LIBRARY 
 
 r T NTVERSITY OF C ' T .IFC 
 DAVIS 
 
THE LAST POLITICAL WRITINGS 
 
 (JEN. NATHANIEL LYOI, 
 
 U. S. A/ 
 
 SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND MILITARY SERVICES. 
 
 " Pit make thee famous by my pen. 
 And glorious by my sword." 
 
 GRAHAM, MARQUIS OF MONTROSB. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 RUDD & CARLETON, 130 GRAND STREET. 
 
 M DCCC LXI. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALii 
 DAVIS 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by 
 
 KUDD & CARLETON, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 B. CBAIGHEAD, 
 Printer, Stereotyper, and Electrotyper 
 
 ffiaiton 
 
TO THE PEOPLE 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 THE LAST WISE AND NOBLE WRITINGS 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON, U.S.A., 
 
 THE GALLANT COMMANDER, THE HERO, AND THE PATRIOT, 
 
 WHO, 
 
 IN THE DARKEST HOUR 
 OF THE MONSTER REBELLION OF 1861. 
 
 SACRIFICED HIS LIFE IN DEFENCE 
 
 OF THEIR LAWS, LIBERTY, AND HONOR, 
 * ARE DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
ODE, 
 
 WRITTEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1746. 
 
 How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 
 By all their country' } s wishes blessed ! 
 When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
 Returns to deck their hallowed mould, 
 She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
 Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 
 
 By fairy hands their knell is rung ; 
 By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; 
 There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, 
 To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
 And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
 To dwell a weeping hermit there ! 
 
 WILLIAM COLLINS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 MEMOIR OF NATHANIEL LYON, 11 
 
 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE, . . . . .111 
 SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNITY, . . . . . 120 
 
 ARE WE SUBDUED? 135 
 
 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION, 139 
 
 TRUE TO His MISSION, . . . . . .151 
 
 FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY, 161 
 
 THE SECRET OF IT, . . 167 
 
 OUR GRIEVANCES, 176 
 
 DISUNION, 184 
 
 OUR POLITICAL SUMMARY, 190 
 
 A WORD TO THE BRETHREN, 194 
 
 REPUBLICAN REFLECTIONS, 200 
 
 OUR TRIUMPH, 204 
 
 PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION, . . 210 
 
 LETTER I, 214 
 
 LETTER II, 224 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES, ETC., ..... 233 
 
 FUNERAL OBSEQUIES, ....... 239 
 
 IN MEMORY OF GENERAL LYON, . . . . .271 
 
 LYON, .273 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
MEMOIR OF NATHANIEL LYON. 
 
 NATHANIEL LYON was born at Ashford, 
 Windham co., Connecticut, on the of 
 July, 1819. He was the son of Amasa 
 Lyon, a well-to-do farmer, for many years 
 a magistrate, and prominent man in Ash- 
 ford. His mother, whose name was Kezia, 
 belonged to the Knowlton family. Two 
 members of this family, Thomas and Daniel, 
 were distinguished in the Revolution, and 
 possibly before, for they both served in 
 the wars of the Colonists and the English 
 against the French, probably under Put 
 nam, who was appointed to the command 
 of the first troops raised in Connecticut in 
 
12 MEMOIR OF 
 
 1755, and who, by the way, might almost 
 be considered a neighbor of theirs, Pom- 
 fret, his residence, being only a few miles 
 distant from Ashford. The former of the 
 brothers, Thomas, is well known to the 
 readers of American History, in connexion 
 with the battle of Bunker's Hill, where, as 
 a Captain, he played an important part, 
 commanding the Connecticut troops at a 
 breastwork of hay, which he extemporized 
 along an old rail-fence, and which formed 
 a valuable defence to the provincials before 
 the battle was over. 
 
 After the lapse of little more than a 
 year, we hear of him again, as Colonel 
 Knowlton. It was the 16th of September, 
 1776, and a British force, under Brigadier 
 Leslie, was making its way by M'Gowan's 
 pass to Harlem Plains. " The little garri 
 sons," says Lossing, in his Field Book of 
 the Revolution, " at Mount Morris and Har 
 lem Cove (Manhattariville) confronted them 
 at the mouth of a deep gorge, and kept 
 them in partial check until the arrival of 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 13 
 
 re-enforcements. "Washington was at Mor 
 ris's house, and hearing the firing, rode to 
 his outpost, where the Convent of the 
 Sacred Heart now stands. There he met 
 Colonel Knowlton of the Connecticut Ran 
 gers (" Congress's Own?} who had been 
 skirmishing with the advancing foe, and 
 now came for orders. The enemy were 
 about three hundred strong upon the plain, 
 and had a reserve in the woods upon the 
 heights. Knowlton was ordered to hasten 
 with his Rangers, and Major Leitch with 
 three companies of Weedon's Virginia 
 regiment, to gain the rear of the advance, 
 while a feigned attack was to be made in 
 front. Perceiving this, the enemy rushed 
 forward to gain an advantageous position 
 on the plain, when they were attacked by 
 Knowlton and Leitch on the flank. Re-en 
 forcements now came down from the hills, 
 when the enemy changed front, and fell 
 upon the Americans. A short but severe 
 conflict ensued. Three bullets passed 
 through the body of Leitch, and he was 
 
14 MEMOIR OF 
 
 borne away. A few minutes afterwards, 
 Knowlton received a bullet through the 
 head, fell, and was borne off by his sorrow 
 ing companions." So ended the battle of 
 Harlem Plains, as far as Thomas Knowlton 
 was concerned ; for he was carried, Lossing 
 tells us, to the redoubt, near the Hudson, 
 at One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth street, 
 where he expired before sunset, and was 
 buried within the embankments. Washing 
 ton honored his memory in general orders 
 on the morning after the battle, for, allud 
 ing to his death, he wrote: "He would 
 have been an honor to any country." This 
 was a noble tribute, and not the last which 
 the Knowltons were destined to receive, 
 their valor and glory flowering again in 
 the person of their descendant, Nathaniel 
 Lyon. 
 
 If there be anything in ancestry (a 
 mooted point about which the wisest differ), 
 the boy Nathaniel was fortunate in his 
 birth. Of his early years we have no ac 
 count. They were probably passed like 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 15 
 
 those of most New England children 
 evenly, simply, monotonously ; amdng his 
 brothers and sisters at home, playing, or 
 doing childish " chores ;" or at the village 
 school, trying to realize the truth of the old 
 proverb (which, by the way, is not particu 
 larly evident), that " Learning is better than 
 houses and land ;" floundering in the dismal, 
 and seemingly bottomless, quagmire, which 
 the wise call Spelling ; wandering in the 
 thorny labyrinths of Grammar ; poring 
 over the configurations of Geography, occa 
 sionally " bounding" a distant State by way 
 of refreshing his memory ; or clumsily 
 stumbling through the delicate mysteries 
 of pothooks and hangers ! This, and 
 more of the same sort pictures of juvenile 
 life in the country ; groups of tanned and 
 noisy boys, behind the school-house, along 
 the road, or in the fields, trundling hoops, 
 flying kites, or playing ball; roaming in 
 the woods for birds' nests, or gathering ber 
 ries in distant pastures ; we can imagine all 
 this, and be pretty sure, too, that we are 
 
IQ MEMOIR OF 
 
 not far from the truth. Still, this is not 
 the way in which Biography ought to be 
 written ; so we will leave the unsubstantial 
 though poetical region of Fancy, for the 
 solid and prosaic world of Fact. Of 
 the childhood of General Lyon, then, we 
 know nothing, except that it was passed in 
 his native village, and, for the most part, in 
 the house in which he was born. This 
 house, the homestead of the family, stands 
 about four miles from Eastford (Ashford 
 was divided in 1847, and the name of the 
 northern portion of the township changed 
 to Eastford), on the road to Hampton. 
 Leaving the little hamlet of Phcenixville we 
 climb a long hill, thence over a rough road 
 to a valley, nestled in which, between two 
 steep and rocky hills, about twenty rods 
 from the highway, is the house a small, 
 old building, somewhat out of repair, with 
 rusty clapboards, which were once painted 
 red. Poor and unpicturesque as it is, it 
 was precious in the eyes of General Lyon, 
 whose memory delighted to dwell upon it 
 
NATHANIEL LYON". 17 
 
 in after years. The night before his last 
 battle, he slept, we are told, with one of his 
 friends, Major Scofield, between two high 
 rocks, where he was so wedged in that it 
 was difficult for him to stir ; he made light 
 of the inconvenience, however, as was his 
 wont, and, his mind reverting to his early 
 home and its surroundings, remarked that 
 he was "born between two rocks." 
 
 "Nathaniel," said an aged man, to one 
 who was present at the General's funeral, 
 "Nathaniel worked for me on my farm 
 when he was a boy. He was smart, daring, 
 and resolute, and wonderfully attached to 
 his mother." One likes to learn such 
 things of a hero in his boyhood ; they show 
 that the child was the father of the man ; 
 that the courage we admire, and the glory 
 we reverence, were the legitimate growth 
 of a brave soul, and a tender, loving heart. 
 In addition to the qualities already men 
 tioned, Nathaniel is said to have shown, 
 even in his early years, a great talent for 
 mathematics, a circumstance which we can 
 
13 MEMOIR OF 
 
 readily believe (though not the report that 
 it was cultivated under the tuition of an 
 experienced teacher, experienced teachers 
 being so seldom included among the ap 
 pointments of a farm !) as it probably de 
 termined his future career. 
 
 In his -eighteenth year (according to one 
 account, July 1st, 1837), he entered the 
 Military Academy at West Point, where he 
 remained till 1841, when he graduated with 
 distinction, being the eleventh in his class. 
 Appointed Second Lieutenant in the Second 
 United States Infantry, his military life 
 may be said to have commenced. We shall 
 not trace him through his initiation, the 
 months and years in which he was gaining 
 an active knowledge of his profession, for 
 the early part of his career, however ardu 
 ous it may have been to himself, and use 
 ful to his country, was passed in obscu 
 rity. Let it suffice then, to say, that he 
 served in the everglades of Florida in the 
 latter part of the Seminole war; that he 
 was stationed at various posts on our West- 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 19 
 
 ern frontier ; and that he went through the 
 Mexican war, gradually rising in rank (he 
 entered the latter as a First Lieutenant), 
 and drawing attention to himself. He was 
 engaged in the bombardment and capture 
 of Vera Cruz ; and at the battle of Cerro 
 Gordo, his company was the only one that 
 reached the crest of the hill in time to 
 engage the Mexicans before their retreat. 
 " No sooner had the height become ours," 
 said Captain Morris, who commanded the 
 regiment, " than the enemy appeared in 
 large force on the Jalapa road, and we 
 were ordered to hasten to that point. Cap 
 tain Canby, with a small detachment, accom 
 panied by Lieutenant Lyon, pressed hotly 
 in their rear, and were soon in possession of 
 a battery of three pieces which had been 
 firing upon us in reverse." 
 
 At Contreras, Lieutenant Lyon's regi 
 ment performed an important part in resist 
 ing the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry, 
 and his own command, held in reserve in 
 the centre of the hollow square formed for 
 
20 MEMOIR OF 
 
 resistance to the attack, did most signal ser 
 vice. And on the day after the battle, he 
 himself, at the head of his men, followed in 
 pursuit of the routed Mexicans, and suc 
 ceeded in capturing several pieces of their 
 artillery, which he immediately turned upon 
 their flying forces. He also distinguished 
 himself at Churubusco, and for his gallantry 
 in both actions received the following 
 recommendation in the regimental returns 
 of his commanding officer, Acting Colonel 
 Morris. " I here take the opportunity of 
 recommending these two officers (Captains 
 Casey and Wessels), together with Captain 
 J. R. Smith and First Lieutenant Lyon, to 
 the special notice of the Colonel command 
 ing the brigade." The result of this honora 
 ble mention was the appointment of Lieu 
 tenant Lyon to the rank of Brevet Captain. 
 He also assisted in the capture of the city 
 of Mexico, and while fighting in the streets. 
 near the Belen Gate, received a wound from 
 a musket ball. 
 
 Peace being declared with Mexico, Cap* 
 
NATHANIEL LYOK 21 
 
 tain Lyon (he received the rank of full 
 Captain on the llth of June, 1851) was 
 ordered to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 
 preparatory to a contemplated march over 
 land to California. By a change of orders 
 from the War Department, however, his 
 regiment was dispatched by the way of 
 Cape Horn, and arrived in California shortly 
 after its acquisition by the United States. 
 He remained in California for a number of 
 years, longer, it is said, than most of his fel 
 low officers, seeing all sorts of life and ser 
 vice incident to his profession in a new and 
 partially wild country. His time was chiefly 
 employed in fighting the Indians, an enemy 
 not to be judged by the ordinary standard, 
 or conquered by the ordinary means ; but 
 by long and tedious marches, sudden sur 
 prises, incessant alarms, and frequent skir 
 mishes in short, by a barbaric strategy 
 similar, but superior, to their own. The 
 schooling which he had had in the ever 
 glades of Florida was of use to him now, 
 and he soon became proficient in this style 
 
22 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of warfare. It was adapted to the cast of 
 his mind, which was in many respects that 
 of a partisan leader ; not that he was defi 
 cient in the art of his profession, the science 
 of war, for he was a thoroughly scientific 
 soldier ; but that it suited his rapid way of 
 thinking, and prompt way of acting. 
 
 He was finally removed from California, 
 which we will suppose became in time so 
 far free from Indians, as no longer to need 
 his services, and was stationed on our West 
 ern frontiers, chiefly in Kansas and Ne 
 braska. It was at the height of the poli 
 tical troubles there, the history of which 
 we all know, and the result of which we 
 all see, in the conflicts which are now divid 
 ing our unhappy country. His position as 
 an officer of the Government, his peculiar 
 position, we may almost say, remembering 
 who filled the Presidential Chair then (who 
 so abject now as the white-haired, broken- 
 down old man at Wheatlands ?) made him 
 acquainted with the most prominent men 
 of that section, border ruffians and the like, 
 
NATHANIEL LTON. 23 
 
 and the measures which the Government 
 were trying to force upon the people. As 
 he had always been accustomed to think 
 for himself, he soon began to have a very 
 decided opinion concerning the merits of 
 the case then and there on trial Freedom 
 versus Slavery, and it is no slander to his 
 memory to say that it was not in favor of 
 the latter. He was, or had been, a Demo 
 crat, but the scenes of fraud and violence 
 with which he was surrounded, and which 
 he could hardly fail to trace to the Demo 
 cratic party, made him look for salvation in 
 another political creed. The change which 
 he experienced at that time, led him at a 
 later period to enter what was to him a 
 new field of operations the world in which 
 the pen and not the sword rules. The re 
 sult may be seen in the articles which fol 
 low. They were written in the summer 
 and fall of 1860, while he was stationed at 
 Camp Riley, Kansas, and were published 
 in a weekly paper issued in that vicinity, 
 The Manhattan Express. The date of their 
 
24 MEMOIR OF 
 
 appearance is annexed to each. The mo 
 tive which impelled Captain Lyon to write' 
 these articles, was that which made him a 
 soldier and kept him one a sincere, ear 
 nest desire to be useful to his country. 
 What other motive could have induced a 
 soldier like him to lay down his sword and 
 take up the pen, a weapon to which he was 
 unaccustomed, and in the use of which the 
 merest literary tyro might worst him ? Not 
 vanity, for his articles were published ano 
 nymously ; and certainly not spite, for no 
 one in power had injured him. He may 
 have been wrong in some of his conclusions 
 (we do not say that he was), if so, the error 
 was that of an honest man, not a dema 
 gogue. That his heart was in his work is 
 evident from his notes at this time. " My 
 article is longer than I wished," he wrote to 
 the editor on the llth of Sept. 1860, "but 
 it could hardly be shorter and argumenta 
 tive. I have tried to show what I believe 
 Mr. Douglas's conduct admits of an inten 
 tion, in spite of all circumstances, to do 
 
NATHANIEL LYOK 25 
 
 what lie can for the pro-slavery party, and 
 his pretended opposition is only to be able 
 to serve them better. I may not have made 
 this as plain as I had wished and intended, 
 but must let it pass now." 
 
 " I have not been able to write you for 
 this week's paper," he wrote again on the 
 23d Nov., " and have been under the im 
 pression that you would not expect me to 
 do so. 
 
 " There seems to be little doubt that 
 several of the Southern States will precipi 
 tate themselves into disaster and disgrace, 
 if allowed to do so ; but this can be pre 
 vented by the President, if he chooses to 
 exercise his authority as becomes the chief 
 Magistrate of our great and powerful coun 
 try. But unfortunately Mr. Buchanan 
 seems to regard himself as elected to sub 
 mit tremblingly to any and every demand 
 of the South, and I fear he can never rouse 
 himself to take such action as our emergen 
 cies now require as due to the country from 
 
 him. Time must show : the only thing safe 
 2 
 
26 MEMOIR OF 
 
 to predict is, that the conduct of the South 
 must involve her people in suffering and 
 shame." 
 
 A few months later and the career of 
 Captain Lyon becomes a portion of his 
 country's history ; the obscurity which has 
 shrouded so many years of his life suddenly 
 changes to a blaze of publicity, in the midst 
 of which he appears as a hero. From this 
 time there is no want of material for his 
 biography, but rather an embarras du 
 richesse / for during the last five months the 
 journals all over the land have been full of 
 him his plans and movements, his victo 
 ries, and his death. We shall use them 
 freely in the rest of this sketch, trusting 
 that the facts which it contains will excuse 
 its lack of originality. 
 
 The prompter's bell rang on the 7th of 
 May, 1861, and, the curtain rising, we saw 
 Captain Lyon on the stage of action in 
 Missouri. He was in St. Louis, in com 
 mand of the Arsenal. The Police Com 
 missioners demanded the removal of the 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 27 
 
 United States troops from all the places 
 occupied by them outside the Arsenal 
 grounds. Captain Lyon declined compli 
 ance with the demand, and the Commis 
 sioners referred the matter to the Governor 
 and the Legislature. The Commissioners 
 alleged that such occupancy was in deroga 
 tion of the Constitution and the laws of the 
 United States ; and. in rejoinder Captain 
 Lyon inquired what provisions of the Con 
 stitution and laws were thus violated. 
 The Commissioners, in support of their posi 
 tion, said that originally "Missouri had 
 sovereign and exclusive jurisdiction over 
 her whole territory," and had delegated a 
 portion of her sovereignty to the United 
 States over certain tracts of land for mili 
 tary purposes, such as arsenals, parks, &c., 
 and the conclusion implied was, that this 
 was the extreme limit of the right of the 
 United States Government to occupy or 
 touch the soil of the sovereign State of 
 Missouri. 
 
 Whether Captain Lyon finally acceded 
 
23 MEMOIR OP 
 
 to the demand, may be seen by the fol 
 lowing article from the St. Louis Ke- 
 publican. 
 
 ST. Louis, May 10. 
 
 Unusual, and to some extent alarming, 
 activity prevailed early yesterday morning 
 at each rendezvous of the Home Gruard and 
 in the vicinity of the Arsenal. The men 
 recently provided with arms from the 
 Arsenal, to the number of several thousands, 
 were ordered, we understand, to be at their 
 different posts at 12 o'clock, in readiness to 
 march as they might be commanded. A 
 report gained some currency that General 
 Harney was expected on the afternoon 
 train, and that the troops were to cross the 
 river to receive him, and escort him to the 
 city. Very little reliance, however, was 
 placed in this explanation of the military 
 movements, and at about 2 o'clock P.M., the 
 whole town became greatly agitated upon 
 the circulation of the intelligence that some 
 five or six thousand men were marching up 
 Market Street, under arms, in the direction 
 
NATHANIEL LYOX. 29 
 
 of Camp Jackson. The news proved to be 
 correct, except as to the numbers, and in 
 this case the report rather under-estimated 
 the extent of the force. According to our 
 best information, there were probably not 
 less than seven thousand men under Cap 
 tain Lyon (commanding the United States 
 troops at this post), with about twenty 
 pieces of artillery. 
 
 The troops, as stated before, marched at 
 quick time up Market Street, and on arriv 
 ing near Camp Jackson, rapidly surrounded 
 it, planting batteries upon all the heights 
 overlooking the camp. Long files of men 
 were stationed in platoons at various points 
 on every side, and a picket guard esta 
 blished covering an area of say two hun 
 dred yards. The guards, with fixed bayo 
 nets, and muskets at half cock, were in 
 structed to allow none to pass or repass 
 within the limits thus taken up. 
 
 By this time an immense crowd of people 
 had assembled in the vicinity, having gone 
 thither in carriages, buggies, rail-cars, bag- 
 
30 MEMOIR OF 
 
 gage-wagons, on horseback, and on foot. 
 Numbers of men seized rifles, shot-guns, or 
 whatever other weapons they could lay 
 hands upon, and rushed pell-mell to the 
 assistance of the State troops, but were, of 
 course, obstructed in their design. The 
 hills, of which there are a number in the 
 neighborhood, were literally black with 
 people hundreds of ladies and children 
 stationing themselves with the throng, but, 
 as they thought, out of harm's way. - 
 
 Gen. Frost, commanding Camp Jackson, 
 received the intelligence of the advance of 
 the Arsenal troops with equanimity, but 
 with some astonishment. He had heard 
 reports that it was the design of Capt. Lyon 
 to attack his camp, but was not at first dis 
 posed to place credence in them. So rapidly 
 did these rumors come to him, however, 
 that yesterday morning he addressed Capt. 
 L. a note, of which the following is a copy : 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 3]_ 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, CAMP JACKSON, 
 Missouri Militia, May 10, 1861. 
 
 Captain N. LYON, commanding United States 
 Troops in and about St. Louis Arsenal. 
 
 SIR : I am constantly in receipt of infor 
 mation that you contemplate an attack 
 upon my camp, whilst I understand that 
 you are impressed with the idea that an 
 attack upon the Arsenal and United States 
 troops is intended on the part of the militia 
 of Missouri. I am greatly at a loss to know 
 what could j ustify you in attacking citizens 
 of the United States who are in the lawful 
 performance of duties devolving upon them 
 under the Constitution, in organizing and 
 instructing the militia of the State in obe 
 dience to her laws, and therefore have been 
 disposed to doubt the correctness of the 
 information I have received. I would be 
 glad to know from you personally whether 
 there is any truth in the statements that 
 are constantly poured into my ears. So 
 far as regards any hostility being intended 
 towards the United States, or its property 
 
32 MEMOIR OP 
 
 or representatives, by any portion of my 
 command, or, as far as I can learn (and I 
 think I am fully informed), of any other 
 part of the State forces, I can say positively 
 that the idea has never been entertained. 
 On the contrary, prior to your taking com 
 mand of the Arsenal, I proffered to Major 
 Bell, then in command of the very few 
 troops constituting its guard, the service 
 of myself and all my command, and, if 
 necessary, the whole power of the State, to 
 protect the United States in the full posses 
 sion of all her property. Upon Gen. Har- 
 ney's taking command of this department, 
 I made the same proffer of services to him, 
 and authorized his Adjutant-General, Capt. 
 Williams, to communicate the fact that 
 such had been done to the War Depart 
 ment. I have had no occasion since to 
 change any of the views I entertained at 
 that tiaie, neither of my own volition nor 
 through orders of my constitutional com 
 mander. I trust that after this explicit 
 statement we may be able, by fully under- 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 33 
 
 standing each other, to keep far from our 
 borders the misfortunes which so unhappily 
 afflict our common country. 
 
 This communication will be handed to 
 you by Col. Bowen, my Chief of Staff, who 
 will be able to explain anything not fully 
 set forth in the foregoing. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully, your obe 
 dient servant, 
 
 Brig.-Gen. D. M. FROST, 
 Commanding Camp Jackson, M. V. M. 
 
 Capt. L. refused to receive the above 
 communication. He forwarded Gen. Frost 
 the following about the time, if we are not 
 mistaken, of the surrounding of his camp : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS UNITED STATES TROOPS, 
 St. Louis (Mo.), May 10, 1861. 
 
 Gen. D. M. FROST, Commanding Camp 
 Jackson : 
 
 SIR : Your command is regarded as evi 
 dently hostile towards the Government of 
 the United States. 
 
 It is, for the most part, made up of those 
 
34 MEMOIR OF 
 
 secessionists who have openly avowed 
 their hostility to the General Government, 
 and have been plotting at the seizure of 
 its property and the overthrow of its 
 authority. You are openly in communi 
 cation with the so-called Southern Confede 
 racy, which is now at war with the United 
 States, and you are receiving at your camp, 
 from the said Confederacy and under its 
 flag, large supplies of the materiel of war, 
 most of which is known to be the property 
 of the United States. These extraordinary 
 preparations plainly indicate none other 
 but the well-known purpose of the Gover 
 nor of this State, under whose orders you 
 are acting, and whose purpose, recently 
 communicated to the Legislature, has just 
 been responded to by that body in the most 
 unparalleled legislation, having in direct 
 view hostilities to the General Government 
 and co-operation with its enemies. 
 
 In view of these considerations, and ot 
 your failure to disperse in obedience to the 
 proclamation of the President, and of the 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 35 
 
 imminent necessities of State policy and 
 welfare, and the obligations imposed upon 
 me by instructions from Washington, it is 
 my duty to demand, and I do hereby 
 demand of you an immediate surrender of 
 your command, with no other condition 
 than that all persons surrendering under 
 this demand shall be humanely and kindly 
 treated. Believing myself prepared to 
 enforce this demand, one half-hour's time, 
 before doing so, will be allowed for your 
 compliance therewith. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 N. LYON, 
 Capt. 2d Infantry, Com. Troops. 
 
 Immediately on the receipt of the fore 
 going, General Frost called a hasty consul 
 tation of the officers of his staff. The con 
 clusion arrived at was that the brigade was 
 in no condition to make resistance to a 
 force so numerically superior, and that only 
 one course could be pursued a surrender. 
 
 The demand of Capt. Lyon was accord- 
 
36 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ingly agreed to. The State troops were 
 therefore made prisoners of war, but an 
 offer was made to release them on con 
 dition that they would take an oath to 
 support the Constitution of the United 
 States and would swear not to take up 
 arms against the Government. These terms 
 were made known to the several commands 
 and the opportunity given to all who might 
 feel disposed to accede to them to do so. 
 Some eight or ten men signified their will 
 ingness; but the remainder, about eight 
 hundred, preferred, under the circum 
 stances, to become prisoners. (A number 
 of the troops were absent from the camp 
 in the city on leave.) Those who declined 
 to take the prescribed oath, said that they 
 had already sworn allegiance to the United 
 States and to defend the Government, and 
 to repeat it now would be to admit that 
 they had been in rebellion, which they 
 would not concede. 
 
 The preparations for the sui rer.der and 
 for marching, as prisoners, under the escort 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 37 
 
 of the Arsenal troops, occupied an hour or 
 two. About half-past five the prisoners left 
 the grove and entered the road, the United 
 States soldiers inclosing them by a single 
 file stretched along each side of the line. 
 A halt was ordered and the troops remained 
 standing in the position they had deployed 
 into on the road. The head of the column 
 at the time rested opposite a small hill on 
 the left as you approach the city, and the 
 rear was on a line with the entrance to the 
 grove. Vast crowds of people covered the 
 surrounding grounds and every fence and 
 housetop in the vicinity. Suddenly the 
 sharp reports of several firearms were heard 
 from the front of the column, and the spec 
 tators that lined the adjacent hill were 
 seen fleeing in the greatest dismay and 
 terror. It appeared that several members 
 of one of the German companies, on being 
 pressed by the crowd and receiving some 
 blows from them, turned and discharged 
 their pieces. Fortunately no one was in 
 jured, and the soldiers who had done the 
 
38 MEMOIR OF 
 
 act were at once placed under arrest. 
 Hardly, however, liad tranquillity been 
 restored, when volley after volley of rifle 
 reports were suddenly heard from the 
 extreme rear ranks, and men, women, and 
 children were beheld running wildly and 
 frantically away from the scene. Many, 
 while running, were suddenly struck to the 
 sod, and the wounded and dying made the 
 late beautiful field look like a battle-ground. 
 The wounded, who were unable to be 
 moved, were suitably cared for on the 
 grounds. The total number killed and in 
 jured was about twenty -five. It was 
 reported that the Arsenal troops were 
 attacked with stones, and a couple of shots 
 discharged at them by the crowd before 
 they fired. The most of the people ex 
 posed to the fire of the soldiers were citizens, 
 with their wives and children, who were 
 merely spectators, and took no part in any 
 demonstration whatever. The firing was 
 said to have been done by Boernstein's 
 company, and at the command of an officer. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 39 
 
 The United States troops are now in pos 
 session of Camp Jackson, with all the 
 equipage, tents, provisions, &c. The pri 
 soners of war are, we believe, at the 
 Arsenal. 
 
 It is almost impossible to describe the 
 intense exhibition of feeling which was 
 manifested in the city. All the most fre 
 quented streets and avenues were thronged 
 with citizens in the highest state of 
 excitement, and loud huzzas and occasional 
 shots were heard in various localities. 
 Thousands upon thousands of restless 
 human beings could be seen from almost 
 every point on Fourth Street, all in search 
 of the latest news. Imprecations, loud 
 and long, were hurled into the darkening 
 air, and the most unanimous resentment 
 was expressed on all sides at the manner of 
 firing into the harmless crowds near Camp 
 Jackson. Hon. J. R. Barret, Major Uriel 
 Wright, and other speakers addressed a large 
 and intensely excited crowd in front of 
 the Planters' House, and other well-known 
 
40 MEMOIR OF 
 
 citizens were similarly engaged at various 
 other points in the city. All the drinking 
 saloons, restaurants, and other public resorts 
 of similar character were closed by their 
 proprietors, almost simultaneously, at dark ; 
 and the windows of private dwellings were 
 fastened in fear of a general riot. Theatres 
 and other public places of amusement were 
 entirely out of the question, and nobody 
 was near them. Matters of graver import 
 were occupying the minds of the citizens, 
 and everything but the present excitement 
 was banished from their thoughts. Crowds 
 of men rushed through the principal tho 
 roughfares, bearing banners and devices 
 suitable to their several fancies, and by 
 turns cheering and groaning. Some were 
 armed and others were not armed, and all 
 seemed anxious to be at work. A charge 
 was made on the gun store of H. E. Dimick, 
 on Main Street, the door was broken open, 
 and the crowd secured fifteen or twenty 
 guns before a sufficent number of police 
 could be collected to arrest their proceedings. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 41 
 
 Chief McDonougli marched down with 
 about twenty policemen, armed with mus 
 kets, and succeeded in dispersing the mob 
 and protecting the premises from further 
 molestation. Squads of armed policemen 
 were stationed at several of the most public 
 corners, and the offices of the Missouri 
 Democrat and Anzeiger des Westens were 
 placed under guard for protection. 
 
 Four days later General Harney, who had 
 assumed the command of the Department, 
 issued a proclamation to the people of Mi 
 chigan, in which he alluded to Captain 
 Lyon and his capture of Camp Jackson : 
 
 u It is not proper," he said, " for me to 
 comment upon the official conduct of my 
 predecessor in command of this Depart 
 ment, but it is right and proper for the 
 people of Missouri to know that the main 
 avenue of Camp Jackson, recently under 
 command of General Frost, had the name 
 of Davis, and a principal street of the same 
 camp that of Beauregard ; and that a body 
 of men had been received into that camp 
 
42 MEMOIR OF 
 
 by its commander, which had been notori 
 ously organized in the interests of the seces 
 sionists, the men openly wearing the dress 
 and badge distinguishing the army of the 
 so-called Southern Confederacy. It is also 
 a notorious fact that a quantity of arms 
 had been received into the camp, which 
 were unlawfully taken from the United 
 States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and sur 
 reptitiously passed up the river in boxes 
 marked marble. 
 
 " Upon facts like these, and having in 
 view what occurred at Liberty, the people 
 can draw their own inferences, and it can 
 not be difficult for any one to arrive at a 
 correct conclusion as to the character and 
 ultimate purpose of that encampment. No 
 government in the world would be entitled 
 to respect that would tolerate for a moment 
 such openly treasonable preparations." 
 
 The same day the first four regiments of 
 the United States Volunteers were formed 
 into a brigade, as the 1st Brigade Missouri 
 Volunteers, and Captain Lyon was elected 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 43 
 
 their Brigadier-General. The next day he 
 sent an expedition against Potosi, for the 
 purpose of overawing the secessionists there, 
 who were driving the Union men from 
 their homes. It was perfectly successful, 
 fifty or more secessionists being taken, 
 though afterwards released on their parole 
 of honor ; a lead manufactory broken up, 
 and one John Dean not the Milesian gen 
 tleman of whom we have all heard, in con 
 nexion with the fair damsel Mary Ann 
 but the owner of the lead manufactory 
 aforesaid, captured and held ; a company 
 of secession cavalry put to flight, and a 
 rebel flag seized as a trophy, after which 
 the company returned to St. Louis in 
 triumph. 
 
 On the 21st of May the loyal portion of 
 the community was startled with the intel 
 ligence that General Harney had entered 
 into an arrangement with General Sterling 
 Price, the commander of the Missouri Mili 
 tia, for the purpose of maintaining the pub 
 lic peace. General Price pledged the whole 
 
44 MEMOIR OP 
 
 power of the State officers to maintain order 
 among the people of the State, and General 
 Harney declared that this object being 
 assured, he could have no occasion, as he 
 had no wish, to make military movements, 
 which might otherwise create excitement 
 and jealousies which he most earnestly 
 desired to avoid. 
 
 The impression prevailed that General 
 Harney had been overreached by the Seces 
 sionists, which was the case, but no fears 
 were entertained in regard to General 
 Lyon, whose remarkable energy and acute- 
 ness were every day more manifest. He 
 ordered the steamer J. C. Swan to be seized 
 at Harlow's Landing, thirty miles below St. 
 Louis, and brought to the St. Louis Arsenal. 
 This was the steamer that brought the arms 
 from Baton Rouge, which were captured 
 by him at Camp Jackson. About 5,000 
 pounds of lead, en route for the South, were 
 also seized at Ironton, on the Iron Moun 
 tain Railroad. Some resistance was offered 
 by a party of citizens, and several shots 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 45 
 
 were fired on botli sides, but nobody was 
 hurt. 
 
 This was on the 22d, the day after Har- 
 ney and Price had made their arrangements 
 for a peace. Nine days later the former 
 was recalled by the authorities in Wash 
 ington, and General Lyon was left in com 
 mand of the Department. Having by this 
 time had a taste of his quality, the Seces 
 sionists began to be alarmed, and not with 
 out reason, as it was clear that he was 
 strengthening himself to meet the exigen 
 cies of his position. On the 4th of June 
 General Price issued a proclamation to the 
 Brigadier-Generals commanding the several 
 military districts in Missouri, in which he 
 expressed 'his desire that the people of that 
 State should exercise the right to choose 
 their own position in any contest which 
 might be forced upon them, unaided by 
 any military force whatever, and spoke of 
 the armistice, as it were, into which he had 
 wheedled the unsuspecting Harney. 
 
