LIFE LIFK OF GEN. BEN HARRISON, . P,Y LEW . AUTHOR OF "BEN HUR," "FAIR GOD," ETC. ILLUSTRATED. HUBBARD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, PHILADELPHIA, CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY, A. L. BANCROFT & CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. CoPYAIGftT,i388^ K^ HUBBARD BROS. PREPACK. r I " HE critical reader will discover in this biography many crudities in the way of unstudied sentences and inapposite paragraphing, not to speak of words badly chosen. It is thought, however, that the reminder of the one month given in which to prepare it for the press will be sufficient to win him to the side of mercy. Dictation is undoubtedly a conveniency -where one is under whip and spur, but as a method its tendencies are all to slovenliness and inexactitude. Here it was an only resort. Apropos of the prefatory, the political world is served with special notice that while General Harrison was very kind in furnishing the writer with information when it was requested of him, he is in no degree re sponsible for anything in the work, except it appears in the form of a copy or extract from his own reported ut terances. He neither read nor heard read one line of the text; neither was he consulted as to the topics treated nor the arrangemejiLacIopted ; in short, his sole ~ o 7 b ( S ) 6 PREFACE. responsibility in the connection, aside from the excep tion stated, is referable to the fact that when it was put upon him to choose a biographer he expressed a prefer ence for the undersigned. LEW. WALLACE. NEWPORT, R. I., August 6, 1888. CONTENTS. LIFE OF BENJAMIN HARRISON CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY. Thomas Harrison Benjamin Harrison, the Signer William Henry Harrison John Scott Harrison . . . _ . . . IJ CHAPTER II. CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. " Symmes Purchase " Old Tippecanoe s Wedding Settled at North Bend Tippecanoe s Home Life John Scott Harrison s Home Life Benjamin Harrison s Childhood His Schooling Church-going Academic Work In College His Literary Preferences His Mother s Influence Miss Caroline W. Scott His Graduating Speech 3? CHAPTER III. THE LAWYER. Out into Life A Law Student Married Settled in Indianapolis Early Struggles Crier in the Federal Court His First Trial Success An Extempore Speaker At Housekeeping Partner ships A Tilt with Mr. Hendricks Growing Reputation Su preme Court Reporter The War Off to the Front Ousted from the Reportership Triumphantly Re-elected Back from the (7) 8 CONTENTS. Front Habits as a Lawyer The Defence of General Hovey Harrison s Argument in Full The " Lieutenant-Governor s Case " The Case Stated Scene in the State Senate Chamber General Harrison s Argument A Partner s Estimate of Harrison The Case Rested , . " - 66 CHAPTER IV. THE SOLDIER. The Dark Days of 1862 More Troops Demanded Interview with. Governor Morton Enlisted for the War Second Lieutenant Colonel of the Indiana Seventieth To Bowling Green Bridge Building Successful Attack on a Camp Army Associates Guarding Railroads Drilling the Troops Located in the 2Oth Corps Grant in Command of the Armies Activity Under Sher man At Resaca The Battle of Resaca Topography Plan of the Battle An Early Start Getting Ready for the Fight Fix Bayonets Charge ! Forward ! The Redoubt Captured The Guns Secured Resaca at Mercy Building Breastworks Living Under Fire New Hope Church Cold and Wet In a Wrong Position Harrison in the Hospital A Discomfited Majov At Gilgal Church Coffee and Hard-tack Off Again Kenesaw Mountain An Assault Checked The General Engagement To pography of the Field The Fight Johnston "Off with the Wind" Again Peach Tree Creek Awaiting Battle Sharp Fighting Clubbed Muskets Critical Moments Hooker s Com pliment to Harrison A Shotted Salute Harrison Ordered to Home Duty Back at the Front The Battle of NashvilleCol ored Troops Down with Illness Rejoins Sherman Promoted The Grand Review. OPINIONS OF OLD COMRADES. Richard M. Smock M. G. McLain William H. Cooper Captain P. S. Carson General John Coburn Daniel Watts Fred Hummel Rev. Edmund Muse Colonel Samuel Merrill Captain H. A. Ford Andrew A. Bu chanan End of Military History . * . . . . 177 CONTENTS. 9 ( CHAPTER V. THE POLITICIAN. Political Parties Born of Popular Liberty Birth of the Republican Party Its First Nominating Convention Its Second Convention "Popular Sovereignty" Election of Abraham Lincoln The War Reconstruction Existing Issues Harrison s Political Be ginnings In the Fremont Campaign Subsequent Presidential Campaigns His Gubernatorial Canvass Declination Com pelled to Accept the Nomination On the Stump Pen Sketch of his Opponent Uncle Jimmy Williams Defeated, but Honored Services for his Party Esteemed by President Garfield Chosen United States Senator Resuming his Law Practice. REPUBLICAN CONVENTION of 1888. Place of Meeting Organiza tion Balloting Choice Vice-Presidential Nominee Visit of the Committee to Inform him General Harrison s Reply. OPINIONS ON LIVE ISSUES. Civil Service Reform Civil Rights Surplus in the Treasury A Stable Currency- The Financial Ques tion Fiat Heresy The Tariff The Labor Question Pensions Foreign Policy Restoration of the American Navy Miscellane ous Politics Crimes Against the Ballot Suppression of the Re publican Vote Control by the Majority Public Lands Trusts and " Combines " Anarchists Prohibition and the Third Party The Soldier s Friend American Steamships Ireland and Irish men Sisters of Charity Labor Strikes of 1877 Governor s Proclamation Governor Williams and Captain Harrison Peace able Settlement Intercession for Strikers Memorials from Knights of Labor The Outlook The Chinese Question Anson Burlingame The Banquet at the Lick House The Chinese Treaty The Restriction Law of 1882 The word " Laborers" The Restriction Law Passed. WAITING FOR THE VERDICT ........ 247 ILLUSTRATIONS. GENERAL BENJAMIN HARRISON (Steel) Frontispiece. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON PAGE 27 TIPPECANOE PROCESSION " 31 RIVER VIEW AT " SYMMES PUR-CHASE" " 39 IDEAL TIPPECANOE LOG-CABIN " 45 HARRISON S FIRST HOME IN INDIANAPOLIS " 79 HARRISON S PRESENT HOME " 273 MRS. BENJAMIN HARRISON " 349 (13) GEN. BENJAMIN HARRISON A BIOGRAPHY. BY GENERAL LEW. WALLACE, AUTHOR OF "BEN HUR." 05) CHAPTER I ANCESTRY. EVERY citizen is free to contend for honor and preferment in our country, and the contention is perpetual. A peculiarity of the struggle is that the whole people witness the start, the effort, and the outcome. When at length a contestant emerges from the throng, ready to lay his hand upon one of the great prizes, every spectator de- Imands to know all there is knowable of him. The subject of this sketch has just reached that point in a career for the Presidency, and it is to at least partially gratify the hunger of the multi tude for information of the man that these pages are respectfully offered them. There shall never be a perfect biography that does not tell the reader who its subject is, and what, aside from his name and the place and date of his birth. That shall be the best biography which gives us the incidents of his life, and at the same time an insight into his nature and charac ter ; so that, when we have risen from the read ing, it will be possible to say and believe we know him in and out, and that he is worthy or unworthy our respect and confidence. 15 BENJAMIN HARRISON. To every life there is a beginning and an end; it is the same in the narration of lives, only the difficulty in the latter is to find the true beginning. That difficulty is before the writer now. Undoubtedly the American people, when sitting in judgment upon an individual who has ventured to claim their attention and bespeak their good will, care little for his ancestry. It is the person himself that is on trial. They know that good fathers have base children ; and in such cases the invocation of the worthy progenitors, by exciting compassion for them as a result of comparison, but intensifies the opinion invariably reached re specting the descendants. On the other hand, if the record discloses a scion in whom the noble traits of his forefathers are continued and yet further exemplified, the same people rejoice at the discovery and make haste to take him into favor. In fact this is the American law of the case well for the parent if he have a worthy son, well for the son if he have had a worthy parent. With such a view of the law, there would be no hesitation on the part of the writer in dealing with the ancestry of the Benjamin Harrison whose life he is called upon to give. There is no fear of the consequences of fair comparison. The traits that endeared the forefathers to their coun trymen will be found in the descendant. The qualities of mind that raised them to distinction ANCESTRY. 1 9 have been not less promotive of him. Their de votion to freedom, to the good of the masses, to principle, to truth and God, he has equally illus trated. They were wise in peace ; so is he. Their courage in war has been a matter of emu lation with him. They were willing to be offered in sacrifice for their country ; he has made it possible for his generation to believe them sincere in the offer. The question, however, admits of another view. Simple literary requirement bids that notice be taken of the antecedent Harrisons. A man s history is often found quite as much in what has gone before his birth as in what has succeeded it. Omission of the first part would leave his biog raphy but half written. If the reader is careless of the first part, he is at liberty to skip it: never theless, as certainly as a book has a reader, it has also a critic. We take the liberty of giving this chapter to the ancestry of Benjamin Harrison, the Republican candidate for President. THOMAS HARRISON. There was in the first half of the sixteenth cen tury a Thomas Harrison, known as Harrison the Cromwellian. It is thought that he began life as a vendor of beef in the open market, and he might have continued such indefinitely in his native England but for the quarrel between Charles I. and Parliament. Macaulay has made 2O BENJAMIN HARRISON. it unnecessary to speak at length of the points involved in that dispute. Briefly stated, the king claimed certain privileges by prerogative right. Parliament denied the claim, and protested against it in the name of the people of England. There tofore there had been English kings and barons ; then for the first time an English people was dis tinctively heard of. The dispute was waged through a long term of years. Parliaments came and went at the royal pleasure. At last one assem bled to stay. In the meantime battles had been fought, and war grew into a normal condition of the country, finally involving Cromwell and his Roundhead battalions. With reputation born of hard fighting and much praying, not to speak of a skillful use of Scriptural phrases, illustrative of sincere religious convictions, up, one of many, rose Thomas Harrison. Swapping his butcher s apron for a martial cloak, he at length appeared a Lieutenant-General, beloved by the companies, trusted by Cromwell. Nor were his talents of exclusive application to the field. One great day he was found in his seat, a member of the Parlia mentary Court in session for the trial of Charles I. There is an historical picture of the assemblage in ruffs and broad-brimmed, steeple-crowned hats, sitting solemn as ghosts, with the king over against them face-to-face. A company of ghosts had been doubtlessly of pleasanter aspect and sweeter effect to the monarch s troubled soul ANCESTRY. 2 1 Lieutenant-General Harrison was amongst them. Though now unrecognizable, we know he was there because his signature, in a hand clear, legible, almost as bold as John Hancock s on an instrument of yet greater celebrity, may be read below the death-warrant which was the final reso lution of the high court. Opposite it is his seal in red wax on which, singularly enough, is stamped an eagle winged like the bird on our silver dollar. The staunchness of the man was subsequently tested. Upon the return of the royalists to power, like other regicides, he might have fled to America, and found refuge in its impenetrable woods. That, however, was not his way. He remained at home, was seized, summarily con victed, and executed. Pepys was an eye-witness .of the execution, and saw the heart of the round head Lieutenant-General borne round as evi dence that the son of the king had come to his own again. This Thomas Harrison, right-hand man of the great English Protector, has been claimed by certain historians as ancestor of the American Harrisons. The proofs do not exactly sustain the assertion. The date of the emigration of the descendants of the unfortunate soldier is wanting. In fact it is not positively known that he had de scendants to emigrate. Still a tradition in the family holds him one of them, and it is corrob orated by the probabilities. England under 22 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Charles II. would have been an unpleasant resi dence for children of a regicide. The induce ments to fly to Virginia were irresistible. But whatever of truth there may be in the claim that Thomas Harrison the Cromwellian was a fore father of the present candidate for the Presidency is of little consequence, except as it may establish that the family is of Roundhead origin versus Cavalier, and that its founder, rising from the people, fought, and died for the people. Wher ever the dust of the heart torn from his breast for the perfection of the revenge of a tyrant may be, pity that it is unrecognizable ! There would be one at least to hold it sacred. Wherever his bones were buried, if burial they had, peace to them! BENJAMIN HARRISON, THE SIGNER. The next ancestor of whom we hear is of posi tive identity. There is a genealogical tree of the Carters of Virginia of elaborate and careful preparation on which appears the name of one Benjamin Har rison, of Berkley. He secured his place on the record by virtue of intermarriage with the Car ters. A little further on appears a second Ben jamin Harrison, also of Berkley, and he has the immortal inscription attached to his name SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. He is recorded as having married a Miss Bas- ett. ANCESTRY. *3 Thenceforward the genealogy of the American Harrisons is removed from doubt. The Carter tree referred to shows several children born to the second Benjamin, of whom William Henry Harrison was second son. There was great glory in being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Still it might have been a fortuity. Happy accidents are of daily occurrence. Let us turn to history and see what kind of man the signer was. In what esteem did his contemporaries and fellow-citizens hold him ? The answer may surprise a great many readers. It is right, moreover, to measure his influence and capacity by the honors of which he died possessed. In 1764, when little more than a boy, he was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, of which he quickly became Speaker. This was in provincial days. Attracting notice of the royal governor, that worthy sought to win him to his side. Directly that the excitement caused by the passage of the Stamp Act arose, young Harrison was offered a seat in the Executive Council. He rejected the overture. Throwing off all reserve, he proclaimed himself a Republican, and from that time was a leader in the opposition to British oppression. In 1774 he was one of the first seven delegates from Virginia to the Continental Congress. In 1775 he was re-elected delegate to Con gress. 24 BENJAMIN HARRISON. In the same year he was of the committee ap pointed by Congress to co-operate with George Washington, then chief commander of the army before Boston, in devising ways and means for military operations. In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was under consideration by Congress in com mittee of the whole, he was in the chair presid ing. On the 4th of July he voted for the Decla ration, and on the 4th of August signed it. In 1777 he resigned his seat in Congress, but was at once elected a Burgess, and upon taking his seat in the House was chosen Speaker, and remained such until 1782. Arnold invading Vir ginia, Harrison was made commander of the militia of his county, and rendered good service in repelling the traitor. Yet later he took the field against Cornwallis. In 1782 he was elected Governor of Virginia, then a State of the American Union. Having filled the office twice in succession, he retired to private life only to be returned again to the House of Burgesses. In 1791 he was chosen Governor of the State a third time, but died before inauguration. It is not possible to sneer away the honor of this record. Indeed, it would be surpassingly strange should such be the disposition of any American. If the glory attaching to a Signer of the Declaration might not be transcended, it was ANCESTRY. t$ left to a son to sustain and even add to it. Let us see. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Benjamin, the Signer, was rich when he entered public service; but as the newly born country was poor, he was lavish of his own means, and died in comparative poverty. The second son, William Henry, was under age when his father was laid away. Though he had the guardianship of Robert Morris, the financier, his affairs were so badly off that he determined to find a livelihood in the prac tice of medicine, and for that purpose was in Hampden Sidr,y College when a great Indian war broke out ;n the West. He laid his books aside to join St. Glair s army. Robert Morris opposed the scheme, but President Washington favored it, and commissioned him ensign in the first regiment of regular artillery, then in garrison at Fort Washington, in the vicinity of Cincinnati. This, let u be remembered, was when he was nineteen years of a^e. j & He won his first distinction immediately. Har- mer had been defeated by the Indians. A like misfortune befell St. Clair. The consternation was universal. He performed a perilous duty in the dead of winter with such eclat that his vet eran chief St. Clair caused him to be promoted full lieutenant. In 1793 he joined Mad Anthony Wayne, and was installed aide-de-camp. In 26 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Wayne s official report of his victory he made mention "of his gallant aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Harrison," who was shortly promoted captain, and placed in command of Fort Washington, with discretionary authority. In 1797 Wayne died. Captain Harrison re signed from the army, and was appointed Secre tary of the Northwestern Territory, and ex-officio Lieu tenant-Governor. So satisfactory to the people was the young man s administration that, in 1 798, the Territory having become entitled to a seat in Congress, he was chosen delegate. In the first session succeeding, the Northwest, ern Territory was divided ; a separate Territory, now the State of Ohio, was carved out of it, the residue becoming the Territory of Indiana, of which Harrison was appointed Governor The vastness of the region which thus fell under his sway was but little comprehended. It embraced Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and all the vaguely bounded Louisiana, then of re cent purchase. Few empires have equalled it in extent. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin as at that time constituted had three important white settlements : Clark s Grant at the falls of the Ohio ; Vincennes on the Wabash ; a third on the Mississippi. The country, forest and prairie, Was Indian. The business of the young Gover nor was to wrest it from savagery ; and for that ANCESTRY. I J purpose he was clothed with power more nearly imperial than any ever exercised by one man in the Republic. He was authorized to adopt and publish such laws, civil and criminal, as were best adapted to the condition of the Territory; he could arbitrarily create townships and counties, and appoint civil officers, and militia officers under the grade of general. Most extraordinary of all, however, to him belonged the confirmation of an important class of land grants. In this re gard his authority was absolute. Other approval or countersign was not required. The applica tion was to him originally ; his signature was the perfect evidence of title. When one thinks of the temptations to which he was subjected, and of the fortune he might have amassed, the fact that he issued from the trial poor, and without a taint upon his honor, must be regarded as cred itable to him in the highest degree. His repu tation may be rested upon this circumstance quite as safely as upon his military record. As Governor nf ..Indiana .fTarrUnn was ex- officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to which was shortly added the commissionership for treat ing with the Indians. These duties brought him into connection with the tribes, and ultimately called him to the field against them. The sketch, necessarily hurried and brief, pre sents William Henry Harrison as a civilian ; the reader is now invited to study him as a soldier. 28 BENJAMIN HARRISON. He must be brought to mind a young man, tall, slender, handsome, of graceful carnage, military in manner, with large black eyes and an intel lectual face. In 1 798, when he was ruler of the Territory of Indiana, he was but twenty-five years of age, and of extremely youthful appearance. From Vincennes, his seat of government, he held communication with the authorities of Wash ington, and strove to keep the great Indian tribes in check, basing his policy in dealing with them upon a foundation of justice. He could probably have kept peace with them but for the intrigues of the British in Canada, and the ambition of the two brothers, Tecumseh, the Crouching Panther, and Elkswatawa, the Loud Voice or Prophet. In 1806 these children of the forest dreamed of a universal confederation of all the tribes for the redemption of the Western world from the usurpations of the pale-faces, and to that end set a great conspiracy on foot. They had promises of support from the Father beyond the Great Lake. Eventually Tecumseh challenged the young governor at Vincennes to the conflict. There were at that time scalps of white women and children flying on a string at his wigwam door. The defiance was accepted. Harrison took the field in person. On the morning of November 7, 181 1, he fought and won the battle of Tippecanoe. The victory, as respects consequence, was ANCESTRY. 29 nullified by the war with England, known as the War of 1812. The first engagement was disastrous to the American arms. The surrender of Fort Detroit by General Hull, after a fight which remains incomprehensible to this day, gave the enemy a base of operations on the soil of the United States. It had the effect, however, of arousing the martial spirit of the entire Northwest. The thoughts of all the men in that region turned to Harrison as their saviour. The jealousy of the then Secretary of War was evaded by his appoint ment as Major- General of the Militia of Kentucky. On the ist of September, 1812, the President formally commissioned him Brigadier-General, with instructions to take command of all the forces in the Territories of Indiana and Illinois. His authority was remarkable " Exercise your own discretion, and act in all cases according to your own judgment." He was already in the field when the instruction was received. Afterwards everywhere that he met the enemy in person he was successful. He repulsed the British and Indians at Fort Meigs. To a demand for surrender, he replied, " Tell General Proctor that if he shall take the fort it will be under circumstances that will do him more honor than a thousand surrenders." In an open field fight on the banks of the Thames he drove the British from their chosen 30 BENJAMIN HARRISON. position. Tecumseh fell there fighting like a hero. His confederacy fell with him. The reputation of Harrison spread throughout the nation, and, driven to resignation by the jeal ousy of Armstrong, Secretary of War, he left the army with the popular entitlement of FATHER OF THE NORTHWEST. From the alarms of war the good man sought peace in the bosom of his family. But again the people demanded service of him. In 1824 he was elected Senator of the United States from Ohio. Then, after a short term as Minister to the Republic of Colombia, he retired to his home at North Bend on the Ohio river. The governor, the general, the senator, resolved him self into the farmer, and, old Roman-like, was con tent to follow the plough. Still the people claimed him. On the 4th of December, 1839, a National Whig Convention at Harrisbtirg, Pennsylvania, nominated him unanimously their candidate for the Presidency. The race was one of the most memorable in our political annals. Eighteen hundred and forty became a year of mark for events public and private. Never was there a rising of the people so spontaneous and effective. The whole land teemed with processions and re sounded with songs. William Henry Harrison was elected, and as President of the United States administered the government precisely one month, ANCESTRY. 3T when he died, leaving a clean record of the most varied service extending through a period of fifty years. The day will come when the humble tomb, sheltering the bones of the hero on the knoll above the Ohio, will be changed to a monu ment significant of the gratitude of the millions at home in the Northwest, with the redemption of which he had so much to do as Citizen and Sol dier. The message he delivered at his inauguration on the 4th of March, 1841, was a plain document of the style of Washington. Some of the senti ments advanced therein have a peculiar per tinency to politics of to-day. The following ex tracts will no doubt be understood and appreci-- ated: But the greatest danger to our institutions appears to me to be, not so much in an usurpation by the Gov ernment collectively of power not granted by the people, as in the accumulation in one of the departments of powers which were assigned to others I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of, and the correctives which maybe applied. Some of the former are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the constitution. Others in my judgment are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions. Of the former is the ineligibility of the same individual to a second term of the presidency. The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson early saw and lamented this error It may be observed, however, as a general truth, that no Republic can commit a greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in its system of government which 32 BENJAMIN HARRISON. maybe calculated to create or increase the love of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce that effect than the long continuance in the same hands of an office of high trust. Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more dangerous to all those noble sentiments and principles which form the character of a devoted Republican pa triot. When this insidious passion once takes posses sion of the human mind like the love of gold it becomes insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, which grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. If this be true it is the part of wisdom for a Republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has entrusted the manage ment of -her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the ac countable agent, not the principal ; the servant, not the master, of the people. Until an amendment to the Con stitution can be effected, public opinion, if firm in its demands, may secure the desired object. I cheerfully second it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term. I consider the veto power, therefore, given by the Constitution to the executive of the United States, solely as a conservative power to be used only 1st To protect the Constitution from violation. 2d. The people from the effects of hasty legislation, where their will has been probably disregarded or not \vell understood, and 3d. To prevent the effects of combinations, violative of the rights of minorities. JOHN SCOTT HARRISON. The third son of President William H. Har rison was christened John Scott. His life was ANCESTRY. 33 comparatively uneventful. Still it should not be passed as unworthy separate notice. His youth was spent upon the farm at North Bend. The repeated and long-continued ab sences of his father in and about official duties demanded a confidential agent to superintend home affairs. So it resulted that the second of the sons became a farmer; and from all that can be gleaned of him this was strictly in consonance with his tastes. He was of a quiet, meditative turn. The bustle and jostling of great crowds were distasteful to him. He loved best to sit with his family by the door of summer evenings. The education of the boys absorbed every thought aside from his farm. He lived chiefly for them. As, in his later years, the goodly acres melted away, he sacrificed pride and personal comforts, everything, indeed, but honor, in the settled de termination to see them equipped for their several races. It must not be supposed that he was naturally an inferior or that he was without capacity. On the contrary, he was a fair writer and a speaker of power. In his youth and middle age the parties repre senting the chief political divisions of the coun try were Democratic and Federal. In 1840 they were Whig and Democrat. Following Jefferson and Jackson, John Scott Harrison became a Democrat, and remained of that party. 3 4 BENJAMIN HARRISON. J Recognizing- his merit and capacity, his political friends succeeded in drawing him from retirement long enough to represent his district twice in Congress ; and it is said that he could have been returned to the seat indefinitely. But the cares and harassments of business and his innate pref erence for home smothered the last spark of am bition in his breast. Contemporary members of Congress remem ber him as active in the discharge of official duties. Constant at committee meetings, they say he was ready in speech and always com manded a hearing on the floor. In August, 1861, the Democratic State Con vention held at Columbus nominated John Scott Harrison for lieutenant-governor, with Hugh J. Jewett for first place on the ticket. Dr. Johnson, then secretary of the central committee of the party, formally notified him of his nomination. In a letter described as smoothly written in a flowing hand, and without an erasure or omission, Mr. Harrison declined the honor. The year 1861 is forever sadly memorable as that of the out break of the great rebellion. It may be of interest to the reader to know the position occupied by the father of the present candidate for the Pres idency in that day of uncertainty and general political rupture. The following is the gentle* man s letter of declination : ANCESTRY. 35 POINT FARM, ., Aug. 13, 1861. WM. A. JOHNSON, ESQ. : Dear Sir : The extreme illness of a member of my family has for several weeks so entirely engrossed my attention as to leave me but little time for other engage ments, and will account for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of 8th instant. I had noticed in the city papers the proceedings of the Democratic Union Convention lately assembled at Columbus, and was not a little surprised to find that my name had been used in connection with the lieutenant- governorship of the State. I deeply regretted that I had not been consulted in the matter, and now desire to say that I respectfully decline the nomination. I have no inclination to be a candidate for any office. If I ever cherished ambition for such distinction I have been cured of it, and feel entirely reconciled to the quiet and retirement of private life. But it is perhaps due to myself to say that if this were not the case, and I felt entirely free to enter again the field of political conflict, I could not consent to be a party candidate for office in the present condition of the country. Party spirit, in my opinion, has done more than anything else to bring about the late calamities which now so seriously afflict us, and the poison which has induced this national paralysis would not prove an efficient remedy in the restoration of the patient. The time has come when we should forget party, throw off its trammels and obligations and stand up for the country, its union, Constitution and laws. I was not, as you know, a supporter of Mr. Lincoln for the presidency, neither do I approve of all the acts of his administration. But it seems to me that this is not the proper time to arraign the administration for these errors of policy, and that it is neither the part of wisdom nor patriotism to assail the government when the enemy is thundering at the gates of the capital. Let us first settle the great question of country or no country, govern ment or no government, Union or disunion ; and having accomplished this great work of duty and patriotism, we w:ll have ample time to inquire into the alleged delin- 36 BENJAMIN HARRISON. quencies of our rulers, and if we find them wanting in the Jeffersonian requirements for office, let them be con demned by a verdict of the people. I certainly owe the Republicans, as a party, no debt of political obligation, and yet I do not hesitate to say that the administration has my warmest sympathy in its effort to put down this rebellion, and I am in favor of doing this effectually and permanently in peace if we can, in war if we must. A distinguished member of Congress is reported to have said, in his place in the House of Representatives during last session, that he was for peace peace before the Union. I, too, am for peace, but I am for the Union before peace, for I know without union we can have no peace. In repeating my determination to decline the nomina tion, which, as the organ of the convention, you so kindly tendered me, I beg to assure you of my proper appreci ation of this mark of respect and confidence on the part of the convention. Very respectfully your obedient servant, J. SCOTT HARRISON. He died in the spring of 1878, loved by his neighbors and respected, despite his financial misfortunes, by all who knew him. Benjamin Harrison, of whom we are writing, was his second son, Irwin being the first. CHAPTER II. CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. IN 1787 the Continental Congress, sitting in New York, adopted "An Ordinance for the Gov ernment of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio/ This was speedily fol lowed by sales of public lands, notably one of five millions of acres, bordering the Ohio river from the Muskingum to the Scioto, to citizens of New England organized as " The Ohio Com pany," and another of two millions of acres in the region between the Great and Little Miami rivers, including the site of Cincinnati. The purchaser of the latter tract was John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, concerning whom there are some particulars of interest. He was a son of Rev. Timothy Symmes, of Scituate, Mass., a graduate of Howard College. At one time he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress and was active in framing the consti tution of his State in 1776. A year later he be came justice of the Supreme Court. Still retain ing his position as such justice, in 1784 and 1785 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. Following that he was appointed (37) 38 BENJAMIN HARRISON. judge of the Northwestern Territory and moved to Ohio. He had for companions in his emigra tion Jonathan Dayton, Elias Boudinot, Dr. "Clark- son and others of New Jersey. The tract constituting what is known as " Sym mes Purchase " comprised the present cities of Cincinnati and Dayton. It embraced Hamilton, Butler, Preble and Montgomery counties, and possibly Warren. Along the Ohio river it ex tended from the Little Miami, about twenty miles above Cincinnati, to the Big Miami, about the same distance below that city. All the titles for fractions of the tract proceeded from him. Judge Symmes established his residence at North Bend, and there laid out a city, intending to make it the great commercial emporium of the West. Unfortunately for his idea, Cincinnati be came a military post, the protection of which was anxiously sought by settlers. Symmes city sank into comparative insignificance. Two of the three hewn log-houses which the Judge erected as the nucleus of his emporium were destroyed by fire. The incendiary is reported to have been a po litical enemy. The ruins of the stone chimneys of the cabins are yet discernible. To-day North Bend is chiefly known as having been the residence of President William Henry Harrison. Judge Symmes had for his first wife Anna Tut- bill, of Southold, Long Island. From the mar- CHILD, BOY AND STUDENTo 39 riage there were two daughters, Maria and Anna, of whom the former wedded Peyton Short, of Kentucky, and the latter William Henry Harri son. The wooing and winning of the younger sister is not without romantic coloring. When Fort Washington was established at Cincinnati Harrison was stationed there. Duty called the gallant captain to North Bend, and he became a guest at the Symmes residence. It was not long until he succumbed to the black eyes of Miss Anna. She was at the time twenty years of age, small, graceful, intelligent and by general agreement beautiful. He was twenty-two years of age, with a reputation well established as a gallant soldier. The two were mutually pleased with each other, and an engagement followed, which could hardly fail to be satisfactory to the father. The Judge, in fact, consented to the mar riage ; but, hearing some slanderous reports of the captain, he afterwards withdrew his consent. The lovers were in nowise daunted. They re solved to proceed with their engagement. No vember 29, 1795, the day appointed for the wed ding, arrived. Judge Symmes, thinking the af fair off or declining to be present, rode to Cin cinnati, leaving the coast clear. In the presence of the young lady s step mother and many guests the ceremony was per formed by Dr. Stephen Wood, a justice of the peace. 40 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Undoubtedly the father of the bride was a per son of great importance at that time. He was a high dignitary of the United States government and proprietor of a tract of land ducal in propor tions. The lady was beautiful, young, charming, of Eastern education and manners. The bride groom on his side had fought his way to a cap taincy, which was a much more influential argu ment in that day than this, especially in social circles. With these points in mind, it would not be strange if a reader, giving rein to his fancy, should picture the wedding as of exceeding splen dor of circumstance. It was the very reverse. To arrive at the facts the time and the conditions of the people of the region must be considered. The West was in its densest wildness. There were no luxuries. To be comfortable was to be rich. There was no aristocracy. Store goods were scarce and at prices out of reach. Weeks of travel we re required to get to and from the mills. For summer wear the settlers depended in great part upon the fibre of thistle, a certain species of which, growing spontaneously in the woods, fell down and rotted in the winter, and was gathered in the spring and cleaned and woven by the women. Indeed, the probabilities are that the company assembled to witness the marriage of Captain Harrison and Miss Anna Symmes would astonish polite circles of to-day. They arrived on horseback, each man carrying a rifle, a powder-horn and a pouch lined CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 41 with patching and bullets. Travelling by narrow paths cut through thickets of blackberry and alder bushes and undergrowth of every variety, every step taken might be into an ambush of In dians. They moved in the mood and ready for instant combat. A wife, coming with her hus band, rode behind him. When they dismounted at the door, as it was winter, ten to one he wore buckskin for coat and breeches, and a coonskin cap, while she was gay with plaided linsey-wool sey of her own weaving, cutting and sewing. Her head was protected from the wind by a cot ton handkerchief. Coarse shoes supplied the place of slippers. The wedding cake was of New England doughnuts. On the sideboard there were jugs of cider, very hard at that, and whis key none the worse of its home brewing, and they were there to be drank. The dancing, with which the fete was most likely rounded off in the even ing, was to a fiddle in the hand of a colored artist who knew the plantation jigs as a mocking bird knows his whistle. The pigeon-wing with which the best dancer celebrated the " balance all " was cut with feet yellow with moccasins. Such was in probability the general ensemble of the wedding. The bride may have had an outfit of better material. So recently from the East, she may have had a veil, a silk frock and French slippers. The bridegroom, of course, wore his captain s 42 BENJAMIN HARRISON. uniform, glittering with bullet-buttons of bur nished brass, and high boots becoming an aide in favor with his chief, the redoubtable Anthony Wayne, whom the Indians were accustomed to describe as " the warrior who never slept." Taken altogether, the wedding celebrated at Judge Symmes house that November day, 1795, cannot be cited in proof of a charge of aristocratic preten sion on the part of the high contracting parties. Some time afterwards Judge Symmes met his son-in-law. The occasion was a dinner-party given by General Wilkinson to General Wayne. " Well, sir," the judge said, in bad humor, " I understand you have married Anna." " Yes, sir, 1 Harrison answered. " How do you expect to support her?" " By my sword and my own right arm," was the reply. The judge was pleased, became reconciled, and in true romantic form happily concluded the affair by giving the couple his blessing. The young husband carried his wife to Cincin nati without delay, and they remained there in quarters until the reconciliation with the father took place ; after which, it is reasonable to sup pose, they were frequent visitors at North Bend. The demands for the captain s professional ser vices were frequent and pressing. He had not long to enjoy his new situation and its delights, but betook himself speedily to the wars, CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 43 Previous to his departure, however, he built a house to shelter his fair partner. Part of it is yet standing in close proximity to the site of Fort Washington. The interior is of black walnut. Building material must have been scarce when the structure was begun, as the nails were of iron wrought doubtless on the forge of the post blacksmiths. There John Scott Harrison, the third son of the Father of the Northwest, was born. Eventually, however, General William Henry Harrison took residence at North Bend. The old homestead, the same that in later years be came an object of visitation by armies of pilgrims, is said to have been built by him in 1814 or thereabouts. Whatever the date may be, it is certain that North Bend was the scene of the passage of a great part of Mrs. Harrison s life a good woman, admired in her youth and lovely and beloved to her latest day. There a family was reared unto her, and of that family we will now speak. In time the home circle came to consist of Wil liam Symmes, Benjamin and John Scott Harrison; Anna, who married Colonel Taylor ; Betsey, who married Mr. Short; Maria, who married Mr. Thornton; Lucy, who married Mr. Estey, and Mary and Carter, nine in all. We have seen the occupations which engaged the attention of the father through many years. 