits; Mr. Crittenden, of 
 Kentucky, near the same place ; and Judge Evans, 
 of South Carolina, very near where he is now 
 sitting. They were all seated, all quiet, and I 
 looked to see where the parties were who had 
 been engaged in this affray. At last I observed 
 Mr. Sumner at the side of the center aisle, 
 his feet in the aisle, and he leaning partially 
 against a chair. I had only a glance. I 
 stayed there but a moment. ... I left 
 the Senate at the other end of the Cham 
 ber. How the idea got into Mr. Sumner s brain 
 that I was on one side, and the Senator from 
 Georgia on the other, with the assailant between 
 us, is, of course, impossible for me to conceive. 
 It is evident from that language that the purpose 
 or, at least, certainly the effect is, to carry the 
 impression to the country, that I was privy, to 
 his transaction; that I was standing, aiding and 
 
n6 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 abetting the assailant in it; that I was, in fact, a 
 participant. . . . 
 
 Mr. Toombs: Mr. President, I should not 
 deem it at all necessary to make any statement 
 about this affair, so far as I am concerned; but 
 the position of the two gentlemen who are alluded 
 to in this connection, may make it necessary for 
 them. I was present, and have given a state 
 ment in another place, as a witness. . . . 
 As to what Mr. Sumner says about Mr. Brooks 
 standing between myself and the Senator from 
 Illinois, there is not a word of fact in it. I pre 
 sume he was mistaken. ... As for ren 
 dering Mr. Sumner any assistance, I did not do 
 it. As to what was said, some gentlemen con 
 demned it in Mr. Brooks; I stated to him, or to 
 some of my own friends, probably, that I ap 
 proved it. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 117 
 
 XV. 
 
 MR. BUTLER S DEFENSE; AND ORATION ON HIS 
 DEATH. 
 
 A liberal mind and noble impulse were the 
 gracious attributes of that kind old gentleman, 
 Mr. Butler, who for many years so sufficiently 
 stood guardian over his State s interests in the 
 upper branch of Congress, and won credit to the 
 South and to himself by a judicious and manly 
 course in all public transactions wherein his ample 
 knowledge had served the nation. 
 
 The bitter and unrelenting attack upon Mr. 
 Butler and his State, at the subtle hands of Mr. 
 Sumner, aroused such indignation in the South 
 and particularly in South Carolina, that the as 
 sault was almost demanded of the nephew, and a 
 defence by Mr. Butler, himself, on the floor of 
 the Senate, was awaited with breathless anxiety. 
 In most eloquent terms, he defended himself 
 shortly after returning to Washington, in a speech 
 delivered June 12. 
 
 Mr. Butler : Mr. President The occasion and 
 the subject upon which I am about to address 
 the Senate of the United States, at this time, have 
 been brought about by events over which I have 
 had no control, and could have had none events 
 which have grown out of the commencement of a 
 
n8 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 controversy for which the Senator from Massa 
 chusetts (not now in his seat, Mr. Sumner) 
 should be held exclusively responsible to his 
 country and his God. He has delivered a speech 
 the most extraordinary that has ever had utter 
 ance in any deliberative body recognizing the 
 sanction of law and decency. When it was de 
 livered, I was not here ; and if I had been present, 
 what I should have done it would be perfectly idle 
 for me now to say ; because no one can substitute 
 the deliberations of a subsequent period for such 
 as might liave influenced him at another time, 
 and under different circumstances. My impres 
 sion now is that, if I had been present, I should 
 have asked the Senator before he finished some 
 of the paragraphs personally applicable to myself, 
 to pause; and if he had gone on, I would have 
 demanded of him, the next morning that he 
 should review that speech, and retract or modify 
 it, so as to bring it within the sphere of parlia 
 mentary propriety. If he had refused this, what I 
 would have done I cannot say; yet I can say I 
 would not have submitted to it. But what mode 
 of redress I should have resorted to, I cannot tell. 
 1 When I was at my little farm enjoying myself 
 quietly, and, as I thought, had taken refuge from 
 .the strifes and contentions of the Senate, and of 
 politics, a message was brought to me that my 
 kinsman had been involved in a difficulty on my 
 account. It was so vague I did not know how to 
 .account for it. I was far from any telegraph 
 communication. I did not wait five minutes be 
 fore I left home to put myself within the reach 
 of such information and garbled even as that 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 1 19 
 
 was as was accessible. I traveled four days 
 continuously to Washington ; and when I arrived 
 I found the very subject under discussion which 
 had given me such anxiety; and it has been the 
 source of the deepest concern to my feelings ever 
 since I heard of it, on many accounts on account 
 of my country, and on account of the honor and 
 safety of my kinsman. When I arrived here I 
 found the discussion under consideration. I went 
 to the Senate worn down by travel; and I then 
 gave notice, that when the resolution from Mas 
 sachusetts should be presented, I would speak to 
 them as coming from a Commonwealth whose 
 history, and whose lessons of history, had in 
 spired me with the very highest admiration 
 I would speak to them from a respect to 
 a Commonwealth, whilst, perhaps, the Sena 
 tor who had been the cause of their intro 
 duction ought not to deserve my notice, and 
 would not have received it. ... 
 
 Further on, Mr. Butler said : 
 
 Instead of making his speech here his own, as 
 a Senator under the obligations of the Con 
 stitution, and the highest sanctions which 
 can influence the conduct of an honorable 
 man instead of making it the vehicle of 
 high thoughts and noble emotions that would 
 become a man and Senator, it is obvious now 
 that he made that speech but the conduit I will 
 use a stronger expression the fang, through 
 which to express upon the public the compound 
 poison of malignity and injustice. This is con 
 firmed by his remarkable exordium, for, in many 
 respects, this is the most extraordinary that has 
 
120 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 even found its way into any book, or upon any 
 occasion ancient or modern. I have never be 
 fore heard of proem or exordium by proclama 
 tion; and yet, before the delivery of his speech, 
 by a telegraphic proclamation to Theodore Par 
 ker, he uttered this most remarkable sentence: 
 / Whilst you are deliberating in your meetings, I 
 am about to pronounce the most thorough 
 philippic that was ever heard in the Senate of 
 the United States." This is in conformity with 
 Mr. Parker s opinion. He was a flexible con 
 formist invoking the spirit of Theodore Parker 
 as his muse to sustain him in the strife, for which 
 by his nature and talents he was not fit. Sir, 
 it was the tribute and deference of a flexible 
 conformist, willing to be a rhetorical fabrication 
 to carry out and subserve the purpose of a man, 
 as I understand, of an iron will and robust intel 
 lect; who loves controversy, and has abilities 
 which more fit him, perhaps, for that, than for 
 worshipping the lamb of innocence, and as the 
 prototype of that Christ whose doctrines he has 
 professed. To conciliate Parker, the Senator 
 must make war upon South Carolina and my 
 self. If he supposed he would gain lands by 
 any attack on me because I was a "foeman 
 worthy of his steel," I might feel complimented ; 
 but there was no such purpose. It was to pander 
 to the prejudices of Massachusetts, or a portion 
 of Massachusetts for God forbid that I should 
 say anything which is not proper of Massachu 
 setts to pander to a portion of Massachusetts 
 by assailing South Carolina. Before I finish I 
 shall say what I think, and if he were here in 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 121 
 
 his place I would make him hang his head in 
 shame; for I will demonstrate before I conclude, 
 that, in what he has said of South Carolina, he 
 has aspersed the nearest and dearest comrade of 
 his mother. Yes, sir, a degenerate son, incap 
 able of appreciating the relations which subsisted 
 between Massachusetts and South Carolina at a 
 time when there was something more of peril 
 to be encountered than exhibitions of rhetoric in 
 the Senate of the United States; when men 
 placed their lives and their fortunes on the issue 
 which had been made. I will prove him a 
 calumniator. While he has charged me with 
 misstating history, law, and the Constitution, let 
 me say that "he who lives in glass houses should 
 not throw stones." I here say, and I pledge my 
 self to it, that I will convict him, and shall de 
 mand of the Senate a verdict of guilty. 
 
 But, Mr. President, there is one result of this 
 speech which I think may be regarded as good. 
 He has shown as Mr. Beecher says, that he is 
 unfit for the war of debate. He has no business 
 to gather the glories of the Senate Chamber and 
 fight with orators, unless he is prepared to main 
 tain the position of an honorable combatant. 
 Though his friends have invested him with the 
 dress of Achilles and offered him his armor, he 
 has shown that he is only able to fight with the 
 weapons of Thersites, and deserved what that 
 brawler received from the hands of the gallant 
 Ulysses. 
 
 When the Senator from Massachusetts took 
 his seat near me, I knew that he was a Free- 
 soiler or Abolitionist, as it was termed ; but not- 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 think that sometimes I did. Whatever the 
 temptation of my resentment may be, I have 
 passed, and shall pass, through life with one 
 determination; If I cannot do justice, I will not 
 do injustice to any man. I have exhibited here 
 in debate, on more occasions than one, impa 
 tience and excitability; these are peculiarities 
 which have followed me from the cradle. Per 
 haps, sometimes anger, in its ebulitions, may 
 have found an expression from me; but, thank 
 God, I can say it was but a transient feeling, 
 which at the time gushed from the heart; it was 
 a feeling which subsequently was suppressed by 
 reason and repentance. That however, is a 
 failing which cannot inhabit the same mind with 
 treachery and malignity. 
 
 Now, sir, I will proceed to make my points ; 
 and I shall show that what the Senator said of 
 myself and South Carolina was not in response 
 to anything which I said; that he has gone out 
 side the record to bring into the debate matters 
 which did not legitimately belong to it by asso 
 ciation or connection. . . . Shame! I call 
 upon the shade of Hancock and Adams to look 
 down and reprove a degenerate son who can 
 thus invade the very sanctuary of the history 
 which has given them immortality. 
 
 Do you think that, sir, by this remark I 
 reproached the troops of New England! No, 
 sir. When Yorktown surrendered, there was 
 not a New England regiment there ; I have a list 
 of the troops who were present. But because I 
 say that Southern troops and those from Penn 
 sylvania alone engaged in these distinguished 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 125 
 
 battles, do I reproach the troops of Massachu 
 setts? God forbid! They were under the com 
 mand of Washington at the time he went to 
 Yorktown and as was his duty, he sent them to 
 defend the vulnerable points of New York and 
 Boston. Now I will make a remark which I 
 hope the Senate will remember: Notwithstand 
 ing their relative numbers compared with the 
 pay list of New England, you may take the 
 fighting days if you have a mind to compute it 
 as you would labor you may take the fighting 
 days during which the troops of South Caro 
 lina were engaged, and in the computation the 
 balance will be found greatly against Massachu 
 setts. If you have a mind to draw some other 
 test if you wish to test the question of sacrifice, 
 and measure it by blood, South Carolina has 
 poured out hogshead of blood where gallons have 
 been poured out by Massachusetts. . . . But I 
 do not blame Massachusetts, for as I have said, 
 she had glory enough, and she was covered with 
 glory enough by taking the bold stand which 
 she did in putting the ball of revolution in mo 
 tion; but when the Senator undertakes to cast 
 reproaches on the history of South Carolina, he 
 will have to take hard comparisons. She got 
 bread from her comrade. The man who now 
 reproaches South Carolina as I said a little 
 while ago, is a degenerate son reproaching the 
 dearest and nearest comrade of his mother. You 
 cannot get over the errors he has committed in 
 history; you cannot obviate the malignity with 
 which the arrow has been shot. Whether he 
 shot it with the reckless aim of one who had his 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 hand upon the bow, and directed the shaft con 
 scious that it had been dipped in the poison of 
 others, I know not; but I have unmasked him; 
 I have detected and exposed the man who 
 charges me with error, and such a proclivity to 
 error that I cannot observe the line of truth 
 without such deviations as to bring on the cen 
 sure, not of one intentionally of falsehood, but 
 one who, under the gust and whirlwind of 
 passion, cannot observe the line of truth. I have 
 detected him; I have exposed him; and now I 
 demand of the Senate a verdict of guilty. I 
 pause, sir. 
 
 It was nearly three years before Mr. Sumner 
 recovered from the effects of his injuries, and 
 when he again took his seat in the Senate, both 
 Mr. Butler and Mr. Brooks, had passed over the 
 bar. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Butler, several orations 
 were made in the Senate; the context of one 
 delivered by the silver-tongued Benjamin here 
 following : 
 
 The feeling and eloquent tribute that has 
 just been rendered to the memory of our de 
 parted brother, has awakened sensibilities which 
 I fear will be jarred by anything I can hope to 
 say; yet, sir, having been thought worthy of an 
 invitation to join in these sad rites, I pray you 
 for a moment s indulgence whilst I lay an 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 127 
 
 humble offering on the grave around which we 
 are gathered. 
 
 It is literally but yesterday that the seat before 
 me was filled by the venerable form of Caro 
 lina s senior Senator; to-day Carolina mourns 
 his loss; the electric messenger has done its 
 work, and the friends of his are even now 
 mingling their griefs with ours ; recalling as we 
 are, the affecting words with which so lately he 
 lamented, on the death of his late colleague, that 
 the inexorable fiat had striken down the vigorous 
 tree, and left unscathed the withered remnants 
 of the decaying trunk. 
 
 Sad indeed have been the recent bereavements 
 which it has pleased Providence to inflict upon 
 the native State of him we mourn. The awe 
 stricken heart of the nation was still throbbing 
 heavily in unison with hers for the loss of her 
 pre-eminent son. When on my taking my seat 
 in this body I learned to know and love both the 
 colleague and the almost immediate successor of 
 John C. Calhoun. A few short years have 
 elapsed, and where is now the beaming eye of 
 Andrew Pickens Butler? Where his genial 
 presence, his ringing voice, his manly bearing, 
 his whole being stamped as it was with the seal 
 of honor, the impress of true nobility of soul? 
 Broken hearted at the loss of his gallant kins 
 man, he has sunk into the tomb; to which, with 
 shaken frame and streaming eyes he had fol 
 lowed the lamented Brooks. 
 
 Hamilton, too, the chivalrous, the warm 
 hearted, the eloquent Hamilton, sleeps beneath 
 the deep waters of the Southern gulf. And now, 
 
128 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 now, Evans, the erudite Judge, the honored Sen 
 ator, the soul of truth, who loved justice for the 
 sake of justice, truth for the sake of truth, he 
 too is to be borne to the last common resting 
 place of man; and amongst us, the place that 
 has known him shall know him no more. This 
 is not the time nor the place for a calm and 
 measured analysis of those intellectual and 
 moral qualities which won for Josiah J. Evans 
 the proud distinction of being selected by his 
 native State as worthy to fill the seat once occu 
 pied by Calhoun. Yet it is not alien to the 
 feelings natural on such an occasion that affec 
 tion should revert to the traits peculiarly charac 
 teristic of the deceased and fondly seek to 
 stamp upon the memory all that can preserve a 
 vivid image of him who has left us forever. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 129 
 
 XVI. 
 
 JUDGE WADE. 
 
 The name of Benjamin F. Wade, or, as some 
 called him, "Old Ben Wade," was esteemed from 
 one end of the land to the other, and by those 
 who knew the man, it was ever held in affec 
 tionate regard; for he possessed those excellent 
 qualities that make one to be valued both as 
 friend and public servant. 
 
 His ancestor, Jonathan Wade, emigrated from 
 Norfolk, England, and settled in Massachusetts, 
 in 1632. Benjamin Wade was born at Spring 
 field, in that State, in 1800. At eighteen years of 
 age, he with some regrets, turned from the plow, 
 with which he had labored many a day on the old 
 farm, and struck out to seek his fortunes, like 
 many other boys of those times. He was not 
 afraid of hard work, having been inured to it 
 from early boyhood, and now, wrestling with the 
 tides of life, he faltered not at being forced to 
 work with spade and wheelbarrow on the con 
 struction of the Erie Canal. As best he could, 
 in spite of divers difficulties, he acquired the rudi 
 ments of the English branches of education, and 
 later, having progressed as far West as Ashtabula 
 County, Ohio, he took up the study of law. To 
 pass over the years of toil and deprivation, with- 
 
130 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 out dwelling upon any period of the chastening 
 that was making him a man of mark, we find him 
 at the age of thirty-eight in the United States 
 Senate from the State of Ohio. But his ideas of 
 negro equality with the white man, made him 
 very unpopular for a time; however, in 1847, he 
 came once more into public favor, his previous 
 course having been approved, and was elected to 
 the judiciary of the State. His successful career 
 as a judge was closed in 1851, when he was 
 again elected to the United States Senate. 
 
 Judge Wade was somewhat above the average 
 in height, stout, and of dark complexion. His 
 features were strong, almost savage, and any who 
 had not enjoyed his friendship would have mis 
 taken him for a cold and unfeeling man; but to 
 the contrary he was warm-hearted and sympa 
 thetic. In the early years he had robbed many 
 nights of their hours, pouring over his Bible, 
 its words of light and truth being stored away 
 in his memory; and there were many occasions 
 when he quoted familiarly from the Book of 
 Books. 
 
 Silent and thoughtful, his black eyes penetrat 
 ing wheresoever they were turned, I remember 
 what a fine appearance he made as President pro- 
 temp ore of the Senate. He never wore a finger 
 ring or breast pin. He cared nothing for adorn 
 ment. Dressed always in plain black clothes, with 
 standing collar of the old style, immaculate in 
 every detail, he was the picture of the true Amer 
 ican statesman. 
 