 " The Federal Government, however," he 
 
46 MEMOIR OF 
 
 said, "has thought proper to remove General 
 Harney from the command of the Depart 
 ment of the West, but as the successor of 
 General Harney will certainly consider 
 himself and his Government in honor bound 
 to carry out this agreement in good faith, I 
 feel assured that his removal should give no 
 cause of uneasiness to our citizens for the 
 security of their liberties and property. I 
 intend, on my part, to adhere both in its 
 spirit and to the letter. The rumor in cir 
 culation, that it is the intention of the offi 
 cers now in command of this Department 
 to disarm those of our citizens who do not 
 agree in opinion with the Administration 
 at Washington, and put arms in the hands 
 of those who, in some localities of this State, 
 are supposed to sympathize with the views 
 of the Federal Government, are, I trust, 
 unfounded. The purpose of such a move 
 ment could not be misunderstood, and it 
 would not only be a violation of the agree 
 ment referred to, and an equally plain vio 
 lation of our constitutional right, but a gross 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 47 
 
 indignity to the citizens of the State, which 
 would be resisted to the last extremity." 
 
 This certainty that General Lyon would 
 " carry out this agreement in good faith," 
 was not destined to be realized, and the 
 Secessionists began to scatter from St. Louis. 
 A week later they sought an interview with 
 General Lyon, Governor Jackson, General 
 Price, and other prominent traitors coming 
 from Jefferson City for that purpose. In 
 the course of the interview, which lasted 
 four hours, they demanded that no United 
 States troops should march through, or 
 quarter in Missouri. General Lyon refused 
 to agree to the demand, asserting the right 
 of the Government to send its troops wher 
 ever it pleased, and promising to protect all 
 loyal citizens in their rights, and to fight all 
 disloyal ones, whom he should meet in arms. 
 Governor Jackson returned to Jefferson 
 City, a wiser, and possibly a sadder, man. 
 Learning that General Lyon was on the 
 way to attack him, he evacuated that place 
 early on the morning of the 14th. Soon 
 
48 MEMOIR OF 
 
 after sunrise but few of the rebels were to 
 be found in the town. Orders were given 
 by Governor Jackson for the destruction of 
 the Moreau bridge, four miles down the 
 Missouri, and General Price attended to the 
 demolition of the telegraph. All the cars 
 and locomotives that could be used were 
 taken by the rebels in their flight, and as 
 fast as they crossed streams they secured 
 themselves from pursuit by burning the 
 bridges. They were quite cautious in con 
 cealing their place of destination from the 
 loyal men of Jefferson, but it was evident 
 that they were bound for Booneville, forty 
 miles above, and one of the strongest Seces 
 sion towns in the State. 
 
 General Lyon arrived at Jefferson City 
 shortly after their departure, and was 
 warmly welcomed by the mass of the citi 
 zens. A day or two later he planned 
 an excursion, which is thus described in the 
 St. Louis Deinocrat. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 49 
 
 " HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE WEST, 
 BOONEVILLE, Mo, June 17, 1861. 
 
 " The steamers A. McDowell, latan, and 
 City of Louisiana, left Jefferson City yes 
 terday afternoon at two o'clock, and readied 
 a point a mile below Providence last night, 
 where it was thought best to lie up a few 
 hours. . Three companies of Boernstein's 
 regiment, under his command, were left to 
 protect the capital. We were cheered en 
 thusiastically by the little town of Marion, 
 as we passed there yesterday evening. This 
 morning we took an early start, and 
 reached Rocheport before six o'clock, where 
 we made a short stop, but found the people 
 mostly surly and not disposed to be com 
 municative. We learned, however, that 
 the enemy were in considerable force a few 
 miles below this place, and preparing to 
 make a vigorous defence. Leaving there, 
 and taking the steam ferry-boat Paul Wil- 
 cox with us, we ran up steadily till we had 
 passed the foot of the island eight miles 
 below here, and seeing a battery on the 
 3 
 
50 MEMOIR OF 
 
 bluffs, and - scouts hastening to report our 
 arrival, we fell back to a point opposite to 
 the foot of the island, and at seven o'clock 
 A.M. disembarked on the south shore, where 
 the bottom land between the river and 
 bluffs is some mile and a half wide. No 
 traitors were visible there, and the troops 
 at once took the river road for this city. 
 Following this road somewhat over a mile 
 and a half, to where it ascends the bluffs, 
 several shots from our scouts announced 
 the driving in of the enemy's pickets. 
 
 " We continued to ascend a gently undu 
 lating slope for nearly half a mile, when 
 the enemy were reported in full force near 
 the summit of the next swell of ground, 
 about three hundred yards from our front. 
 The enemy were exceedingly well posted, 
 having every advantage in the selection of 
 their ground ; but, as you will see, it has 
 been clearly demonstrated that one seces 
 sionist is hardly superior to many more 
 than his equal number. 
 
 "Arriving at the brow of the ascent, 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 51 
 
 Capt. Tot I en opened the engagement by 
 throwing a few nine-pounder explosives into 
 their ranks, while the infantry filed oblique 
 riorht and left and commenced a terrible 
 
 o 
 
 volley of musketry, which was for a short 
 time well replied to, the balls flying thick 
 and fast about our ears, and occasionally 
 wounding a man on our side. The enemy 
 were posted in a lane running towards the 
 river from the road along which the grand 
 army of the United States were advanc 
 ing, and in a brick house on the north-east 
 corner of the junction of the two roads. 
 A couple of bombs were thrown through 
 the east wall of that house, scattering the 
 enemy in all directions. The well-directed 
 fire of the German Infantry, Lieut.-Col. 
 Schaeffer, on the right, and Gen. Lyon's 
 company of regulars and part of Col. 
 Blair's regiment on the left of the road, 
 soon compelled the enemy to present an 
 inglorious aspect. They clambered over 
 the fence into a field of wheat, and again 
 formed in line just on the brow of the hill. 
 
52 MEMOIR OF 
 
 They then 'advanced some twenty steps to 
 meet us, and for a short time the cannons 
 were worked with great rapidity and effect. 
 Just at this time the enemy opened a gall 
 ing fire from a grove just on the left of our 
 centre, and from a shed beyond and still 
 further to the left. 
 
 "The skirmish now assumed the magnitude 
 of a battle. The commander, Gen. Lyon, 
 exhibited the most remarkable coolness, 
 and preserved throughout that undisturbed 
 presence of mind shown by him alike in 
 the camp, in private life, and on the field 
 of battle. i Forward on the extreme 
 right ;' c Give them another shot, Captain 
 Totteri, 7 echoed above the roar of musketry 
 clear and distinct, from the lips of the 
 general, who led the advancing column. 
 Our force was 2,000 in all, but not over 
 500 participated at any one time in the 
 battle. The enemy, as we have since been 
 reliably informed, were over 4,000 strong, 
 and yet, twenty minutes from the time 
 w T hen the first gun was fired, the rebels 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 53 
 
 were in full retreat, and our troops occupy 
 ing the ground on which they first stood in 
 line. The consummate cowardice displayed 
 by the "seeeshers" will be more fully 
 understood when I add that the spurs or 
 successive elevations now became more 
 abrupt, steep, and rugged, the enemy be 
 ing fully acquainted with their ground, and 
 strong positions behind natural defences, 
 orchards, and clumps of trees offering them 
 selves every few yards. Nothing more, 
 however, was seen of the flying fugitives 
 until about one mile west of the house of 
 William M. Adams, where they were first 
 posted. Just there was Camp Vest, and a 
 considerable force seemed prepared to 
 defend the approaches to it. Meanwhile, 
 a shot from the iron howitzer on the 
 McDowell announced to us that Captain 
 Voester, with his artillery men, and Captain 
 Richardson's company of infantry, who 
 were left in charge of the boats, were com 
 mencing operations on the battery over a 
 mile below Camp West. This but increased 
 
54: MEMOIR OP 
 
 the panic among the invincible (?) traitors, 
 and Captain Totten had but to give them 
 a few rounds before their heels were again 
 in requisition, and Captains Cole and Miller, 
 at the head of their companies, entered and 
 took possession of the enemy's deserted 
 breakfast tables. 
 
 " About twenty horses had by this time 
 arrived within our lines with vacant sad 
 dles, and the corps reportorial were succes 
 sively mounted on chosen steeds. The 
 amount of plunder secured in Camp West, 
 or Bacon, as the citizens here call it, from 
 the name of the gentleman owning a fine 
 house close by, was very large. One thou 
 sand two hundred shoes, twenty or thirty 
 tents, quantities of ammunition, some fifty 
 guns of various patterns, blankets, coats, 
 carpet sacks, and two secession flags were 
 included in the sum total. 
 
 " Leaving Captain Cole in command of the 
 camp, we pushed on towards Booneville, 
 chasing the cowardly wretches who out- 
 manned us two to one. The McDowell 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 55 
 
 now came along up in the rear and off to 
 the right from, our troops, and having a 
 more distinct view of the enemy from the 
 river, and observing their intention to make 
 another stand at the Fair Grounds, one 
 mile east of here, where the State has an 
 armory extemporized, Captain Voester 
 again sent them his compliments from the 
 old howitzer's mouth, which, with a couple 
 of shots from Captain Totten, and a volley 
 from Lothrop's detachment of rifles, scat 
 tered the now thoroughly alarmed enemy 
 in all directions. Their flight through the 
 village commenced soon after 8 o'clock, and 
 continued till after 11 o'clock. Some three 
 hundred crossed the river, many went south, 
 but the bulk kept on westwardly. A good 
 many persons were taken at the different 
 points of battle, but it is believed the 
 enemy secured none of ours. 
 
 " Captain Richardson had landed below, 
 and, with the support of the howitzer from 
 the steamer McDowell, captured their bat 
 tery, consisting of two 6-pounders (with 
 
56 MEMOIR OF 
 
 which they intended to sink our fleet), 
 twenty prisoners, one caisson, and eight 
 horses with "military saddles. The enemy 
 did not fire a shot from their cannon. 
 Speaking of prizes, the brilliant achieve 
 ment in that line was by our reverend 
 friend, W. A. Pill, chaplain of the First 
 regiment. He had charge of a party of 
 four men, two mounted and two on foot, 
 with which to take charge of the wounded. 
 Ascending the brow of a hill, he suddenly 
 came upon a company of twenty-four 
 rebels, armed with revolvers, and fully 
 bent upon securing a place of safety for 
 their carcasses. Their intentions, however, 
 were considerably modified, when the par 
 son ordered them to halt, which they did, 
 surrendering their arms. Surrounded by 
 the squad of five men, they were then 
 marched on board the Louisiana, prisoners 
 of war. The parson also captured two 
 other secessionists during the day, and at 
 one time, needing a wagon and horses for the 
 wounded, and finding friendly suggestions 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 57 
 
 wasted on a stubborn old rebel, placed a 
 revolver at his -head, and the desired 
 articles were forthcoming. In time of 
 peace the preacher had prepared for war. 
 
 " After passing the Fair Grounds, our 
 troops came slowly towards town. They 
 were met on the east side of the creek 
 by Judge Miller of the District Court, and 
 other prominent citizens, bearing a flag of 
 truce, in order to assure our troops of 
 friendly feelings sustained by three-fourths 
 of the inhabitants, and if possible prevent 
 the shedding of innocent blood. They 
 were met cordially by General Lyon and 
 Colonel Blair, who promised, if no resistance 
 was made to their entrance, that no harm 
 need be feared. Major O'Brien soon joined 
 the party from the city, and formally sur 
 rendered it to the Federal forces. The 
 troops then advanced, headed by the Major 
 and General Lyon, and were met at the 
 principal corner of the street by a party 
 bearing and waving that beautiful emblem 
 under which our armies gather and march 
 
58 MEMOIR OF 
 
 forth conquering and to conquer. The 
 flag party cheered the troops, who lustily 
 returned the compliment. American flags 
 are now quite thick on the street, and 
 secessionists are nowhere. 
 
 "The enemy had two regiments of 1,800 
 men, under command of Colonel J. S. Mar- 
 maduke of Arrow Rock, and nine hundred 
 cavalry, besides other companies whose 
 muster-rolls have not been captured. 
 Horace H. Brand was Lieutenant-Colonel 
 of Marmaduke's regiment. It was reported, 
 and for some time generally believed, 
 that he was among the dead, but he has 
 since been heard from, taking a meal 
 several miles away. Governor Jackson 
 was also seen at 3 o'clock this afternoon, 
 at a blacksmith's shop, about fifteen miles 
 from here. General Price left on Sunday 
 morning on the steamer H. D. Bacon for 
 Arrow Rock. His liealth was very poor 
 when he left. 
 
 " One can hardly imagine the joy express 
 ed and felt by the loyal citizens when the 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 59 
 
 Federal troops entered the city. Stores, 
 which had been closed all day, began to 
 open, the national flag was quickly run 
 up on a secession pole, cheers for the 
 Union, Lyon, Blair, and Lincoln, were 
 frequently heard, and everything betokened 
 the restoration of peace, law, and order. 
 True men say that had the troops delayed 
 ten days longer, it would have been im 
 possible for them to remain in safety. 
 Irresponsible vagabonds had been taking 
 guns wherever they could find them, and 
 notifying the most substantial and pros 
 perous citizens to leave. As a specimen 
 of the feeling here, Mr. McPherson, pro 
 prietor of the City Hotel, denounces the 
 whole secession movement as the greatest 
 crime committed since the crucifixion of 
 our Saviour. 
 
 " At one time, when bullets were flying 
 thick and General Lyon was at the head 
 of the column, mounted, he undertook to 
 dismount, that his position might be a 
 trifle less conspicuous, when his horse 
 
(JO MEMOIR OP 
 
 suddenly jumped with fright, throwing 
 the general to the ground, but without 
 injuring him seriously. The rumor sud 
 denly spread through the ranks that 
 General Lyon had been shot from his 
 horse, and the indignation and cries of 
 vengeance were terrific. At the Fair 
 Grounds several hundred muskets were 
 seized at the armory, where flint locks 
 were being altered. Captain Tot ten says 
 lie fired about 100 rounds of ball, shell, 
 and canister. 
 
 "The following interesting documents 
 were found among others equally interest 
 ing and more decidedly treasonable : 
 
 " HEAD-QUARTERS FIRST BEG'T BIFLES, M. S. GK, 
 Booneville, Mo., June 14, 1861. 
 
 ORDERS, ~No. 3. The com 
 manders of companies of the regiment and 
 of the troops attached will bring their 
 companies to Booneville with the greatest 
 despatch. They will proceed to move the 
 instant this order is received, bringing 
 with them all arms and ammunition it is 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 61 
 
 possible to procure. The expenses of said 
 movements will be paid by the State. 
 All orders of a prior date conflicting with 
 this from any head-quarters whatever will 
 be disobeyed. By order of 
 
 "COLONEL J. S. MARMADUKE. 
 " JOHN W. WOOD, Adjutant." 
 
 " CAPTAIN Hurry on day and night. 
 Everybody, citizens and soldiers, must 
 come, bringing their arms and ammunition. 
 Time is everything. In great haste, 
 
 " J. S. MAKMADUKE." 
 
 The day after the battle General Lyon 
 released his prisoners, most of whom were 
 young men, in consideration of their youth, 
 and of the deceit that had been practised 
 upon them, requiring their pledge not again 
 to bear arms against the United States. 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd of July he 
 left with upwards of two thousand men for 
 the Southwest, whither the Secessionists 
 were swarming, under Price and the 
 ubiquitous Ben McCullough. His force 
 
62 MEMOIR OF 
 
 increased as lie advanced, until it amounted 
 to ten thousand men. He had about that 
 number on the 20th at Springfield, but from 
 that time it decreased, the term for which 
 many of the volunteers had enlisted having 
 expired. On the 1st of August it had 
 dwindled down to six thousand. 
 
 A report which reached him at this time 
 gave rise to the belief that General McCul- 
 lough designed to attack him. at Spring 
 field, by two columns moving from Cassville 
 and Sarcoxie. The federal scouts reported 
 their force at about fifteen thousand in each 
 division, and they were reported within 
 twenty miles of the town and advancing 
 from Cassville. General Lyon ordered his 
 entire command, with the exception of a 
 small guard, to rendezvous at Crane Creek, 
 ten miles south of Springfield. 
 
 " The march," says one who participated in 
 it (the Western War Correspondent of Tlie 
 World) " commenced at 5 o'clock on the after 
 noon of the 1st. The baggage wagons, one 
 hundred and eighty in number, were scat- 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 63 
 
 tered over a distance of three miles. The 
 camp at Crane Creek was reached about 
 10 o'clock, the men marching slowly and 
 making frequent halts to get the benefit of 
 shade or water. 
 
 " Early next morning, after making a 
 hasty meal, the line of march was resumed. 
 We were joined by the division from Camp 
 McClellan, and,with cavalry and skirmishers 
 ahead, pushed on as fast as the nature of 
 the country would admit. This day, like 
 its predecessor, was intensely hot. The 
 extreme temperature, and the fine dust 
 which enveloped the train in clouds, pro 
 duced intolerable thirst. The country is of 
 the hilly kind which just falls below the 
 standard of mountainous. After leaving 
 Springfield, which is said to be the summit 
 of the Bark Mountains, we pass along the 
 ridge which divides the waters which fall 
 into the Missouri and White rivers. Streams 
 there were none to mention ; though tracea 
 ble on the map, they are at this season only 
 distinguishable by their dry rocky beds. 
 
64 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Water was hardly to be had, the few 
 springs and wells in the neighborhood 
 being either emptied by drouth or by the 
 men. The ridges and sides of the limestone 
 hills were covered for the most part with 
 stunted oak saplings, which rarely afforded 
 shade for horse and rider. The midsum 
 mer sun travelled through an unclouded sky 
 like a ball of fire, scorching all animated 
 nature in his way. The men, however, kept 
 up their spirits tolerably well, and as at 
 every few miles loyal citizens were met, 
 informing us that the enemy was but a few 
 miles ahead, every prospect for a grand 
 fight was the common opinion. 
 
 "At about 11 o'clock, as the advanced 
 guard was rising the crest of a hill, sixteen 
 miles from here, the skirmishers discovered 
 several mounted men in the road. Word 
 was passed back, when Captain Totten 
 ordered a six-pounder to the front, and just 
 as the men were in the act of leaving the 
 house of one of their secession friends he 
 sent a shell by the gunpowder line, which 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 65 
 
 burst over the ho;;se. When this unex 
 pected messenger dropped in among them 
 they scampered away down the hill, so that 
 when we arrived at the top nothing was to 
 be seen but a moving cloud of dust. A 
 light wagon, loaded with cooked provisions, 
 was discovered on the road, which was 
 shared by our famished men and eaten with 
 infinite gusto. Bedding and other accou 
 trements were found around the buildings, 
 indicating a lengthened sojourn. 
 
 " Our painful march was then continued 
 with more caution, the woods and thickets 
 being examined on either side of the road 
 for ambuscades and surprises. Arrived at 
 Dug Springs, some three miles further, we 
 could perceive as we entered the valley 
 by one hill dense columns of dust moving 
 in va ious directions along the base and 
 sides of the hills at the opposite end. The 
 advance continued, the column drawn up 
 ready for action. By the aid of glasses, 
 bodies of men, both mounted and on foot, 
 could be seen, and presently we could hear 
 
66 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the sharp crack of the rifles of our advanced 
 guard. The flags were displayed, and all 
 the indications seemed to point to a great 
 battle, the position of the enemy being 
 a strong one, and his force evidently 
 numerous. 
 
 " As there was no advance from the valor 
 ous rebels, spite of our coaxing, the day far 
 spent, and the prospect for camping ground 
 ahead not very brilliant, a retrograde move 
 ment was ordered, with a view of coaxing 
 the enemy from his position. 
 
 " In order to understand the position of 
 the parties, imagine an oblong basin of five 
 miles in length, surrounded by hills from 
 which spurs projected into the main hollow, 
 covered with occasional thickets and oak 
 openings. The winding of the road round 
 the spurs had the effect of concealing the 
 strength of each party from the other, so 
 that from the top of each successive ridge 
 could be seen the rear of the enemy's forces. 
 At about five o'clock a brisk interchange 
 of shots was commenced by our skirmish- 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 67 
 
 ers, Captain Steele's regular infantry taking 
 the lead on the left, supported by a com 
 pany of cavalry, the rest of the column 
 being back some distance. Presently we 
 could see a column of infantry approaching 
 from the woods with the design of cutting 
 off our infantry. Capt. Stanley immedi 
 ately drew up his men, and, as soon as 
 within range, they opened fire from their 
 Sharp's carbines, when several volleys were 
 exchanged. The number of the enemy's 
 infantry was seemingly about five hundred ; 
 our cavalry not quite a hundred and fifty. 
 The infantry kept up the firing for some 
 minutes, when some enthusiastic lieutenant 
 giving the order to u charge," some twenty- 
 five of the gallant regulars rushed forward 
 upon the enemy's lines, and, dashing aside 
 the threatening bayonets of the sturdy 
 rebels, hewed down the ranks with fearful 
 slaughter. Capt. Stanley, who was amazed 
 at the temerity of the little band, was 
 obliged to sustain the order, but before he 
 could reach his little company, they had 
 
68 MEMOIR OF 
 
 broken the ranks of the cowards, who out 
 numbered them as twenty to one. Some 
 of the rebels who were wounded asked, in 
 utter astonishment, ' Whether these were 
 men or devils they fight so ? ' 
 
 " The ground was left in our possession, 
 being strewn with muskets, shot-guns, pis 
 tols, etc. Our men seized some fifteen mus 
 kets and the same number of horses and 
 mules, and rode off, when a large force of 
 the enemy's cavalry was seen approaching 
 from the woods, numbering some three 
 hundred or more. At the instant when 
 they had formed in an angle, Capt. Totten, 
 who had planted a six and a twelve-pounder 
 upon the overlooking hill, sent a shell right 
 over them ; in another minute the second 
 a twelve-pound shell, a very marvel of 
 gunnery practice which landed right at 
 their feet, exploding, and scattering the 
 whole body in the most admired disorder. 
 The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth were sent 
 into their midst. The horsemen could not 
 control their horses, and in a minute not an 
 
NATHANIEL LYON 69 
 
 enemy was to be seen anywhere. Captain 
 Granger, of the artillery, was so pleased 
 with the execution that he rode out to the 
 spot, where he discovered several pools of 
 blood on the ground, as if the shell had 
 done great damage, one double-barrelled 
 shot-gun being bent by the fragments of 
 the shell. 
 
 " The praise of all tongues was upon the 
 magnificent charge of our cavalry. The 
 men, actuated by a supreme disdain for the 
 novices who had but recently left the plough 
 for the musket, determined to give them a 
 real taste of war at the onset ; and they 
 must have given the poor deluded fools a 
 bitter foretaste, with their navy revolvers 
 and carbines. Two of the lieutenants re 
 turned with their swords stained, with the 
 blood of men they had run through and 
 through, up to the hilt. One horse which 
 was led home, was pierced by nine balls ; 
 another with sides so covered with gore as 
 to conceal the wounds. Four of their 
 wounded men were afterwards picked up 
 
70 MEMOIR OP 
 
 on the ground, some of them fatally. Un 
 fortunately our loss, as might be expected, 
 was severe. Four of our gallant regulars 
 were brought in dead, and five wounded, 
 one of which has since died. The loss of 
 the enemy cannot be far from forty, and 
 their wounded fully a hundred. Secession 
 accounts admit their loss was heavy. 
 
 " Al hough the entire action cannot be 
 raised to the dignity of a great battle, for 
 the whole affair lasted less than half an 
 hour, it was in reality a great triumph. 
 Our advanced cavalry was alone engaged 
 on our part, and they successfully fought 
 and drove off a force ten times their num 
 ber. It moreover revealed the fighting 
 animus of the enemy ; it revealed the state 
 of their armament, and afforded a brilliant 
 example for our expectant troops. 
 
 "All supposed, when the crack of the can 
 non and whistling of shell were heard in 
 such quick succession, that the battle was 
 begun, and that a trial at arms was to ensue 
 ere nightfall. Our men were under arms, 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 71 
 
 cannon in position, until the news of the 
 inglorious retreat of the vaunting rebels 
 dispelled the prospect. The camps were 
 then pitched and the necessary precautions 
 taken against attack. ~No description can 
 do justice to the labors of the day. When 
 the morning dawned the men were put in 
 motion. The heat was insufferable, the 
 incessant running about among the brush 
 for miles on both sides of the main road 
 created the most suffocating thirst. The 
 tongue became swollen, the sweat was blind 
 ing, and the dust profuse. Even the hardiest 
 of men were glad to find shelter for a mo 
 ment in the shade of some canebrake. The 
 few wells or springs in the vicinity had 
 given out. Water was not to be had ; 
 towards evening two dollars and a half being 
 offered for a canteen of warm ditch water. 
 Many were victims of sunstroke and exhaus 
 tion, and never were a set of men more 
 grateful than when the burning sun cast his 
 declining shadow over the western hills. 
 The night was broken occasionally by the 
 
72 MEMOIR OF 
 
 report of musket shots from our sentinels. 
 Two or three stragglers were brought in as 
 prisoners, who stated that they belonged to 
 the command of General Rains, and seemed 
 glad enough to be captured. They reported 
 that the army of McCullough was five miles 
 in the rear, and that accessions were being 
 recruited from all the adjoining counties. 
 This information agreed with that gained 
 from the prisoners, and betrayed the weak 
 ness of the enemy ; said they, i we have had 
 nothing but fresh beef and unbolted flour 
 to eat for many days.' They were forced 
 northward by starvation, and the Union 
 men must either flee or be taken prisoners, 
 while the state rights gentry must join their 
 force or be plundered ; they would find, how 
 ever, that plunder attended either alterna 
 tive. In this way they had recruited thou 
 sands, leaving a desert behind them more 
 complete than the locusts. Forage, wheat, 
 eatables and drinkables, in any quantity, 
 did not escape them. Clothing and trink 
 ets of little or no value, all seized. They 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 73 
 
 are the most complete land pirates this con 
 tinent ever saw. 
 
 " August 2. We resumed the line of 
 march at sunrise ; the ground of yesterday's 
 operations was carefully gone over in search 
 of the much dreaded 'masked latteries.' 
 Gaining the summit of the hill from which 
 the rebels had sallied on the day previous, 
 we found a sad spectacle. A house by the 
 wayside, with four wounded men in the first 
 room, in the second one severely wounded 
 in the back and shoulder, in the third a 
 corpse stretched out with the face quite 
 black. At the well, close by the house, the 
 pools in the little stream were red as blood 
 for thirty yards, where they had washed 
 their wounded. The men stated they had 
 only been picked off the field that morning, 
 and that there were many more who had 
 been carried off with the retreating army. 
 They confirmed substantially the reports of 
 the captives. 
 
 " Descending into the next valley, we could 
 just perceive, by the dense clouds of dust. 
 
74 MEMOIR OF 
 
 that the enemy were but a few miles ahead. 
 Two guns were placed upon an eminence ; 
 upon seeing a column of troops moving up 
 a ravine, and when at the distance of three- 
 quarters of a mile, we opened fire upon them^ 
 when they rapidly retreated. We after 
 wards learned that this was a scouting party, 
 who had crossed over from Marions ville, 
 after taking what provisions and men they 
 could press into their service by their very 
 summary process. The shell struck the 
 chimney of a house in which the officers 
 were dining. They did not wait for the 
 dessert to be served. 
 
 "Arriving at Curran, twenty-six miles 
 from Springfield, we encamped, to take 
 advantage of the good water. Our posi 
 tion was much exposed, but from the exhi 
 bitions of valor for. the past few days we 
 stood in little fear of an attack. Five 
 prisoners were brought in by our skir 
 mishers, one of which, upon being ques 
 tioned by General Lyon, manifested consi 
 derable impertinence'; his actions being 
 
NATHANIEL LTON. 75 
 
 suspicious lie was carefully watched, and 
 when told to rise from the ground a revolver 
 was found under him. A deserter came in 
 from the other camp, who stated that he 
 was impressed into their service in Missouri ; 
 their camp was six miles to the north, and 
 strongly intrenched; had eight pieces of 
 cannon, and, though his comrades said they 
 had fifteen thousand men, his opinion was 
 about six or seven thousand. Quite a little 
 excitement was created throughout the 
 camp in the morning by a report that we 
 were surrounded, which was caused by the 
 appearance of troops on our rear doubt 
 less a portion of the roving bands desirous 
 of rejoining their command. A squad of 
 about forty entered our column and chat 
 ted with our men under the impression that 
 they were in the army of Rains, until they 
 saw our artillery coming up, when they 
 inquired c Whose troops we were ?' Upon 
 being informed i General LyonV they 
 made a hasty exit into the dense woods, 
 one of the staff officers ordering the men 
 
76 MEMOIR OS 1 
 
 to fire upon them, but they had made good 
 their escape. 
 
 u Our troops had mistaken them also for 
 the 4 Home Guards,' which are accustomed 
 to act as guides and scouts, and thus they 
 missed, by a narrow chance, the opportu 
 nity of bagging the whole of them, and 
 their horses and muskets. 
 
 " The names of our killed are Corporal 
 Klein, privates Givens and Devlin. 
 
 " SPRINGFIELD, August 6th. 
 
 " After another day's hardship and night's 
 repose, the morning dawned upon us with 
 its fierce glare. General Lyon finding him 
 self short of provisions, his men weary and 
 footsore, many of them sick from intempe 
 rate use of water and green fruits, with a 
 powerful enemy encamped in front, whom 
 he could not chase by reason of the pre 
 cautions against surprises and flank move 
 ments moreover, a large force of the ene 
 my in the direction of Sarcoxie, and the 
 necessity of keeping open his communica 
 tion with Springfield called a consultation 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 77 
 
 with. Brigadier-Generals Sweeny, Siegel ; 
 Majors Schofield, Shepherd, Conant, Stur- 
 gis ; Captains Totten and Shaeffer, when it 
 was determined to retire towards Spring 
 field. This conclusion seems to be well 
 founded, when we reflect that the provi 
 sions for such an army must be transported 
 from Holla at a great risk of capture. 
 Nothing could be found either for man or 
 horse on the track of the rebels. 
 
 " Hardly had the decision been declared, 
 when one of the cavalry scouts announced 
 that he had witnessed the departure of 
 McCullougli's camp in the direction of Sar- 
 coxie, describing the train as long as that 
 usually pertaining to an army of seven 
 thousand men. 
 
 u On Sunday morning we retraced our 
 steps, leaving Curran, Stone co., the furthest 
 point of our expedition, with reluctance at 
 not meeting the object of our search, but 
 with hearts gladdened that we were once 
 more to be placed beyond the danger of 
 starvation. We marched thirteen miles 
 
78 MEMOIR OF 
 
 during the day in a broiling sun. Several 
 of our men fell from the fatigue and heat ; 
 two reported died from sun-stroke. 
 
 " At Cane Creek we found another de 
 serter who had been forced into a Louisi 
 ana regiment, and had accepted the first 
 chance to escape. He is a German, and 
 has a brother in the Missouri Volunteers. 
 His statements confirm those of the other 
 deserter. His regiment left New Orleans 
 one thousand and fifty strong, and when 
 he left it, death, disease, and desertion had 
 reduced it to seven hundred. His regi 
 ment was well drilled and armed. Three 
 Arkansas regiments were armed with old 
 smooth-bore muskets ; the balance with 
 odds and ends of all kinds, some few being 
 without arms. Two Texan regiments are 
 daily expected, with two brass guns. He 
 gives a deplorable account of their com 
 missariat and subsistence departments. He 
 is kept in close custody, both for his own 
 protection, and as a precaution against 
 frand. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 79 
 
 "We reached Springfield to-day, and 
 were much, surprised to learn that the 
 inhabitants had been the victims of the 
 most unreasonable fright a report having 
 been spread during the night that the ene 
 my was about to attack the town. Singu 
 larly enough nearly all the pickets came 
 into town, instead of remaining at their 
 posts. I ought in justice to say that these 
 were i Home Guards,' who have been 
 mustered into the service to meet the emer 
 gency. 
 
 " We brought in sixteen prisoners, most 
 of them taken in a hostile attitude towards 
 the government. We witnessed a very 
 salutary way of treating rebels. Two or 
 three prominent secessionists, who at one 
 time were accounted respectable, are busily 
 hauling the debris from the streets, and 
 performing other such municipal duties 
 under guard, greatly to the edification 
 of a crowd of boys and negroes. We think 
 this is the happy medium between hanging 
 our prisoners and swearing them." 
 
30 MEMOIR OP 
 
 The position of General Lyon was a criti 
 cal one, in spite of the victory he had won, 
 he was so largely out-numbered by the 
 enemy. "Why he was not reinforced by 
 General Fremont, who was in charge of the 
 Department, has not yet been explained. 
 Perhaps he shared the delusion under which 
 most of us labored prior to Bull's Run the 
 childish folly of underrating our enemy. 
 Not so General Lyon, for knowing the strait 
 in which he stood, he telegraphed from 
 Springfield to Washington to General Fre 
 mont, before the latter had left New York 
 for St. Louis, imploring succor. And after 
 he had reached St. Louis, he sent three or 
 four special messengers thither for the same 
 purpose, but they failed. One of these 
 agents was a former Secretary of State, 
 another a member of Congress, both from 
 the south-western part of the State, where 
 the danger lay. Governor Gamble, too, 
 added his own urgent advice that General 
 Lyon be reinforced ; but to no purpose. 
 Nor were reinforcements all that he stood 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 81 
 
 in need of, for at this very time his com 
 mand had but half rations of bread, and 
 for the next ten days, until the next battle, 
 in fact when he was killed, and they were 
 overpowered, but half rations of bread and 
 water ! 
 
 So, at least, it is charged, and apparently 
 with truth. There may be some mistake 
 in the matter (we trust there is), but there 
 can be no mistake in the fact that General 
 Fremont has not done what was expected 
 of him in Missouri. Did we expect too 
 much, remembering what General Lyon 
 had done ? Under his energetic manage 
 ment the State was nearly cleared of rebels, 
 and the Union cause was triumphing. Now 
 but we have no heart to go on, remem 
 bering the fall of Lexington. We are not 
 unfriendly to General Fremont in this, but 
 we are more friendly to our country, for 
 whom, as it now seems to us, a brave life 
 has been needlessly sacrificed. Fiat Jus- 
 titia, mat ccelum. 
 