44 BENJAMIN HARRISON. They were mixed, civil and military, all heavy with responsibility and demanding exclusive at tention. If they were honorable, they were also vexatious, and of a nature requiring absence from home, much of the time in the saddle on distant expeditions. No doubt he would have been more happy could he have fixed his head quarters at North Bend, but we hear of him at Vincennes and here and there, now on the shores of the lakes, but most frequently in a tent pitched in the woods, the centre of constant coming and going of subordinate officials. Subjects of the gravest character demanded his best thought; pertinent sometimes to affairs of government, the founding of settlements, plans of campaign, and the settlement of disputes brought to him on final appeal. To him fell the duty of the original subdivision of Indiana into townships and coun ties and the protection of the adventurous settlers from the ever-watchful and merciless Indian. It is not saying too much that the care of the growing family devolved almost entirely, through out their infancy, upon the mother. And later she was required to attend to their education, the means for which were, in that day, sadly wanting. Yet the highest evidence of her efficiency as a helpmeet is to be found in the fact that the chil dren all became respectable men and women and to the latest day held her in the highest venera tion. CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 45 it is the general opinion that William Henry Harrison was rich, but the opinion is not founded in fact. With great care for his personal honor he seems, throughout his life, to have scrupulously avoided speculation. The salaries he received were not commensurable with the dignities he came to. The demands upon him from his family and his associations generally made it impossible for him to accumulate money. At the time of his election to the Presidency he was poor ; his entire property consisted of the farm at North Bend. When out of office he was occupied exclusively as a farmer, and must be thought of, not as a gen tleman addicted to broadcloth clothes of the latest style, nor as a martial figure going about uniformed and sworded and in a cocked hat. In that respect his habits were unlike Washington s. The plantation at North Bend had not in any de gree the baronial likeness of the plantation at Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac. The western proprietor had not a retinue of slaves subject to his call. He never travelled to and from the city in state, a liveried rider upon the near horse and a footman perched upon the car riage of state. He was a farmer in fact wko took part in his own plowing, planting and reaping ; altogether the most unaristocratic of men, his children were reared accordingly. The third son was John Scott Harrison, in whom the greater interest now centres because 46 BENJAMIN HARRISON. he was the father of Benjamin Harrison, our im mediate subject of biography. John Scott Har rison, upon coming of age, settled down a farmer like his father, by whom he had set apart to him a portion of the North Bend property. His house, as has been observed, was a plain struc ture, similar to those dotting the imperfect farms of the day. The farm itself had to be created, and was situated just five miles below North Bend on the Ohio river at its intersection with the Big Miami. Its western boundary was the Indiana and Ohio line. He was twice married. He had by his first wife three children, two daughters, Betsey and Sarah, who are still living, the former as the widow of Dr. Eaton, now resi dent on a part of the old homestead at North Bend, the latter Mrs. Devin, also of Ohio. His second wife was a Miss Elizabeth Irwin, daughter of Archibald Irwin, of Mercersburg, Franklin county, Pennsylvania. By her he had Archibald Irwin; Benjamin; Jennie, who married Mr. Morris; Carter Bassett, who is still living, and has the distinction of having been during the late war a Captain in the Fifty-first Ohio (Stanley Matthews ) regiment. He also served a good part of the time on the division staff of Gen. Vancleave. At present he resides in Murfreesboro, Term., having married in the South. Besides those named, John Scott Harrison had two other children : John Scott, living in Kansas City, Mo., and Anna, at present of Indianapolis, married to Mr. Morris. CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 47 The reader may arrive at the manner of bring ing up this family had by observing the particulars of the childhood and youth of Benjamin Harrison, the second of the sons. Continuing the sketch of John Scott Harrison, it may be remarked that he lived and died upon his farm, having been an agriculturalist all his life. In his earlier days he took care of his own little plantation and aided his father in the gen eral management of the homestead. He varied the occupation by boating to New Orleans, whither he went almost every year with a cargo of produce of his own raising. Having become involved in debt, largely through ill-advised endorsements, he left no property. Years prior to his death his farm passed from hjm into the ownership of the heirs of Judge Short, who has been mentioned as the husband of Betsey Harri son. Through their kindness, and out of great respect, he was permitted to continue in its occu pancy. He left no estate whatever. It will perhaps please the reader to be assured that from this point forward he will be given nothing that is not directly concerned with the gentleman to "whom the volume is in title and fact devoted. Benjamin Harrison, the second son of John Scott Harrison, was born at North Bend in his grandfather s house on the 2Oth day of August, 1833 nearly fifty-five years ago. 48 BENJAMIN HAI<RISON. There is nothing more surprising in the lives of Americans than the similarity of their child hood and youth. Their sports are the same ; they go through the same trains of petty adven ture ; at length a period arrives at which they are sent to school ; there a new-comer very nearly takes up a book left behind by a predecessor, is subjected to the same recitation, and whirled with astonishing rapidity along a course of study which, after all, is little more than a deeply worn rut. This may perhaps be a necessity ; it certainly is monotonous. There are even teachers of experi ence and excellent judgment who have been heard to express a wish that they might live to see the results of experiments in education out of the common. There is no hack so worn and weary as a master or mistress of a public school, unless it be a college professor. That a lad ever rises above the dead level is attributable purely to a superiority of intellect. In the light of this re mark and its context, together with his admitted success in life, it is worth while to make a study of the youth and school-days of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. Extending southward from the old Harrison homestead at North Bend there is a tongue of land, quite five miles in length ; its lower ex tremity touches the Indiana boundary line ; the north side is swept by the Miami river; upon the south side the Ohio rolls its placid stream. CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 49 On this promontory, or backbone, as some might be pleased to call it, is what was the farm of John Scott Harrison. It answered to cultivation gen erously ; corn grew there in abundance. The wheat was good. It furnished the family all the staples of life. Seldom, if ever, had they to go out to market. From it the cellar was well sup plied. The cattle and horses that ranged it were always fat and sleek. The proprietor was, in fact, a good farmer. He might have been nothing else out of the ordinary, but that he was in fair degree. He gave himself to the occupation pa tiently and successfully, at least so far as the bless ing of plenty to eat and wear is concerned. The poverty that overtook him in his later days was a consequence of his generosity and- a judgment too easily cheated by people who wormed their way into his confidence. He put on no style. If his disposition had tended that way, he had not the means to indulge it. One thing he was de termined upon : whatever else happened, he would educate his children. His residence fronted the Ohio river : between the river and the door was a small, plain, old-fashioned log-school-house. On account of the distance to any other schools, it was impossible that his boys could attend them. Very early in the life of Benjamin he was in the habit of employing private teachers. Their sal aries were light, as they were called upon only to impart the simplest elementary instruction. Hi^ 5O BENJAMIN HARRISON. nephews very often were actotrtmodated in his house and placed under instruction together with his own children. Boys of his nearest neighbors were also attendants there. The teachers wen* sometimes men, sometimes women ; and they were not employed all the year round, but generally in the winter. The cabin was, as is usual with such buildings, of the very plainest. The floor was of puncheon, the windows few and small. In one end was a great fire-place, habitually filled with logs in the morning to burn all day. The benches were slabs raised above the floor by sticks fitted in through auger holes. They were without backs, and the little fellows^ through the hours of session, dropped their legs without touching the floor with their feet. Altogether it was \veary employment for them. But, as their studies were spelling, reading and writing, they were not put to much mental effort. At recess they ran wild, and made up for lost time at play. In that humble structure Benjamin began his education. In seasons when the crops were being planted and harvested he was, as a farmer s boy, given to employment suitable to his years. He fed the cattle ; he did the milking, though he has since confessed that at this latter labor he was never a success. There his isolation from the world was complete. Visitors from the city came in flocks, always stopping at the old mansion above. Sel- CHILD, BOY- AND STUDENT. 5! , if ever, did they extend their journey to the farm on the peninsula. His own visitations to his grandmother s were frequent, for he was always a favorite with the old lady. She made much of him, and many times, upon his setting out homeward on the horse or the wagon, she came to the gate and in giving him a parting kiss slipped a piece of money in. his hand, of which he was duly proud. In later years, when he came to understand that she herself was not over-blessecl With riches, he appreciated the mark of affection all the more. At such times he had opportunities to see strangers. In most instances they were objects of wonder to him. Of Sundays, with his father and mother and all the family, he attended church at North Bend. As it had been a custom of the first General Har rison when at home to make tender of hospitality to the congregation, after his death the custom was perpetuated by the widow. The board at which the guests found themselves upon such occasions was broad and profusely covered. Not seldom there were plates for fifty or more. If there were not three kinds of meat for the com pany, the aged hostess was unhappy. It is to be remarked, however, that everything constituting the menu ,was produced on the farm. It should not be supposed that the attendance at school and work upon the farm were unmixed with pastime. The rivers flowing close by were 52 BENJAMIN HARRISON. well stocked in that day with fish. There were squirrels in the woods; in their season ducks were plenteous ; and in the pursuit of such game young Harrison became an expert shot, partic ularly with the rifle. Very frequently he assisted the negro who served the household in the capa city of cook, carried wood and water for him, and helped him wash the dishes, that he might the better secure his company in a bout at fishing or hunting. By-and-by the little old cabin described as a school-house gave out, and study was transferred to a room in the father s house. Amongst the teachers at whose feet he sought instruction he remembers one Thomas Flynn, who initiated him into the mysteries of A, B, C. He cannot recall a thrashing, a circumstance somewhat singular, as in that day the rod was deemed necessary to suc cessful education. Probably he might have met other treatment, if he had attended a public school. In learning to read, write and cipher his school periods were occupied down to 1847. He then began Latin and a - course preparatory to an academy. Shortly afterwards, with his elder brother, Irwin, he was sent to a school back a few miles from Cincinnati, on what was called College Hill. The institution had recently taken on a more pretentious character. A new building had been put up; and whereas it had flourished under the CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 53 name of Carey s Academy, it now introduced itself to knowledge-seekers in -the West as Farm er s College. The proprietor and principal was Freeman Carey, brother of Mr. Samuel Carey, the temperance lecturer. The instructors, some of them, were of great reputation among them Dr. Robert H. Bishop, who had at one time been President of Miami University and before that a professor in Transylvania College, Kentucky. He was a highly educated, learned and venerable Scotsman. Young Harrison was a student at Farmer s College two years. He applied himself to Latin, Greek, mathematics, mental philosophy, and the usual academical course in its entirety. He lived plainly, rooming in one of the dormitories of the building. While closely applying himself to study, always standing fair in his classes, re spected by the instructors and popular with his associates, prompt at recitation and obedient to rules, nevertheless he found time for amusement and sport, such as snow-balling, town-ball, bull pen, shinny and baste, all more familiar to lads in that day than this. There was a hill in the vicin ity to which he was faithful in sledding time. He was of slight physique, slender and not tall, even girlish in appearance, but made up the de ficiencies, if such they may be called, by spirit, wit, and ready knowledge of character, which en abled him to take his own part, and hold rank in the estimation of his playmates. 54 BENJAMIN HARRISON. At the end of the two years at Farmer s Col lege he was transferred to Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, for which he was admirably pre pared. It is the custom with those who are in the habit of tracing the distinction a man acquires in after life to dwell upon what he may have read in his youth. Some have carried their opinions in that matter so far as to affirm that books favorite in the beginning give bent to the tastes and even decide the calling that may be chosen. They fancy that poets in that way discover themselves. Law yers, divines, politicians, and scientists are referable to the same influences. Hence, it has been for a long time the fashion of biographers to furnish lists of the books which were delightful to the boy. Allowing the inquiry, we find in his very early years young Harrison was admitted to a limited library. His father does not appear to have been a great reader himself. Severely occupied by attention to his farm, John Scott Harrison was perhaps more careless and indifferent in this re spect than he imagined. Amongst the books, however, at call of the children, there was notably an edition of Scott s novels. The son Benjamin can scarcely remember the time that he was not enthralled by Waverley, the Scottish tales, and the eastern romances. He pored over them dili gently. Ivanhoe and the Talisman were sources CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 55 of infinite fascination to him. In them his imagi nation found the greatest satisfaction. And un consciously he laid away a store of English and Scotch history from Kenilworth and other tales of that class infinitely serviceable in his succeeding years. He has since drank deeply from Dickens, Thackeray and all the modern classicists, but Walter Scott still holds dominion over his tastes. He speaks enthusiastically of him yet, and says he went through his volumes from beginning to end, and over and over again. In his boyish days an uncle presented him with a Vicar of Wakefield, and about the same time, upon the recommendation of his mother, he de voured Pilgrim s Progress. In the society library at Farmer s College he found the works of Washington Irving, and they too became his admiration and delight. 9 Occa sionally he read Cooper s stories. In the purely historical line, Hume and Gibbon received the greatest attention from him. So that when, at the end of two years in Farmer s College, he was transferred to Miami University, he was so well advanced in study and general information as to at once enter a Junior in the latter institution. Miami University had been provided for by the General Government by reservation in the grant of land to John Cleves Symmes and his associates. It was consequently one of the earliest, and for a long time decidedly the leading 56 BENJAMIN HARRISON. institution west of the Alleghenies. When young Harrison was received in its walls it had derived not a little fame from presidents such as Dr. Mo Masters and Dr. Bishop. In the professorial roll are the names of Dr. McGuffy and Dr. John W. Scott, with the latter of whom we shall pres ently acquaint ourselves as the father of Mrs. Harrison. The executive of the institution when the subject of our biography became one of its students was the Rev. W. C. Anderson, D. D., under whose administration its affairs were in an unusually flourishing condition. Aside from the large patronage received from the Northwest, it found favor in the South, there being many youths on its roster from the slave or Southern States. Miami University was not strictly denomina tional ; nevertheless it had been presided over almost "from the be^inninof by men connected o o J with the Presbyterian Church sons of Presby terians of the Old and New School Churches, as they were called, and among them Covenanters or United Presbyterians. In deference to their ideas, the psalms in the morning exercises were always sung out of Rouse s collection. Young Harrison attached himself immediately upon arrival to the Miami Union Literary Society, and became foremost in the debates which, as usual with such societies, formed part of the or dinary exercises. In that line he early distin guished himself, and conscious of his strength CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 57 he preferred speaking to composition. To the latter he indeed failed to give the attention it de served. To this day he prefers impromptu oratorical effort to writing, which is still distasteful drudgery to him. A little further on the reader will have opportunity to decide for himself how well founded the preference may be. Returning a moment to his home-life on the farm, it is pleasant to remark that his mother was a most devout Christian woman of remarkable sweetness of temper, and her spirit pervaded the house. The dining-room, which was the com mon sitting-room, was large and commodious, with the usual wide open fireplace. In evenings, especially of the winter, the family assembled in it around a central-table. The flames in the fire place burned brightly, dispensing light in aid of the tallow-dips on the table, beside which were the old-fashioned brazen snuffers ready in the polished tray for instant use. The dips men tioned were not the store article but home-made. In fact young Harrison helped make them, and became an expert in the business. In front of the fire-place the mother took seat with her knitting ; and while listening to the con versation or the reading that went on amongst the younger folks, reeled off her needles the socks with which the boys could encounter the snows without, In their most animated moments 58 BENJAMIN HARRISON. those around were always regardful of her pres ence ; respect for her tempered their voices and forbade passion in dispute. She was a Presby terian, and one of Benjamin s earliest recollec tions, that to which at this late day he refers with profoundest reverence of feeling, is the habit she persisted in to her death of rising when the hour of retirement came, folding up her work, whatever it might be, saying " Good-night " and going aside for prayer. The practice was a mystery to him then, as was the prayer she silently made. He did not understand what it meant; and for that reason possibly the impression it made upon him has been more lasting. It certainly was not with out influence. For we find that while he was a student in the University he became himself a member of the Presbyterian Church and is now a Presbyterian. He is also a man of prayer. Young Harrison, in this interval of college toil, must not be thought of as coldly indifferent to attractions outside study. The mind that admits fondness of Walter Scott must also have an ele ment of romance more or less defiant of control. Its possessor, if a student, will give time to dreams wholly irrelevant to the book which is the neces sity of the next recitation. There are the visions of the old man, and the visions of the youthj the former have hold upon the past, the latter are all of the future, and that is the difference between them, The surest sign of the approach of mam CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 59 hood is the intervention, constantly and oddly, of the question, what am I to be ? asked of the pur suit in which the dreamer is to look for bread and the glory in waiting for him. And if he be bright, brave and gentle withal, ten to one it will be found that the inspiration of the question is a face fairer in his thought than any other face. It happened that in the town overlooked by Miami University there was an academy for young ladies of which Dr. John W. Scott was manager and president. The fair students were a sparkling feature of the society of the village, and young Harrison was not so ascetically devoted to the Union Literary and making good the favoritism shown him as an orator on occasions as to be blind to the sex. Far from that, he was notoriously diligent in seeking partners for con- certs, lectures, picnics and parties. It also happened that President Scott had a daughter, girlish, intelligent, witty, attractive, in whom the young man quickly discovered all the qualities that entered into the composition of his ideal of a perfect woman. Suddenly he gave up attentions to the gentle patrons of the academy in general, and became more a slave to his books than ever. For a season there was much wonder over the change ; at length it was explained he was engaged to marry Miss Caroline W. Scott, the president s daughter. The contract argues great courage and confidence in his future when 60 BENJAMIN HARRISON. it is remembered that he was poor and just out of the junior class, and but eighteen years of age. It may be well supposed that the engagement referred to, while operating as an incentive to work, had also the effect to lengthen each college day, making him impatient for the end which the collegiate calendar set down for the 24th of June, 1852. The graduating class that year consisted of sixteen young men, the names of some of whom have since become of national familiarity. To see yet more clearly the competition which young Harrison found in his classes and literary society, the reader may not be displeased if their names are given entire. The following is the list : John S. Baker, lawyer, Cincinnati, O. John P. Craighead, lawyer, Little Rock, Ark. Isaac S. Lane, lawyer, Memphis, Tenn. Lewis W. Ross, lawyer, Council Bluffs, la.* * The following is from Mr. Lewis W. Ross, now of Council Bluffs, Iowa: BENJAMIN HARRISON. Forty years ago the writer met the subject of this paper in Farmer s College, a school of considerable merit, located on one of the hills over looking the city of Cincinnati. Dr. R. H. Bishop, formerly President of Miami University, was Professor of History and Political Economy. He was an extraordinary teacher. He discipled his students to such an ex tent as to render it impossible to either forget the man or his instruction. I also met Dr. O. W. Nixon of the Inter-Ocean, Murat Halstead of the Commercial- Gazette, Joseph M. Gregory, a member of the Memphis Bar, and many others who have attained to positions of honor and trust. After two years of study at Farmer s College, a large delegation, includ ing young Harrison and the writer, entered Miami University, located a.t CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 6l Milton Sayler, lawyer, Cincinnati, O. Harmer Denny, minister of the gospel. Oxford, Ohio. We enrolled in the junior class, with at least half of the sophomore year to make up. This implied that \ve were required to do two and a half years work within the space of two years, but it was ac complished, and all graduated a class of fifteen members, on June 24, 1852. This class varied in worldly wealth and available brains about as other classes have done. David Swing, of Chicago, took second honors, and Milton Saylor, now of New York city, took the first honors. Harrison, in class standing and merit, ranked above the average. Swing was con fessedly the best philologist in the class, and during the last year of the course displayed unusual ability. Saylor was gifted in many ways, but lacked application. He has lived the life of a " typical Democrat," serving two terms in Congress. Harrison, as I remember, was an unpre tentious but courageous student. He was respectable in languages and the sciences, and excelled in political economy and history, the former being largely due to the foundations laid under the instruction of Dr. Bishop at Farmer s College. Harrison had a good voice and a pure dic tion. He talked easily and fluently. His manner was indicative of much earnestness of character. He never seemed to regard life as a joke nor the opportunities for advancement as subjects for sport. During the four years that I was with him, he impressed me with the belief that he was ambitious. As a writer and speaker, he always did his best. By this I mean that he, as a rule, made special preparation, giving as much time as possible to the matter in hand. The subject of his graduating address was "The Poor of England," and his treatment of it showed that he had sounded both the depths and the causes of this poverty. He was a pro tectionist at the age of nineteen. He is protectionist still. His whole career has been illustrative of his desire to save his countrymen from the poverty which oppresses " The Poor of England." It is claimed by his enemies that Harrison is cold-hearted, that he cul tivates but few friends. This is untrue. When a student he had his likes and dislikes. He was not selfish, yet his love of self made him careful of his time and of his reserve powers. Had he been of the rollicking habit of some of his college acquaintances, he would long since have passed over with them. The sober truth is, that in good sense and manly conduct he was as a student without just reproach. From aught that has come to my notice, in later years, I infer that his entire career has been a Hying exemplification of the principles which governed his student life. 62 BENJAMIN HARRISON. James A. Hughes, minister of Ae gospel, Sorri- erville, O. A. C. Junkin, minister of the gospel, West Greenville, Pa. S. T. Lowerie, minister of the gospel, Pitts- burg, Pa. David Morrow, minister of the gospel, Logans- port, Ind. William H. Prestly, minister of the gospel, Chillicothe, O. David Swing, minister of the gospel, Chicago, 111. Joseph Walker, minister of the gospel, Mus- kingum, O. J. Knox Boucle, M. D., Carthage, 111. James H. Childs, calling not known, killed at Antietam. To have become conspicuous in such a class is of itself a high encomium. Young Harrison took fourth honor, which was certainly well done for a boy of but eighteen. He was just then. He is just now. . He was industrious then. He is industrious now. He was ambitious then. He is ambitious still. Ilia was and is a commendable ambition, worthy to be patterned by the youth of the country. When in college he gained mental discipline and a gen uine love for history and political science. When in Judge Storer s office he read, with other texts, Coke upon Littleton, and so laid deep and solid legal foundations. Thus furnished, his success was assured before enter ing upon the duties of his profession. On all moral questions he has been fearless for the right. At his country s call he answered, proving his devotion and courage. Among lawyers of national reputation he ranks with the best. Among statesmen he is accorded a high place. He is worthy of the cordial support of Republicans everywhere for the exalted position to which he aspires. *~ CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 63 Speeches were part of the commencement exercises then, as now ; and in gratification of the curiosity to know something of the boy s graduating oration, an extract is submitted. After a compliment of poetic turn to heroic England, the speaker said : Turn, now, and take a glance at modern England, the England of poor laws and paupers. How fares it with the descendants of those noble sires? Do they still preserve the lofty mien, the virtuous courage, the healthful abundance of their ancestors ? Can it be that the obsequious pauper, the sturdy beggar, is indeed come of so proud a parentage ? Have the swelling tides en gulfed this manly race to give place to Eastern slaves ? By what process of degeneration, by what system of treachery, by what catalogue of wrongs has this sad change been effected? How has the individual been robbed of his energy, the social circle of its virtue and purity? The common answer is by poor laws. In the vastness of her commercial projects, the ex pansive generosity of her foreign charity and the ex tended field of her missionary efforts, the starving desti tution of eight millions of her own subjects is too much forgotten and overlooked. Reversing the old maxim, she seems to think that charity begins abroad and draws freely upon the public exchequer to relieve the miseries of the West India slave, while thousands more miserable cry in vain for substantial relief from the filthy lanes of her own metropolis. As the newspaper giver of the present day bestows liberally to endow widows homes and orphan asylums while his faithful house-dog is starving in his kennel, so the oil and wine which the British Samaritan poured into the wounds and bruises of the West Indian slave were the marrow and blood of his own children Perhaps the whole annals of legislative history does not furnish us with a system of laws so fully repudiated 64 BENJAMIN HARRISON. by all sound economy or one which so rudely strikes at the foundation of all social prosperity as the poor laws of Great Britain. Unwise in their conception, unhappy in their consequences, they are the shame and curse of England. Disregarding the finer and fuller provisions of nature for the relief of the destitute and unfortunate, they sub stitute instead the compulsory provisions of a legalized benevolence. The charitable offering is snatched from the kind hand of the benevolent giver, cast into the swelling poor fund and distributed by the cold hand of a soulless official alike to the vicious and deserving. The donor is deprived of his meed of praise, the recipient is precluded the exercise of gratitude. But not only do such provisions fail to relieve the wants of the poor by sapping the life s blood of indi vidual energy and encouraging indolence and consequent vice; they increased the evil they were intended to allevi ate and supersede the more efficacious relief of individual charity. The ever present consciousness that, however great his improvidence and vice, he cannot be brought to ultimate want removes that stimulus to industry and economy which has in the wise providence of God been provided to anticipate the evils of pauperism. The shame which attaches itself to the trembling prayer for indi vidual charities is lost in the demand upon the parish poor fund Can it be possible that this is indeed the true character of those laws which her wisest states men have not only sustained but made the subject of boastful reflection upon other lands ? As well might the highway, robber, after having stripped the defenseless traveller of all that he possessed, return him a scanty covering from the cold, and then boast of kindness, and call upon his shivering victim to acknowledge a debt of gratitude. " 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey When wealth accumulates and men decay; Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them and a breath has made, But a bold peasantry, their country s pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied. " CHILD, BOY AND STUDENT. 6$ The extract is honorable to the speaker. Ap preciation of the sorrows of the poor is seldom more fervidly expressed. A critic will forgive the redundancy of adjectives, remembering that it is a disease of young students soon cured. He will not fail also to be struck with the direction of the argument, while there can be no doubt of the side taken. Those familiar with him know Ben jamin Harrison, now mature in years, is still bravely on the same side. 5 CHAPTER III. THE LAWYER. LOVE of one s alma mater is not an impulse of graduation. Upon the going forth the young man is all confidence ; the world is the reverse of awful to him; it is a field of which he has simply to take possession; or it is the sleeping beauty of Trier- main, and he the hero assigned to awake her; the lions, goblins, and thunders along the way are only accessories to make the achievement more re markable. The popularity of the first picture in the series of Cole s " Voyage of Life," a radiant youth in a shallop flying against a rippled current toward the luminous temple in the sky, is due less to excellence of art than to the truth of the por trayal. Years after exit from the narrow walls of the college, when the slips and disappointments in the career so eagerly challenged have been endured, then it is that the man becomes conscious that his student days were days of exceeding pleasantness. Benjamin Harrison at the moment of issuance from the university may have felt himself a man in reality he was but a boy. Nevertheless he did (66) THE LAWYER. 67 not lose an hour in idle farewells to places of his college trials and triumphs. From labor he went to labor, with two incentives to make him manful poverty and a trustful fiance. Exactly when he had determined to be a lawyer cannot be stated. He himself cannot fix the time. The probabilities are that it was when he was passing through the preparatory studies at Farmer s College. Inclination to a pursuit is referable to tastes. The votary feels the stir of capacity long before he enters upon the profession. The artist mani fests it in a facility to draw ; the soldier discovers it in love of parades and the incidents of the camp; the mechanic and the poet are often born such. It may perhaps be said that multitudes of young men in our country drift toward the law not from any manifest aptitude for it, but because it has been, if it is not now, the directest path to political prizes. This remark cannot be applied to young Harrison. His mental qualities, the gift of nature, are all those of the lawyer as contradistinguished from the politician. Thus drawn to it by innate aptitude, he was further controlled in the choice by one great necessity of his situation. The farm upon which he was raised had at one time been a considerable possession. Originally there were five hundred acres of it ; but his father had been careless in management. His o habits of life were in a degree inherited. He was 68 BENJAMIN HARRISON. liberal and generous to a fault. He delighted in the entertainment of strangers as well as of friends. o He was never deaf to appeals for assistance. Did a neighbor need an indorser, he addressed himself to John Scott Harrison, and was never refused. When the paper fell due and the prin cipal was not ready to meet it, an extension be came necessary, the burthen of which too fre quently fell upon the surety. If further security was required, a mortgage was executed upon the home farm. After a while came judgments and foreclosures. To save the estate John Scott him self became a borrower. So, in the course of years, his affairs went from bad to worse, and finally, as has been stated, he was stripped of everything. Through the kindness of relatives, he retained possession of the premises. The family, however, were in a certain sense depend ents. Such was the condition of the father when young Benjamin passed from Farmer s College into Miami University. Such was his condition when, two years afterwards, at the age of eighteen, the son issued from the university. So, when the latter resolved to adopt the law as his profession, the probabilities are that he was mainly moved by the prospect of finding it the shortest avenue to livelihood. Ambition might have had some thing to do with the choice, but it was a lesser in fluence. THE LAWYER. 69 One of the notable firms of Cincinnati was that of Stover and Gwynne. Few lawyers have been more honored in Western legal circles than Bel lamy Stover. His name is yet a synonyme for honor, ability and genuine patriotism. There was no end to his kindness. His life was a succession of good deeds. As a judge, the ermine he wore on the bench was even whiter when put off than when he put it on. Socially he was the pattern of a gentleman. As an instructor he retained through life the most affectionate regard of his pupils. A.bram Gwynne ably seconded him. Young Harrison was received into their office as a regular student. While thus engaged, he lived at the house of his sister, Mrs. Eaton, whose hus band was a physician in active practice. Before he had quite finished his legal course, listening to a voice in his heart, he made a pil grimage to Oxford, and on the 2Oth of October, J 853, was married; after which, with his wife, he returned to his father s place below Cincinnati, where he continued his studies, going up fre quently to the office for examination. It was but natural that in the time he was thus occupied he should be on the lookout for a loca tion. We have seen that his father s farm touched the boundary line of Indiana, which became as familiar to him as his native State. The names of its politicians, lawyers and judges were per fectly within his knowledge as perfectly, in fact, 7O BENJAMIN HARRISON. as if they were personal acquaintances. He knew the history of the State from its beginning ; its territorial history was the history of his grand father, so that it is impossible that he should not have been interested in it, and equally impossible that it should have been without attraction to him. With excellent judgment he finally resolved to establish himself in Indianapolis. And thither he betook himself in March, 1854. His marriage was an evidence of self-reliance and confidence in the croodness of Providence. o Further evidence illustrative of those qualities may be found in a presentation of his worldly goods at that time. As we have seen, his father was not in condition to assist him pecuniarily. The good man had strained his remaining resources in educating him and his brother. A fortunate circumstance now intervened. James Finley, a soldier of the war of 1812, had married an aunt of young Harri son, leaving her a widow. From her he had inherited a lot in Cincinnati, which he turned to present account. A purchaser was found willing to advance $800 on the property; on account of the minority of young Harrison, the transaction was perfected by a bond for a deed upon his ar rival at majority. That sum constituted the entire fortune with which he settled down in In dianapolis. A more unaristocratic beginning of life can scarcely be conceived. He was not able THE LAWYER. 7 1 to buy him a house or rent a separate office. He had but one acquaintance in the city, Mr. John H. Rea, who was Clerk of the United States Dis trict Court, and as such was domiciled in the State Bank building situated in the triangular corner opposite the Bates House. Mr. Rea kindly offered him a desk, and shortly a " shingle " was nailed at the side of the door, notifying the world that Ben jamin Harrison, attorney-at-law, might be found within. Shortness of means and lack of acquaintance ship were not the only disadvantages with which the young aspirant for legal honors had to con tend. The writer became acquainted with him by introduction from Mr. Rea, and well remembers his personal appearance. He was small in stat ure, of slender physique, and what might be called a blonde. His eyes were gray, tinged with blue, his hair light, reminding one of what in ancient clays along the Wabash was more truly than poetically described as "a tow-head." He was plainly dressed, and, in that respect, gave tokens of indifference to the canons of fashion. He was modest in manner, even diffident ; but he had a pleasant voice and look, and did not lack for words to express himself. At first one wondered that a young man apparently so lacking in asser tion should presume to entrust himself so far from home. The wonder was heightened when it became 72 BENJAMIN HARRISON. known that the fledgling was a grandson of Presi dent William Henry Harrison. He grew, how ever, with more intimate acquaintanceship ; and, by-and-by, men, speaking of him in the verjiacu- lar, prophesied that he would develop into a " swinge cat." Unable, as we have seen, to take a house and furnish it, he secured boarding for himself and Mrs. Harrison in the Roll house, below the bank building at the corner of Maryland street ; and while waiting for business, he set about mastering the Indiana statutes and the code of practice, then of recent adoption. Business was slow in com ing, but his patience and confidence were equal to the occasion. About this time, through the kindness of United States Marshal John L. Robinson and his deputy, George McOuat, the young man was appointed crier of the Federal Court, the salary of which in term time was two dollars and a half a day. He speaks of the money received for his services as court crier as the first he ever made. The great event, probably the greatest, in the life of every lawyer, is his first trial. A thousand employments may come subsequently of higher importance and vastly richer compensation, but that one will never be forgotten. The old practi tioner may be carried by retainers from the County Court to the Supreme Court of the State, and for that matter to the Supreme Court of the THE LAWYER. 73 United States ; he may have achieved a national reputation, yet, if one will ask him of his life, he will not fail to go back to his first suit and give you faithfully and in the minutest details all its particulars. The Indianapolis bar at the time young Harri son sought admission to it was composed of gen tlemen of unusual ability and reputation. The mere mention of their names is sufficient to justify the statement. Oliver H. Smith, Lucien Barbonr, Calvin Fletcher, Ovid Butler, Simon Yandes (of the firm of Fletcher, Butler & Yandes), William Quarles, Hiram Brown, Hugh O Neal, ex-Governor David Wallace, John L. Ketcham, James Morrison, David McDonald, were seniors in the practice. There were others rising into notoriety who might be mentioned : John Coburn, Napoleon B. Taylor, Albert G. Porter, William Wallace, all of secured renown now, were of the second class. The first named, however, were in the full tide of practice and of ability to make an impression in any court of the Union. In that day speaking ability was especially required ; the tyro who was without it was thought to be a hopeless case in advance. The mere office lawyer was a subject of pity, if not contempt. If in the family there was a boy who had what was called the " gift of gab," his parents and friends foreordained him to the law. Opinion in that respect has undergone a somewhat radical change ; but without dwelling upon it every one 74 BENJAMIN HARRISON. familiar with the gentlemen named would see at a glance the difficulties before young Harrison. He would have to prove not merely his knowledge generally but his ability to cope before a jury with any one or all of the formidable array given. Amongst others, Jonathan W. Gordon, in the fall of 1854, was regarded with great popular favor. Of unquestioned ability, an enthusiast but eccen tric, he was serving the people as prosecuting attorney; and, having made the acquaintance of Harrison, he formed a high opinion of him and led him to his first appearance. There was on the docket an indictment against an individual for burglary. The case came up for hearing in the afternoon, and by chance Horace Mann was announced for a lecture in the evening. Major Gordon was anxious to hear that distinguished person ; and, fearful that the trial would be continued into the night, to accom modate himself he requested his new friend to assist him. The invitation was accepted. Judge Majors was presiding. The defence was con ducted by^jGovernor Wallace and Sims Colley. As anticipated the evidence was heard, and Major Gordon for the State and Mr. Colley for the de- fendant finished their speeches in the afternoon ; whereupon an adjournment was had. The interior of the old court-house was dingy, gloomy and forbidding in the daytime ; at night it was funereal. When young Harrison came in THE LAWYER. 