 He withdrew from the Whigs in 1854, when 
 he saw their Southern wing cut off and joined to 
 
F, WADE. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 131 
 
 the Democracy. From that time forth he knew 
 no Whig party, but was heart and soul devoted 
 to the principles of the Republican forces, 
 though small indeed were Republicans in num 
 ber compared with the Democratic ranks. In 
 May 1856, he arose one day saying: 
 
 "I desire on some occasion, to occupy a short 
 time in the discussion of the Kansas question. I 
 am not particular as to the day when I shall be 
 heard. I have not yet spoken on the subject, but 
 my constituents expect me to give my views upon 
 it, and I shall therefore ask the Senate, at some 
 suitable time, to give me an opportunity to be 
 heard. I shall leave it, however, to the Senate 
 to say what time will be most convenient to them. 
 I trust that the Kansas bill is not to be rushed 
 through with precipitate haste. It is the great 
 question of the session. In the minds of the 
 people of the North and I think the same re 
 mark applies to the South it absorbs all other 
 questions. It is the great measure of the session, 
 and it ought not to be acted upon with precipita 
 tion. In my judgment, we should proceed with 
 great deliberation, and should allow every Sena 
 tor an opportunity of presenting his views to the 
 Senate and to his constituents. I hope the Sena 
 tor from Illinois will not press his bill hastily. I 
 trust that he comprehends its great importance. 
 After the distinguished gentlemen who have 
 spoken on this question, I do not expect to be able 
 to shed much light upon it, but nevertheless, it 
 will be my duty to give my views in regard to 
 it, and I trust we shall hear the views of many 
 others before we arrive at any conclusion. 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Democratic party than if he came from a peni 
 tentiary. The love of liberty operates as a con 
 viction for crime. It deprives him of the rights 
 of an American citizen. He can hold no office of 
 trust or profit under the United States, if he 
 hapoens to believe that men are created equal and 
 have certain inalienable rights, among which are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This 
 is the degeneracy to whicii your Democratic party 
 has come. I am humiliated by it; I am put be 
 yond the pale of office. There is not one of the 
 majority in the other House, calling themselves 
 Republicans, who were elected by an overwhelm 
 ing majority of the free people of the United 
 States, whose Representative they are, who is not 
 under your Democratic rule, as effectively pro 
 scribed from receiving an office at the hands of 
 the Democratic party as though he was an inmate 
 of a penitentiary. Why? Because he has under 
 taken to resist your attempt to make slavery in 
 these United States universal and perpetual for 
 ever. These are some of the reasons why I 
 stand here to inveigh against your institution. It 
 has corrupted public men. It has overturned the 
 Government. You have erected rules and prin 
 ciples utterly inconsistent with those of the fath 
 ers of the Republic. You know that I preach 
 no more than the truth nay, half the truth has 
 not been told on this subject. I desire to reason 
 with men; and 1 ask my Democratic friends of 
 the South, do you suppose for one moment that a 
 proud people, jealous above all things of their 
 rights, whose fathers periled their lives to obtain 
 those guarantees of liberty which we are defend- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 135 
 
 ing; I ask you in sober reason, divested of all 
 acrimony, is it reasonable to suppose that it is 
 entirely safe to drive that class of men to the 
 wall ? Do you expect that it will be safe to deny, 
 forever those great principles of liberty which are 
 cherished by a majority of the people of the 
 United States as the apple of their eye ! If you 
 do I tell you you will wake up some morning and 
 find you have gone a step too far. The patience 
 of our people on this subject, has been more 
 severely tried than was that of their fathers. If 
 those venerated sires could look down on us to 
 day, they would reproach us for our patient 
 submission for so long a time." 
 
 As President pro tempore of the Senate, Judge 
 Wade appointed the keeper of the restaurant. A 
 rumor had gone about, at one time, that a change 
 was to be made in the incumbency of that office, 
 and the colored man then enjoying the profits of 
 the business, approached Mr. Wade, and said: 
 "I keep the Senate restaurant, Senator." "Oh, 
 yes, you run the cook shop down stairs," replied 
 Mr. Wade. "Yes, sir," with a low bow. 
 
 "Well, what can I do for you ?" "I called to 
 express the wish, sir, that when there is anything 
 you want, sir, you will send one of the pages 
 down stairs, and it will be furnished quick as a 
 flash and without costing you a cent." "Oh, I 
 don t want you to feed me. When I do I ll pay 
 for it, like other people." Then seeming to recol 
 lect something, he continued, "But, listen. Com 
 plaint has been made to me that you don t treat 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 the little pages fairly or kindly, they can t get 
 anything to eat, but expensive things. Remem 
 ber, these pages are our boys, and you had better 
 overcharge Senators who are able to pay, than 
 those little chaps who need their wages to take 
 home. You ll treat them differently hereafter, or 
 I ll have you moved out of your cook shop, and 
 put someone else in it." That was enough. We 
 were treated differently after that. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 137 
 
 XVII. 
 
 CONTINUED DEBATE ON KANSAS AFFAIRS. 
 
 From all sides, from all angles, and from all 
 minds, came the outpourings of opinion in this 
 debate. If the Senate had nothing better to do, it 
 seemed quite ready at all times to fall back on 
 poor Kansas. It was a wide subject, as it proved, 
 because the consequences impending upon it were 
 grave, and involved many questions and drew 
 nearly all the Senate into the consideration of it. 
 There was defeat hanging in the balance on 
 either hand, as the contestants readily saw, defeat 
 not only on the admission of Kansas, but defeat 
 on the slavery issue aside from that; and it be 
 hove the most valiant knights in the lists to arm 
 themselves cap-a-pie, for the hardest conflict of 
 their day. 
 
 Now we turn toward Mr. Benjamin, who 
 throws more light upon this troublesome situation. 
 In all his speeches he displayed the skill of the 
 trained lawyer, the foresight of the statesman, 
 and the illumination of the Egyptian. Al 
 though not to be regarded as a great oration, 
 upon this occasion he spoke with some point and 
 originality and opened new vistas to the sight. 
 
 Mr. President, This is the third time within 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 the short history of our republic, that its peace 
 has been imperiled. Thrice already has the bond 
 which binds together the different States of the 
 Confederacy been menaced with disruption, and 
 on each occasion the disturbing element has been 
 the same. This Union, which, at the date of the 
 adoption of the Constitution, was formed by one 
 non-Slaveholding and twelve Slaveholding States, 
 now presents an array of sixteen of the former, 
 and only fifteen of the latter. Causes, which are 
 too obvious to require enumeration have oper 
 ated since the foundation of the Government in 
 producing the abolition of Slavery in the north 
 ern portion of the country. 
 
 On the first of these occasions, Mr. President, 
 in 1820, more than thirty years after the forma 
 tion of the Union, the North for the first time 
 endeavored to secure the admission of Maine into 
 the Union, while at the same time it attempted 
 to exclude Missouri, and that too in defiance of 
 the provisions of the treaty of Cession of 1803, 
 the words of which are that "the said Territory- 
 shall be admitted into the Union at the earliest 
 possible period consistently with principles of the 
 Federal Constitution." 
 
 The history of that controversy has been too 
 frequently and too thoroughly discussed on this 
 floor within the last two years to permit me to 
 dwell upon it at any length. I must, however, be 
 permitted to express my regret that the eminent 
 men who had charge of the interests of the South 
 at that time ever yielded their consent to a com 
 promise which in my judgment is contrary to the 
 true theory of the Constitution, irreconcilable 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 139 
 
 with a just regard to the principle of equity 
 amongst the States, and which as a mere measure 
 of policy, was totally inadequate to the end pro 
 posed of securing perfect harmony upon the 
 subject of a division between the different sec 
 tions of the Confederacy of that territory which 
 was common to all. It never answered its pur 
 poses not for a single year. Scarcely had it 
 been passed when it was broken by nearly every 
 Northern State. Whenever appealed to by the 
 South, it was scorned, derided, and repudiated. 
 When in 1850 we proposed the extension of its 
 principle to the territory acquired in the Mexican 
 war our proposition was contumeliously rejected. 
 When in 1854 we finally agreed to repeal in terms 
 that which for more than a quarter of a century 
 had ceased to have any active effect, it was made 
 use of as a subject of vituperation towards the 
 South. 
 
 We were accused of violating "plighted faith" 
 with very much the same regard for truth as 
 has recently been displayed on this floor in those 
 mendacious tales which have been brought to us 
 about the state of affairs in Kansas. 
 
 I repeat, Mr. President, the policy of seeking 
 for some other compromises than those which are 
 contained in the Constitution was a mistaken 
 policy on the part of the South. 
 
 The condition of the country this day shows 
 the fact. I thank Heaven that the South has at 
 length become aware of this mistake. She has 
 no longer any compromises to offer or accept. 
 She looks to those contained in the Constitution 
 itself. By them she will live; to them she will 
 
140 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 adhere; and if those provisions which are con 
 tained in it shall be violated to her wrong, then 
 she will calmly and resolutely withdraw from 
 a compact all the obligations of which she is 
 expected to scrupulously to fulfill, from all the 
 benefits of which she is ignominiously excluded. 
 Upon each of these occasions, long debate has 
 taken place upon the question of the power of 
 Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories 
 by law. The discussion on this subject has been 
 so full and thorough, every aspect in which it 
 is capable of being presented has been so minutely 
 examined, that I cannot detain the Senate by a 
 further discussion of it. This however I will say 
 that all admit that the power to legislate for the 
 Territories is nowhere given in express terms in 
 the Constitution. It is true, sir, that the honor 
 able Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale) 
 who opened the discussion on this subject, did say 
 something about that power being contained in a 
 clause of the Constitution which rests in Con 
 gress authority to dispose of public property. 
 The argument on that point, however, has been 
 so often refuted, and was on the occasion so 
 triumphantly answered by my friend from Geor 
 gia (Mr. Toombs) that it is entirely unnecessary, 
 to advert to it any further. Sir, I propose to 
 place this question on higher grounds than any 
 reference to the mere text of the Constitution. I 
 propose to seek for its true spirit ; to enquire into 
 the true theory; to look into the condition of 
 these States when the Constitution was framed; 
 and to see whether, from all the circumstances 
 that surrounded the adoption of the Constitution, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 141 
 
 it be possible that Congress can exercise the 
 power to exclude slaves from the Territories. In 
 connection with this subject, I desire to read a 
 passage from the speech of the Senator from 
 New York (Mr. Seward), who has given cur 
 rency to a fallacy which is popular, which was 
 briefly adverted to by my friend from Alabama, 
 (Mr. Clay), and I think deserving of some more 
 extended consideration. I read this passage from 
 that speech: 
 
 "Slavery is an outlaw under the law of Na 
 tions. Still further, the Constitution of the 
 United States has expressly incorporated into it 
 self all of the laws of comity, for regulating the 
 intercourse between independent States, which 
 it deems proper to adopt. Whatever is forbidden 
 expressly by the Constitution is unlawful, what 
 ever is not forbidden is lawful. 
 
 I maintain on the contrary, that the Constitu 
 tion may be just as flagrantly and palpably 
 violated by the abuse of powers expressly con 
 ceded as by the usurpation of powers expressly 
 prohibited. This is no novel doctrine. It obtains 
 not only under this Government; it has ever ob- 
 taind in all Governments in which Constitutions 
 and laws are not mere empty words. Let us take 
 up the Constitution, and examine some of its 
 clauses in illustration of my meaning. Congress 
 shall have power "to establish post offices and 
 post roads." 
 
 Suppose by an increase in the number of the 
 free States, they obtain control of the legislative 
 and executive departments and then proceed to 
 appropriate the money of the Government exclu- 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 sively for postal facilities in those States, refus 
 ing all appropriations to the others. It has power 
 to "erect forts, magazines, and arsenals." Sup 
 pose a Northern majority to use the common 
 fund of the Union for protecting its own coasts, 
 and to refuse all appropriations for that purpose 
 to the slaveholding States. 
 
 The President with the advice and consent of 
 the Senate, "Shall have power to appoint embas- 
 sadors, Judges of the Court and other public 
 officers." 
 
 Suppose all the officers of the Government to 
 be regularly and systematically selected from one 
 section of the country, which might possess a 
 preponderating power; that every judge, collec 
 tor, and postmaster required for service in the 
 South should be selected from the North. 
 
 Can any man doubt, sir, that in any of these 
 cases, the Constitution would be as clearly and 
 shamelessly violated by such an abuse of power 
 as it could possibly be by the usurpation of an 
 authority not granted? 
 
 Mr. President, quite recently across the At 
 lantic, in the country from which we derive most 
 of our law and liberty, an attempt was made by the 
 Queen to appoint to the House of Lords a single 
 peer, with a peerage for life. The power of the 
 Crown to appoint peers was undoubted; the 
 Ministry advised the appointment ; and yet oppo 
 sition was made in the House of Lords, and the 
 proposition was advanced, maintained, and sus 
 tained, that, although the prerogative of creating 
 peers existed, the exercise of it, by the creation 
 of a life peerage, was an abuse, and contrary to 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 143 
 
 the fundamental constitution of the Kingdom. 
 The Crown yielded, and the Lords triumphed. 
 Sir, look at your Declaration of Independence. 
 Upon what grounds was it that its immortal au 
 thor placed the right of the people of this country 
 to assert their independence, and to declare that 
 for the future they would hold the people of 
 Great Britain enemies in war; in peace friends? 
 Look at the entire list of grievances. There is 
 scarcely one of them that is the usurpation of an 
 unconstitutional power ; every one of them is the 
 abuse of an admitted Constitutional power. Upon 
 that principle your Revolution rests. And, sir, 
 it is not to-day, nor before a body like this, that 
 those who represent Southern interest are to be 
 told that the question is, whether a particular 
 power is granted by the terms of the Constitu 
 tion, without reference to its spirit All feel at. 
 once, sir, that the instances, which I have sug 
 gested would be gross abuses, entirely contrary 
 to that spirit. What, then, is the principle that 
 underlies that whole compact for our common 
 government, and which we should all instictively 
 feel to have been outraged by such abuses? It 
 is, sir, the equality of the free and independent 
 States which that instrument links together in a 
 common bond of union entire, absolute, com 
 plete, unqualified, equality equality as sover 
 eigns, equality in their rights, equality in their 
 duties. 
 
 This was the spirit that presided over the 
 formation of the Constitution; this is the living 
 spirit that breathes through every line of it ; this 
 
144 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 is the object professed by it of forming "a more 
 perfect union" 
 
 "Great were the thoughts, and strong the minds, 
 
 Of those who framed in high debate 
 The immortal league of love that binds 
 Our fair, broad empire State to State." 
 
 And now, sir when the struggle is narrowed 
 down to a contest between the Democratic and 
 Republican parties, I should be recreant to my 
 trust recreant to every principle of duty and 
 feeling of patriotism, if I allowed my conduct to 
 be influenced by the memory of past party ties, or 
 past party prejudices. On that question whose 
 paramount importance overshadows all others the 
 Democratic platform is identical with that of the 
 old Whig party, and in declaring my adhesion 
 to the former, I but change name not prin 
 ciple. I, sir, therefore declare my purpose 
 to join the Democratic party. I declare my 
 intention to use the utmost efforts of my 
 feeble abilities to insure its success. In its 
 triumph as triumph it assuredly will the 
 Constitution of my country will be secured 
 from the dangers with which it is menaced; 
 kind and brotherly feelings amongst the people 
 of all sections of the Confederacy will be re 
 stored; religious intolerance will be rebuked; the 
 equity of the States, the Kevstone of the arch of 
 the government fabric, will be preserved intact, 
 and peace and prosperity, and happiness will 
 smile on the land. Although coming to this de 
 termination, after long and anxious deliberation, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE P\GE 145 
 
 my own convictions alone would have sufficed to 
 dictate my course; it would be uncandid for me 
 not to say, that I feel encouragement from the 
 fact that other and abler, and better men than I 
 have taken the same view of their duty in this 
 crisis, which my own convictions have pointed out 
 to me. From all parts of the country, comes the 
 cheering intelligence, that gallant, and patriotic, 
 and highminded leaders of the old Whig party, 
 ever faithful to the conservative principles which 
 they have professed, are rallying to the defense 
 of the Constitution from the attack of its fanat 
 ical assailants. On which sides soever of this 
 Chamber I cast my eyes, I behold the men whom 
 the Whig party ever delighted to honor, lending 
 their courage and strength to the success of that 
 common cause, which we together have espoused. 
 Sir, the end is not yet; others will follow. The 
 time will come and come very soon sooner than 
 thev think. As the designs of the enemy become 
 more and more developed, the patriot band will 
 be augmented with fresh recruits. Yes, sir; let 
 the note of alarm be sounded through the land; 
 let the people only be informed ; let them be told 
 of the momentous crisis which is at hand; they 
 will rise in their might, placing their heel on the 
 head of the serpent that has glided into their 
 Eden, they will crush it to the earth, once and 
 forever. 
 
 The latter portion of Mr. Benjamin s speech 
 brought Mr. Hale to his feet with some amusing 
 remarks. 
 
 Mr. Hale: Mr. President, I do not intend to 
 go into this legal question at all, because I en- 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 deavored to get the floor before either of the 
 Senators on that point. Whenever I have occa 
 sion to quote legal authority on the subject of 
 slavery, I shall not go to the Supreme Court of 
 the United States which I have twice on this floor 
 pronounced to be a citadel of slavery, for which 
 I have been censured. I have practiced law some 
 what, and I have learned this one lesson never 
 go into the emeny s camps for witnesses. I will 
 abide by this lesson. But, sir, there was one re 
 mark of the Senator for Louisiana (Mr. Benja 
 min), to which I wish to call attention. I listened 
 to that honorable Senator with great pleasure, as 
 I always do, on account of his acknowledged abil 
 ity, his great eloquence, his very persuasive pow 
 ers, his mellifluous voice, his winning and grace 
 ful manner. All this only makes me regret that 
 he is in a wrong position. He did, however, 
 make to-day, one admission for which I thank 
 him (to use his own eloquent phrase), from my 
 heart of hearts! 
 
 When I saw members of that political com 
 munion to which he has joined himself, congratu 
 late him, I felt that I should like to recieve such 
 an accession. I know, that he will never be put 
 on probation, but he will be taken in right away 
 the first day; he will be admitted to the third 
 degree when he gives the first tap, (laughter), 
 there is no doubt about that. When I saw them 
 come up and congratulate him and themselves on 
 the occasion, as well they might, I wished to 
 congratulate the Republican party on just such 
 another accession. 
 
 There was one sentence which fell from hib 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 147 
 
 lips for which I thank him, and for which I con 
 gratulate him; and that is a declaration and ad 
 mission on the floor of the Senate, which I have 
 labored for ten years past to establish in the 
 hearts and minds of my northern friends. I have 
 spent days and nights, and words and breath, be 
 fore a northern constituency, to prove exactly the 
 proposition which to-day, thank God, is admitted 
 that on the question of slavery, Whigs and 
 Democrats all stand together. Sir, there has been 
 more breath spent in northern States before the 
 Anti-Slavery men to prove that, than I was go 
 ing to say, has been used in filling your Congres 
 sional Globe during the same time, but I know 
 that is an extravagant comparison. (Laughter.) 
 That has been the position I have taken year in 
 and year out. I have seen Whigs sit and listen 
 to it with the most complacent incredulity, saying, 
 "We don t believe a word of it." Sir, a sort of 
 convulsive shudder has come over their aristo 
 cratic countenance when the idea has been 
 broached to them that they are to sit down in the 
 same pen with the Locofocos* whom they have 
 been abusing all their lives. There has been no 
 
 *A nickname formerly given to a member of the 
 Democratic party ; first applied in 1834, to a por 
 tion of that party which held a meeting in Tam 
 many Hall, New York City, where there was 
 great diversity of sentiment, the chairman leaving 
 his seat and the lights being extinguished, with 
 the intention of dissolving the meeting, where 
 upon loco-foco matches being produced the lights 
 were restored and the wrangling continued. 
 
148 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 proposition that has been advanced before our 
 northern constituencies so abhorrent to these lead 
 ers as the fact, that, upon the great question the 
 only question in which politics has any sense or 
 meaning at the present day, Whigs and Demo 
 crats are just exactly the same thing. 
 