 A glimpse of General Lyon, or rather of 
 
32 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his body-guard at this time may not be 
 uninteresting. It was composed of ten 
 athletic St. Louis butchers, each mounted 
 on a powerful horse and armed with a 
 heavy cavalry sword and a pair of navy 
 revolvers ; each wore a light hat turned up 
 on the left side, and decorated with* a white 
 ostrich plume. Accompanied by half a 
 dozen of these savage looking fellows, he 
 might often be seen spurring along the 
 line ; or they might be seen in small squads, 
 or singly, galloping fiercely to the front or 
 the rear, or straight out into the open coun 
 try. If he went into a house, a half dozen 
 of them stood in front like iron statues at 
 the bridle of their horses. If he scoured 
 along in advance of the train, the clanking 
 of their long sabres was heard beside him. 
 Stop where he would, there was a stolid 
 squad of white-plumed horsemen awaiting 
 patiently his movements. They were fear 
 less riders -jumping fences on a dead run, 
 leaping ditches, galloping down steep de 
 scents, and, in fact, never riding less fast 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 83 
 
 than their horses could run, unless com 
 pelled by some urgent necessity. Inde 
 pendent of their duty as body-guards, they 
 acted as messengers, scouts, &c. They were 
 commanded by a lieutenant, and were noted 
 from their appearance and daring horse 
 manship. 
 
 On the 10th of August, three months 
 after the capture of Camp Jackson, General 
 Lyon was no more. He fell at the battle 
 of Wilson's Creek, which is thus described 
 by the Special Correspondent of The New 
 York Herald: 
 
 " SPKINGFIELD, Mo., Aug. 10, 1861. 
 
 " After- the occurrences of the 3d and 4th 
 inst., and the falling back of the Union 
 troops upon Springfield, the rebels made 
 an advance, and on the evening of the 6th 
 formed their camp upon Wilson's Creek, 
 about ten miles from Springfield, on the 
 Fayetteville road. Reports of spies, de 
 serters, and a few prisoners, made it cer 
 tain that they were in force from eight to 
 twenty thousand, and were provided with 
 
34: MEMOIR OF 
 
 from eight -to sixteen pieces of brass can 
 non. On the evening of the Yth, General 
 Lyon formed a plan of night surprise, but 
 the project was abandoned, and nothing of 
 importance occurred until the evening of 
 the 9th. On that evening the plan was 
 formed of attacking them simultaneously 
 at either end of the camp, which extended 
 for some three miles along the banks of 
 the creek. 
 
 DISPOSITION OF THE UNION FORCES. 
 
 " General Siegel was sent to the extreme 
 left, to begin the attack on that side, hav 
 ing with him a force of twelve hundred 
 men, and six pieces of light artillery under 
 command of Major Schaeffer. General 
 Lyon led the main column, which was to 
 open battle on the right, consisting of three 
 companies First infantry, Captain Plum- 
 mer ; two companies Second infantry, Cap 
 tain Steele ; one company Fourth artillery, 
 recruits, Lieutenant Lothrop ; Captains 
 Totten's and Dubois' batteries, six pieces 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 85 
 
 each ; Missouri First regiment, Colonel 
 Andrews ; Kansas First, Colonel Deitzler ; 
 Kansas Second, Colonel Mitchell ; Iowa 
 First, Colonel Bates, and one battalion 
 from Second Missouri, under Major Oster- 
 haus. In addition were several companies 
 of Home Guards, a part of whom did good 
 service, but the majority proved an intole 
 rable nuisance, running like frightened deer 
 at the least alarm, and getting in the way 
 of others. 
 
 MOVING TO THE ATTACK. 
 
 " The whole force left Springfield about 
 sunset on the 9th, the left column taking 
 the Fayetteville road, and the right the 
 road leading to Mount Vernon, leaving 
 them at proper points for making detours 
 to enclose the rebel camp. Your corres 
 pondent joined the right column, under 
 General Lyon, as that promised to be most 
 actively engaged. Midnight found us in a 
 hay field, four miles from the rebel posi 
 tion, and as it was not deemed prudent to 
 
86 MEMOIR OF 
 
 approach nearer before morning, the men 
 were permitted to get what sleep they 
 could extract from the hard ground during 
 the few hours preceding dawn. 
 
 " At a few minutes before four, the whole 
 column was again in motion. It was not 
 long before the camp appeared in sight, 
 located, as we anticipated, along Wilson's 
 Creek. On either side of the stream, the 
 valley, averaging some twenty rods in 
 width, was bounded by a range of low and 
 gently sloping hills, covered with a scanty, 
 but occasionally dense growth of scrub 
 oaks, of a few feet in height. Portions of 
 these slopes, together with parts of the 
 valley, had been cleared and turned into 
 corn and wheat fields ; the latter had just 
 been visited by the sickle, but the former 
 was still in luxuriant growth, affording 
 complete concealment to . either foot or 
 horsemen. The rebels had selected those 
 points which admitted of the best defence 
 as positions for their men and batteries, 
 these being mrinly on the north side of the 
 
NATHANIEL LYOK 87 
 
 creek. The low oaks, with, which the 
 entire camp was surrounded, prevented our 
 seeing many movements until almost at the 
 last moment, and the same cause did much 
 to hinder the aim of both artillery and 
 riflemen. At ten minutes past five the 
 rebel pickets were seen and driven in, and 
 we rapidly moved forward to take position 
 opposite the rebel battery. This we se 
 cured on a gently sloping hill, which had 
 been the extreme of the rebel camp, as 
 several wagons, a few tents, numerous cook 
 ing utensils, and other et ceteras of a sol 
 dier's life, plainly indicated. 
 
 THE BATTLE. 
 
 " At a distance of eight hundred yards 
 from the rebel battery, Captain Totten un- 
 limbered his guns and was speedily joined 
 by Captain Dubois. Captain Totten 
 opened the battle with a twelve-pound 
 shell, and was promptly answered by the 
 rebels. In a few minutes all our pieces 
 were engaged with an equal number of the 
 
88 . MEMOIR OP 
 
 enemy's can-non, both sides firing with great 
 rapidity. The First Missouri regiment was 
 placed in position to support the battery, 
 with Major Osterhaus's battalion on the 
 extreme right to act as skirmishers. To 
 the left of our line was a ravine, with pre 
 cipitous sides ; adjoining this ravine was a 
 cornfield, and beyond the latter was a 
 wheat stubblefield. Captains Plummer 
 and Gilbert, with three companies of regu 
 lars, and Captain Wright, with two compa 
 nies of Home Guards, were sent to occupy 
 these fields, and prevent the enemy from 
 making a flank movement upon the bat 
 tery. The rebels did not long allow our 
 forces to wait in line with their rifles un 
 used, but commenced a fire of musketry 
 upon Osterhaus's battalion and those of the 
 First Missouri on the right. After two or 
 three rounds of Minie balls, the firing be 
 came general along the line of this regi 
 ment, and an attempt at a charge was 
 broken up and the enemy forced to retire. 
 At about the time of the commencement of 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 89 
 
 the firing by the First Missouri those on our 
 left found themselves busily engaged in the 
 cornfield with a large body of rebel troops 
 that had been sent out to oppose them. 
 The Home Guards, as usual, fell back to a 
 safer locality, and the regulars, finding skir 
 mishing in the corn more destructive to 
 themselves than to their opponents, from 
 the latter knowing well the ground, fell 
 back to the edge of the field and succeeded 
 in there holding position. The fire against 
 the regulars before they fell back was par 
 ticularly heavy and well directed, as the 
 corn afforded a fine screen behind which to 
 take near and deliberate aim. The regu 
 lars gave return shots whenever they ob 
 tained sight of an enemy, and are confident 
 that they did much towards thinning the 
 rebel ranks. 
 
 " The First Missouri troop, who were act 
 ing as a support to the battery in front, 
 stood their ground like veterans, and sent 
 many a Minie ball true to its aim. As 
 much of the firing against them was from 
 
90 MEMOIR OF 
 
 weapons inferior to theirs, they had the 
 enemy at a slight advantage when placed 
 man to man, and though finally much cut 
 up and forced to retire, they were not with 
 drawn till they had three successive times 
 repulsed the rebels. On each of these occa 
 sions the enemy brought fresh troops into 
 the field, and it is believed that during the 
 entire day they did not bring the same 
 force twice into action except in one or two 
 flank movements. When the Missouri First 
 was withdrawn, after they had been under 
 fire an hour and a half, the Kansas First and 
 Second, with the Iowa First, were placed in 
 the front, the latter being to the right of 
 the Kansas troops and further towards the 
 rear, thus keeping the Iowa partly in re 
 serve. The rebels again came up in stronger 
 force than ever, but were twice driven back 
 by the Kansans the latter, in both in 
 stances, bringing their bayonets to the 
 charge and pursuing for some distance down 
 the slope. They would have followed up 
 to the battery had not their officers feared 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 91 
 
 that the retreat might be a ruse to draw 
 them into an ambuscade, the scanty growth 
 of trees and bushes being admirably adapted 
 for forming an ambush. All this time 
 Lieutenant Lothrop's regulars were lying 
 down to the right of Dubois's battery, wait 
 ing for a proper opportunity to come into 
 action. The lieutenant himself sat on his 
 horse in front of his men, displaying the 
 most imperturbable coolness. 'Don't 
 dodge,' said he to a reporter, who shall be 
 nameless, as that individual turned his head 
 aside to allow a ball to pass ; c don't dodge, 
 for you might put your head exactly where 
 a ball was coming, and then we should be 
 minus a reporter.' About the time the 
 Kansas took the place of the First Missouri, 
 Lieutenant Lothrop's men were ordered in 
 front of the battery to clear the brush of 
 some rebel skirmishers known to be lying 
 there. As they advanced and extended 
 their line to the ravine on the left, a brisk 
 fire was opened upon them, both from the 
 bushes in front and the bank of the ravine 
 
92 MEMOIR OF 
 
 on their left flank, but they succeeded in 
 dislodging the enemy. It was then disco 
 vered that the rebel skirmishing in front 
 was partly to draw attention from a large 
 body of rebel infantry that was advancing 
 about six hundred yards from our left, with 
 the evident intention of outflanking us and 
 falling on our rear. There appeared to be 
 one full regiment, some six or eight com 
 panies, and about fifteen hundred men not 
 in ranks. Captain Dubois brought his bat 
 tery to bear upon them, and sent shell, 
 grape, and canister directly in their midst, 
 causing a hasty and confused retreat. A 
 large body of them made a rush for an 
 opening in the fence, behind which was a 
 clump of timber, and, as they were crowd 
 ing through, two twelve-pounder spherical 
 case-shot were exploded among them, 
 leaving the dead and wounded thick upon 
 the ground. Our rear was not for some 
 time again menaced in that direction. 
 
 " Very soon after this it was seen that the 
 rebel cavalry, about eight hundred strong, 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 93 
 
 was forming in the rear of our right to 
 
 o o 
 
 make a charge upon the ambulances, which 
 were being brought up for the use of the 
 wounded. Captain Wood's Kansas Rangers 
 and two companies of Second Kansas In 
 fantry, which happened near the rear at 
 this time, drew up to resist them. As the 
 cavalry came on the infantry opened with 
 a volley, but did not succeed in checking 
 their advance. When they were within 
 less than two hundred yards of our lines, 
 Captain Totten opened upon them with two 
 rounds from his entire battery, which had 
 been hastily brought into position unknown 
 to the rebels. The fire was diagonally 
 across the body, and each shot cut its lane 
 entirely through, leaving dead and wounded 
 horses and riders mingled indiscriminately 
 together. The charge was broken, and the 
 rebel cavalry made a disorderly retreat to 
 the timber. Some twenty horses were gal 
 loping riderless about the field, and were 
 secured by our men. The fight was again 
 renewed with vigor in the front, and the 
 
94 MEMOIR OF 
 
 lowans were brought into the thick of the 
 contest, giving the Kansans a brief respite. 
 They repelled an advance of rebel infantry, 
 which no sooner disappeared than it was 
 succeeded by a fresh force larger than the 
 previous one. The 'Kansas First was again 
 brought forward and led to the charge by 
 General Sweeny, Colonel Deitzler having 
 been wounded and taken to the rear. 
 
 DEATH OF GENERAL LYON. 
 
 " General Lyon was standing by his horse 
 near the lowans, and several among the lat 
 ter asked for some one to lead them. In 
 stantly General Lyon took command of the 
 regiment to lead it forward, but before they 
 reached the enemy's lines he was struck in 
 the breast by a rifle ball and fell dead from 
 his horse. The rebels, on seeing the ap 
 proach of the Union troops, scattered and 
 fled before the latter got sufficiently near 
 to use the bayonet. All this transpired in 
 a very few moments, and it was known to 
 but few that General Lyon had fallen. The 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 95 
 
 announcement of his death was ,not made 
 to the soldiers till after the battle was 
 over. 
 
 " After this but little was done on either 
 side for upwards of half an hour, the rebels 
 changing the position of their battery to 
 higher ground in the rear of its former 
 location, and Captain Totten advancing his 
 a few rods, while Captain Dubois remained 
 at his old post. Captain Granger, of the 
 regular service, detected a flank movement 
 in preparation against our left, and took 
 three companies of the Iowa regiment to 
 the edge of the ravine and caused them to 
 lie down in the grass and await the enemy's 
 approach. Very soon the column ap 
 proached, Captain Dubois pouring in grape 
 and canister when they got quite near. As 
 soon as they had come up within short 
 range of Captain Granger, the lowans, 
 taking sight without rising from their posi 
 tion, poured in a most destructive fire of 
 Minie balls with terrific effect. The can 
 nonade and musket fire were too much 
 
96 MEMOIR OP 
 
 for the rebels, and they made the best 
 possible use of their pedals back to a place 
 of safety. 
 
 THE EEBEL WAGON TKAIN ON FIRE. 
 
 " Immediately after this retreat flames 
 burst forth from the rebel baggage train, 
 which was stationed about a mile down the 
 creek, and from the extent of the fire and 
 the vast columns of smoke, it is supposed 
 that the entire wagon train of the rebel 
 army was destroyed. How the fire origi 
 nated is not known, but it is supposed that 
 the rebels, fearing a defeat and route, them 
 selves set fire to the w r agons rather than 
 have them fall into the hands of the Union 
 ists. They were seen to destroy some 
 twenty wagons near their battery a short 
 time after the fire burst forth in the large 
 train, and it is but reasonable to suppose 
 that the latter was turned to ashes and 
 smoke by the owners themselves. While 
 the conflagration was at its height the rebels 
 made a furious attack on the Union front 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 97 
 
 and right at the same time. The battery 
 in front opened furiously, and several pieces, 
 which had been brought against our right, 
 under cover of the timber, played vigor 
 ously from a cleared space some eight hun 
 dred yards distant. A very large force of 
 infantry came out in line of battle order 
 from the very place where we had for some 
 time expected Colonel Siegel to appear. 
 No bayonet charges were made by either 
 side, but the roll of musketry and the boom 
 of cannon were more fierce and continuous 
 than at any previous time during the day. 
 For half an hour it was one deep, deafen 
 ing roar, resounding through the air, and 
 the field became canopied with dense clouds 
 of smoke ; the position of cannon could only 
 be made out by the dull, red flash seen 
 through the fog-like atmosphere, and all 
 around was falling a pitiless shower of lead 
 and iron. Too rapid in succession to think 
 of counting came the smooth whistle of the 
 common rifle ball, the shrill buzz of the 
 Minie, the dull hum of the round ball, and 
 5 
 
98 WKMOIR OF 
 
 above them all the sounds produced by the 
 various descriptions of common munition. 
 For half an hour it continued, and was 
 ended by the repulse of the rebels, who 
 returned no more to the field. In this last 
 scene of the battle all the Union force on 
 the field was in action, and one-half our loss 
 of the day occurred at this time. 
 
 OPERATIONS OF GENERAL SIEGEL's COMMAND. 
 
 " c Where is Siegel ?' had been passing 
 from lip to lip for an hour before this 
 attack, and he had been anxiously looked 
 for at the very point where the rebel infan 
 try, bearing the secession flag, had made 
 their appearance. As we had not heard 
 from him since the night previous, save by 
 the reports of his cannon, we were uncertain 
 as to his fate, and fearful that we might 
 fire upon him should he approach, as we 
 did not know from what quarter to expect 
 him. Our cannon ammunition was nearly 
 exhausted, and several companies of infan 
 try had expended their last round of car- 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 99 
 
 tridges. Major Sturgis (who took command 
 after General Lyon's death) ordered a 
 retreat, and the whole army took up its 
 line of march for Springfield. Ambulances 
 were sent back with a flag of truce to 
 gather up the dead and wounded. The 
 flag was received by General McOullough 
 and Colonel Mclntosh, and by nine P.M. 
 the ambulances returned, bringing all that 
 could be found. The battle commenced a 
 few minutes past six A.M. and the retreat 
 was ordered at eleven. With but a few 
 intervals the batteries on both sides were 
 in constant action throughout the whole, 
 and there were few minutes when the roll 
 of musketry could not be heard. 
 
 " To understand Colonel Siegel's position 
 it will be necessary to explain more fully 
 the situation of the rebel camp. Wilson's 
 Creek has a general southerly direction ; 
 but at a farm called McNary's it makes a 
 sharp bend to the east, follows an easterly 
 course for two and a half miles, and then 
 bends suddenly to the south. The Fayette- 
 
100 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ville road crosses the creek about a mile 
 and three fourths below the upper bend. 
 The rebel camp extended three miles 
 along the creek two and a half in an 
 easterly direction, and a quarter of a mile 
 above the upper bends towards the north, 
 and the same distance below the lower 
 bend towards the south. General Lyon's 
 attack was made on the western side, just 
 above the upper bend. Colonel Siegel 
 marched from Springfield clown (going 
 south) the Fayetteville road, left that road 
 four miles this side of Wilson's Creek, and 
 turned to his left, went around the rebel 
 camp, came into the same road two miles 
 beyond Wilson's Creek, and marched up the 
 Fayetteville road towards the enemy's 
 camp. Some who saw his command com 
 ing, about daylight, from the direction of 
 Arkansas, walked out to meet him, not 
 dreaming of the approach of the Union 
 forces on that side. These he allowed to 
 get within his lines, and made prisoners of 
 them before they discovered their mistake. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 101 
 
 He fell upon tlieir camp at the road, routed 
 them arid took possession, planting his 
 cannon in the camp and playing upon them 
 from that position. He found and took 
 possession of the private papers of General 
 McCullough, and one of his lieutenants was 
 fortunate enough to secure a bag of gold. 
 Colonel Siegel was so severely pressed that 
 he had to abandon the camp and take 
 position on a hill, where he served his 
 artillery with great effect, and brought his 
 infantry into active use. A concentrated 
 fire was made upon his battery, killing 
 many of his artillerymen and nearly all his 
 horses. A dash of infantry and cavalry 
 was then made, and five of his six cannon 
 fell into possession of the rebels. The 
 infantry and cavalry came so hard upon him 
 as to compel him to retreat, which he did, 
 bringing away nearly two hundred prisoners. 
 His command was badly cut up and he 
 found it impossible to make a junction with 
 the main column. The last assault upon 
 the main column was made just after the 
 
102 MEMOIR OP 
 
 retreat of" Colonel Siegel, and the cannon 
 which played upon us on the right were 
 the five that were captured. At one time, 
 had a vigorous movement been made on 
 our part, the rebel battery might have 
 been taken. 
 
 " For two or three days before the battle 
 General Lyon changed much in appearance. 
 Since it became apparent to him that he 
 must abandon the Southwest or have his 
 army cut to pieces, he had lost much of his 
 former energy and decision. To one of 
 his staff he remarked, the evening before 
 the battle, i I am a man believing in pre 
 sentiments, and ever since this night sur 
 prise was planned I have had a feeling I 
 cannot get rid of that it would result 
 disastrously. Through the refusal of 
 government properly to reinforce me I arn 
 obliged to abandon the country. If I 
 leave it without engaging the enemy the 
 public will call me a coward. If I engage 
 him I may be defeated and my command 
 cut to pieces. I am too weak to hold 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 1Q3 
 
 Springfield, and yet the people will de 
 mand that I bring about a battle with the 
 very enemy I cannot keep a town against. 
 How can this result otherwise than against 
 us?' 
 
 " On the way to the field I frequently 
 rode near him. He seemed like one be 
 wildered, and often when addressed failed 
 to give any recognition, and seemed totally 
 unaware that he was spoken to. On the 
 battlefield he gave his orders promptly, 
 and seemed solicitous for the welfare of 
 his men, but utterly regardless of his own 
 safety. While he was standing where 
 bullets flew thickest, just after his favorite 
 horse was shot from under him, some of 
 his officers interposed and begged that he 
 would retire from the spot and seek one 
 less exposed. Scarcely raising his eyes 
 from the enemy he said 
 
 " ' It is well enough that I stand here. I 
 am satisfied.' 
 
 "While the line was forming for the 
 charge against the rebels in which he lost 
 
104 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his life, General Lyon turned to Major Stur 
 gis, who stood near him, and remarked 
 
 " c I fear that the day is lost ; if Colonel 
 Siegel had been successful he would have 
 joined us before this. I think I will lead 
 this charge.' 
 
 " He had been wounded in the leg in an 
 early part of the engagement a flesh 
 wound merely from which the blood 
 flowed profusely. Major Sturgis during 
 the conversation noticed blood on General 
 Lyon's hat, and at first supposed he had 
 been touching it with his hand, which was 
 
 O 7 
 
 wet with blood from his leg. A moment 
 after, perceiving that it was fresh, he 
 removed the General's hat and asked the 
 cause of its appearance. ' It is nothing, 
 Major, nothing but a wound in the head,' 
 said General Lyon, turning away and 
 mounting his horse. Without taking the 
 hat held out to him by Major Sturgis, he 
 addressed the lowans he was to command 
 with 
 
 " i Forward, men ! I will lead you /' 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 105 
 
 " Two minutes afterwards he lay dead on 
 the field, killed by a rifle ball through his 
 breast, just above the heart. In death his 
 features wore the same troubled and puz 
 zled expression that had been fixed upon 
 them for the past week. His body was 
 brought to town in the afternoon, and will 
 be forwarded to his friends in Connecticut 
 for interment. 
 
 " The appearance of the field throughout 
 the day was exceedingly gloomy. The 
 morning was cloudy, and once in the aften- 
 noon rain fell. Towards noon the sun 
 shone out, but not clearly. The smoke from 
 the cannon and small arms, with that from 
 the burning train, hung over the field, seem 
 ing like a pall spread to cover the unfor 
 tunate dead. The horrors of Manassas 
 were renewed on this battlefield. Our 
 wounded men were bayoneted or struck 
 over the head with musket butts. An 
 officer, a lieutenant in the First Missouri, 
 was taken prisoner, struck four times with 
 a musket, and left for dead. He revived and 
 
106 MEMOIR OF 
 
 escaped. A surgeon, who went on the field 
 after the battle, was several times shot at 
 and forced to retire. Later in the afternoon 
 a flag of truce was sent to the rebel com 
 manders, and was received. 
 
 " Union flags were several times waved to 
 induce our men to go forward. None were 
 taken by this ruse. 
 
 u At the time the enemy were advancing 
 to outflank our left, and were repulsed by 
 our cannonading, a rebel flag was borne 
 prominently in their front. The man carry 
 ing it was struck by a shell, which exploded 
 at the same moment. Another snatched 
 up the banner, and was hurrying forward 
 when he was killed by a canister shot. 
 The flag was not again seen. 
 
 " Most of the shot from the rebel cannon 
 passed over our heads. A few horses were 
 killed by round shot, and two or three men 
 were badly wounded with pieces of shell. 
 With these exceptions I do not know of 
 their artillery doing damage. Your cor 
 respondent was standing beside his horse 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 107 
 
 under a tree in the rear of Capt. Totten's 
 battery, when a six-pound shot passed 
 through the tree top not four feet above 
 his head. Thinking there might be a 
 better place for observation, I changed my 
 position some twenty rods, and I was 
 speedily admonished of my insecurity by 
 another ball ploughing up the ground not 
 six feet away, and literally covering me 
 with dirt. Upon the theory that 'light 
 ning does not strike twice in the same 
 place,' I kept still, and was not troubled 
 by any more of the same sort so near me. 
 A six-pound shot produces a sound any 
 thing but melodious. About the time the 
 action commenced I rode past the First 
 Missouri regiment. One of the soldiers, 
 seeing my citizen's dress, cocked his gun 
 and brought it to bear upon me. I ven 
 tured to ask 
 
 " ' What are you going to shoot me for 
 " ' I don't know you,' was the reply, with 
 the gun still in position. 
 
 " Just then one of the soldiers asked 
 
where I had been since I was with them 
 at BooneviEe, and my about-to-shoot friend 
 lowered his rifle and disappeared. 
 
 - Whether the result is a victory, a defeat, 
 or a drawn battle, I leave for tie reader 
 to decide. Our forces took a position and 
 held it five hours. When they retired 
 :lr enemy had been several times repulsed, 
 in the ~.ist attack driven from the 
 field. They had burned their baggage 
 train to prevent our getting it, and when 
 we left the field did not attempt to pursue 
 us. Upwards of an hour after our depar 
 ture they returned and took possession, 
 rendering it necessary that our ambulances 
 should go out under a flag of truce. The 
 rebel troops outnumbered the Unionists at 
 least four to one, and some of our officers 
 estimate their strength as fullv six times 
 
 * 
 
 that of ours."" 
 
POLITICAL WRITINGS. 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 OUR cause is to honor labor and elevate the 
 laborer ; our candidate, Abe Lincoln. 
 
 Our cause we know to be the noblest of human 
 aspirations ; our candidate we believe fit, both in 
 motive and capacity, for the attainment of this 
 cause. 
 
 Labor is the only source of wealth, and through 
 the application of its productive means is power 
 alone obtained ; and to control these means, the 
 product of labor, to the attainment of power, do 
 princes exhaust their policies of state, priests 
 their subtleties of theology, and demagogues and 
 designing men every artifice of hypocrisy and 
 imposition all having in view the easy eleva 
 tion, through craft, to power and luxurious ease, 
 of the no n -laboring classes. And melancholy is 
 indeed the fact that the laboring classes have 
 often lent themselves to these arts of designing 
 
112 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 men, and contributed to their own degradation. 
 And it is the greatest political revolution yet to 
 be effected, to bring the laboring man to know 
 that honest industry is the highest of merit, and 
 should be awarded the highest honor, and pro 
 perly pursued contributes to his intelligence and 
 morality, and to the virtues needed for official 
 station. 
 
 Without analysing the relation between labor 
 and its productive means, it will be readily seen, 
 that where no tyrannical measures are adopted to 
 furnish a favored class with means, at the expense 
 of the laborers, all, or nearly all, must labor for a 
 living, and where labor is duly honored, and this 
 great laboring class elevated, not only is great 
 happiness gained to the community, but cor 
 responding wealth ; for, industry being a merit, 
 it will be pursued with laudable zeal, to the pro 
 duction of means, or wealth. 
 
 On the other hand, where labor is despised, 
 and the laborer degraded and held to believe his 
 position inevitably connected with meanness and 
 misery, not only is the laboring class, which must 
 still be a great majority in the community, made 
 unhappy, but labor being degrading, all, who 
 can, will avoid labor as a means of living, and 
 thus' reduce productiveness or wealth, both 
 through the want of zeal in the laborer, and the 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. H3 
 
 withdrawal of many from occupations of labor, 
 who will resort to artifices and clandestine means 
 of living rather than laboring ; such is unfortu 
 nately too much our present condition. A further 
 point to be noticed, is the vice engendered, both 
 by the degradation of the laborers, and the idle 
 ness and craft of the non-laborers. To the reader 
 who has followed us thus far we would make an 
 application of these views upon the question of 
 slavery in the territories. 
 
 In countries where slavery exists, labor devolves 
 there for the most part upon the slaves, and is 
 therefore identified with slavery ; and the white 
 free laborer being valued by slaveowners, who 
 control public opinion, only as so much physical 
 organism (bone, muscle, &c.) for producing means, 
 he is degraded to the condition of the slave, so 
 far as his influence and moral status go, and is 
 even lower in physical comforts, for the want of 
 the intelligent care the slaveowner bestows upon 
 the slave, and of which he, the free laborer, has 
 become incompetent by a mental depravity cor 
 responding to his moral degradation. This is a 
 truth of philosophy and political economy, that 
 man rises to a position corresponding to the rights 
 and responsibilities devolved upon him, and 
 therefore the only true way to make a man is to 
 invest him with the rights, duties, and responsi- 
 
114 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 bilities of a man, and he generally rises in intel 
 lectual and moral greatness to a position corres 
 ponding to these circumstances ; and it is the very 
 want of them that makes the free non-si avehold- 
 ing persons of the slave states so degraded and 
 imbecile that the slaves themselves feel a conscious 
 superiority, in which they are encouraged by 
 their owners, to the extent of thinking it better 
 to be a nigger than a poor white man ; and this 
 is done to pacify the slave, and thus secure this 
 artificial system of securing the products of 
 labor to the non-laboring classes, and also, by 
 degrading white laborers, prevent their industry 
 from competing with slave labor to reduce there 
 by the value of slaves. 
 
 So true are these things, that it is well known 
 that the poor whites of the slave states are the 
 most subservient tools of the slaveowners, and 
 that of all the artificial systems devised by tyran 
 ny to impose upon the poor man, none have any 
 where reduced him to such squalid poverty and 
 utterly degraded demoralization as prevail among 
 the free laborers of the slave states. Such is the 
 state of things which, with the Dred Scott deci 
 sion and the policy of the Democracy, scourged 
 on by the lash of its southern masters, we are to 
 have not only in Kansas, but all our territories. 
 For this purpose is a slave code to be imposed 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. H5 
 
 against the will of our people, Kansas to be kept 
 in territorial bondage, the Homestead Bill to be 
 defeated, and the whole power and patronage of 
 the government prostituted to the purpose of 
 opposing the intellectual, moral, and physical 
 development of the industrial classes, whose 
 energetic resources have in hand at once the wel 
 fare both of themselves and our country, and the 
 uprooting of slavery in the territories. 
 
 To this cause we are unalterably committed; 
 such is our platform and the purpose of our can 
 didate. Upon our candidate we must omit in 
 this article, on account of its length, the points 
 which controlled his nomination and render him 
 the fit exponent of our principles, in view of 
 which, and the ready acquiescence of all the great 
 competitors (some of whom must have, in any 
 event, been disappointed), we have no hesitation 
 upon our course of duty. 
 
 Our principles, as above given, make Abe 
 Lincoln a more suitable candidate, perhaps, than 
 could have been well otherwise selected, as his 
 present greatness and position are due to the 
 operation of the great principles we now advo 
 cate for our Territories that of honoring labor 
 and elevating the honest laborer, of whom we 
 intend, in this case, to make our next President. 
 
 June 9, I860. 
 
II. 
 
 OUE CAUSE OUK CANDIDATE. 
 
 IN our former article under this head, we 
 showed our cause to be more distinctly that of 
 elevating the free laborer, by keeping him from 
 contact with the system of slave labor, by which 
 he is reduced, in moral status, to a level with, or 
 lower than that of the slave. That honest indus 
 try is in no way inconsistent with high intellectual 
 culture and moral elevation, is shown by the con 
 dition of the generality of our laborers in the 
 free states, and such examples as Benjamin 
 Franklin, 1ST. P. Banks, and our distinguished 
 candidate for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln. 
 That this is the reverse in the slave states, we 
 proved, not only from the nature of the case, but 
 the existing condition of the free laborer there, 
 where he is so much demoralized as to be inoffen 
 sive to the oligarchists of the slave interest, who 
 control the political machinery of their respective 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. H7 
 
 states, so as to make all tilings harmonize with, 
 or subservient to this interest. And by a shrewd 
 foresight and combination, in conjunction with 
 unscrupulous leaders north, they are attempting, 
 through the machinery of the general govern 
 ment, to extend this system over our free terri 
 tories. 
 
 It is not our purpose to consider, further than 
 is incidental to the subject of slavery in the ter 
 ritories, the effects of slavery upon the owners of 
 slaves, their social and political economy ; as by 
 our platform, founded upon the fact of the exist 
 ence of slavery in the southern states at the 
 period of our political compacts, we bind our 
 selves to adhere to all moral obligations involved 
 therein, and refrain from any hostilities towards 
 the institution of slavery in those states. This we 
 shall do ; but as incident to the question of sla 
 very in the territories, we have illustrated its 
 degrading effects upon the free laborer, and now 
 further warn our brethren against contributing to 
 build up, in our midst, an oligarchy of proud, domi 
 neering slaveowners, so lamented and graphically 
 described by Jefferson, and whose position and 
 interests place them in antagonism to the free 
 laborer, whom they despise and denounce as they 
 did in the last presidential election through the 
 
118 OUR CAUSE OUfl CANDIDATE. 
 
 southern press-, as " greasy mechanics," " filthy 
 operatives," &c. "We quote: 
 
 " Free society is a monstrous abortion, and 
 slavery the healthy, beautiful, and natural being, 
 which they are trying, unconsciously, to adopt. 
 The slaves are governed far better than the free 
 laborers at the north are governed. Our negroes 
 are not only better off as to physical comforts 
 than are those free laborers, but their moral con 
 dition is better." 
 
 Such may be indeed the condition of the free 
 laborers at the south, and these views of the 
 Richmond Enquirer are founded upon this con 
 dition, and they establish by southern authority 
 the points we have advanced the arrogance, on 
 the one hand, of the slaveowner, and the degra 
 dation on the other, of the free laborer. Again : 
 " Free society 1 we sicken at the name ! What 
 is it but a conglomeration of greasy mechanics, 
 filthy operatives, small-fisted farmers, and moon 
 struck theorists ? All the northern, and espe 
 cially the New England States, are devoid of 
 society fitted for a well-bred gentleman. The 
 prevailing class one meets with is that of mecha 
 nics struggling to be genteel, and small farmers 
 who do their own drudgery, and yet they are 
 hardly fit for a gentleman's body servant. This 
 
OUR CAUSE -OUR^CASDI]} ATE. H9 
 
 is your free society, which your northern hordes 
 are endeavoring to extend into Kansas." 
 
 Yes, and if we can attain the standard of New 
 England, here cited for condemnation by the Mus- 
 cogee Herald (Ala.), we shall be satisfied. How 
 far we are to stultify our own interests, integrity, 
 and common-sense, by sustaining the Democracy, 
 and thereby contributing, through the general 
 government, to make ourselves subject to, and 
 sustain this garrulous abuse of us, we are glad of 
 the opportunity soon to show. 
 