75 to make the concluding argument he found a large assemblage waiting to hear the debut. On the fixed desk before the judge there were two tallow candles lighted. The clerk in his place below the judge protected by a stout railing sat with his book opened, in a light similarly derived. On the pillars in the centre of the room, and here and there upon the walls, were old-fashioned tin sconces, casting 1 a glow red and murky with smoke, partly of cigars, partly from a leaking stove. At the judge s left sat the sheriff, and at his left again the panel. At the feet of each juror was the inevitable spittoon, and in pauses the plug of tobacco was passed from man to man. In crises of the evidence and the speeches the ex pectoration was incessant ; sometimes the amber fluid missed the targets at which it was projected. Altogether the scene was not such as to impart inspiration to the debutant upon his entry. On the other hand, the wonder grew when he rose to o begin, so boyish-looking was he. He had taken full notes of the evidence, and, like all beginners, fearful of mistakes in state ment, was resolved to read from them copiously. A table had been drawn between him and the jury, and when he began, to his consternation, he discovered the light was wholly insufficient. The sheriff had provided but one candle ! What should he do ? There was dead silence throughout the dusky 76 BENJAMIN HARRISON. room. His voice, sharp, clear, penetrating", was being 1 heard to the farthest corner. The audience was already in sympathy with him. The situa tion was embarrassing. He referred to his notes. & He wished to be absolutely correct. He shifted the candle. He turned the paper to every angle. It would not do. The pencilling refused to come out. Then, in desperation, he flung the notes away. To his own amazement he- found his memory, perfect. Best of all he found he could think and speak upon his feet flash-like and coherently. There were not only words at com mand, but the right words, enabling him to ex press himself exactly. He found too the pleasure there always is in the faculty of speech with free dom superadded. Confidence came with the dis coveries. From that day to this, whether address ing himself to court or jury, or the vaster audiences who furnish the delight of oratory on the plat form or stump, he has been an impromptu speaker. At the conclusion of this maiden effort he was congratulated by everybody. Under the code of that day the defence had the closing speech, and as the duty devolved upon Gov. Wallace, he was profuse in complimentary references, and dwelt with feeling upon the kind ness of the young man s grandfather to him when he was a lad. The audience dispersed to exploit " that little fellow, Harrison." " What a swinge-cat he is ! THE LAWYER. 77 Who would have thought it ? He is only a boy yet! " they said to each other. The jury, after retirement sufficient to take the usual votes, returned a verdict of guilty- and Harrison s first trial was a triumph and more. It brought him honorable notoriety and quick induc tion into business. Shortly afterwards he was furnished another opportunity, but of a different character. By appointment of Gov. Joseph A. Wright he con ducted a legislative investigation of great public interest, and acquitted himself most happily. He had in the meantime changed his boarding- house from Roll s to a Mrs. Jameson s, in the little old frame building nearly opposite the Denison house. Citizens of the early time will recall it as the residence of David V. Cully. Mrs. Harrison visited Oxford, and on the I2th of August, 1854, Russell, her eldest child, was born. When she returned in the fall it was neces sary to give up* the room at Mrs. Jameson s and take a house. Accordingly a removal was had to a building on the south side of Vermont street, east of New Jersey. The new residence was very modest, and in strict accordance with the renter s income. It was one story, with three apartments, of which the front was used as a bed-room, the next as kitchen and dining-room. There was also a shed-kitchen attached. Sometimes they had a "help;" as a rule, however, Mrs. Harrison did 78 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the cooking, and was herself the housekeeper. He assisted her all he could. Not unfrequently he sawed the wood she required ; his last duty before going to the office at morning and noon was to fill the wood-box and buckets. Abroad and at home he was void of affectation or pre tense. He struggled vigorously against getting in debt and succeeded. Referring to that period, he laughs, and says, " They were close times, I tell you. A five dollar bill was an event. There was one good friend through it all Robert Browning, the druggist. I shall always recollect him with ratitude. He believed in me. When C5 things were particularly tight I could go into his store and borrow $5 from the drawer. A ticket in its place was all that was required. Such friends make life worth living." While a renter of the little Vermont street house, young Harrison accepted an offer of part nership with Mr. William Wallace. In associa tion with Mr. Theodore Haughey, now president of the Indianapolis National Bank, that gentleman was conducting a real estate business extra his law practice. He himself tells of the partner ship : I formed his (Mr. Harrison s) acquaintance very soon after he came to the city. He was about twenty-one years of age, a white-haired, boyish-looking young man, but very pleasant, and it did not take long to find out his superior intellectual qualities, and his sterling worth. It happened that in the year 1855 I had received the \ THE LAWYER. 79 nomination for clerk of Marion county on the people s ticket. The canvass required a good deal of time, and I concluded to offer my young friend a partnership. I met him on the street one day, and told him I had some good clients and a fair practice, and that if he would go into the office and take care of them while I was canvassing, we would share profits. I think this was the only part nership agreement we ever had. I was defeated for the office, so we continued the practice of law together until the year 1860 or 1861. It is pleasant to say that through his assistance and ability as a lawyer we retained our clients and got new ones. The truth is, our business was of a quiet kind some collections, a good deal of probate business, but . once in a while a case would come along that tested the mettle of the young partner. He very soon disclosed his admirable qualities as a lawyer quick of apprehension, clear, methodical and logical in his analysis and statement of a case. He pos sessed a natural faculty for getting the exact truth out of a witness, either by a direct or cross-examination. In this respect he has but few equals anywhere in the pro fession. Always exacting from courts and juries their closest attention and interest in the cause, and when the cause demanded it, illustrating the rarest powers of the genuine orator. He is a hard worker, giving to every case the best of his skill and labor, so that he never went unprepared, trusting to good luck, or the want of skill or negligenc^ of the other side. He was poor. The truth is, it was a struggle for bread and meat with both of us. He had a noble young wife, who cheerfully shared with him the plainest and simplest style of living. He did the work about his home for a long time himself, and thus made his professional income, not large, keep him inde pendent and free from debt. The new firm of Wallace & Harrison opened office in a front room of Temperance Hall, on Washington street. A glance at their cash-book discloses the character of their business in gen- 80 BENJAMIN HARRISON. eral. It was not large, but good for the time. The charges were for notarial work, writing deeds, advice, cases before justices of the peace, services in probate and collections, besides which appear ances in the Circuit Court were fairly frequent with them. The junior member was quite regu lar in attending sessions at Danville. He had retainers also in Hancock county. Referring to the profits of the concern, he says, laughing heartily : " I think I was very often ahead of Will in the cash." In 1860 Mr. Wallace was elected clerk of Marion county. The firm of Wallace & Harri son was thereupon terminated, and speedily suc ceeded by that of Fishback & Harrison. This was in its turn concluded by Harrison s entry into the army in 1862. The years thus covered were to the subject of our narrative years of undivided attention to the law. The politics of the State were in constant ferment. The questions between the North and South growing out of the insistance upon the part of the latter of a right to carry slavery into the Territories were advancing to a point of bit terness theretofore unknown in the country. The debates over the Missouri Compromise in Con gress, the war on the Kansas border, the raid of John Brown, had followed each other in rapid succession. Here and there, in political circles, there were whispers of an appeal to arms, and THE LAWYER. 8 1 representative men talked politics in a mood strangely threatening. It cannot be supposed that Mr. Harrison was blind to what was trans piring. His perceptions were bright, his feelings quick ; he was capable of weighing the claims of the disputants ; yet he went his way quietly, at-, tending to his profession and struggling to add to the receipts it yielded him. On the 3d of April, 1858, a daughter had been born to him. In a certain sense every citizen who debates political issues and feels concerned in them is a politician. In that sense Mr. Harrison was a politician. His position and party affinities were not in the least doubtful ; he was outspoken with respect to his opinions ; he could not keep silence in the midst of the war of words waging around him. Yet, thinking that his first duty was to his wife and children, whom he wished above all things to be comfortable and happy, he eschewed politics until, in 1860, he became a candidate be fore the Republican Convention for the nomina tion of Reporter of the Supreme Court. Even then he reconciled the candidacy with his obliga tion to family by the idea that the office he sought was strictly in the line of his profession. Upon the assemblage of the Convention he was nominated, and, entering the race with char acteristic zeal and energy, he was elected by a majority of 9,688. Not seldom it is the unexpected that happens 82 BENJAMIN HARRISON. in politics. Mr. Harrison did his share in stump ing the State for his party ; upon its success he knew his own depended. He prepared himself carefully for the work, and his speeches were well received. His associate in the canvass part of the time was the lamented Miles Fletcher, candi date for Superintendent of Public Instruction. With that gentleman he filled appointments in many counties in the north and along the Ohio river. There was one fixed for him at Rockville, in Parke county, which he attended alone. Interest in the contest, as will be remembered, was centred chiefly in the battle between Colonel Henry S. Lane and Mr. Thomas Hendricks, who were opposing each other for the Governorship. When young Harrison set out for Rockville he had no other thought than of making his speech of general advocacy of the Republican party and its tickets, State and National, without responsi bility other than pertained to his own subordinate struggle. In the absence of a railroad, he was driven in a buggy to the old county town. When he arrived there he knew no one except General Steele. It was his first appearance in that community. Upon alighting at the old tavern he learned for the first time that Mr. Thomas Hendricks had a meeting appointed for the same hour at the court house. The Republicans gathered around and told him THE LAWYER. 83. that the Democrats were hectoring them with sug gestions of a joint debate. The young man met the news at first with modest hesitation. Mr. Hendricks reputation as a speaker and debater was national, and he had been pitted against Colonel Lane as the fittest Democrat in the State to take care of the canvass. The two were, in fact, the supereminent champions of their respec tive parties, yet a greater unlikeness in manner and method can scarcely be imagined than ex isted between them. Mr. Hendricks was adroit, subtle, possessed of a stock of words remarkably diplomatic, and a delivery earnest and persuasive. Colonel Lane, on the other hand, was fiery, ges- ticulative, sarcastic and anecdotal. A toss of the hand, a look sufficed him to stir a crowd to a white heat of enthusiasm. Both were rich in po litical information. From lives spent in the courts, both were trained logicians. This description will suggest the reason of the hesitation shown by young Harrison when his political friends first notified him of the challenge to joint debate with the redoubtable Mr. Hen dricks. He shrank from the effect of failure upon the interests of his party. "That is, of course a very unfair proposal," he said. 4< Mr. Hendricks is at the head of the Democratic ticket, while I am at the tail of the Republican ticket. He is an experienced public debater, while I am on my first trip. 1 84 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Finally he said : " Gentlemen, if we can t get along with this without showing the white feather, you just tell them we will consent to a joint meet ing." And it was so arranged ; that is, as Mr. Hendricks did not want to dignify the affair by making it a joint discussion in form, his friends proposed that, as his appointment was first, he should speak two hours, leaving Harrison to follow. The people, men and women, jammed the court-house. There was scarcely breathing room in it. John S. Davis, a Democratic magnate of the locality, and Mr. Voorhees, the "Tall Syca-. more of the Wabash," occupied high seats, divid ing honors with Mr. Hendricks. Young Harri son went in unnoticed. No one was so poor as to offer him a chair. He was compelled to con tent himself with a seat on the edge of a desk his feet hanging pendulously in the air. The three great lights of the Democracy had no fear of him ; to the Republicans he was an unknown quantity. Mr. Hendricks found it easy going. The time was when the Democracy were trying to persuade men that the early and later rains and the in creased population and development of the coun try were all due to their beneficent influences. The speech was pleasant, plausible and strong. To the unknown, perched upon the sharp edge of the desk in the squeeze of the crowd, the two THE LAWYER. 85 hours stretched into four, and the applause smote him like blows. At last Mr. Hendricks finished and took his seat, having first generously re quested the people to remain. Then Harrison s turn came. When he ap peared on the stand it was amidst a heavy silence. The men gazed at him blankly. The women pitied him. To regain composure he was slow in arranging his documents. He began at length with a well-worded compliment to Mr. Hendricks. Directly he stated a proposition, and charged that at some previous time the Democrats had con ceded it to be true. There was a stir in the house indicative of a sensation, and promptly Mr. Voorhees reared his tall form, claiming every eye, and, with a stately wave of the hand to check any demonstration, denied the truth of the statement. An electric flash is not quicker than the retort. " Fellow-citizens, the denial to which we have listened induces me to amend my assertion. I now say that every Democrat approved the propo sition, except Mr. Voorhees. He was then a whig." With the spontaneity that distinguishes an American audience above all others, a yell burst out, and before it ended the boyish-looking indi vidual in the stand know that the house was well stocked with Republicans. Pleased, confident, smiling, he then took up Mr. Hendricks points, and answered them one by one, 86 BENJAMIN HARRISON. supporting each statement with the record. As he proceeded the difficulty was to repress the enthusiasm of his friends. At the conclusion Mr. Voorhees announced that he would reply to Mr. Harrison in the evening, and he did, but without avail. The impression left by the young dispu tant is still ineffaced. The debate has now only to be mentioned in the hearing of a Rockville Republican, and he will laugh, and rub his hands, and break into exclamations. " Such a drubbing as the little fellow did give them ! And he was so clean about it ! No abuse, no blackguarding ! I would walk a hundred miles to see it done over." The story crept abroad over the State, and the candidate for reporter leaped into notoriety with a bound. Mr. Harrison took possession of the office, and lost no time in getting to work. Official duties were then added to his current law practice. His days were crowded, and he borrowed hours from the nights. Patiently, and with no word of com- plainf, he labored for the wife and little ones at home. Ambition he had, but there was never a quickened pulse from it that had not reference to them. The ambition that begins at home is always with a healthful leaven. One day, the better to secure himself from in terruption while making the index to a volume of the reports, he took refuge in a basement-room THE LAWYER. 87 of the old First Presbyterian church on the gov ernor s circle. He was so engaged when the news of the firing on Fort Sumter was brought him ; after which he could do nothing more with pen or pencil that day. Text, index, syllabus, clients, all for a time lost interest with him. Like his neighbors, like the loyal millions of the North, he could think of nothing but the jnsulted flag and the dangers to the Union. Next morning his blood was cooler. Sight of the wife and children restored him to himself, and he returned to work. He has since confessed that the zest in it was gone his heart was with the gathering soldiers. He attended meetings, and did everything he could except speak. That his pride and sense of propriety forbade. How could he ask another man to enlist, and the uniform not upon his own back ? " By-and-by may be," he would say to himself, "they may let me go." The pronoun was but a name for his family. It will be seen that in fact he did not become a recruiting agent until he himself became a recruit. Upon entering the army a volume of the re ports was in hand, and he appointed John T. Dye and John Caven to finish it. Mr. Dye became by his appointment deputy-reporter. This was in July, 1862. The question then arose whether Mr. Harri son s acceptance of a military commission did not vacate his commission as reporter of the Supreme 88 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Court. The Democrats of the State accepted the affirmative theory ; and in the fall succeeding Mr. Harrison s enlistment in the army they nomi nated the Hon. Michael C. Kerr, who afterwards ( became speaker of the House of Representatives, their candidate. He was elected and brought a mandate against the clerk of the Supreme Court to compel the delivery of the records to him. The Suoreme Court decided that Mr. Harrison x had vacated the reportership, and that Mr. Kerr had been duly elected to it. The latter, accord ingly, entered upon the duties of the office, and continued to discharge them until the fall of 1864. The Republican Convention of that year renomi- nated Colonel Harrison, who was then in the field with his regiment engaged in the Atlanta cam paign. He was elected by a majority of 19,713, which was no doubt partly due to the sympathy excited by what seemed a wrongful ouster from office, and an indirect punishment by a Demo cratic Supreme Court for such a practical mani festation of loyalty to the flag. Then, thinking that if the acceptance of a military commission vacated the civil office, a reverse application of the principle could not do more in the new situa tion than vacate his Colonelcy a question to be heard at Atlanta instead of by a session of judges in chambers Mr. Harrison reappointed Mr. Dye his deputy, and continued with his regiment in the field. THE LAWYER. 89 Upon his muster out Colonel Harrison resumed duty as reporter of the Supreme Court. While in the field he had received a letter from his former partner, Mr. W. P. Fishback, then of the firm of Porter & Fishback, inviting him to join that firm, which he subsequently did. The per tinacity with which he would cling to work is well illustrated by a habit he had while reporter of taking a roll of proof in his pocket when he went to the court-house, and of reading it in favorable intervals. He would even carry proof-sheets with him to concerts. During his period of service in the army his family resided in a house at the corner of Ala bama and North streets. At the time of his muster out he was in debt, but the profits of business upon his return, added to those of the reportership, soon relieved him, and he was even able to put some additions and improvements upon his property. Thanks to an excellent memory, he was able upon re-entering the law office to share its labors with his partners to their satisfaction. Conscious that the practice of the law must remain his de pendency through life he never allowed himself to grow rusty in it. While Supreme Court Re porter and United States Senator, he gave every spare minute to the office and to appearances in court. Persistence in such habits has enabled him, despite interruption, to reach the head of the 90 BENJAMIN HARRISON. bar in Indiana, and maintain himself there in face of the rivalry of a number of lawyers of ability to adorn any court in the world. The firm of Porter, Harrison & Fishback was formed in 1865. About five years afterwards Mr. Fishback went into the newspaper business, and the firm then became Messrs. Porter, Harri son & Hines. A change was next effected by the retirement of Governor Porter. Mr. W. H. H. Miller took his place. In 1883 Mr. Hines retired, and Mr. John B. Elam coming in, the firm-name became what it is to-day Harrison, Miller & Elam. General Harrison is a lawyer by natural gifts. Probably no contemporary exceeds him in quick ness of comprehension and breadth or reach of judgment. Analysis with him is an instinctive mental operation. He does not go to the books to find principles ; with the principles already in mind it is his custom to ask for the authorities. That which ought to be the law, as he sees it, almost invariably turns out to be the law. These qualities make him easily a master of all classes of questions, and equip him for practice in the highest courts as well as in the lower, in criminal cases not less than civil, in matters probate and in matters chancery. They make him also equally formidable before a jury or a judge. His ex amination and cross-examination of witnesses are never-failing sources of amusement and study to THE LAWYER. 9 1 the bystander. When he has finished with a witness and notified him to stand aside s it is seldom that he has not wrung from him all the person knows of the least pertinency to the issues. On such occasions he is scrupulously kind and courteous. The witness steps down and out and goes his way without bitterness ; if he has crossed himself, very often he is unaware of it. In after reflection he remembers chiefly the pleasant voice and countenance of his interrogator. So, in argument, in the heat of conflicts, General Harrison is scrupulously observant of the ameni ties due to the jury, opposing counsel and the presiding judge. His deportment to the latter is so respectful that, while wrestling against an adverse opinion, he was never known to have been the occasion of a scene in court. He is earnest where what he thinks his rights are in volved, but never insolent, cringing or angry. In course of speech, speaking of the facts elicited, he keeps himself carefully within the record. In the closing arguments the opposing counsel finds no necessity to interrupt him ; neither has he trouble with him in preparing a record for an appeal. Tricks, traps, surprises and small advantages are foreign to General Harrison s ideas of pro fessional honor. He may not always be eloquent, but he is always logical ; if the occasion demands it, however, he can be grandly eloquent. His in dignation, like his pathos, is natural. He despises 92 BENJAMIN HARRISON. attempts at dramatic effect; he is characteristically straightforward, and his comparisons are never far-fetched ; his figures of speech are always clothed in the simplest words, so that he is enter taining to everybody who hears him, and easily understood by everybody. The secret of his power, whether in court or on the stump, lies in the fact that he never fails to make himself per fectly understood. These are words of high praise ; they may even sound like extravagance ; and whoever reads them may be curious to have samples set before him that he may decide for himself if what is said is justified by the facts. With this idea the writer consents to furnish two arguments in full. Speech in the defense of General Alvin P. Hovey, in Mil- ligan vs. Hovey, United States Circuit Court, May term, 1871. Explanatory. One of the incredible things incident to the war of the Rebellion incredible at least to young people* reading of that great event is that there could be found in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, whose soldiers were numbered by the hundred thousands, enough rebel sympathizers to attempt an armed revolution. But such was the fact, and the proof of it is absolute. In the spring of 1864 a conspiracy was set on foot with intent to overthrow the government of. THE LAWYER. 93 the United States. For that purpose a secret society known as the Order of American Knights, or Order of Sons of Liberty, was organized. The immediate object was the separation of Ohio, In diana, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky from the Eastern States ; failing in that, the membership was to join fortunes with the South. It operated with grips, pass-words and obligations of secresy. Admitting the credibility of confessing leaders, it comprehended a membership of from 75,000 to 125,000 in Indiana; from 80,000 to 108,000 in Ohio ; from 40,000 to 70,000 in Kentucky ; from 100,000 to 130,000 in Illinois; from 20,000 to 40,000 in Missouri ; and in Michigan and New York about 20,000 each. Vallandingham, in a speech at Dayton, Ohio, placed the membership at 500,000. It was moreover a military organization, with a full complement of officers extending down from a commander-in-chief, and a fair supply of arms and ammunition. By inspection of invoices, there had been imported into Indiana alone, in February and March, 1 864, 30,000 guns and revolvers, prop erty of the so-called Sons of Liberty. As might have been foreseen, the attention of the general government was drawn to the order. Arrests were made, followed by a prosecution. A military commission was assembled at the United States Court rooms in Indianapolis, Sep tember 19, 1864, by order of Brevet Major-Gen- 94 BENJAMIN HARRISON. eral Alvin P. Hovey, before which, on the 2ist of October, Wm. A. Bowles, Andrew Humphries, Horace HefTren, Lambdin P. Milligan and Stephen Horsey, citizens of Indiana, were ^solemnly ar raigned for conspiracy against the government of the United States. The Ritual of the Order was submitted in proof, and amongst the witnesses there was one of the traitorous major-generals. The trial continued through many days, with result finally that the accused were found guilty and sen tenced to death. President Lincoln subsequently commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life. The case, on habeas corpus, was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States by Major Gordon, counsel for the defense, who was assisted in argument there by Jeremiah Black and James A. Garfield. The court held that there was no jurisdiction in a military commission to try people of Indiana, for the reasons that Indiana was not within the theatre of war, and that civil govern ment was in full operation within its borders. The prisoners, at the time in the Columbus (Ohio) penitentiary, were of course discharged. Lambdin P. Milligan, while in the prison, had been set to work in a paint shop, and, claiming to have been poisoned with lead, upon his release brought suit for damages against James R. Slack and twenty-two defendants, amongst whom nota bly were General A. P. Hovey, Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, and THE LAWYER. 95 Oliver P. Morton, Governor of Indiana. The proceeding was begun in the Common Pleas Court of Huntington county, Indiana ; subsequently, on petition of General James R. Slack and others, it was transferred to the United States Circuit Court for the district of Indiana. General Benjamin Harrison appeared as an assistant in the defense, under appointment of President Grant. Judge Drummond presided at the hearing. The trial excited great public interest, as at that time the echoes of the war were still dis tinctly heard. The rulings of the Supreme Court were of course imperative upon Judge Drum- mend; and there having been no jurisdiction in the military commission, there was a technical right of recovery. This the defendants recog nized, and confined themselves to mitigation of damages. That the contest was exciting may be justly in ferred from the fact that it was chiefly between Governor Thomas A. Hendricks, for the prose cution, and General Harrison, for the defendants. The sympathies of the former were for his client on principle, for, if not himself a Son of Liberty, he was the father of the idea of a separate North western Confederacy. On the other hand, the defendants were all personal friends of the latter, while some of them had been his comrades in arms. Governor Hendricks felt the intensity of 96 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the prejudice existing against his client, but went through the ordeal with unflinching zeal and courage. General Harrison rested his plea of mitigation upon the treasonable acts of the plain tiff and his associate Sons of Liberty, and his struggle with the presiding judge was at times severe. To a suggestion from the court that he should cease further introduction of witnesses, Harrison replied that he would of course stop when ordered to, but so far as it was a matter in his discretion as counsel he should continue to offer further proof. He succeeded in getting of record the whole story of the treason ; then the case went to the jury. General Harrison s argument was as follows: Gentlemen of the Jury ; The case you have been called to try is a legacy of the war. It has brought back to our minds with vividness the vicissitudes and anxieties of that protracted struggle for national life. You have heard not of personal controversies, or of commerce or trade, but of historic events, of war, of State invasion, of gigantic and treasonable conspiracies against the public peace. The acts of which the plaintiff complains were done by the defendants in the character of public officers. They were United States soldiers, who had heard the cry of national distress, and with brave, true hearts, had forsaken all and dared all, that they might preserve us a Nation. Some of them are the maimed survivors of that struggle. By the blessing of God upon their valor the supremacy of the constitution and laws was asserted and restored. And now. they are assailed, under the shield of that constitution and those laws, in a court whose con tinued existence is due to them and their associates in arms, and that too by one who compassed the destruo THE LAWYER. 97 tion of that charter of liberty and personal -right .Vom which he now draws his weapons of attack. I was saying that the acts complained of here on the part of the defendants were acts of an official character. They were not private injuries, nor trespasses, or wrongs committed through spite, but they were official acts. General Hovey, as commander of this military district, arrested the plaintiff. The commissioners who sat upon the trial of the case were soldiers of the Union, sworn to obey their superior officers, and acted upon such dis cretion as was left them under their official oaths to do their duty under the orders of the government. These gentlemen had been summoned to sit on this commission. Could they have refused to perform that duty? The command was an imperative one, and a refusal to obey would have been treated as being as grave an offence and as conspicuous disregard of military duty as a refusal to march at the trumpet call. What is the duty of a soldier ? * His not to reason why, His not to make reply, His but to do or die." I do not pretend that the order of any military com mander could compel a court-martial to find a verdict of guilty or not guilty, but the duty of this court-martial was to sit through the trial, and hear the evidence and pronounce a judgment upon it in accordance with their conscientious convictions. Had any one of the gentle men composing that court refused upon receiving his detail as a member to serve, he would have been himself liable to trial before a court-martial for disobedience of orders. I shall speak to you presently upon the question whether the evidence before the commission was sufficient to sup port their finding, and, if it was, then I shall claim for them at your hands a full exculpation. At the outset, then, I remark that this case is one which every man feels, in his heart, ought not ever to have been commenced. This is not only the expression 7 98 BENJAMIN HARRISON. of private feeling, but both Congress and the Legislature of this State have expressed, in the form of law, their opinion that such actions as this aught not to be brought. The Congress of the United States, as early as 1863, and in several statutes passed since, have declared the opinion that when an officer, during a war, acting in good faith under an order of the President, has made an arrest in the interest of public peace and for the national security, he ought not afterward to be dragged before a jury to be amerced in damages. The Legislature of this State, by a statute passed in the year 1867, have expressed a like opinion, and enacted that where such an action was brought, the damages should in no case exceed five dol lars. I do not speak to you for the purpose of discussing questions of law ; questions of law the court will deter mine. I speak of the simple fact that Congress and our Legislature have both spoken in harmony with that feel ing which arises in every true man s heart when he hears of cases like the present one the feeling that they ought not to be brought. If this plaintiff, by his own fault by having become a party to a treasonable and wicked conspiracy drew upon himself this arrest, then he should be content that he has suffered but a part of the penalty of the great wrong that he contemplated. There are persons walking to-day free and untram- meled through this whole land, who sought during the war, by secret conspiracy and overt violence, to destroy the Union even since this trial began we have heard of the great leader of the Southern Confederacy publicly addressing his fellow-citizens of the South. lie walks unrestrained, and is yet attempting as far as in him lies to rekindle the fires of revolution. How grand has been the magnanimity of our government ! Look at human history from its beginning until now, and show me on its pages anything that can compare with the sublime magnanimity of the American Government towards its domestic enemies. Among the crimes against mankind this rebellion stands supreme. In lands where oppres sion has crushed the people to the dust, revolution has often shown itself in the assertion of right principles of THE LAWYER. 00 Government, and in the struggle towards that which our fathers attained here in the American Republic. This we have seen. But it was reserved for traitors in Amer ica for citizens debauched by long connection with the institution of slavery to kindle a war against the Gov ernment whose hand had never been felt by them except as it conferred blessings upon them. After their great crime these men are free to-day. The nation has covered them with the mantle of forgetfulness and amnesty. And is it too much to ask that acts like those complained of in the present case, which are only the consequences the plaintiff brought upon himself by previous acts of treasonable conspiracy against the Government that they shall be covered with the same mantle ? If the men who sought with bloody hand and by treasonable conspiracy to destroy the nation shall go free, shall they who spent their blood to save it from destruction be arraigned before a jury of the country and amerced in damages for doing the acts which the defendants did ? The charges against the plaintiff, upon which he wa.s put upon trial before the Military Commission, were of the gravest character. If he was guilty of them death was the mildest punishment that should have been visited upon him. If he, a citizen of this State, dwelling here under the beneficent protection of our State gov ernment, remote from the institution of slavery, which was the spring of treason and the corner-stone of re bellion ; if he, dwelling here, engaged with others in a direct conspiracy against the government, and lent his sympathies, not to the defenders of our bleeding country, but to rebels ; if he did not only all this, but sought to turn loose the dogs of war within our peaceful States, corresponding secretly with the enemies of the country, and invited them to our soil instead of arraying himself against them; if he, conspiring against the peace of our State, stood upon our soil and sent out his voice to rebels across the river if he did all this, then I say that death, ignominious death, was the least punishment which any true man would say ought to have IOC BENJAMIN ItAkRtSoN. visited upon him. Did the officers who arrested hinl, and the court that tried him, have reason to believe him guilty of these crimes ? These offenses grew out of, and were connected with, a secret order known at different times by different names, but having the same officers, the same member ship, and the same design. What were the purposes of that secret order? Gentlemen, its history is a black page in the history of Indiana, and yet we are compelled to turn our minds to the consideration of it for a brief moment Far rather would I call into review before you those pages of our Nation s history which have been made glorious by a record of the exploits of Indiana soldiers in the field ; but for the present let us look, painful as is the duty, at this page made black with treason. What were the purposes of this secret order? We could not expect to find them plainly stated in its rituals or oaths. Such purposes always wear a cloak ; yet we may hope to find in these rituals something which may furnish a clue. We may hope now and then to peep through the cloak in which treason wrapped itself, and see some thing of its hideous lineaments. We read in these ritu als a good deal about education and literature, and we hear, at least in one of its councils, that the subject of establishing a great university in which the political lessons of the order were to be taught was gravely dis cussed. The distinguished Senator (Mr. Hendricks) has called attention to the testimony of some of the witnesses in regard to this matter, as if he would have you believe that it was really one of the purposes of the order. Will you believe, gentlemen, for one moment, that the estab lishment of newspapers, the cultivation of letters, or the founding of a university was ever in the serious con templation of its members? That is too thin a disguise to hide the face of treason. There is in the obligations, at least in one of them, the vow not to reveal any of the contemplated designs of the order, and it proves that there was something con templated not revealed in the books. Then we find, in the next place, another vow not to reveal secrets com- THE LAWYER. I-Q [ municated by a brother of the order, but rather than do so to suffer death. Now what were these secrets which, when communicated to a brother, he was to hold sacred under a penalty of death ? We find also another obliga tion not to reveal any conjectured purpose. When these men, many of them deceived, were brought into the vestibule of the order, where only some general political lessons were shown, they took an oath not to reveal a conjectured purpose, and as they acquired the degrees, and the darkness of the designs of the order dawned upon them, that oath was there as a safeguard against disclosures and to constrain them to conceal purposes not exposed in the books. Now, gentlemen, what were those purposes ? I insist that in the rituals of the order there is to be found a muster-in oath into the Southern army. I shall read you presently what, as you now look back and recall public events, can have no other mean ing. And I charge it upon them to-day that, as one of the effects of the obligations assumed by them in their ritual, the members of the order of American Knights, or Sons of Liberty, were mustered in as soldiers of the Con federate army in the State of Indiana. The following is a portion of the obligation taken by a " Neophyte," read from the ritual of the order : " I do further promise that I will, at all times, if needs be, take up arms in the cause of the oppressed in my country first of all against any Monarch, Prince, Poten tate, Power or Government usurped, which may be found in arms, and waging war against a people or peo ples, who are endeavoring to establish, or have inaug urated, a Government for themselves of their own free choice, in accordance with, and founded upon, the eternal principles of Truth which I have sworn in the V, and now in this presence do swear, to maintain inviolate, and defend with my life. This I do promise, without reser- vation or evasion of mind ; without regard to the name, station, condition or destination of the invading or co ercing power, whether it shall arise within or come from without." Who were the " oppressed " people in whose behalf 102 BENJAMIN HARRISOr the Neophyte, coming in through the vestibule of me temple, upon bended knee, swore to take up arms ? Who were the people oppressed by an usurper ? Which the States against whom a usurper was waging war ? Answer it upon your oaths, gentlemen. Do you doubt that the persons taking that oath on bended knee did not under stand it as binding them to take up arms on behalf of the rebel Confederacy ? It can mean nothing less. No man familiar with the history of the times can believe otherwise of it. The oath was a muster-in oath, and he who took it was as much a recruit of Jefferson Davis army as if he had been actually in the army of the rebel States. If he regarded his obligations, if he meant to perform his vows, he was as much a servant of Jefferson Davis, and as much bound to obey his orders as if he had been mustered into the army of Lee then confront ing Grant at Richmond. Major Gordon showed you plainly that the political doctrines upon which the South took up arms against the government are as plainly stated and announced in these rituals as they ever were in any political conven tion. The supremacy of the general government is utterly denied in them. Supremacy sovereignty is declared to be in the States. Any attempt to resist or thwart the resolutions of any of the States is declared to be usurpation and a crime. But further than this, as if it were not enough to swear to take up arms in behalf of the Confederacy, the ritual contains an oath binding upon every man who entered, the order, not to serve in the armies of the United States. Let me read to you, for a moment, from the ritual : " That my sword shall ever be drawn in sup port of the right, and that I will never take up arms in any case as a mercenary." Now, in the light of the public proclamations, editorials and speeches issued by these men, who were the soldiers of the United States ? They were " Lincoln hirelings " they were " merce naries. Tell me if those were not the familiar names by which the Federal troops were known and designated hrre in Indiana by the men who had no sympathy f or t n- rnus-j for wliicl those troops were fightin<r. THE LAWYER. 