 After the long season of speech : making on 
 Kansas, and when the tide of ill-feeling ran high, 
 the time was propitious for Mr. Cass and Mr. 
 Crittenden, the oldest men in the Senate, to give 
 fatherly advice to the "boys," and summon them 
 to the country s relief, and imbue them with the 
 spirit that unites States, which things were para 
 mount to all other considerations attaching to the 
 subject, and wherein they all seemed to have 
 forgotten themselves. 
 
 Mr. Cass: I have heard this subject mentioned 
 repeatedly, but I never took any notice of it be 
 fore. It is said there is a difference of construc 
 tion between the North and the South on the 
 Kansas-Nebraska act. Necessarily it must be so ; 
 and if the honorable gentleman from Illinois 
 (Mr. Trumbull) could not see that, he was not 
 able to see very far into this millstone. 
 
 Those who believe that slavery goes to the 
 Territories under the Constitution proprio vigore, 
 of course believe that no power is given to the 
 Legislature to prohibit slavery. But those who 
 believe, as I do, that there is no such constitu 
 tional provision, believe of course, that the Ter 
 ritorial Legislature has the power to legislate on 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 149 
 
 this, as on any other subject. The difference does 
 not result from the words of that bill, but from 
 the nature of things. The North and the South 
 construe the Constitution differently. The South 
 consider that the Constitution gives them the 
 right of carrying their slaves anywhere in the 
 Territories. If they are right, you can give no 
 power to the Territorial Legislature to interfere 
 with them. The major part of the North believe 
 that the Constitution secures no such rights to 
 the South. They believe of course, that this pow 
 er is given to the Legislature. I repeat to the 
 honorable Senator from Illinois (Mr. Trumbull) 
 there is nothing equivocal in the act. The dif 
 ferent constructions of it result from no equivo 
 cation, of it, but from the fact that here is an 
 important constitutional question undetermined 
 by the Supreme Judicial authority, and in the 
 mean time individuals in different sections of the 
 Union put their own construction on it. We are 
 necessarily brought to that state of things. There 
 is no power which the Senator from Illinois can 
 use no words which he can put into an act of 
 Congress, that will remove the Constitutional 
 doubt until it is finally settled by the proper trib 
 unal. 
 
 The Senator says that it is contended by many 
 that the provisions of that bill have reference to 
 the power of the people when they are establish 
 ing a State government. Why, sir, when the 
 people are forming a State government they do 
 not come to Congress to get power to establish 
 their Constitution. They want no such power 
 from you. You have no right to give it. All the 
 
150 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 power you cap exercise on that point is to bring 
 them together; but when they are once brought 
 together they are totally independent of you. 
 When I refer to the principle of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska act, I mean the great principle of the 
 right of the people to legislate for themselves. 
 I have never heard any man deny the right of the 
 people of a State to allow slavery. I have heard 
 a Senator to-day say that if a State came here 
 with such a provision in her Constitution he 
 would not vote to admit her; but I did not hear 
 even him say that they had not the power to do 
 it. I have never known a man in this broad land 
 who denied the power of the people of any State 
 to insert in their Constitution a provision exclud 
 ing slavery. Then, that is no principle of the 
 Kansas act. It is all idle to talk of that being 
 the principal of that act. Sir, that is not a prin 
 cipal dependent on you. It belongs to the people 
 themselves. It is a portion of their rights which 
 you cannot take away. It is not given by this 
 act, nor secured by this act. It exists without the 
 act. 
 
 I say, again, that any doubts which arise upon 
 that bill result from the nature of things. Wheth 
 er you provided that what they did should be 
 subject to the Constitution of the United States 
 or not, always appeared to me to be perfectly im 
 material for a very plain reason. If you pass a 
 legislative act contrary to the Constitution, it is 
 void ; and it makes no difference whether or not 
 you provide that it shall be subject to the Con 
 stitution. The insertion of those words does not 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 151 
 
 strengthen one power. It does not create CT re 
 move a doubt. 
 
 Mr. Hale: I ask the attention of the Senator 
 from Michigan for a moment. I have heard 
 much about the "great principal of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska bill." The Senator from Michigan 
 says that great principle is not that the people 
 have the power to introduce or exclude slavery in 
 the formation of a State Constitution. Will he 
 be kind enough to tell me what the great principle 
 of that bill is? 
 
 Mr. Cass: The honorable gentleman might 
 have saved himself that question. I have already 
 said, the great principle of that bill is the recogni 
 tion of the people of a Territory to legislate for 
 themselves over all subjects not prohibited by the 
 Constitution. That act first embodied these 
 words in our Statute book. That is all there 
 is of it. 
 
 The great principal of that pact, in my opinion, 
 is the principal which, on the 24 of December, 
 1622, your ancestors and mine adopted the day 
 before they landed at Plymouth beach. As I ob 
 served the other day, it was quite a child then, 
 but it grew up on the 4th of July, 1776, to be a 
 man. Lord North then the Senator from New 
 Hampshire now calls it squatter sovereignty, 
 and endeavors to slur it over; but let me tell 
 him that it is not to be beaten down by any 
 epithet. I call it the right of man to govern 
 himself. 
 
152 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Mr. Crittenden. Sir, we hear the dissolution 
 of the Union talked about as eminently depending 
 upon our proceedings. I am sure it is as painful 
 to many others, as it is to me, to hear this sort 
 of argument in terromem so frequently applied. 
 There is no argument upon any subject of con 
 sequence nowadays, particularly if it touches the 
 Constitution, which is very apt in our discussions, 
 to take place, but that the weakest, as well as the 
 most powerful arguments, are always reinforced 
 by this sort of threat or menace of a dissolution 
 of the Union do this, that, or the other, and 
 the Union will be dissolved. It is a sort of 
 thunder of all political orders, here and else 
 where, and in this country there is more of that 
 sort used than ever Jupiter Tonans himself pos 
 sessed and used, though, perhaps, with less effect, 
 with more freedom an-d upon smaller occasions a 
 great deal than ever his thunders were. If he 
 had used it with half the prodigality that this 
 sort of thunder is used in our rhetoric, it would 
 have been difficult to supply him with it. Sir, 
 this Union is not that fragile sort of thing that is 
 supposed by some. I have an idea that it is a very 
 powerful, deepseated, and enduring structure 
 with us. Who is there to destroy it? Who de 
 sires to destroy it? The greatest danger appre 
 hended by a number, I believe, is, that the ex 
 treme sensibility of the North upon the subject of 
 Slavery, is the feeling in the country which en 
 dangers the value as well as the perpetuity of this 
 Union. The South is talked about as aggressive. 
 Why, sir, the wolf might as well talk about the 
 lamb being aggressive ! You are aggressive ; you 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 153 
 
 are the most powerful in numbers, the most pow 
 erful in representation, the great dominant por 
 tion of the United States. As those relative 
 proportions are likely to be kept up, who is the 
 most likely to be the aggressor? All that the 
 South desires, is to possess her rights in peace. 
 It would be a very poor policy for her, by aggres 
 sion, to keep up a continual agitation on the sub 
 ject of Slavery. It is in reference to that dan- 
 generous subject that she is particularly solicitous 
 to keep quiet, and to keep the subject quiet. She 
 does not doubt her ability to maintain her rights 
 in respect to it but she desires to enjoy those 
 rights in fraternal peace with all the other parts 
 of the Union. Gentlemen of the North think that 
 the South desire to extend slavery; that that is 
 a predominant feeling in their hearts. Gentlemen 
 I can say to you in great sincerity, that you are 
 entirely mistaken on that point. That is not the 
 anxiety of the South. It does not occupy the 
 thoughts of one man out of ten thousand, half a 
 day in the year. I will tell you what is the 
 anxiety of the South. That our fellow-citizens 
 consider it as a reproach against the South that 
 they hold slaves; that the North desires to refuse 
 to them their equal and common participation in 
 the enjoyment and settlements of public lands of 
 the United States, which they regard as common 
 right, and the inheritance of all that is an incident 
 of that common right for them to go there with 
 their slaves, as you go there with your property. 
 This they consider to be right and equitable. If 
 you and I own a tract of land, and you dislike 
 slavery, and I am free to have it, can you com- 
 
154 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 plain that I have slaves to cultivate my part of 
 it, while you prefer white labor for yours ? You 
 will have no right to complain. But I do not 
 intend to argue with you any question upon 
 this subject. This Union is a thing not easily 
 dissolved ; but I grant you it may be worn into, as 
 they say a constant attrition wears away a rock, 
 But I do not believe that that attrition is to go on. 
 I believe in the intelligence of the people of every 
 quarter of this Union. Instead of exaggerating 
 this question of slavery in Kansas, and consider 
 ing it as a question which will dissolve the Union, 
 if a man will sit down, divest himself of all ex 
 citement on the subject, and look at it, and ask 
 himself of what consequence it is to me, and to 
 this great Republic of thirty-one States, soon to 
 be many more, whether Kansas is admitted as a 
 free State or a Slave State, in that point of view 
 it is a question of much less importance than we 
 regard it, or as it regards any national interest. 
 Let the people of Kansas decide this question 
 of slavery for themselves ; let them decide it free 
 ly and fairly; let there be no invasion of their 
 rights ; allow no one to be driven from the polls ; 
 give them a fair election and that at any period 
 of time in the future which may be thought best 
 to suit the free expression of their will ; wait un 
 til the time shall come, until the means of protec 
 tion in the exercise of the right shall be seen to 
 be sound and effectual, and until there shall be a 
 population there competent to form a State, and 
 competent to decide this great question. Talk 
 about Squatter Sovereignty! If this Topeka 
 Convention is not the most illustrious case of it 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 153 
 
 ever seen, I am mistaken. Before squatter 
 sovereignty was confined by our own laws, and 
 a sense of right, but here, constitution-making is 
 to be governed by squatter sovereignty. I do not 
 believe in it all. There is a people of the United 
 States. That is my sovereignty. This Territory 
 belongs to the people of the United States, and 
 we are here to preserve and maintain that sover 
 eignty and that dominion. The lands are ours. 
 The people are there by our permission, and not 
 otherwise. The people are there with such polit 
 ical rights as we under the Constitution, may ex 
 tend to them, and no more. That is my view of 
 that question. Sir, I have said more already than 
 I intended to say upon the subject. I wish the 
 Union to be preserved. I wish it to be preserved 
 in its spirit. I wish to preserve it by the love and 
 affection of every section of the country, not only 
 for their constitution but for one another, and a 
 man reproaching his fellow-citizens for holding 
 this or that description of property, sanctioned 
 and authorized by law. Ours is a political con 
 nection. Ours is a political compact; and that 
 instrument settles all our rights of property and 
 we ought to be content to abide by that compact 
 in its spirit, and not undertake to confine it be 
 cause we chose to nurture in our bosoms a particu 
 lar sensibility about this, that, or the other theory 
 in regard to property authorized by the Constitu 
 tion. These things ought to be wiped away in or 
 der to give full sway for American feeling and 
 the union of the American heart. For my single 
 self, I, and I will say for my constituents also, we 
 stand by the Union. That is our place There 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 we stand and there we will stand. We will 
 maintain to the last. We shall expect our rights 
 to be respected. We desire to live in the bonds 
 of amity as well as in the bonds of Constitutional 
 law. The portion of the Union holding slaves is 
 not the aggressive portion of the Union. The 
 very statement of the case would show that it 
 cannot be, and it is the greatest folly upon earth, 
 a perfect fatuity, to say it. They want security. 
 That is what they desire. They are not in the 
 attitude of aggression. They are in the attitude of 
 a party upon which aggression is to be made, and 
 who may have cause to fear it. They want no 
 controversy whatever with their fellow-citizens 
 of any section of the Union. This is all that I 
 have to say, the result of it all is, that the remedy 
 proposed by the gentleman from New York is an 
 impracticable one, it is unreasonable as I think, 
 and ought not to be passed. It is dangerous, im 
 proper, and unreasonable, and cannot therefore 
 be passed, but if the gentleman will, because his 
 favored measure cannot be passed, refuse all re 
 lief to Kansas he must bear the evils upon her. 
 She is remediless . . . and so far as regards 
 the votes of those gentlemen who may take that 
 position, I think they are unjustified by true pol 
 icy or by a true sense of duty, however they may 
 regard it in taking such a ground. 
 
 It was after this that Judge Clayton delivered 
 a great speech in advocacy of compromise 
 measures. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 157 
 
 XVIII. 
 CLAYTON: SCHOLAR AND STATESMAN. 
 
 Senator Bayard (James A. Bayard of Dela 
 ware), declared that he did not believe a jury 
 lawyer superior to Clayton had ever lived in this 
 country. In the court-room, with his full powers 
 exerted toward winning his case, he was grand. 
 Personal attractiveness and intellectual endow 
 ments, counter-balanced by a tall, commanding 
 figure and fine countenance, made him a counsel 
 without rival, and one much sought after. He 
 was first elected to the Senate from Delaware, in 
 1829, at the age of thirty-three; and was the 
 youngest member of that body. Being a Yale 
 graduate and a scholar of high attainments, he 
 became an impressive speaker on the floor of the 
 Senate, employing elegant and forceful language, 
 delivered in an easy, graceful style. His career 
 was distinguished throughout; his statesmanship 
 was of international renown, and the State of 
 Delaware bestowed upon him every honor within 
 her gift. 
 
 President Taylor, recognizing his fitness for 
 high place, induced him to accept the portfolio of 
 State in his cabinet, which post he graced with 
 pronounced ability; but upon the death of the 
 president, Mr. Clayton retired from publice life. 
 
158 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 Having negotiated the famous Clayton-Bul- 
 wer treaty with Great Britain, an attack upon 
 it in the Senate in 1853, aroused the people of 
 Delaware to such a pitch, that both houses of 
 the Legislature met at once and returned him to 
 his old seat, that he might meet his assailants 
 upon equal ground. He remained a member un 
 til 1856, when he passed away quietly at his home. 
 
 With his keen sense of penetration, he foresaw 
 the difficulties that later arose over Kansas affairs, 
 and in July 1856, spoke upon the question and 
 revolved it, so to speak, in the light of compro 
 mise. 
 
 Mr. Clayton: Mr. President, as I now find a 
 large majority of the Senate present, I must be 
 pardoned for addressing them on the topics con 
 nected with this bill. I feel deep anxiety on these 
 subjects. I have never known a period, from the 
 first day I entered this Hall when I thought the 
 country is in so much danger as I believe it to 
 be at the present moment. It is my most anxious 
 desire to offer whatever I can to gentlemen on 
 both sides of the Chamber, to induce them to 
 compromise the differences between the northern 
 and southern sections of the country. "Compro 
 mise"! Alas, sir, this day I have heard that 
 word, which always heretofore dear to every true 
 American statesman spoken of with contumely 
 and contempt. I have been this day told the 
 period for compromising is passed. Sir, if the 
 period for compromising is passed, this Repub 
 lic will soon pass away with it. The Constitution 
 of this country itself was but a compromise. We 
 have been told by the fathers of the country that 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 159 
 
 no one man came out of the Convention which 
 formed the Constitution, who had not opposition 
 to some section or clause in it. Sir, the whole 
 world is full of compromises, and chaos would 
 come again without them. Every law we pass is 
 but a compromise. No man in civil society no 
 man even in a despotic government, has ever yet 
 been permitted to have his own way. No man 
 in this Nation, not even the "Father of his Coun 
 try/ was ever permitted to dictate his own terms 
 in every particular in the passage of any measure 
 in Congress or Convention. We vote every day 
 for some measure, to some portion of which we 
 have objections ; but we vote on every proposition 
 in view, and are governed by the consideration of 
 the good to be derived from the whole of it. 
 Every treaty made between two nations is but a 
 compromise. Men could not live together in civil 
 society, they could not associate in public or priv 
 ate life, without compromising every day ; and if 
 we have arrived at the determination that we will 
 never again compromise, we may as well throw 
 our Constitution to the winds, and consider the 
 Republic at an end. 
 
 Sir, I hope the honorable gentlemen from New 
 York and Massachusetts will yet take the true 
 and only legitimate and proper view of the ques 
 tion which is now really before us. They say, 
 and for the sake of the argument, though I know 
 nothing officially of the facts, I mean now to 
 admit, that the Legislative Assembly of Kansas 
 was elected by the people of Missouri, they say 
 that, out of six thousand, two hundred votes, four 
 thousand nine hundred were from that State, and 
 
160 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 one thousand four hundred and twenty from the 
 Territory itself. Now grant all that, yet does it 
 follow as a legal influence or as a fair and just 
 one, that you must for that reason strike out of 
 existence all the laws passed by that Legislature ? 
 You say the Legislative authority in Kansas was 
 a rank usurpation. Grant it. 
 
 What has been the rule that has governed those 
 ancestors from whom we have derived not only 
 our descent, but our common law, and all those 
 great fundamental principles upon which we have 
 built up our own government? What has been 
 the rule in our own country, as well as in Eng 
 land, in regard to laws passed by bodies usurping 
 power, or whose power had been subverted ? Go 
 back even to the time when the Normans con 
 quered the Saxon, and produced and entire revo 
 lution in England. When the Plantagenets 
 ascended the throne of England, were all the 
 Anglo-Saxon laws abolished, and swept away? 
 Not at all. They were reformed, but their au 
 thority as laws was solemnly recognized and con 
 firmed. The historian informs us that "the 
 States of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, with the 
 provincial customs, were acknowledged and re 
 peatedly confirmed." 
 
 When the Plantagenets ceased to exist when 
 Richard the III. fell upon the field of Bosworth, 
 a id the Tudors came into power, did they, though 
 they considered Richard a usurper, for that rea 
 son abolish all the laws he had made? On the 
 contrary, did they not continue all the just laws 
 of that and other reigns, although the govern 
 ment of the New King was predicted upon the 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 161 
 
 belief that the reign of Richard was a usurpation 
 from the commencement to the close of it? Com 
 ing down, then, in the history of England to the 
 days when the Stuarts were first driven from the 
 throne for ursurpation and tyranny; when 
 Charles the I. was beheaded ; when Oliver Crom 
 well succeeded him though that government was 
 treated as a tyranny. Yet did they abolish all 
 the laws made during that tyranny ? Take a still 
 stronger and plainer case, and more analogous, if 
 you choose; when Cromwell died, Charles II. 
 succeeded him, did those who had considered the 
 government of Cromwell as a sheer usurpation, 
 from the beginning to the end of it, abolish all 
 the laws passed in the days of the Protectorate? 
 Though Cromwell was, at the time, universally 
 denounced as a traitor and usurper, and his dead 
 body was disinterred, suspended on a gibbet, and 
 then buried at the foot of it, no one offered to 
 abolish all the laws enacted during the Protector 
 ate. And such has been the result of every revo 
 lution in England. In 1688, another revolution 
 occurred. A more abhorred tyrant was never 
 driven from a throne than the last of the Stuarts. 1 
 Yet all the laws and ordinances of his reign were 
 not swept away. When the American Colonies 
 achieved their independence, their revolution wasj 
 not followed by the abrogation of all laws which 
 had been enacted during the existence of the 
 British domination. The rule among nations and 
 statesmen is, when laws considered salutary and 
 useful to society have been passed by a usurper or 
 tyrant, instead of what is now claimed, that the 
 legitimate consequence of the usurpation or 
 
1 62 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 tyranny is the abrogation of all the laws, the just 
 consequence is, a repeal of all the unjust and 
 oppressive laws, and a retention of all that are 
 just and salutary. Suffer all to stand that are 
 deemed by you for the benefit of all the public, 
 and reform those that you consider unjust, 
 oppressive, or inexpedient. Sir, that is the true 
 principle by which we should be guided and gov 
 erned now. 
 