 " A man's a man for a' that, 
 The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor, 
 Is king o' men for a' that. 
 Then let us pray that come it may, 
 And come it will for a' that, 
 That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 
 May bear the gree and a' that. 
 That man to man the world o'er, 
 Shall brothers be for a' that." 
 
 BURNS'S Honest Poverty. 
 
 Our worthy candidate is an illustration of these 
 lofty sentiments of the immortal poet, and this we 
 trust will be more fully shown, to the confusion 
 of our arch-enemy, in his presidential capacity. 
 
 A word now upon this part of our heading 
 Our Candidate. Mr. Seward was the strongest 
 man before the Chicago convention, and had pro- 
 
120 OUI^ CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 bably friends - enough, in it who preferred him, to 
 have given him the nomination, but of whom, 
 many having the cause of Kepublicanism more at 
 heart than the elevation of their favorite, feared 
 his availability, on account of his supposed affec 
 tion for and affiliation with northern abolitionists, 
 as have been charged, for a long time past, by his 
 opponents, on account of his past political views 
 and acts, and more especially his late " irrepressi 
 ble conflict" doctrine. And though ill-founded, 
 these charges were liable to hurt Mr. Seward with 
 many of our conservative and life-long democra 
 tic Eepublicans, with whom Mr. Seward is not a 
 favorite. Mr. Seward also hurt himself with his 
 Kepublican friends, we think, in supporting the 
 President's policy of a military regimen over 
 Kansas, as he did, by voting to raise new troops 
 for the Utah service (against the Mormons), and 
 thereby enable the army, then in Kansas, to 
 remain there. 
 
 Let us not be understood as disparaging Mr. 
 Seward, nor withholding gratitude for his eminent 
 services, but, as is well said by the New York 
 Evening Post, what Mr. Seward is and has been 
 he attained through the approbation of the 
 people, and it becomes him and his friends 
 to accept, and be satisfied with such appro- 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 121 
 
 bation as the people see fit to manifest, and is 
 valuable only as it is bestowed unsolicited, with 
 out management or force. Mr. Seward readily 
 acquiesces, as we know, and cordially we believe 
 his friends, no doubt, will also. 
 
 To our four friends from Ohio, McLean, Chase, 
 Wade and Cor win, whom we name in the order 
 of our preferences, we have less objections on the 
 score of qualifications and availability, than the 
 fact, that being all from the same State, where 
 each has deservedly warm friends, heartburnings 
 and jealousies might arise at the triumph of one 
 over the other rivals, whereby a coolness towards 
 the one selected, might endanger success in a 
 State we cannot well spare. 
 
 Mr. Bates was popular, but it must be borne in 
 mind that he is a late acquisition to our ranks, 
 and though one of which we are proud, he has 
 not struggled with us in our days of darkness and 
 trial, but on the contrary, in the last Presidential 
 election, when the wail of our sufferings touched 
 every sympathetic heart, Mr. Bates joined the 
 diversion made by Mr. Fillmore in favor of the 
 Democrats, which caused our defeat. His nomi 
 nation, we have reason to fear, would have hurt 
 us with our naturalized citizens, who, if true to 
 themselves, in the advocacy of their own eleva- 
 6 
 
122 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 tion, will prove an important element and efficient 
 aid towards the attainment of our cause. 
 
 Mr. Banks is a man of ability and pure patriot 
 ism, and had our confidence, but we make no 
 lamentations over a result, in which almost every 
 one having a favorite candidate must be disap 
 pointed. But we are gratified to see, that the 
 friends of the eminent men above named, and of 
 others like Clay, Blair, Foote, Collamer, &c., under 
 the examples of their respective favorites, are all 
 united to support the nominee of the Chicago con 
 vention. This nominee, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 now stands before the country as our standard- 
 bearer, than whom none could have been more 
 happily chosen, as the embodiment of our great 
 cause of the laboring man. His stalwart frame, 
 honest heart, and comprehensive, well-trained 
 mind, confound the sneering taunts of the slave 
 oligarchy at free labor, and point to us, with 
 unerring certainty, the pathway of duty, which 
 shall lead to our highest humanity, from which 
 we shall gaze with a mournful smile, at the impo 
 tent jeers of the proud and vain, who follow their 
 blind infatuation to a shameful end. 
 
 Jwne 16, I860. 
 
HI. 
 
 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 IN our last article under this head, we gave 
 reasons why many of the leading competitors were 
 not nominated at the Chicago Convention, and it 
 follows by consequence that the nomination must 
 fall upon Mr. Lincoln if others could not get it. 
 But this would leave our nominee in the negative 
 position of owing success to being unobjection 
 able, rather than commanding support from com 
 mendable attributes and character. But it was 
 well known to all in Chicago at the time, and the 
 history of the Convention shows that Mr. Lincoln 
 was among the foremost at the start, and it was 
 due to the hold his commendable qualities had 
 upon his friends in Convention, that they, joined by 
 the overwhelming outside pressure in the city and 
 State, were enabled to secure the success of their 
 favorite candidate. " Give us, Lincoln," said Illi 
 nois, " and you shall have our vote we gave it to 
 
124 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 him as a state for the United States Senate against 
 Douglas our popular majority for him in that 
 canvass is the foundation of this confidence." 
 This is enough to show how Mr. Lincoln stands 
 where he is best known. He had, however, his 
 share of public life in the Legislature of his own 
 State, and as member of Congress, and it is not 
 too much to say, that he always justified the sup 
 port awarded him, by executing the trusts com 
 mitted to his charge. It is this fidelity to his own 
 principles, and the interests with which he has 
 been entrusted, more than anything else that has 
 controlled this nomination a nomination made 
 more appropriate by the sad disappointment of 
 the country at the falseness of the Democracy to 
 every profession and political creed. 
 
 It is not our purpose here to give a biography 
 of Mr. Lincoln, showing the steps by which he 
 rose, through industry and integrity, as so many 
 of our countrymen have done, to successive posi 
 tions of trust and honor; but that he has so risen^ 
 against every disadvantage in youth, to his pre 
 sent position, which commands the confidence, and 
 constitutes the hope of the great Republican party, 
 is the main feature in his qualifications for our 
 candidate, at this period when the sole tangible 
 issue between us and the Democracy is, this very 
 
OUR CAUSE OUK CANDIDATE. 125 
 
 question of elevating the honest and poor laborer 
 through industry whether that industry, which 
 is the parent of virtue and means of all material 
 happiness, shall be held in respect, as we urge, 
 to the elevation and happiness of the vast labor 
 ing classes and the great increase of wealth in the 
 country, as is mainly the case in our free States, 
 though not to the extent we desire ; or whether, 
 as urged by the Democracy, labor, being made to 
 rest upon a basis of slavery, industry or all 
 engaged in it must be held in degradation and 
 despised by a self-constituted oligarchy, invested 
 with the possession and control of labor. 
 
 That this is the impending issue we have shown 
 in our previous articles on this subject, and it is 
 lamentable, that the morbid desire of man to 
 overreach the laborer, and make his productive 
 ness subservient to his convenience, has, through 
 artful devices, so imposed upon the laborer as to 
 secure his own co-operation to this end. Such we 
 think has, in times gone by, been more or less the 
 case in the artful schemes of party to build up a 
 privileged class, founded on property in banks, 
 manufactories, &c., while it was more obviously 
 so, in the support given, at the last Presidential 
 election, to the so-called Democracy, which had in 
 view, and it is now so seen, the building up of an 
 aristocracy founded on property in " niggers." 
 
126 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 Thus was the Honorable Jefferson Davis right 
 in saying in the Senate the other day, that the 
 Democratic party had taken the place of the old 
 Whig party, for so it has, in the feature formerly 
 attributed to the Whig party, of desiring to build 
 up a select class of privileged persons, to obtain 
 their means, through special legislation, at the 
 expense of the industrial classes. 
 
 This morbid desire for wealth and power, this 
 bane of the human heart, rises, hydra-like, in every 
 place and shape to tempt the weak and blind, and 
 mislead the strong, and unfortunately has, at dif 
 ferent times, lured Man with its syren songs 
 to the fatal embrace of tyranny, in which the his 
 tory of the world has so generally found him. 
 Against this we now war, and with the more 
 earnestness, as with the artfulness of a deity, and 
 the presumption of a fiend, our own Constitution 
 is perversely claimed, by the Democracj^, as the 
 aegis for the establishment of this slave autocracy 
 over our country. We thus again advert to this 
 struggle so artfully though vainly pursued, 
 between aristocracy, or capital, and labor, in order 
 to show more fully the fitness of our candidate, 
 as a laboring man, and one who has risen by 
 industry from obscurity and indigence to carry 
 on the great work which, through so many hard- 
 
OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 127 
 
 fought battles, has so satisfactorily progressed in 
 this country, towards placing the honest laborer 
 on that just eminence, which the wants of society 
 and the laws of nature demand, and so imperi 
 ously demand, that any artificial system which 
 blinks or ignores them, must be ever subject to 
 unhappy changes and revolutions ; and it may be 
 safely asserted, that this is at the foundation of all 
 disturbances in society. We commend our friends 
 to the history of our candidate to learn his fitness 
 upon our great national issues. 
 
 Nor must we omit a reference to our candidate 
 for the Yice-Presidency, whose well-known 
 modesty and integrity, combined with his high 
 moral courage and eminence as a statesman, make 
 Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, fit for any position, 
 and the most honorable acquisition to our ticket. 
 As Senator he could not violate his conscience to 
 vote, under instructions, for the repeal of the Mis 
 souri Compromise, and thereupon resigned his 
 seat and returned home, to co-operate in establish 
 ing the principles of Eepublicanism in his State, 
 upon which he became Governor, and soon 
 returned to the Senate, where he now is, an honor 
 to that body, and, as an illustration of the tri 
 umphs of integrity, a bright example to his race, 
 among whom none can be found of purer thoughts 
 
128 OUR CAUSE OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 or loftier emotions, than those now animating the 
 peaceful heart and irradiating the genial brow of 
 Hannibal Hamlin. 
 
 O ye who would know man as man and 
 a brother, who, true to yourselves, would respond 
 to the aspirations of those whose lives are devoted 
 to our cause, we beacon you to the standard which 
 now floats the illustrious names of Lincoln and 
 Hamlin, inscribed there with the cause of free 
 labor, beneath the folds of which we glow with joy 
 for the fight, in which we will engage, so long as 
 man has the weakness, to suffer or tyranny the 
 power to strike. 
 
 June 23, 1860i 
 
IV. 
 
 SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 
 
 WE prefer to advocate our principles and win 
 support for them by their own commendable fea 
 tures, rather than expose and denounce the de 
 testable iniquities of our opponents, for the pur 
 pose of creating an aversion towards them. 
 
 For this reason the contemptible cant of Black 
 ^Republicanism, negro worshippers, &c., applied to 
 us, have passed unheeded as the loathsome spew 
 of the envenomed Shamocracy, which we leave to 
 the intelligent to perceive, and that our advocacy 
 of the interests of the great laboring classes arises 
 from the principles, that whatever contributes to 
 our welfare permanently is the true element to 
 wards the substantial happiness of all, and ulti 
 mately of the negro. Because slavery has evils 
 which we oppose extending into territories, an 
 attempt is made to attach odium to us, by repre 
 senting us as abolitionists, who are understood to 
 6* 
 
130 SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 
 
 insist upon the abolition of slavery at once, and 
 without regard to consequences, with a view to 
 the welfare of the slave, and under a fanatical 
 sense of moral obligations to pursue this course. 
 We oppose slavery in the territories, not for a 
 love of the negro but the white man, whom we 
 would save from the condition, either as an arro 
 gant slaveholder, or as degraded by him, in which 
 we find him in the slave states. Nor do we want 
 the free blacks, for, degraded as they are, they 
 constitute a pernicious element, like other unfortu 
 nate subjects of society the depraved and foolish 
 and our confidence is, that the attainment of our 
 welfare will carry that of theirs also. 
 
 But it may be pertinent, under present circum 
 stances, to call attention to the practical workings 
 of the great hobby of our opponents, called 
 " Squatter Sovereignty," or, as illustrated by its 
 apostle, Douglas, is more properly defined, as in 
 our heading, " Sovereign Squattereignty." Some 
 six years ago, while the country was in profound 
 quiet over the subject of slavery, resting upon the 
 security of the compromises made in regard to it, 
 Mr. Douglas convulsed the country upon the right 
 of the people of a territory to vote slavery into 
 that portion from which it has been prohibited by 
 the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This, under 
 
SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 
 
 a great hue and cry that the people possessed ab 
 solute sway, and had a right to legislate in the 
 territories, for or against slavery, in the same man 
 ner as upon other property, ardent spirits, &c. 
 
 The Eepublicans make issue this far, that it is 
 the right and duty of Congress to interfere and 
 prevent the few, who first reach a territory, from 
 forestalling the sentiments of the larger commu 
 nity, likely, to occupy it, and should, therefore 
 protect all classes of people, in their infant state, 
 against premature and grasping assumptions, as in 
 the case of the Mormons in Utah, and the border 
 ruffians in Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
 was framed with the most liberal provisions for 
 the rights of the people, with the evident design 
 that these rights were to be used, under Govern 
 ment direction, to introduce slavery ; but, never 
 theless, these rights were invested in the people 
 of the Territory, and a due regard to the terms 
 of the law as well as the moral obligations in 
 volved, should have secured to the people the 
 exercise of this right ; and when, by the inroads 
 of border ruffians, sanctioned and aided by Go 
 vernment officials, they were deprived of this 
 right and subjected to most oppressive tyranny, in 
 palpable violation of the terms and spirit of the 
 law, Mr. Stephen Arnold Douglas, so far from 
 
132 SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 
 
 sympathizing with them, repudiates the principles 
 of his own bill, and joins our southern enemies in 
 the most violent denunciation of us, and urges the 
 penalty of treason upon those who oppose the re 
 volting tyranny of border ruffianism. Exulting 
 in the power of these Kansas inroads, he would 
 unite that of the General Government, over the 
 people, and in support of the Toombs' Bill pro 
 vide for a commission to be appointed by the cor 
 rupt executive, who had lent himself to these 
 oppressions, which commission was to provide a 
 State government, irrespective of the will of the 
 people. And when at length the people assert 
 their rights under the Territorial Bill, Mr. Douglas 
 readily repudiates his own doctrine, by acquiescing 
 in the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court, 
 annulling all this pretended right of the people 
 over the subject of slavery, in the territories, 
 showing that all this clamor, for the people's rights, 
 was but the deceptive art of the demagogue. 
 
 He stands beside Senator Sumner and witnesses 
 the inhuman attack upon him, without a lisp or 
 act of remonstrance, for fear of affronting the 
 South. This may be " Squatter Sovereignty " 
 with Mr. Douglas and his friends, but, in extent 
 of prostitution to the demands of the slave 
 power, we do not see how he can squat lower, 01 
 
SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 133 
 
 become more literally a " Sovereign Squatter" 
 The squat of the duck, in a thunder-storm, serves 
 but a weak illustration of the humiliating depth 
 to which Mr. Douglas has gone in the slime of 
 his own putrescence, before the flash and roar of 
 his southern masters. 
 
 It is true, the last Presidential election de 
 veloped an opposing storm, before which he fain 
 would squat to the attainment of his end, could 
 he rise against that to which he had before suc 
 cumbed. This he partially did in his Lecompton 
 issue, and a courageous struggle, persistently 
 pursued, might have enabled him to regain a safe 
 shelter, but timidity again arouses morbid appre 
 hensions from the overcharged storm on the John 
 Brown raid, and again he squats to his meanest 
 depths before the southern blasts. We, of course, 
 allude to his scurrilous abuse of us, in his speech 
 upon measures of redress for such occurrences as 
 that of Harper's Ferry, and the severity, too re 
 volting even for slaveholders to accept, with 
 which he proposed to furnish them. The con 
 sternation of the duck or toad in a thunder-storm 
 is sweet tranquillity compared to the distress, 
 under these circumstances, of our " sovereign 
 squatter." You have " squat " too low, my dear 
 sir, in the mire beneath your feet, and the unceas- 
 
134 SOVEREIGN SQUATTEREIGNTY. 
 
 ing storm, centring its fury upon you, shall 
 keep you there. Palsied at the time, you could 
 not raise a helping hand for a brother Senator, 
 sinking beneath its blows. "We now leave you to 
 the impotent struggles with an overwhelming fate 
 to which your morbid ambition, overriding your 
 discretion, has reduced you. 
 
 Quitting this mortifying spectacle, of "Sover 
 eign Squattereignty," we turn with joy to the 
 bright hopes of Kepublicanism, which requires no 
 spurious oracles nor juggler's arts to command 
 for it our affections. 
 
 June 30, 1860. 
 
Y. 
 
 ABE WE SUBDUED? 
 
 " WE will subdue you," was the declaration 
 of the British ministry to our petitioners for 
 redress of grievances upon which our forefathers 
 warred successfully to the confusion of the inso 
 lent authors of this impotent threat. " We will 
 subdue you," was the language of Stephen 
 A. Douglas to the people of Kansas, when 
 remonstrating against the oppressive tyranny of 
 the border ruffian rule ; and the present state of 
 our people shows this oracle of the southern oli 
 garchy to have been about as prophetic as that 
 of their monarchical prototype. 
 
 Presuming upon the power of their govern 
 ment, on the one hand, and the feebleness of the 
 colonies on the other, our illustrious Franklin, 
 who had gone to the mother country to represent 
 the wrongs done the American colonies, and upon 
 what terms a reconciliation could be effected, and 
 
136 ARE WE SUBDUED? 
 
 by which alone a revolution could be averted, 
 was dismissed by the British ministry from this 
 mission with scurrilous abuse to himself, and the 
 threat to his people " We will subdue you," 
 " We will ravage your whole country, lay your 
 seaport towns in ashes," &c. " My property," 
 replied Franklin, "consists of houses in these 
 towns. Of these, indeed, you may make bonfires 
 and reduce them to ashes, but the fear of losing 
 them will never alter my resolution to resist, to 
 the last, the claims of Parliament." The sacrifices 
 of the Kansas people, under similar threats, show 
 them, happily, not destitute of similar heroic 
 virtues. 
 
 Benedict Arnold becomes a traitor to these 
 principles, and after attempting to betray the 
 interests with which he had been entrusted, he 
 heads a party of our enemies and goes forth 
 against his own people and native state, with the 
 motto, "We will subdue you," to ravage the 
 country, lay seaport towns in ashes, &c. ; and the 
 burning of New London and massacre at Fort 
 Griswold are well known results of his leader 
 ship, emblematic, in their unutterable cruelty, of 
 the ineffable debasement of treachery. 
 
 Stephen Arnold Douglas and by what a sin 
 gular coincidence is the name Arnold here appro- 
 
ARE WE SUBDUED? 137 
 
 priately found, and becomes so prominent that he 
 is now generally called Arnold Douglas in a simi 
 lar manner betrays the principles he had advo 
 cated in behalf of the rights of the people to self- 
 government, and relying upon the power of the 
 government, and the weak, distressed condition 
 of what he denominates " Kansas Shriekers," he 
 denounces them in. scurrilous language, and de 
 mands, as the oracle of the pro-slavery faction, 
 then dominant over the Pierce administration, 
 that they shall submit tamely to the border-ruf 
 fian rule ; and when remonstrated with, and told 
 that revolution must soon follow, and that no fear 
 of consequences could alter their " resolution to 
 resist, to the last, the claims " so oppressive, he 
 flashes an embodiment of rage, raising himself 
 up with clenched hands, shakes his shaggy head, 
 gesticulating with fierceness, strikes his desk, and 
 stamping with violence his feet, exclaims, " We 
 will subdue you!" Arnold like as he is he 
 now heads our enemies, and sets forth against his 
 own people ; and the atrocity upon Senator Sum- 
 ner, and the murders and massacres of Kansas, 
 under the subduing process, are well known 
 results of this arrogant spirit, and to be traced, 
 more or less, to the moral effect of his leadership. 
 The lessons of Lord North and Benedict 
 
138 ARE WE SUBDUED? 
 
 Arnold had been taught in vain for him ; but he 
 learns at last, in that dear school where fools will 
 only learn, that we are not to be subdued. A 
 little bit further parallel may be drawn from his 
 tory. The battle of Stillwater and the espousal 
 by France of our cause, brought Lord North to 
 doubt the success of the subduing process, and 
 then, too late, he proposed to relinquish it. The 
 battle of the last Presidential election, and the 
 effective sympathy for Kansas, has made this 
 aspiring ape of tyranny hesitate in his subjugat 
 ing career, and, too late, he now proposes recon 
 ciliation. His course, like that of Lord North, 
 gains the sympathy of a few forgiving friends, 
 who now assume his fervent meekness as proof 
 of untainted purity. And this is the basis of merit 
 to the support of which our aid is now invoked ! 
 Ah, Arnold Douglas! Arnold Benedict had a 
 history, and the events of it cannot be effaced 
 from the memory and indignation of an injured 
 people; nor, sir, will the prominent events of 
 your history fail of proper resentment, so long as 
 shame and outrage inflame the manly bosom or 
 rouse the manly frame. 
 
 July 14, I860. 
 
YL 
 
 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 IN ascertaining our relations to the world 
 around us, we find by our observation and expe 
 rience, and by precept, transmitting the wisdom 
 of preceding ages, that certain rules and regula 
 tions are necessary for our welfare and happiness. 
 Some of these rules apply to ourselves, in our 
 individual capacity, to regulate our habits of diet, 
 sleep, industry, amusements, &c., and others to 
 our social relations, and regulate our intercourse 
 with those around us. 
 
 Of these rules, such as contribute to our own 
 welfare and happiness, and that of the community 
 in general, are called Morals, and constitute the 
 code of morals in contradistinction to those which 
 are pernicious, and are called vices, and constitute 
 crimes. Upon this view, whatever contributes 
 most to our welfare and that of the community 
 and so interwoven are our own interests with 
 
140 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 those of society, that whatever we do for one is 
 necessarily done for the other is the highest of 
 morals ; and, therefore, as has been well said by 
 our best of philosophers, we need no other rule 
 for our guidance than that of " our own self-love, 
 that universal principle of action." 
 
 And if in pursuing this rule, we secure our 
 substantial and permanent welfare, this welfare 
 will of necessity manifest itself in som*e physical 
 advancement and advantages, and our standard 
 of morality may therefore be assumed to be that 
 course of conduct which, in the long run, contri 
 butes most to our physical wealth and prosperity. 
 
 Under the vicious system, spring irregularities, 
 suffering, and misery, and finally weakness and 
 decay, till on the verge of despair the subjects of 
 it either sink and expire, both individually and 
 socially, or, by reform, avail themselves of the 
 moral regimen, and return to prosperity and hap 
 piness. 
 
 The history of the world is full of the ups and 
 downs of individuals and of nations under the 
 operations of these laws prosperity begetting 
 presumption, arrogance, and a disregard of the 
 moral law, till a consequent suffering effects pre 
 mature death, or impels reform and relief. New 
 nations, societies, and clans, being at first weak ? 
 
THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 usually, on initiating their organizations and 
 institutions, adopt strictly the moral code, and by 
 this means, more than by any inherent virtues 01 
 this system, prosper for a time, till pride and pre 
 sumption follow with countervailing effects. 
 
 Our own national existence affords an illustra 
 tion of these views. Correct or moral in the 
 administration of our laws at home, and our 
 intercourse with other nations, our people were 
 contented and loyal, and through these means 
 our government strong ; while with our neigh 
 bors amicable and disarmed of malice, we were 
 secure from harm abroad. Modest and subdued 
 from our toils and sufferings, and industrious 
 from our poverty, our people and country rose in 
 wealth, power, and popularity, and all eyes turned 
 in wonder and admiration upon so worthy an 
 example for observation and imitation. 
 
 But a metamorphosis now interposes while 
 we have lost none of the elements of our pros 
 perity, we find discordance and din throughout 
 our land discontent at home and disgrace abroad. 
 Government, with the fatuity of James II., wars 
 upon the sacred popular rights of our people, 
 to obtrude an obnoxious institution over a people 
 who refuse to admit it, and, with revolting dis 
 regard of moral obligations, involves us in turpi- 
 
142 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 tude, with' covertly lending itself to the slave 
 trade, and fillibustering schemes against our neigh 
 bors. A long standing compact, which had 
 formed an adjustment of otherwise irreconcilable 
 differences on the slavery question, is ruthlessly 
 torn asunder, in utter disregard and contempt of 
 the wishes of one of the parties to it, and border- 
 ruffian rule stalks unrestrained, with iron heels, 
 over the fair surface of Kansas, leaving behind 
 the lurid clouds of slavery. 
 
 Stung with mortification, and enraged at these 
 events, uprose our masses, who, after several con 
 fused manifestations of feelings, have settled into 
 the compact and effective organization of the 
 Eepublican party. An appeal is now made in 
 behalf of slavery and the outrages which have 
 characterized the attempt to extend it, to this 
 great party of opposition to the wrongs and 
 rapacity of the Democracy, upon the ground of 
 our dogma, with which we set out, that morals 
 conduce to physical benefits; and the converse, 
 that whatever is highly and permanently benefi 
 cial is therefore moral. For it is said (and we 
 admit it), let our sophisms be what they may, let 
 perverse theories of morals arise upon innumera 
 bly contested theological points, all must settle 
 down to, and acquiesce in, those physical results 
 
THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 143 
 
 which secure us the greatest wealth and happi 
 ness. And as slavery constitutes the wealth of 
 the South, and the proceeds of slave labor have 
 lately enriched it much, and enhanced, through 
 its production of cotton, rice, tobacco, &c., the 
 wealth and happiness of the civilized world, 
 therefore slavery is the normal state of society in 
 morals, and consequent physical results. There 
 fore is it a pious duty to maintain it where it is, 
 and a blessing to extend it ; and plighted faith 
 broken, a sacred compact annulled, and obliga 
 tions to honor disregarded, are but the needful 
 and excusable sacrifice to so philanthropic an 
 object. 
 
 The sudden rise in the value of labor, from the 
 opening of the California mines, and of the price 
 of cotton, from the increased demand for it for 
 emigrant and mining life, army service, and on 
 our ships of commerce, have given undoubted 
 advancement to the wealth of the slave states, 
 and to the value of the slave, and this sudden and 
 unexpected rise from dilapidation and poverty, 
 has led to the erroneous presumption of merit and 
 advantage in the institution of slavery. For, 
 though circumstances have combined to increase 
 the prosperity of the South, the North has availed 
 herself of her superior industry and enterprise, to 
 
144: THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 develop her wealth to a degree more than cor 
 responding to that of the South, and she, as well 
 as other portions of the civilized world, still have 
 comparatively the moral advantage, upon the 
 standard of physical effects, by which she must 
 still loathe slavery, as of her old and former 
 aspect the superinducing* cause of misery and 
 poverty. 
 
 With the patrons of the system, upon the 
 standard of morals and of physical effects, we have 
 only to deal so far as in Congress and the opera 
 tions of the G-eneral Government (now unfortu 
 nately under their control) their influence is felt. 
 
 How that influence has been exerted, was 
 shown to some extent, not long since, as we men 
 tioned, by the investigations of the Covode Com 
 mittee, and the exhibition may be well left to an 
 intelligent people to judge of the morally elevat 
 ing effects of the slave system, and how far an 
 appeal for the further extension of it commends 
 itself to their judgment. 
 
 July 21, 18CO. 
 
vn. 
 
 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 IN our former article, under this head, we con 
 sidered the morals of slavery under the new and 
 recent claim set up for it, that, as an element of 
 essential prosperity and wealth to the South, it 
 must be accepted as of moral character, because of 
 its beneficial physical effects. If the recent im 
 provement of the South, from the great rise in 
 cotton and price of labor, though less in degree 
 than that at the North, has made any converts to 
 the system, they are welcome to their new faith, 
 and we ask no co-operation for our cause from 
 persons of such easy virtue. But this is a pre 
 text on the part of the slave interest, to justify 
 the position they have attained in the control of 
 the national government, through artifice on 
 their part and subserviency of Northern dough 
 faces. 
 
 At first, under the general disapprobation of 
 
146 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 the Fathers of the Kepublic, and the execration of 
 the civilized world, the slave interest sought 
 shelter and excuse under a plea of having been 
 unavoidably imposed and submitted to, and ap 
 pealed to the magnanimity of our national asso 
 ciation for its toleration. Not only has this tolera 
 tion been free and unstinted, but security of it 
 confirmed in our national organization, and sub 
 sequent operations of the national government- 
 Though slavery formerly existed in nearly all the 
 States, such was the opposition to it at the North, 
 that great concessions were required on her part 
 to the relations that must arise from its existence 
 in the Union. The generosity of this concession 
 and faithful adherence to it have, in times gone 
 by, had their happy effects in mutual confidence 
 and good-will between the two sections of our 
 country. But uneasy and aspiring men South, 
 affect alarm at the ranting of a few insane aboli 
 tionists at the North, and presuming upon the 
 generosity of the North, clamor for such an enun 
 ciation of principles as shall suit their wishes, on 
 the part of the party, North, to which they shall 
 give their support. Though not united at first in 
 this scheme it has become so, and is now the lead 
 ing policy of Southern statesmen, and with the 
 aid of a few Northern mercenaries such has been 
 
THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION". 147 
 
 their success, that from affecting fear for the 
 safety of slavery they now exact a national sup 
 port of it, and require of their candidate for the 
 Presidency, a pledge to use his influence for this 
 purpose, and, as the most satisfactory evidence of 
 his fidelity, that he shall give most of the offices 
 under the Government to Southern men. A notable 
 instance, under this head, has recently transpired. 
 Our readers must have noticed the death of Gen. 
 Jessup of the army a man of eminence and 
 ability who, in dying, left vacant the position 
 he held, at the head of his corps, as Quarter 
 master-General of the Army. The next officer in 
 rank to him in the Quartermaster's corps a corps 
 composed of Colonels, Lieut.-Colonels, Majors, 
 and Captains was Colonel Thomas of Pennsyl 
 vania, who being in regular order of promotion, 
 and fitted for it, was promised the vacancy by the 
 President, who, it is said, held out this promise to 
 the latest moment. But alas! Colonel Thomas is 
 not from a slave State, and a doughface Northern 
 President must show his soundness on the goose, 
 and his subserviency to Southern demands by 
 giving this appointment to one who is, Colonel 
 Johnson, of Virginia, is the man, and, as under 
 stood, a fit appointment enough, except the motives 
 to it, and the cruel disregard of others eligibly 
 
148 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 entitled to it ; if he were from the North, he would 
 have no rights under the Government. This in 
 stance is mentioned, only as a recent and promi 
 nent one, of the success under the present and 
 past administrations of the South in controlling 
 the Government and Government appointments, 
 upon the eternal cry of " Nigger " a stock* of 
 political capital which we believe to be well nigh 
 exhausted. The monopoly of Government ap 
 pointments by the South, is, of course, well 
 known, and the application of Government money 
 to secure votes and the election of Northern men 
 to subserve Southern interests has been partially 
 shown by the Covode Committee in Congress. 
 Our Secretary of the Navy figures largely in cor 
 rupt contracts for building vessels, furnishing 
 coal, hands, etc., and due investigations into other 
 departments would doubtless have made equally 
 unpleasant exposures. Our exquisite Army 
 Secretary has already figured conspicuously in 
 the Fort Snelling sale, and Willett's Point pur 
 chase, and we have learned of several transactions 
 of like venality. The purchases of horses and 
 mules for the Utah Army was let out to contrac 
 tors (who of course wore the right colors on the 
 slavery question) at enormous rates, and who sub 
 let at about half these rates. Soon after these 
 
THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 149 
 
 animals reached Utah, a mania for economy, 
 prompts our loyal Secretary to direct a prompt 
 sale of them, on so short a notice and such arbi 
 trary conditions, that only some favored confi 
 dants and capitalists can purchase, and upon 
 being thus sold at a great sacrifice, are again re 
 purchased by the Government in Oregon. The 
 firm of Major & Kussell had a monopolizing 
 contract to carry supplies to Utah, and a large 
 army kept there gives them a large business and 
 corresponding profits, but on losing this business 
 this year, by being underbid, and getting that for 
 New Mexico, the troops are at once transferred to 
 this latter place, leaving Utah nearly vacant, 
 while both the Secretary and President admit that 
 the Mormons will again presume upon the weak 
 ness of Government authority there,' to renew 
 open hostility to it. Our troops here upon our 
 Indian border, and upon whom our safety depends 
 against the hostile Kiowas and Camanches hover 
 ing near us, are, we have just learned, ordered to 
 a different station to swell the flow of business- 
 profits for the Major & Kussell firm. 
 
 Corn, we see by advertisements, is to be fur 
 nished these distant posts per transportation of 
 this firm from Kansas City, when in our vici 
 nity, at from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
 
150 THE MORAL OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 dred miles nearer, plenty of corn can be had at 
 a saving of half the cost at Kansas City, and the 
 price of transportation for this distance. This 
 business transacted here would save one hundred 
 per cent, to the Government, and greatly relieve 
 our community, so much in want of a market. 
 True, our people are not sound on the goose, but 
 we regret this must involve so much loss to Go 
 vernment. We have heard of such things before, 
 but not felt them at our doors. A contractor was 
 allowed to furnish flour in Utah, at cost in Lea- 
 venworth, and price of transportation added, 
 which would make it rate some $28 per one hun 
 dred pounds, but who purchased there on the 
 spot, at from $6 to $8 per one hundred pounds, 
 and thereby realized over some $20 per one hun 
 dred pounds upon his contract. 
 
 If slavery engenders this spirit, or exacts of 
 government such practices in its behalf, we shall 
 hardly become adherents to the standard of morals 
 claimed for it. 
 
 July 28, 1860. 
 
YIII. 
 
 TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 
 
 SQUATTER sovereignty, or the sovereignty of 
 the people in the territories over their domestic 
 affairs, including slavery, has been the affected 
 hobby of Mr. Douglas, though in practice, as we 
 have before shown in our columns, the readiness 
 with which he abandons every principle that 
 would give efficacy to that term, renders him a 
 squatter in the mire of self-humiliation, and this 
 hobby one of sovereign squattereignty. This 
 was seen in his ready acquiescence in the border 
 ruffian and federal executive tyranny over Kan 
 sas, in violation of the squatter sovereignty doc 
 trines in the Toombs' Bill, which scorned it, and 
 in the Dred Scott decision, which annihilates 
 every vestige of it. 
 
 To render the whole power and patronage of 
 the Government subservient to the interests of the 
 slaveholders, and struggling with a resolution 
 
152 TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 
 
 and desperation peculiar to his character, is, and 
 ever has been, the true mission of Mr. Douglas ; 
 and that he will never swerve from it we think 
 evident to all who have observed his direct pur 
 pose but tortuous course to this end. 
 