103 What did the man who took this obligation understand it to mean if not that he was swearing never to serve in the army of the United States ? While loyal men were going up and down the land exhorting their fellow-citi zens to come to the defense of th.e Union, these Sons of Liberty were dragging the young and unsuspecting into their ranks. Here, then, we have in the ritual of this secret order an oath, on the one hand, never to take up arms in de fense of the government, and, on the other, a muster oath into the service of the rebel government. That more than a political organization was contemplated is plain from another fact all cripples were excluded. The person admitted took an obligation never to intro duce a cripple or person of unsound mind into the order. The one-armed or the one-legged cripple had as much political influence, as much political power, as the man who had all the limbs which God had given him, and it was as important that he should be properly instructed in correct political principles. Should a poor cripple be excluded from participation in the order, if it was merely a political organization, because, perchance, he had lost a limb while serving his country ? What did this mean, gentlemen ? They who took the obligation understood it to mean that they were to do .military service ; and just as the mustering officer of the United States stripped the recruit and examined him to see if he was able for the fray, so these men swore not to admit into their organization any man who would be unfit for the strife when the strife contemplated should come. They ex cluded the African, too. It was a very great work of supererogation to do that ; for if there was ever any negro in Indiana so degraded as to ask for political asso ciation with such men, I have never heard of the fact. There were none of that kind, degraded, as many had been, by years of servitude. I never have seen, nor heard, nor read of one, either here or down in the South, whose heart did not always beat in response to the music of the Union. I never heard of, never met one who was not the friend of the Union soldier. Instances ar^ IO4 BENJAMIN HARRISON. plenty the history of our war is full of them where our men, fleeing from Southern prison pens, crippled, exhausted, famished, owed their lives to the faithful and unswerving loyalty of black men. One of the meanest things in this whole order, one of the meanest political sentiments it ever uttered, was its constant expression of hatred of the negroes. Some of you may have seen a little poem by John Hay, which, though rough in lan guage, strikes a chord in every true man s heart, and gives the strongest rebuke to the unworthy feeling of which I am speaking. Sergeant Tilman Joy, a resident of " Spunky Pint," in the State of " Illanoy," and a Democrat, heard his coun try s call, and " Laid his politics out of the way For to keep till the war was through." Then he sought his home, bringing with him " Banty Tim," a colored boy. His old political associates as sembled (whether in a lodge of the Sons of Liberty or in open Democratic convention is not disclosed) and re solved (you may have heard the sentiment before) that " This is a white man s country." The conclusion, as communicated to Sergeant Joy by a committee, was that " The nigger has got to mosey From the limits of Spunky Pint." The Sergeant tells them a story of Vickburg. How, when our left struck the heights and were repulsed, he was left wounded, almost dying on the glacis, unsheltered from the blistering Southern sun. And here I must give you the story in the touching language of the author : " Till along toward dusk I saw a thing, I couldn t believe for a spell : That nigger that Tim was a crawlin to me Through that fire-proof, gilt-edged hell! The rebels saw him as quick as me, And the bullets buzzed like bees; But he jumped fer me, and shouldered me, Though a shot brought him once to his knees; THE LAWYER. 1O5 But he staggered up and packed me off, With a dozen stumbles and fails, Till safe in our lines he dropped us both, His black hide riddled with balls." Here, in this rough picture, we have the true, honest sentiment of a man conscious of patriotic obligation and who is willing to stand up for the friend of his country. On the other hand, in the obligations of this order I have read to you, we have not only outspoken hatred against the black man, but against all who stood by the flag and its defenders. But, after all, as we could not expect to have them written plainly in their books, we must look to the acts of the founders and managers of this organization to ascertain its true purposes. The court will tell you that the law of conspiracy is that if two or more agree and combine to do an unlaw ful act, and it be shown either by express words or by conduct pointing in the common direction when the agreement and common consent of the mind to do the act is established, each man is answerable for every word and for every deed of those with whom he has thus con spired in furtherance of the common design. Keep in mind, gentlemen, while we trace the connection of Milli- gan with this secret order, that if we once bring him into connection with, and to an assent of mind to, the great crime that was contemplated by the Sons of Liberty, he then becomes responsible in the eye of the law for every word and every act which Bowles or Bullitt or Dodd said or did in execution of the common treasonable object. Touching the purpose of the order, as drawn from the declarations of its members, we have from Dr. Wil son a statement of them as given in a meeting of the Grand Council held in Indianapolis in November, 1864. Now, Dr. Wilson is not a friend or associate of either of the defendants in this cause ; I think I may even say that he does not come here with his mind at all prepos sessed in favor of Union soldiers. On the contrary, he comes reluctantly, an associate, co-conspirator and friend IO6 BENJAMIN HARRISON. of the plaintiff. He comes because brought here by the process of this court. He comes not yet weaned from his allegiance to the organization of which the plaintiff was a member, for here, on the witness stand, before you, he has declared that in the principles and purposes of this order he yet finds that which commended itself to his heart and conscience. Will the Senator (Mr. I lendricks) assail Dr. Wilson ? Is he a credible wit ness ? Much of the testimony that we have brought be fore you has been peculiar in that we have had to go into the camp of these traitors and bring them from it to 1 jil you of their treason. Dr. Wilson says that in the meeting held in November, 1864, at which Milligan was present, as confessed by himself and testified to by other witnesses, the designs of the order were plainly stated by Mr. Wright. The Senator will try to make you be- iieve that that was at the September meeting, and not at the November meeting, because a witness, Harrison, thinks that it was in September Wright was here giving his lessons, but we have Wilson s positive testimony that it was in November. He swore to it before the Military Commission, and he swears to the same thing here. He swears that Milligan was present. I read now from the testimony of James B. Wilson, as reported in the journal: " I was present at Indianapolis at a meeting of the Grand Council, in November, 1863, within a month or uvo after I went into the order. I think there was a Military Committee appointed at that meeting, and that Mr. Dodd delivered a speech to the Council or to the members of it. I think he said something about seizing railroads, cutting telegraph lines and driving away the State government. I could not repeat any of the words he said. He intimated, I think, something about taking possession of the railroads ; that that could be done and the telegraph wires cut, and that any movement that might be contemplated by the order could in that way be carried out without interference from the State authorities. I think about fifty persons were present when he made that statement." I will not tire you by reading further. You will re- THE LAWYER. 1 07 member the witness stating that the overthrow of che State government was contemplated, and that when that design was consummated the Committee of Thirteen was tc assume control of the State. Dodd was to be Gover nor, and the other State offices were to be filled from the committee named. Here, then, is the testimony of a witness unfriendly to these defendants and a political and personal friend and associate of the plaintiff, a member of this order, bound to Mr. Hendricks client by the obligations solemnly sworn to, giving us its purposes as declared in a public meeting by its Grand Commander a public meeting, too, as I shall show you presently, at which the plaintiff Milligan was present. Then, in the very first State meeting of the order, its Grand Commander publicly declared it an object of his society to aid the rebels of the South by overthrowing the State government, and the authority of the National government within the State, and in their place establish ing another government in sympathy with the rebel government in the Southern States. Another purpose declared at that meeting and at Chicago was to release the rebel prisoners, five thousand of whom were in camp here, watched by a small guard. They were an army brought here from the front through the successful valor of our armies, some from Vicks- burg and some from other fields of victory in the South. They were to be released and turned into our streets to begin here the work of destruction and outrage which had marked their course everywhere that they *rod upon the soil of the loyal States. Gentlemen, the guilt, the horrid guilt, of men who could contemplate turning loose into the streets of our beautiful city five thousand enraged prisoners, with arms in their hands, to begin the work of rapine and blood cannot be expressed in words. It was a purpose con ceived in devilish malignity. The man who could cherish such a purpose, who could take a step in its execution what does he not deserve of punishment at the hands of those against whose lives and homes and property he IO8 BENJAMIN HARRISON. plotted ? We had prisoners starving for years in some of the prison pens of the South, but if ever the sym pathies of the men belonging to this order were moved in their behalf there is no record of it in this case or in history. Another purpose disclosed was the destruction of gov ernment property. The government had collected in warehouses immense stores which were being sent for ward to supply the army in its contemplated campaigns. The railroads traversing our country and the steam boats navigating the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were loaded with these stores, the destruction of which was sufficient sometimes to thwart a great operation. Still another of the objects of the order, as disclosed here, was to put aboard our steamboats, freighted with, stores and yet more precious lives, their infernal machines, which, in the night time, when men slept, should kindle fires and bring destruction to life and property. This was a purpose canvassed and actually listened to with approbation by such men as Bowles, and Miliigan, and Dodd, and Horsey, and Humphries, and Dr. Wilson himself, who tells you of it. It was listened to as one would listen to the common details of a business affair. The per cent, that was to be paid for this infamous ser vice by the rebel government, out of money stolen from our paymasters, was definitely fixed, and it was boasted that already government property had been thus de stroyed. Is not language utterly powerless to express the ab horrence, the utter detestation whicji an honest heart must feel against monsters who could conceive such pur poses as these ? Mr. Hendricks talked to us a little in his opening speech of the horrible character of the pro ceedings before the Military Commission. I wish I might arouse him to a like abhorrence of this horrible con spiracy, and I shall look, gentlemen, to see if, in his con cluding speech, he will not employ that gift of language and eloquence with which he has been endowed in de nouncing it. We have seen that at Chicago Judge Bullitt, of Kentucky, THE LAWYER. I<X) Bowles, Dodd, Wilson and others assembled, discussed projects like those I have described as coolly as we would a transaction in real estate. Where were their con sciences and moraj. nature ? There is not a villain in a penitentiary, North or South, whose heart ever com passed or whose hand was ever reached out to execute a plan so utterly hellish as this. That a man who had conceived such plots, and who was only prevented from sharing in their execution by being taken into custody, and held for trial, by patriotic officers of the government, can come into our court rooms and sit here, day after day, seeking fo recover damages against them, is an amazing instance of clemency. Whatever purpose Lee, Beauregard, or John Morgan and the marauding gue rillas who operated through the border States under him, might put upon them to accomplish, these conspira tors were organized to accomplish. Whatever purpose they had, these men had. Not Grant, not Sherman, not the brave men who stood with Indiana regiments in de fense of our government, were the friends of Bowles, and Milligan, and Humphreys, and Horsey. Their friends were the enemies of the country. Consider next the condition of things at that time in our army. Sherman, in the spring of 1864, started on his grand campaign to the sea; and from May until the 2d of September he was toilsomely marching from Chat tanooga to Atlanta, his way marked with the graves of his intrepid soldiers, killed by the sympathizers and as sociates of this plaintiff. Grant, starting about the same time, was making his difficult and bloody march through the Wilderness and Spottsylvania to Petersburg. The time was when all the energies of our people were upon a strain, when every patriotic heart was filled with un utterable anxiety for the success of those great cam paigns. It was at the very crisis of our country s fate, these conspirators, here, in Indianapolis, in June, the plaintiff being present, as I shall show you, were devis ing and debating schemes intended to balk our armies, to turn back the tide of Union victories. To bring to your minds something of the condition of TTO BENJAMIN HARRISON. the country at tli.it time, I desire to read to you, as part of my speech, a communication or two from the Generals commanding the armies of the United States: HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES. CITY POINT, VA., August 16, 1864. To HON. E. B. WASHBURNE : Dear Sir : I state to all citizens who visit me that all we want now to insure an early restoration of the Union is a determined unity of sentiment North. The rebels have now in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroad bridges, and forming a good part of their garrisons for intrenched positions. A man lost by them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle arid the grave equally to get their present force. Besides whftt they lose in fre quent skirmishes and battles, they are now losing from desertions and other causes at least one regiment per day. With this drain upon them, the end is not far distant, if we will only be true to ourselves. Their only hope now is a divided North. This might give them reinforcements from Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland and Mis souri, while it would weaken us. With the draft quickly enforced the enemy would become despondent, and would make but little resistance. 1 have no doubt but the enemy are exceedingly anxiou to hold out until after the Presidential election. They have many hopes from its effects. They hope a counter revolution; they hope the election of the Peice candidate. In fact, like " Micawber," they hope for something to "turn up." Our Peace friends, if they except peace from separation, are much mistaken. It would but be the beginning of war with thousands ot Northern men joining.lhe South because of our disgrace in allowing sepa ration. To have " peace on any terms" the South would demand the restoration of their slaves already freed ; they would demand indemnity for losses sustained, and they would demand a treaty which would make the North slave-hunters for the South. They would demand pay for the restoration of every slave escaping to the North. Yours truly, U. S. GRANT. WAR DEPARTMENT, September 14. MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, NEW YORK: Lieutenant-General Grant telegraphs this department in regard to the draft as follows : CITY POINT, 10.30 A. M., September 13. HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War : We ought to have the whole number of men called for by the Presi dent in the shortest possible time. Prompt action in filling our armies will have more effect upon the enemy than a victory over them. They profess to believe and make their men believe there is such a party North in favor of recogni/ing Southern independence that the draft cannot be enforced. Let them be undeceived. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. The following despatch is from the present General of our armies : THE LAWYER. t t T ATLANTA, GA., 6.30 p. M., September 18. HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War : I am very glad to hear that the draft will be enforced. First, we want men; second, they come as privates to fill up our old and tried regiments, with their experienced officers already on hand ; and third, because ihe enforcement of the law will manifest a power resident in our government equal to the occasion. Our government, though a Democracy, should in times of trouble and danger be able to wield the power of a great nation. All well. W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General. The General-in-chief, commanding one of our armies, then in the immediate theatre of its operations, now President of the United States, speaking from his official position, thus declared that the hopes of the Confederacy hung on the movement which these men were endeavorr ing to inaugurate in the State of Indiana. Their plans must have been known ; their promises to kindle a re bellion here were known at Richmond; and thus that struggle was long protracted which would have ended at once but for the hope held out that our home govern ments would be assailed by armed forces composed of traitorous citizens, and the troops recalled from the front to prevent their overthrow. I have read these brief extracts from the communica tions of the great Generals who were leading our armies in the east and west, to show you how much the success of their campaigns depended on the enforcement of the draft, and the prompt suppression of disorders at home. They well appreciated the importance of the command that General Hovey held, and the help that would come to them by the prompt execution of the draft in Indiana, and the suppression of resistance to the National author ity. Here then was the Confederacy stumbling towards its fall, and here was a movement on foot to restore its vigor by so weakening the power of our armies that they might not be able to maintain themselves in the field. The painful condition of affairs at that time through the whole country it is impossible for me to describe. It would be impossible for you or me to recall the anxiety, the watchfulness and the suspense everywhere to be seen in the country in 1864. The old mother in her country home, her boys all gone, plies her busy needle, and with 112 BENJAMIN HARRISON. every stitch lifts a prayer to God for victory and for the safety of her boys. The old father following again the plough which he had long left to be guided by the stal wart hands of the boy now gone, as he turns the furrow, his drooping form bent to unwonted labor, recalls the features of that boy, and longs for his return, yet is willing that the supreme sacrifice of the loved life may be made, if such sacrifice is necessary to save the Union. Then, when the old people gathered around the fireside altar, when the old man came from the field, and the old family Bible came down from its shelf, and they bowed alone before God, what was the burden of prayer? How the old man s voice, quivering with emotion, lifted itself toward the throne of grace in the one all-absorbing sup plication to God for victory and the quick return of the absent one. And how many houses there were in which lonely wives and fatherless little ones dragged wearily on, their days and nights full of painful watching and apprehension. A cloud of anxiety seemed settled above their roof. The provider gone, the wife is doomed to unaccustomed toil. And then, too, there were times in such households as I have described, when sickness came, and the child stretched upon the bed, moaning and tossing with fever, asked with parched lips for papa, and when he would come home. And the counterpart of this I have seen with my own eyes where the soldier, hearing the news from home, and without hope of release from duties in the field, braced his heart, wrung as it was with anguish and sorrow, and went forward to meet the enemy. These are no fancy pictures; they are only imper fectly drawn. I have myself seen brave men by the camp-fire and on the march in tears at such news from home, yet submitting themselves to the exigencies of the service. So, all over the land, in public places of information, about newspaper offices, the anxious crowds gathered to see whether the painful struggle was drawing to a close, to hear whether at last God seemed to be favorable to us in the strife. And then, in counterpart, I remember well THE LAWYER. I I 3 a hillside I looked upon only three days after Vallandig- ham wrote the letter of the I2th of June, 1864, in which he told his friends that Sherman was brought to a stand still and falling back. I saw at Resaca the dead that had died for you and me. Our own brave boys, who> only a half hour before, I had seen and greeted in health and life, were lying there all mangled and lifeless. And why ? Because they loved their country and Were not willing that traitors should trample the flag in the dust My distinguished friend who has addressed you for the plaintiff in this case, and will soon speak to you again, has said a great deal about the horrible character of the trial of his client before the Military Commission, and has talked a great deal about the citizen and his rights. Let him now speak an honest word for the soldier. Let him tell you how his heart burns in good honest sympathy with the men who stood for the defense of his country and theirs. There were other scenes of the war besides those witnessed upon the battle-field upon which men could not look without emotion. Down yonder, at An- dersonville, for instance, thousands of our brave boys were guarded in a pen with nothing to shield them from the pitiless sun, in rags and tatters, starving and emaciated, until they were wrecks in body and gibbering idiots. Such was the work of Milligan and his co-conspirators of the North, who, by holding out aid and comfort to the enemy, protracted the war. The rebel guards who guarded the prison at Andersonville did not more bitterly hate everything that was loyal than did he and his asso ciates here in Indiana. Gentlemen, I ask your attention for a little while to the question whether the plaintiff was a participant in this business with full knowledge. That he was elected a Major-General of the Sons of Liberty is not denied, nor is it pretended that he ever declined the office. The whole matter, then, so far as he is concerned, is simply, did he have information of his election ? Three other Major-Generals were elected with him, and if they all knew the fact, how singular if he did not. Humph reys admits that he was notified. Bowles knew of his 8 I I 4 BENJAMIN HARRISON. election, and John C. Walker was not left in ignorance; he actually entered on the duties of his military office. The three, were appointed Major-Generals at the same time with Milligan. Now, if you and I, members of an order, should be elected to offices in it, and at subsequent meetings, two of them at least, we should be present, is it probable we should be left uninformed of the honor done us ? Milligan was elected in September at a meet ing of the Grand Council. He talked with Dodd and others who were present, and heard all the speeches that have been testified about, yet nobody told him that he had been elected Major-General ! That is his story. Do you believe it ? He was present at the November meeting following. He does not deny that. And Stidger and Wilson both tell you that at that meeting the military part of the organization was talked of, and Stidger said, both in his evidence before the Commission and here, that Milligan w : as a member of the committee at the November meeting; and, from the other evidence, it is clear that it was the military committee of the order of which he was a member. Then, two months after his election, we find him in the Grand Council. How came he of the Grand Council ? By the evidence the Major- Generals were ex-officio members. Was Milligan elected a member? W 7 as he sent as a delegate to the Grand Council ? If so, by whom ? If a delegate from any county temple, where is the evidence of it? If he was there not as a Major-General of the order, why was he there at all, and how? Now, at the November meeting it was said by the witnesses, Harrison and Stidger, that this military part of the organization was fully canvassed, and Wilson, who is not favorably disposed to us, speaks of Dodd s reveal ing the varied details of his plan for concentrating forces at Indianapolis and seizing the capital. Still the plain tiff tells you that he was not aware that he had any con nection with them. In the next place, he was present, if not at the February meeting, at the June meeting of the State Council. I know he denied this as a witness, but I saw it in the faces of this jury, and from what I THE LAWYER. I I 5 know of the way men look at such stones, that you did not credit his story touching his trip to Hamilton, Ohio. Stidger swears he was present in June. Harrison thinks he was there, but is not certain. Besides their testimony we have that of Mr. Ibach. Judging from his conduct on the stand, we may take it for granted that he was not a friend of the defendants, nor did he want them to suc ceed in this case. Before the Military Commission he testified as proved, that Bowles, for whom he was called, was present at the June meeting. He now says he does not think he was. We find by the testimony of Stidger, and the testimony of Ibach, the friend of the plaintiff; there can be no doubt that in June, 1864, when the pro posed military operations were again canvassed before the Grand Council, Milligan was present, and Stidger says he was on the military committee then appointed. We have more direct evidence still of his complicity in these plans. Harrison was sent by Dodd, as Grand Commander, to communicate with Milligan at his home in Huntington. The message he bore him was not to be trusted through the mails of the United States; so it was sent according to the very plan spoken of in Chicago that the Grand Commander should send to the Major- Generals of the order information by private couriers, and that they in turn should communicate it in the same manner to their immediate subordinates. I say, in exe cution of that very design, Dodd sent Harrison, the Grand Secretary of the order, with a secret summons to Milligan. Harrison says Dodd did not say to him that the purpose of the meeting to which Milligan was sum moned was to consult as to how they should seize 4 the State government, but he did tell him what the plan was and that he should go and notify Milligan to come down here on a certain day for the purpose of consultation. Was it necessary for Dodd to say to Harrison, or for Harrison to say to Milligan, what the purpose of the consultation was ? Do you not know that Harrison understood well, when Dodd disclosed his plan to him, the purpose for which Milligan was wanted here ? /ind do you not just as well know that Milligan understood I I 6 BENJAMIN HARRISON. it also ? Harrison is not a friend of ours. He is not the fellow or associate of these defendants, but a co-conspira tor and fellow of the plaintiff. He tells you that he him self laid before Milligan all of Dodd s plans for an insur rection in Indiana. Now, if Milligan had not had Dodd s confidence, and if Dodd had not had his confidence, would he have sent this messenger to him at all ? He did not stop with anybody else. Going hence to Lafayette, and from Lafayette up through the Wabash Valley toward Huntington, he held communication with no man, but sped on his way to the home of Milligan, because his mission was to him. Dodd knew Milligan s commission and place in the order. Harrison H. Dodd, the Grand Commander of the State, knew that Milligan was thor oughly committed to the treason about to be inaugurated in the State. Otherwise he would not have sent the message to him by the one man in all Indiana proper to carry it the Grand Secretary of the order. The theory that Milligan was a Major-General makes everything plain, for the northeastern part of the State was Milli gan s military district, and in all that section there was but one person to whom, as Grand Commander, he should communicate orders. He had nothing to do with messages to the councils of the counties the county temples, as they were called so his messenger goes straight from the head of the conspiracy here in Indian apolis to the Major-General at Huntington, before whom he secretly lays the whole plan. Do you not think Dodd gave Harrison to understand that Milligan was all right before* he made the revelation to him ? Do you thin.k, if any of you had met Mr. Harrison on the cars between here and Huntington, that he would have told you anything about the scheme for an insurrection in the State, comprehending a forcible seizure of the State government? Not a syllable would have escaped his lips to you or to anybody else whom he did not know fully committed to the military purposes of the organi zation. If a man is contemplating such a crime, whom does he tell of meetings held in pursuance of it, of the plans for its execution ? Only those already committed, THE LAWYER. 1 1/ like himself, to the bloody work. His lips are sealed to all others. Wherefore, saying there was not another particle of evidence in this case from first to last, the meeting that Harrison had with Milligan is conclusive that Milligan was a Major-General in the order, and that Dodd sent Harrison to him as such, and thajt he understood the meeting to which he was bid was in pur suance of the conspiracy. And, further, Milligan did not deny having the inter view with Harrison. He was asked if Harrison came to see him, and he admitted it. Nor did he deny that Har rison disclosed to him Dodd s contemplated projects his resolution was not quite strong enough to face that. He had enough to do to explain how he managed to get around from Huntington to Dayton, Ohio, and home again without denial of the matters spoken of by the witnesses. Now here is a purpose disclosed. Suppose him at that time an innocent man ; suppose he had one instinct of patriotism yet unextinguished in his soul. When that communication was made to him, would he not have committed the messenger of the devilish project to the first Provost-Marshal accessible ? Would he not have exposed the designs and had all who contemplated them arrested? I say if there had been a spark of patriotism left in his heart, the injury contemplated to the govern ment of his State, to say nothing of the danger to his fellow-citizens, would have kindled it into righteous flame. Yet he heard it all without objection. Not only did he hear it without objection ; he gave his promise to be here if he could and assist in the work at the time appointed. Let the counsel then come and argue that his client is innocent, that he is clear of this guilty con spiracy. Now, in the face of the fact that his client sat through two meetings of the Grand Council after his first and second election to the office of Major-General, let his counsel argue his innocence; to do it sincerely he must believe, and before you can be convinced of it you must believe, that nobody, not even his confidential friend Dodd, meeting him often as he did in the Grand I 1 8 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Council where these matters were discussed, ever dis closed to him the extraordinary honors put upon him by the order. Especially y* it to be remembered that he addressed Ddd as General in a letter that has been read in evidence. Gentlemen, I say, in the light of these facts^ the man who can believe Milligan, the plaintiff, was not a Major-General of the Sons of Liberty, is a born imbecile. Next, but in the same line of argument, I call your attention to two other circumstances : one is his calling in the old soldier named Elder to inquire about what constituted the staff of a Major-General. That, you will remember, was in 1864, as that old soldier thought. It undoubtedly connected itself in his mind with the events of that year. The soldier says Milligan inquired about the staff of a Major-General, and that the inquiry stopped there. If I had to decide which of the two I would be lieve, Milligan or the soldier, I would take the soldier. In the first place, Milligan s testimony is impaired by his proved connection with this conspiracy. Then the guilt of the crime is infinitely worse than that of homicide, worse even than that of the man who invades your homes. He who could be a party to it is a villain of blacker hue than those whom the law from day to day is putting its hands upon in our criminal courts. Therefore, I say, if I had to choose between the two I would believe the soldier. He tells you the inquiry was limited to what constituted the staff of a Major-General ; that rfot one word was said about the pay of a Major-General or the pay of his staff, but how many aids he had, how many Adjutant-Generals, Inspectors, Provost-Marshals. Mr. Milligan tells you the consultation with Elder was for the purpose oP making a speech to the people and show ing them how expensive the war was ; therefore, he says he did not ask about the number of Major-Generals in the service nor about their pay. To me it looks that a gentleman aspiring to the candidacy of his party for the chief executive office in the State, as Milligan was, should have been able to find some more reli able source of information than a private from the THE LAWYER. I 1 9 United States army. If his purpose had been what he says it was, he would have sought the army regulations and published documents of that character. But no ; he wished, in secret, without making noise about it, to ascertain who should compose the staff of a Major-Gen eral, that, at the time this uprising was to occur, he might move forth with all the epauletted dignity of a Major-General of the Sons of Liberty, surrounded by a suitable staff. My second reference is to some papers found at Hunt- ington. Mr. Milligan gives a very innocent account of them, as he does of his trip to Dayton. Unfortunately for him, the papers he described do not agree with the papers found. A gentleman comes here and tells you that he went into Milligan s office in company with a law student of Milligan s, and that they there destroyed certain papers. This was soon after the arrest. The young man was familiar with the papers, and the fact of their destruction is conclusive that he knew they had something to do with the Sons of Liberty, otherwise he would not have put them into the fire. Remember that as a fact. Remember that Wilson Smith and Mr. Dembo, the student, if that was his name, both thought the papers destroyed had connection with the Sons of Liberty. The rituals of the order were found there rituals of an order that he swore he never belonged to, and the name of which, as you probably observed, I could not wring out of him, so true was he to its obligations. The papers Milligan described were not ruled like the papers Wilson Smith described. He says they had three col umns of figures, while Smith says they had five. In one column was set down the Republican strength of the county, in another the Democratic strength, and in the next column were figures which Wilson Smith thought might be intended for majorities, but upon examination he found that they were not ; for he tells you he knew the majorities in that section of the State, and they did not agree at all. He tells you also that there were but three columns of figures, while upon the papers Milligan I2O BENJAMIN HARRISON. described to Mr. Hendricks there were two or more additional columns of " hypothecated majorities," as he calls them. If those papers had more than three columns of figures, they are not the papers found in his office after his arrest, and he has not explained that evidence away. Now, if you please, gentlemen, what were those papers found in his office and burned by his law student and Wilson Smith after his arrest, if not the field report of a Major-General s military command, the forces under him in the Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle ? What part of the State did the papers embrace ? The northeastern portion of the State of Indiana a solid body of counties. Mr. Milligan tells you the papers he described covered the whole State ; Wilson Smith says the papers he found did not cover the whole State, but the counties corresponded exactly with what, according to the evidence laid before you, constituted the military district of Major-General Milligan. So that I say it is not true, according to the weight of the evidence, that there were destroyed only innocent political documents prepared here at the session of the legislature with a view to legislative purposes. In the light of the inter view with the old soldier and the information sought of him ; in the light of the conduct of the student who, from his associations, was in likelihood himself a mem ber of the order and familiar with the papers I say he helped destroy them because they connected Milligan with the proposed traitorous military operations of Grand Commander Dodd. We have then this evidence of the plaintiff s com plicity with the designs of the treasonable organization ; and the man who can, in view of the facts that Milligan was elected a Major-General in September, 1863, and re-elected in February, 1864, and that he afterwards attended two meetings of the order the juror, I say, who can believe that Milligan never knew he was elected such Major-General, does not need evidence to aid him in the determination of any question ; he believes without evidence believes over evidence believes in the teeth of all human conduct and experience. THE LAWYER. 121 We have, then, this conspiracy, embracing the most infamous designs. We have Milligan, a prince in this Israel of treason and crime. Then, going further, he and his associates did acts in execution of their conspiracy. They communicated with the enemy in Missouri; they brought rebel officers into this city and set them down, in the habiliments of peaceful citizens, at the public tables of the hotels the very men intended to be lead ers and commanders of the rebel prisoners whose rescue was sought that they might be turned loose upon the people of the city. Still further, Milligan s associates rose in arms in resistance to the draft. In many of the counties of the State the enrolling officers were threat ened and beaten. Such as came to enforce the draft and give notices to those upon whom the lot of service had fallen were put in jeopardy ; some of them were mur dered on the public roads of the country. Such was the condition of things, and these the overt acts of fel low-conspirators of this plaintiff in the State of Indiana. Now, gentlemen, the next question: Did the order, as it appears in the evidence, put in peril the public peace in Indiana? If it did, then the military officer who failed to do his utmost to suppress it was a recreant to the cause of his country . Mr. Hendricks will say that many of these troubles and dangers were either imaginary or greatly exagger ated, or invented by paid detectives of the government. Well, gentlemen, I will now show you that some gentle men in Indianapolis were badly frightened about that time who were not paid detectives or in any too active sympathy with these defendants. My friend, Mr. Hen dricks, was disposed to be a little satirical in regard to General Carrington, and to me it seemed a little disre spectful. We have all heard some scarred veterans speak sneeringly of the Home Guards, and of those whose business was in the office and the cabinet instead of the field, and we could hear them with patience; but until the distinguished Senator shall show some more con spicuous service done for his country than he has thus far rendered, it does not become him to put contempt on 122 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the honest, useful and meritorious duties of General Car- rington. They were useful and honorable, and I say to day that high executive ability, earnest patriotism, reso lution and firm purpose were oftentimes as well displayed in the cabinet, in the council, and in the organization of troops, as in the presence of the enemy. The great Bis marck of our American war, Secretary Stanton, in his office at Washington, without facing the enemy in the field for a single hour, was all the time doing gigantic good for his country; and when the history of the sor rowful time is written, and men s minds turn away a lit tle from the smoke and conflict of the actual battle, the services of that man in council will be still more highly ap preciated and honored. So I say for General Carrington, who, for a considerable portion of the war, here and in Ohio, discharged the duties of the commander of a dis trict, organizing its forces, and helping keep down insur rection and treason in the State I say his part was use ful and honorable, and should not be held up to ridicule or contempt. I was saying to you, gentlemen, that the Senator would no doubt picture to you General Carrington as greatly alarmed by the exaggerated stories. I now want to tell you of some men who, I hope, really loved their government at the bottom, but who certainly were not the detectives of General Carrington, nor much in the habit of speaking in its praise. From the record in the proceedings before the Military Commission I will show you what they thought of the reality of the peril that then threatened the State. I turn now to pages IOI and 102 of that record, to the story of Mr. Joseph J. Bing- ham, principal editor then and now of the leading Demo cratic organ at the capital of Indiana. I take it from his associations, and all we know of him, that he was not a man to be easily scared by threats and vague perils; a man who, to say the least, would not be apt to take un necessary alarm. I might say the same of the Hon. M. C. Kerr; and who of our citizens is more composed, more quiet, less liable to fright, than our respected townsmen, Joseph E. McDonald, and Dr. Athoo, then THE LAWYER. 