 I cannot, therefore, concur with the honorable 
 gentlemen from Massachusetts and New York in 
 abrogating all the laws of Kansas. If they should 
 prove by thousands of witnesses, that the Legis 
 lative Council was elected exclusively by Missou- 
 rians, and that there was not a single inhabitant 
 of Kansas at the election, still, for the good of 
 the whole country and especially for the benefit 
 of the people of the Territory, we must suffer 
 those laws that are for the public good to remain. 
 Otherwise we abandon all precedents, and disre 
 gard all the wisdom of our British ancestors and 
 of our own fathers and leave the Territory in 
 Anarchy. 
 
 The reader having followed the course of 
 reminiscence to this page, it now falls upon me 
 to speak to him between the lines. He has con 
 scientiously pushed back the hands of the clock 
 until they bespoke the time of our narrative ; and 
 as the characters, plaintively recalling almost for 
 gotten days, entered upon the stage, the touch as 
 of a magic hand seemed to bring enchantment 
 over all the surroundings, and he began to 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 163 
 
 breathe the atmosphere of a departed age. How 
 agreeable was that old time, when men were not 
 so swiftly pursuing wealth as now, and more time 
 was given to the exercise and enjoyment of 
 things upon which lofty sentiment was built. It 
 was an age when high value was placed upon 
 merit whenever found, and men were chosen 
 where now other natures force their way. So 
 many things were different in the political arena. 
 The party issues were clear, then, and party lines 
 sharply drawn. There is an anecdote which 
 illustrates how strong was the feeling down in 
 East Tennessee. William G. Browlow, the 
 "Fighting Parson" was a Whig, and "old 
 Father Aiken/ an eccentric Methodist preacher, 
 a Democrat. The two attended a camp meeting; 
 Browlow preached, and Aiken offered prayer. 
 In the prayer Aiken besought the Lord to for 
 give the sins of the people, to deliver them from 
 every evil. "O Lord," he prayed, "deliver us 
 from Whiggery." "God, forbid!" shouted 
 Browlow. Turning to him, Aiken said, "Billy, 
 keep still when I am praying." 
 
 The Whig party had about dissolved in 1856. 
 There were but two members of it in the Senate, 
 namely, Crittenden and Bell. These two political 
 orphans, never allied themselves to either the 
 Democrats or Republicans. 
 
164 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE LECOMPTON SWINDLE. 
 
 One evening in March, 1858, the Senate 
 Chamber was brilliantly illuminated, the galler 
 ies overflowed with the tide of crinoline, silk, 
 and satin ; the array of the beauty and fashion of 
 the Capitol was of a festal order, for word had 
 gone forth that "Douglas speaks to-night," and 
 Douglas was the idol of the day. "The Little 
 Giant" came in a moment or two before 7 
 o clock, and proceeding to his seat was greeted 
 by an outburst of wildest applause. 
 
 In his speech this night he was going to an 
 tagonize the President. It was a hard fight he 
 was having with this bill, and all his energies 
 were being put to the severest test. The con 
 stitution of Kansas which had been drafted at 
 Lecompton, and under which the State would 
 have entered the Union with the "shackles of 
 slavery," had been rejected by a popular vote in 
 the Territory, as it did not embody the will of 
 the people. President Buchanan, following the 
 course of his predecessor Pierce, yielded to the 
 pro-slavery contestants, and supported this Le 
 compton act, which was a fraud, pure and simple. 
 
 With all the vehemence, disdain, and boldness, 
 of his style, and all the fire of his soul, Douglas, 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 165 
 
 the Demosthenes, making the ablest effort of his 
 life, aroused the throng that filled all available 
 space, to continued and uncontrollable enthusi 
 asm. After a brief review of his career in 
 Congress, he touched upon the Compromise of 
 1850, then assailed the Lecompton Constitution 
 as being contrary to the wish of the people of 
 Kansas, and finally referred to the Executive in 
 fluence brought to bear. His tones rang clear 
 like the blast of a trumpet, and he showed no 
 fatigue at any period. A portion of his speech 
 follows : 
 
 "Sirs, I do not recognize the right of the 
 President or his Cabinet, no matter what my 
 respect may be for them, to tell me my duty in 
 the Senate Chamber. The President has his 
 duty to perform under the Constitution; and he 
 is responsible to his constituency. A Senator 
 has his duties to perform here under the Con 
 stitution and according to his oath; and he is 
 responsible to the Sovereign State which he 
 represents as his constituency. A member of the 
 House of Representatives has his duties under 
 the Constitution and his oath; and he is respon 
 sible to the people that elected him. 
 
 The President has no more right to prescribe 
 tests to Senators than Senators have to the 
 President. Suppose we here should attempt to 
 prescribe a test of faith to the President of the 
 United States; would he not rebuke our im 
 pertinence and imprudence as subversive of the 
 fundamental principles of the Constitution? 
 Would he not tell us that the Constitution and 
 his oath and his conscience were his guide; that 
 
1 66 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 we must perform our duties, and he would per 
 form his, and let each be responsible to his own 
 constituency? Sir? Whenever the time comes 
 that the President of the United States can 
 change the allegiance of the Senators from the 
 State to himself, what becomes of the Sov 
 ereignty of the States? When the time comes 
 that a Senator is to account to the Executive 
 and not to his State, whom does he represent? 
 If the will of my State is one way, and the will 
 of the President is the other, am I to be told that 
 I must obey the Executive and betray my State, 
 or else be branded as a traitor to the party, and 
 be hunted down by all the newspapers that share 
 the patronage of the Government and every man 
 who holds a petty office in any part of my State 
 to have the question put to him, "Are you 
 Douglas enemy?" if not, "your head comes off." 
 Why? "Because he is a recreant Senator; be 
 cause he chooses to follow his judgment and his 
 conscience, and represent his State instead of 
 obeying my executive request." I should like 
 to know what is the use of Congress, what is the 
 use of Senates and Houses of Representatives, 
 when their highest duty is to obey the Executive 
 in disregard of the wishes, rights and honor of 
 their constituents. What despotism on earth 
 would be equal to this, if you establish the doc 
 trine that the Executive has a right to command 
 the votes, the consciences, the judgments of the 
 Senators and of the Representatives, instead of 
 their constituents? In Old England, whose 
 oppressions we thought intolerable, an Admin 
 istration is hurled from power in an hour when 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 167 
 
 voted down by the representatives of the people 
 on a Government measure. If the rule of Old 
 England applied here, this Cabinet would have 
 gone out of office when the Army bill was voted 
 down, the other day, in the House of Repre 
 sentatives. There, in that monarchical country, 
 where they have a Queen by divine right, and 
 lords by the grace of God, and wnere repub 
 licanism is supposed to have but a slight foot 
 hold, the representatives of the people can check 
 the Throne, restrain the Government and change 
 the Ministry, and give a new direction to the 
 policy of the Government, without being ac 
 countable to the King or the Queen. There the 
 representatives of the people are responsible to 
 their constituents. Across the Channel, under 
 Louis Napoleon, it may be otherwise; yet I 
 doubt whether it would be so boldly proclaimed 
 there that a man is a traitor for claiming to vote 
 according to his sense of duty, according to the 
 will of his State, according to the interests of 
 
 his constituents 
 
 Is it seriously intended to brand every Demo 
 crat in the United States as a traitor who is 
 opposed to the Lecompton Constitution? If so, 
 do your friends in Pennsylvania desire any 
 traitors to vote with them next fall? We are 
 traitors if we vote against Lecompton; our con 
 stituents are traitors if they do not think Le 
 compton is right; and yet you expect those 
 whom you call traitors to vote with and sustain 
 you? Are you to read out of the party every 
 man who thinks it wrong to force a constitu 
 tion on a people against their will? If so, what 
 
1 68 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 will be the size of the Administration party in 
 New York? what will it be in Pennsylvania? 
 how many will it number in Ohio, or in 
 Indiana, or in Illinois, or in any other northern 
 State ? Surely you do not expect the support of 
 those whom you brand as renegades! Would it 
 not be well to allow all freemen, freedom of 
 thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of 
 action ? Would it not be well to allow each Sen 
 ator and Representative to vote according to his 
 judgment, and perform his duty according to his 
 own sense of his obligation to himself, and to 
 his State, and to his God? 
 
 For my own part, Mr. President, come what 
 may, I intend to vote, speak and act, according 
 to my own sense of duty, so long as I hold a seat 
 in this Chamber. I have no defense to make of 
 my Democracy. I have no profession to make 
 of my fidelity. I have no vindication to make 
 of my course. Let it speak for itself. 
 
 The insinuations that I am acting with the 
 Republicans, or Americans, has no tenor and 
 will not drive me from my duty or propriety. It 
 is an argument for which I have no respect. 
 When I saw the Senator from Virginia acting 
 with the Republicans on the neutrality laws, in 
 support of the President, I did not feel it to be 
 my duty to taunt him with voting with those to 
 whom he happened to be opposed in general 
 politics. When I saw the Senator from Georgia 
 acting with the Republicans upon the Army bill, 
 it did not impair my confidence in his fidelty to 
 principle. When I see Senators here every day 
 acting with the Republicans on various ques- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 169 
 
 tions, it only shows me that they have indepen 
 dence and self-respect enough to go according 
 to their own convictions of duty without being 
 influenced by the course of others. I have no 
 professions to make on any of these points. I 
 intend to perform my duty in accordance with 
 my own convictions. Neither the frowns of 
 power nor the influence of patronage will change 
 my action, or drive me from my principles. I 
 stand firmly, immovably upon those great prin 
 ciples of self-government and State Sovereignty, 
 upon which the campaign was fought and the 
 election won. I stand by the time-honored 
 principles of the Democratic party, illustrated by 
 Jefferson and Jackson ; those principles of State 
 rights, of State Sovereignty, of strict construc 
 tion, on which the great Democratic party has 
 ever stood. I will stand by the Constitution of 
 the United States, with all its compromises, and 
 perform all my obligations under it. I will 
 stand by the American Union as it exists under 
 the Constitution. If standing firmly by my 
 principles, I shall be driven into private life, it 
 is a fate that has no terrors for me. I prefer 
 private life, preserving my own self-respect and 
 manhood, to abject and servile submission to 
 executive will. I am prepared to retire. Official 
 position has no charms for me when deprived of 
 that freedom of thought and action which a 
 gentleman and Senator should have. 
 
 Mr. President, I owe an apology to the Sen 
 ate for the desultory manner in which I have 
 discussed this question. My health has been so 
 feeble for some time past, that I have not been 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 able to arrange my thoughts or the order in 
 which they should be presented. If, in the heat 
 of debate I have expressed a sentiment which 
 would seem to be unkind or disrespectful to any 
 Senator, I shall regret it. While I intend to 
 maintain, firmly and fearlessly, my own views, 
 far be it from me to impugn the motives or 
 question the propriety of the action of any other 
 Senator. I take it for granted that each Senator 
 will obey the dictates of his own conscience, and 
 will be accountable to his constituents for the 
 course he may think proper to pursue. 
 
 The Lecompton meeting resulted in a fraud 
 constitution, and the State of Kansas would 
 have become a fact by the vote of 33 as against 
 25, in the United States Senate; but the bill 
 failed of passage in the House of Representa 
 tives, and therefore, it was not until later, in the 
 year 1861, that Kansas was admitted to the 
 Union, and then it was upon a structure exclud 
 ing slavery. It was a matter of much gratifica 
 tion to the northern men (Republicans) that 
 Douglas voted steadily with them against the 
 admission of the State under the Lecompton act. 
 
 Before the question was put to a vote there 
 was much delay, and this delay brought some 
 very apt remarks from the witty Mr. Hale, who 
 said: 
 
 We all know what to-morrow means legisla 
 tively. I remember when I first came into the 
 House of Representatives a good while ago, a 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 171 
 
 motion was introduced, and some gentlemen 
 moved to postpone it until to-morrow. It was 
 a new member who had made the motion, and 
 he objected. An old member sat by him, and 
 said it was only until to-morrow. The young 
 man gave up, and that to-morrow he did not 
 reach for three months. The proposition here 
 is to postpone this matter until to-morrow. 
 
 Mr. Green: Will the Senator permit me to 
 ask him if it is in that view that he moves to 
 postpone the Minnesota bill until to-morrow? 
 (Laughter). 
 
 Mr. Hale: I do not move to postpone it to 
 any particular time, but to put it aside for the 
 purpose of deciding this question. I want to 
 follow the organ of the Committee on Territories 
 as far as I can with safety; and I do not know 
 that that would be a great way. (Laughter). 
 His zeal seemed to be to hurry up Kansas, so 
 that Minnesota should not overtake her; now it 
 seems that they have got Kansas along to such 
 a place that they have concluded to put her up 
 to the stall, and let her stand until Minnesota 
 comes up and goes ahead. I object to it. I feel 
 just as patriotic now as I did last Thursday. 
 There has been no change in me; none at all. I 
 feel just as desirous to do justice to Kansas now 
 as I did then. If there are any reasons any 
 particular reasons of a public character let 
 them be stated ; and if there are any of a private 
 character I should like to hear them. I would 
 not call any man to order if he should state 
 private reasons. I would not object to any man 
 saying something like this if he chose: "There 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 are some arguments that I want to address to 
 some members of the House, that it will not do 
 to address in open debate ; and I want the thing 
 kept open until I can have an opportunity of 
 talking privately with some gentlemen and press 
 ing upon their private ear some considerations 
 which are not proper or not expedient to be ad 
 dressed in open debate." We all know, or per 
 haps we do not all know it, but it is a fact, that 
 it is a part of the discipline of some churches, 
 when there is a recusant member, to go out with 
 him privately, before they can take public steps; 
 to give private admonition before public censure 
 comes; and I would not object if anything of 
 that sort were in the way; but I think we owe 
 it to the country, we owe it to ourselves, we owe 
 it to our reputation, to assign some plausible 
 reason why we have got over the haste that 
 impeded us forward last week. What new 
 feature is there? The news of the Connecticut 
 election, of course, has nothing to do with it 
 not the slightest (Laughter). What possible 
 object can there be in postponing, from day to 
 day, a subject about which we were in such hot 
 haste a little while ago? Why, sir, a few weeks 
 ago we were in such a hurry to dispose of 
 Kansas that we had to sit up here until morning 
 light; until six o clock in the morning. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden. The business was pressing at 
 that time? 
 
 Mr. Hale. Yes, sir, public business was press 
 ing then; and it has been pressing up to a 
 certain point, and I should like to know where 
 is the point, and what is the occasion? It used 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 173 
 
 to be a maxim of the old philosophers that the 
 atmospheric pressure would sustain a hydraulic 
 column of thirty-three feet; and it puzzled the 
 philosophers to tell why the pressure of the 
 atmosphere would sustain a hydraulic column of 
 thirty-three feet and would not sustain it any 
 higher. The reason assigned was, That Nature 
 abhorred a vacuum, but when it got up to thirty- 
 three feet she ceased to abhor a vacuum. 
 (Laughter.) Now, sir, have we got to that point 
 where we cease to abhor a vacuum in legisla 
 tion? 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE ADVERSARY OF DOUGLAS. 
 
 When the news reached the Capitol that 
 James S. Green, of Missouri, had been elected to 
 the Senate, a Missouri representative in the 
 House said, " The Little Giant will meet his 
 match now." Green knew more law than nine- 
 tenths of the men who came to the Senate. His 
 speeches were bristling with legal points, and as 
 a debater he was a foeman to be feared. He 
 was a tall, gaunt man, rather awkward withal, 
 with a countenance that showed him to be a 
 thinker. He was droll in his way, and had a 
 habit of dwelling upon the word "and" with his 
 long finger extended, giving a peculiar emphasis 
 to the remainder of the sentence. 
 
 He soon began the attack on Mr. Douglas, and 
 in December, 1857, delivered a speech with a 
 facility of argument that displayed strength and 
 skill, equal to that of some of the best among 
 his hearers. 
 
 Mr. Green: Mr. President, when on Wed 
 nesday last, the honorable Senator from Illinois 
 (Mr. Douglas) addressed the Senate, I was 
 completely taken by surprise. I was surprised 
 not only that he should have made his remarks 
 at that time, but I was still more surprised at 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 175 
 
 the manner and the matter of the speech. He 
 himself stated, if I recollect correctly, that the 
 President had made no recommendation on the 
 subject of Kansas. It is a fact known by us 
 all that no application on the part of Kansas was 
 before Congress in any shape. If therefore, 
 there was neither an Executive recommendation 
 nor an application upon the part of Kansas 
 wherefore should the subject have been thrust 
 on the attention of the country? When practical 
 action is required on the part of Senators, the 
 views of Senators are expected to be elicited; 
 but when neither an Executive recommendation 
 required any practical action, nor any applica 
 tion on the part of Kansas had been made, it 
 seemed to be most extraordinary that we should 
 be compelled to engage in an abstract discussion 
 with no reference to practical results. It is not 
 my purpose to inquire into the motive of the 
 honorable Senator. I am willing to concede, as 
 I do, that it was patriotic; but I must think it 
 very improper. It was well calculated to preju 
 dice the question now pending before the people 
 of Kansas. 
 
 An election is to be held on the 2ist of this 
 month, and the public mind was prepared to see 
 the people go forward and express their prefer 
 ences for and against, as the question may be 
 presented to them; but his speech going as a 
 counter manifesto to the just and fair message 
 of the Executive of this Government, is well 
 calculated, though no doubt not designed, to 
 prejudice that question before the people of 
 Kansas, as well as before the people of the 
 
176 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 country. But, sir, whether the question has 
 rightfully or wrongfully brought up for consid 
 eration, it is now before us ; and justice to the 
 Executive, justice to the question itself, justice 
 to the people of Kansas, and justice to my own 
 State, which cannot fail to feel a deep interest 
 in the proper adjustment and final settlement of 
 the question, require that I should meet, and, as 
 far as I may be able, counteract the positions 
 assumed by the honorable Senator from Illinois. 
 
 The honorable Senator from Illinois sets out 
 with imputing to the President a "fundamental 
 error." Before we can discuss we must have 
 the issue presented. Before our arguments can 
 have a practical bearing on the question before 
 the Senate, it is necessary that we should under 
 stand what that question is. In what, according 
 to the positions assumed by the Senator from 
 Illinois, does this "fundamental error," consist? 
 I understand him to say that the "fundamental 
 error," into which he charged the President with 
 having fallen, is that the President says there 
 was no law in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in the 
 Constitution of the country, or in the common 
 usages of the Government, that made it oblig 
 atory on the convention of Kansas to submit 
 their constitution to a subsequent vote of the 
 people. This is the imputed "fundamental 
 error," to that point I shall direct the attention 
 of the Senate. 
 