 When the' sentiment of the country was so 
 averse to slavery that Missouri was denied, for 
 two years, admission to the Union, because her 
 constitution provided for slavery, she finally came 
 in on condition that the country west of her 
 should never have slavery. Mr. Douglas, in look 
 ing back upon the trick by which a slave State is 
 acquired, glories over it, and rejoices in the sa- 
 credness of the binding contract, " akin to the 
 constitution, which no ruthless hand will ever be 
 reckless enough to disturb." 
 
 Texas is admitted, and he affects fairness to 
 wards the North, by resolving that slavery 
 shall not exist north of 36-80, which was the 
 Missouri compromise line. Bear in mind this 
 line now has, with him, no constitutional objec 
 tions. Our conquests from Mexico must next 
 have their adjustment upon the slavery issue. 
 California was already demanding admission as a 
 free State, and, the more justly, clamorous, because 
 the slave question has prevented the provision 
 for her of a territorial government. 
 
TRUE TO HIS MISSON. 153 
 
 Utah, under the name of Deseret, was in the 
 same condition ; and New Mexico preparing to 
 take the same attitude. General Taylor, then 
 President, seizing upon these features, recom 
 mended them to the favor of Congress as the best 
 method of avoiding the angry contest over sla 
 very. This would never do ; Mr. Douglas, fearing 
 the favor of public sentiment, which required the 
 application of the proviso against slavery, intro 
 duced by Mr. Wilmot, and since called the Wil- 
 mot proviso, again invokes the efficacy of the 
 Missouri compromise line, against which no con 
 stitutional scruples now arise, excusing himself 
 to the South that this is the best that he can do, 
 as it is the only alternative of the Wilmot pro 
 viso. Finally, the territories were organized 
 upon the basis of ignoring the subject of slavery, 
 till, on becoming a state, the people were to pro 
 vide for or against slavery, as they should see 
 fit. 
 
 Kansas now seems to offer herself an easy prey 
 to the cupidity of the slaveholders of Missouri, 
 who being settled upon, and within her boun 
 dary, assured our pro-slavery missionary they 
 could easily control this subject, if the Missouri 
 compromise restriction were removed. This he 
 sets about and accomplishes, raising himself the 
 7* 
 
154 TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 
 
 hand he had characterized as ruthless, to disturb 
 a compact which, so long as it served pro-slavery 
 purposes, was to be regarded as " canonized in 
 the hearts of the American people," &c., but 
 which, now that it restrains such purposes, must 
 be recklessly torn asunder. Kansas is so framed 
 as to be made an easy victim ; instead of having 
 half of the newly organized Territory, Nebraska 
 is given the most of it, and her northern boun 
 dary kept somewhat below that of Missouri, in 
 order to be within the Missouri influence, and to 
 prevent contact with the free State of Iowa. A 
 further precaution in favor of slavery is to leave 
 out a strip of half a degree in width on the South, 
 so that if by chance Kansas should become free, 
 this might still stand a chance for slavery. 
 
 How he hated and despised Kansas for her 
 efforts at freedom, and how under the cry, " We 
 will subdue you," he opposed her, we have before 
 mentioned, and is too nauseous a subject to bear 
 more than an allusion to here. 
 
 And now comes on the stage the Native Ame 
 rican party then called Know-Nothings, and for 
 stupidity of purpose a very appropriate name 
 which party suddenly overwhelmed many parts 
 of the country, and carried into Congress so many 
 members that it held there a balance of power, 
 
TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 155 
 
 and for a long time prevented the election of a 
 Speaker of the House. 
 
 It is easily seen that this party is of necessity 
 pro-slavery ; its candidate is avowedly so, and as 
 it opposes the emigration and settlement here of 
 persons of foreign birth, it would thus, as far as 
 possible, check the flood of free laborers to the 
 West, and keep it and all our unoccupied terri 
 tory in a condition for easier competition on the 
 part of the pro-slavery powers. It is indeed this 
 very element of free labor, and elevated laborers, 
 that is to give the final blow to slavery every 
 where, and nothing therefore is more natural to 
 the pro-slavery man than to resort to his usual 
 artifice, coeval with weakness and wickedness, to 
 arouse a prejudice against our foreign population, 
 in order to prevent their accession to this element. 
 Under the subtle and specious disguise of devo 
 tion to Americans, enough of northern Eepubli- 
 cans were hoodwinked to keep Mr. Banks for a 
 long time out of the Speaker's chair, and finally 
 to defeat Mr. Fremont for the Presidency. True 
 to their instincts and the purpose of their mission, 
 the Douglas Democrats, who have played no 
 other part than to subserve Southern interests, 
 and invent and palm off ingenious, but poor ex 
 cuses, to the North, find Mr. Aiken's native Ame- 
 
156 TRUE TO HIS MISSION 
 
 ricanism so congenial to their purposes, that he 
 gets their whole vote and comes within one of as 
 many votes as Mr. Banks for the speakership. 
 
 So indignant is Mr. Douglas that some mem 
 bers of the American party from the North voted 
 for Mr. Banks, that while he denounces the 
 Northern portion of it, he assures us at the same 
 time, as Mr. Crittenden and others, that his terms 
 do not apply to the Americans South. Ameri 
 canism North was offensive, but modified at the 
 South with pro-slavery sentiments, it is so accept 
 able that his party from the North can come in 
 a body to the support for speakership of the Ame 
 rican member from South Carolina. 
 
 The same thing was continually repeated last 
 winter in the contest for Speakership in which 
 the Douglas party supported American members 
 from the South, in order to defeat Sherman and 
 Pennington. A. E. Boteler of Ya., W. N. H. 
 Smith and J. A. Gilmer of N. C., H. Maynard 
 of Tenn., and others were so supported. Mr. 
 Douglas struggles hard to conciliate Northern 
 men, under the idea that he does not make the 
 extension of slavery and its protection in the ter 
 ritories a political creed, and is, in this respect, 
 separated from, and an object of persecution by, 
 his political associates South, who have Mr.Breck- 
 
TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 157 
 
 enridge as an opposing candidate for the presi 
 dency. 
 
 Following him in his subtle windings, we 
 find him still undeviating from his first love, and 
 desperate as ever in his plottings to secure the 
 ascendency of the pro-slavery party at every 
 sacrifice of self and self-interest. For, as matters 
 now stand, Mr. Breckenridge, with his pro-slavery 
 platform, must get all or nearly all of the South 
 ern States, but none of the Northern ones, and 
 between him and Mr. Lincoln the latter must be 
 elected. But Mr. Douglas must now step in with 
 a view to get a few northern states, so as to defeat 
 Lincoln's election by the people, and thus throw 
 the election into the House of Eepresentatives 
 where, with a little manipulation of the American 
 states of Maryland, Tennessee, and North Caro 
 lina, Mr. Breckenridge can be elected, as all the 
 other slave states are in his favor, and California 
 and Oregon, with their present delegation, may be 
 relied upon for him. 
 
 If Mr. Breckenridge is not elected by the 
 House, no one will be, and Joe Lane, who will 
 be made Vice-President by the Senate, will then 
 become President, and it is known that, being a 
 Northern dough -face, his pro-slavery isrn commends 
 him equally with Mr. Breckenridge to Mr.Douglas. 
 
158 . TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 
 
 Everybody must see that the only effect, there 
 fore, of Mr. Douglas running, must be to divert 
 votes from Lincoln, so as to effect the election of 
 Breckenridge by the House, or of Lane by the 
 Senate to the presidency. 
 
 And were he in earnest in his pretended oppo 
 sition to them, his natural course would be, as he 
 knows he cannot be elected himself, to withdraw 
 from the contest and allow them to be defeated 
 by Lincoln, when seeing the miscarriage of the 
 pro-slavery creed the Breckenridge party might 
 learn, through adversity, to conform to his 
 Douglas's pretended standard, and support it as 
 the only alternative of success in another contest. 
 Such would be our advice to Mr. Douglas were 
 we his friend, and wished to save him from utter 
 and irretrievable mortification and disgrace. 
 
 But it is evident any calamity to himself is of 
 less importance than to the idol of his affections 
 the pro-slavery cause ; and sink deep as he 
 must, he will never despair of raising thereby 
 Breckenridge or Lane to the presidency. This 
 he expected to do of his own strength, but find 
 ing it unlikely that he would carry a State, by 
 which to defeat Lincoln, now he turns to his 
 natural allies, in the pro-slavery work the Ame 
 rican party for help. Hence the Union of the 
 
TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 159 
 
 Douglas and American parties in the state of New 
 York, to carry that state against Lincoln, and, as 
 we have shown, with no other view than to raise 
 Breckenridge or Lane to the presidency an object 
 evidently desirable to both these parties. Thus, 
 affecting love for the foreigner, and a desire to 
 extend his rights to the new territories, Mr. Doug 
 las would marshal the Irish and German hosts to 
 his standard merely to march them over to sub 
 serve their natural and avowed enemies, the pro- 
 slavery and native American party. We have 
 heard the Irish accused of being led by their pas 
 sions, and blinded easily by priests and dema 
 gogues, so as to be brought to kiss the rod uplift 
 ed for their affliction, and thus defeat measures 
 otherwise effective for their amelioration. Will 
 you justify this charge, and now plunge with 
 Douglas into the pool of self-generated slime in 
 which he delights to wallow, and inbreeding there 
 the infection of the Douglas-Bell democracy, 
 bear with you, ever after, that brand of self pollu- 
 -tion, which shall render you not only unworthy 
 of sympathy, but objects of abhorrence to those 
 who now seek your own, and our national eleva 
 tion ? Or will you unite with us as co-laborers 
 to strengthen those hands, which, we are confident, 
 are soon to become invested with this office of our 
 
160 TRUE TO HIS MISSION. 
 
 national elevation and redemption from its pre 
 sent humiliation and disgrace before the enlight 
 ened world? 
 
 To the Americans of the Hunt, Brooks & Co. 
 school we make no appeal such we know to be 
 constitutional aristocrats. Envenomed at the loss 
 of power their own Whig party had for sustaining 
 an oligarchy, they actually see, in the aristocracy 
 founded on property in u niggers," a still linger 
 ing ray of hope for their futile schemes, to which 
 they will cling with all the malignity and heart 
 less infatuation of their natures. But those who 
 four years ago believed Americanism meant some 
 thing else than slavery, we invite to the ways of 
 pleasantness and paths of peace, along which, with 
 the cause of humanity, we intend to bear ABBA- 
 HAM LINCOLN amid the chorus of our emanci 
 pated Nation. 
 
 September 11, 1860. 
 
IX. 
 
 FITNESS FOE THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 " Is he capable, is he faithful, is he true to the 
 Constitution ?" were the tests for office laid down 
 by the great apostle of liberal statesmanship 
 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 We propose to apply these tests to the candi 
 dates for the presidency now before the people. 
 
 To possess intelligence, so as to discriminate 
 between right and wrong, and integrity to em 
 brace and adhere to what is right, should seem to 
 include all the considerations necessary to qualify 
 a person for any trust or responsibility ; but in 
 view of constitutional obligations this is not 
 enough, and requires the third test of being true 
 to the Constitution. This requirement laid down 
 by Jefferson was found to be not gratuitous by 
 his own political experience. He and the elder 
 Adams were respectively at the head of opposing 
 parties, and while he did not approve the policy 
 
162 FITXEsS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 of his opponent, which had an illiberal and an 
 aristocratic tendency, violative of the spirit, if not 
 the letter, of our Constitution, he did not impute 
 to him a want of either intelligence or integrity, 
 for it was possible with Adams, as with many 
 minds, both then and now, of the highest order 
 and greatest purity, to regard certain measures of 
 aristocracy, or inequality, necessary to the safety 
 of a State ; a privileged party identified with 
 the safety of a State, and dependent upon its 
 prosperity, who are set to watch over and control 
 those whose labor and industry constitute this 
 prosperity, but whose virtues are assumed to be 
 so low as to unfit them for self-control, and ren 
 der them mischievous without the restraints irn 
 posed by an upper class. This is the present 
 position of many earnest, and we doubt not honest 
 advocates of slavery ; and we are aware how hard 
 our opponents now and in times past have striven 
 to establish this principle in our free States. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson assumed the opposite of this as 
 his own political creed, and as the true spirit of 
 our Constitution ; and the happy effects of his glo 
 rious triumph may be taken as the index to the 
 results we confidently anticipate as the issue to 
 the struggle now impending. 
 
 In considering Mr. Breckenridge upon the Jef- 
 
FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 fersonian standard, we find essential Iv necessary 
 the third point : " Is he true to the Constitu 
 tion ?" 
 
 ^Ve do not need to examine the two first points 
 to find exceptions : he may be capable, he may 
 be faithful ; or, in other words, he may be intel 
 ligent and honest, but we thoroughly scorn and 
 revolt at his assumption th:it our Constitution car 
 ries slavery into the territories, and requires 
 Congressional protection there. In this he is not 
 true to tf\e Constitution. 
 
 Mr. Bell, as a pro-slavery man, is in the same 
 attitude, and technically liable to the same objec 
 tions. To this he adds the policy of opposing 
 the migration and settlement of foreigners in our 
 country, so as to prevent, as far as possible, the 
 rapid settlement of the territories by free labor 
 ers. 
 
 Our Declaration of Independence denounces 
 King Greorge III. that * He has endeavored 
 to prevent the population of these States : for 
 that purpose obstructing the laws of naturaliza 
 tion of foreigners,*' which is precisely the attitude 
 of Mr. Bell towards our territories, When we 
 are ready to renounce the principles of the Decla 
 ration of Independence, give up this glorious 
 charter of freedom, and return to the rule of some 
 
164: FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 George III. of England, then, and then only, 
 will we greet Mr. Bell, his associates, and New 
 York confederates as true, not to our Constitu- 
 tution, but to some obsolete British Constitution, 
 congenial to Native Americanism. Mr. Bell won 
 a good name, and deserved thanks for his manly 
 course in opposing the Missouri Compromise Re 
 peal and the Lecompton Constitution, and we 
 regret he is, by his present course, likely to for 
 feit the esteem in which he has been held by the 
 public evincing, indeed, questionable integrity 
 in joining the Douglas party, which affects to 
 despise the American party. But, as mentioned 
 before by us, this is but a trick by which to get 
 the foreign vote, through Douglas, to subserve 
 the southern interest. 
 
 To Mr. Douglas our test is so obviously inap 
 plicable, that we turn with loathing and disgust 
 from the attempt. When language has the use 
 Richelieu ascribed to it, of being the means of 
 disguising our thoughts, then will the terms capa 
 ble, faithful, and true to the Constitution have 
 their ironical application to Mr. Douglas. 
 
 Degrade him from the chairmanship of the 
 Senate Committee on Territories give him a 
 spurious nomination for the Presidency and a 
 sham support anything his Southern masters 
 
FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 165 
 
 may require, and he is happy, so long as thereby 
 he can serve them ; no position too false, no hu 
 miliation too deep for this labor of love : 
 
 " Look down your head begins to swim, 
 Still deeper yet that pleases him, 
 If he can yet shout ' nigger.' " 
 
 It only remains to consider our test in reference 
 to Mr. Lincoln. That he has capacity is seen in 
 the fact, that from an humble, if not obscure po 
 sition, he has risen to the auspicious attitude he 
 now holds, having in the course of this advance 
 ment been placed in many important positions of 
 trust and responsibility, and, as we said some 
 time since, the capacity and fidelity evinced on 
 these occasions secured to him so much confidence 
 and affection, that bis friends persisted tenaciously 
 and successfully in his nomination for the Presi 
 dency. 
 
 In the canvas of Illinois for the Senatorship, he 
 offered to discuss the issues between himself and 
 Mr. Douglas, before the people, to which Mr. 
 Douglas relying upon his usual arrogance and im 
 pudence, rather than upon force of argument, as 
 sented, and they commenced the work of stumping 
 the State together, but had not gone far when Mr. 
 Lincoln's conservatism and candor confounded 
 the false accusations made by Douglas of section- 
 
166 FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 alism, and won him great popularity with the 
 people. Thereafter Mr. Douglas refused to meet 
 him in discussion. Upon this discussion, Mr. Ben 
 jamin pro-slavery from Louisiana remarked, 
 that it evinced sentiments which commended Mr. 
 Lincoln to him over Douglas. The objection 
 raised to Mr. Lincoln and his party is, that they 
 are sectional ; and Mr. Douglas, Mr. Filmore, and 
 others, at the North, clamor that he is not conci 
 liatory enough towards slaveholders. Yet both 
 these horror-struck alarmists, before becoming de 
 moralized by a morbid malice and a mania for 
 office were as much sectional as he ; both then sup 
 ported the Wilmot proviso, and said hard things 
 against slavery. Mr. Filmore, now a pro-slavery 
 Bell man, in 1838 said he opposed the admission 
 of Texas as a slave State, the slave trade between 
 the States, and was in favor of abolishing slavery 
 in the District of Columbia. Mr. Lincoln's crime 
 is, that he will not stultify his integrity to play 
 the (^magogue. He at this time opposed the 
 passage, by the Illinois Legislature, of certain 
 abolition resolutions, and entered his protest upon 
 the journal, " that the promulgation of abolition 
 doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its 
 (slavery's) evils;" that Congress has no power 
 over slavery in the States ; that though Congress 
 
FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 167 
 
 had power over the matter in the District of Co 
 lumbia, " that power ought not to be exercised 
 unless at the request of the people of said Dis 
 trict." It is this obvious integrity and sense of 
 justice that commends Mr. Lincoln to his friends 
 and conciliates his enemies. He is capable, he is 
 faithful, and these views show that he is not 
 amenable to the constitutional objections raised 
 against him. 
 
 In being opposed to the extension of slavery 
 to the new territories, he is in entire concurrence 
 with the sentiment of the framers of the Consti 
 tution, who sought to free the Government from 
 all complicity with slavery or any religious creed. 
 They did so, and Mr. Lincoln, in following them, 
 is true to the Constitution. 
 
 To a private life of purity, he adds a public 
 character of unspotted integrity and of consistency, 
 and possessing highly practical abilities, we have 
 in Abraham Lincoln a man of associations, cha 
 racter, and habits eminently fitted for the Presi 
 dency. 
 
 For purposes of State policy our National Ex 
 ecutive is invested with great power, both of 
 direct authority and indirectly through his pa 
 tronage. This has been totally prostituted to 
 the slave interest, with all the moral influence, 
 
168 FITNESS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 happily now small, that could be forced into 
 this service. 
 
 " The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's con 
 tumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's de 
 lay (and perversion), the. insolence of office, and 
 the spurns that patient merit, of the unworthy, 
 takes," have all had their office in this pro-slavery 
 work, till the corruptions of power on the one 
 hand, and the debasement of servile men on the 
 other, call aloud in agonizing tones, from rock, 
 tree, hill, vale, and plain, and in impetuous echoes 
 resound through the skies, with the demand for 
 a reform, conspicuous of which the time and the 
 man are at hand. 
 
 Sept. 22, 1860 
 
X. 
 
 THE SECRET OF IT. 
 
 THE causes of our national revolution, which 
 separated us from the British Government, and 
 which was formally initiated in our Declaration 
 of Independence, in which these causes are so 
 pathetically and eloquently recited, were under 
 stood to consist in grievances too intolerable to 
 be borne by men unwilling to be slaves, and to 
 meet these grievances our forefathers of that day, 
 under a sense of their own wrongs, rose to a 
 height of. moral grandeur, seemingly above men, 
 and with lips of fire boldly proclaimed the ina 
 lienable rights of man, for which, with hearts of 
 steel, they strove in the ensuing desperate, pro 
 tracted, but triumphant struggle. 
 
 The lofty sentiments with which they were 
 inspired, the heroism with which they were sus 
 tained, the sacrifices and pains they endured, and 
 the glorious objects they accomplished, in effect- 
 
170 THE SECRET OF IT. 
 
 ing our independence, and the establishment of 
 our Government, have all been exhaustless themes 
 of our gratitude, for the inestimable favors thus 
 secured to us. 
 
 With such sacred appreciation have these favors 
 been regarded, that the ark of the covenant our 
 system of Government by which they have been 
 transmitted to us has, till lately, been regarded 
 as the summum bonum of our race, the lightest 
 disaffection for which, or indifference, aroused 
 our deepest abhorrence and scorn for the calloused 
 susceptibilities that could find outside of it a com 
 pensating good, adequate to the sufferings its loss 
 or serious injury must impose. 
 
 In contrast to this, we now find disunion of our 
 Government, and disaffection for its priceless 
 liberties, announced with pompous arrogance, as 
 popular sentiments, and as the alternative of not 
 having the national Government administered to 
 the advancement of the institution of slavery. 
 
 To an observer of current events, the secret is 
 not that slave owners want more slaves, or slave 
 States, as a means of making more secure and 
 profitable this species of property ; for, upon ex 
 amination, there is not a feature wanting on this 
 head, which could be supplied by such means. 
 The institution carries in itself the elements of 
 
THE SECRET OF IT 
 
 deterioration and weakness to those who tolerate 
 it, and has been at all times so characterized, and 
 most pathetically so, by enlightened statesmen 
 who are familiar with it. These, the graphic 
 and prophetic effects of it, depicted by the im 
 mortal Jefferson, should alone prove the word 
 sufficient to wise men who would take heed how 
 they hear. But it is the infatuation of the. times, 
 and the unscrupulous selfishness of demagogues, 
 that words of wisdom and suggestions of prudence 
 the fruits of bitter experience are scouted as 
 the mantling mist of stagnant fogyism, till misap 
 prehension, perversion, and folly have brought 
 us to the present state of absurd wrangling rather 
 than dangerous antagonism. 
 
 This state of deterioration and weakness, which 
 is the inevitable concomitant of slavery, has na 
 turally enough awakened alarm with those who 
 tolerate it, for their own safety, and for that of the 
 institution itself. The slave insurrection of 1832, 
 showed their apprehensions well grounded, and 
 the generous guarantees of support, both from 
 the government, through the army and navy, and 
 that volunteered from the North, gave every 
 needed assurance of sympathy for the South, and 
 earnest devotion to oar institutions. Happy if 
 the South had seen and met these tilings in their 
 
172 THE SECRET OF IT. 
 
 true spirit ! But now start up uneasy politicians, 
 who, Calhoun and Douglas-like, traffic on the 
 gullibility of the people, and assume supernatural 
 powers to foresee direful visions, portending dis 
 aster to their darling pet of slavery, to which they 
 affect such a devotion, overriding all other con 
 siderations, as to evince the sure qualifications 
 for office. 
 
 This scheme succeeded so well, that no man 
 could get to Congress or any other office, at the 
 South, upon any other basis, and at once the hue 
 and cry of " niggerism" is started, as the effective 
 evidence of fealty to a deluded constituency. 
 
 Upon this ground Southern men were insisted 
 upon for the Presidency, as security on the one 
 hand against unfavorable executive action towards 
 slavery, and on the other, against executive pa 
 tronage adverse to its interests. So uniform was 
 Southern sentiment in these respects as to form 
 in the main but one party, and therefore between 
 the nearly equally divided Whig and Democratic 
 parties North, that one was sure of political as 
 cendency which should be found congenial to 
 Southern sentiment. It is easily seen that in an 
 earnest struggle a party had great inducements 
 therefore to court this party of unanimous South 
 ern sentiment, and in this effort both parties 
 
THE SECRET OF IT. 173 
 
 strove hard, but the Democratic party succeeded, 
 by trimming party sails, and decking party lead 
 ers, to suit their fastidious Southern allies. So 
 patent was this scheme of success to party lead 
 ers, that they of the North had only to sacrifice 
 much of their party interests and principles, that 
 by so doing, they pandered to Southern demands 
 so as to secure an undivided support from that 
 quarter. 
 
 Ever since this policy was initiated by Calhoun, 
 in behalf of the South, tricky political hucksters, 
 North, have been playing at this game Mr. Yan 
 Buren proclaiming himself a Northern man with 
 Southern principles, so necessary were his south 
 ern proclivities to attainment of office. 
 
 And when, at times, Northern men become 
 aroused to this imposition, and evince a disposi 
 tion to revolt at it, the sacred ties and devotion 
 to the Union, to which we alluded above, have no 
 binding force for the South, but our Northern ears 
 are dinned by our political scavengers and patent 
 right Union saviours, with the dangers of dis 
 union, and rhapsodies upon the value of the Union, 
 its cost, and the consequences of its loss, till satis 
 fied it can only be saved, and our political disor 
 ders cured by their superior elixirpharmacy. In 
 this way, for some time past, small men and poli- 
 
174 THE SECRET OF IT. 
 
 tical adventurers have gained position only to 
 disgrace it, and render its patronage arid power 
 subservient to the wishes of Southern men, who 
 taking advantage of our susceptible devotion to the 
 Union, have only to threaten us with disunion to 
 raise an army of ready apology office-seekers, to 
 sway us with their sophistries to the necessity of 
 yielding. The Douglas and Bell men North, 
 under their respective leaders, Douglas and Fil- 
 more, are now in this condition, whining vagaries 
 and unmeaning misgivings about the sectionalism 
 of the Lincoln men, in order to coerce them into 
 the -support of measures revolting to them. Mr. 
 Douglas affects a show of independence, and 
 thereby has subjected himself to the charge of 
 sectionalism by his late Lecompton opposition, 
 but this was a necessity to save some little force 
 North, without which a united South could not 
 save him. 
 
 The secret, therefore, of the matter is, that upon 
 a clamor for disunion on the part of the South, 
 Northern men and parties, for sake of office and 
 place, pander to this clamor, to the monopoly, by 
 the South, of the patronage of the Government, 
 and the swaying of executive power in its behalf; 
 and the eternal cry of " nigger" is but the hollow 
 pretence for this clamor. 
 
THE SECRET OF IT. 175 
 
 How well they have succeeded we have lately 
 mentioned in part, and it is evident by the un 
 blushing effrontery with which this trick is now 
 pursued, but with an unscrupulous selfishness sure 
 to defeat its own ends ; and thus, aside from the 
 auspices of the occasion, we have a prophetic in 
 dication of the return, at last, to the true policy 
 of our Government. 
 
 Sept. 29, 1860. 
 
XI. 
 
 OUR GRIEVANCES. 
 
 THE present prospect of the election to the 
 Presidency of Abraham Lincoln again raises the 
 cry of 1856 from the South against the election 
 of a Republican President, that such an event 
 will justify the Southern or slave States in sepa 
 rating from the Northern or free States, and that, 
 as a duty to their own rights and self-respect, 
 they are determined to do it. In other words, the 
 proposition literally stands, if the North, goaded 
 by the arrogance of the South, backed by the sub 
 serviency of the Government power to its pur 
 poses, dares to assert its constitutional right of 
 voting for and electing a Republican President, 
 this shall constitute a grievance too intolerable to 
 be borne, and disunion must follow. A fawning 
 Pierce, sunk in truculency, figuratively emascu 
 lates his person of manhood and his office of vir 
 tue, a blear-eyed old hypocrite now occupying 
 
OUR GRIEVANCES. 177 
 
 the White House, whose visual obliquity corre 
 sponds to that of his moral sentiments, falsifies 
 his oath of office, his promises and obligations, in 
 order to comply with the demands of the pro- ' 
 slavery power, to which the North is required to 
 submit, and tremblingly refrain from daring once 
 to express opposition, on pain of disunion, with 
 all the rage, revenge, hate, blood, thunder, dust, 
 sword and destruction, to say nothing of smoke 
 and gas, which shall overwhelm us as by magic 
 from the wrath of the South. 
 
 What grievances cause all this uproar, and 
 what their remedies, we earnestly inquire. Com 
 plaint is made that the people of the North will 
 not give up slaves who escape from slavery and 
 take refuge amongst them. Will disunion 
 remedy this ? Will a Southern Confederacy have 
 less dissatisfied slaves, or more power to silence 
 these longings for freedom, and keep out those 
 who excite this longing ? The Southern States 
 possess all power now over these matters. But 
 says the South, you are under constitutional 
 obligations to give up fugitive slaves, and as you 
 will not do it, we will save our self-respect and 
 dignity by refusing a voluntary union with such 
 faithless associates. Suppose this true, and a 
 just cause for disunion, the question arises, Why 
 8* 
 
178 OUR GRIEVANCES. 
 
 is the election of Lincoln to determine this period 
 for the vindication of a right long since due the 
 South ? For it is not easy to see how a few more 
 votes, by which Lincoln may be elected, are to 
 change Northern sentiment on this question nor 
 indeed are more votes wanted, comparatively for 
 without the frauds in Illinois and Pennsylvania, 
 at the last Presidential election, Fremont would 
 have been elected. But according to admissions, 
 this ground for disunion now exists, and has for 
 a long time existed, and therefore the election of 
 Lincoln can in no way aggravate this provoca 
 tion. 
 
 On this ground, disunion should have been 
 under way before this time. Thus far our argu 
 ment admits there are grounds of complaint upon 
 this head ; but this we deny. In the earlier his 
 tory of our Government, some rare instances of 
 opposition to the recapture of fugitive slaves 
 occurred, but no resistance. Not till after 1832, 
 which dates the momentous era of slavery excite 
 ment, did resistance arise, and an examination 
 into the facts of the case will show about as many 
 beams in the eyes of our Southern brethren, as 
 there are motes of which they complain in those of 
 our Northern people. 
 
 This was the notorious period of those slave 
 
OUR GRIEVANCES. 179 
 
 insurrections of the secession nullification schemes 
 of Calhoun, and his dogma of equal political 
 power between the slave and non-slaveholding 
 States. At this time several innocent persons 
 from the North were seized and executed 
 by mobs, for supposed abolition sentiments, 
 and colored citizens of Northern States were, 
 upon arriving at the South, seized and im 
 prisoned. 
 
 Judge Hoar was sent to South Carolina to pro 
 secute there, before the United States Courts, the 
 rights of the citizens of Massachusetts, but was 
 forced to leave the State. No Government power 
 here interposed to enforce constitutional rights. 
 Here is a direct and open violation of the consti 
 tutional provision that " the citizens of each State 
 shall be entitled to all the privileges and immuni 
 ties of citizens in the several States," and the 
 courts, provided to enforce constitutional rights, 
 are forcibly deterred from this discharge of their 
 duties. Such discourtesies and want of faith, 
 under the national compact, aroused more or less 
 indignation at the North, and thereupon uprose 
 the abolition organizations, which before had no 
 existence, and which, upon aggravations of the 
 occasion, assumed a strength of number and vio 
 lence of temper which required the stern efforts 
 
180 OUR GRIEVANCES. 
 
 of conservative men to successfully oppose. Now, 
 for a series of years, were occasional acts of 
 resistance to the execution of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law, and though no more than due, by way of 
 retaliation, upon the South for a want of fulfil 
 ment of constitutional obligations to the rights of 
 Northern citizens, it was not countenanced by 
 any effective or uniform sentiment at the North, 
 and when complaint was made by the South, our 
 Congress-men admitted grounds for it, and an 
 nounced readiness to adopt the needful remedies, 
 and at once allowed the Southern members to 
 form the present Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 in the 
 most severe terms, justifying objections made to 
 it, that it gave means to kidnap, and through 
 fraud and violence, force off into slavery free 
 colored persons of the North. This has been 
 done, and notwithstanding this revolting feature, 
 the North acquiesced in this and other measures 
 of 1850, as a final settlement of the slavery ques 
 tion, and the attempts afterwards to capture fugi 
 tive slaves were eminently successful. The 
 election of Franklin Pierce followed in 1852, 
 upon the basis of a firm adherence to the compro 
 mises of 1850, and never, since the origin of the 
 party were abolitionists, so weak and unpopular. 
 It was a matter of notoriety that their conven- 
 
OUR GRIEVANCES. 181 
 
 tions, in the spring of Mr. Pierce's inauguration, 
 had little attendance and no enthusiasm, and the 
 party was dying out for want of countenance. In 
 this state of quietude, returning confidence and 
 fraternal feeling, is sprung upon us that infamous 
 breach of good faith and act of national demo 
 ralization, for which its ill-advised and unscrupu 
 lous author, now seeking support for the Presi 
 dency, deserves the unalterable execration of his 
 race. The wanton repeal of the Missouri Com 
 promise unavoidably aroused rage, indignation^ 
 and distrust, which were soon manifest at the 
 North by an indifference to adhere longer to 
 any obligations on the slavery question towards 
 those who utterly disregarded theirs ; and if, for 
 some time, fugitive slaves could not be re 
 captured, the South has only itself to blame for 
 having unnecessarily aggravated this state of 
 things. 
 
 The Missouri Compromise averted disunion, 
 and averting or abrogating it, restored disunion 
 or the right of it in the opinion of many at the 
 North. It was this revolutionary spirit that 
 caused so much resistance to the recapture of 
 Burns, in Boston, and upon the ground of revo 
 lution, as j ustifiable, for we recognise the right of 
 revolution, but not otherwise; for, if we are 
 
182 OUR GRIEVANCES. 
 
 to form a 'part of the Union, deriving our 
 advantages from its existence, name, and power, 
 we must fulfil our obligations to it, and therefore, 
 as the North was not disposed to dissolve the 
 Union on account of the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise, it had no right to withhold its duties 
 under constitutional guarantees a political apo 
 thegm we commend to the South at this time. 
 Let us now view this question in connexion with 
 its effects upon slavery. 
 
 Slaves have, for a long time, been rising in 
 value, and this, too, during the cry of a want of 
 security, from Northern disregard of obligations, 
 which would secure it. Property so insecure, as 
 these alarmists would have us believe, would 
 hardly rise thus in value. Moreover it is the far 
 Southern States, where slaves are m'ost secure, and 
 where there can be no complaint about the exe 
 cution of the Fugitive Slave Law that clamor most 
 about disunion, and not the border slave States, 
 where, if anywhere, slaves escape to the free 
 States. Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Mis 
 souri are not disunion States, nor do all the boasts 
 of fiery fulsome fanatics hold out inducements to 
 them to become so. All this hobby about the 
 security of the "nigger" is therefore but a pre 
 text, while the possession of Government offices, 
 
OUR GRIEVANCES. 183 
 
 and the control of Government power in behalf 
 of the slave interest, are, as we have before sta 
 ted, the real motives to these pretended griev 
 ances. 
 
 Oct. 18, I860. 
 
XII. 
 
 DISUNION. 
 
 UNDER the heading of " our grievances " we 
 considered the main grievance complained of by 
 the South, as the cause of disunion, and in con 
 sidering further grievances we adopt, for our 
 present heading, the consequence threatened, as 
 the main object of our attentions. 
 