123 Secretary of State? Were they liable to get scared and no danger present? If I can show you that they really believed they were living on a volcano; that war was ready at any moment to break forth; that the mine had been dug and the train laid, and that it only required a torch in the hand of some incendiary to lift us into de struction if they believed all that, surely the officers of the government might be excused for thinking there was danger. Mr. Bingham tells us that Dodd communi cated to him his plan for an uprising in the State, and asked him to call a meeting of the democracy for the 1 6th of August, in Indianapolis, that under cover of the meeting he might bring his allies of the South to the capital of the State unsuspected. He seems to have been appalled, as far as I can gather from his statement before the Commission, not so much by the horrid wickedness of the thing, as by what seemed to him the small chances of its success. He went to Mr. Joseph E. McDonald and told him what he had heard from Dodd, and after Mr. McDonald had listened to his story, they concluded to sleep over it, and think about it. They did not want to act hastily, and involve those who were their personal friends in peril by any premature revelation; but as Mr. Bingham came away from the office of Mc Donald he met Hon. M. C. Kerr on the street, who was bustling along much excited, and then a colloquy took place. Says Mr. Bingham, " Hallo, Kerr, what brought you here?" He says Mr. Kerr seemed very much ex cited. I repeat now that Michael C. Kerr is a man not readily alarmed. Is he not rather always looking out for perils to the people from the government? Was he not always apprehensive that the government would do some thing strong and decisive to quench the rebellion? Mr. Kerr said, " Do you know anything?" Said Mr. Bing ham, "Do you know anything?" "Yes, I do." "What is it?" said he. "The devil is to pay in our section of the State," The devil would have been to pay, too, if this thing had progressed a little further. Mr. Kerr told him the people of Washington, Harrison, and Floyd counties, and all that section, were under impression that 124 BENJAMIN HARRISON. a revolution was impending. How did they get the im pression ? Who had told them of it ? General Carring- ton ? Have you doubt as to how it came ? " He (Kerr) told me," continues Bingham, "that the farmers down there were frightened, and that they were selling their hay in the field, and their wheat in the stack, and that property of every kind was being converted into green- , backs." That was the statement of a member of Con gress from the New Albany district a man not much alarmed, at least, when he heard of rebel successes in the South. Be it said that it is part of the public history of this State, that there were men in it to declare openly in public conventions, that the news of Union victories brought them no joy, and the news of a Union defeat no sorrow. But this interview with Mr. Kerr goes further. Mr. Bingham took Mr. Kerr to Mr. McDonald, and had him tell the same story. Calling the latter gentleman out of bed at night, as I understand the account, Mr. Bingham says, "We got him up," meaning Mr. McDon ald, "and I said to him, Kerr has got some important information, and I want him to tell you the story just as he has told it to me." Then and there it was concluded that the thing must be stopped, and they called a meet ing of leading Democrats at Mr. McDonald s office, at which Dodd and Walker were present, and Kerr made a speech. It is to be added now that Mr. HefTren testifies that Michael C. Kerr was a member of the order; and perhaps it was as true of him as it is of many other men, that, contemplating danger afar off, he felt brave to meet .it. They determined at -that meeting that the matter / should be stopped, and all the influence of those gentle men, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Kerr, and others named as having been present, was brought to bear, according to Mr. Bingham s statement, to induce an abandonment of the revolution. That is to say, it required the combined influence of those Democratic leaders to compel Dodd, Milligan, Walker and Bowles to give up the proposed insurrection. These men who seemed for a time hover ing around the outskirts of the order, now that they stood on the brink of the gulf of death, desolation, and THE LAWYER. 125 revolution:, drew back in terror. Was there peril ? Were not General Hovey and General Carrington authorized to believe that there was peril to the State ? If McDon ald and Kerr believed the danger imminent, what should the military commander do who is no half-way friend of his government? What should he do? Allow considera tions of personal liberty to stand in the way of action ? Gentlemen, if General Hovey had failed to lay the strong hand of military power upon the traitors he would have been recreant to his oath. When advised of such schemes our officials are not to await their full development. The nation, as the individual, through its officers, has the right to strike before it is struck. It is a right gitfen from God. If a man is threatening my life, his hand lifted with the dagger to strike me to the heart, I am not to wait until the blow is delivered. The law acquits me if I strike him dead at my feet. How much more shall these defendants stand acquit before the courts and their fellow-men, who, seeing the deadliness of the peril, struck the treason before it could strike the nation ? I think I have shown you now, not merely that there was peril, but that, from the information he had, General Hovey was justified in arresting Milligan, and bringing him to trial before the Military Commission. If the State had broken out in rebellion and insurrection, and your own homes been invaded by these ruthless men, your families outraged, insulted and slain, could you have ever forgiven the recreant commander of the de partment, who, apprised of the danger, failed to interpose his military power ? Senator Hendricks will have a great deal to say to you about the security which the Constitution guarantees to life, person and property. It is indeed a grand birth right that our fathers have given us ; but, gentlemen, it was a legacy handed down to the loyal and the law-abid ing. The law covers with its broad and impenetrable shield the true-hearted citizen, not the traitor and the law-breaker. Yet the gentleman comes to make appeals from a Constitution which his client would have de stroyed, and in behalf of a liberty which would have 126 BENJAMIN MARklSON. been exercised for the destruction of our government. He complains of a restraint which was in the interests of public peace. Listen to him then, give your full ac cord to all he may say of the right of the citizen to be secure in person and property, but remember those guarantees are to the loyal and the law-abiding. Much was said in the opening argument about mili tary arrests. The Sons of Liberty were dreadfully moved when the government laid its hand upon Vallandigham, the Ohio traitor, who, by his pernicious teachings, held back from the army thousands of young men that man, who alone was a greater impediment to our success in the war, a more formidable opposition, than the best brigade in the rebel army. Gentlemen, were any of you troubled by the military? Were any of you arrested? Of course, in times of war, there are always instances of recklessness, and hardship, and sometimes there is much done by soldiery that men condemn. But why were none of you restrained of your liberties during the war? Simply because you made it known by your walk and conversation that you loved your country, and that your heart beat responsive to the music of the Union. This brought you in full sympathy with the army of the Union and its commanders, and as you helped their they helped you. On the other hand, who were they that felt the strength of military power? Only those men who went forth in acts of hostility to the Union. It was a common thing for the rebels to clothe themselves in the garb of our soldiers, the better to destroy them with perfidious fire. Just so this man wraps the provision of the Constitution around him that he may steal forth in due time to his work of death. We never can be proud enough of the security we enjoy, but let us never forget that it was not made and given to us for the protection of the traitors. I submit to you then, gentlemen, whether the arrest of the plaintiff was not justifiable. I submit to you whether General Hovey would not have been untrue to himself, to the duties of the hour, and to his country, untrue to you, for that matter, if he had done otherwise than he THE LAWYER. 127 did ? I think you must find that the plaintiff s arrest was in the interest of public peace; that Milligan brought his troubles upon himself by his crimes against the law. The arrest of these conspirators was the promptest and best step that could have been taken for the suppression of the conspiracy. There were thousands of men brought into the vestibule of the order, and, inflamed by speeches, kept ready to rush together and make common cause when the time for action should come. Oh, the horrid guilt of the leaders who taught these political heresies, and corrupted the young men of the country by such sentiments ! Gentlemen of the Jury: If his Honor says to you that this question of the existence of war in the State is one for you, I ask you to take the definition of war given by Mr. Hendricks, and tell me on oath whether, in the sum mer of 1864, there was not a conflict of organized forces in the State of Indiana whether General Hovey, with home forces, and the few veterans who were at home, were not arrayed upon the one hand, and if upon the other, Bowles and Milligan and Horsey, with their secret legions of armed traitors, were not organized into an army, within the State, for the destruction of our government. There was not more truly a state of war in Charleston harbor before the gun was fired that hurled the first shot against Sumter, than existed in the State of Indiana at the time of which I have been speaking. Gentlemen of the Jury : Mr. Hendricks has complained that we have been trying to inflame your minds. I sub mit to you and him, if he will judge it candidly, whether the inflammation, if there has been any in the case, has not had its origin in the facts themselves, rather than in appeals of counsel. If you have felt your hearts kindled with an honest indignation, what did it except the simple narration of the facts? Would my friend have a citizen of Indiana sit by and hear stolidly this story of dark plottings against the public peace ? Who can hear with- 128 BENJAMIN HARRISON. out wrath of the destruction of our property, to be brought about by turning armed rebels loose in our midst ? Does the Senator think that men can hear such facts and not be "inflamed?" I pity the heart, I pity the man that can listen to such stories of wrong, conspi racy, and treason, and not find his heart all aglow with honest indignation. It is true that our courts are set apart from mere polit ical excitement, but not apart from patriotism. It is true that our judges when they put on the white robes of their high office, leave the spotted robes of partisanship be hind ; but it is not true, and God forbid that it should ever become true, that the judges of this land should put off their loyalty. Who ought to love our Constitution and laws with heart s full allegiance, if not the judges, whose special study they are ? I cannot talk much longer, and I ought not to. The defendants whom I represent claim to have acted through out this transaction for the public welfare, and in perfect good faith. General Hovey, when he issued the order for the plaintiff s arrest, felt that he could no more stay his hand than he could, with honor, have held back against an order to charge upon the foe. He could not have felt more recreant to the duties of his office if he had turned his back and fled when his comrades charged the enemy. And what less shall be said of the gentlemen who composed the commission that tried the plaintiff? One of them, now the Marshal of this District, maimed for life, drags himself about disfigured by the loss of a left arm. Yonder, on the bloody sides of Kenesaw, he gave an arm, almost a life, for the country which he, and these his comrades, loved so well. While he lay upon the field, bleeding, almost dying, here in Grand Council in the State of Indiana Milligan and his associates were plot ting treason ; and now they seek to rob him of the little savings from the office which a grateful country, and a President who honors his valor, have conferred upon him, in order to enrich traitors. Gentlemen, I feel sure that it will not be so. On the THE LAWYER. I 29 morrow when the booming gun shall salute the rising sun, and tripping maidens come to hang floral offerings upon the head-stones of our dead, may your returning feet vindicate the living. Speech in Robert S. Robertson vs. The State, on relation of Alonzo G. Smith. In the Supreme Court of Indiana. The foregoing is the formal title of the suit in the course of which the second argument sub mitted to the reader was made by General Har rison. More familiarly it is known as the " Lieu tenant-Governor s Case," and the speech is se lected because it is considered a fair expose of the speaker s capacity to deal with questions of constitutional law, admittedly the highest known to American and English judicature. An explanation of the circumstances leading up to the case may be serviceable here, as in the presentation of the argument in Milligan vs. Slack and others. General Harrison s term as United States Sen ator from Indiana would expire in 1888, making it the duty of the legislature of 1887 to elect his successor. In 1885 Mr. Voorhees had been chosen Senator by a joint Democratic majority of forty-six, but as that was not thought sufficient to certainly insure the defeat of General Har rison, a new legislative apportionment of the State was resolved upon by the Democrats. The gerrymander that followed may be judged from a statement of Mr. Voorhees to Senator Camden, I3O BENJAMIN HARRISON. of West Virginia, to the effect, as reported, that he would feel personally disgraced if the Indiana legislature did not have a joint Democratic ma jority of at least sixty. The first election under the gerrymander was a great surprise to all parties. The Republican candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, Robert S. Robertson, was chosen by a majority of 3,323 ; while, following the returns, the joint convention for the election of United States Senator would stand 71 Republican, 75 Democratic, and 4 Labor votes. This unexpected turn of events drove the Democratic managers to new resorts. When their scheme was finally evolved, it was of first importance that Mr. Robertson should not be permitted to preside over the deliberations of the Senate, the constitution of the State to the con trary notwithstanding. In furtherance of the scheme, Mahlon D. Manson, Lieutenant-Governor at the time of the election, and entitled as such until his successor would qualify, which could only take place after the election returns were counted by the legislature in joint convention, was induced to resign and accept a revenue collectorship. This vacation of Manson s office would, it was con tended, throw the presidency of the Senate into the hands of Alonzo G. Smith, Senator from Jen nings county, who happened at the time of the dissolution of the preceding legislature to have THE LAWYER. been president pro tern. To make the claim plausible as well as effective, the Democratic con spirators determined to go the full length of seating Mr. Smith as Lieutenant-Governor, and bearing him through. The control of the Senate thus secured would enable the Democrats to hold the Senatorial succession in secure grip, provided Mr. Smith proved himself equal to the occasion. Looking the ground over in anticipation, it was foreseen that the battle might have to be fought in the Senate chamber or in the State courts, or in both at the same time. If it took the shape of a legal controversy, the revolutionists felt safe the Supreme Court was largely Democratic ; if confined to the Senate chambers, Mr. Smith could be relied upon to take care of himself; should there be resort to force, the Democratic Governor (Gray) would exercise his prerogatives as commander-in-chief of the militia. Fortunately there was no call to arms. How Mr. Smith, upon seizing the chair, took care of himself may be inferred from the following sample of the proceedings in the first day of the session : Senator Smith, of Jennings, at ten o clock said : The Senate of the Fifty-fifth General Assembly will now come to order. Senators and Senators-elect will take their seats. The Senators are requested to keep order. Mr. Winter I rise to a point of order, Mr. Chairman. The Chair There is nothing that can be brought before this body. It is not organized. Your point of order cannot be received or determined. [Using the gavel.] 132 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Mr. Winter My point of order is that we should pro ceed with the organization of the Senate according to law. The Chair Your point of order is out of order. [Hammering with the gavel nervously.] Mr. Winter I appeal from the decision of the chair. The Chair Your appeal is out of order, and will not be entertained. [Pounding away on the desk with the gavel.] Mr. Johnson I second the motion for an appeal, and desire to give notice that I will file a protest with the Senator from Marion [Mr. Winter]. Mr. Winter Then I rise to a question of privilege. The Chair Your question of privilege is out of order. [Using the gavel] Mr. Winter To raise a question of privilege is a right possessed by every Senator upon the floor. The Chair When an organization is perfected perhaps you are right. Mr. Winter As a Senator on the floor of this Senate, possessed of privileges guaranteed by the Constitution of the State, I protest against the act of the person as suming to act as President pro tern, of the Senate as a thing improper, uncalled for, and without the expressed will of the Senate. [The Chair continued to pound the desk with the gavel.] I shall reduce my protest to writing. The Chair [hammering with the gavel] Take your seat. Mr. Johnson addressed the Chair. The Chair I don t recognize you, sir. The first thing in order is a prayer by Bishop Knickerbocker. Mr. Winter I protest against your discharging the duties of the Lieutenant-Governor in the organization of this Senate. The Chair [hammering away] The Senate will rise while we have prayer. Mr. Winter I appeal to the Senate as against this person who is assuming the duties of a Lieutenant-Gov- ernor. THE LAWYER. 133 The .Chair [still using the gavel] Order while prayer is being offered. Mr. Winter continued speaking after the Bishop had commenced his prayer. When the prayer was finished the Chair said : "The Auditor of State will call the roll of Senators holding over. Mr. Rice, call the roll." This was done, and then the Chair said : " The Auditor of State will now call the roll of Senators-elect." Auditor Rice proceeded with the call, but when he called the county of Wayne Mr. Johnson said : " Recognizing the Auditor of State as such " [Here his voice was drowned by the gavel.] The Chair The Auditor will call thirteen of the Senators-elect as their names appear upon the roll, and they will present themselves at the bar of the Senate and be sworn in by a judge of the Supreme Court. These, with the remaining Senators-elect, were sworn in. Mr. Winter I rise to a point of order, Mr. Chairman. My point of order now goes to the organization of the Senate. The Chair The Senator is out of order for two rea sonshe addresses the President of the Senate as " Mr. Chairman," and this Senate cannot entertain a point of order until its organization is perfected. Mr. Winter I desire to state my point of order. The Chair You may state it, sir. Mr. Winter My point of order is that there are present but twenty-four members of the last Senate. The or ganization of this Senate is now in control of this Senate itself, and I move that the Senate proceed to the election of a President pro tempore the Lieutenant-Governor not being in attendance. The Chair Your point of order and your resolution are out of order. Mr. Winter I appeal to the judgment of the Senate. The Chair Your appeal is out of order. You will take your seat. Mr. Winter I desire to rise to a question of privi lege. 134 BENJAMIN HARRISON. The Chair I say to the Senator, with all due respect to him, that he is out of order. You will take your seat. Mr. Winter I desire to have my protest entered on the journals of the Senate. The Chair You take your seat. [Using the gavel vigorously.] Take your seat, now. The first thing in order is the election of a principal Secretary of the Senate. Mr. Johnson I desire to suggest that the first thing in order is the election of a President pro tern, of the Senate. The Chair I desire to suggest that you take your seat, sir [laughter] and keep it. The first thing in order is the election of a principal Secretary. Nominations are now in order. Webster Dixon, of Bartholomew county, was nomi nated from the Democratic side, when Mr. Sellers said : " There being no other nomination, I move that Webster Dixon be declared elected Secretary of the Senate." Mr. Winter I desire to state a point of order. The Chair The Auditor will call the roll upon the election of principal Secretary. Mr. Winter My point of order is The Chair [using the gavel] Take your seat. [To the Auditor :] Call the roll. Those not answering will be marked present and not voting, if they are present. The usurpation was more conspicuous on ac count of the presence of the Auditor of State, upon whom, by constitutional provision, the duty of presiding over the Senate during its organiza tion is devolved. The Senate chamber was of course in posses sion of men employed by Mr. Smith to defend him to the last extremity. In one instance a re fractory Republican was thrown from his chair THE LAWYER. 135 to the floor by the serjeant-at-arms. At length Lieutenant-Governor Robertson, having duly qualified, appeared in person to demand the chair ; at a sign from Mr. Smith, a man selected for his strength seized the chosen of the people and flung him off into the crowd. Armed guards held the doors of the chamber during adjourn ment. It was not long until Mr. Smith began to hear from public opinion ; and, feeling the want of support, he appealed to the courts. By petition for an injunction against the Secre tary of State he sought to enjoin that official from delivering the returns of the election for Lieuten ant-Governor to the Speaker of the House; the object being to avoid the counting the votes in joint convention as required by the constitution. The petition was filed in the Marion Circuit Court. Judge Ayer refused the injunction. Ap peal was taken to the Supreme Court, and, to the amazement of the revolutionists, the decision below was sustained. The Democratic judges, refusing to prostitute themselves and their office, held, after argument pro and con, that the court had no authority to enjoin the Secretary of State in the case presented. General Harrison did not personally appear in the proceeding. The Legislature met and the counting of the votes being had, Mr. Robertson was formally proclaimed Lieutenant-Governor. A direct issue 136 BENJAMIN HARRISON. was thus joined between Robertson and Smith. The debate extended to the streets and hotels. The newspapers loaded their columns with red- hot matter, and on both sides there was talk of violence. In this extremity Smith again appealed to law. A quo warranto proceeding was begun by him (State ex rel. Alonzo G. Smith) en the 1 2th of January, in the Marion Circuit Coiart, to settle the title to the office ; in other words, to have the court declare which was Lieutenant- Governor, Alonzo G. Smith, President pro tern. of the Senate, or Robert S. Robertson, claiming by virtue of a decisive majority of the voters of the State. Judge Ayer held that the suit was properly brought, and also that the question was deter- minable by the courts. Thereupon he issued an injunction forbidding Robertson from attempting to preside over the Senate or in any manner ex ercising the functions of Lieutenant-Governor. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, and heard there with oral argument. Mr. W. H. H. Miller opened in behalf of Robertson, followed by Hon. Jason Brown for- Smith; then Mr. Mich- ener, Attorney-General of the State, replied to Brown. Mr. Turpie made the closing speech for Smith, and General Harrison answered him. It is proper to remark that General Harrison had given the case no attention until the evening before argument was begun ; that evening he ran THE LAWYER. 137 *over the briefs and was ready to speak in the morning. The Supreme Court, consisting of five judges, four Democrats and one Republican, agreed unanimously that the Marion Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of the person of Mr. Robertson ; that the suit was improperly brought in that court; and that the injunction had no foundation in law. Three of the judges, Niblack, Zollars and Elliot, being a majority, held further that the judiciary had no power to determine the ques tions involved in the proceeding ; but that they belonged to the political department alone. The case was therefore reversed and dismissed. Nevertheless Smith maintained his usurpation to the last, and as a result David Turpie was ulti mately elected to succeed General Harrison as United States Senator from Indiana. THE ARGUMENT BY GENERAL HARRISON. May it please your Honors The case at bar is, in some of its aspects, one of unusual significance. It takes us away from the consideration of those rules which apply o ordinary contracts between individuals to a study of the philosophy of government. It has other aspects which are quite familiar, which present questions not more difficult and not different from those which this court is in the habit of dealing with in cases in volving the most petty amounts of property. I take it that logically, in the consideration of every case, before a self-respecting tribunal, the question of jurisdiction is first Whether that question relates to the jurisdiction over the individual who is brought by summons before the court, or to the subject-matter in- 138 BENJAMIN HARRISON. volved, it is a threshold question. It is usurpation for^ this court, or any court, to give judgment in any case where it has not jurisdiction of the person and of the subject-matter. I am aware that in certain quarters there has been a degree of restiveness and even an indulgence in brutal criticism because these obvious considerations in a pre vious case had the recognition of this court, and the* court could not be driven over a threshold which was barred against it by the Constitution and the law. It is an insulting proposition to any court that it shall, for the convenience of any man or any combination of men, enter into the investigation of questions which the law and the Constitution do not submit to its judg ment. We have here, as I have already indicated, first, a question of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, Robert S. Robertson. He is sued in Marion county, while the record shows that his residence is in Allen county. The first point is, can he be impleaded by any one in the form of action here adopted in any other county than that of his residence? The learned counsel have had recourse to some sug gestions as to what the common law of venue is, and the defense of this jurisdiction seems to rest upon views of the common law. Is venue a matter of the com mon law in the State of Indiana ? Were the diligent counsel able to cite any decision of this court indicating that the common law might be resorted to in the de cision of such a question ? We have general provisions of our code intended to cover, and actually covering, all classes of actions, and indicating the legislative inten tion as to the forum in which such actions might be brought. This action is called in argument quo warranto ; our statute calls it " information." It is not called informa tion in the nature of quo warranto, or quo warranto, but simply information. It does not relate exclusively to the case of an intrusion into an office, but embraces several other subjects; it embraces an intrusion into a franchise; THE LAWYER. 139 it embraces the case of a corporation assuming to act as such without authority of law ; it embraces the case of an escheat of property ; it embraces the case of a patent or deed, made by the State, and its annulment; all of these are embraced in the article of our code entitled informa tion. There is nowhere in all of these subdivisions or subjects which may be brought to the attention of the court by information any expressed declaration of a venue. In the case of escheat, and in the case of an action to annul a conveyance or deed there is no sug gestion of any. My recollection is that even the terms " in the Circuit Court of the proper county " are not used. In connection with the subject of the intrusion into an office it is said " the action shall be brought in the Circuit Court of the proper county." The learned coun sel say that establishes a venue without reference to any other statute. What is it in this case ? They say " that county where the intrusion or the particular act of in trusion complained of occurred." Now, in order to maintain their position they must establish two propo sitions. First, that this is not a proceeding governed by the general provision of the code fixing the venue of civil actions ; secondly, that this special statute itself es tablishes some venue. The counsel say : " We do not controvert the propo sition that this is a civil action." It seems to me when that admission is made the argument is abandoned, un less it can be shown that some other venue than that described in the section of the code relating to the gen eral subject of venue and the corranencement of actions is provided in this special proceeding. I do not controvert the proposition that if in this arti cle entitled " information " a particular venue was de clared it would be controlling of the general statute. But I insist that it is not declared by the words " the Circuit Court of the proper county," because those words open the question," What is the proper county ?" How are we to determine it? " Oh," say these gentlemen, * upon the opinion of the particular court as to what I4O BENJAMIN HARRISON. county in a given case is convenient. So we are re mitted to the opinion of the judge as to what is con venient. Instead of being directed to a forum where the relator may know that there is jurisdiction, he must either himself decide the question of convenience or take in advance the opinion of the court. If your Honors please, in all these classes of special proceeding re plevin, attachment, ne exeat, mandate, habeas corpus in every one of them, unless a venue is particularly de scribed in the special proceeding, this court, whenever the question has been brought to its attention, has deter mined it by reference t the general statute upon the subject of venue. The learned counsel said, this morning, there was no declaration of a venue in the article relating to habeas corpus, but that it was brought upon this principle of convenience in the county where the party was restrained of his liberty. It must have been an inadvertent state ment, for the statute on the subject of habeas corpus ex pressly confers jurisdiction upon the courts of the county where the restraint takes place. Now let me hastily run through some of these cases. They are all referred to, with one or two exceptions, in this brief which we will submit to the court. The first is a proceeding to disbar under the statute. The statute says that it may be had " in any court of record." And yet, when the subject came to be reviewed by this court it was held that these words must be construed with reference to the other statutes conferring jurisdiction, and that the Criminal Court, though a court of record, un questionably did not have jurisdiction of this special pro ceeding. The next special proceeding in which such a question arose was under the drainage act, a special proceeding in a very strict sense. And in that case the statute pro vided that the action should be brought " in any court of competent jurisdiction. " Are not these Words wider than the terms " in the Circuit Court of the proper county ? " Do not the last terms contain within them selves the suggestion of a reference to some other statute THE LAWYER. fixing the venue of actions ? But here it was said : " May be brought in any court of competent jurisdic tion," and yet, his Honor, Judge Zollars, construing those words, held that the action must be brought with refer ence to the general provisions as to venue in actions relating to real property. Again, there is no - special provision in the article en titled " mandate " as to venue ; and we have a case in which this argument, drawn from a supposed conven ience, was disposed of by this court. If the argument of convenience, which Judge Turpie so much pressed, has any force, has it not equal, if not greater, force in the case of mandate, where the act the official act which the party declines to do, must be done in a particular locality? He says convenience must control where an official act has been done that amounts to intrusion into an office, and the court is asked to restrain it ; but, in case of the refusal to do a particular official act which must be done in a given locality, would not the argu ment be stronger that, as the act was to be done in a particular county, the action would lie in the courts of that county? And yet, if your Honors please, we have a case in which, notwithstanding the argument of con venience, this court has remitted the party to the courts of the county where the defendant resided. The case of The State vs. The Whitewater Canal Com pany, in 8th Indiana, is the case I refer to. It was a mandate to compel the rebuilding of a bridge in Dear born county. The refusal to discharge the official duty was there. And yet this court held, notwithstanding it might be convenient that the courts of Dearborn county should supervise the execution of this corporate duty, that the action must be brought in the county where the corporation had its office. The court say : " It is assumed that this action is local in its nature and must be brought in the county where the duty sought to be enforced is to be performed." Precisely as the gentlemen say here, it must be brought in the county where the intrusion into the office has oc curred, and yet the court said the code points out and 142 BENJAMIN HARRISON. defines the subject-matter of the actions which must be instituted in the county in which the subject of the ac tion or some part thereof is situated, but the case at bar is not within the definition, and, therefore, it was held that there was no jurisdiction in Dearborn county. Let us take the action of replevin, another special proceeding. In the case of Hodson vs. Warner, in 6oth Indiana, Judge Worden, speaking for the court, says : " It is claimed that an action of replevin is local, and must be brought in the county where the property is de tained, and that unless the complaint shows the deten tion to have been in the county where the action is brought, the court will have no jurisdiction of the sub ject thereof." Here, again, the argument of convenience might be made. The property is here detained. It will be con venient if the venue and determination of the case is here. But the court say: v "Authorities are cited to show that, at common law, the action of replevin was local." Just the suggestion we had from the learned gentle man this morning. " But this is a matter which is regulated by our statute. The statute provides " and this statute referred to is the general statute on the subject of venue, not any special statute in this special proceeding " the statute provides that certain actions shall be brought in the county where the subject thereof is situate or where the cause thereof arose, but the action of replevin is not mentioned or thus localized." Then it is provided in Section 33 that " in all other cases the action shall be commenced in the county where the defendants, or one of them, has his usual place of residence." So it was then held, notwithstanding the reference to the common-law rule as to venue in replevin, notwith standing the suggestion as to the convenience in such case, that replevin, special proceeding as it is, is governed by the general statute upon the subject of venue. THE LAWYER. So, again, with proceedings in bastardy, in the case of Haley vs. The State, 6pth Indiana. Section 968 provides that such a proceeding may be commenced before " any justice of the peace " without any limitation as to the county or township in which it is brought. Yet it is held in this case, Judge Niblack delivering the opinion " Such proceedings being transitory in their character under the code must be commenced in the county in which the defendant resides when he is a resident of the State." The argument of convenience might well be used here. It may be that the mother resides here. It may be that the putative father may not be found if there is any delay. All of these suggestions as to convenience apply strongly. But the court has not left the venue of these actions to the whim of the judge, but, notwith standing the inconvenience that may attach, has settled upon general principles regulating them. Attachment and garnishment I might refer to as other special proceedings, although they may be said to be in some sense ancillary to another action, and venue may be determined by that fact ; and yet in such cases the court say the general rule in relation to personal actions is declared by Sec. 312 of the Code. In this section as amended it is provided : " In all other cases the action shall be commenced in the county where the defendants, or one of them, has his usual place of residence." It was held that the Wabash Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of a proceeding in garnishment. Now, if your Honors please, I want to call attention to the case of The State vs. The Board, in 49th Indiana. This was a case where a statute was passed providing that a certain action to be brought by the Auditor of the State for the failure to properly assess or collect certain taxes might be brought, as the statute said, " in any court in this State." A State officer was to be the plain tiff or relator, and the statute said he might bring the action " in any court of this State." And yet this court, construing those terms, apply those general principles as 144 BENJAMIN HARRISON. to venue of which I have been speaking. They say it could not have been intended by the Legislature that this action brought by Wildman, as auditor, against the Commissioners of Vanderburg county, could be brought in Marion county. Again they go back and take hold of these general provisions of our code as to venue, and they diminish the force of the legislative expression so as to bring it within the control of these general provi sions. The court say : " By the sections of the statute above set out the action therein provided for may be brought in any court of this State. If this language is to receive a literal in terpretation it would lead to results that we think were not contemplated by the Legislature." And then they go on and say that it must be con trolled by the general provision as to venue, and hold that the action against the commissioners of Vanderburg county, notwithstanding the statute, must be brought in the county of Vanderburg. There is another case, if your Honors please, to which I wish to call your attention to show you how strong the tendency and drift in this court has been to subordinate all of these special proceedings to the general rules of practice defined by our code. It is a case in 105 In diana. This was a divorce case and the question was, if I recollect, whether a change of venue might be allowed. Your honors can see how radical the question is, whether this special proceeding of divorce, a proceeding under the English law in the ecclesiastical courts, is to be treated under our code as a civil action, and the provi sions of the code as to changes of venue made appli cable. The opinion was by Judge Zollars, and I be lieve the case cited in the opinion was also decided by the same learned judge. I read a paragraph or two. " In the recent case of Pmvell vs. Paivell, 104 Indiana, 1 8, after a careful examination of the question, it was held that where the procedure is prescribed in the divorce act, that should be pursued and not the civil code; that so far as a procedure is provided in that act, it may be called a special proceeding, and that where it is apparent THE LAWYER. 