 It is not for me to say whether the propriety 
 of the submission of the slave branch of that 
 constitution to a separate vote ought to have 
 been considered by the Executive or not. I 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 177 
 
 choose not to trace in the course of his reasoning 
 on the subject. I choose rather to notice the 
 conclusion at which he has arrived a conclusion 
 that promises a full adjustment of this whole 
 question; that promises peace to the country; 
 that promises satisfaction to the North, and to 
 the South; and that promises to remove a bone 
 of contention over which the public mind has 
 been too much harassed for the last several 
 years. The real practical question, then, which 
 we have to consider is this ; ought Kansas, when 
 her Constitution shall be presented, be admitted 
 into the Union? or ought the consideration of 
 what the honorable Senator from Illinois calls 
 a "fundamental error," of the President to be 
 deemed a sufficient reason to keep Kansas out of 
 the Union, and to keep this most unfortunate 
 subject still agitating the public attention? This 
 is the real issue. It is not whether we approve 
 of parts of the Constitution of Kansas ; it s not 
 whether we think the qualification required by 
 the Convention in framing the Constitution of 
 Kansas, of twenty years citizenship of the 
 United States in order to be Governor is right. 
 That is a subject upon which the people of 
 Kansas alone have the right to decide. 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XXI. 
 
 FAMOUS "MUD-SILL" SPEECH. 
 
 Strong sectional feeling grew apace, and 
 northern and southern Senators were hostile to 
 each other. 
 
 We pass to the events of the year 1858. 
 
 The haughty Mr. Hammond, of South Caro 
 lina, who represented the very pith of slave- 
 holding aristocracy in the Southern States, deliv 
 ered a remarkable speech on March 9, defining 
 the position of the slaveholder, and his ideas 
 concerning the relationship between people of 
 high and low degree in the social scale. All those 
 who labor for a living, he designated by the term 
 "mud-sills," and this became the title of his 
 speech, which was in part as follows: 
 
 Mr. Hammond. In all social systems there 
 must be a class to do the mean duties, to perform 
 the drudgery of life. That is a class requiring 
 but a low order of intellect and but little skill. 
 Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a 
 class you must have, or you would not have that 
 other class which leads progress, refinement, and 
 civilization. It constitutes the very mud-sills of 
 society and of political government; and you 
 might as well attempt to build a house in the 
 air, as to build either one or the other, except 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 179 
 
 on the mud-sills. Fortunately for the South, she 
 found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. 
 A race inferior to herself, but eminently qualified, 
 in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to 
 stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. 
 We use them, for the purpose, and call them 
 slaves. We are old-fashioned at the South yet; 
 it is a word discarded now by ears polite; but I 
 will not characterize that class at the North with 
 that term; but you have it; it is there; it is 
 everywhere; it is eternal. The Senator from 
 New York said yesterday that the whole world 
 had abolished slavery. Ay, the name, but not 
 the thing ; and all the powers of the earth cannot 
 abolish it. God only can do it when he repeals 
 the fiat, "the poor ye always have with you," 
 for the man who lives by daily labor, and 
 scarcely lives at that, and who has to put out his 
 labor in the market and take the best he can get 
 for it ; in short your whole class of manual la 
 borers, and operatives, as you call them, are 
 slaves. The difference between us is that our 
 slaves are hired for life and well compensated; 
 there is no starvation, no begging, no want of 
 employment among our people, and not too 
 much employment either. Yours are hired by 
 the day, not cared for, and scantily compensated, 
 which may be proved in the most deplorable 
 manner, at any hour, in any street in any of your 
 larsfe towns. 
 
 Why, sir, you meet more beggars in one day, 
 in any single street of the city of New York. 
 than you would meet in a life time in the whole 
 South. Our slaves are black, of another inferior 
 
i8o MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 race. The status in which we have placed them 
 is an elevation. They are elevated from the con 
 dition in which God first created them, by being 
 made our slaves. None of that race on the 
 whole face of the globe can be compared with 
 the slaves of the South, and they know it. They 
 are happy, content, unaspiring, and utterly in 
 capable, from intellectual degradation, ever to 
 gave us any trouble by their aspirations. 
 
 Your slaves are white, of your own race; you 
 are brothers of one blood. They are your equals 
 in intellect, and they feel galled by their degrada 
 tion. Our slaves do not vote. We give them no 
 political power. Yours do vote, and being the 
 majority, they are the depositaries of all your 
 political power. If they knew the tremendous 
 secret, that the ballot box is stronger than an 
 army with bayonets, and could combine, where 
 would you be? Your society would be recon 
 structed, your government reconstructed, your 
 property divided, not as they have mistakenly 
 attempted to initiate such proceedings by meet 
 ing in parks, with arms in their hands, but by the 
 quiet process of the ballot box. You have been 
 making upon us to our very hearthstones. How 
 would you like for us to send lecturers or agita 
 tors North, to teach these people this, to aid and 
 assist in combining, and to lead them? 
 
 Mr. Wilson and others. Send them along. 
 
 Mr. Hammond. You say, send them North? 
 There is no need of that. They are coming here. 
 They are thundering at our doors for home 
 steads of one hundred and sixty acres of land 
 for nothing, and Southern Senators are support- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 181 
 
 ing it. Nay they are assembling, as I have said, 
 with arms in their hands, and demanding work 
 at $1,000 a year and six hours a day. Have you 
 heard that the ghost of Mendosa is in the streets 
 of your big cities; that the inquisition is at hand? 
 There is afloat a fearful rumor that there have 
 been consultations for vigilance committees. 
 You know what that means already. Transient 
 and temporary causes have thus far been your 
 preservation. The great West has been open to 
 your surplus population and your hordes of 
 semi-barbarian emigrants who are crowding in 
 year by year. They make a great movement and 
 you call it progress. Whither? It is progress; 
 but it is progress towards vigilance committees. 
 The South have sustained you in a great meas 
 ure. You are our factors. You bring and carry 
 for us. One hundred and fifty million dollars of 
 our money passes annually through your hands. 
 Much of it sticks; all of it assists to keep your 
 machinery together and in motion. Suppose we 
 were to discharge; suppose we were to take our 
 business out of your hands; we should consign 
 you to anarchy and poverty. You complain of 
 the rule of the South; that has been another 
 cause that has preserved you. We have kept the 
 Government conservative to the great purposes 
 of the Government. We have placed her, and 
 kept her, upon the Constitution; and that has 
 been the cause of your peace and prosperity. 
 The Senator from New York said that that, is 
 about at an end ; that you intend to take Govern 
 ment from us; that it will pass from our hands. 
 Perhaps what he says is true; it may be; but do 
 
184 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE MEN OF MAINE. 
 
 An agricultural expert from England was 
 walking along the rock-ribbed coast of Maine in 
 company with a friend, a citizen of the State, 
 when he turned about and asked: "What can 
 you grow here? Your soil seems so rocky and 
 sterile that no crops will thrive in it. What do 
 you raise?" "We raise men!" was the ready 
 answer. 
 
 The conversation is reported as having oc 
 curred long years ago, when Hamlin and Fessen- 
 den were senators from Maine. And taking 
 them as examples it must be agreed that the 
 answer to the Englishman s query, was good. 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin was a man that any State 
 might easily have been proud to send to the 
 Senate as a type of her citizenship, and one in 
 whose trust her public affairs were well guarded. 
 He was born in that State, in 1809, of Puritan 
 stock. His grandfather was in command of 
 minute men in the Revolution, a matter though 
 quite in confofmity with such sturdy folk 
 as have adorned history and genealogy in New 
 England. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 185 
 
 In his youth, Hannibal worked on the home 
 farm, and at the age of eighteen, his father pro 
 posed to him the study of law, which he began 
 but discontinued before the lapse of a year, ow 
 ing to his father s death. He then returned to 
 the employment of tilling the soil, which he did 
 for the next two years. During that time he 
 became joint editor and proprietor with Horatio 
 King, of a Democratic newspaper. He wrote 
 both prose and poetry, but so much preferred the 
 law, that he eventually sold out his interests in 
 the paper, and entered the law offices in which 
 Mr. Fessenden was a partner. In 1836, he be 
 gan a public career, by going to the Legislature; 
 and in 1840, was speaker of the House of Dele 
 gates. In 1843, making rapid strides toward a 
 high goal, he was sent to Congress as a repre 
 sentative. Five years later he was elected to the 
 United States Senate to fill a vacant seat, and 
 in 1851 was re-elected for the full term. At the 
 outset he ranked among the leaders, and very 
 ardently opposed slavery. He was an effective 
 speaker, and in } manly tones directed stern re 
 bukes to the slaVeholders. 
 
 Although a Democrat, and acting with that 
 party in all its policies, he would not countenance 
 any plan for the extension of slavery in the 
 Union. He became Governor of Maine in 1857, 
 but resigned in a very short time to again take 
 his old seat in the Senate, but now defending 
 Republican principles. He was elected Vice- 
 President, with Lincoln, his nomination on the 
 ticket being a complete surprise to him. During 
 the crisis of that administration, he was the 
 
1 86 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 President s right hand. However that may be, 
 we are now concerned with Hamlin as Senator, 
 who with great pungency made reply to Mr. 
 Hamlin s "mud-sill" speech, the text of which is 
 here given: 
 
 Mr. President, it is my purpose upon the 
 present occasion to confine myself principally to 
 a reply to the suggestions which have been made 
 by the honorable Senator from South Carolina, 
 (Mr. Hammond.) I may, after reviewing some 
 of the remarkable doctrines which have been 
 presented, say something on the question which 
 is directly before us; but it is now my object to 
 review some of the positions which he has as 
 sumed, for the purpose of testing their accuracy 
 or inaccuracy, and to answer some of the 
 assaults which he has made on the people I 
 represent. The doctrines enunciated by that 
 Senator are remarkable. The frankness with 
 which they were expressed is commendable. It 
 is my purpose to speak particularly to three dis 
 tinct points ; first the faith of the South, and the 
 manner in which she has kept ,it; second, the 
 capacity of the South as a distinct and separate 
 Government, as presented by the Senator from 
 South Carolina; and third the character of the 
 people whom I represent the laboring masses 
 of the North. I may say incidentally something 
 in relation to some other points which he sug 
 gested, but to these three points I propose mainly 
 to confine myself. These points I propose to dis 
 cuss, though I may not do so in the order in 
 which I have named them. 
 
 First as to the faith of the South, I will not 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 187 
 
 stop to quote the Senator s language; but he 
 asserts broadly that the North have informally 
 violated their faith, but that we may rely with 
 unlimited confidence upon the unbroken faith of 
 the South. I have no answer to his allegations 
 as to the faith of the North. When he shall 
 make his specifications I will give the answer 
 that justice shall demand. On what point have 
 we at the North been faithless to our Constitu 
 tional obligations? Upon what point have we at 
 the North been faithless to the South? Sir, 
 when I speak of the South, I am only using the 
 term the Senator from South Carolina has 
 placed in my mouth. In my heart, I know no 
 North, no South, no East, no West. We are the 
 people of one common country. Whatever relates 
 to the prosperity and the welfare, whatever per 
 tains to the rights of the South, as an American 
 citizen, as an American Senator, I stand here to 
 vindicate and maintain. What are their rights 
 are my rights. What belongs to them belongs to 
 me, as a citizen of a common country. But the 
 Senator from South Carolina has seen fit in the 
 course of the argument which he has pursued to 
 arraign the North for the want of fidelity, and 
 has vaunted here the unbroken plighted faith of 
 the South. I ask again, in what have we violated 
 our constitutional obligations ? I tell you, sir, you 
 mistake us. We regard our country as a whole. 
 We are willi r ^ to stand by it as a whole; nay, in 
 the Union, we mean to stand by it as a whole. 
 
 You can neither drive us out of it, nor shall 
 you go! 
 
 But sir, to proceed to the consideration of the 
 
1 88 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 points which I make. The facts of history show 
 to my mind conclusively, that while we have been 
 a Union, the faith of the South, of which 
 the Senator from South Carolina so vauntedly 
 boasted, has hardly been kept. I would not pur 
 sue this line of argument but for the manner in 
 which the allegation was made. 
 
 No single instance in which we of the North 
 have violated our constitutional obligation has 
 been cited. I think, in the absence of any speci 
 fications, I may clearly come to the conclusion 
 that none can be successfully made. I hardly 
 know what the Senator means by Southern faith. 
 I am therefore left to grope my way, and draw 
 my own conclusions. 
 
 I pass, now, to the discussion of another posi 
 tion which he has assumed. He told us, "the 
 poor ye always have with you." That is true; 
 there is no denial of the fact. There is, however, 
 another maxim of the same good book, which 
 he might have quoted with just as much pro 
 priety, and just as great truth: "Do ye unto 
 others as ye would that others should do unto 
 you, for this is the law and the prophets." Does 
 poverty imply crime? Does poverty imply 
 servitude? Does poverty imply slavery? I join 
 issue with the Senator there. In all climes, in 
 all countries, and in all ages there are poor. 
 Because men are poor, does that imply that 
 they are to be placed on the same basis with per 
 sons who are subjugated, and who toil in the 
 chains of slavery. I deny it. There is a prompt 
 ing of the heart, there is a principle of Christian 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 189 
 
 benevolence, that tells you, and tells me, and tells 
 us all, that if there are poor, it is our duty to 
 alleviate their poverty and to remove their dis 
 tress not, because they are poor, to class them 
 in the same condition with negro slaves ! I grant 
 that poverty necessarily produces a great degree 
 of dependence of the poor upon other classes, 
 than would exist in another state of circum 
 stances; but because a man is poor, does that 
 discharge you from the obligations which you 
 owe to him as a fellow citizen? Because he is 
 poor does that relieve you from the obligation 
 which you owe to him as a citizen of the com 
 munity and as a Christian ? Surely not ; and that 
 dependence does not create slavery. Look over 
 the world and you find that poverty, is produced 
 from a variety of circumstances. It may be mis 
 fortune; generally, I think by improvidence. It 
 may be by devasting elements. It may be by 
 causes over which the individual has no control. 
 No matter what are the causes, if they operate 
 on the individual he is entitled to your sympa 
 thies and to your Christian benevolence; and 
 God forbid that you should class him with the 
 slave that toils only to live, and lives only to 
 toil. It may be sir, that the influence of slavery 
 is calculated, if not designed to produce that 
 state of things; but if its tendencies are to pro 
 duce that state of things, still to place the poor 
 on the same basis with the negro slave, who does 
 not own himself, is unjust and illogical. 
 
 But sir while the Senator charges us with 
 having in all our large cities, a very considerable 
 number of persons who obtain alms from beg- 
 
190 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 gary, while he asserts there are more paupers in 
 the streets of New York than are to be found 
 in the whole South; still, is it not true in all 
 large places, you witness always the trappings 
 of wealth and the misery which is incident to 
 poverty? Is it not as true of the South as the 
 North? While we have large hordes of that 
 class of men in the great cities of the North, is 
 it not true that vast portions of them come 
 even from the South, and congregate there and 
 ask alms at our hands? 
 
 Now my word for it, the Senator from South 
 Carolina has mistaken the character of our popu 
 lation and our laborers. I stand here the rep 
 resentative of northern laborers. In my own 
 person I present a laboring man educated at 
 the printing case, toiling in my field and earning 
 with my own hands, and by the sweat of my own 
 brow, the food on which I subsist ; and I am glad 
 to say that here sits besides me a worthy com 
 peer (Mr. Wilson). It may be regarded as 
 egotistical, and if so, I ask you to pardon me ; 
 but I think I feel something for the man that 
 labors. 
 
 I think I have something in my heart that 
 leads me to sympathize with him. I know that 
 my friend from Massachusetts has. From our 
 boyhood to our manhood we have toiled in the 
 sunshine and in the rain, and we are, though 
 poor ones, the representatives of the men who 
 labor at the North. I wish they had better and 
 abler representatives here; but such as we are, 
 they have sent us here; such as we are, we will 
 vindicate their rights." 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 191 
 
 Some days later Mr. Hamlin was drawn into 
 the debate again. 
 
 "Who are our hireling manual laborers, of 
 the North? Sir, I can tell that Senator that they 
 are not the mud-sills of our community. They 
 are the men who clear away our forests. They 
 are the men who make the green hill side blos 
 som. They are the men who build our ships and 
 who navigate them. They are the men who 
 build our towns, and who inhabit them. They 
 are the men who constitute the great mass of our 
 community. Sir they are not only the pillars 
 that support the Government, but they are the 
 capitals that adorn the very pillars. They are 
 not to be classed with the slave. Our laboring 
 men have homes; they have wives; they have 
 little ones, dependent on them for support and 
 maintenance; and they are just so many incen 
 tives and so much stimulus to action. The labor 
 ing man with us knows for whom he toils ; and 
 when he toils he knows he is to return to that 
 home where comfort and pleasure and all the 
 domestic associates cluster around the social 
 hearthstone. Northern laborers are "hirelings," 
 and are to be classed with the negro slave ! 
 
 Besides that, the men who labor in our com 
 munity are the men whom we clothe with power. 
 They are the men who exercise the prerogatives 
 of the State. They are the men who, after hav 
 ing been clothed with power there, are sent 
 abroad to represent us elsewhere. They do our 
 legislation at home. They support the State. 
 They are the State. They are men, high minded 
 men. They read ; they watch you in these Halls 
 
192 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 every day; and through all our community the 
 doings of this branch, and of the other, are as 
 well understood, and perhaps even better, than 
 we understand them ourselves. I affirm that, 
 throughout our community, the proceedings of 
 Congress are more extensively and accurately 
 read than even by ourselves. These are the men 
 who are to be classed by the side of the slave? 
 I think it is true that, in about every three gen 
 erations at most, the wheel entirely performs its 
 revolution. The wealthy man of the North, the 
 wealthy man of any community, finds wealth at 
 the end of two or three generations departing 
 from the hands that accumulated it: and those 
 who commenced life without means, and were 
 "hireling manual laborers," in their turn, by their 
 industry, accumulate that wealth. That is the 
 operation of things around us. You rarely find 
 a fortune continuing beyond three generations in 
 this country in the same family. 
 
 That class of our community, containing a 
 very large majority have been designated here 
 as hireling laborers, white slaves! Why, sir, 
 does labor imply slavery? Because they toil, be 
 cause they pursue a course which enables them 
 to support their wives and their families, even 
 if it be by daily manual labor, does that neces 
 sarily imply servitude? Far from it! I affirm 
 that the great portion of our laborers at the 
 North own their homes, and labor to adorn them. 
 They own their own homes, and if you will visit 
 them you will find there evidences to satisfy you 
 beyond all doubt that they are intelligent, and that 
 they are in truth and in fact precisely what I 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 193 
 
 have described them to be the pillars of the 
 State, the State itself, and the very ornaments 
 and capitals that adorn the columns. With them 
 the acquisition of knowledge is not a crime. 
 