 Our last article showed the aversion, on the 
 part of the people of the North, to the execution 
 of the Fugitive Slave Law, to have been provoked 
 by the aggravations of the South, in doing vio 
 lence to innocent persons from the North, and 
 under an affectation of fear for the security of 
 slaves, imprisoning, forcing off with many indig 
 nities, and executing with mob violence her citi 
 zens ; refusing to allow the United States Courts 
 to discharge their constitutional duties, and cul 
 minating in falseness to her plighted faith by the 
 repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Pursuing 
 
DISUNION. 185 
 
 thus the suicidal course of provoking enemies to 
 wards an institution that needs, for its perpetuity, 
 no little zeal exerted to conciliate friends for it. If 
 our Northern people are implicated in any inter 
 ference with slavery in the South, we raise no objec 
 tions to the severe measures of repression the 
 Southern people may adopt, and this has recently 
 been evinced by the uniform acquiescence, at the 
 North, in the treatment adopted towards John 
 Brown and his party in their Harper's Ferry in 
 vasion. False and silly is the hue and cry against 
 the whole North for this, as was also the assump 
 tion of Virginia's pompous Governor that he pos 
 sessed facts showing complicity therein of the 
 leading men of the North. 
 
 Upon the rights of Congress to exclude slavery 
 from the territories, we, of the Eepublican party, 
 are on the strong ground that Congress has 
 repeatedly asserted and exercised this right, and 
 that, even putting this exercise in abeyance, as in 
 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, to which the South was 
 committed in the repeal of the Missouri Compro 
 mise, and allowing the people of the territories to 
 express their unbiased will, without fraud or vio 
 lence, we shall obtain practically our wishes, for, 
 in our enlightened age, the institution of slavery 
 will not be adopted as a matter of choice. But 
 
186 DISUNION. 
 
 now, under- Southern demands, we must overturn 
 our time-honored policy, to interpose by Congress 
 and establish slavery against the will of the peo 
 ple in the territories, upon the alternative of a 
 separation, which, with characteristic blindness, 
 must leave the Southern Confederacy without an 
 inch of territory to extend slavery over. 
 
 The tariff can no longer be a Southern hobby. 
 The policy of free trade, so far as consistent with 
 tariff for such revenues as are needed to meet the 
 expenses of the Government, is our pretent prac 
 tice substantially, and undoubtedly our true 
 policy. 
 
 These bugaboo screeches, about the calamity to 
 the country of a Republican President, would 
 have us believe that our President is invested with 
 such absolute authority, that he can arbitrarily 
 exercise it, at the behests of party, and impose 
 such intolerable oppressions, that armed resistance 
 is the only alternative of ignoble submission. 
 Surely, if this is our state, we gained little by our 
 revolution and separation from England, and our 
 forefathers made a sad botch of our Constitution, 
 in not providing against these evils. But this is 
 not so; our forefathers adopted every precaution 
 that the terms of language admit, and it is our 
 painful reflection these terms, both in letter and 
 
DISUNION. 187 
 
 in spirit, have had their only violation in behalf 
 of the pro-slavery interest. 
 
 Some grounds of alarm might justly exist if a 
 Republican President should usurp the unau 
 thorized powers against slavery that have been 
 assumed by the present and preceding adminis 
 tration in its favor, and against which, and fur 
 ther subserviency to the South by our sycophantic 
 Presidents, we are told the North has no right of 
 complaint. 
 
 The great and growing power of executive 
 patronage, already beyond the anticipations of the 
 founders of our Government, and capable of sus 
 taining a corrupt party policy, to some extent, 
 against the wishes of the people, is a subject 
 worthy of serious attention with a view to mea 
 sures of restriction. It is, indeed, against these 
 gross, base assumptions and abuses of executive 
 power that the Eepublican party has arisen, and 
 however provoked to retaliation, we pledge our 
 party to constitutional and legal measures. And 
 these measures, let us notify our Southern 
 brethren, not by way of threat but of warning, 
 we intend to enforce. As our brave Ohio Sena 
 tor (Mr. Wade) said, " we submitted to the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise and remained in the 
 Union in disgrace, not because we were weak and 
 
188 DISUNION. 
 
 needed it for support, but because we were strong, 
 and could bear the indignity, under the conscious 
 ness of strength available, in due time, to redress 
 our wrongs, and restrain refractory members 
 from fanatical suicide." We endured the Union, 
 under oppression, because of our constitutional 
 right of peaceful redress, and in doing so carry 
 with us the power to bind it, in which we illus 
 trate a principle which it will be our duty to 
 enforce, that in going into an election of Govern 
 ment officers which to our Government is the 
 peaceful way of correcting abuses we commit 
 ourselves to the moral obligation to abide the 
 result, and we have no disposition to commit nor 
 to tolerate a falseness and treachery that will not. 
 From our Northern doughfaces, who tell us the 
 South must have its way or the Union is not safe, 
 we turn with loathing, and leave them to the 
 ignominious oblivion to which their pusillanimity 
 reduced them. As well say to the highwayman, 
 " "We pay you tribute and will shield you from 
 punishment if we may pass on in peace;" or to 
 the ruffian who despoils our homes of peace and 
 virtue, " we yield because we want no difficulty 
 with you." To such we say we desire not your 
 assistance, we fear not your opposition, bb- we 
 sicken with ineffable shame and disgust that 
 
DISUNION". 189 
 
 American mothers ever nourished such unworthy 
 sons. 
 
 Our conclusion is, that the North shall fulfil its 
 obligations on the one hand, and refuse a slavish 
 submission to extravagant demands on the other, 
 and that in this the South and the whole coun 
 try have respectively the only grounds for safety 
 and prosperity. The recent State elections give 
 us the glorious promise that Mr. Lincoln will be 
 our next President, and we pledge him to fulfil 
 his constitutional obligations, but to withhold the 
 executive powers from longer pandering to mor 
 bid appetites and disastrous measures. 
 
 October 20, 1860. 
 
XIIL 
 
 OUK POLITICAL SUMMARY. 
 
 IT is a consideration of great consolation, and 
 one that, as man improves in his understanding, 
 gives hope of an ultimately high destiny for him, 
 that in all matters of faith and purpose, whether 
 initiated by political or religious associations, 
 there is an assumed integrity of motive, and a 
 decent respect is paid to virtue by affecting a con 
 formity to her dictates. Even in the outrageous 
 measures of the pro-slavery party in our country, 
 operating through their servile tools of the pre 
 sent and past administrations of the general 
 Government, to overturn the dictates of common 
 sense and the experience of past ages, there has 
 been the assumption, however bold and startling, 
 that slavery was the natural and healthful state of 
 society, contributing to its refinement and eleva 
 tion so much that we must accept it as a social 
 and political blessing. Upon this basis when 
 
OUR POLITICAL SUMMARY. 191 
 
 mankind shall no longer be subject to misrepre 
 sentation, and diverted with specious delusions 
 and plausible sophistries, he will set out upon the 
 pathway of his highest prosperity and happiness. 
 The progress of the present campaign for the Pre 
 sidency gives a hopeful indication of an earnest 
 search for this pathway, or one at least that may 
 save him from the serious blunders committed in 
 following the blind leaders of the Democracy. It 
 is our purpose to point out this path, and encou 
 rage our fellow-men to pursue it, and we here recur 
 to the considerations that govern us, to the end 
 that we may confirm in it those of the true faith, 
 and point out the dangers of our heretical oppo 
 nents who depart from it. 
 
 Without alluding to the festering corruptions 
 engendered by slavery in a community which 
 tolerates it, we have opposed its extension into 
 our territories because of its injurious effects upon 
 the free laborer, and consequent diminution of the 
 productions of labor. An appeal is made to pre 
 judice against color, and to the offensive attitude 
 of the abolitionists to charge us with being negro 
 worshippers, Black Kepublicans, Abolitionists, 
 &c. But with a consistency characteristic of the 
 emanations of malice, we are told that the slave 
 holders are the true friends of the negro, and by 
 
192 OUR POLITICAL SUMMARY 
 
 their system they are elevating the black race. 
 The Kamschatkaian would tell us to give up our 
 work-oxen, and use dogs in their place, and thus 
 improve the race of dogs ; a morbid snaketamer 
 would have us adopt snakes and lizards for 
 domestic pets, because we thus improve their 
 breed. To this we answer, we are not concerned 
 with improving the black race, nor the breed of 
 dogs and reptiles, any. further than such improve 
 ment may contribute to the welfare and advance 
 ment of our own race our cause is the white 
 man, and not the negro nor the lower animals. 
 We are told that the welfare of the whites at the 
 South is advanced by slave labor and their wealth 
 of late increased. We admit that the South has 
 shared the great prosperity of our country for 
 years past, but not a proportional prosperity to 
 that at the North. They snarl, "Let us alone ; that 
 is our concern not yours, and we will acquiesce 
 in all the evils that slavery may entail upon us.'' 
 Very well, we say, let us alone too. You may 
 nurse a viper and get stung by it, but we protest 
 that you shall not obtrude your viper upon us, 
 against our will, nor require us to sustain you 
 with the substance it is devouring from you. 
 This you have been doing through the machinery 
 of government, but we propose to modify the 
 
OUR POLITICAL SUMMARY. 193 
 
 workings of this machine. But, says the South, 
 if you won't let the operations of the machine 
 inure to our benefit exclusively, we will stop it, 
 and turn upon you the innumerable and never- 
 ending plagues of our offended wrath. We 
 answer it is our purpose to operate the machine 
 according to its original construction, putting in 
 full play all its component parts and checking 
 any eccentricities that might interrupt the har 
 mony and success of its movements. This mis 
 sion we commit to the Eepublican party, and, 
 awaiting their execution of this trust, we set our 
 selves at rest upon the final issue. 
 
 October 27, 1880. 
 
 9 
 
XIY. 
 
 A. WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 
 
 To those who, prompted by an integrity of 
 purpose, possess the intelligence to determine and 
 resolution to pursue the proper objects of our na 
 tional well-being, we would address a few words 
 in confidence upon impending events. Inspired 
 with a confidence in the ultimate prevalence of 
 almighty truth, party ties, personal affections, and 
 promises of reward have not restrained the mani 
 festations of your noble impulses, nor have fruit 
 less labors, disappointment and defeat dismayed 
 and subdued you. 
 
 In the enjoyment of a conscious rectitude, you 
 have a higher reward than any wages of compli 
 ance with the demands of the pro-slavery Demo 
 cracy can afford. Under these sentiments you 
 unavoidably sprang into existence as a party, 
 upon the iniquitous repeal of the Missouri Com 
 promise and the unscrupulous measures of the 
 Pierce Administration to establish slavery in 
 
A WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 195 
 
 Kansas. So strong were your numbers there was 
 no doubt that the popular voice of all or nearly all 
 the northern States was on your side, and but for 
 the villanous frauds of your opponents in Illinois, 
 Indiana, and Pennsylvania, your presidential can 
 didate (Mr. Fremont) would have been declared 
 (as in fact he was) duly elected. 
 
 In the meantime, under the Buchanan dy 
 nasty, you have met a more dogged and shame 
 less opposition than that of the Pierce Adminis 
 tration, and though the name of James Buchanan 
 is justly held in universal contempt, it is difficult 
 to see that it has become so other than in his per 
 sistent subserviency to the pro-slavery cause. 
 
 In the mean time your policy, both local, in 
 Kansas, and national, in Congress, has substantial 
 ly triumphed. You have rid yourselves of border- 
 ruffian rule, and established the freedom of Kansas 
 and this great commonwealth of Republicanism. 
 Challenged to this field, you have struggled against 
 the minions of slave oligarchy and the exe 
 cutive power, and, spite of privations and sa 
 crifices, have won a victory, which, in its conse 
 quences, may bear comparison with the most 
 signal triumphs in behalf of humanity, and 
 should enrol you upon the roll of fame as 
 the greatest benefactors of your race and nation, 
 
196 A WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 
 
 and transmit to an admiring and grateful poste 
 rity, the record of your heroic virtues. 
 
 Alike creditably to Gov. Seward and just to you, 
 did he, in his Lawrence speech, bow before you 
 in reverential acknowledgment of greater services 
 done by you to the cause he had so much at heart, 
 than by any other people. In vain are Governors, 
 Judges, and other Federal appointments made to 
 oppose you. However, prompted by hate of you, 
 and subserviency to the appointing power, they 
 dare no longer trifle with an injured and ex 
 asperated people. In Congress your opposition 
 to the establishment of slavery in Kansas, the 
 Lecompton Constitution, the addition of Cuba to 
 increase the pro-slavery power, the opening of the 
 slave trade, and the venality of government offi 
 cers, has had a gratifying triumph in the face of 
 Executive opposition. And though this opposi 
 tion defeated your beneficent homestead measure, 
 you have forced upon your opponents in the 
 Senate an acceptance of its principles. So doubly 
 armed are you in this just quarrel, that your ene 
 mies, so far from resisting you, are forced to assist 
 in doing the drudgery of your campaign. Your 
 principles therefore, through their own inherent 
 virtues, have had a practical triumph, though the 
 power and patronage of the Government have 
 
A WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 197 
 
 been in tne hands of your opponents, and used with 
 every possible effect against you. You have labor 
 ed hard, but successfully, and if, by the chances 
 of the coming election, the candidates of your 
 party do not succeed, you can well labor on and 
 wait to behold the confusion and disgrace of your 
 designing opponents, however vainly you must 
 regret the misfortunes of the ignorant and weak who 
 lend support to the very hands that bind them. 
 
 Kansas by treachery, fraud, and violence, had 
 been opened to slavery ; you sprang to save her, 
 to save yourselves and the north from the dis 
 grace of a craven spirit, that would allow the soil 
 of Kansas, once consecrated to freedom by a sa 
 cred compact, to be tamely submitted to the cold 
 embraces of the taskmasters of slavery. Bleak 
 were her then wintry plains, repulsive, savage, and 
 murderous the ruffians with whom you had to 
 contend, and portentous the frowning, opposing 
 power of government ; but you hesitated not at 
 them sufferings, sacrifices, and defeats could not 
 deter you from your purpose. You turned in 
 distress to those you supposed your natural allies 
 and friends in the States. Your vain cry was met 
 with rebuke, that your opposition to the arrogant 
 demands of the South must break up the Union, 
 as submission is the only way to preserve it ; 
 
198 A WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 
 
 and denunciations, as fanatical " Kansas Shriek 
 ers," were the response to your appeal from those 
 constitutional cowards, in whose behalf you were 
 fighting, and who crown their baseness by as 
 sisting to foist upon you a new and still more 
 oppressive administration of the government. 
 
 You struggled on with a zeal proportioned to 
 the increasing opposition, and you have nobly 
 triumphed. It is impossible you can again be 
 placed under so many adverse circumstances, and 
 the present indications are, that a returning sanity 
 of our people will soon show a due appreciation 
 of your position, and do you justice. If not, be 
 not discouraged ; as we have shown, your candi 
 dates may not get office and power, but your 
 principles will have a practical success with the 
 people, and your opponents will be placed in awk 
 ward confusion with their own blindness and folly, 
 
 " Then bear on, though thy repining eye 
 See worthless men exalted high, 
 And modest merit sink forlorn 
 In cold neglect and cruel scorn. 
 If disappointment fills the cup, 
 Undaunted nobly drink it up ; 
 Truth will prevail and justice show 
 Ifer tardy honors, sure, but slow : 
 
 Bear on, bear bravely on.' 
 
A WORD TO THE BRETHREN. 199 
 
 This you will do, and if only to encounter "here 
 after reverses and opposition, you will know well 
 how to deal with them, and find a satisfactory 
 reward in the conscious rectitude of your con 
 duct. 
 
 You are told, if Lincoln is elected, you have to 
 encounter a catalogue of woes, from the disunion 
 of the South from the North and a bloody civil 
 war. You are not to be frightened by what must 
 be regarded as an idle threat, nor will you be 
 unprepared if it should not prove idle. Your 
 Kansas struggle will prove to have been a good 
 school, and the result of it an ominous indication 
 of what may be expected in an issue, where so 
 many circumstances, heretofore in favor of the 
 South, must now be turned against her. 
 
 This, the last number of our paper before the 
 election, and, as we hope, triumph of our party in 
 the nation, makes these considerations appropriate 
 to this occasion, and, in submitting them, we join 
 with our illustrious patron of the cause of freedom 
 in Kansas, and "bow in profound reverence before 
 you, as we have never done to any other people 
 - we salute you with gratitude and affection." 
 
 November 3, 1860. 
 
XV. 
 
 REPUBLICAN REFLECTIONS. 
 
 THE object of government is security against 
 wrong, whether arising from our private or pub 
 lic relationship. It is the duty of government 
 to guarantee to all its subjects protection from 
 injustice and fraud, and at the same time redress 
 the grievances of society, and punish the aggres 
 sions of lawless violence. 
 
 When a government fails either from impotence 
 or want of inclination to secure the rights and 
 meet the equitable demands of society, it ceases 
 to command the respect, veneration, and adher 
 ence of all freemen. 
 
 In a society favored with the wide diffusion of 
 general information, the increased facilities of 
 commercial and social intercourse, and the ameli 
 orating influences of free institutions, the necessity 
 of a powerful government and strict surveillance 
 is obviated. A prompt and ready execution of 
 
REPUBLICAN REFLECTIONS. 201 
 
 the laws, and vindication of justice is neverthe 
 less an evidence of a just and efficient govern 
 ment, and promotive of the happiness and wel- 
 being of mankind. 
 
 The policy pursued by the last two administra 
 tions towards this Territory will brand them in 
 the eyes of a discriminating nation as weak, hy 
 pocritical, and false, while the impartial word of 
 history will stamp them with its black broad seal 
 of reprobation and condemnation. 
 
 The history of Kansas will remain a foul blot 
 on the annals of liberty, and condemn to ever 
 lasting infamy the vile hordes of pro-slavery ruf 
 fians who, in 1855, with armed violence, and im 
 pending force, polluted the virgin soil of this, 
 Freedom's fair heritage, invaded the polls, and 
 struck down the rights and liberties of freeborn 
 Americans, and sought to establish and perpetuate 
 a reign of tyranny, oppression, and wrong ; while 
 the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan, if 
 they did not aid and abet, at least connived at 
 these demonstrations of lawless violence, will ex 
 cite in the bosoms of all law-abiding men a per 
 petual loathing and disgust. 
 
 The leading object of the Pierce and Bucha 
 nan dynasties has been to establish the institution 
 of slavery on a broad, national, and permanent 
 
202 REPUBLICAN REFLECTIONS. 
 
 basis, and secure and perpetuate tbe ascendency in 
 the Federal government, of an element of power, 
 which, like a rapacious oligarchy, is sapping the 
 foundations and absorbing the liberties of the la 
 boring classes. 
 
 Those peculiar leading measures of the Pierce 
 administration, the repeal of the Missouri Compro 
 mise, and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Bill, the authorship of which Mr. Douglas makes 
 his boast, and which have yielded him the greater 
 portion of his fame, and which will mark him in 
 the eyes of posterity as a political intriguer, reveal, 
 when viewed in the light of collateral facts and 
 circumstances, a broad conspiracy, and deep-laid 
 plot to betray, in all the territories, the constitu 
 tional rights of freedom. 
 
 Excluding altogether from our consideration 
 the public avowals of leading Southern statesmen, 
 who have controlled the Government during the 
 last eight years, and interpreting the spirit and 
 design of the Federal administration through the 
 policy which it has persistently and assiduously 
 pursued towards its pioneer citizens, we are led 
 inevitably to this conclnsion. 
 
 How else can we explain the manifest distaste 
 and strenuous opposition of the administration, 
 in 1856, to a public investigation of the outrages 
 
REPUBLICAN REFLECTIONS. 203 
 
 perpetrated in Kansas ? The greedy haste with 
 which a pro-slavery and obnoxious constitution 
 was sought to be forced on a protesting and in 
 dignant people, and the repeated refusal by a 
 Democratic senate to admit Kansas with a consti 
 tution, the embodiment of her enlightened choice, 
 and which, harmonizing with the Declaration of 
 Independence, guarantees freedom to all ? 
 
 These acts have been scrutinized by the eye of 
 a discriminating nation ; and the spirit of a fear 
 ful retribution has swept over the party under 
 whose protecting shadow the reign of tyranny 
 and violence in Kansas has been continued, and 
 torn, and rent, and wrecked and precipitated it to 
 ruin, while liberty in her mild glory and serene 
 radiance prepares to mount the throne of the na 
 tion. There may she live, and reign, and sway 
 this vast Empire till the world shall end, and 
 time's last note be heard sounding upon the 
 trumpet of eternal doom. 
 
 Nov. 10, I860. 
 
XYL 
 
 OUR TRIUMPH. 
 
 THANKS to the success of Kepublicanism in 
 Kansas, we have telegraphs and presses to which 
 we have been indebted for the early intelligence 
 of the results of the election, which reached us, 
 at this point, about forty-eight hours from the 
 closing of the polls on election day. 
 
 Our last week's issue announced the happy 
 tidings to our rejoicing readers, that ABRAHAM 
 LINCOLN and HANNIBAL HAMLIN were, on the 
 6th inst., elected to the respective positions of 
 President and Yice -President of these United 
 States, to which they had been nominated by the 
 Kepublican party in Convention at Chicago. 
 
 An undeviating purpose obstinate as it was 
 cruel to subvert the framework of our national 
 policy, and substitute therefor a gloomy pile, upon 
 which, and tottering beneath its load, the hopes 
 of humanity and the happiness of our people 
 
OUR TRIUMPH. 205 
 
 were to be sacrificed as a holocaust to slavery, has 
 been resolutely pursued, for the last six years on 
 the part of the advocates of slavery. Arrogant 
 and domineering in spirit, and, through the pow 
 ers of the general government, oppressive in man 
 ners towards the people of the North, they 
 claimed the right of rule, to which cowardly com 
 merce and timeserving office-seeking politicians 
 lent themselves, and to perpetuate this rule, every 
 resort that art could devise, and fraud and force 
 effect, has been adopted to this end. Oppressed 
 through these long years of lonely darkness, the 
 cohorts of freedom have struggled on to reach, at 
 last, the daylight of deliverance which now dawns 
 upon them. Thank you from the depth of our 
 heart, beloved brethren of the North. We bow at 
 your feet in humble acknowledgment of our gra 
 titude due you for asserting your own and our 
 manhood, unswayed by bribes, unintimidated by 
 threats. 
 
 We now rise to our proper level, and in catch 
 ing the first rays of light and breath of deliverance, 
 our impulse is one of unbounded joy, and we 
 have hardly been able to do else than indulge 
 our feelings and manifestations of delight. 
 
 But we must reflect that, as we take our new 
 position, we are involved in new duties and re- 
 
206 OUR TRIUMPH. 
 
 sponsibilities, and it becomes us, thus early, to 
 reflect upon the proper discharge of them, to 
 the end that we may justify our promises and the 
 hopes of our race, and avoid the errors and follies 
 which have swept the Democracy from existence, 
 and made the name of it, as identified with the 
 corrupt Buchanan, the seceding Breckenridge, and 
 the compact-violating Douglas, a byword for all 
 that is deceitful and unjust. 
 
 OUR POLICY. 
 
 Our policy should therefore be, to administer 
 this government with equal justice and honor to 
 all parties of the country, and not necessarily, 
 as has been done for many years, in behalf of a 
 class whose impudence and presumption corres 
 pond to their idleness, incapacity, and poverty, 
 and who, upon the capital of a few " niggers " at 
 their command, claim all refinement and gentility 
 of society, and a monopoly of the lucrative offices 
 under the government. Pampered and spoiled 
 by these indulgences, it is this class that has 
 brought us our present troubles, to remedy which 
 the Republican party has arisen ; and of course 
 it follows, that to continue the same policy would 
 defeat the purposes of the party, and still further 
 exasperate the evils we seek to cure. What most 
 
OUR TRIUMPH. 207 
 
 we have wanted is a president who would do 
 justice to the North, without being swayed by a 
 senseless and false clamor that, by so doing, he 
 would fail of justice to the South. So sensitive 
 would some of our conciliatory presidents have 
 been, that to avoid the charge of being partial to 
 the North, they would have neglected to do it 
 justice, in order to pacify the exacting and capri 
 cious South. This was the apprehension concern 
 ing Mr. Seward, and this feature of his character 
 had much to do towards the defeat of his nomi 
 nation. Nor would we indulge in any spirit of 
 retaliation towards the South, in revenge for the 
 gross injustice we have suffered at her hands. 
 Our new President, we are confident, understands 
 his mission in these respects. 
 
 He should administer the Government himself, 
 in accordance with the theory of our Government, 
 and call the heads of the respective departments 
 to their positions, to assist him, not govern him, 
 correcting in this respect the awkward position 
 of Mr. Buchanan, in which the heads of the dif 
 ferent departments exercise their functions, and 
 give orders in their own name, irrespective of the 
 President, as though an independent power, 
 therein, existed in them. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury sends in his 
 
208 OUR TRIUMPH. 
 
 report, and urges upon Congress a tariff policy 
 the very reverse of that recommended by the 
 President. We fancy Secretary Cobb would have 
 cut a sorry figure, as a cabinet minister of General 
 Jackson, in opposing his views of state policy. 
 
 Mr. Secretary Floyd indicates, irrespective of 
 any known views of the President, that the mat 
 ter of Disunion is in his hands, and that he is 
 uncertain what is his duty, and how far he shall 
 use the force of the army to prevent secession of 
 Southern states, just as though this was exclu 
 sively his office, and not that of the President. 
 Mr. President Lincoln, the power is yours alone 
 use it ; the responsibility yours discharge it ; 
 and the reward due, either of praise or blame, 
 shall be yours. Do not, Buchanan-like, timid 
 ly shift upon your irresponsible secretaries a 
 responsibility which devolves upon you alone. 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 Not to be disturbed where it now exists, nor to 
 be abolished in the District of Columbia without 
 the wishes of the people, and then by moderate 
 degrees. 
 
 The Fugitive Slave Law to be enforced in good 
 faith ; the present law should not be changed to 
 impair its efficiency in it. 
 
OUR TRIUMPH. 209 
 
 Slavery is not extended by our Constitution 
 over the territories. On the contrary, they are 
 free in the absence of law establishing slavery, 
 and no such law should be made till a territory 
 becomes a state, when she can, if it be the 
 unbiased will of her people that will being 
 expressed without force or fraud provide for 
 slavery, and should not be refused admission to 
 the Union on this account. Such we believe to 
 be our true policy, and, so far as we understand, 
 the views of our President elect 
 
 DISUNION, 
 
 however, threatens to become a great question for 
 the solution of our new President and his party. 
 
 If a state avails herself of the advantages 
 of the Union, she should share the responsibilities 
 of it. She grows in prosperity under the asgis of 
 our laws and our protection ; shall she escape her 
 share of our adversities, arising from war or debts 
 unavoidably incurred ? Upon every principle of 
 moral obligation, no state can of right withdraw 
 from the Union, without the consent of the others, 
 but by revolution. 
 
 We prefer discreet measures of restraint and 
 coercion on such an occasion ; but we doubt the 
 probability of any necessity for them. 
 
XYL 
 
 PKOPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 IN his late message to Congress, the President, 
 after an elaborate discussion of the present 
 threatening aspect of affairs in the southern states, 
 and the absence in Congress of the constitutional 
 power to compel the continued allegiance of the 
 states to the General Government, proposes to 
 pacify the slave states, and perpetuate the Union 
 by a fresh sacrifice on the altar of slavery. Mr. 
 Buchanan would have the North bow its knee, 
 and worship again the imperious God of negro 
 slavery. He would have another exhibition of 
 craven submission to the exacting demands of 
 ruthless oppression and despotic violence. 
 
 The sway, and almost absolute control by the 
 South of the Federal Government, has been 
 broken, and because two or three little states fret, 
 and fume, and kick like spoiled children, Mr. 
 Buchanan is alarmed. " The grandest temple 
 
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS, <fec. 211 
 
 which lias ever been dedicated to human freedom 
 which has been consecrated by the blood of 
 our fathers, by the glories of the past and the 
 hopes of the future is about being destroyed 
 and the nation enshrouded in a long night of 
 leaden despotism." " The hopes of the friends 
 of freedom throughout the world are to suffer 
 annihilation, while our example will be quoted as 
 a proof of the failure of the theory of self- 
 government." To all these threatening and 
 alarming calamities Mr. Buchanan has discovered 
 a remedy. He would convert this, the grandest 
 temple of human freedom, to a huge charnel- 
 house of human bondage. He would meet and 
 sustain the hopes of the friends of freedom, by 
 fastening more securely on the nation the grow 
 ing curse of oppression. He proposes to demon 
 strate the practicability of self-government by 
 dooming an unoffensive race to hopeless, unend 
 ing slavery, and reducing the majority of a free 
 nation to a meek, tame, and unqualifying submis 
 sion to the iniquitous exactions of an imperious 
 oligarchy. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan uniting in himself more sagacity 
 and patriotism than was possessed by the whole 
 band of our Revolutionary sires, has detected a 
 radical defect in the Constitution, a breach in the 
 
212 PROPOSED AMENDMENTS, &c. 
 
 fundamental law of the nation, which he proposes 
 to patch over with slavery. Slavery is discovered 
 to be the cohesive force which will bind these 
 States in fraternal union, while the irrepressible 
 conflict must cease, since freedom is to be pushed 
 out, and slavery shoved in. 
 
 We are to have a, final settlement of this ques 
 tion, by a new construction of the Constitution, 
 giving an " express recognition of the right of pro 
 perty in slaves in the States where it now exists, 
 or may hereafter exist." Also " the duty of pro 
 tecting this right in all the common territory 
 throughout their territorial existence, and until 
 they shall be admitted as States into the Union, 
 with or without slavery as their Constitution may 
 prescribe ; together with a like recognition of the 
 rights of the master to his slave, who has escaped 
 from one state to another, to be restored and 
 delivered up to him, and the validity of the Fugi 
 tive Slave Law, enacted for that purpose, accom 
 panied with declaration that all state laws impair 
 ing or decreasing this right are violations of the 
 Constitution, and consequently null." 
 
 It might be pertinent to suggest to our venera 
 ble President, that there have been several final 
 settlements of this vexed question already. The 
 Jeffersonian Ordinance of 1784 was intended to 
 
TO THE CONSTITUTION. 213 
 
 be final, and while it received at the time the 
 entire support of the South the North was satis 
 fied. The Missouri Compromise was the next 
 final settlement; but this not meeting the entire 
 demands of the South, Congress, in 1852, to 
 allay agitation, and save the Union, enacted the 
 Fugitive Slave Law. The fourth final settlement 
 was commenced by Mr. Douglas, and the Popu 
 lar Sovereignty dodge was to banish slavery 
 agitation from the Halls of Congress. The lame 
 ness of this settlement having been made appa 
 rent on a short trial, the Supreme Court steps in 
 and makes a final disposition of the whole matter. 
 We can but commend the sagacity of the hero 
 of this new final settlement. Mr. Buchanan's 
 proposition covers the whole ground; he would 
 even anticipate the future wants of the slave 
 power. "All the South has ever contended for, 
 is to be let alone and permitted to manage their 
 domestic institutions in their own way as sovereign 
 states." Then why, Mr. Buchanan, botch the 
 noble character of our liberties with the foul fea 
 tures of slavery ? 
 
 December 1, 1860. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 CAMP, NEAB MOUND CITY, KANSAS, December 16, 1860. 
 
 You may wonder that I have not earlier ful 
 filled my promise to write you upon the troubles 
 in this region of country, but were you to listen, 
 as I have done, to the numerously conflicting 
 statements, of great and equal credibility, on the 
 respective sides, you would find all the delay I 
 have observed necessary to an approximate appre 
 ciation of the facts and merits involved in pend 
 ing issues. I say approximate, for I do not be 
 lieve any stranger to the past scenes and the 
 relations involved can ever understand them in 
 their true features. I had not been here an hour 
 when all the occurrences were made known to me 
 about as well as they are now, but on inquiring 
 for the reasons of them I was answered, by a gen 
 tleman of apparently just views, that this was a 
 complex matter, and doubtless had some, though 
 not direct, foundation in the embittered animosi 
 ties engendered four years ago, when, in imitation 
 
LETTER I. 215 
 
 of, and consequent upon the national breach of 
 good faith, in the repeal of the Missouri Compro 
 mise, every breach of human right and moral 
 obligation was committed to force slavery upon 
 Kansas. 
 
 The occurrences which have occupied so much 
 public attention consist, mainly, of the execution 
 (by hanging) of two men, Hinds and Scott, and the 
 shooting of two others, Moore and Bishop. 
 Hinds lived near the state line on the Big Osage 
 (or Marais Des Cygnes), and was charged with 
 kidnapping negroes, one of whom was a free man, 
 and carrying them over into Missouri and selling 
 them as slaves, and with having shot at Dr. Jen- 
 nison of this town, with intent to kill the Dr. 
 having been fired at twice on his way home at 
 night, by some one concealed by the roadside. 
 Scott lived some fifteen miles north of here near 
 the mouth of Mound Creek, which empties into 
 the Big Osage, and was charged with having 
 largely participated in the outrages of 1856, and 
 though repeatedly notified to quit the country, he 
 had not done so. Goods taken by him from free- 
 state men in 1856, were said to have been found 
 in his house, when he was hung. Moore was 
 shot upon refusing to give himself up, for having 
 been a leader, and boasting of it, in the hanging, 
 
216 LETTER I. 
 
 some time .ago, of a man by the name of Hugh 
 Carlin. Bishop was shot accidentally in the at 
 tempt to arrest Deeds, whose son-in-law he was, 
 and at whose house he was staying. These exe 
 cutions have not been committed by a mob, exas 
 perated by a sudden passion of revenge for some 
 recent outrage, but by a committee of nine or 
 twelve persons appointed for this purpose, and to 
 execute the decree of the people, who have doubt 
 less organized as a secret order, and hold their 
 secret conclaves to determine the destinies of their 
 fellow-men, and the welfare of society. If these 
 things are done for the interests of the community 
 and under its sanction, it is safe to assume that 
 the same measures of redress could be effected by 
 law, and through the forms of law, which is un 
 derstood to be the most solemn and mature expres 
 sion of a whole people upon this best system of 
 civil polity, and as such should become the rule 
 of action to every individual, and only through 
 its effective operation can the rights of all be 
 secured, and peace, harmony, and prosperity pre 
 vail. Violence may originate with the many, 
 under spontaneous and pure impulses, but will be 
 maintained only by a few depraved natures, who 
 delight in the indulgence and manifestation of 
 their passions, the unchecked effects of which 
 
LETTER I. 217 
 
 must be, terror and slavish fear on the one hand, 
 and arrogance and indiscretion on the other 
 breaking up that industry from which virtue and 
 prosperity arise, engendering bitter animosities and 
 brutal resentments, depriving the community, 
 through fear and violence, of its best citizens, till 
 wantonness and rage bear sway, and unlicensed 
 outrage exhausts herself in anarchy and ruin. The 
 people here are so far under the censorship of this 
 order, that they dare not openly differ with it 
 torments of the inquisition, the terror of the guil 
 lotine, the unrelenting rigor of a Cotton Mather, 
 stand sentinels before their lips. The intolerance 
 of the people in the Southern states towards 
 those who favor freedom is here practised, to some 
 extent, towards those who favor slavery, and is 
 excused on the ground of this example, and that 
 having suffered so much from pro-slavery men it 
 is unsafe to tolerate sympathizers with them. 
 