145* that the Legislature intended that certain sections of the civil code should not apply in divorce cases they will not be applied." Notice the language ! " Where it is apparent ! " And I ask your Honors to apply it, and tell me what there is in this article establishing the special proceeding by in formation that makes it apparent that the Legislature in tended that those sections of the code relating to venue should not apply. " It was further held that under the code divorce cases are, in some sense at least, civil actions/ and that the rules of pleading and practice provided in the civil code will apply to them, except to the extent that a different procedure may be provided in the divorce act, and to the extent that it may be apparent that the Legislature in tended otherwise." This indicates the drift of the court, as well as the other cases, to bring these special proceedings, so far as may be done without violence to the special statute, under the control of the general statute regulating the practice in our courts. "As a result of these holdings, it was further held that the above section of the civil code providing for a change from the judge is applicable to divorce cases, and that, upon the filing of the proper affidavit under that section in any case, the change must be granted. We can see no reason why the reasoning and conclusions in that case are not applicable and controlling here. Changes of venue are provided for in order that parties litigant may have fair and impartial trials, and hence the provi sion for a change from an interested or biased judge, and hence also the provision for a change of venue from the county where one of the parties may have an undue in fluence over the citizens, or where an odium may attach to one of the parties, or to his cause of action or defense on account of local prejudice." Now I read again : " The more rational conclusion would seem to be that the intention was that such cases should be tried in im partial tribunals, and that as no provision is made in the 10 146 BENJAMIN HARRISON. divorce act for reaching such tribunals by a change of venue, when necessary, the intention was that resort might and should be had to the code of civil procedure. There is nothing in the divorce act to show or indicate an intention on the part of the Legislature that the above section of the code, providing for a change of venue from the county, should not be applicable to a pro ceeding for a divorce in a proper case, unless it be the fact that no such change is provided for in the act, and that the case must be commenced in the county where the plaintiff resides." Now, if your Honors please, I use that case to show that in a proceeding in an especial sense special, regulated by a statute having no reference anywhere to these pro visions of the code as to change of venue, the rule was established, applicable to all other such proceedings, that the provisions of the general code as to practice not in consistent with the provision of the special statute should stand ; and I venture to say that, without overriding the principles of that case, the conclusion cannot be avoided that in the case of quo warranto or information the gen eral provisions of our statute as to venue must apply. Indeed, in the use of the words " The Circuit Court of the proper county," as I have already said, there is a suggestion of reference to another statute to determine what is the proper county ; the Legislature did not need to repeat what had been elsewhere enacted, but adopted ft by these words of reference. If your Honors please, it is not in a strict sense an information that you have before you. It is an injunc tion case. To be sure, that is ancillary to a proceeding by information, but the appeal is from an order granting an injunction. Is there any doubt, may it please your Honors, that in the case of an injunction the venue is in the county of the defendant s residence ? Can there be any doubt about that ? It seems, then, that in their own judgment this article entitled " Information " was not so special, not so com plete in itself as prescribing a new and exclusive remedy and all its attendants and circumstances, but that they THE LAWYER. might go out and incorporate with it an action of injunc tion, where the venue, as I have already said, is admit tedly and confessedly controlled by the general statutes. The court has been compelled to adopt this construc tion in dealing with these special statutes. There was no provision for trial by jury in the quo warranto act. If the courts are to treat it as complete, as dealing with the subject fully, and are not to look to other statutes as in corporated ; if they are not to treat it as a civil action and give to the trial of such cases all those incidents, privileges and limitations that belong to civil actions, then there is no trial by jury; and yet the court, in a case referred to, decided that a trial by jury was allow able because it was a civil action, and the trial by jury in civil actions is guaranteed by the constitution. Here we have, then, a civil action, special if you choose to call it, without any definition as to what the venue shall be, and we have a general statute regulating civil actions, declaring, as is admitted, that in a case like this the venue is in Allen county. So I say, your Honors, this is the threshold question. You must step over it or trample it under foot before you can invade the consideration of questions that lie further along in this case. And again, I repeat, whatever source it comes from, whatever needs it is supposed to subserve, it is brutally insulting to say to the Supreme Court of Indiana that they should con sider questions and decide the rights of a man over whose person they have no jurisdiction; to say that be cause he is called here in this information a usurper into an office this high court must usurp functions which have been denied it by the law, in order to cure one usurpation by another. But, if your Honors please, if it were established that you had acquired jurisdiction over the respondent here, there is still another threshold question to be considered, and that relates to your jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the case. Both these conditions must exist, or any opinion you may deliver upon the questions involved other than these is obiter, is intrusive, is, so far as they may fortify any man in a course of action which he has* BfcM/AMIN HARRISON. entered upon, making this high court subservient to uses that were not contemplated by law. What are the jurisdictional questions as to the subject-matter that are presented ? I think there are two, if your Honors please, as this case now presents itself. First, have the courts of this State the power, under the Constitution, to try the title to the office of Lieutenant-Governor ? Sec ondly, if that be conceded, have they power, by injunc tion, to invade the legislative halls, and restrain a co-or dinate department of this government from the exercise of its will and pleasure ? Because, if your Honors please, I think this action, in that aspect of it this injunction restraining Colonel Robertson from presiding over the Senate of Indiana not at the solicitation of the Senate, not because the Senate has expressed to your Honors any such wish, not because they have appealed to you for protection, but at the suggestion of a man, an individual, that you should issue your writ of injunction and say to the Senate of Indiana for it is so said when ever you say that Colonel Robertson shall not preside as Lieutenant-Governor you shall not allow the re spondent to preside, you restrain the discretion of the Senate itself. Whenever you say, as this writ says for you and I must criticise it in respectful terms, much as I resent the idea that any court in the United States can intrude into the legislative halls anywhere in these States, or in our general government, constituted on one model of three co-ordinate departments of government that a court can intrude into a legislative hall, and declare to the body that a particular person shall not preside over its deliberations, then the effect is most certainly restric tive. But I should discuss these questions in the order in which I have suggested them. Is there jurisdiction in the courts of Indiana to try the title to the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor ? I say Governor or Lieutenant-Governor because, may it please your Honors, if you have the jurisdiction to try the title to this office claimed by Colonel Robertson, you have the jurisdiction to try the title of Isaac P. Gray as Governor of Indiana. Why do I deny this jurisdiction? Because, if your* THE LAWYER 149 Honors please, there is a limit to your jurisdiction. It does not embrace every subject or every person. It is limited in both directions. The Constitution of Indiana provides that the judicial power shall be vested in a Su preme Court, and circuit courts, and other subordinate courts or other courts. I believe the word " subordinate " has been stricken out by the amendment. But if I find in the same Constitution an express grant of judicial power in a given case to another tribunal over a partic ular question, how are these two grants to be construed ? Is not the general grant to be construed as if it had been made explicitly and in the same section subject to the exception which is found elsewhere in the Constitution ? I do not hesitate to declare that without reference to this provision in our Constitution to which I shall pres ently call attention, if it rested upon the general declara tion establishing three co-ordinate, co-equal, and co- sovereign departments of this government, the Supreme Court of Indiana, without a special grant of power in the Constitution, could not determine the question in the case of a contest as to who was or who was not the Governor of Indiana. And why, if your Honors please? The very idea of co-ordination, the very essence and principle of sovereignty^ gone whenever this court may say a man is or is not Governor of Indiana, and he shall be en joined from exercising executive functions. Oh, but say the learned counsel, the court doesn t act on the execu tive department; it acts on the person. Wise distinction ! Worthy of that subtle refinement of intellect for which my friend Judge Turpie is so conspicuous. To be sure it matters little if this court act upon Isaac P. Gray as an individual, and expels him from the office of Governor; the result is the same precisely as if they had acted upon the executive department. They have created a vacancy, or, at their own sweet will, have installed another in his place. If your Honors please, that tribunal anywhere that can expel the chief executive and put another in his place dominates the executive department. I suppose my friend would say that if I should seize upon some one of the judges who are so kindly attending to what I am 150 BENJAMIN HARRISON. saying, and pitch him out of the window, that I would be dealing with the person simply, not with the court, and yet the distinction would be one that I think neither the judge that went out of the window nor the four that re mained here would appreciate. No, sir, the doctrine that the courts and, if your Honors please, it is not simply this august tribunal, but the Marion Circuit Court or the Posey Circuit Court may expel or install the chief executive of Indiana is not to be admitted. Now there is, I think, a misconception, and I thought that in some of the questions propounded by the judges this misconception was very apparent We are so much in the habit of thinking and saying that the courts are to settle all disputes of every sort, and this court is so much in the habit of regarding itself as the Supreme Appellate Court of the State of Indiana, having jurisdiction of all questions, that you have not considered the questions which are seldom presented to us, as to the limits of your power. And so, popularly, we say, whenever any ques tion arises, " Take it to the Supreme Court. Let us have their opinion about it." The courts themselves, I may say, without any disrespect, have come to regard their functions to be that of the mother hen to cover every thing that is in alarm or dispute. No one rejoices more than I, if your Honors please, that those questions of personal right, which were once left to the arbitrament of force, may be now confided to the peaceful adjudication of courts. But it is quite another question whether the Supreme Court of this State, or of the United States, can make and unmake the chief executive. It was suggested, in case a usurper entered into the office of Governor Gray, and expelled him and got pos session of the great seal, whether this court could not turn that usurper out. Why, if your Honors please, the Constitution of Indiana has not left the chief executive to that ready and willing, and, I have no doubt, wise help which you would render him by sending your sheriff to his rescue. It has constituted him a co-ordinate, self- contained, self-defended- branch of the government of the THE LAWYER. 15! State of Indiana. It has put at his disposal the army and the navy of the State. He does not need to appeal, in the defense of his prerogative, when, by the formalities of the Constitution, he has been inducted into the office, to the sheriff of any court. So your sheriff is for your protection. He has a right to call upon the body of the community to preserve your dignity, to repress intrusion, and to punish contempts. But the executive and may I not suggest the Legislature of this State is clothed in its own right with ample powers of self-protection. I do not think that the Legislature, or either branch of it, could allow any executive or administrative officer of any court to intrude into its precincts with any writ. It has the power to hedge itself around, and to lay the duty upon the men who serve it to protect it So it is, if your Honors please, that we are seldom and it is well so brought to confront these fundamental principles of government, and of the limitations of the power of the several departments which are involved here. Justice Mitchell In the event, General Harrison, that the Senate should undertake to repel the intrusion of Colonel Robertson and imprison him for contempt, would the court have no power to interfere ? Senator Harrison Very clearly not, if your Honors please ; no more than the Legislature would have the right to interfere if you should imprison him here for a contempt of your court ; not a whit more. Justice Mitchell Have we not a recent eminent ex ample where the Supreme Court of the United States took an individual out of the hands of Congress and im prisoned him ? Senator Harrison Yes, sir, undoubtedly; undoubt edly, under a writ of habeas corpus, you might consider whether the man was lawfully restrained. That I do not deny. Justice Mitchell Then we would have to inquire whether or not he would have the right to go there and offer to preside ? Senator Harrison No, sir; not that at all. You 152 BENJAMIN HARRISON. could not decide the question of his right to preside, or enforce such a judgment, but you might, perhaps, de cide, as in that case, that the man must be discharged upon habeas corpus. That was a case of an examina tion before a committee of the body, and the decision was as to whether they might or might not imprison him for a refusal to answer certain questions. But let me ask your Honor a question, not, of course, for answer; and I desire to say it gives me great pleasure at any time to have any suggestion from any member of the court if there is any point that I am discussing upon which, in the opinion of the court, any judge would de sire to have me express myself more fully. Justice Mitchell I only wanted to draw out your idea, because I feel the force of your suggestions. If they were of no consequence, I would not have asked the question. Senator Harrison I cannot believe that this court can send into the Senate of Indiana any writ. I do not say there might not questions arise as to the Governor, collateral in some actions, that this court may pass upon ; but what I do hold is that, when conformable to the con stitution, the Legislature the political department of this government have recognized a man as President or Governor, the court may not inquire whether he is such or not. Justice Zollars Allow me to put a question. I be lieve it was put the other day, and answered that it was not a supposable case. But now, suppose the Legisla ture should count the votes for a man and declare him to be Governor at this time, and there came a conflict between him and the incumbent, is there any remedy for that conflict through the courts at all ? Senator Harrison None whatever, if your Honors please. That is very apparent. Into such condition as that the courts cannot enter. You may try questions of assault and battery or of treason growing out of the con flict, but not the title of the claimants to the office. Justice Zollars That is your idea? Senator HarrisonThat is my idea. If the courts THE LAWYER. 153 could control matters of that kind we would have had no rebellion. I do not say that there may not be cases where your Honors could punish an individual, where you could try and condemn and execute him for treason. Certainly, there might be such cases. But I do hold this : that where the Legislature has, according to the forms of the Constitution, canvassed the vote for Gov ernor or Lieutenant-Governor, and has declared a person to be Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, and has recog nized him as such, then this court cannot dispossess him of his office. Justice Mitchell Now, right there. Of course, we may not be able to dispossess him, but can the court pro nounce upon the legal question involved ? Is not the question of the right to an office a judicial question ? That is an idea that I wish to have elaborated. Senator Harrison If -your Honors please, as I was saying, it seems to me that the constitution of these three departments of itself, without anything else although I will show your Honors there is much else necessarily prohibits that. Has any one ever questioned that the Supreme Court of the United States could not have passed upon whether Hayes or Tilden was elected President? Did any good lawyer suggest that it might ? Justice Zollars That was another question. In that case there was no question about there having been an election at the proper time. Senator Harrison Ah, if your Honor pleases, that is too fine a discrimination. When they were or were not elected does not test the limits of the power of a court The test is, may they approach the question at all directly ? If they may approach it at all in such a case, then they may decide it upon the question that the time for a proper election had not arrived, or that one man may get mare votes than another. The Constitution of the United States simply provides that the returns from the electoral colleges shall be opened by the Vice-Presi- dent in the presence of the two houses, and they shall be counted. That is all. And yet it was agreed, in the 154 BENJAMIN HARRISON. face of the great exigency that we confronted then, an exigency that seemed likely at one time to involve blood shed, that, great as the courts were, wise and ample as are the powers confided to them, there was no relief in the courts of the United States. It was a political ques tion. It might involve war, but the courts could not solve the trouble. Justice Zollars That is not the question that is trou bling Judge Mitchell and myself, as indicated by our questions. The difficulty, in my mind, is back of all that. Nobody has ever contended that the court might have power to settle the question as to who was elected, but back of that is the constitutional question, the legal question, as to whether or not there may be an election. That is the question that I wish to hear discussed now. Whether the decision of that question is exclusively with the Legislature. Senator Harrison In the very nature of things it must be so, or else their power over the subject is limited. I take it, if your Honors please, that the counsel have quibbled with the provision of our Constitution, which re-enforces this general idea I have been advocating, that it does not matter one whit whether somebody raises the question whether the election was to take place at a par ticular time ; if the decision of the political question as to who is Governor, and when he became Governor, rests with the Legislature, then no phase of it is reserved to the courts for determination. If your Honors please, the reason for all this is very obvious. The Constitution and the law were very careful to place the court where it might never become the subject of ridicule ; very care ful never to confide to it powers that it could not exe cute. There are certain questions of this kind upon which the judgment of courts must be futile. In the very nature of things the Legislature stands so related to this question that it was wisely, by our Constitution, in vested with the decision of the whole matter, and not a fragment of it. I have said that the Constitution makes a special grant of power over this subject to the Legislature THE LAWYER. 155 " Contested elections for Governor or Lieutenant-Gov ernor shall be determined by the General Assembly in such manner as may be prescribed by law." Now, if your Honors please, I want to say a word about the manner in which this court ought to approach the construction and consideration of that article of the Constitution, and of the others to which I shall allude presently. My learned friend says the Constitution is to be strictly construed because it is a grant of power from the people. But the question here is not one of limiting a power; it is a question whether this court will assume it or leave it where the Constitution has placed it. It is not a question of the excess, or extent, or enlargement of this Section at all. It is a question whether the court shall pass upon this section so specific in character, and assume to have jurisdiction under the general clause of the Constitution apportioning the judicial power to the courts. Is there any doubt about what the construction ought to be ? When the framers of the Constitution have dealt with the particular question, and said that its decision should be confided to one tribunal, shall the general grant of judicial power be strained to embrace some part of it? Upon this question of the right to elect a Lieutenant-Governor, and I may as well refer to it now, the same principle should be applied. The Con stitution is to be strictly construed against the right of the people that made it to elect their own officers ! That is the argument of my friend. If there is a strict con struction to be applied, it should be in the interest of the people, that something may not be taken to have been granted that the people did not intend to give. But is strict construction to be applied to the question whether they have not reserved the power to themselves to select a Lieutenant-Governor by their own votes ? Would not that be a perversion of the doctrine to which my friend alluded, that there should be a strict construction of the Constitution ? Now, if your Honors please, with refer ence to the meaning of this special clause : " Contested elections for Governor or Lieutenant-Governor shall be determined" SHALL be determined "by the General 156 BENJAMIK HARRISON. Assembly." May I ask your Honors, especially as it is a question of taking jurisdiction yourselves, and denying it to the Legislature, why that question should be ap proached in a technical spirit? As my friend, the Attorney-General, who has so ably presented the questions in this case, has said, to contest an election is to deny it. The ground of the denial may be that some one else was elected and not this man, or it may be that there was no election at all, and that some person holding by appointment is entitled to exercise the duties of the office. But in either event the election of Colonel Robertson is denied ; it is controverted ; it is contested; it is impeached. And how shall this court say that if that honorable man, whom I am glad to say is not here as relator, who was his competitor before the people, had been applying for this writ of mandate im peaching Colonel Robertson s title upon any question, it would have been a contest ; but because a person who holds or claims to hold the office under designation by the Senate of Indiana comes here, saying, " Though you received the majority of the legal votes of Indiana, you are not elected ; I contest your election and claim to exercise the duties of the office myself; " it is not a con test. This court is invited to say, " We will diminish this power, confided by the Constitution to the Legis lature, that the political department might deal with that political question, and we will absorb it for the judiciary; we will assume to settle the question whether the Legis lature rightly opened and canvassed those votes whether there was a vacancy." Is it not better, if your Honors please, that the whole question should go to one tribunal or the other, and that we should not engage in any hair splitting in attempting to divide it? This is the case of a contested election for Lieutenant-Governor. It is the case of an election denied, controverted, challenged. And the Legislature, by express provision of the Con stitution, is to deal with it, and, as I have suggested, for a very obvious reason. In a case in 2Oth Kansas, page 702, there is a very clear statement of these limitations upon the power of the judiciary: THE LAWYER. 157 "Within certain constitutional restrictions the execu tive, legislative and judicial powers of the State are in dependent and supreme, and neither has the right to enter upon the exclusive domain of the other. We should pass beyond the limits of our own power to judge of the election or qualifications of a member of the Legislature, and as the Constitution has expressly confided this power to another body, we must leave it where it has been deposited by the fundamental law." Now, if your Honors please, I do not hesitate to say that, entirely outside and independent of that provision of our Constitution which makes each house of the General Assembly the judge of the election and qualifi cations of its own members, that would be true, inher ently, and without any such constitutional provision at all. " Because if this court might decide who were and who were not members of the Legislature, this court would dominate the Legislature, and if we are at liberty to interfere in this case, or if with the consent of the Legislature even, where the Legislature asked it, we assume jurisdiction, we may review all similar decisions of that body, and in the end bring the legislative power of the State in conflict with the judicial. The objections to such a course are so strong and obvious that all must acknowledge them." In a case to which the attention of the court has been called, and which I have here before me, 28th Arkansas, this precise question was considered by the supreme ju dicial tribunal of that State, and under a constitutional provision almost identical with our own. I will read a brief extract from the opinion : " The argument is pressed here that if the Governor be a usurper, and his seat not contested before the Legis lature, the people are governed by a mere trespasser, and, if the Attorney-General cannot sue out quo warranto, and this court decide who is elected, there is no remedy, and that rights so dear and rights so sacred to the people can never be thus violated in a just government, and no redress offered. This is but changing the form of the sophism, and is answered by the same solution. The 158 BENJAMIN HARRISON. question is in whom shall so sacred a trust be reposed. If in the Attorney-General and a few judges, and they should not execute it, would not the same result be pro duced ? Shall the Governor of the State, the head of the executive department, be subject to removal by the courts of the State ? Shall these departments be co-ordi nate, co-equal in strength and dignity, or shall the officers of one have power to remove the incumbent of the other, and thus dictate his policy or hold the executive at his mercy ? It seems to be one of the elementary principles of our government that the departments should be co ordinate and co-equal, and that the courts of the State move forward in the discharge of their duties free from executive policy and beyond executive control. The Governor is clothed with the manhood that places him above the whims, and stronger than any prejudice that could possibly exist in a court, and leaves his position to those who, under the Constitution, are to designate the proper incumbent, and who are to try him for crimes or misdemeanors in office; and all the presumptions of in tegrity that can and should weigh in favor of a court must be allowed in favor of the representative men of the people." If it be true that this court and if it is true, it is true also of the courts of the United States can, upon some assumption that an election did not take place at the proper time, or, in the case of-an election of a President, that the college of electors did not meet at the proper time in any State, or that their vote was not properly recorded if the courts may, upon the assumption of an Attorney-General, or a rival claimant for the governor ship, or the presidency, consider and decide such ques tions, then, if your Honors please, that principle of checks and balances upon which our National govern ment was formed, and after which our State government is modeled, is completely and forever at an end. In the case in 4th Wisconsin and I should say with reference to that case, that there was no such pro vision in the Constitution as we have here, lodging the counting of the votes and the declaration of the result THE LAWYER. 159 and the induction of the Governor into office in the Legislature the votes were canvassed by a State board of canvassers. It was claimed in that case that Mr. Barstow and his friends had secured a canvass in his favor by the most outrageous and widespread election frauds. I have read with great interest the discussion of the question by Mat Carpenter and counsel. It is full of historical illustrations and of references to the most reputable authors upon constitutional law and govern mental philosophy. He may go further in his conclu sions than I would go, or this court may follow : but a perusal of the cogent and well-illustrated reasons he gives why the judicial department should not have con trol of the question who is and who is not Governor, cannot but be useful to any student of the law. Atur alluding to an objection urged by M. Turgot to our National Constitution, that it undertook to balance these different departments as if the same equilibrium of pow ers which had been thought necessary to balance the enormous preponderance of royalty could be of any use in a Republican form of government based upon the equality of the citizens, Mr. Carpenter says : " This objection, if well taken, applies to our National as well as State governments ; and to justify the neces sity for this division of powers, this balancing and equi librium of powers, Mr. Adams put forth his defence of the Constitution, which, as a general treatise upon the science of government and a commentary upon our own, is regarded as an authority. What the dreaming, theo rizing Frenchman regarded as a blemish, the great American patriot regarded as a crowing excellence. In his preface to that work Mr. Adams says : Represen tations instead of collections of the people ; a total sepa ration of the executive from the legislative power, and of the judicial from both; and the balance in the legis lature by three independent, equal branches, are, perhaps, the only three discoveries in the Constitution of a free government since the institution of Lycurgus. " Mr. Wirt, in a case brought to his attention, and re ported ki the first opinions of the Attorney-General of I6O BENJAMIN HARRISON. the State, says, on the question submitted to him : " Whether, in any case, an injunction is binding upon the executive department of the government ; and sec ond, if so, whether an injunction is binding upon the of ficers of the treasury " " On the first and second questions I am of the opin ion that it is not within the power of the judicial branch of our government to enjoin the executive from any duty specially devolved upon it by the legislative branch of the government, or by the Constitution of the United States. If it were otherwise, it would be in the power of the judicial branch of the government to arrest the whole power of the other two branches. My opinion is that the judiciary can no more arrest the executive in the execution of a constitutional law than they can arrest the Legislature itself in passing the law. It would be easy to show that the existence of such a power in the judiciary would place the existence, not only of the government, but of the Nation itself, at the mercy of that body in every crisis, both of war or peace. It is, there fore, in my opinion, essential to the government to assert for the executive this independence of action." In the celebrated Dorr case, in Rhode Island, the court, in charging the jury, is quoted by Mr. Carpenter as saying : " Courts take notice without proof offered from the bar what the Constitution is, or was, and who is or was the Governor of their own State. It belongs to the Legislature to exercise this high duty [that of canvas sing votes]. It is the Legislature which, in the exer cise of its delegated sovereignty, counts the votes and declares whether a Constitution be adopted, or a Gov ernor elected, or not ; and we cannot revise nor reverse their acts, in this particular, without usurping their power. Were the votes on the adoption of our present Constitution now offered here, to prove that it was or was not adopted, or those given for the Governor under it, to prove that he was or was not elected, we would not receive the evidence ourselves we could not permit it to pass to the jury. And why not? Because, if we do THE LAWYER. l6l so, we should cease to be a mere judicial, and become a political tribunal, with the whole sovereignty in our hands. Neither the people nor the Legislature would be sovereign. We should be sovereign, or you would be sovereign ; and we should deal out to parties litigant, here at our bar, sovereignty to this or that, according to rules or laws of our own making, and heretofore un known in courts." It will be noticed that in this case the court said that it belongs to the Legislature to decide whether there was an election. That is precisely the case which has been supposed to take this case out of the provision of the Constitution to which I have just referred, confiding to the Legislature the power to determine who has been elected Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. Dorr and his friends had gotten up a government, and they held an election. It was not a question of how many votes Dorr got, or somebody else, but it was distinctly, as here, whether any election could be held. The political de partment of the State had held that it could not be held, and the court trying him said that was conclusive. And it must be equally conclusive here, when our Legislature, under the forms of the law, or if there was lacking any due form of law it was lacking simply because certain members of one branch of the Legislature, duly notified, as these papers show, by the Speaker, of his purpose to discharge a constitutional duty, refused to attend and discharge theirs, has declared Robertson to have been elected Lieutenant-Governor, and has inducted him into office. And, if your Honors please, the cases of Collins and of Biddle against Willard do not at all militate against this doctrine. In the case of Collins the Legislature passed a law providing that there should be an Attorney- General who should be elected by the Legislature. Be fore the Legislature adjourned the Governor assumed to appoint an Attorney-General. I believe our distin guished fellow-citizen, Joseph A. Wright, was then Gov ernor of the State. He first ordered a commission to Isaac Blackford as Attorney-General, and Secretary of ii 1 62 BENJAMIN HARRISON. State Collins, upon his direction, issued it. It was put into the mails, addressed to Isaac Blackford, and, after it had been thus addressed, some one, by the direc tion of the Governor, recovered the commission from the mails and inserted the name of Judge Morrison, erasing the name of Judge Blackford. The question came be fore the courts, not involving any political power or question, but involving the question simply whether there was a vacancy in the office of Attorney-General that could be filled by the Governor by appointment. And it was held that, because under the law the power was reserved to the Legislature to appoint, it could not be said that they had declined to exercise that power while they yet remained in session. That was all. The other case, if your Honors please, was not a ques tion of the election of a man to a political office the Biddle case but the election of a man to this bench. And this court was passing upon the question of the validity of the election of a man who was sitting here as a member of this court. Is there anything incongruous or contrary to any part of my argument in that suggestion ? Upon the other hand, does it not fall in with it that this court is to decide who its own members are ? If your Honors please, suppose the parties to this ac tion were reversed. Sometimes we get a better view of an object by turning it around. Suppose Colonel Rob ertson were the relator and Green Smith the respondent Suppose Colonel Robertson had alleged that he was duly elected Lieutenant-Governor ; that the vote had been can vassed, and that he had been sworn into office confornv ably to the Constitution and the laws, and that Green Smith was presiding over the Senate in usurpation of his right to preside there, and that he should have come to your Honors now, and asked for an injunction to restrain Green Smith, who had been chosen by a majority of the Senate to exercise the functions of President of the Senate. Do your Honors think you would have enter tained jurisdiction in such a case, or that any court would ? That you would assume to say to the Senate THE LAWYER. 163 of Indiana who should preside over it, and who should not? Or to the joint convention, assembled conform ably to the law of Congress, in the execution of a federal duty, who should or should not preside over it ? And yet, just that has been done here, if your Honors please. And that is the second branch of this question of juris diction, upon which I shall say a word. You are asked to sustain an injunction that does not run according to the will of the Senate. The Senate have not invoked your power. Green Smith is the relator. To do so would be to lay the Senate of Indiana at your feet and say to them, " Whatever your view may be ; whatever the wish of the majority of your members may be, Robert S. Robertson, at your request even, shall not preside over you." No, if your Honors please, this writ of injunction is sui generis. It occupies a pinnacle of absurdity that has never been reached in a judicial proceeding before. I understood the question to be propounded by one of the judges whether, the Senate refusing to admit Col onel Robertson to his seat, he might not have applied for a writ of mandate. Manifestly not. Certainly that question will not bear consideration. Mandate ! Justice Mitchell Pardon me ; that was not the question I put at all. The question I put was : Suppose that Col onel Robertson, persisting in his right to preside, had been adjudged in contempt by the Senate. Senator Harrison I was not alluding to the question propounded by your Honor this afternoon, but to one propounded this morning or yesterday. Justice Mitchell I never had such a question as that in my mind, if you refer to me. Justice Zollars I do not recollect of asking such a question. Senator Harrison If not, if the very suggestion of the proposition meets with a disclaimer on all hands, then does it not show a limitation of power in this court to deal with the subject ? You can keep a man from pre siding over the Senate. You can, by injunction, restrain him from doing it, but you cannot compel the Senate by I 64 BENJAMIN HARRISON. mandate to permit him to do it. One would think these remedies ought to be mutual. WAS THERE AN FLECTION? But, if your Honors please, if we can come so far, if these threshold questions may be safely passed, and we can ever reach the question whether there was an election for Lieutenant-Governor, on the 2d day of November last, then I have upon that subject a few words to submit. And let me say first, that my client here does not come as an impostor ; he does not come with the rude and vul gar airs of a usurper, for rudeness and vulgarity are the natural apparel of the usurper. He comes, after having submitted to the intelligent voters of Indiana his char acter and fitness for this high office. Not one member of this court, I may assume ; not one of the learned counsel for the relator; not one probably of this little company that hear me to-day but expressed his choice for or against him. I do not say, at all, that this must be con clusive upon the body endowed, under the Constitution, with the power to try his right to the office; but I do say, may it please your Honors, that, whatever that tribunal is, whether the Legislature or this court, my client comes before it in an attitude to challenge their respect, and backed by a popular sentiment that demands that the questions which are at issue shall have the most careful and deliberate consideration of the tribunal trying them. In a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, constitutions must not be strained to deprive them of the right to choose their own officers. If your Honors please, this is a popular government. Right jealous and careful were the framers of our Constitution to secure to the people the right to select those who were to administer all three of the departments of our State government. Previously, in many places, indeed now, the judiciary of the State had been appointive ; but under the present Constitution the people took to themselves the right to choose the members of this high tribunal and every other judicial officer in the State of Indiana. THE LAWYER. 165 They especially declared in the Constitution that the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor should be elected by the people. If there is a vacancy in the office, as is ad mitted, and we are brought to a study of the Constitution as to whether the people, by the ordinary methods pointed out by law, may fill it according to their choice, I say again, we should come to the consideration of that question with a disposition to effectuate, if we can, the popular will. Not that we can do so at the expense of plain provisions of the Constitution, but with a disposition to do so, if a liberal and kindly construction can give to the people this right to choose their own Lieutenant- Governor. I press this upon the court : If the question is doubtful, the doubt should be solved on the side of popular government. I am not indulging in propositions that can be labelled Republican or Democratic ; they are principles that all parties and all statesmen at least affect to reverence. Now, coming to the consideration of our Constitution in such a spirit, and remembering that the chief executive of this State, having called upon its law officer, received from him an opinion that there was a vacancy that should be filled ; remembering that in every county of this State the administrative officer, the sheriff, issued his notice to the electors to choose a Lieutenant-Governor ; remem bering that through all that campaign no man interposed by injunction against a sheriff from publishing such a notice or sought to raise the question until the issue had been fought out at the polls ; remembering that all the forms of law have been observed ; remembering that a half million of free people of all political parties in this State have expressed their choice in an orderly and honest way at the polls that is unchallenged as a true expression of the popular will ; remembering all that, let us come to a consideration of the question whether there is anything in our Constitution that prohibited the people from choosing a Lieutenant-Governor on the 2d day of last November. If your Honors please, I have here before me the second volume of the constitutional debates. Your 1 66 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Honors are familiar with the manner in which this book was compiled, and of course know that the Constitution, as it was adopted by sections, as the convention acted upon it, was recast in form and the sections put together in articles, so that the number as mentioned here cannot always be accurately identified in the present compilation. On page 1316 I find it said: " The section prescribing the manner of electing a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor was read a second time." " Mr. Kelso [known to many of you] moved to strike out the latter part of the section and insert a provision to the effect that, if it should become necessary to fill a vacancy in the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor at any time, when no general election was held, it might be done." Note the proposition. Not to wait for any general election, but to have a special election to fill those offices if they should become vacant. " Mr. Morrison, of Marion [known to many of us here, now dead], said he could see no reason for a change in this respect ; THE OFFICES WOULD ALL BE FILLED AT THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION. Besides such a provision would be inconsistent with another part of the same article." Evidently referring to that section which provides that the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the same time with the members of the Legislature. So it seems, if your Honors please, in the debates in the convention that framed the Constitution, this question whether the people should have an election or not to fill a vacancy, was raised, and Mr. Morrison, who, I think, was upon the committee that reported it, delivered his opinion, " The offices would all be filled at the next gen eral election." And now, if your Honors please, a Sen ator, elected by two counties, confronts the five hundred thousand voters with the proposition that the people of the two counties he represents have a, right to select a man to discharge the duties of this high office in disre gard of the will of the mass of the people of Indiana. THE LAWYER. 