 I have quoted all that the Senator from South 
 Carolina has said on this point for the purpose of 
 giving the widest circulation I can to the declar 
 ations he has made. 
 
 He has mistaken, I doubt not, the character of 
 our laborers by judging them from what he has 
 seen in his own vicinity and what in my judg 
 ment, is produced by that very state of servitude 
 which is there existing. It is my duty to vindi 
 cate our laborers. My own regret is that I can 
 do it no more efficiently. 
 
194 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 XXIII. 
 "HIRELING MANUAL LABORERS." 
 
 St. Peter was called by his Lord, "a rock," and 
 a fit foundation for the building of a Church. 
 We know that the great Apostle was not de 
 graded by reason of his new name, but very 
 highly exalted. It was a figure of speech. 
 
 Senator Hammond s figure of speech was not 
 susceptible of being so turned as to reflect 
 creditably upon the toiler. He implied that the 
 "hireling manual laborer" being a "mud-sill," 
 which is the lowest sill in the house the sill 
 upon which the superstructure rests was by its 
 very nature a thing half imbedded in dirt, and 
 only fitted for the meanest uses. 
 
 There were some members of the Senate who 
 listened to Mr. Hammond, who were themselves 
 of humble beginnings ; men who had had to do 
 hard labor for their living; and they were not 
 slow to offer objection to this affront pronounced 
 upon the "hireling." The masterly answers to 
 that speech were sufficient to gladden the heart 
 of any one who had ever worked with his hands. 
 Such men as Wilson, Broderick, and Wade, took 
 up the defense so ably begun by Hamlin. "The 
 Natick Shoemaker" was well equipped for an 
 attack upon this doctrine propounded by the 
 Southern senator. 
 
HENRY 
 
 &M0REW JQWNSOT4, 
 
 C. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 195 
 
 Mr. Wilson said: 
 
 Sir, I have toiled as a "hireling manual 
 laborer" in the field and in the work shop; and 
 I tell the Senator from South Carolina that I 
 never "felt galled by my degradation." No, sir 
 never! Perhaps the Senator who represents 
 that "other class which leads progress, civiliza 
 tion, and refinement," will ascribe this to obtuse- 
 ness of intellect and blunted sensibilities of the 
 heart. Sir, I was conscious of my manhood; I 
 was the peer of my employer; I knew that the 
 laws and institutions of my native and adopted 
 State threw over him and over me alike the 
 panoply of equality; I knew, too, that the world 
 was before me, that its wealth, its garnered 
 treasures of knowledge, its honors, the coveted 
 prizes of life, were within the grasp of a brave 
 heart and a tireless hand, and I accepted the re 
 sponsibilities of my position all unconscious that 
 1 was a "slave." I have employed others, hun 
 dreds "of hireling manual laborers." Some of 
 them then possessed, and now possess more 
 property than I ever owned ; some of them were 
 better educated than myself yes, sir, better edu 
 cated, and better read, too, than some Senators 
 on this floor ; and many of them, in moral excel 
 lence and purity of character, I could not but 
 feel, were my superiors. I have occupied, Mr. 
 President, for more than thirty years, the relation 
 of employer and employed; and while I never 
 felt "galled by my degradation" in the one case, 
 in the other I was never conscious that my "hire 
 ling laborers were my inferiors. That man is 
 a snob who boasts of being a "hireling laborer" 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 or who is ashamed of being a "hireling laborer ;" 
 that man is a snob who feels any inferiority to 
 any man because he is a "hireling laborer," or who 
 assumes any superiority over others because he 
 is an employer. Honest labor is honorable; and 
 the man who is ashamed he is or was a "hireling 
 laborer" has not manhood enough to "feel galled 
 by his degradation." 
 
 Having occupied Mr. President, the relation 
 of either employed or employer for the third of 
 a century; having lived in a Commonwealth 
 where the "hireling class of manual laborers" 
 are "the depositaries of political power," having 
 associated with this class in all the relations of 
 life; I tell the Senator from South Carolina, and 
 the class he represents, that he libels, grossly 
 libels them, when he declares that they are 
 "essentially slaves!" There can be found no 
 where in America a class of men more proudly 
 conscious or tenacious of their rights. Friends 
 and foes have ever found them 
 
 A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none. 
 
 Another, and one who had been a stone-cutter 
 by trade, a man fond of books, and a most 
 soulful and interesting character David C. 
 Broderick, by name, senator from California, 
 and one of the youngest members in the cham 
 ber, uttered some memorable words which were 
 evoked by the speech branding the men of his 
 former station in life, as slaves. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 197 
 
 Mr. Broderick said: 
 
 I, sir, am glad that the Senator has spoken 
 thus. It may have the effect of arousing in the 
 workingmen that spirit that has been lying dor 
 mant for centuries. It may also have the effect 
 of arousing the two hundred thousand men with 
 pure skins in South Carolina, who are now de 
 graded and despised by thirty thousand aristo 
 cratic slave solders. It may teach them to de 
 mand what is the power 
 
 Linked with success, assumed and kept with 
 
 skill, 
 
 That moulds another s weakness to its will; 
 Weilds with their hands, but still to them 
 
 unknown, 
 Makes even their mightiest deeds appear his 
 
 own!" 
 
 I suppose, sir, the Senator from South Caro 
 lina did not intend to be personal in his remarks 
 to any of his peers upon this floor. If I had 
 thought so I would have noticed them at the 
 time. I am, sir, with one exception, the youngest 
 in years of the Senators upon this floor. It s not 
 long since I served an apprenticeship of five 
 years at one of the most laborious mechanical 
 trades pursued by man a trade that from its 
 nature devotes its followers to thought, but de 
 bars him from conversation. I would not have 
 alluded to this if it were not for the remarks of 
 the Senator from South Carolina; and the thou 
 sands who know that I am the son of an Artisan 
 and have been a mechanic, would feel disap- 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 pointed in me if I did not reply to him. I am 
 not proud of this. I am sorry it is true. I would 
 that I could have enjoyed the pleasures of life in 
 my boyhood days; but they were denied to me. 
 I say this with pain. I have not the admiration 
 for the men of the class from which I sprang 
 that might be expected; they submit too tamely 
 to oppression, and are prone to neglect their 
 rights and duties as citizens. But sir the class 
 of society to whose toil I was born, under our 
 form of government will control the destinies of 
 this nation. If I were inclined to forget my 
 connection with them, or to deny that I sprang 
 from them, this chamber would not be the place 
 in which I could do either. While I hold a seat 
 I have but to look at the beautiful capitals adorn 
 ing the pilasters that support this roof, to be re 
 minded of my father s talent and to see his 
 handiwork. I left the scenes of my youth and 
 manhood for the Tar West because I was tired 
 of the struggle and jealousies of men of my 
 class, who could not understand why one of their 
 fellows should seek to elevate his condition upon 
 the common level. I made my new abode among 
 strangers where labor is honored. I had left 
 without regret; there remained no tie of blood 
 to bind me to any being in existence. If I fell in 
 the struggle for reputation and fortune, there 
 was no relative on earth to mourn my fall. The 
 people of California elevated me to the highest 
 honor within their gift. My election was not the 
 result of an accident. For years I had to strug 
 gle, often seeing the goal of my ambition within 
 my reach ; it was again and again taken from me 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 199 
 
 by the aid of men from my own class. I had not 
 only them to contend with, but almost the entire 
 partisan press of my State was subsidized by 
 Government money and patronage to oppose my 
 election. I sincerely hope, sir, the time will come 
 when such speeches as that from the Senator 
 from South Carolina will be considered a lesson 
 to the laborers of the nation. 
 
 The New York Tribune commenting on Mr. 
 Wade s reply, made these statements: 
 
 There are many fine orations and good argu 
 ments delivered in the United States Senate, 
 from time to time; but not often a really good 
 speech. ... In the powerful effort of 
 Judge Wade, the speech is but the just measure 
 of the man. 
 
 Mr. Wade s speech in part: 
 
 Of what use is your idle aristocracy? 
 
 In God s name, have they not been the curse, 
 the blight of every nation of the earth? You 
 cannot have this refined aristocracy, says the 
 gentleman, unless you have a class to do your 
 drudgery ; and that is the sentiment of the whole 
 South. How diametrically opposed to it is the 
 whole practical system of the North? Is it rea 
 sonable, is it right, that "a class" shall do your 
 drudgery "a class" that shall obey? Sir, labor 
 should never be done by a class. If you obeyed 
 the mandate of the Almighty, and labor were 
 
2oo MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 distributed among all the able bodied men, it 
 would cease to be a task; it would be a mere 
 amusement, and it would tax no man s physical 
 powers above what would consist with his health 
 and his welfare. It was designed for God is 
 just that this drudgery of which the Senator 
 speaks should be distributed among all the able- 
 bodied men so as to make it light, and then it 
 would not be inconsistent with the highest perfec 
 tion of civilization and refinement ; but on the 
 other hand, would lead directly to it. 
 
 Labor done by a class ! That, sir, was the 
 curse of the Old World. A class has been 
 assigned to do the drudgery, to do all that is 
 valuable, to produce everything that is beneficial ; 
 and the system leaves aristocratical drones, use 
 less, vicious idlers whom any community can 
 well dispense with. I say this class you can 
 dispense with to the advantage of any com 
 munity that I know of; but the class who do 
 your labor cannot be dispensed with. The Sen 
 ator says you must have class to do your 
 degraded labor. I deny that labor is degraded; 
 and here is the point of difference between us, 
 which I fear can never be overcome. That is one 
 grand reason why we resist your system coming 
 into our Territories ; it is all because you are 
 determined to contaminate all labor by this de 
 graded class. Will the free, intelligent laborer 
 place himself upon a level with your mere abject 
 chattel, and toil there? Sir, he cannot do it, and 
 ought not to do it, and will not do it. What an 
 idea of labor! The Senator supposes that the 
 laboring class want but very little mind and verg 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 201 
 
 little skill. Sir, there is nothing on earth that 
 puts the human intellect to all that it can attain 
 like the varied labor of man; what does your 
 drone, your refined aristocrat, do in his mind? 
 What problems does he work out ? He consumes 
 the products of labor; he is idle, and ten to one 
 is also vicious. He never invents. Go to your 
 Patent Office, and see what are the products of 
 your degraded labor and your refined aristocrat. 
 
 The latter never invents anything, unless its 
 a new way of stuffing a chicken or mixing liquor. 
 (Laughter.) He invents nothing beneficial to 
 man. Degraded labor, with a low intellect is all 
 you want! Sir, the machinery brought into 
 operation by intelligent labor is doing now more 
 drudgery than all the slaves upon the face of 
 the earth. The elements are yoked to the ma 
 chines of usefulness, and there they are doing 
 the work of bone and muscle and your system 
 cannot abide with it. The doom of slavery 
 would be fixed, if it was by nothing else than the 
 products of intelligent labor. You drudge along 
 in the old way; you invent no steam engine, be 
 cause your labor is degraded. You do not want 
 skill; you want but very little mind; and the 
 Senator thinks the more ignorant the laborers 
 are the better, for he says they are so degraded 
 that they have no ambition, and they never will 
 endanger this refined class that eats up the pro 
 ceeds of their labor! 
 
 That is the idea of government that prevails 
 all through the slave-holding regions of the 
 South. Again the Senator says of the degraded 
 class that do the drudgery, "It constitutes the 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 very mul-sills of society and of political govern* 
 merit; and you might as well attempt to build a 
 house in the air; as to build either one or the 
 other, except on this mud-sill." 
 
 And then he goes on to say that we of the 
 North have white slaves; that we perform our 
 labor by the white slaves. This class must exist 
 everywhere, and they must be a mud-sill upon 
 which you must erect civil societies and political 
 organizations. 
 
 How little that gentleman understood of the 
 spirit of our northern laborers ! I would like to 
 see him endeavoring to erect his political institu 
 tions upon their prostrate necks as mud-sills. I 
 think it would be a little troublesome. He might 
 as well make his bed in hell, or erect his building 
 over a volcano, as to undertake to build on his 
 northern "mud-sills." Then with a simplicity that 
 shows he knows nothing of northern society, he 
 says we have sent our missionaries down to their 
 very hearthstones to endanger their system. I 
 do not know how that is ; but he turns round and 
 asks how we would like them to send their mis 
 sionaries up to teach our laborers their power. 
 I was astonished as such an idea as that being 
 presented to political men of the North, who 
 know and feel the power of the laboring class of 
 men. We are all laboring men, and the politician 
 cannot live unless they breath upon him; he can 
 not move unless he moves with their approbation. 
 They are the soul, the strength, the body, the 
 virtue, the main stay of all our society. Deprive 
 our State of its laborers and what would it be? 
 We have nothing else, and we have none of your 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 203 
 
 refined society that is spoken of. We all labor, 
 and are all disgraced as the gentleman would call 
 it, in our community. Labor with us is honor 
 able; idleness is disreputable. That is the state 
 of things with us, and the laboring man knows 
 full well, and needs no missionary to tell him the 
 potency of his vote. We should like to have your 
 missionaries come up and endeavor to endanger 
 our society! Good heavens! One man has the 
 same interest in upholding it as another. Sup 
 pose one man is richer than another in Ohio. 
 There is no great diversity, as a general thing; 
 but suppose he is; take the child of the poorest 
 man in our State ; and has he any temptation to 
 overthrow our government ? No, sir ; full of 
 life, full of hope, full of ambition to go beyond 
 him who has gone furthest, he wishes to avail 
 himself of the same securities which have mis- 
 istered to the upbuilding of others. He is a 
 citizen, who holds all the rights of citizenship as 
 dear as the most wealthy. His stake in society is 
 the same; his hope is the same; his interest in 
 good government is the same. He is none of 
 your prostrate mud-sills deprived of those rights 
 which God Almighty has given him, trampled 
 under foot, and made to minister to the interest 
 of another man. There is no such system as that 
 with us. 
 
 But the Senator spoke about a degraded class 
 in our great commercial cities. I have to confess 
 that there is some truth in that. We have a de 
 graded class in the cities. They are the off- 
 scouring generally of this Old World men who 
 come here reduced to beggary by their ignor- 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ance ; reduced to beggary by their vice ; ignorant, 
 vicious, dangerous. I do not deny it. They are 
 incident to all large cities ; but the Senator should 
 not complain of them. They are the chief 
 corner stone of your political strength in the 
 North. Fnd me the vicious ward of any city that 
 does not uphold your system of slavery, vote for 
 its candidates, support its measures and labor for 
 its men. No, sir, you should not complain of this 
 vicious population. In truth and in fact, they are 
 about the only stay and support you have there 
 now and you ought not to traduce them. From 
 their very natures, they attach themselves to you, 
 and I do not think by any treatment you will be 
 able to drive them off. 
 
 They are naturally with you ; they were slaves 
 in their own countries; they do not know any 
 thing else than to be the understrappers of some 
 body; and when they hear that here are slave 
 holders contending with freemen, you will find 
 them with the former all the time. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 205 
 
 XXIV. 
 ANDREW JOHNSON: TAILOR- STATESMAN. 
 
 The Senate seemed to hold as many men who 
 climbed to success through adversity and, 
 oftimes, antagonism, as it did men who were 
 lifted up amid showers of praise. Perhaps, some 
 of the most useful public men of those times 
 came from the masses, among whose serried 
 ranks the whole being must ever bend in the 
 struggle for mere bread, to say nothing of 
 advancement in the world s affairs. 
 
 Born of the people, brought up amongst the 
 people, and a representative of the people, An 
 drew Johnson, tailor and statesman, stood in the 
 halls of Congress, the peer of any member of 
 either house. The place of his birth was 
 Raleigh, North Carolina. At the age of four 
 years he was left fatherless and penniless. Pov 
 erty being his early teacher, he learned lessons 
 at her school that eminently fitted him for his 
 distinguished career. It made him also the 
 champion of the poor and weak. 
 
 His marriage at the age of 19, brought to 
 him in wedlock a companion of youth, beauty, 
 and culture, and one whose love never waned. 
 Though poor in worldly goods, he possessed a 
 character untarnished and an ambition unflag 
 ging. Never having spent a day in school, he, 
 
206 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 in the encounters of debate, was armed cap-a-pie 
 for combat with graduates of the best colleges. 
 How can it be explained? At night, while ply 
 ing his needle, the talented and accomplished 
 Eliza McArdle Johnson, his wife, instructed him 
 in all branches of education. His career was a 
 slow and steady climb. In the little town in 
 East Tennessee, where he lived, he entered pol 
 itics, and became first an alderman. From this 
 he was elected Mayor. One night, speaking to 
 a group of politicians about whom they were to 
 send to the legislature, he said: "I, too, am in 
 the fight." And he was elected. 
 
 Andrew Johnson went to the Senate of the 
 United States in 1857. He had a cordial dislike 
 for an aristocrat, and Jefferson Davis, the most 
 perfect example of such an estate, aroused him 
 to very caustic utterance. One day Mr. Davis 
 critically asked him: "What do you mean by 
 the laboring classes?" "Those who earn their 
 bread by the sweat of their face, and not by 
 fatiguing their ingenuity." 
 
 When the hailstorm of disapproval was falling 
 upon Senator Hammond for his "mud-sill" 
 speech, Mr. Johnson said: 
 
 In one sense of the term we are all slaves. A 
 man is a slave to his ambition; he is a slave to 
 his avarice; he is a slave to his necessities; and, 
 in enumerations of this kind, you can scarcely 
 find any man, high or low in society, but who, 
 in some sense, is a slave, but they are not slaves 
 in the sense we mean at the South and it will 
 not do to assume that every man who toils for 
 his living is a slave. If that be so, all are slaves; 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 207 
 
 for all must toil more or less, mentally or physi 
 cally. But in the other sense of the term, we are 
 not slaves. Will it do to assume that the 
 man who labors with his hands, every man who 
 is an operative in a manufacturing establishment, 
 or a shop is a slave? No sir, that will not do. 
 Will it do to assume that every man who does 
 not own slaves, but has to live by his own labor, 
 is a slave? That will not do. If it were true, 
 it would be very unfortunate for a good many 
 of us, and especially so for me. I am a laborer 
 with my hands, and I never considered myself 
 a slave in the acceptance of the term slave in 
 the South. I do own some ; I acquired them by 
 my industry, by the labor of my hands. In that 
 sense of the term I should have been a slave 
 while I was earning them with the labors of my 
 hands. 
 
 Mr. Hammond: Will the Senator define a 
 slave? 
 