 But it is not altogether a question of extending 
 or preventing the extension of slavery, but, to 
 some extent, of abolishing it where it exists, and 
 opposing the execution of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law. Few if any could be found here willing to 
 aid in the return of a fugitive slave, and many 
 of the secret order (of Montgomery and Jennison) 
 would violently resist. It appears our arrival here 
 10 
 
218 LITTER I. 
 
 drove off several blacks, who, in escaping from 
 their masters and coming here, had remained 
 under assurance of protection from recapture, but 
 which protection would doubtless prove unavail 
 ing in the presence of troops. Strait-laced, hide 
 bound puritanism, which finds an exclusive and 
 infallible guide in Scripture teachings, here dic 
 tates these things irrespective of the fact that the 
 same supple authority, under Southern interpre 
 tation, requires as a condition of man's salvation, 
 that he shall either become a master and own a slave, 
 or else he shall have a master, and become a slave. 
 But you will notice I am criticising what are for 
 the most part local prejudices and peculiarities, 
 with which I have nothing to do, nor has the 
 General Government. A violent death here and 
 there is no concern of the General Government, 
 except when perpetrated in violation of her laws ; 
 but the deaths here, were in violation of the laws 
 of the territory, and had nothing whatever to do 
 with the United States laws, nor has the General 
 Government any business in the matter, till the 
 Governor reports that he is unable to preserve 
 peace, and makes requisition for assistance. This 
 the governor has not done, nor has he been con 
 sulted in the matter. Judge Williams the Judge 
 of this district did indeed run away in a fright, 
 
LETTER I. 219 
 
 and despatch a frightful account, which having 
 been found to be almost entirely false, it is doubt 
 less the business of the Government to withdraw, 
 and leave local troubles to an adjustment by the 
 people concerned. Judge Williams was not dis 
 turbed nor threatened, nor were any of the land 
 officers at Fort Scott, nor were public records dis 
 turbed. Neither was Missouri invaded nor threat 
 ened ; nor were troops collected and fortifications 
 raised under Montgomery, with a view to revo 
 lutionary measures. Montgomery seems to hold 
 much influence here and has firm adherents and 
 friends, and though doubtless privy to what is 
 here transpiring, his participation in the late exe 
 cutions is uniformly denied by the people here. 
 
 Gen. Harney, with Artillery and Dragoons to 
 the number of some 150, left Ft. Leaven worth on 
 the 27th ult, and proceeded to Fort Scott, and we 
 were stopped here, where we arrived on the 5th 
 inst. After using the troops to assist in making 
 some arrests at Fort Scott, the Artillery, under 
 Capt. Barry, joined us here on the 6th, and the 
 Deputy U. S. Marshal a Mr. Campbell of Fort 
 Scott was supported in attemps to make arrests 
 here. Montgomery, Jennison, Seaman, and the 
 two Forbeses were sought for at their houses, for 
 the purpose of arresting them, but they were not 
 
220 LETTER I. 
 
 found. The Artillery were sent back to Fort 
 Lea ven worth on the 9th, the Dragoons to Fort 
 Scott on the 10th, and go into quarters there. 
 Gen. Harney left Fort Scott on the llth for 
 Leavenworth, and we two Companies 2d Infan 
 try remain here in tents, with alternate cold, 
 snow (six inches depth of which fell last Thursday 
 night) and drizzling chilly rains, with mud, su 
 perlative wretchedness, and disgust ineffable. All 
 this is with a view to help the Marshal to make 
 arrests, and if Montgomery and Jennison do not 
 give themselves up, we have no idea how long we 
 may have to remain. It appears that they are 
 willing to give themselves up to the sheriff of the 
 county, to be tried for offences' against the laws of 
 the territory, and in the usual way, but are not 
 willing to be sent over to Fort Scott, and kept in* 
 jail there, to be tried there before Judge Williams, 
 sitting upon cases of the United States, with such 
 authority to the Marshal for empannelling a jury, 
 as will include too many Missourians to do justice 
 to a Kansas Free State man. 
 
 The present state of affairs cannot be justified. 
 Much may be plausibly urged as a provocation. 
 A suspension, at last, of border invasion and 
 Federal oppression, through corrupt officials, had 
 been followed by a dearth and famine, in the 
 
LETTER I. 221 
 
 midst of which, the President caused their lands 
 to be offered at public sale, forcing the settler to 
 pay for his land, to secure it against the risk of 
 loss. A suspension, in one instance, for one year, 
 was allowed, I am informed, by permitting a re 
 filing, and paying again to the Land Offices a 
 filing fee. It seems to me a pertinent inquiry, 
 how, if the President felt it his duty to direct the 
 sale, was it not possible to evade this duty by per 
 mitting a re-filing, and why, if not necessary to 
 have them sold, were they so ordered, and this 
 order suspended to give double fees to the Land 
 Officers ? Upon the survey of the Miami lands, 
 many persons unexpectedly found themselves 
 upon them, and though the Indians had power to 
 sell, and were anxious to sell, the President would 
 not permit it, and these people were expelled and 
 their improvements lost. 
 
 The New York Indian lands were open to 
 settlement, the Indians having their head rights, 
 and had been surveyed, so that, seemingly, no 
 trouble could arise from settling upon them ; but 
 in running off the Cherokee neutral lands they 
 were recently run on the New York Indian 
 Lands eight miles, putting the occupants of this 
 strip of eight miles wide, on to the Cherokee lands, 
 and from which they were recently driven, in the 
 
222 LETTER I. 
 
 midst of distress, and their buildings burned. 
 Captain Sturgis's First Cavalry obtained, as you 
 will remember, some notoriety through the pub 
 lic press in connection with this matter. Long 
 accustomed to regard the troops as their allies in 
 the pro-slavery cause, the Missourians became 
 heroic under their auspices, and on this occasion 
 they waxed furiously valiant, and organized, I 
 am informed, a secret order, called the "Dark- 
 Lantern Order," with a view to renew invasions 
 in Kansas, and reconnoitred with boldness and 
 insolence through this region, with a view to 
 future operations. Just now, and like an opposing 
 and overpowering wave, came in these victims of 
 oppression from the Miami lands and New York 
 Indian lands, joined in spirit of exasperation, if 
 not swelled in numbers by the settlers suffering 
 from the land sales, and considerably augmented 
 both in spirit and numbers by the fugitives from 
 the pro-slavery proscription in Texas. The last 
 pound on the camel's back had long since been 
 placed, and his only chance of life lay in kicking 
 off the additional weights, brought for him to 
 bear. A counter secret organization was formed, 
 with the results so far before us, and it is claimed 
 for this body, that, up to this time, their efforts 
 have been to nip the incipient stages of the onset 
 
LETTER I. 223 
 
 extensively prepared against them. A project 
 is fondly entertained to erect a slave state out of 
 the Indian territory to the south of Kansas, and 
 to embrace in this new state a portion of the south 
 of Kansas. It is believed the Cherokee lands were 
 run up so high north, and that the Missourians 
 proposed to add an additional strip by conquest. 
 The bringing in of troops from the remoter posts, 
 and the unnecessary ordering of them here, with 
 out a demand by the Governor, are explained 
 upon this supposition. All this may have its due 
 force in the way of provocation, but it does not 
 justify systematic violence, in the redress of 
 wrong, when that redress can be effected through 
 the forms of law. Nor is a persistent determina 
 tion to encourage the escape of slaves and to resist 
 the Fugitive Slave Law, to be justified, and this 
 determination, I regret to say, has a potent though 
 not a preponderating sway here. It may be 
 observed, that the toleration by the General 
 Government of Southern contempt of its authority, 
 justifies a belief in an already virtual disunion, 
 and the victim of oppression by pro-slavery men 
 and measures, feels himself no longer under con 
 stitutional restraint "upon measures of redress. 
 But this is revolution, and no more commendable 
 than that which is appealed to as an excuse. 
 
LETTEE II. 
 
 FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, January 19, 1861. 
 
 I AM in doubt whether you will care to hear 
 again from me, as I have nothing of interest to 
 report upon the late troubles which seem to be 
 now suspended, and you are now abundantly 
 occupied with the solemn events (not to say 
 farces) now enacting with a view to the dissolu 
 tion of our Government. I am glad to see some 
 signs of sanity and spirit, at last, in our imbecile 
 "old public functionary," and that he can bring 
 his mind to comprehend that, as President of the 
 United States, he is invested with powers and 
 involved with responsibilities to meet this great 
 disunion question in the only light which, as a 
 legal, moral and physical question, it exhibits, 
 and that is, in the light of revolt and treason. 
 The right of independent sovereignty in the 
 respective states may appeal to the pride of a 
 people, and some may vainly suppose it to have 
 existed, but this is obviously inconsistent with 
 
LETTER II. 225 
 
 the existence of a separate Government, formed 
 by the Union of these States. For then our Union 
 would be but a voluntary league, in which no Go 
 vernment, as such, could exist the efficacy of our 
 Constitution all along misapprehended, and the ope 
 rations of our Government to this time a blunder. 
 In fact, I may say no State of our Union ever 
 has been independent, as a separate sovereign 
 power. Certainly the original thirteen States 
 were not, for until the declaration of their inde 
 pendence of Great Britain they were, of course, 
 colonies to that Government; and that declara 
 tion of itself was not made in behalf of separate 
 States, but, in its own language, "in the name and 
 by the authority of the good people of these colo 
 nies," and goes on to declare " these United 
 Colonies are, and of right ought to be free," &c., 
 so that their very act of throwing off colonial 
 allegiance was by means of a Government 
 formed from a union of the Colonists. And im 
 mediately thereafter was formed the articles of 
 Confederation, which were not formed under any 
 idea of separate sovereignties in the respective 
 States, but with a view to. the best form of 
 Gvernment for all the States, as a Union. And 
 these articles of Confederation expressly and 
 repeatedly provide, that this Union "shall be 
 10* 
 
226 LETTER IL 
 
 perpetual."- Years of experience proved the arti 
 cles of Confederation to have defects which called 
 for a remedy, and for this purpose the present 
 Constitution was adopted, with the avowed pur 
 pose, as its preamble states, " to form a more per 
 fect Union," and none of the conditions of its 
 perpetuity, provided for in the articles of Con 
 federation, were abrogated by this new Constitu 
 tion. And this Constitution, by its own pro 
 visions, and their adoption by the respective 
 States as such is the Constitution of those states. 
 For the language of paragraph second, Art. 13th 
 is, " This Constitution and the laws of the United 
 States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; 
 and all treaties made, or which shall be made, 
 under the authority of the United States, shall be 
 the supreme law of the land ; and the Judges in 
 every state be bound thereby, anything in the 
 Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary 
 notwithstanding." 
 
 The law, in terms and by clear inference, is con 
 clusive against the existence of independent 
 sovereignty in the respective states, and I have 
 indicated, above, that the thirteen original states 
 have not had for any one a separate existence as 
 a sovereign power. Of course it will not be 
 claimed that the new states, admitted into the 
 
LETTER II. 227 
 
 Union have had. Texas exercised such power, 
 and was so recognised by most civilized nations, 
 as a revolted province of Mexico, but Mexico 
 never admitted it, nor was her separation from 
 Mexico effectual till her union with us under our 
 Constitution, which being accepted, became her 
 supreme law, anything in her Constitution or 
 laws to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 I stop here with the legal question the moral 
 obligation should have no less force. "We all 
 know that South Carolina escaped vassalage to 
 the British Government through our Union, and 
 that she and all other seceding states hold their 
 present high positions through the aid of the 
 Union, and having availed herself of these advan 
 tages, through the Union, she cannot absolve her 
 self from her obligations to the Union. Wars 
 have been prosecuted, debts incurred, and condi 
 tions entered upon, and must a part of the states, 
 faithful to the Union, meet all the responsibilities 
 without that aid implied in the Union, and as a 
 condition of which their own was pledged? One 
 state, in adopting our Constitution may have 
 made more sacrifices of her existing interests than, 
 another state, but she did so upon the right to 
 hold the other state to the obligations she assumed 
 in entering the Union, and as a condition of 
 
228 LETTER II. 
 
 which the sacrifices were made. Much might be 
 said of the sentiments of our forefathers, the his 
 tory of those times, and of the logic of the question, 
 to enforce these views, and from which we find 
 no other conclusion that the laws and morals of 
 this disunion movements concur to denounce it 
 as revolt, and to be dealt with as the best inter 
 ests of our Government require. 
 
 If such a modification of the Constitution could 
 be effected, as to allow the slave states to with 
 draw, this would seem to afford a peaceful solu 
 tion to the trouble, but only seemingly, for diffi 
 culties would soon arise to involve the opposing 
 states in war. But were it not for the certainty 
 of this war, I would not object to this sort of set 
 tlement, for then the North would be at once rid 
 of all responsibility for slavery, and of this eternal 
 unhappy wrangling over it. But this mode is 
 impracticable, and the only thing left is for the 
 Government, through its constitutionally orga 
 nized means, to exercise its authority over the 
 seceding states, in a discreet and conciliatory 
 manner, till the present unfounded excitement 
 subsides. Of course the present acts of violence 
 should be met and arrested, but more with a view 
 to indicate the right of authority, than to redresa 
 a grievance. 
 
LETTER II. 229 
 
 But I did not sit down to write homilies upon 
 our Government, or to indicate precepts ^which 
 every schoolboy in our country should know and 
 make his rule of thought and action, but I have 
 been unavoidably drawn into it by the theme, 
 and this must be my excuse. 
 
 So far as I know there are no items of local 
 interest to mention. Montgomery, so far as I can 
 learn, is not disposed to give the South the benefit 
 of his example in their revolutionary schemes, 
 and is therefore reserved, for the present, upon 
 the execution of any he may have contemplated. 
 But in all seriousness, if we are to have civil war 
 on this slavery matter, this abolition element will 
 prove a powerful and effective one in the prose 
 cution of it. I would pledge Montgomery, with 
 ten thousand followers in the slave states, to equal 
 the exploits of Xenophon and his ten thousand 
 Greeks. Mark this, and time shall show. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF GENERAL LYON. 
 
 As everything connected with this fallen hero 
 possesses a historic as well as local interest, we may 
 be excused for referring again to his birth-place, 
 and the battle in which he lost his life. 
 
 Several accounts have been given of the manner 
 of his death. Dr. G. G. Lyon, his relative and 
 brigade-surgeon, who was with him a moment 
 before and again a moment after he was shot, says 
 that General Lyon had been wounded by a shot in 
 the heel, a shot through the fleshy part of his thigh, 
 and a shot which cut open the back of his head to 
 the skull bone, and was covered with blood, when 
 he saw him riding between the Kansas and Iowa 
 regiments to lead them to the charge. He begged 
 him to retire to the rear and have his wounds 
 dressed. General Lyon replied, "No these are 
 nothing," went forward, and was killed by a Minie 
 ball through the breast and out at his back, which 
 
234 APPENDIX. 
 
 severed the aorta, or principal blood-vessel of the 
 heart. He fell into the arms of Lehman, his body- 
 servant, and said, " Lehman, lam kitted ; take care 
 of my body? and instantly expired. Those were 
 his last and only words. 
 
 In private life, in the camp, by the fireside, or 
 anywhere with his friends off duty, General Lyon 
 was one of the most mild, genial, and pleasant of 
 men. Said one of his intimate friends, " You 
 wouldn't suppose he ever would get angry, or be 
 roused to excitement." His favorite attitude was 
 standing and stroking or picking his long sandy 
 beard. But on his splendid horse, at the head of 
 his little army, he was literally " a tower of strength." 
 His form straightened up two inches taller ; his eye 
 dilated and blazed with excitement, and his com 
 mands were given in trumpet tones that \vere heard 
 and obeyed, through all the deafening din of battle, 
 and he was incapable of fear. 
 
 The battle of Wilson's Creek was a most despe 
 rate fight. About three thousand five hundred was 
 the number of our effective troops, who went out 
 to contend with twenty-three thousand of the rebel 
 army. The numbers of both sides were pretty 
 accurately known to both armies, by their spies. 
 To lie still at Springfield would be fatal, to go for 
 ward could be no worse the reinforcements so long 
 and impatiently wished for, so imperatively needed, 
 
APPENDIX. 235 
 
 did not arrive. General Lyon determined to give 
 battle, not expecting to be victorious, but hoping 
 to cripple the enemy sufficiently to cover his retreat. 
 Another reason, not without weight, was to show 
 the rebels that he could fight, before he turned his 
 back on them. 
 
 The result is before the world. They fought like 
 Leonidas and his Greeks they fairly and com 
 pletely whipped a force of six times their own num 
 ber, but suffered so terribly they were unable to 
 pursue. Gould they have had but two fresh regi 
 ments, say Lyon's officers, " we should have chased 
 them into Arkansas" and ended the war in Mis 
 souri. Regiments had asked to be permitted to go 
 to Lyon's aid, weeks before, but were withheld. 
 There is a bitter feeling against the Secretary of 
 War in consequence. 
 
 In the course of the battle, Captain Plummer an 
 experienced officer of the regular army, who is 
 modest as he is brave was stationed in a large 
 cornfield, with four companies of regulars, where 
 he was atacked in front and in flank by three regi 
 ments of rebels nearly three thousand men. 
 Said Lyon, when Plummer's position was reported 
 to him, "He's lost." But Captain Plummer and 
 his brave band faced the deadly crossfire, and cut 
 their way through, coming out with only ten men 
 to his largest company. Captain Plummer received 
 
236 APPENDIX. 
 
 a Minie ball in his hip at the commencement of the 
 attack, but maintained his seat on his horse, and the 
 lead of his men, till they were out of present dan 
 ger he then fainted and fell, badly wounded. " It 
 was hard," said Captain P., relating this scene, " to 
 see men that had been with me in all sorts of danger 
 for twenty years, fall wounded, begging for help, and 
 be unable to give them even a drink of water ; and 
 to be obliged to leave them, and see some of them 
 bayoneted on the spot by the rebels." 
 
 Then, after Captain P. and his surviving soldiers 
 had cut through, and the three thousand rebels 
 crowded the cornfield, Captain Totten's artillery 
 opened on them with terrible effect. Dr. Lyon was 
 near enough to see them distinctly with his glass. 
 The round shot ploughed bloody furrows through 
 the thick ranks, and shell and shrapnell carried death 
 on every hand. Just here occurred the following 
 extraordinary incident, witnessed by Dr. Lyon, just 
 before the enemy retreated : 
 
 A tall rebel soldier waved a large and costly 
 secession flag defiantly, when a cannon ball struck 
 him to the earth, dead. A second soldier instantly 
 picked up the prostrate flag, and waved it again 
 a second cannon ball shattered his body. A third 
 soldier raised and waved the flag, and a third cannon 
 ball crashed into his breast and he fell dead. Yet 
 a fourth time was the flag raised the soldier 
 
APPENDIX. 237 
 
 waved it, and turned to climb over the fence with 
 it into the woods. As he stood astride the fence a 
 moment, balancing to keep the heavy flag upright, 
 a. fourth cannon ball struck him in the side, cutting 
 him completely in two, so that one half of his body 
 fell one side of the fence and the other half the 
 other side, while the flag itself lodged on the fence, 
 and was captured a few moments afterwards by our 
 troops. Our troops captured three rebel flags, but 
 lost none. 
 
 The body of General Lyon was laid out in state 
 at the camp, at the close of this bloody day, and 
 not an officer or private but shed bitter tears as 
 they gazed on their dead General, almost idolized 
 by every man of them from the highest to the 
 lowest. He was buried on the farm of Colonel 
 John S. Phelps, a native of Windham county, 
 Connecticut, and for many years a member of Con 
 gress from Missouri. He is a strong Union man, 
 and is now raising a regiment for the United 
 States army, while the rebels have seized his pro 
 perty. 
 
 General Lyon w r as never married, it being a fre 
 quently expressed opinion of his that a soldier 
 ought not to encumber himself with a family. It is 
 stated that he left a will leaving all his property, 
 worth some $30,000, to his country, to which he 
 has already given his life. His sword, chapeau, and 
 
238 APPENDIX. 
 
 commission were given by his friends to the state 
 of his nativity. 
 
 Another incident is worthy of record in this con 
 nexion, also related to us by Dr. Lyon. We refer 
 to the daring and desperate charge of Lieutenant 
 Sullivan and fifteen of the United States cavalry, at 
 the cattle^ of Dug Spring, in which General Lyon 
 was engaged. Lieutenant Sullivan, in the course of 
 the battle, suddenly found himself faced by a full 
 regiment of rebels. With a sudden impulse he 
 loudly shouted : "All brave men follow me !" and 
 dashed forwards like lightning, fifteen men following. 
 With one jump they were out of sight, in the 
 midst of the rebel ranks; then their sabres were 
 seen flashing and slashing, and their pistols heard 
 cracking. For an instant the centre of the mass 
 was seen to heave and sway, then the rebels 
 wavered and broke, actually driven by sixteen men, 
 and the little band emerged from the turmoil with 
 four killed and six wounded. And, what is most 
 remarkable, Lieutenant Sullivan came out with Jive 
 balls in his own body and thirteen in his horse, none 
 of which proved fatal ! Both man and horse are 
 now nearly sound again, and, says the brave Lieu 
 tenant, " There isn't money enough in the United 
 States to buy that horse!" Hartford Evening 
 JPress. 
 
OBSEQUIES OF GENERAL LYON. 
 
 THE body of General Lyon, which was tempo 
 ral ily interred, as we have already mentioned, on 
 the farm of the Hon. J. S. Phelps, about three 
 miles from the battle-field at Wilson's Creek, was 
 shortly afterwards exhumed by his relatives, under 
 a flag of truce, and transported to St. Louis. 
 
 The turn-out of the military at St. Louis (says 
 the funeral-editor of The Herald, to whom we are 
 indebted for what follows), was immense. Stores 
 and dwelling houses were draped in mourning, and 
 the entire city seemed to bewail the fall of this gal 
 lant soldier as a national calamity. 
 
 In Cincinnati the obsequies were likewise observed 
 by the citizens and soldiery, and upon the arrival 
 of the body it was placed in Smith and Nixon's 
 Hall, and there laid in state, guarded by the 
 military. 
 
 In Pittsburg, the corpse was received by several 
 companies of the Home Guard, and escorted to the 
 depot, Major Conant, the Aide-de-Camp of the late 
 General, and commander of the escort, declining 
 any more extensive demonstration. 
 
240 APPENDIX. 
 
 The military of Philadelphia paid marked respect 
 to the memory of the illustrious deceased, detach 
 ments of the First Artillery Home Guard acting as 
 guard of honor, and the Second Infantry of the line, 
 Colonel Dare, escorting the body to the railroad 
 depot. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 
 
 The steamboat Richard Stockton, running in con 
 nexion with the Carnden and Amboy Railroad, 
 arrived at the foot of Courtlandt Street at about 
 half-past two o'clock, on the afternoon of the 31st of 
 August. The flags of the vessel were at half-mast, 
 as well as some of the shipping in the vicinity. At 
 the ferry the Third Company National Guard, 
 Seventh Regiment, New York State Militia, having 
 been detailed as an escort by Colonel Lefferts, was 
 drawn up in line, and presented arms when the 
 body, carried by the guard detailed by Major Gene 
 ral Fremont to accompany it, passed through. A 
 large number of citizens was also present at the 
 pier to witness the arrival of the corpse. 
 
 THE ESCORT OF THE REMAINS. 
 
 The following military and civic gentlemen com 
 posed the escort : 
 
 Major H. A. Con ant, Quartermaster of General 
 Lyon's division; Captain George P. Edgar, of 
 General Fremont's staff; Dr. G. G. Lyon, of the 
 
APPENDIX. 241 
 
 Missouri Brigade, a cousin of the deceased ; Cap 
 tain J. B. Plummer, of the United States Army, 
 who was wounded in the battle of Wilson's Creek, 
 who is accompanied by his wife ; Lieutenant E. J. 
 Clark and eight privates of the Missouri Home 
 Reserve Corps in uniform; Danfield Knowlton, 
 Esq., of this city ; J. B. Haslet, of Webster, Mas 
 sachusetts, brother-in-law of deceased; Mr. P. 
 McQuillan, of the Cincinnati Gazette, and James H. 
 Brown, of the Cincinnati Times. 
 
 THE MARCH TO THE CITY HALL. 
 
 After the appropriate ceremonies of taking charge 
 of the coffin by the company of National Guard 
 troops, the line of march to the City Hall was taken 
 up in the following order : Company C, Seventh 
 regiment, with arms reversed ; section of police of 
 Twenty-seventh precinct ; Drum Corps of Seventh 
 regiment, with muffled drums. Undertaker and 
 hearse, drawn by four horses, caparisoned with 
 sable plumes and crape, and escorted on either side 
 by the officers and privates of the Third Missouri 
 Home Reserve Corps ; Officers and friends of the 
 deceased followed the hearse in carriages. 
 
 THE BODY AT THE GOVERNOR'S ROOM. 
 
 At an early hour in the morning, Mr. Roome, the 
 keeper of the City Hall, received orders to prepare 
 11 
 
242 APPENDIX 
 
 the Governor's Room for the reception of the 
 corpse, where it is to lie in state until its removal 
 to Eastford, Connecticut. He accordingly draped 
 the large chamber inside and outside in mourning, 
 and placed the flags on the roof at half-mast. The 
 entrance to the City Hall was guarded by policemen, 
 who kept the crowd at a respectful distance while 
 the body was being carried to the Governor's Room. 
 When the funeral cortege arrived in front of the 
 Hall, Captain Price drew up his company in line 
 and the coffin was taken from the hearse by the Mis 
 souri soldiers accompanying the remains, and car 
 ried to their designated place. The undertaker had 
 already placed pedestals in the centre of the room, 
 upon which the corpse was deposited. Beyond the 
 company of the Seventh Regiment and the members 
 of the Common Council, no one was permitted to 
 enter the room. Sergeant Legett posted his guard 
 immediately, which are relieved every two hours. 
 
 THE BURIAL CASE CONTAINING THE REMAINS. 
 
 The wooden box in which the remains of the 
 deceased were placed was considerably shattered 
 while on the journey to New York ; consequently 
 the body was put into a metallic coffin, painted to 
 represent rosewood. 
 
 In the centre of the coffin was fastened a silver 
 plate, bearing the following inscription : 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 " GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON, died August 1 0, 
 1861, aged 42 years." 
 
 The burial case was bedecked with the American 
 flag. At the head lay the chapeau of the late gene 
 ral, in the centre a wreath of evergreens and immor 
 telles, and at the feet the sword which was grasped 
 in General Lyon's hand while leading his gallant 
 troops. The escort accompanying the remains from 
 St. Louis withdrew, as soon as Captain Price took 
 the body in charge, to their quarters at the Metro 
 politan hotel. 
 
 The remains of General Lyon lay three days in 
 state, at the City Hall. On the 2d of September, 
 free access was allowed all persons to view the coffin 
 from nine o'clock A.M., until one o'clock P.M., and 
 daring that time upwards of fifteen thousand per 
 sons visited the Governor's Room, where the 
 remains have reposed since their arrival in this city 
 on Saturday last. A body of police carefully 
 guarded the entrance to the room, and none were 
 admitted but those who really seemed to under 
 stand the scene on which they were about to gaze. 
 Company C, of the Seventh Regiment, Captain Price, 
 were detached as a guard of honor, to keep watch 
 over the body, and two soldiers stood at the head 
 and two at the foot of the coffin during the day. 
 The stream of visitors continued during the entire 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 time allotted for the reception, and one by one the 
 citizens were admitted, who slowly walked around 
 the coffin and made their departure through another 
 door at the extreme end of the room. 
 
 The whole proceedings were conducted with that 
 solemnity and good taste which were due to the 
 memory of the departed soldier, and the deeds 
 which have made his name famous in the annals of 
 his glorious profession. Each visitor looked as 
 though he or she felt with a true force, the peculiar 
 circumstances which led to the untimely death of 
 the brave Lyon. Although the coffin w r as not 
 uncovered during the day, and no curious eyes 
 could gaze upon the sacred features of the dead, yet 
 all seemed imbued with the same melancholy and 
 holiness of feeling which are sure to be harrowed 
 up when confronting, face to face, the grim monster 
 death. All knew that Nathaniel Lyon lay within 
 the narrow limits of his last couch, wrapped in his 
 winding-sheet, with that eagle eye, which was wont 
 to gaze upon so many scenes of bloodshed, closed 
 for ever ; with that arm, which so often dealt the 
 death-blow to the enemies of his country, now 
 palsied in death ; with .that heart, which pulsated so 
 warmly with patriotic emotion, now stilled for ever ; 
 and with that tongue, which at Wilson's Creek rung 
 out the notes of encouragement to his charging sol 
 diers, now unable to utter a syllable. These were 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 reflections enough to make all feel sad. Ay, there 
 lay General Nathaniel Lyon, clothed in the robes 
 of the grave, but surrounded by those whose hearts 
 beat aloud in commiseration for his hasty death. 
 Every one felt that he died the noblest death known 
 to humanity. They pictured in their mind's eye, 
 the stirring scene where he fell from his horse and 
 yielded up the dearest boon that humanity can 
 boast of life in defence of his country and her 
 honor. They thought, in the distance, they recog 
 nised that tall form seated upon a horse, with his 
 eye lit up with the valor of his soul, as with hat in 
 hand he cheered on the men of the Union to charge 
 the enemy. There he sat as proud as any mortal 
 can be, for his position recognises it. He cared not 
 for the storm of iron hail that swept its terrible 
 course above and around him, for the red, white 
 and blue fluttered before his vision and obstructed 
 all other objects. But see, his last hour has come. 
 The General falls from his horse struck by a bullet 
 from the enemy ; his countrymen surround him ; 
 those eyes are glazed in death ; one glance towards 
 the enemy's lines, a last towards heaven, and 
 Nathaniel Lyon yields up his spirit to his Creator. 
 A number of officers of our volunteer and militia 
 regiments also thronged the room during the day, 
 and hundreds of ladies were among the civilians 
 who gazed upon the coffin. It was a refreshing 
 
246 APPENDIX. 
 
 sight to see tender-hearted women weeping as they 
 passed through a jnst tribute to the memory of 
 the soldier. On the coffin were the sword and hat 
 of deceased, together with a quantity of flowers 
 strewn upon the lid. The flag under which the 
 general fought and fell was wound around the head 
 of the coffin, attached to which was a piece of white 
 paper, with the following inscription : 
 
 TO THE LION-HEARTED GEN. NATHANIEL LYON. 
 
 Thy name is immortal ; 
 
 Thy battles are o'er; 
 Sleep, sleep, calmly sleep, 
 
 On thy dear native shore. 
 NEW YORK, Sept. 2, 1861. 
 
 The poetry was written evidently by a lady, and 
 was placed upon the coffin during the day. 
 
 THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. 
 
 It was not until shortly after three o'clock that 
 the military began to form in the Park for the fune 
 ral procession. The Park was filled by a large 
 crowd, who conducted themselves with that deco 
 rum and silence which befitted the place and the 
 occasion. The Seventh Regiment were drawn up 
 in line opposite the Hall, and presented a splendid 
 appearance, dressed in white pantaloons, grey coats, 
 and full dress hats. Silence reigned amid the vast 
 crowd, and no jocose word or rowdy expression 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 disturbed the solemnity of the hour. At four 
 o'clock the coffin was borne from the Governor's 
 Room by the Missouri volunteers, who escorted the 
 remains home, and placed upon the hearse, drawn 
 by four grey horses, which was in readiness to 
 receive them. The procession then filed into 
 Broadway, as follows : Detachment of the Fourth 
 Regiment Artillery, with four guns ; Companies B 
 and C Third Regiment Hussars, two hundred men ; 
 Grafula's Band, thirty pieces; Seventh Regiment 
 (National Guard), seven hundred strong ; Hearse ; 
 Missouri escort and Co. C, Seventh Regiment, on 
 both sides ; officers of the Sixty-ninth, Sixth, Ele 
 venth, and other regiments; carriages containing 
 members of the Common Council. 
 
 Broadway was crowded on each side with people, 
 but the occasion was in itself a more peculiar one 
 than any which our citizens have been called upon 
 to participate in for some time. No enthusiasm 
 could be exhibited, no cheering or waving of hand 
 kerchiefs, none of the wild excitement which has 
 been the leading feature of our great thoroughfare 
 for the past four months. All was sombre and still. 
 The multitude were aware of the duty which they 
 owed the dead soldier, and respect, sympathy, and 
 devotedness were plainly portrayed on every fea 
 ture. The people lined the sidewalks on either 
 side, while the windows and piazzas were equally 
 
248 APPENDIX. 
 
 well filled with ladies, who gazed sadly down upon 
 the soul-stirring procession. Nearly every flag upon 
 Broadway, and indeed throughout the whole city, 
 was at half-mast, and several of them draped in 
 mourning. The guns of the artillery detachment 
 which joined in the procession were also draped in 
 mourning, and Broadway never before looked so 
 sombre as it did while the funeral was wending 
 its way to the New Haven Depot. The Seventh, 
 marching with their arms reversed, headed by a fine 
 band playing the mournful strains of a dead march, 
 lent a good deal of solemn grandeur to the whole 
 scene. 
 
 The route of the procession was up Broadway to 
 Fifth Avenue, up Fifth Avenue to Twenty-seventh 
 Street, and up Twenty-seventh Street to the New 
 Haven Railroad Depot, where the body remained 
 over night, in order to be transported to Connec 
 ticut at an early hour the next morning. 
 
 The body of General Lyon was removed to Hart 
 ford, prior to its interment in the family burying- 
 ground at Eastford. The ovation tendered to the 
 inanimate body of the brave soldier, on the part of 
 the citizens of Hartford, was tremendous, the mili 
 tary and the citizens vieing with each other in the 
 demonstrations of respect towards the dead, and of 
 hospitality to the escort. When the escort arrived 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 at Hartford, it rained as if the gates of Heaven had 
 broken loose ; yet, notwithstanding the shower, the 
 parade in all its details was observed, and the 
 remains lay in state at the Capitol, guarded by the 
 City Guard and Light Guard alternately. 
 