167 And there is to be no election, he says. And why not ? If your Honors please, there -is just one suggestion, and only one, found in the Constitution or statute against it, and that is the declaration that the term of office of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor shall begin on a par ticular day. That, and nothing else, raises a doubt on this question. We are met here with the remarkable theory that the framers of our Constitution, instead of contemplating an election to fill these vacancies at the next general election, as Mr. Morrison says, absolutely contemplated a condition of things in which, if the Gov ernor aid Lieutenant-Governor-elect died before their inauguration, or immediately afterwards, the power of the people to designate their successors was to be in re straint for four full years ! And that is where we are left ! This is the argument that comes from my Demo cratic friend ! That this Constitution was meant to say that for four full years a man, the choice of a single county, elected not to exercise the duties of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, but those of a Senator alone, must be the chief executive of the State of Indiana! Can we, being part of a government so thoroughly popular as the government of our State is, come to such a conclusion unless a compulsion of steel bands and rivets is upon our opinion? Shall we adopt such a conclusion ? Are we thus hedged in ? No. If we simply construe that sec- tiui to apply to the full and regular terms of the offices of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor ; if we simply say that the people meant that there should be these periods marked and defined in the regular terms, and that they were not intended to be restrictive of the power of the pjople to fill a vacancy by election, then all is clear. Our government goes on in an orderly way. Its popular control and character are recognized. The men admin ister these offices whom the people choose. Put that construction upon it, and all doubt vanishes away. Justice Zollars Would your idea be. that if the Gov ernor should die there should be an election ? Senator Harrison I have no doubt of the power to have such election, though I think the argument is stronger in case of the Lieutenant-Governor. 1 68 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Justice Zollars Then our practice has been wrong. Senator Harrison I know the practice has been that the Lieutenant-Governor succeeds to the office ; that he is continued in the succession ; that the Lieutenant-Gov ernor discharges those duties. But that is a very dif ferent question from this, because, I say to your Honors, and say it advisedly, there is no one designated to discharge the duties of Lieutenant-Governor in case of a vacancy in that office, and we meet under this construction of the Constitution, this anomaly : That we have this one office that may become vacant by death or resignation, the duties of which are devolved upon no one ; neither is there a provision for electing his successor. I know Justice Mitchell Is it not the fact that in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor the duties are devolved upon the President of the Senate ? Senator Harrison I would be very glad if your Honor would show me where that is said. .Admitting that the Senate may elect a president pro tempore who presides over the Senate, and of course discharges, so far as he presides, the same duty that the Lieutenant-Gov ernor would if he presided, but where is the provision in the Constitution or the law that invests him with any other function of the office of Lieutenant-Governor?, Justice Mitchell I might answer tiiat there is no pro vision in the Constitution or law which invests the Lieu tenant-Governor with any other function. That is the whole statement of the function of the Lieutenant-Gcv- ernor. Senator Harrison Does not the Constitution especial.y provide or permit that other duties may be devolved upon him by law ? Justice Mitchell I am not aware that it does. Senator Harrison Then how is it that he is made a member of the Board of Equalization ? Justice Mitchell They might have made the sheriff of Marion county a member of the Board of Equaliza tion just as well as the Lieutenant-Governor. Senator Harrison Then duties defined by law may be added to the office, and yet there is no provision for a THE LAWYER. 169 successor if the Lieutenant-Governor dies, nor are his duties assigned to any one else ? Justice Mitchell That depends on whether I have rightly interpreted that section, namely : That all the constitutional duty of the Lieutenant-Governor, all the constitutional duty that he has to perform is to preside over the Senate ; and when the Constitution provides that in the event of the death or absence of the Lieutenant- Governor the president /w tempore shall do that, then all his constitutional duties are filled and provided for. Senator Harrison "Whenever the Lieutenant-Gov ernor shall act as Governor, or shall be unable to attend as President of the Senate, the Senate shall elect one of its own members as president for the occasion." That is what is said ; but if your Honors please, there are other duties devolved by law rightly, not contrary to the Con stitution, but rightly upon the Lieutenant-Governor. Justice Mitchell I agree with that. I do not want to interrupt you ; but I have thought very seriously over the proposition you are discussing, and I only wish to give you the idea so as to draw out yours in return. The only constitutional duty which I have been able to find devolved upon the Lieutenant-Governor was that of pre siding over the Senate, and of being in expectancy to discharge the duties of Governor in case of the death or resignation of the Governor. Now, when the Constitu tion also provides that in the absence of the Lieutenant- Governor those same duties shall be devolved upon another, then the question comes to my mind, don t that fill the office, and can it be said that there is a vacancy in the office ? Senator Harrison If your Honors please, it seems to me that is very far short of being conclusive logic with all due respect. Judge Mitchell I want to hear your logic. Senator Harrison If it was provided that in case of the death or inability to attend of the clerk of the court, that the duties of the clerk of the court should there upon devolve upon the auditor " for the occasion," I think that would hardly be conclusive that we were not to elect a clerk at the first chance. BENJAMIN HARRISON. But suppose it to be true, then, if your Honors please, that upon the death of the Lieutenant-Governor the duties are devolved on some one else Justice Zollars Judge Mitchell s position is, all the f^Dnstitutional duties. Senator Harrison I do not care whether it is all his duties, as defined by the Constitution, or all the duties, which, under the Constitution, the Legislature has rigntly devolved upon him. Keeping in mind the qualifying words of the Constitution " for the occasion " is it not a very forced conclusion that his successor is to dis charge those duties for four years, and that the vacancy in the office of Lieutenant-Governor may not be filled ? So far from an idea of permanence, does not the veiy grant of authority to elect this man " for the occasion " imply a limited and temporary discharge of the duties ? If the intention were otherwise, would not the Constitu tion have said that the successor should discharge the duties until the expiration of the term, or until the vacancy is filled, instead of using such transitory, tem porary words of sufferance ? Mr. Brown May I ask you on that Ought not the courts to follow the construction put upon the words " for the occasion " that the Legislature had put upon those words ? Senator Harrison What is that construction ? That put on them by Mr. Smith ? Mr. Brown No, sir ; I mean the construction that has been universally put upon those words by the Legis lature. Senator Harrison What is that ? Mr. Brown That has been this, as I remember it, that the Senate would elect a President, and in all cases of ab sence for any cause thereafter of the Lieutenant-Gover- ernor, the person so elected should discharge the duties of the office in so far as presiding over the Senate is concerned. Senator Harrison That may be ; but still it simply enlarges the " occasion " from that of a day to a week ; it still does not add any idea of permanence ; none what- THE LAWYER. I? I ever ; and, if your Honors please, the idea of permanence is expressly excluded by the fact that the Senate of In diana is not a continuing body. Suppose, instead of being a hold-over Senator, Mr. Green Smith s term had expired with the last Legislature. Where is your Presi dent pro tempore f The office necessarily ends with the adjournment of the Legislature. It was an assumption, in my mind an assumption that I cannot fitly characterize here, that the fact that he had been elected at a previous General Assembly made him the presiding officer of the present Senate, in which there were only twenty-four men who voted for him. It is only because the Senate of the United States is held to be a continuing body by reason of an expressed rule that the President/^ tempore holds continuously; and, unlike the Speaker of the House, does not terminate his official existence with the Con gress. I say that qualification does not inhere in the Senate of Indiana ; it is not a continuing body. And when it elects a President, a President pro tempore, for the occasion, his power cannot run into the organiza tion of a new Legislature. Mr. Brown Have you forgotten, General, that the bill avers that General Manson resigned some time in August last, that Smith was elected by the present Senate of Indiana on the 6th day of January, and that all these averred causes of information are subsequent to that date ? Senator Harrison I have not forgotten, if your Honors please, those most extraordinary double-action allegations in this petition. That this Senate recognized Mr. Smith as being already President pro tempore, and by the same resolution elected him to be such. [Laughter.] A juggle, if your Honors please, that may have an ap propriate place where politicians assemble, but has no .standing in this court. I am not unaware, too, of the fact that this bill and answer show that when Mr. Smith was previously elected President pro tempore of the Senate, Mahlon D. Manson, then Lieutenant-Governor, was in the chair, and put the question on his election. Utterly void ! void under the Constitution, which gives 172 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the Senate the right only to elect when the Lieutenant- Governor is absent. Why, so well recognized is the rule that when President Garfield and Vice-President Arthur came in, at the executive session first held, the Senate elected no President pro tempore, and could not, because the Vice-President occupied the chair. And when that fatal bullet of the assassin killed the President, Congress had to be reconvened, that the Senate might choose one in order to provide for the succession. And I remember, too, that when our own distinguished citizen, Thomas A. Hendricks, whose untimely taking off we all mourn, be came Vice-President, he, too, occupied his place in the Vice-President s chair, and did not give the Senate op portunity to select a President pro tempore, and that when he died there was no successor if President Cleve land had followed his untimely footsteps. And yet we have a case here, and the gentleman calls my attention to it, where it is shown by the papers that this man, claiming to hold over and to have succeeded when Gen eral Manson became collector of internal revenue, to the office olf Lieutenant-Governor, was elected with the Lieu- tenant-Governor in the chair. It is " for an occasion," may it please your Honors. Words of limitation, characterizing an office as tem porary, fleeting and inviting a successor, could not have been more aptly chosen. I will not detain your Honors longer with the discussion of this question. The limit of time which, I assume, was assigned me has been ex hausted. Justice Mitchell We have interrupted you some, and I take it the court will be glad to have you occupy the time needed to conclude your argument. Senator Harrison The interruptions have only orna mented my argument. Mr. Brown So far as we are concerned, there is no limit of time. Justice Mitchell Our interruptions may have broken the chain of your argument and placed you at some dis advantage, and we would be glad to have you finish. Senator Harrison If I have been put to any disad- THE LAWYER. 173 vantage by the interruptions, it was on account of the weakness of the advocate, and not of the cause for which I speak. Your Honors, here are two threshold questions of jurisdiction. To the consideration thereof I invoke the careful, thoughtful and conscientious consideration of the court. I am sure I need not, by any word of mine, attempt to stimulate your courage to deal with any ques tion that can be submitted. It would be a disrespectful suggestion. Because the court that, walking uprightly in the strength and dignity of the* high office it exercises, and defying clamor, refuses to decide questions of which it has not jurisdiction, will outlive clamor, and will estab lish itself in the confidence of the whole people, a confi dence which gives its judgments strength and executes its decrees without the aid of force. As some periods in the text of this chapter may appear extravagant, it may be well to fortify them ; and, for that purpose, I am glad to avail myself of a letter received from W. P. Fishback, Esq., under date of July 13, 1888. Mr. Fishback was a member, as has been stated, of the firm of Porter, Harrison & Fish- back, and says : I saw General Harrison first in 1850 at Miami Univer sity. My room at Mr, High s boarding-house was next to David Swing s, and Ben (Harrison) came regularly on his way to Prof. Elliott s room to get some coaching in Pindar from Swing, who was his classmate. Ben was at the head in Latin and mathematics ; so was Milt. Saylor of the same class. But they both, and I might say the whole class, looked upon Swing as the best in Greek. In the Union Literary Society Ben was a star. I re member his faculty in extemporaneous speech amazed me, a faculty which he has improved wonderfully. In all my knowledge of him I never knew him to trip in a 174 BENJAMIN HARRISON. sentence. He seemed to see about two well-rounded sentences ahead of him all the time During the time I was his partner he worked like a slave. He was Reporter of the Supreme Court and prepared the "syl labuses " or " syllabii," as the case may be, at his home at nights. He was working to pay for his house, and came near wrecking his health by overwork Be fore he came home from the field Porter and I, who were partners, wanted him to become second man in the firm of P., H. & F. second in place, but always facile prin- ceps in ability and industry. I have never been a lag gard myself, neither has Porter ; but I declare that of all the men I have known in professional life, Ben Harrison is the most diligent, painstaking and thorough It was the rule in our firm, when we were for the de fense, to make Ben close for our side. If he made the first speech we were like Riley s old father in the poem, " Nothin to say." That is literally true. More than once, when some other pressing duty was calling him, he would be allowed to make the first speech ; and it was amusing to see Porter, as Ben proceeded. He would strike out from his notes one thing after another until Ben had finished. Then, when he was done, we would put our heads together and wisely conclude to let the case go with one speech for our side. He was a merci less reaper ; nothing, absolutely nothing, was left for the most careful gleaner. Porter will bear me out in this. .... As an examiner of witnesses I never saw his (Harrison s) equal. He knew when to quit. He gener ally knew a tartar without catching it. Once an irasci ble elderly lady was on the witness stand. She testified with great spirit and extravagance ; she was one of the " willingest " you ever saw. When passed to Ben for cross-examination there was a look of triumph in her eye. She squared herself for a bout, when Ben said : " You may stand aside, madam." " Oh, I have heard of you ; you can cross-question me as much as you please ; I am not afraid of you," said she. " I have no questions to ask you, madam," was the THE LAWYER. 175 bland reply, and she was finished. She had most effect ually destroyed whatever of weight there might have been in her evidence, and Ben allowed her to retire. .... Ben s fidelity absolute and unqualified by the magnitude of the interests involved in a case was another marked feature of his style of work. If we had consented to take a case, no matter how small, it was prepared for trial by him with as much care as if the controversy was of the greatest importance. His notes for cross-examination were always complete ; and I never saw a dishonest witness get out of his hands without exposure. Men of his rare ability are sometimes led to abuse their power, but he never did this to my knowl edge. The jury could always see that he was fair with the witness and gave him full opportunity for explana tion and escape if there was any chance One of his greatest triumphs in cross-examination was in the celebrated Clem murder case. Three persons were in dicted for the murder Mrs. Clem, William Abrams, and Syke Hartman (Mrs. Clem s brother). Each of them attempted to prove an alibi. The murder was committed about four miles from Indianapolis on a Saturday after noon at quarter past four o clock in September, 1868. Two reputable ladies swore that at four o clock on the day of the murder they met and conversed with Mrs. Clem in the New York store in the city of Indianapolis. If this were true the whole theory of the prosecution was wrong. The circumstances tended to show that Mrs. Clem murdered Mr. Young with her own hand, and the case rested wholly on circumstantial evidence. The alibi witnesses were apparently honest. That they had met and conversed with Mrs. Clem at the place, and at the time and day they named, was beyond question. It was equally certain that it was on Saturday ; and that it was the identical Saturday when the murder was committed they were sure. That they were mistaken we were sure, but how to show it was the question. Ben went at it on the theory that he could, by cross-examination, show that it was some other Saturday. The force of an alibi depends upon its covering the exact time the other facts, 176 BENJAMIN HARRISON. with all their circumstances, may have occurred ; but the time is the thing. Ben asked them to name something else that happened the day they met Mrs. Clem. A letter had been written to a friend in Pennsylvania, for one thing. That did not help the matter. It was necessary to have them state something which could be traced and shown to have occurred at another time. Patiently, per sistently and politely they were asked again and again by way of suggestion if this or that had happened. At the end of a long siege the mother s eye lit up, and she said : " Oh, yes ; I remember now. It was the day the constable from Squire Fisher s came to serve a subpoena on us." In ten minutes the docket of Esquire Fisher was in the court room, the subpoena and return were there, and it appeared that it was Saturday, the week after tJie murder, when they saw Mrs. Clem in the store. She was still at large at that time ; and we proved by other witnesses that she was down town shopping that day. The alibis for the other defendants were very clumsy and were more easily disproved I have been sus pected of having an exaggerated estimate of Harrison s ability ; but I declare that, in my experience of thirty- two years, I have never seen a man in whose hands I would be more willing to place my imperilled life or fortune than in his. I have heard some men say that he is overrated ; but they were generally those who had never grappled with him in a hard fight. No lawyer who ever met him before court or jury will talk that way. On this testimony the chapter given to General Harrison s professional career may be rested. CHAPTER IV. THE SOLDIER. THE fruits of the great Union victory at Pitts- burg Landing, April 7, 1862, were first, the re covery of the Mississippi river to its mouth ; second, the separation of the Trans-Mississippi States of the Confederacy, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, from the States eastward of the river. These fruits were lost by the inaction that fol lowed the victory, and by dividing the magnifi cent army gathered at and around Corinth into detachments, and scattering them aimlessly up and down the country. The disappointment to the loyal people of the West consequent upon the failure to realize something commensurate with the success was in tensely bitter. At length General Buell was or dered to march the Army of the Ohio to Chat tanooga, and hold it for some succeeding opera tion all unknown except to General HaMeck, chief commander of the army, and there have been great suspicions that on that ulterior point even he was not fully made up in mind. There can be little question that General Buell could have established, himself in Chattanooga if 12 178 BENJAMIN HARRISON. he had been allowed to proceed as he wished, by a direct march along a route north of the Ten nessee river, drawing supplies from Nashville. Instead of that he was peremptorily required to follow the line of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad from Corinth to Decatur, repairing it as he went. It resulted that General Bragg was able to concentrate a new army at Chattanooga before Buell could reach it, whereupon the latter was speedily put upon the defensive. Then be gan the celebrated race on parallel lines between the generals, in the course of which Buell was severely taxed to save Nashville first and then Louisville. The news spread through Ohio and Indiana that the Confederates were in Kentucky in force, with the advantage of the interior line for their operations. The consternation was pro digious. President Lincoln had recently issued another proclamation calling for troops. So great was the public depression, however, that Governor Mor ton found difficulty in filling the quota due from Indiana ; but, keenly alive to the dangers of the situation, he made appeals everywhere and to everybody to assist in the work. No one was so dull of military perception as not to see that In diana and Ohio were threatened by Bragg. A battle lost in Kentucky would make it easy for that chief to carry his army across the Ohio at his pleasure. THE SOLDIER. 179 One day, when the gloom of the public was deepest, Harrison, in company with a friend, called upon Governor Morton. The visitors found him pacing the floor of the reception room of the executive office in a frame of mind fairly reflec tive of the general feeling. When the business which had brought them was concluded the Gov ernor took them into his inner room on the first floor on the east side of the old State House, where they stood with him looking out of a win dow. A number of workmen were in fair view engaged in the erection of what is now known as the Gallup Building on Tennessee street. After a brief silence, Morton remarked that he was quite discouraged; that the President s call for more troops had been out for some time, and met no ready response ; that the people were slow in waking up to the exigency of the moment, and, pointing to some men cutting stone on the other side of the street, he said : " The people are fol lowing their own private business, so that it has come to be a serious question what I shall do next to arouse them." He spoke with a great deal of depression, and in such a manner that Harrison felt he was addressing himself person ally to him. So he replied : " Governor, if I can be of any service, I will go." " Well," the other replied at once, " you can raise a regiment in this Congressional district right away; but it is asking too much of you to go ISO BENJAMIN HARRISON. into the field with it ; you have just been elected Reporter of the Supreme Court. But go to work and raise it, and we will find somebody to command it." Harrison answered that that did not suit him ; if he made any speeches, and asked men to go, he proposed to go along with them, and stay as long as any of them did, if he lived that long. He said emphatically that he did not intend to recruit others and stay at home himself. The Governor remarked : " Very well ; if you want to go, you can command the regiment." " I do not know," Harrison replied, " as I want to command the regiment. I do not know any thing about military tactics. So, if you can find some suitable person of experience in such mat ters, I am not at all anxious to take the com mand." The result was that at the end of the interview Harrison went up street, and on the way, without going home, stepped into a hat store and bought a military cap. Without the loss of a moment he then engaged a fifer and drummer, returned to his office, threw a flag out of the window, and began recruiting for Company A. The company was speedily full and put into camp in the western part of the city. The new soldiers lay there, and drilled as they had oppor tunity. Harrison employed a drill-master in Chicago for them, paying the hire himself. There THE SOLDIER. l8l they remained about a month. In the meantime he was given a commission as Second Lieutenant. Frequendy, when the drill was over, he went out and made speeches in aid of other gentlemen en gaged in raising companies. When the regiment was complete Governor Morton voluntarily com missioned him Colonel. The military authorities were concentrating troops about that time in Louisville to meet Kirby Smith, who had passed through Cumberland Gap and was making way northward through New London to Lexington. The rawness of Colonel Harrison s companies can well be imagined ; muskets had just been issued to them, and they did not know how to handle them. But the ex citement was heightened by the circumstance that General Bragg was hastening with the main body of his army to Louisville, having turned Nash ville, to which General Buell had marched to save the immense stores of supplies there collected. The rebel general was in fact north of Nashville, so that Bowling Green, which was at that time fortified, had become a Union outpost, below which everything had been broken by the Con federates. Thither Harrison s 7oth Regiment Indiana Volunteers was hurried. Buell s army, in pursuit of Bragg, marched past Bowling Green, and the regiment was still there when the battle of Perryville was fought, having been brigaded temporarily under General Du- mont. 182 BENJAMIN HARRISON. While stationed at Bowling Green Colonel Harrison was sent upon an expedition against a body of rebels lodged at Russellville, and, as it was his first essay in what may be called an inde pendent operation, it may be of interest to give its details. His command was put upon a train and hurried off. When he had arrived within about ten miles of the town the advance was stopped by an untoward circumstance. The enemy had burned a bridge over a small stream and then retired to Russellville to have a good time with sympathizing friends. Colonel Harri son, however, was not so easily stopped ; he had resources within his regiment. Two or three of his captains had been railroad men, and, upon ex amination of the bridge, they thought they could repair the damage so as to cross the train with but little delay. Only a portion of a span was gone. A pier of railroad ties was piled up in the centre as a support; then a couple of large trees were cut down, and pushed across the break. From a side track near by some rails were torn up and laid upon the timbers. Thus a crossing was effected. While slowly approaching the town a negro man plowing corn saw the train, and unhitching his horse, jumped on him, and galloped alongside the track. Colonel Harrison was at the moment on the tender of the locomo tive, the better to observe whatever might happen. He had men at the brakes on the freight cars, and THE SOLDIER. 183 they readily answered his signal to stop. The negro told him where the camp was situated, and how it could be best approached. The Colonel then divided the regiment, sending three or four companies under Major Vance to go around and come in on the other side so as to intercept the enemy when started. Waiting time enough for the detachment to reach its position, he disem barked his troops, and attacked with energy. The surprise was so complete that there was not much of a fight. Forty rebels were killed and wounded; one Unionist soldier was killed. Ten prisoners and all the horses and arms of the rebels were captured. With these trophies the young Colonel returned to Bowling Green. The 7oth Regiment was brigaded with the 79th Ohio and the road, io5th and the i2Qth Illinois, Brigadier-General W. T. Ward, of Kentucky, commanding ; and, what is extraordinary, the or ganization thus effected was kept unchanged to the close of the war. The closeness of the ties formeb during the long service between officers and men can be best understood by old soldiers. Out of the association there also grew a confi dence of regiment in regiment of inestimable benefit to the cause a confidence which, as we shall presently see, became in the hour of trial a kind of audacious faith each in the other. By virtue of seniority of commission, Colonel Harri son was given the right of the brigade. 1 84 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Now that the 7<Dth regiment is in the actual field, it would be very agreeable to give a roster of the officers and, for that matter, the full roll of the men. But on account of the many changes that occurred in course of its career, there is not space for all, while a partial statement would be unsatisfactory. From Bowling Green, Colonel Harrison, with his command, accompanied the brigade to Scotts- ville, Kentucky, and thence to Gallatin, Tennessee. For two months he was occupied guarding the Louisville & Nashville road between Gallatin and .Nashville. Four months then followed in camp. This period was about evenly divided between hunting guerillas and drilling his men. To the latter occupation he devoted himself sedulously ; for it must be remembered that he was as fresh in arms as the greenest man in the ranks. He was systematic and painstaking, however, and buckled to the mysteries of the tactical " schools" as he had in college days to geometry. Indeed, his method of instruction was precisely that of his college tutors. Calling the officers to his tent of evenings, he questioned them progres sively and required them to illustrate the ma noeuvres upon a board, chalk in hand. " Hardee M was of course the umpire for the settlement of questions. On the parade ground there was general practice of the lessons studied. The course pursued was wise and effective. The THE SOLDIER. 185 7oth became, while at Gallatin, expert in all the military exercises required of infantry. While their dress parade was beautiful, they were "up" not less in sentinel and picket duty. Their " skir mishing " is said to have been a remarkable per formance. All the while he was thus making soldiers of his men, the Colonel was making an accomplished officer of himself. His theory was that every day in camp should be used in prep aration for that other day, always to be kept in a soldier s mind the day of battle. From Gallatin the brigade marched to La- vergne, and thence to Murfreesboro. There it became part of General Granger s Reserve Corps. When General Rosecrans set out for Chattanooga General Ward was sent to Nashville to look after the safety of the trains carrying sup plies to the front, a most arduous and important duty, often taxing to the uttermost the courage and best resources of those engaged in it. At length the time came when Ward s com mand was called to the front. On the 2d of January, 1864, ft became the ist Brigade of the ist Division of the nth Army Corps, and Colonel Harrison was put in command of it, his chief taking the division. The nth and i2th Army Corps about this time were consolidated into the 2Oth Army Corps, whereupon Ward s old brigade became the ist Brigade of the 3d Division of the 2Oth Corps, 1 86 BENJAMIN HARRISON. and so numbered it remained until the conclusion of the war. General Ward returning to the command of the brigade, Colonel Harrison re sumed that of the regiment. It will be perceived by the reader, whether he have been a soldier or not, that by this time\ Colonel Harrison could not well be any longer called a carpet knight, but rather a seasoned soldier, wanting in but one great remaining expe rience that of battle. He himself would not dignify the skirmishes and alarms of the camp by night and by day through which he had passed as incidents of that character ; they were merely the trials by which he was making ready for gen eral combats. It is always better for the officer that it should be so ; for it is as if, during the time, he were sitting face to face with the terrors of the engaged lines that, by much study, they should become familiar to him, and he himself hardened against the day of their coming. This is said, of course, upon the assumption that battle is terrible to every one who goes down into it. And as that experience was now about to befall Colonel Harrison, thorough understanding re quires a brief preliminary explanation. There had been campaigns and battles before the spring of 1864, but they were mere incidents of irregular operations along a front extending, in a general sense, from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic. In that season, however, a real down- THE SOLDIER. 187 right commander went into headquarters at Wash ington, and the old order of things at once changed. Looking with the discerning eye of genius over the whole field, he devised campaigns in combination. Thus he started General Banks up the Red river southwest, and Sherman against Joe Johnston below Chattanooga ; he himself would hunt Lee into Richmond. The idea under lying the scheme was to give occupation to the Confederates on their right, left, and centre, and keep them so busy that there could be no passing of help from one section to another. So the numerical superiority of the North would be really available, and the advantage of the inner line nullified. Sherman, in whose work we are most directly concerned, had with him three famous armies: that of the Ohio (General Schofield), that of the Cumberland (General Thomas), and that of the Tennessee (General McPherson). In popular es timation Atlanta was his objective ; but he says it was not so ; that he was really directed against the army commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, 64,000 strong, then at Dalton, en trenched ; that he " was required to follow it up closely, so that in no event could any part of it be detached to assist General Lee in Virginia ; General Grant undertaking in like manner to keep Lee so busy that he could not respond to any calls of help by Johnston. Neither Atlanta, 1 88 BENJAMIN HARRISON. nor Augusta, nor Savannah was the objective, but the army of Joe Johnston/ go where it might." (2 Mem., p. 25.) He says, moreover, that on the 5th of May he rode out to Ringgold from Chattanooga. Thereupon his campaign began. To Dalton then, or to get a grip upon Johnston, Sherman directed his columns. The attempt drew from him his first bit of strategy. Perceiving that the town was very strong as a position, he concluded the best way to take it was to get possession of the railroad which was the enemy s line of supply. For that it would be necessary to send part of his force around to the south. Accordingly McPherson was chosen for the enterprise, and to his Army of the Tennessee the 2Oth Corps, under General Hooker, was joined as a support. The 2Oth Corps was constituted of three divi sions, Newton s, Williams , and Butterfield s. The brigades of the latter were the i?t, commanded by Brigadier-General Ward, the 2d, Colonel John Coburn, the 3d, Colonel Wood. All the 7th and 8th of May McPherson was in movement. On the Qth he and Hooker issued silently from Snake Creek Gap on the south. A brigade of Confederate cavalry took to their saddles, and hurried to Johnston with news that Buzzard s Roost and Dalton were turned, and that there was an army in his rear about to take possession of the railroad and Resaca. THE SOLDIER. 189 While Johnston was thinking what to do in the emergency, Sherman passed his whole army through Snake Creek Gap. On the I4th the enemies stood opposed to each other, Johnston in Resaca, Sherman close up to its defenses. Dalton had been evacuated. The bit of strategy had worked to perfection. But now to take Resaca ! The town was enveloped on the north and west, and the fighting, mostly at long range, was continuous all through the I4th, and it scarcely quieted in the night. At daylight next morning Sherman drew his compresses closer about the post, and in the afternoon, everybody being in position, he pushed McPherson forward to a ridge commanding the town and a railroad bridge, de fense of which was literally a living necessity to the Confederates. Accordingly they made re peated attempts to dispossess McPherson ; and the attacks and sallies thus brought about have since gone into history as THE BATTLE OF RESACA. On Saturday, the I4th, a general engagement had taken place, the Confederates being the at tacking party. They attempted to turn Sherman s left, and were themselved rolled back upon Resaca. The chief fighting that day was by Schofield and Stanley, who lost heavily. Sunday morning found the two armies ready, I9O BENJAMIN HARRISON. and they began anew. Though the success had been to the Union army the day before, the posi tion of the Confederates was now even more advantageous. The bulk of Johnston s Corps was concentrated on a short line, thoroughly fortified from right to left. The Oostenaula, with its marshy banks, covered his centre, which rested on a considerable ridge ; strong field-works pro tected his left flank ; his right abutted against the river, and to get to it an attacking force must needs cross a range of hills crowned with redoubts and rifle-pits. The front presented by the Confederates was not more than two miles and a half in length ; opposite it Sherman s army was drawn up. A re- connoissance was had, and the conclusion reached that the key to the position of the Confederates was some eminences on the right of their line. Sherman determined to assault them. For that purpose Hooker s corps was brought over to the left, with Howard s as support. A glance at the site to be attacked may be helpful to the reader, by enabling him to thor oughly comprehend the trials of the assault. The eminences should not be thought of as a range ; they were in irregular groups, with hollows and ravines between them, all choked with stunted pine trees and undergrowth, without break or path. The turnpike from Dalton unrolled itself at their feet. THE SOLDIER. 1 9! In front of the Confederate line there was a hill higher than the others, and it was lodged full of sharpshooters ; rearward of the line two other eminences were plain to view ; and on the nearest of these a battery had been planted, masked by the woods, while the other was crowned by a redoubt skilfully constructed. Four guns looked from the redoubt down over the turnpike like dogs asleep in the embrasures, and the summit round about was perfectly cleared. These hills were the objects of attack. The early hours of the forenoon were taken up by Hooker in getting his brigades into position ; when all was ready, Butterfield was directed to move forward, and when within range deploy into columns by brigades. Geary and Williams were to support him. Butterfield s plan of attack was simple. To the 3d Brigade, Wood commanding, the duty of charging the heights on the left of the road was assigned; General Ward, with his 1st Brigade, was to gain possession of the hill upon the right ; the 2d Brigade, under Colonel Coburn, was in reserve : so that not inaptly it has been said that the engagement which ensued was really two battles instead of one. We shall confine our selves altogether to that of General Ward. At two o clock that Sunday morning the ist Brigade (Ward s) had been roused to throw up breastworks. It was their first attempt in that I9 2 BENJAMIN HARRISON. branch of the art of war, and they were engaged at it when the sun rose struggling with the smoke of the many camps. Hardly had they taken coffee when an order reached Butterfield directing him to move his division to the left of the I4th Army Corps. The march lay in the rear of the lines, through heavy pine groves. The expectation of battle was in every mind ; the gloom of the woods heightened the remembrance that it was Sunday at home, if not there. The silence of the march was unbroken except by an occasional order from an officer and the clink and rattle of canteens and bayonets. At last the new position was reached. A halt was called at the top of an elevation, at the foot of which lay a narrow valley terminating in a higher hill. Looking over the valley, and the pine woods that cloaked it, the men saw in half concealment on the opposite summit a line of skirmishers deployed and ready for business. Hardly had they time to take in the situation when the ominous order passed down, "Unsling knapsacks ! " A detail was made to guard them ; then, as best might be on account of the ground, the three brigades were formed each into a column of regiments. While the division stood in this order, facing the skirmishers on the oppo site crest, they began to surmise the purpose of their transfer over to the extreme left, and when THE SOLDIER. 