 Mr. Johnon : What we understand to be a 
 slave in the South, is a person who is held to 
 service during his or her natural life, subject to, 
 and under the control of, a master who has the 
 right to appropriate the products of his or her 
 labor to his own use. The necessities of life 
 and the various positions in which a man may 
 be placed, operated upon by avarice, gain, or 
 ambition, may cause him to labor; but that does 
 not make a slave. How many men are there in 
 society who go out and work with their own 
 hands, who reap in the field, and mow in a 
 meadow, who hoe corn, who work in the shops? 
 Are they slaves? If we were to go back and 
 
208 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 follow the idea, that every operative, and laborer 
 is a slave, we should find that we have had a 
 great many distinguished slaves since the world 
 commenced. Socrates, who first conceived the 
 dea of the immortality of the soul, pagan as he 
 j . labored with his own hands; yes, wielded 
 h chisel and the mallet, giving polish, and 
 fi h to the stone; he afterwards turned to be a 
 fashioner and constructor of the mind. Paul 
 the great expounder, himself was a tent maker, 
 and worked with his hands; was he a slave? 
 Archimedes, who declared that, if he had a place 
 on which to rest the fulcrum, with the power of 
 his lever he could move the world; was he a 
 slave? Adam, our great father and head, the 
 lord of the world, was a tailor by trade; I won 
 der if he was a slave? 
 
 When we talk about laborers and operatives, 
 look at the columns that adorn this Chamber, 
 and see their finish and style. We are lost in 
 admiration at the architecture of your buildings, 
 and their massive columns. We can speak with 
 admiration. What would it have been but for 
 hands to construct it? Was the artisan who 
 worked upon it a slave? Let us go to the South 
 and see how the matter stands there. Is every 
 man that is not a slaveholder to be denominated 
 a slave because he labors? Why indulge in such 
 a notion?" 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 209 
 
 XXV. 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS AND ROBERT TOOMBS. 
 
 When Jefferson Davis first became United 
 States Senator from Mississippi in 1847, ne was 
 among the youngest members of that body. It 
 was said that John Quincy Adams, used always 
 to take a seat close to a speaker upon the occa 
 sion of his debut, and if the man pleased him he 
 remained attentive, otherwise he quickly fled. 
 Mr. Davis had the floor one day soon after 
 taking his seat in the Chamber, and Mr. Adams 
 moved up. As the speaker proceeded, the "Old 
 Man Eloquent" sat there listening attentively, 
 and at the conclusion of the speech, he remarked 
 to some friends : "That man, gentleman, is no 
 ordinary man. He will make his mark yet, 
 mind me." 
 
 Mr. Davis second term in the Senate began in 
 1857. Austere in manner, with the bearing of a 
 soldier, and the tread of an Indian brave on the 
 warpath, he was a figure commanding attention 
 on the Senate floor. He was of the blue blood 
 of the South, and proud, select, polished. His 
 frame was more delicate than strong; his coun 
 tenance, though not handsome, was good, and 
 bore indications of the high spirit within the 
 man. He seemed always to be absorbed in 
 
2io MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 things above the common level, not much of a 
 talker, nor easily drawn out. Approachable only 
 by his associates in the Senate, I always consid 
 ered him a very cold man. I do not remember 
 that he ever smiled. He had passed through so 
 much, with Indian campaigning and the Mexican 
 war, that his nature could not have been other 
 wise, probably, than it was. It appears to make 
 a man s disposition reserved and cold, when he 
 returns to every day life, bearing wounds and 
 the marks of hardship in field and camp. He 
 must have had great depth of character, depth 
 of soul; aye, it is manifest by his record in the 
 army, and in the Senate; and no one better 
 could have been selected to bear the burden of 
 awful responsibility in administering the affairs 
 of the Confederacy. He was a military genius. 
 His West Point training, and his Mexican War 
 experience, gave him facility to grasp military 
 situations and to issue commands to an army. 
 He had surprised the commanders of the world 
 by his tactics at Buena Vista, where he was 
 vastly outnumbered, and by placing his forces 
 in the form of an angle with the apex toward 
 the enemy, instead of using the "hollow square," 
 he twice repulsed the advance and won a great 
 victory. 
 
 His political career was much to be ad 
 mired, for some one has said of him that he had 
 the defiance of Chatham, was as scholarly as 
 Brougham, elegant in diction as Canning, 
 often as profound as Burke, with the fervor and 
 zeal of Grattan, and the subtelty of Fox. His 
 parliamentary art thus comparing with the best 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 211 
 
 English models, his standing was amongst the 
 foremost in the American Senate. 
 
 How strange it seems now, to read a speech 
 so loyal to the Union, spoken by one who be 
 came President of a Confederacy. His speech 
 on the bill to increase the army, is in part, as 
 follows : 
 
 Is it to be inferred that a man who is a free 
 man at his birth, who has all the spirit of repub 
 licanism in his heart, is to lose it by entering the 
 military profession? Is it true, as the Senator 
 from Texas has told us, that the service in the 
 army stultifies young men? it cannot be. He 
 is a bright example of the reverse himself. It 
 was his proud fortune to rise from the ranks by 
 his own merit to a commissioned officer, to serve 
 in the army, and there to acquire many of those 
 qualities, endowments, and graces which have 
 adorned this Chamber; he stands in himself a 
 brilliant example of how little the army stultifies, 
 and how much it may exalt the youth contained 
 in its ranks. We have other and great exam 
 ples. Did Washington become the fit instrument 
 of a despotism? was he stultified because he 
 entered the service of the United States in his 
 youth? That great mind which comprehended 
 the whole condition of the Colonies ; that heart 
 that beat sympathetically for ever portion of 
 his common country, feeling equally for Massa 
 chusetts, and South Carolina, for New York 
 and Virginia, that great arm which smoothed 
 the thorny path of revolution, and led the Col 
 onies from rational up to National independence, 
 and laid the foundation of that prosperity 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 greatness which have made us a people not only 
 as an example for the whole world, but a protec 
 tion to liberal principles wherever liberty asserts 
 a right was he stultified by service in the army ? 
 Jackson too the indomitable Jackson, who when 
 a boy and a captive, spurned the insult of a 
 despot, and for asserting his personal dignity re 
 ceived a wound, a scar of which he carried to 
 his grave was he by service in the army, when 
 yet a minor, by brilliant exploits in middle age, 
 rendered the fit instrument of despotism? If it 
 be said that these were men drawn from the 
 pursuits of civil life and only ocassionally em 
 ployed in the military service what, then, shall 
 be said of the great, the good, heroic Taylor? 
 for a hero he was, not in the mere vulgar sense 
 of animal courage, but in the higher and nobler 
 attributes of generosity and clemency. His was 
 an eye that looked unquailing when the mes 
 sengers of death were flying around him; but in 
 the ward room, over his wounded comrades, was 
 dimmed by the tear of a soldier s love and com 
 passion. His was a self-reliant, resolute heart, 
 which arose under accumulated difficulties, and 
 hardened by contact with danger; but that heart 
 melted to a woman s softness at the wail of the 
 helpless, or the appeal of the vanquished. He 
 was a hero, a moral hero. His heart was his 
 country s, and his life had been his country s 
 own through all its stages. Was he the fit in 
 strument of a despot to be used for the over 
 throw of the liberties of the United States? 
 
 Shall I prove my proposition by going on and 
 multiplying examples; or is not apparent that 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 213 
 
 whatever may be true of the history of Rome, 
 whatever may be true of the condition of Eu 
 rope, that the United States stands out its own 
 founder and its own example? No other peopie 
 like our own ever founded a State. No other peo 
 ple like our own have ever thus elevated a State 
 to such greatness in so small a space of time. If 
 there be evidence of decay, that decay is not to 
 be found in the spirit of your little army, but is 
 to be hunted for in the impurities of your 
 politicians. It therefore does not become the 
 politician to point to our little and gallant and 
 devoted army, as the incipient danger which is 
 to overthrow the liberties of this country. 
 
 As I revert to the days of the 35th Congress, 
 with the knowledge of subsequent history in my 
 mind, the name of Robert Toombs is indissolubly 
 linked with that of Jefferson Davis; not because 
 of any similiarity of the two men, but because 
 upon them conjointly is laid most of the blame 
 for precipitating the war of rebellion, and be 
 tween them rested the choice of a Chief Execu 
 tive for the Confederate States. 
 
 Robert Toombs, Senator from Georgia, was 
 one of the most forcible speakers on that his 
 toric floor. He was like a lion both in appear 
 ance and in actions; fearless, bold, powerfully 
 built, and with a voice of thunder. He reminded 
 me always of Edwin Forrest in the character of 
 Jack Cade, the bondman of Kent. As with all 
 good lawyers he was never without proper in- 
 
214 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 formation before him, and in debate he could 
 throw down the gauntlet to anyone. Like Mira- 
 beau, whom he also probably resembled, he 
 chose rather than employ ornate language, to 
 strike as with a sledge-hammer, blows with 
 words of the utmost weight, meanwhile shaking 
 his head and pounding with his clenched fists 
 upon his desk. He could speak for several hours 
 without the least sign of fatigue, and the Senate 
 gave him undivided attention. He also had a 
 habit of rising on his toes, and then striking his 
 heels hard on the floor. 
 
 Mr. Toombs was born in Georgia, in 1810. 
 His education was acquired at the University of 
 Georgia, Union College, New York, and the 
 University of Virginia. At the time of his 
 death he was one of the wealthiest men of the 
 South, his fortune being estimated at half a 
 million dollars. 
 
 When Lnicoln was elected President of the 
 United States, Mr. Toombs was so inflamed with 
 passion that he very diligently urged secession, 
 and to add greater emphasis to disorder, inform 
 ally left the Senate, for which act he was 
 expelled. 
 
 In the cabinet of the Confederacy, he quar 
 reled with Mr. Davis and resigned the portfolio 
 to enter the army. He was commissioned a 
 brigadier general. 
 
 From a section of a speech, delivered in May, 
 1858, inveighing against British aggressions in 
 the Gulf of Mexico, one may receive a fair im 
 pression of the man s style. 
 
 Mr. Tombs: It is not my purpose to argue 
 
H. HAMMOND. ^OHM C.BRECKNR>00E.. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 215 
 
 the right of any nation to visit or to search 
 American ships in time of peace. I consider 
 that argument to have been exhausted; that 
 question to have been settled for the last forty 
 years by the American people. It was one of 
 the causes of the last war with England. It was 
 not settled at the treaty of Ghent; but it was 
 there given to be distinctly understood by the 
 American negotiators, and it has been uniformly 
 affirmed by this Government, that whenever 
 exercised, we should consider it a belligerent act. 
 Therefore, there is but one point in this case: 
 if these belligerent acts of search have been done 
 by the authority of the British Government, they 
 are acts of war that ought to be resisted by 
 force; and we want not measures of prevention 
 in the future, but redress for the insult in the 
 past. We want something more than the reso 
 lutions the committee offer to give us here. 
 We want something more than pledges and 
 securities that belligerent acts will not be com 
 mitted in the future. W T e want satisfaction for 
 the committal of these acts, if they have been 
 done by authority of the British Government, 
 they are acts of war that we ought to resist by 
 force and resist now. If they have been done 
 without their authority, we ought to seize these 
 vessels, to prevent the performance of those acts, 
 not only against the laws of nations, but against 
 our rights, and against the authority of their 
 own Government. 
 
 Therefore I shall vote for a resolution that 
 will not only send our Navy there to prevent the 
 
216 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 continuance of this war upon our commerce, but 
 will seize the vessels which have committed 
 these hostilities, with or without the authority 
 of the British Government. That Government 
 is too far off. We cannot afford to have our 
 houses searched while waiting to hear what they 
 have to say. It is not allowable, I believe, for 
 the humblest man in Great Britain or in this 
 country, to have his house searched, even with 
 a general warrant. The British resisted that a 
 hundred years ago. Our Constitution protects 
 us against it. We are free from it by our own 
 Constitution except under the most stringent 
 circumstances; but Great Britain, a foreign 
 Government, without any pretense, without any 
 form of law, claims the right of disgracing our 
 flag, and searching our vessels in the Gulf of 
 Mexico at our doors. Will you send across the 
 water, and have negotiation while these things 
 are going on? Every gale that wafts a sail from 
 the Gulf of Mexico brings here accounts of new 
 wrongs and new outrages; and I suppose we 
 must send to England to know if she warrants 
 the acts of this fleet who are roving over seas, 
 free rovers, violating our declared rights that 
 we have stood by for forty years, to know if it 
 is by the authority of their masters? The mili 
 tary force of the country should be sent to the 
 Gulf, and it should seize or sink the aggressors, 
 and get explanation afterwards. If it is against 
 their orders, we have treated them right; if it 
 is not against their orders, we have treated 
 England right; so that in any event, I shall vote 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 217 
 
 for that measure which will seize the British 
 aggressors on our rights and bring them to our 
 ports for condign punishment, and I shall be 
 satisfied with nothing short of it." 
 
2i8 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGB 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 PASSING FROM THE OLD CHAMBER. 
 
 In all the four years of my experience in the 
 Senate, I was never more deeply impressed than 
 on this occasion, when the whole body of Sen 
 ators took leave of the old chamber. (January 
 4, 1859.) 
 
 Vive-President Breckinridge delivered the 
 principal oration of the day, in a voice with a 
 silver clarion ring. His words were fit and strik 
 ing, and the sentiments so thoughtful. He was 
 one of the most attractive men in the Senate, 
 being of a good height, with a handsome face, 
 intellectual head, and imperious presence. A 
 popular idol in Kentucky, he made so rapid an 
 assent on the ladder of political honors, that he 
 gained the Vice-Presidency almost at a bound. 
 He was the youngest man who had ever ad 
 vanced to that distinguished post, he being but 
 thirty-five years of age when elected to it. 
 
 The program for the dav was arranged with 
 much ceremony. Mr. Crittenden, as the longest 
 in service, held the floor of the Senate as the 
 first speaker, and naturally dropped into reminis 
 cent mood, saying: 
 
 I hope I may be indulged in a few words of 
 parting from this Chamber. This is to be the 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 219 
 
 last day of our session here; and this place, 
 which has known us so long, is to know us no 
 more forever as a Senate. The parting seems to 
 me sir, to be somewhat of a solemn one, and full 
 of eventful recollections. I wish however, only 
 to say a few words. Many associations pleasant 
 and proud, bind us and our hearts to this place. 
 We cannot but feel their influence, especially I, 
 Mr. President, whose lot it has been to serve in 
 this body more years than any other member 
 present. That we should all be attached to it, is 
 most natural. Mr. President we cannot quit this 
 Chamber without some feeling of sacred sadness. 
 This Chamber has been the scene of great events. 
 Here questions of American Constitution and 
 laws have be*m debated and decided ; questions 
 of empire have occupied the attention of this 
 assemblage in times past; this was the grand 
 theater upon which these things have been en 
 acted. They give a sort of consecrated character 
 to this Hall. 
 
 Sir, great men have been the actors here. The 
 illustrations dead, that have distinguished this 
 body in times past, naturally rise to our view on 
 such an occasion. I speak only of what I have 
 seen, and but partially of that, when I say that 
 here, within these walls, I have seen men whose 
 fame is not surpassed, and whose power and 
 ability and patriotism are not surpassed, by any 
 of Grecian or Roman name. I have seen Clay 
 and Webster, Calhoun and Benton, Leigh and 
 Wright, and Clayton, (last though not least), 
 mingling together in this body at one time, and 
 uniting their counsels for the benefit of their 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 country. They seem to our imaginations and 
 sensibilities, on such an occasion as this to have 
 left their impress on these very walls; and this 
 majestic dome seems almost yet to echo with the 
 voice of their eloquence. This Hall seems to be 
 a local habitation for their names. This Hall is 
 full of the pure odor of their justly-earned fame. 
 There are others besides those I have named, of 
 whom I will not speak, because they have not yet 
 closed their career not yet ended their services 
 to the country ; and they will receive their reward 
 hereafter. There are hosts of others I might 
 mention that deserve to be mentioned but it 
 would take too long. Their names are in no 
 danger of being forgotten, nor their services un- 
 thought of or unhonored. 
 
 Sir, we leave behind us, in going from this 
 Hall, these associations, these proud imagina 
 tions so well calculated to prompt to a generous 
 emulation of their services to their country; but 
 we will carry along with us to the New Chamber 
 to which we are to go, the spirit and the memory 
 of all these things ; we will carry with us all the 
 inspiration which our illustrious predecessors are 
 calculated to give; and wherever we sit we shall 
 be the Senate of the United States of America 
 a great, a powerful, a conservative body in the 
 government of this country, and a body that will 
 maintain, as I trust and believe, under all cir 
 cumstances, and in all times to come, the honor, 
 the right, and the glory of this country. Because 
 we leave this Chamber, we shall not leave behind 
 us any sentiment of patriotism, any devotion to 
 the country which the illustrious that have gone 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENA?E PAGE 
 
 before us have set to us. They like our house- 
 sold gods, will be carried with us; and we the 
 representatives of the States of this mighty 
 Union, will be found always equal, I trust to the 
 exigencies of any time that come upon our coun 
 try. No matter under what sky we may sit; no 
 matter what dome may cover us; the great 
 patriotic spirit of the Senate of the United States 
 will be there; and I have an abiding confidence 
 that it will never fail in the performance of its 
 duty, sit where it may, even though it were in a 
 desert. 
 
 But it is yet sir, not possible to leave this 
 Hall without casting behind us many longing 
 and lingering looks. It has been the scene of the 
 past; the new Chamber is to be the scene of the 
 future, I hope it will not be dishonored by any 
 comparison to be made with the past. It, too, will 
 have its illustrations of great public services ren 
 dered by great men and great patriots ; and this 
 body, the great preservative element of the Gov 
 ernment, will discharge all its duties, taking care 
 to preserve the Union of the States which they 
 represent the source of all their honors, the 
 source of the trust which they sit here to execute, 
 the source as it has been and as it will be of their 
 country s greatness, happiness, and prosperity, in 
 times to come as it has been in the time that is 
 past. 
 
 The Vice-President. Senators, I have been 
 charged by the committee to whom you confided 
 
222 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 the arrangements of this day with the duty of 
 expressing some of the reflections that naturally 
 occur in taking final leave of a Chamber which 
 has so long been occupied by the Senate. In the 
 progress of our country and the growth of the 
 representation, this room has become too con 
 tracted for the representatives of the States now 
 existing and soon to exist; and accordingly you 
 are about to exchange it for a Hall affording 
 accommodations adequate to the present and 
 future. The occasion suggests many interesting 
 reminiscences; and it may be agreeable, in the 
 first place, to occupy a few minutes with a short 
 account of the various places at which Congress 
 has assembled, of the struggles which preceded 
 the permanent location of the Seat of Govern 
 ment, and of the circumstances under which it 
 was finally established on the banks of the 
 Potomac. 
 