 A special train was provided to convey the body 
 of General Lyons, his escort from St. Louis, the 
 military of Hartford, consisting of the City Guard, 
 Captain Prentice ; the Light Guard, Lieutenant 
 Kiffen commanding, accompanied by Colt's Armory 
 band, and a rifled six-pound field piece. Among 
 the guests on the train were Major General J. T. 
 Pratt, commanding Connecticut State Militia; his 
 Honor Mayor Dinning, of Hartford ; ex-Governor 
 Cleveland, Colonel G. S. Burnham, Second Connec 
 ticut Volunteers ; Captains Gore, Merrills, and Hoi- 
 comb, of the same regiment. The following gentle 
 men acted as pallbearers in the procession to the 
 cars on leaving Hartford: General Pratt, Major 
 Dey, Major Goodwin, General Waterman, Major 
 Leverit Seymour, and David Clark, Esq. 
 
 The train carrying the remains and the escort was 
 draped in mourning, and left the depot about one 
 o'clock, arriving at Willimantic about a quarter past 
 three o'clock. This place being a large manufac 
 turing town, employing numerous hands, chiefly 
 females, was all alive. Not only the actual resi 
 dents of Willimantic were assembled at the depot, 
 11* 
 
250 APPENDIX. 
 
 but from a circuit of thirty miles around, the coun 
 try folks flocked in to the town to do honor to the 
 remains of the brave deceased, and to behold the 
 mournful scene. American flags, large and small, 
 draped with black borders, were suspended from 
 houses and trees, and the weather even seeming to 
 harmonize with the solemnity of the occasion. 
 
 The day was beautifully serene, and not a breath 
 of air wafted those banners hung at half-mast to 
 signalize the grief of the multitude. This being 
 the terminus of the railroad towards Eastford, 
 whither the funeral cortege was wending its way, 
 arrangements previously made for the conveyance 
 of the party escorting the remains were carried into 
 effect. Hundreds of wagons, from a single horse 
 buggy to the cumbrous market wagon drawn by 
 four horses, were pressed into service. Major Dor- 
 sett, the Sheriff of Windham county and Postmas 
 ter of Eastford, superintended the disposal of the 
 vehicles, and after a great deal of labor, and con 
 siderably after four o'clock, the cortege was set in 
 motion. First came the military, then the Missou- 
 rians in charge of the remains, deposited in a hearse 
 drawn by four jet black horses, which were brought 
 along from Hartford. Next came an immense 
 number of conveyances, carrying the relatives of the 
 deceased, and citizens. The roads were lined with 
 people, young and old, and flags at half-mast were 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 visible at almost every house the cortege passed. 
 The tolling of village church bells added materially 
 to the solemnity of the occasion. To give a correct 
 number of the vehicles in the procession would be 
 a thing next to impossible. Certain it is, however, 
 that they exceeded three hundred. 
 
 Eastford, which is sixteen miles distant from 
 Willimantic, but having a somewhat hilly yet not 
 impassable road leading thereto, was reached at 
 about nine o'clock by the head of the procession. 
 About a mile and a half from the town the Light 
 Guard, City Guard, of Hartford, with their band, 
 Mayor Conant and his party, composing the pall 
 bearers and numerous citizens, alighted from their 
 vehicles and formed in procession. On a hill, a short 
 distance to the right from where the cortege com 
 menced to move, was planted the six-pounder, men 
 tioned above as being carried by the Hartford City 
 Guard, which pealed forth minute salutes, while the 
 bells of the churches at Eastford tolled a mournful 
 chime. When the cortege came to within a half or 
 three-quarters of a mile from the town proper, the 
 road, being lined on either side with fine trees, 
 myriads of lights, candles, lanterns, rushes, and 
 every conceivable burning material were ignited to 
 illuminate the path. The people were arrayed on 
 the right and left of the road, the males respectfully 
 doffed their hats, while the females manifested signs 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 of respect and grief otherwise. Nearly all the win 
 dows of the houses in town were filled, and especi 
 ally those fronting the road on which the procession 
 passed. The whole scene was sad and affecting, 
 the band playing the " Dead March in Saul" as the 
 church was reached wherein the body of the illus 
 trious dead was to be deposited until the final burial 
 service, on the next day. The remains were placed 
 on a bier in the Congregational church, which is 
 situated on an eminence, west of the road by which 
 the cortege entered the village, but was reached 
 by a circuitous route, in order to give the townsfolk 
 an opportunity to see the torchlight procession. 
 
 The City Guard, in command of Captain Prentice, 
 had the honor of guarding the remains of General 
 Lyon during the night, the watches being set every 
 two hours, and relieved according to the rules of the 
 service. The remainder of the escort were taken 
 care of by the inhabitants, some of whom accommo 
 dated no less than fifteen or sixteen persons, and 
 supplied them with comfortable beds. And here it 
 will not be out of place to particularize the genial 
 hospitality of the inhabitants of Eastford, who were 
 only too pressing in forcing their bounty on their 
 guests. To mention any names, and not enumerate 
 the entire inhabitants, \vould do the latter great 
 injustice ; but the writer of this will be pardoned if 
 he pays the compliment of a notice to Rev. C. C. 
 
APPENDIX. 253 
 
 Adams, the Methodist Episcopal Minister ; H. B. 
 Burnharn, Esq. ; Rev. Mr. Chamberlin, of the Con 
 gregational church ; Dr. Robbins ; Foster Skinner, 
 Esq., and a few others, whose names he could not 
 obtain. To Mr. Burnham our reporter is personally 
 indebted for the courteous and hospitable manner 
 in which he treated him, inasmuch as the only 
 tavern in the town could not possibly accommodate 
 any more than were there already on the arrival of 
 the procession. 
 
 Having reached Eastford safely, deposited the 
 coffin and its esteemed remains under a guard at 
 the church, and disposing of the escort quartered 
 comfortably, we will now turn our attention to the 
 flourishing town itself, which, prior to this occur 
 rence, was comparatively unknown in this city, 
 except by those who stood in business connexion 
 with it, or had probably relatives residing there. 
 Otherwise, to the masses it was an unknown spot, 
 and to some it would even have been a difficult task 
 to point it out on the map. Nevertheless, Eastford 
 is not an unimportant town in the wooden nutmeg 
 State, as it will be seen directly. 
 
 The site of this place seems to have been selected 
 with an eye to the health of its inhabitants, as well 
 as a romantic location. Surrounded by hills, from 
 which a pure air is wafted, the soil affords the most 
 beautiful wells, which are sunk on an average about 
 
254 APPENDIX. 
 
 twenty feet below the surface. Through the east 
 side of the town flows a somewhat unimportant 
 river, known as " Still River," which is not naviga 
 ble, but is" used extensively for watering cattle. 
 Northward, about half a mile before reaching the 
 town, however, this stream falls a distance of about 
 thirty-five feet, the roar of which is somewhat simi 
 lar to the Buttermilk Falls at Troy. The water of 
 these falls runs with such rapidity that it would 
 prove invaluable as a power for manufacturing 
 purposes. 
 
 Eastford is situated in Windham County, sixteen 
 miles north of Willimantic, and twelve miles south 
 of Southbridge, near which latter place is the State 
 line. Eight miles east of the town is Putnam, a 
 station on the railroad leading to Norwich, Provi 
 dence, and Boston. 
 
 The industrial enterprise of the place consists of 
 the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods, shoe 
 manufactories, tanneries, etc., and likewise of con 
 siderable farming interest, the cultivated lands 
 being situated beyond the hills surrounding the 
 town. Windham county is the one that gave the 
 Republicans of Connecticut the majority at the last 
 election for Governor, and to the inhabitants of 
 that borough Governor Buckingham owes his elec 
 tion over his less successful democratic opponent, 
 General Pratt. 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 In our Revolutionary history the county of Wind- 
 ham has also played a most important rdle. Within 
 its borders lived General Israel Putnam, at Pom- 
 fred, five miles east of Eastford; the gallant Colonel 
 Knowlton and Hale were born at Ashford ; and 
 last, though not least, the lamented, brave, and 
 heroic General Lyon, who offered up his life on the 
 altar of his country's integrity, drew his first breath 
 of life in the romantic little village we here describe 
 Another star in the galaxy of renowned individuals, 
 who is claimed by the people of Eastford as one to 
 " the manner born," is the Hon. Galusha A. Grow, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is 
 only known as the Hon. Mr. Grow, of Pennsylva 
 nia, from the fact of his having resided there almost 
 since his infancy, but is nevertheless a native of the 
 " land of steady habits," and of Eastford. 
 
 The population of the town, as shown by the last 
 census, is somewhat over 1200. It also boasts of 
 three churches a Methodist, a Presbyterian, and 
 a Congregational, and a tavern tolerably well kept, 
 three stores, and very hospitable, generous people. 
 Pretty ladies also abound here. The produce 
 raised hereabout consists mainly of corn and fruit, 
 while hay forms a very important item to the farmer, 
 which pays him a very fair income. Poultry in 
 great numbers is raised by them, mainly for the 
 Boston market, and about the holidays hundreds of 
 
256 APPENDIX. 
 
 tons are sent to this "City of Notions" for home 
 consumption. The Bostonians, by paying a higher 
 price for that luxury than New Yorkers, are pre 
 ferred, and consequently receive almost the entire 
 stock raised in this neighborhood. 
 
 Sickness in the town of Eastford is a thing almost 
 unknown, and although it has a resident physician 
 a very clever man, Dr. Robbins if he had to 
 depend upon the cases coming under his care at 
 Eastford he could scarcely earn enough to feed his 
 horse. A Post Office, of which Major Dorsett is 
 the keeper, is also situated here, and a daily mail is 
 received from nearly all parts of the country. 
 
 The houses are mostly built of wood ; here and 
 there can be seen a structure of brick, or brown 
 granite; but the major portion are constructed with 
 rare architectural beauty, and the vegetable and 
 flower garden invariably grace the front side 
 thereof. 
 
 This is about as full a description as can be given 
 of this town, and it can scarcely be credited that 
 such a vast number of people as were assembled 
 there on the day of the obsequies of General Lyon 
 could have found accommodation for themselves or 
 their beasts. Thursday, the 5th of September, dawned 
 with all the brilliancy of an Indian summer morning. 
 The heavy dew soon melted before the rays of a 
 powerful sun, and had it not been the mournful 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 occasion that attracted the vast multitude, the 
 appearance of the town would have likened more a 
 fair on a gigantic scale than the funeral of a brave 
 and honored soldier. As it was, the scene the town 
 presented, even in its mournful aspect, was one of 
 solemn interest, moving the beholder to thought- 
 fulness, if not to gravity. 
 
 Almost from break of day the rattling of wheels 
 and patter of horses' feet were heard coming into 
 town, each vehicle loaded down to its utmost capa 
 city with men, women, and children, the occupants 
 being decked out in their Sunday-go-to-meeting 
 clothes. Huge baskets of provender accompanied 
 the expedition ; and, notwithstanding the mournful 
 errand, the good people from the country seemed 
 to be conscious of the fact that one cannot exist 
 upon grief and sympathy even for one day. 
 
 The fact of the remains being deposited in the 
 Congregational Church seemed to be known to all 
 corners, inasmuch as soon as the horses and wagons 
 were safely brought in everybody ascended the hill 
 upon which the little church is built, and from six 
 o'clock in the morning until near eleven one con 
 tinuous stream of people lined the road to the chapel. 
 On the slope of this eminence benches for the accom 
 modation of visitors were erected, while on the 
 edge of the highway, running below the hill of the 
 church, a distance of probably five hundred yards, 
 
258 APPENDIX. 
 
 stood a platform, about forty feet long and twenty 
 feet wide, covered with boards as a protection from 
 the sun. 
 
 On the platform were seated the chairman, the 
 orators, representatives of the press, and invited 
 guests. The seats fronting and in the immediate 
 vicinity of the platform were reserved for Mayor 
 Conant and the Missouri escort, as also for the 
 Hartford escort. 
 
 Mayor Dorsett, the marshal of the day, assisted 
 by numerous aids, constituted themselves into a 
 police corps, and kept order among the assembled 
 multitude, which, at the hour of opening the exer 
 cises, could not have amounted to less than fifteen 
 thousand people. 
 
 The platform was occupied by the following dis 
 tinguished personages: His Excellency Governor 
 Wm. A. Buckingham, of Connecticut ; his Excel 
 lency Governor Wm. Sprague, of Rhode Island, and 
 staff, consisting of Colonel Lyman B. Frieze, Colo 
 nel Tyron Sprague, Colonel John A. Gardner, Colo 
 nel Thomas Harris, Attorney General Walter S. 
 Burgess, and Paymaster General J. C. Knight ; 
 Mayor of Providence; Hon. Galusha A. Grow, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives ; Senator 
 Foster, Hon. A. A. Burnham, member of Congress, 
 from the Third District of Connecticut ; Major 
 General J. T. Pratt, Connecticut Militia ; Brigadier 
 
APPENDIX. 259 
 
 General Casey, United States Army; General 
 Schouler, of Massachusetts, of Governor Andrew's 
 staff; Colonel J. W. Witherell, do.; R. Mont 
 gomery Field, Esq., of the Boston Post / C. C. 
 Adams, Paymaster United States Army ; Captain 
 Knowlton, First Artillery, United States Army, 
 Instructor at West Point ; Hon. Richard Busteed, 
 of New York; Hon. J. B. Colt, of Missouri; his 
 Honor Mayor Deming and Postmaster Cleveland, 
 both of Hartford; Major Warner, of the Third 
 Connecticut Regiment ; Colonel Cooley, of the First 
 Connecticut Regiment ; Major H. J. Con ant, Aide 
 of the late General Lyon ; Captain J. B. Plummer, 
 First Infantry, United States Army ; Major G. G. 
 Lyon, Brigadier Surgeon to the late General Lyon ; 
 Captain G. P. Edgar, General Fremont's staff; 
 Lieutenant E. J. Clark, Third Missouri Reserve 
 Corps, and many other distinguished gentlemen, 
 both military and civic. 
 
 At half-past ten ex-Governor Cleveland called the 
 assembly to order, and in a terse and feeling man 
 ner stated the occasion of the vast concourse, and 
 begged the audience to pay particular attention to 
 the orators of the day. A chorus of ladies and gen 
 tlemen, led by Rufus Weston, chaunted the hymn : 
 
 '' Hark from the tomb a mournful sound." 
 
 After which an impressive prayer was offered up by 
 Rev. Mr. Williams, of Chaplin who was for ten 
 
260 APPENDIX. 
 
 years pastor of the church, opposite which the cere 
 monies were conducted for the deceased, his 
 friends, and the preservation of the country. 
 
 Ex-Governor Cleveland introduced Judge Elisha 
 Carpenter, of the Supreme Court, and residing at 
 Killingly, who delivered a lengthy oration on the 
 life, character, rise, and progress of General 
 Nathaniel Lyon, whose history he traced from his 
 birth until his untimely death on the 10th day of 
 August last, while gallantly leading his army. The 
 Hon. Galusha A. Grow followed the Judge in an 
 eloquent strain. 
 
 Mr. Grow commenced his address by remarking 
 that " once more he enjoyed the blessing of stand 
 ing upon his native heath, but he did not expect 
 that it would be upon so solemn and melancholy an 
 occasion. They had assembled at a sad hour ; they 
 mourned a nation's loss, and the soil that covers the 
 remains of a Putnam, a Hale and a Knowlton, and 
 shortly a Lyon, has already become sacred to the 
 memory of every patriot." The speaker then illus 
 trated how Martin Luther first incepted the revo 
 lution in religion while confined in a dreary dun 
 geon, and how successfully he accomplished it. He 
 then passed on to the period of the discovery of 
 this continent. He continued " Another period is 
 passed, and on an icy December morning the good 
 old ship May Flower lands her precious cargo on 
 
APPENDIX. 261 
 
 our shores, and a new era begins. But let us skip 
 a century and a new child is born. The Revolution, 
 like a flaming river, whose fires all the water 
 in the world could not quench, is instituted. A 
 Constitution is framed and a great nation declared 
 itself free and independent. We gained the victory 
 then, as also in 1812, and at present we are to see 
 whether that Constitution can be maintained against 
 the corruption and treason hatched by traitors, and 
 in whose defence the noble hero lying yonder, cold 
 and inanimate, sacrificed his life. Nations cannot 
 be punished in the next world, and must be in this. 
 The loss of war comes home to our (your) firesides ; 
 lives must be sacrificed, and the affliction of one 
 whom you love and respect is at the present at your 
 door. The speaker continued, that that was the 
 day to sow the soil with the blood of the noble mar 
 tyrs, from which would spring forth armed heroes 
 to defend that sacred Constitution fought for and 
 obtained by the hearts' blood of our ancestors. 
 While the shores of the Adriatic were desolated 
 with war, leaving its harrowing traces behind, we 
 see with horror the retrograde movement of one of 
 the greatest experiments. A revolution fought 
 three-fourths of a century ago must be fought over 
 again, and what a costly war it was. Yet to gain 
 our liberty, yet costly as it appeared, it was cheap 
 at any price. To maintain the integrity of our 
 
262 APPENDIX. 
 
 Government - such men as General Lyon suffered 
 death ; and when the time should come that free 
 Governments cannot be sustained, even at such 
 sacrifices, then we must give up in despair and pro 
 nounce republics a failure. But as long as a united 
 people are determined to stand by the Constitution, 
 and a Government the best and most liberal on 
 the face of the univer.se, such fears are impossible 
 to be realized. To-day your townsman falls, to-mor 
 row one from a distant State so it was in the days 
 of 1776 valuable lives were then lost as at present. 
 The flag watered by their blood is now dishonored, 
 and this is done by men born under the shade of 
 the flag of Washington, nurtured by the institutions 
 which were established by our forefathers, and who 
 are acting the parricide to perfection in delibe 
 rately trampling under foot the costly and dear- 
 bought victory of freedom. The speaker further 
 said, if four millions of people are competent to over 
 throw the work of our sires against twenty millions, 
 then it deserves to be a failure, and Uie sacrifice of 
 many valuable lives, like the one who lies in yon 
 der church, must invoke the very heavens for ven 
 geance on those by whose acts they have been made 
 martyrs. The meeting of the day, Mr. Grow con 
 tinued, was to pay a tribute of respect to one of the 
 martyrs of the present revolution. The boom of 
 the cannon at Lexington raised an obscure Colonel 
 
APPENDIX. 263 
 
 to the proud leader our forefathers had in General 
 Washington. More such men, who are at this 
 moment in obscurity, will be found to lead on our 
 victorious armies, and bring back our glorious 
 country to her former proud position. Let the bier 
 pass on. Nathaniel Lyon, though slain, will live 
 for ever in the memory of his countrymen. How 
 can a man die a nobler death than by facing the 
 fire for the sake of his country ? The very waters 
 will murmur a requiem to his memory. His body 
 is interred in his native soil, his monument is the 
 granite hills, and his headstone a nation's grief. 
 The speaker concluded with the following brilliant 
 sentence: Fortunate in life, he is doubly fortunate 
 in death. If there be on this earthly sphere a boon 
 and offering heaven holds dear, it is the last libation 
 liberty draws, and the heart that bleeds and breaks 
 in its cause. 
 
 Mr. Grow took his seat quietly, and even the 
 solemn occasion could not refrain the audience from 
 giving vent to their plaudits by clapping of hands. 
 
 Governor Wm. A. Buckingham was then intro 
 duced. In the course of his speech he remarked 
 that Ashford, in the days of the Revolution, gave 
 to the cause of liberty a Knowlton, who fell early, 
 and was lamented by General Washington ; and 
 to-day a vast concourse had assembled to pay 
 homage to the remains of another son of Ashford, 
 
264 APPENDIX. 
 
 whose loss a' nation mourns. Such men as Putnam, 
 Knowlton, Warren, and a host of others fought for 
 our freedom, a sacred Constitution, and all the bless 
 ings we have enjoyed were their handiwork. To 
 maintain its integrity the brave and honored son of 
 Connecticut fell a martyr. Thanking the audience 
 for their attention, and the Chairman for his com 
 pliments, Governor Buckingham gave way to the 
 popular Executive and gallant military chieftain 
 Wm. Sprague, Governor of Rhode Island. In 
 response to the wishes of the audience he mounted 
 a chair to address them. This was the first time in 
 his life, he said, that he had appeared before an 
 audience in another state ; but in order to become 
 more familiar with his neighbors he had pitched his 
 tent among them. He did not come to Eastford to 
 receive honors, but to do honor to the lamented 
 dead. He was proud to avail himself of the privi 
 lege to tread upon the native soil of one whose life 
 was sacrificed in the cause of his country. He 
 admonished all to emulate the example of General 
 Lyon in patriotic devotion to his country and her 
 cause. That country was now in danger. All our 
 efforts were necessary to preserve its purity. Even 
 women and children could be of great assistance. 
 Let every youth buckle on his armor and go bravely 
 to the field and do his duty there with patriotic 
 determination. Let our women imitate the example 
 
APPENDIX. 265 
 
 of the women of '76, and the contest will soon be 
 over. The time for words or debate has long since 
 passed, and at the present moment it is not the power 
 of argument, but the power of battalions that is the 
 sinew of war. These are the doctrines I promul 
 gated in my own state, and I take the liberty to 
 breathe them in another. Marshal your forces, 
 stem the tide, and bring back our country to its 
 original purity and glory. Rhode Island will do 
 her duty ; Connecticut must not forget her obliga 
 tion, and when victory again perches upon our ban 
 ners the states will be closer united than they have 
 been heretofore. The Governor continued for some 
 time in this patriotic strain, and finally gave way to 
 Judge Colt of Missouri. 
 
 The Judge spoke of the virtues of the deceased 
 soldier, whom, whilst in St. Louis, he had learned 
 to esteem for his many good qualities. He con 
 cluded by saying that if Connecticut had more men 
 like General Lyon in the field, Missouri would not 
 long remain in dread of rebel hordes. 
 
 Captain Edgar, of General Fremont's staff, paid 
 a high compliment to the deceased, also to Major 
 Conant ; Captain Plummer, of the First United 
 States Infantry who so signally distinguished him 
 self in the battle where General Lyon lost his life 
 Lieutenant Clark and the escort of the body from 
 St. Louis. 
 
 12 
 
266 APPENDIX. 
 
 Major Conant, aide to the deceased commander, 
 was also called upon and made a few appropriate 
 remarks. 
 
 Senator Foster was next introduced. He spoke 
 of the valor of General Lyon, and said he deemed 
 it an honor to have the remains of such a patriotic 
 and gallant man repose in his own native soil. General 
 Lyon was a brave man, and the citizens of Eastford 
 should show the country that they are worthy of 
 being his townsmen by enlisting in the cause in 
 which the former lost his life to defend. 
 
 Mayor Deming, of Hartford, spoke eloquently for 
 some time, enrapturing his hearers. He also paid 
 the highest compliments to the many good qualities 
 and undaunted heroism of the deceased, eulogizing 
 his acts at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, 
 where he shed his first blood for his country. In 
 Kansas, Oregon, and Missouri the heroic General 
 has fought bloody battles and distinguished himself. 
 His Honor concluded : " How sweet and glorious 
 it is to die for one's country and for people's liberty." 
 
 The Hon. Richard Busteed, of this city, who was 
 present by invitation, closed the exercises with an 
 eloquent and affecting address which, for want of 
 room, we are compelled to omit after which the 
 assemblage dispersed for the purpose of taking 
 some refreshments before proceeding to the burial 
 ground, two and a half miles distant. The speakers 
 
APPENDIX. 267 
 
 and guests were entertained with a bountiful repast 
 by the Committee, Governor Sprague occupying 
 the head of the table, with Governor Buckingham 
 on his right and Major General Pratt on his left. 
 Rev. Mr. Chamberlin said grace before the meal. 
 
 The funeral cortege assumed its march about half- 
 past three o'clock in the following order : 
 
 A cavalcade of one hundred and fifty horsemen 
 in command of Colonel Sabine ; Tiger Engine Com 
 pany, No. 7, of Southbridge; Home Guard, of 
 Woodstock; Band; Light Guard, of Hartford; 
 Colt's Army Band; Hearse; City Guards; Pall- 
 Bearers, both sides ; Officers of Army and Navy ; 
 Principal mourners and relatives of deceased ; Citi 
 zens on foot, and citizens in carriages. 
 
 The procession was at least a mile and a half in 
 length. The pall-bearers were Governor Sprague 
 and Major General Pratt on the right, and Gover 
 nor Buckingham and Brigadier General Casey on 
 the left. It was generally and favorably remarked 
 how well Governor Buckingham and General Pratt 
 fraternized in behalf of our country, since only a 
 short time has elapsed when these two gentlemen 
 were gladiators in the political arena for guberna 
 torial honors. 
 
 The burial ground, which is located at a village 
 called Phoenixville, two and a half miles distant 
 from Eastford, was not reached until nearly fire 
 
268 APPENDIX. 
 
 o'clock. The plot in which the remains were clepo 
 sited is the family vault, embracing about t\venty 
 five feet square, surrounded by four granite pillars, 
 from which iron chains are fastened to serve as a 
 railing. In this lot the deceased members of the 
 Lyon family are interred, among whom are the 
 father and mother of the late General. 
 
 The graveyard is small, and lies in a vale sur 
 rounded by sloping hills. In the centre thereof 
 weeping willows of great height and beauty serve 
 not only for shadow, but to ornament this home 
 stead of the dead. The hills were thickly dotted 
 with human masses, and the military, forming a hol 
 low square around the fresh made grave, the fire 
 men immediately in the rear, and the people stand 
 ing and sitting on the sloping hills, altogether formed 
 a scene for a Church or a Kenset to reduce to canvass. 
 
 Rev. C. C. Adams, the Methodist minister of 
 Eastford, performed the Methodist Episcopal burial 
 ceremonies; Major Conant, Captain Edgar and the 
 St. Louis escort partially filling up the grave; after 
 which the City Guard, under orders of Captain 
 Prentice, fired a volley of three rounds over the 
 grave, while the band performed a dirge. The 
 spectators then quietly withdrew. The relatives 
 expressed their sincere thanks to the St. Louis escort 
 for their kindness in closely guarding the remains. 
 
 The relatives of the late General Lyon consist of 
 
APPENDIX. 269 
 
 two brothers, John and William, both of whom 
 live in Windham county ; Mr. J. B. Hasler, who 
 married a sister of the General, residing at Web 
 ster, Massachusetts, and an unmarried sister. The 
 brothers are men of family, and mostly all of their 
 offspring were present on this occasion. 
 
 The ceremonies attendant upon the interment of 
 General Lyon will form part of the history as yet 
 unwritten, and the inhabitants of the quiet little 
 town of Eastford will, a long time hence, remember 
 the immense congregation assembled within its pre 
 cincts to pay the last tribute of respect to the remains 
 of the valiant but unfortunate chieftain. To Major 
 Conant, Captain Plummer, Captain Edgar, Lieute 
 nant Clark and the eight members of the Third 
 Missouri Reserve Corps, the greatest credit is due 
 for their unceasing watchfulness over the corpse 
 entrusted to their charge. 
 
 The people having paid just homage to the gal 
 lant Lyon, and his own native soil covering his now 
 inanimate body, let us drop a tear to his memory 
 and turn away to brighter scenes, encourage our 
 living heroes to do their duty to their country like 
 the illustrious deceased, and our land will very soon 
 again enjoy the blessings of which rebel traitors 
 endeavored to rob her. 
 
 Requiescat in pace. 
 
IN MEMORY OF GEN. LYON. 
 
 Enfurl our flag half-mast to-day, 
 In sorrow 'mid the clang of war, 
 
 Each crimson stripe is turned to gray, 
 To black each golden star. 
 
 The drooping breeze scarce stirs a fold, 
 The birds complain with fettered breath, 
 
 The clouds hang sullenly and cold 
 For lo ! a hero's death ! 
 
 From far Missouri's prairie plain, 
 
 The echo of his battle cry 
 Sounds and recedes, and sounds again 
 
 His life-earned victory. 
 
 O, Lyon ! on thy martial bier 
 
 The tears of grateful millions flow ; 
 
 And treason well may shrink and fear 
 Its fated overthrow. 
 
NATHANIEL LYON. 271 
 
 For wheresoe'er thy comrades stand, 
 
 To face the traitors, as of yore, 
 Thy prescient spirit shall command, 
 
 And lead the charge once more. 
 
 Then fling our flag mast-high to-day, 
 Triumphant 'mid the clang of war, 
 
 And death to him who shall betray 
 One single stripe or star ! 
 
 New York Evening Post. 
 
LYON. 
 
 Sing, bird, on green Missouri's plain, 
 
 Thy saddest song of sorrow : 
 Drop tears, Oh clouds, in gentlest rain 
 
 Ye from the winds can borrow ; 
 Breathe out, ye winds, your softest sigh, 
 
 Weep, flowers, in dewy splendor, 
 For him who knew well how to die, 
 
 But never to surrender. 
 
 Uprose serene the August sun 
 
 Upon that day of glory ; 
 Upcurled from musket and from gun 
 
 The war-cloud gray and hoary. 
 It gathered like a funeral pall, 
 
 Now broken and now blended, 
 Where rang the bugle's angry call, 
 
 And rank with rank contended. 
 
LYON. 273 
 
 Four thousand men, as brave and true 
 
 As e'er went forth in daring, 
 Upon the foe that morning threw 
 
 The strength of their despairing. 
 They feared not death men bless the field 
 
 That patriot soldiers die on 
 Fair Freedom's cause was sword and shield, 
 
 And at their head was Lyon ! 
 
 Their leader's troubled soul looked forth 
 
 From eyes of troubled brightness ; 
 Sad soul ! the burden of the North 
 
 Had pressed out all its lightness. 
 He gazed upon the unequal fight, 
 
 His ranks all rent and gory, 
 And felt the shadows close like night 
 
 Round his career of glory. 
 
 " General, come lead us !" loud the cry 
 From a brave band was ringing 
 
 " Lead us, and we will stop, or die, 
 That battery's awful singing." 
 
274 LYON. 
 
 He spurred to where his heroes stood, 
 Twice wounded no wound knowing 
 
 The fire of battle in his blood 
 And on his forehead glowing. 
 
 Oh, cursed for aye that traitor's hand, 
 
 And cursed that aim so deadly, 
 Which smote the bravest of the land, 
 
 And dyed his bosom redly ! 
 Serene he lay while past him pressed 
 
 The battle's furious billow, 
 As calmly as a babe may rest 
 
 Upon its mother's pillow. 
 
 So Lyon died ! and well may flowers 
 
 His place of burial cover, 
 For never had this land of ours 
 
 A more devoted lover. 
 Living, his country was his bride, 
 
 His life he gave her dying ; 
 Life, fortune, love he naught denied 
 
 To her and to her sighing. 
 
LYON. 275 
 
 Rest, Patriot, in thy hill-side grave, 
 
 Beside her form who bore thee ! 
 Long may the land thou diedst to save 
 
 Her bannered stars wave o'er thee ! 
 Upon her history's brightest page, 
 
 And on Fame's glowing portal, 
 She'll write thy grand, heroic rage, 
 
 And grave thy name immortal ! 
 
 H. P. 
 
 Philda. Saturday Post. 
 
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READT THIS WEEK. 
 FAST DAY SERMONS. 
 
 Large duodecimo, handsomely bound in muslin. 
 Price $1.25. 
 
 A volume comprising the most marked and important dis 
 courses from prominent pulpits throughout the United States 
 both North and South on the questions now convulsing the 
 whole country. 
 
 Nearly all of these sermons have created such general interest, 
 that they have been printed largely in the public journals, as 
 well as in separate pamphlets, in which form their circulation is 
 counted by tens of thousands. 
 
 The selection embraces such well known names as 
 
 DR. PALMER, of New Orleans, 
 
 DR. RAPHALL, the celebrated Jewish Rabbi, 
 
 REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, 
 
 DR. THORNWELL, of South Carolina, 
 
 REV. HENRY J. VAN DYKE, of Brooklyn, 
 
 PROFESSOR TAYLER LEWIS, New York, 
 
 DR. BELLOWS, New York, 
 
 DR. BRECKINRIDGE, of Lexington, Ky., 
 
 DR. VINTON, Trinity Church, New York, 
 
 DR. WILLIAM ADAMS, New York, 
 
 DR. DABNEY, of Virginia. 
 
 The absorbing subject of these sermons, their variety of 
 treatment, and the collection in one volume of prominent dis 
 courses from Divines of the very highest rank, combine to pre 
 sent a book of unusual and incomparable excellence. 
 
 ALSO PUBLISHED SEPARATELY, 
 
 In elegant cloth limp covers. Price 25 cents each. 
 RABBI RAFHALL'S discourse, "Bible View of Slavery." 
 
 AND 
 
 DR. WILLIAM ADAMS'S discourse, "Prayer for Rulers." 
 
 *** Any of the above will be sent by mail, POSTAGE FREE, on 
 receipt of the price, by 
 
 RUDD & CARLETON, Publishers, 
 
 130 GRAND ST., NEW YORK. 
 
DR. CUMMING'S NEW WORKS. 
 THE GREAT TRIBULATION ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Things Coming on the Earth. 
 
 BY REV. JOHN GUMMING, D.D. MINISTER OF THE SCOTTISH 
 
 NATIONAL CHURCH, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN, 
 
 LONDON. AUTHOR OF " APOCALYPTIC SKETCHES," 
 
 ETC., ETC., ETC. 
 
 In two Series, 12mo. muslin bound. Fit her Series sold 
 separately. Price $1.00 eacb. 
 
 THE GREAT PREPARATION; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Redemption Draweth Nigh. 
 
 BY REV. JOHN GUMMING, D.D. AUTHOR OF "THE G-REAT 
 TRIBULATION," &c. 
 
 In two Series, 12mo. muslin bound. EitHer Series sold 
 separately. Price $1.00 each. 
 
 *jit* These remarkable Volumes of Sermons, by the EEV. DR. GUMMING, of 
 London, have created a most extraordinary interest throughout the reading 
 religious community. They are marked, in the opinion of theological critics^ 
 among the moxt important of recent contributions to the literature of the 
 Prophecies. Their sale has been enormous. 
 
 Copies of either will be sent by mail, POSTAGE FREE, on receipt of 
 price, by 
 
 RUDD & CARLETON, Publishers, 
 
 130 G-RAND ST., NEW YORK. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 BOOKS REQUESTED BY ANOTHER BORROWER 
 ARE SUBJECT TO RECALL AFTER ONE WEEK. 
 RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO 
 IMMEDIATE RECALL 
 
 UCD LIBRARY 
 
 
 LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS 
 
 Book Slip-Series 458 
 
2018UO 
 
 Lyon, N. 
 
 Last political 
 
 L 
 
 yon 
 
 Call Number: 
 
 L96 
 
 201840