 The Congress of the Revolution was some 
 times a fugitive, holding its sessions, as the 
 chances of war required, at Philadelphia, Balti 
 more, Lancaster, Annapolis, and Yorktown. 
 During the period between the conclusion of 
 peace and the commencement of the present 
 Government, it met at Princeton, Annapolis, 
 Trenton and New York. After the idea of a 
 permanent Union had been executed in part by 
 the adoption of the Articles of Confederation the 
 question presented itself of fixing a Seat of Gov 
 ernment, and this immediately called forth 
 intense interest and rivalry. 
 
 That the place should be central, having regard 
 to the population and territory of the Cenfeder- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 223 
 
 ftcy, was the only point common to the contending 
 parties. Propositions of all kinds were offered, 
 debated, and rejected, some time with intemper 
 ate warmth. At length, on the 7th of October, 
 1783, the Congress being at Princeton, whither 
 they had been driven from Philadelphia, by the 
 insults of a body of armed men, it was resolved 
 that a building for the use of Congress be 
 erected near the falls of the Delaware. This was 
 soon after modified by requiring suitable build 
 ings to be also erected near the falls of the 
 Potomac, that the residence of Congress might 
 alternate between those places. But the question 
 was not allowed to rest, and at length, after fre 
 quent and warm debates, it was resolved that 
 the residence of Congress should continue at one 
 place; and Commissioners were appointed, with 
 full power to lay out a district for a Federal 
 town near the falls of the Delaware, and in the 
 mean time Congress assembled alternately at 
 Trenton and Annapolis, but the representatives 
 of other States were unremitting in exertions for 
 their respective localities. On the 23d of Decem 
 ber, 1784 it was resolved to remove to the City 
 of New York, and to remain there until the 
 building on the Delaware should be completed; 
 and accordingly on the nth of January, 1785, 
 the Congress met at New York, where they con 
 tinued to hold their sessions until the Confedera 
 tion gave place to the Constitution. The Com 
 missioners charged to lay out a town on the Dela 
 ware, reported their proceedings to Congress ; but 
 no further steps were taken to carry the resolu 
 tion into effect. 
 
224 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 When the bonds of Union were drawn closer 
 by the organization of the New Government un 
 der the Constitution, on the 3d of March, 1789, 
 the subject was revived and discussed with 
 greater warmth than before. It was conceded 
 on all sides that the residence of Congress should 
 continue at one place, and the prospect of stabil 
 ity in the Government invested the question with 
 a deeper interest. Some members proposed New 
 York as being "superior to any place they knew 
 for the orderly and descent behavior of its inhab 
 itants." To this it was answered that it was not 
 desirable that the political Capital should be a 
 commercial metropolis. Others ridiculed the 
 idea of building palaces in the woods. Mr. 
 Gerry of Massachusetts thought it highly unrea 
 sonable to fix the Seat of Government in such 
 a position as to have nine States of the thirteen, 
 to the northward of the place; while the South 
 Carolinians objected to Philadelphia on account 
 of the number of Quakers, who, they said, con 
 tinually annoyed the Southern members with 
 schemes of emancipation. In the midst of these 
 disputes, the House of Representatives resolved, 
 "that the permanent Seat of Government ought to 
 be at some convenient place on the banks of the 
 Susquehanna." On the introduction of a bill to 
 give effect to this resolution, much feeling was 
 exhibited, especially by the Southern members. 
 Mr. Madison thought if the proceedings of that 
 day had been forseen by Virginia, that State 
 might not have become a party to the Constitu 
 tion. The question was allowed by every mem 
 ber to be a matter of great importance. Mr. 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 225 
 
 Scott said the future tranquility and well-being 
 of the United States depended as much on this 
 as on any question that ever had, or could, come 
 before Congress; and Mr. Fisher Ames re 
 marked that every principle of pride and honor 
 and even of patriotism were engaged. For a 
 time, any agreement appeared to be impossible; 
 but the good genius of our system finally pre 
 vailed, and on the 28th of June, 1790, an act 
 was passed containing the following clause: 
 "That a distinct territory on the river Potomac, 
 at some place between the mouths of the eastern 
 branch and the Connogocheague, be and the 
 same is hereby accepted, for the permanent Seat 
 of the Government of the United States." The 
 same act provided that Congress should hold its 
 sessions at Philadelphia until the first Monday in 
 November, 1800, when the Government should 
 remove to the district selected on the Potomac. 
 Thus was settled a question which had produced 
 much sectional feeling between the States. But 
 all difficulties were not yet surmounted ; for Con 
 gress, either from indifference, or the want of 
 money, failed to make adequate appropriations 
 for the erection of pubic buildings, and the Com 
 missioners were often reduced to great straits to 
 maintain the progress of the work. Finding it 
 impossible to borrow money in Europe, or obtain 
 it from Congress, Washington, in December, 
 1796, made a personal appeal to the Legislature 
 of Maryland, which was responded to by an ad 
 vance of $100,000; but in so deplorable a condi 
 tion was the credit of the Federal Government 
 that the State required, as a guarantee of pay- 
 
1226 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 ment, the pledge of the private credit of the 
 Commissioners. 
 
 From the beginning, Washington had advo 
 cated the present Seat of Government. Its 
 establishment here was due, in a large measure 
 to his influence ; it was his wisdom and prudence 
 that computed disputes and settled conflicting 
 titles; and it was chiefly through his personal 
 influence that the funds were provided to prepare 
 the buildings for the reception of the President 
 and Congress. 
 
 The wings of the Capitol having been suffici 
 ently prepared, the Government removed to this 
 District on the i/th of November, 1800; or as 
 Mr. Wolcott expressed it, left the comforts of 
 Philadelphia, "to go to the Indian place with the 
 long name, in the woods on the Potomac." I 
 will not pause to describe the appearance at that 
 day, of the place where the city was to be. 
 Contemporary accounts represent it as desolate in 
 the extreme, with its long, unopened avenues and 
 streets, its deep morasses, and its vast area 
 covered with trees instead of houses. It is enough 
 to say that Washington projected the whole plan 
 upon a scale of centuries, and that time enough 
 remains to fill the measure of his great concep 
 tion. 
 
 The Senate continued to occupy the north 
 wing and the House of Representatives the 
 south wing of the Capitol, until the 24th day of 
 August 1814, when the British Army entered 
 the city and burned the public buildings. This 
 occured during the recess, and the President im 
 mediately convened the Congress. Both Houses 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 227 
 
 met in a brick building known as Blodget s Ho 
 tel, which occupied a part of the square now 
 covered by the General Post Office. But the ac 
 commodations in that house being insufficient a 
 number of public spirited citizens erected a more 
 commodious building on Capitol Hill, and tend 
 ered it to Congress ; the offer was accepted, and 
 both houses continued to occupy it until the 
 wings of the new Capitol were completed. This 
 building yet stands on the street, opposite to the 
 northeastern corner of the Capitol Square, and 
 has since been occasionally occupied by persons 
 employed in different branches of the public 
 service. 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1819, the Senate 
 assembled for the first time in this Chamber, 
 which has been the theater of their deliberations 
 for more than thirty-nine years, and now that the 
 strifes and uncertainties of the past are finished, 
 we see around us on every side the proof of sta 
 bility and improvement ; this Capitol is worthy of 
 the Republic; noble public buildings meet the 
 view on every hand ; treasures of science and the 
 arts begin to accumulate. As this flourishing 
 city enlarges, it testifies to the wisdom and fore 
 sight that dictated the plan of it. Future gener 
 ations will not be disturbed by questions concern 
 ing the center of population, or of territory, since 
 the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph 
 have made communication almost instantaneous. 
 The spot is sacred to a thousand memories, which 
 are so many pledges that the City of Washington 
 founded by him and bearing his revered name, 
 ,with its beautful site, on picturesque eminences, 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 and the broad Potomac, and lying within view of 
 his home and tomb, shall remain forever the po 
 litical capital of the United States. 
 
 It would be interesting to note the gradual 
 changes which have occurred in the practical 
 working of the Government, since the adoption 
 of the Constitution ; and, it may be appropriate to 
 this occasion to remark one of the most striking 
 of them: 
 
 At the origin of the Government, the Senate 
 seemed to be regarded chiefly as an executive 
 council. The President often visited the Cham 
 ber and conferred personally with this body; 
 most of its business was transacted with closed 
 doors, and it took comparatively little part in the 
 legislative debates. The rising and vigorous in 
 tellects of the country sought the arena of the 
 House of Representatives as the appropriate the 
 ater for the display of their powers. Mr. Madi 
 son observed, on some occasion, that being a 
 young man, and desiring to increase his reputa 
 tion, he could not afford to enter the Senate, and 
 it will be remembered, that, so late as 1812, the 
 great debates which preceded the war and aroused 
 the country to the assertion of its rights took 
 place in the other branch of Congress. To such 
 an extent was the idea of seclusion carried, that 
 no seats were prepared for the accommodation of 
 the public; and it was not until many years af 
 terwards that the semi-circular gallery was erect 
 ed which admits the people to be witnesses of 
 your proceedings. But now, the Senate, besides 
 its peculiar relations to the executive depart 
 ments of the Government, assumes its full share 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 229 
 
 of duty as a co-equal branch of the Legislature; 
 indeed, from the limited number of its members, 
 and for other obvious reasons, the most import 
 ant questions, especially of foreign policy, are 
 apt to pass first under discussion in this body, 
 and to be a member of it is justly regarded as 
 one of the highest honors which can be con 
 ferred on an American statesman. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to point out the causes 
 of this change, or to say that it is a concession 
 both to the importance and the individuality of 
 the States, and to the open and free character 
 of the Government. In connection with this easy 
 but thorough transition, it is worthy of remark 
 that it has been effected without a charge from 
 any quarter, that the Senate has transcended its 
 constitutional sphere a tribute at once to the 
 moderation of the Senate, and another proof to 
 thoughtful men, of the comprehensive wisdom 
 which the framers of the Constitution possessed. 
 
 The progress of this popular movement, in one 
 aspect of it, has been steady and marked. At the 
 origin of the Government no arrangements in the 
 Senate were made for spectators; in this Cham 
 ber about one-third of the space is allotted to the 
 public; and in the new apartment, the galleries 
 cover two-thirds of its area. In all free countries 
 the admission of the people to witness legislative 
 proceedings is an essential element of public con 
 fidence; and it is not to be anticipated that this 
 wholesome principle will ever be abused by the 
 substitution of partial and interested demonstra 
 tions for the expression of material and enlight 
 ened public opinion. Yet it should never be for- 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 gotten that not France, but the turbulent specta 
 tors within the hall armed and controlled the 
 French Assembly. With this lesson and its con 
 sequences before us, the time will never come 
 when the deliberations of the Senate shall be 
 swayed by the blandishments or the thunders of 
 the galleries. 
 
 It is impossible to disconnect from an occasion 
 like this a crowd of reflections on our own past 
 history, and of speculations on the future. The 
 most meagre accounts of the Senate involves a 
 summary of the progress of our country. From 
 year to year you have seen your representation 
 enlarge; time and again you have proudly wel 
 comed a new sister into the Confederacy; and the 
 occurrences of this day are a material and im 
 pressive proof of the growth and prosperity of 
 he United States. Three periods in the history of 
 the Senate mark in striking contrast three epochs 
 in the history of the Union. On the 3d of March, 
 1789, when the Government w r as organized under 
 the Constitution, the Senate was composed of the 
 representatives of eleven States, containing three 
 million people. On the 6th of December, 1819, 
 when the Senate met for the first time in this 
 room, it was composed of the representatives of 
 twenty-one States, containing nine million people. 
 | To-day it is composed of the representatives 
 of thirty-two States, containing more than twen 
 ty-eight million people, prosperous, happy, and 
 still devoted to constitutional liberty. Let these 
 great facts speak for themselves to all the world. 
 The career of the United States cannot be mea 
 sured by that of any other people of whom his- 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 231 
 
 tory gives account; and the mind is almost ap 
 palled at the contemplation of the prodigious 
 force which has marked their progress. Sixty- 
 nine years, thirteen States, containing three 
 millions of inhabitants, burdened with debt 
 and exhausted by the long war of indepen 
 dence, established for their common good a 
 free Constitution, on principles new to man 
 kind, and began their experiment with the 
 good wishes of a few doubting friends and 
 the derision of the world. Look at the result to 
 day ! Twenty-eight millions of people, in every 
 way happier than an equal number in any other 
 part of the globe ! The centre of population and 
 political power descending the western slope of 
 the Alleghany Mountains, and the original thir- 
 tee States forming but the eastern margin on the 
 map of our vast possessions ; see, besides, Christi 
 anity, civilization, and the arts given to a conti 
 nent; the despised colonies grown into a Power 
 of the first class, representing and protecting 
 ideas that involve the progress of the human 
 race ; a commerce greater than that of any other 
 nation; every variety of climate, soil, and pro 
 duction to make a people powerful and happy; 
 free interchange between the States in a word, 
 behold present greatness, and, in the future, an 
 empire to which the ancient mistress of the world 
 in the height of her glory could not be compared. 
 Such is our country; ay, and more far more 
 than my mind could conceive or my tongue could 
 utter. Is there an American who regrets the past? 
 Is there one who will deride his country s laws, 
 pervert her Constitution, or alienate her people? 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE 
 
 If there be such a man let his memory descend to 
 posterity laden with the execrations of all man 
 kind. 
 
 So happy is the political and social condition 
 of the United States, and so accustomed are we 
 to the secure enjoyment of a freedom elsewhere 
 unknown, that we are apt to undervalue the treas 
 ures we possess, and to lose in some degree the 
 sense of obligation to our forefathers. But when 
 the strifes of faction shake the Government, and 
 even threaten it, we may pause with advantage 
 long enough to remember that we are reaping 
 the reward of other men s labors. This liberty 
 we inherit; this admirable Constitution which 
 has survived peace and war, prosperity and ad 
 versity ; this double scheme of Government, State 
 and Federal, so peculiar and so little understood 
 by other Powers, yet which protects the earn 
 ings of industry, and makes the largest personal 
 freedom compatible with public order. These 
 great results were not acquired without wisdom 
 and toil and blood. The touching and heroic 
 record is before the world ; but to all this we were 
 born, and like heirs upon whom has been cast a 
 great inheritance, have only the high duty to 
 preserve, to extend, and to adorn it. The grand 
 productions of the era in which the foundations 
 of the Government were laid, reveal the deep 
 sense its founders had of their obligations to the 
 whole family of man. Let us never forget that 
 the responsibilities imposed on this generation 
 are by so much the greater than those which 
 rested on our revolutionary ancestors, as the pop- 
 
OF- A SENATE PAGE: 233 
 
 illation, extent, and power of our country sur 
 passes the dawning promise of its origin. 
 
 It would be a pleasing task to pursue many 
 trains of thought, not wholly foreign to this oc 
 casion, but the temptation to enter the wide field 
 must be vigorously curbed; yet I may be par 
 doned, perhaps, for one or two additional re 
 flections : 
 
 The Senate is assembled for the last time in 
 this Chamber. Henceforth it will be converted 
 to other uses; yet it must remain forever con 
 nected with great events, and sacred to the mem 
 ories of the departed orators and statesmen who 
 here engaged in high debates and shaped the 
 policy of their country. 
 
 Hereafter the American and the stranger, as 
 they wander through the Capitol, will turn with 
 instructive reverence to view the spot on which 
 so many and great materials have accumulated 
 for history. They will recall the images of the 
 great and good, whose renown is the common 
 property of the Union ; and chiefly, perhaps, they 
 will linger around the seats once occupied by the 
 mighty three, whose names and fame associated 
 in life, death has not been able to sever; illus 
 trious men in their generation sometimes di 
 vided, sometimes led and sometimes resisted 
 public opinion for they were of that higher class 
 of statesmen who seek the right and follow their 
 convictions. There sat Calhoun, the Senator in 
 flexible, austere ; oppressed, but not overwhelmed 
 by his deep sense of the importance of his public 
 functions; seeking the truth, then fearlessly fol 
 lowing it a man whose upsparing intellect 
 
234 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 compelled all his emotions to harmonize with the 
 deductions of his vigorous logic, and whose noble 
 countenance habitually wore the expression of one 
 engaged in the performance of high public duties. 
 
 This was Webster s seat. He, too, was even 
 such a Senator. Conscious of his own vast pow 
 ers, he reposed with confidence on himself; and, 
 scorning the contrivances of smaller men, he 
 stood among his peers all the greater for the 
 simple dignity of his senatorial demeanor. 
 
 Type of his Northern home, he rises before the 
 imagination in the grand and granite outline of 
 his form and intellect, like a great New England 
 rock repelling a New England wave. As a 
 writer his productions will be cherished by states 
 men and scholars while the English tongue is 
 spoken. As a senatorial orator, his great efforts 
 are historically associated with the Chamber, 
 whose very air seems yet to vibrate beneath the 
 strokes of his deep tones and his weighty words. 
 
 On the outer circle sat Henry Clay, with his im 
 petuous and ardent nature, untamed by age, and 
 exhibiting in the Senate the same vehement pa 
 triotism and passionate eloquence that of yore 
 electrified the House of Representatives and the 
 country. 
 
 His extraordinary personal endowments, his 
 courage, all his noble qualities, invested him with 
 an individuality and a character which in any age, 
 would have made him a favorite of history. He 
 loved his country above all earthly objects. He 
 loved liberty in all countries. Illustrious man ! 
 Orator, patriot, philanthropist his light at his 
 
MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 235 
 
 meridian was seen and felt in the remotest part 
 of the civilized world. And his declining sun, as 
 it hastened down the west, threw back its level 
 beams, in hues of mellowed splendor, to illuminate 
 and to cheer the land he loved and served so 
 well. 
 
 All the States may point, with gratified pride, 
 to the services in the Senate of their patriotic 
 sons. Crowding the memory, comes the names of 
 Adams, Hayne, Mason, Otis, Macon, Pinckney, 
 and the rest I cannot number them who, in 
 the record of their acts and utterances appeal to 
 their successors to give the Union a destiny not 
 unworthy of the past. What models were these 
 to awaken emulation or to plunge in despair! 
 Fortunate will be the American statesman who 
 in this age, or succeeding times shall contribute 
 to invest the new Hall to which we go, with his 
 toric memories like those which cluster here. 
 And now, Senators, we leave this memorable 
 Chamber bearing with us unimpaired, the Con 
 stitution we received from our forefathers. Let 
 us cherish it with grateful acknowledgement to 
 the Divine Power who controls the destinies of 
 empires and whose goodness we adore. 
 
 The structures reared by men yield to the 
 corroding tooth of time. These marble walls 
 must molder into ruin, but the principles of con 
 stitutional liberty, guarded by wisdom and virtue, 
 unlike material elements, do not decay. Let us 
 devoutly trust that another Senate, in another age, 
 shall bear to a new and larger Chamber, this 
 Constitution, vigorous and inviolate ; and that the 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF A SENATE PAGE 
 
 last generation of posterity shall witness the de 
 liberations of the Representatives of American 
 States still united, prosperous and free. 
 
 In execution of the order of the Senate, th 
 body will now proceed to the new Chamber. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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