1 93 the final preparative order " Fix bayonets " was given, every man understood he was to take part in an assault upon the enemy in position. Whether he was to look for that enemy behind parapets or in the open like themselves, became a question of liveliest interest. As the experience was a new one, even the bravest heart might be excused if it beat unusually fast. To General Ward, of the ist Brigade, there presently rode an officer with the order to attack. The hill on the right of the road was pointed out to him as the one against which he was to direct his column. Without loss of time the order was repeated to Colonel Harrison, who, appreciating the work before him, paused to give some di rections. Seeing the impossibility of making way through the woods and dense undergrowth on horseback, he ordered a general dismount of field and staff officers, and dismounted himself. He also made up his mind that it would be difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to preserve his line ; once fairly within the grove of young pine trees he would be unable to see from right to left of his regiments; if the captains could do better with their companies, they might congratulate them selves. The colors were to be displayed to the best advantage as a centre about which the men were to mass themselves, and by which they were to govern their advance. He said to the officer who brought him the order : " I am not familiar 13 194 BENJAMIN HARRISON. with the ground ; you are. Go with me, and show me the battery ; I do not want to charge flank on to it." The two then started to reconnoitre. The report of a gun saved them the trouble. Divining the direction from the shell which passed over his head, Harrison called out so as to be heard by the line behind him, " Come on, boys," and started down the hill. At that moment the formation of the brigade was as follows : yoth Indiana, 79th Ohio, and iO2d, iO5th and I29th Illinois, with the right in front. This placed Colonel Harrison in the lead ; and while running he marked out as well as he could, down the hill, across the valley, and up the oppo site ascent the line he was to pursue. He yet remembers computing the distance to be passed before he could strike the enemy at about six hundred yards. The brigade, with a great shout, put itself in motion, arms at right shoulder shift, and all the flags raised to the utmost. The crash of the five regiments through the underbrush, the rush and tear, must be imagined. Seeing so large a body of men in the act of charging, the rebels on the opposite crest opened upon it with great guns and small. The target was large; no need to take aim. Under the sharp " zip," " zip " of the bullets, and the singing " p-i-n-g " of grape-shot, familiar to every veteran, officers and men took up the cry of " forward." THE SOLDIER. 1 95 As was anticipated, the column rushing down the declivity lost its alignments and intervals, and fused into a mass while crossing the valley. When the ascent was made, the entanglement of the several commands had become inextricable. But, in that supreme disorder, they still bore on, un mindful of the cannon in the redoubt then con fronting them on through the smoke and terrible din. Men fell fast, and there was no time to carry them to the rear ; scarcely time to avoid trampling the wounded to death. Colors now and then went down ; next moment they would reappear. At. length the redoubt was reached ; without halting or wavering the exultant mass poured over and into it, and then, the capture effected, the guns in possession, every regiment in the brigade was represented there ; nor may it be said with truth that the success was attributable to any one of the several commands exclusively. Colonel Harrison was amongst the first to cross the parapet. It has been said that he was the very first. A hand-to-hand combat ensued, the gunners defending themselves with their ram mers and the assailants attacking with their clubbed muskets ; officers exchanged pistol shots. It was, in fact, one of the rare instances of a genuine bayonet-charge without a shot fired ex cept by the defenders of the redoubt. The artil lerymen stood at their posts to the last; those not killed were taken prisoners. The air rang BENJAMIN HARRISON. with victorious cheers, and for a while the en closure was a scene of frantic joy. The colors had all been borne inside, and to both friend and enemy in the distance they announced that the height was gained. But this was only for an instant. Before the officers could begin the work of reformation, while the men in their exuberance of triumph were embracing each other and shouting, the rebels, on the right and left, and in the second line of works of which they had repossessed themselves, opened a cross-fire upon them so deadly that in a few minutes the interior of the redoubt was vacated, and the conquerors outside in cover behind the parapet and every convenient thing in the vicinity. Unfixing bayonets, they re turned the fire and were doing well when two other misfortunes befell them. Some one shouted that there was an order to retreat. From whom the cry proceeded is to this day unknown. Then, to complete the distraction, they were fired upon from behind with fatal effect. Pelted thus front and rear, enfiladed right and left, confused by conflicting orders, distracted, the major part of them retreated to the foot of the hill. Neverthe less a number clung to the redoubt, swearing that they had captured the guns and were going to stay with them, and they made the word good by repulsing every attempt to retake them. In short, the redoubt was held, though from the THE SOLDIER. 1 97 outside. Once the men about it holding grimly on heard the music of a band wafted to them upon the evening air. They thought it a promise of coming relief, and that there was never melody so sweet. But night fell, and then, when the darkness was complete, Colonel Coburn received an order to send a detachment to bring off the guns. A tunnel was driven through the parapet, all hands willingly joining in the work. Then, amid defiant cheers, the trophies were taken out with the dead and wounded. Colonel Harrison remained at the redoubt until satisfied that it could and would be held. Then he went to the foot of the hill to assist in reform ing his men. " Have you your head on your shoulders yet?" he asked of a lieutenant. " Yes," was the reply. " Run, then, as fast as you can and tell those fellows in the rear yonder that they are killing us, and to stop firing, for God s sake." At the foot of the hill he was informed that General Ward had been wounded, and that the command of the brigade had devolved upon him. Remounting his horse, he had the colors planted and the men speedily in their places, and so reporting, he requested to be allowed to renew the attack, and bring off the remnant on the hill. Butterfield referred the request to Hooker, who 198 BENJAMIN HARRISON. came in person to see about it, and hearing that the men about the redoubt were doincr well and o could probably hold their own until night, he marched the brigade off to another quarter of the field. After that Colonel Harrison was christened by his soldiers " Little Ben," the sobriquet by which they still know him. The writer has before him a little volume entitled, Our Regiment : A His- tory of the 1 02 d Illinois Infantry Volunteers. De scribing the final parting of the regiments after the grand review at Washington, the author says : Halting a moment at brigade head-quarters we gave three cheers for " Little Ben " (Brevet Brigadier-General Ben Harrison), then looked for the last time at the lone- star-triangle, the battle-flag which had fluttered before us from Chattanooga to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Savannah, and from Savannah to the last encampment The battle of Resaca, though unfortunate, had been honorable to the National arms ; it was especially honorable to the three brigades of the 3d Division of the aoth Army Corps, Wood s, Coburn s and Ward s. In the crisis of the at tack by Colonel Harrison, Colonel Coburn moved up faithfully to his support, and, ascending the hill, took an outwork, but could get no further, so fierce was the fire. To help him, the portion of the ist Brigade under Colonel Harrison that rallied after the retirement from the redoubt was in turn moved over, and joining him, assisted THE SOLDIER. 1 99 in holding position the remainder of the day under the very brow of the greater rebel fortifi cation. Wood s assault of the other height had been equally brave and unsuccessful. Sherman and his whole line of battle were delighted when the next morning disclosed the stubborn enemy gone, and Resaca at mercy. Three days afterward Colonel Harrison had the pleasure of supporting Colonel Coburn in the latter s brilliant capture of Cassville. General Butterfield, in a complimentary order to the troops of his division, said: "On the i8th the division marched twenty miles much of it in the heat of the sun ; partially making its own roads ; moving five miles in line of battle, and driving the enemy before them. On the igth the division again moved to the enemy s ex treme right. The advance of the ist Brigade, un supported, driving the enemy to within one and a half miles of Cassville, by the Adairsville road ; the reconnoissance of the 3d Brigade to the rail road between Kingston and Cassville, unsup ported, and in the presence of five times its number of the enemy ; the defiant attitude of the division, alone and unsupported, when threatened by thrice its number ; the assault and capture of Cassville, by the 26. Brigade ; the daring and bold ness of the artillery, especially the section of Battery C, ist Ohio, Lieutenant King command ing ; their fine practice at the enemy s retreating 2OO BENJAMIN HARRISON. columns, and the conduct and bearing of the whole division throughout the two days, espe cially while in the presence of the main army of the enemy, are worthy of the highest commenda tion. Resaca and Cassville are proud names for our banners/ From Cassville southward still, and every day a collision of some sort with the enemy at every halt a breastwork built. In this latter incident the army was becoming singularly expert. The spade was of course the reliable tool, but not seldom, when the enemy was near, and his bullets flying low, the scooping of the loose earth was done with tin-cups and plates. The sides of a split canteen were favorite tools. Here is the scene : The regiment is moving by the flank, generally the right. Suddenly it comes upon the skir mishers covering the front. The firing is warm, and the enemy in force. " Halt ! " rings down the column. Every man comes to a " shoulder/* the whole body moved up to intervals. There is scarcely a pause in a breath almost the com panies front, and then double-quick into line of battle. There is a rattle of steel, and the arms are stacked. The Colonel gallops along the front ; the ground is chosen " A breastwork here get to work break ranks march ! " Thus the Colonel ; and if the need is great, he winds up with " Quick, lads ! " The spades and picks are THE SOLDIER. 2OI distributed on the run. There is no lagging everybody is willing it may be life or death. And as to the process. The beginning is a trench, with the earth thrown to the inside. Not a spadeful is wasted. When deep enough to cover a man lying flat, the " hands " are shifted inside, and there another ditch is dug, and the wastage added to the bank, which is now long as the regimental front. It has risen like magic. If time allows, and the timber is convenient, the cop ing of the breastwork is overlaid with heavy logs. What is most surprising the men who do the work, sometimes in feverish haste, who crawl into the inner ditch as if to take up their abode there, who defend the shallow parapet for days and vreeks, will, when the time comes, march away from them without regret. It may be safely said that there is no labor so willingly, done by a soldier as the construction of a breastwork or a rifle-pit when the foe have " got the ranges " upon him. Probably no army ever became more skilful in this "gophering" than Sherman s during the days it was keeping grip upon Joe Johnston. Their rivals, if they really had any, were the men in gray who opposed them. Colonel Harrison s command did not fall be hind in the accomplishment. From Resaca on they had scarcely a halt in the day or the night that was not marked by a hasty fortification ; for 202 BENJAMIN HARRISON. in truth the commands all came as near living under fire the while as soldiers ever did not one, but all of them. While Resaca was the Colonel s first real battle, it was simply an intro duction to a series of others swift in coming, and each seemingly hotter than the one preceding. In one month he was engaged in more battles than his grandfather William Henry Harrison fought in his whole life more than Andrew Jackson fought in his life. For want of space the engagements in which he participated cannot all be given. A few must suffice to illustrate the many. HARRISON AT NEW HOPE CHURCH. The 25th of May found Butterfield s division on the march, and in a hurry, for there was warm work before it. Shortly after noon it crossed Pumpkinville creek, stirred by the clatter of a cavalry skirmish in front. As it proceeded, the sound changed to the deeper tones of battle, which are as base-drum beating to the turn-turn of a tamborine. The messengers from the advance explained it the ist and 2d Divisions of the corps (2Oth) had been attacked by a heavy force on the Dallas road, near New Hope Church. Arriving in the rear of the position held by vheir friends of the corps, the three brigades of the 3d Division were formed in line of battle by regiments in mass ; the 2d (Coburn s) moved THE SOLDIER. 2O3 forward to support the 36 (Wood s). After go ing a distance of a mile in the direction of the firing, the 3d Brigade bore off to the left, while the 2d advanced to the front, leaving the ist in reserve. The country over which the movement proceeded is described as an unbroken forest with undulations from twenty to thirty feet in height. Upon one of them the enemy had forti fied. The position was admirably chosen for the use of artillery ; the whole ground of advance was, in fact, commanded by the rebel guns. The 2d Brigade, taking position, was at once engaged, after which it was give and take in close range for the remainder of the day. The sun went down upon the fight ; darkness came, and still there was no cessation of the musketry and the roar of the great guns. And to all the indescrib able horrors of the combat there was now added a cold, searching and continuous rain which had the effect to compel a cessation of the struggle. But as, when the firing ceased, the result of the engagement was undetermined, the ist Brigade was brought up shivering, cold and wet, with no dry place on which to fling themselves. Colonel Harrison, sharing all the discomforts with his men, set to work with them constructing a breast work, and, that completed, waited for what the dawn might bring him. In the mist of the morning the battle began anew. The night had been but a respite. Then, 204 BENJAMIN HARRISON. immediately, Colonel Harrison discovered that through the failure of the guide his whole com mand was out in an open field to the right of the Sand Town road, which should have marked the right of his position. Almost the first cannon shot apprised him of the mistake, and that it was of a serious nature. The guns were turned upon him ; and, to use the language of another de scribing the fight, shells, grape-shot, canister, rail road spikes, and every deadly missile rained about his regiment. As best they could, hugging the half-finished earthwork before them, the ditch but a pool of muddy water, his men returned the fire. And all that day the contest continued with scarce an intermission, when a Wisconsin regiment came to his relief. The severity of the fire may be judged by the fact that the relieving regiment lost two field officers while getting into position. That night, when the firing ceased, Colonel Harrison had his dead collected for burial. His wounded he had taken to a little frame house standing a short distance in the rear, and he sent for his surgeons. Unfortunately they had sepa rated from the command in the darkness. Anx ious, solicitous and sympathetic, in their absence the Colonel turned surgeon himself. Taking off his coat and rolling his sleeves to his elbows, he set to staunching the wounds. He says, speaking of the circumstance : " I do not know whether I did any service ; I tried to." He caused some THE SOLDIER. 2C>5 tents to be torn up for bandages, and worked in dustriously several hours , before the surgeons appeared. When they came into the improvised hospital, they found him covered with the blood which he had striven to stop. In the dim, flicker ing light of candles stuck in the floor, he looked like a butcher instead of a Samaritan. The sur vivors of his treatment never forgot his tender ness and the sympathy he showed by look, voice and action. As incidents of the fight, Colonel Harrison tells of curious injuries received by his Major. " I had gone," he says, " to the left of the regi ment and sent the Major towards the right ; very soon he came back to me with his hand on his breast, looking pale as a corpse. I saw he had had a terrible shock of some sort. Pulling open his coat I did not see any blood ; and the expla nation was this : He had been carrying a little spy-glass one of those with a round barrel that straightened out like a telescope and was a great hand to poke about the skirmishing line with it, trying to find a rebel flag or battery. I said to him one day, * Major, they will shoot you in the eye right through that durned thing while you are poking around that way/ Well, instead of its being the cause of his death, it actually saved him. A bullet had struck the brass eye-piece of the glass and been deflected, and it had not pen etrated the skin at all. As soon as he saw he 206 BENJAMIN HARRISON. was not hurt he laughed at himself, remounted his horse and went back to his place. He was gone but a few minutes when he came back to me all doubled up in a knot, apparently carrying his bowels in his hands. He was badly hurt, but still I could not see a drop of blood about him. It turned out that a fragment of a shell had glanced right across his stomach, bent the plate of his sword-belt, tore a rent in his blouse so large that you could put your hand through it, and all leaving only a black spot upon his body. I ordered him from the field." Speaking of the battle of New Hope Church, Colonel Harrison is still of opinion that the fight ing was as heavy as he was at any time, before or afterwards, subjected to. He was greatly obliged to the Wisconsin regiment that came up so gal lantly to take his place, and feels regret that he is now unable to give its number. HARRISON AT GILGAL CHURCH. On the 2Qth of May, General Ward having been advanced to the command of the division in place of General Butterfield, Colonel Harrison became Chief of the ist Brigade and continued such to the final muster out at the conclusion of the war. A curious disposition of the American soldier is to name a battle after a church, if such a build ing happens to be in the vicinity of the field. So THE SOLDIER. 2O7 it came about that the engagement of New Hope Church was presently followed by that of Gilgal Church, corrupted into Golgotha. On the 1 5th of June, the 3d Division, still ad vancing to help keep the " grip " on Joe Johnston, crossed a small stream below Kemp s mill, on the road to Gilgal Church, leaving Lost Mountain a short distance to the right and west. The order of march had been with the right or ist Brigade (Harrison s) in front. Suddenly the skirmishers, feeling their way in advance, struck a line of rebel works, just abandoned, on the left of the road. A halt was called to form for battle. The 2d and 3d Brigades took position in lines behind the ist. On the right was the 23d Army Corps ; on the left the remainder of the 2oth Corps. After a halt of two hours, occupied in getting the troops into position, Colonel Harrison was ordered to move forward. Crossing an open field, broken at right angles to his line, he gained a road beyond, and dislodged the enemy s skir mishers. Following them closely he came to a woods. On the further side of a raVine that par tially obstructed the line the ground ascended, and became a ridge well covered with trees. There was a stubborn resistance by the Con federate skirmishers ; but Harrison, allowing them no rest, pushed them back until a line of earthworks was disclosed not more than two hun dred yards in his front. Then the clatter of small 2O8 BENJAMIN HARRISON. arms was drowned in the roar of artillery. The fire, then begun, extended off to the right, involv ing the 23d Corps. Colonel Harrison s advance wa*s checked. His regiment stood to the work an hour passed, then a second not an inch of ground was yielded. The Colonel rode to and fro behind his fileclosers, with cool indifference to the plunging shot and shells. The strain was terrific. At last he re ported his ammunition exhausted; whereupon Coburn, always ready to assist his fellow-towns man, rushed his brigade forward. Colonel Har rison s regiment retired, Coburn s went in. The exchange was done so orderly that there was no break in the front, and scarcely an interruption in the fire. The men of the ist Brigade were fast becoming veterans. All the afternoon the struggle continued. Night fell at last and hid the combatants from each other. Thanks to the density of the woods the National loss was not so great as the commanders feared. There was " coffee and hard-tack." Then the old resort to fortifying, which was continued unremittingly all night. When the sun began to light up the shorn forest the enemy, looking out of his embrasures and over the log coping of his breastworks, beheld an opposing line of fresh yellow earth thrown up within two hundred yards of him. There the foemen stood watching each other THE SOLDIER. 2OQ all through the i6th. That day the skirmishers had it to themselves. On the 1 7th the Confederates stole away. At 5 o clock in the evening the Nationals were in possession of the coveted works, which were of three lines, the first one capable of resisting heavy artillery. Its front was moreover garnished with stakes sharpened at the points and fixed firmly in the earth. A direct assault, though successful, would have been attended with dreadful loss. HARRISON AT KENESAW. Then came the great day at Kenesaw. Preliminary to that, on the 22d of June, Sher man advanced his right wing, and there was fight ing all along the line. Ward s division, on the left of Williams , was, as usual, occupied in fortifying their ground. To cover the working parties a number of batteries had been, as a precaution, planted in position to sweep an open field along which any interruption must come. In the afternoon the men in the trenches were brought to a pause ; leaning upon their picks and shovels they waited for what a sudden opening of the guns in their front por tended. Out of the woods they saw long lines of the enemy, closely massed, entering the open field which has been mentioned. Their appear ance was very martial ; their battle-flags were all waving ; their yelp sharp and continuous, and 14 ZIO BENJAMIN HARRISON. their forward movement with determined step. In a moment it was discovered that the order of things was reversed ; the Confederates were the assailants. Dropping their tools the brigades in stantly formed to receive them ; but, as the foe poured across the open field directly against Wil liams division, Ward s soldiers were left specta tors of the fight. Hardly had the first line of the gray assailants appeared in the open field when the batteries, as with one report, poured a volley into them. Presently musketry was added to grape and canister, and the range became point blank. Still they would not go back or even stop. All that brave men could do they did ; but there is a limit to the purest courage ; a point at which it too is overtaken by the impossible. That point was at length reached. There was a slowing of the advance first ; then a halt ; and then a letting go, as it were, and an indiscriminate rush for the protection of the woods. The open field when deserted was terribly spotted with the dead and wounded. Such was Hood s assault in the battle known as Kulp s Hill. The Confederates halted at the edge of the woods, and all clay the 3d Division stood to arms on the verge of a battle. At noon a general advance was ordered. The works, scarcely finished, were abandoned. Moving for ward in column the three brigades crossed an : open field. Directly the cry was again raised IriE SOLDIER. 211 " forward," with the addition of " double-quick." The open field was passed ; the lines disappeared in the woods beyond it; still under the " double quick " they issued from the pine trees which had concealed them, and, unmindful of the close fire with which the enemy saluted them, pushed on to be at length halted in reserve. And from the elevated position they thus occupied they wit nessed the battle of Kenesaw Mountain. The troops the division was to support were deployed in extension of the grand line stretched like a blue ribbon along- the foot of the famous o .mountain. Occasionally a shell would strike the earth or burst in air uncomfortably near him ; yet aware that a grand attack was ready to be de livered against the enemy, Colonel Harrison, with some of his officers, stood out to see all of it that was to be seen. Sherman s description of the topography of the field is singularly picturesque : " Kenesaw, the bold and striking twin moun tain, lay before us with a high range of chestnut hills trending off to the northeast, terminating to our view in another peak called Brushy Moun tain. To our right was the smaller hill called Pine Mountain, and beyond it in the distance Lost Mountain. All these, though links in a con tinuous chain, present a sharp, conical appearance, prominent in the vast landscape that presents itself from any of the hills that abound in that 212 BENJAMIN HARRISON. region. Kenesaw, Pine Mountain and Lost Mountain form a triangle; Pine Mountain the apex, and Kenesaw and Lost Mountains the base, covering perfectly the town of Marietta and the railroad back to the Chattahoochie." The scene offered Colonel Harrison is not often given to men. The Nationals were well defined from one wing to the other, a distance of fully ten miles. The three armies were in order of battle McPherson s, Thomas and Schofield s. All the low lands appeared dressed in blue haze. The mountains looked down upon them, serenely unconscious of the preparations going on to make them historical forever. There were in sight unnumbered battalions with their flags fluttering above them ; squadrons of cavalry hidden behind knolls ; parks of artil lery on the low summits all fronting the one way. With the help of glasses, the group with Har rison could see the hill-top which had been cleared expressly to enable Sherman to overlook the operation. It arose in the rear and near the centre of Thomas part of the line. Telegraph wires ran from it to the headquarters of his three subordinate chiefs. The interest in the battle was greater because it was a deliberately planned assault upon fortified lines "a thing," as Sherman says, "carefully avoided up to that time." THE SOLDIER. 213 Artillery firing began at daybreak. About 8.30 it ceased, and there was silence below and on the heights. Near 9 o clock Sherman appeared on his lookout. Then all at once a fire of mus ketry and great guns broke out, and speedily a whitish curtain was visible along the whole ten o miles of front. Instantly the positions of the Confederates were similarly curtained. The wind, sweeping up the mountain, spread the smoke from the replying guns over its broad face so that the details upon it, the rocks, the ravines, the patches of pine groves, looked as though they were rapidly fading out. Then a column was discovered pushing out toward the lesser Kenesaw from McPherson. A mile further to the right a like column advanced from Thomas. A mighty cheer burst from the comrades left in waiting, after which they all held their breath. McPherson s column could not make the sum mit at which it had been directed. Every step upward was contested every inch, in fact. Thomas gained the parapet that was all. Toil as they might, fight as they well knew how, botk assaults stopped short. Refusing to retire, how ever, the regiments fell to and built parapets for themselves within a few yards of the rebel trenches. McPherson s loss was in the hundreds, Thomas up in the thousands ; though they could 214 BENJAMIN HARRISON. not take the heights, the Nationals nevertheless kept their " grip " all the same. On the morning of the 3d of July Johnston had bidden old Kenesaw good-bye. The fox was 11 off with the wind " again. HARRISON AT PEACH TREE CREEK. We have already remarked that Colonel Har rison and Colonel John Coburn were fellow- townsmen, Indianapolis being their place of resi dence. We have also spoken of the good will existing between them. We take great pleasure in repeating the fact because of the rivalry, in many instances jealousy, existing between offi cers, especially those from the same locality. We have now to observe another example of the kindly relations between the two. On the 2Oth of July, the 3d Division (Ward s) crossed Peach Tree creek two or three miles north of Atlanta ; on its left was Newton s divi sion of the 4th Corps, and on its right Geary s division of the 2Oth Corps. The whole Army of the Cumberland had crossed the creek the even ing before or that morning. The creek bottom on the south side was from two to three hundred yards wide ; the creek itself was muddy and seemed in a state of freshet. It was found to be unfordable. The pioneers of the ist and 2d Divisions had accordingly constructed a bridge some distance down for the passage of the ist THE SOLDIER. 215 and 2d Divisions, and they crossed it immedi ately after Newton s. The formation of the line was then begun, because everybody was aware that the enemy was in force just in front and might attack at any minute. The position chosen was upon the top of a ridge 300 or 400 yards from the creek on the south. The ist Division, by order, remained in the creek bottom on a line some 300 yards to the rear of the remainder of the army, leaving a gap perhaps a quarter or a third of a mile in width between Geary on the right and Newton. It was the expectation that this gap would be filled by Ward. Exactly why he was not moved to the top of the ridge so as to perfect the line is not now known ; the surmise was that Hooker, under whose order he remained below, did not wish to t, xpose them unnecessarily. For, while the troops on the right and left of the gap were in the woods, the gap itself was in an open field extend ing clear to the rebel lines in front. Ward formed on the flat near the creek, and in front of him, looking in the direction of the enemy, there was a knoll, beyond that a higher slope, south of which was the open field stretching, as has been said, to the lines of the enemy. A little stream in Ward s front, trickling to a junction with Peach Tree creek, afforded water for an old mill and the intersection of the creeks on the right was slightly overlooked by ? bluff covered with corn 21 6 BENJAMIN HARRISON. nearly breast-high. In this position Harrison s brigade, like the others of his division, was rest ing, as the phrase goes, on arms ; behind the musket-stacks some of the men were cooking and others sleeping. Occasionally a stray shot fired over the bluff would go whistling over the flat; but by this time the sound had become so familiar that little attention was paid to it. The cooks got their meals ready, the sleepers slept on. Colonel Coburn, however, was restless and, wishing to see what was in front of him, rode to the top of the highest of the ridges. There he found a soldier by the name of Crist picking black berries. He dismounted, and helped himself also. The bullets of the enemy s pickets pinged sometimes uncomfortably near. He warned Crist that if he stayed there he might get shot. See ing all quiet apparently on the enemy s side, and the divisions on the right and left of the gap in place, and apparently at ease, Coburn returned to his camp below. About the same time Harrison noticed some officers upon the edge of the same bluff, and wishing to see for himself the lay of things be yond, he too rode up to the summit, and found General Hooker there. The General was at the moment placing a battery in position ; he recog nized the Colonel and complimented him, saying that he liked to see an officer examine the field in advance of the fight. Upon his return, Harrison THE SOLDIER. 21 7 extended his line far enough below his place on the height to fill it with the least delay. Then, at Coburn s suggestion, both brigades were moved forward .from the flat to the little knoll in their front. There the men resumed their rest and their cooking. It was not long until Crist, who had remained in the blackberry patch, came running over the larger crest and reported to Coburn that the whole rebel army was moving to attack. Co- burn called his brigade to arms, mounted his o horse, and rode in haste to report to Ward. On the way he stopped and notified Colonel Harri son of the appearance of things-. Colonel Harri son called his brigade to arms also. Ward at first refused to believe the reported advance of the enemy, and said that Hooker s orders wsre for him to remain in the bottom where he was. Finally, however, he gave permission for Coburn and Harrison to move forward to the higher ridge. And, while they v/ere in the act of doing so, the foremost line of the Confederates made its appearance. Colonel I larrison at once com prehended the danger. It was not merely that the higher ground was in possession of the enemy, but the gap in the Union line, a quarter of a mile in breadth, was also held by them. If they were quick to avail themselves of the advan tage, the left of Newton s division and the right of Geary s were turned; and as a further result 218 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the whole Army of the Cumberland was in ex ceeding great peril. Hooker s order halting Ward s division in the creek bottom might consequently, become a mis take with the most fatal consequences. In this emergency, without waiting for orders, Harrison gave command to his brigade, which, as we have already seen, was deployed, to forward double- quick. The rebels halted and opened fire. But without faltering Harrison led his line down the hollow before him, and began the ascent oppo site. He was resolved, if the thing were possible, to push the enemy back, and form connection with Newton on his ri^ht. To succeed he of o course depended upon quick support from Co- burn and Wood, the latter in command of the 30! Brigade. Unmindful of the fire he made the ascent, though with loss, and closed with the enemy. Then upon the brow of the ridge a hand-to-hand encounter ensued, in which bayo nets, clubbed muskets, and pistols were used, making the second instance of the kind within his experience. The men in the ranks were as keenly alive to the danger of the moment as their officers. They, too, possibly, saw the conse quences of the mistake which had left them in the hollow. Probably officers were never better supported in the determination to do or die. So, when they came hand to hand with the enemy, being under the impetus of the charge, they were THE SOLDIER. irresistible. While the struggle was yet pending and in its full fury, Coburn, with his command, passed up the hill, and, entering the engagement, covered Harrison s exposed flank, and engaged the enemy along his whole front ; then riding to Wood, who was standing at a halt, he suggested that he too advance up the hill. Wood replied at first that his orders were to stay where he was. But seeing the necessity he presently gave the order and, imitating the rush of the other brigades, left no cause of complaint with them. In the flurry of the combat Colonel Harrison re tained his mind perfectly. It happened that when the attack developed he had near one hundred men of a New York regiment in his front, de tailed to help the skirmishers. They were spe cially selected because armed with Spencer re peating rifles. Time to return them to their command proper was too short. He cast about to make them useful, and seeing the old mill ordered them into it. They did excellent service there in aiding to hold the Confederates upon the brow of the hill while the brigades were rush ing upward. Harrison says they held them stiff as ever he saw. The battery which Hooker had put in position did well also. The guns grew burning hot while emptying grape and canister 1 eft-oblique into the enemy. At length the officer in charge with drew them. As Harrison rode up the hill he met him retiring. 22O BENJAMIN HARRISON. " What are you doing out here ? " he asked. " I am ordered to retire my battery to the rear of your division. Our right is broken," the other answered. " Don t be afraid," said the Colonel. " I ll take care of your guns. Turn about and put them into action again." And he did, returning to his first position. Seeing the overlapping Confederates begin ning to pour past his left he became fearful that that flank would be turned before Coburn could catch on to it, and sent his adjutant-general, Capt. Dunleary, of the 79th Ohio, to break some com panies of the regiment on that extremity to the rear. The captain came back to him discour aged. " It s your regiment, the 7Oth," he said, "which should have been in reserve, but they have swung into the front line. I told the cap tain to reserve his left." He replied, "I can t see it. By God, I m going to the top of the hill with the rest."* It seemed at one time as if the division over on the right (Newton s) was broken. If so, Harri son s flank on that side would be swept away. That was the moment the battery limbered up to go to the rear, as has been stated. Its return to position reassured Newton s men, so that nobody ran away except the kitchen followers." * Capt. Endsley (yoth Indiana), now residing in Shelby county, Ind. THE SOLDIER. 221 The ist Brigade, with the gallant Coburn and Wood on its left, gained the hill-top. Harrison saw the crisis of the fight was come. Pushing his horse into the melee he called to his men. They recognized him, and rushed on. Presently the signs improved. He beheld the assailants falling fast ; their line wavered ; now and then their colors dropped, but, though picked up in a twin kling, they no longer made headway. Finally they gave way, and were whirled down the hill on their side. Then the same thing ensued along the whole engaged front before Coburn and Wood and Newton. It was Hood s first attempt to break up Sher man s tactics. The point of attack had been well chosen. Loring, of the Confederates, had seen the gap between Geary and Newton, and thought to push into it. Had he succeeded it is difficult to say what the consequences would have been. Behind the Union line ran the unfordable creek. Altogether there was but one thing to be done, and providentially that was done. A good many prisoners were taken. Many more wounded men were picked up in the corn field ; some of them were not found until the next day. The sun was overhot to well men. What must it have been to the torn fellows athirst and fainting in the scant shade of the young corn ? In the afternoon Hooker went riding along the lines, and coming to Harrison he congratulated him after his bluff style. 222 BENJAMIN HARRISON. " By God," he said, " I ll make you a brigadier- general for this fight ! " And he meant what he said, for he afterwards addressed a letter to Secretary Stanton, of which the following is a copy : HEAD-QUARTERS NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, CINCINNATI, OHIO, October 31, 1864. HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: I desire to call the attention of the dejjartment to the claims of Colonel Benjamin Harrison of the yoth Indiana Volunteers for promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General Volunteers. Colonel Harrison first joined me in command of a brigade of Ward s division in Lookout Valley preparative to entering upon what is called the Campaign of Atlanta. My attention was first attracted to this young officer by the superior excellence of his brigade in discipline and instruc tion, the result of his labor, skill and devotion. With more foresight than I have -witnessed in any officer of his experience, he seemed to act upon the principle that success depended upon the thorough preparation in dis cipline and esprit of his command for conflict, moi e than on any influence that could be exerted on the field itself, and when collision came his command vindicated his wisdom as much as his valor. In all of the achievements of the 2Oth Corps in that campaign Colonel Harrison bore a conspicuous part. At Resaca and Peach Tree Creek the conduct of himself and command was especially distinguished. Colonel Harrison is an officer of superior abilities, and of great professional and personal worth. It gives me great pleasure to commend him favorably to the Honorable Secretary, with the assurance that his preferment will be a just recognition of his services and martial accomplishments. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOSEPH HOOKER, Major- General Commanding. HARRISON AT THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. Sherman started from Chattanooga in pursuit of Joe Johnston on the 5th of May, 1864, and in the morning of the 2d of September following his army took possession of Atlanta. The telegram THE SOLDIER. 223 announcing the capture reached Grant at City Point about 10 o clock at night, and the rejoicing at head-quarters was loud and long. The good soldier sat silent some time ; at last he turned to his adjutant-general, and said: "This is a great triumph, and we will honor it as we can. Send a telegram to the corps commanders in our lines here, and tell them to have all their guns loaded and shotted, and trained upon the enemy, and at 12 o clock sharp open fire." At 12 o clock sharp the first gun was fired from Bermuda Hundreds; then all the others, five hundred at least, joined in " the loud acclaim." The Confederates, aroused and angry, took to their batteries, and replied, and as they would not quit, the sun carne up on the great duel. Thus they, too, unconsciously united in the honors ren dered. Down at Atlanta the rejoicing was equally fervid, if not so noisy. Feeling that his troops had earned a rest, Sherman gave it to them. On his own part a new campaign was to be deter mined upon and arranged. A great many officers availed themselves of the opportunity to go home on furlough. About that time Colonel Harri- o son received an order of which the following is a copy. HEAD-QUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. IN THE FIELD, ATLANTA, GA., September 12, 1864. SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, ) r . No. 71. } Extract III. Pursuant to instructions from the War Department the following 224 BENJAMIN HARRISON. officers will report in person to Hon. O. P. Morton, Governor of Indiana, at Indianapolis, Indiana, for special duty. The Quartermaster s Depart ment will furnish transportation. By order of MAJ -GEN L W. T. SHERMAN. L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp. COL. BEN. HARRISON, 70th Reg t Ind. Inf. Vol. For two years Colonel Harrison had been con tinuously in the field, and, as the order afforded him an opportunity to visit his family in Indian apolis, it was accepted. Upon his arrival there he reported to Governor Morton, and then as certained for the first time the character of the special duty awaiting him. In a few days he entered upon a systematic canvass of the State for recruits, who, greatly to the apprehension of the Governor, had been slow in offering them selves. Upon the gth of November, Colonel Harrison finished the canvass. Having in the meantime heard that Sherman s preparations were complete for the opening of a new campaign, he made haste to rejoin his command ; and, but for the failure of a hack to make connection with a south- going train at Indianapolis, he would have reached Atlanta in time to have participated in the cele brated march to the sea, which was begun on the 1 5th of November. Taking the next train, how ever, he got as far on the journey as Dalton, Georgia, w here, unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, he found the railroad torn up, making further progress for the time impossible. THE SOLDIER. 225 While at Dalton, he was ordered to report to General Charles Cruft at Chattanooga, and by him was put in command of troops of the 2Oth Army Corps cut off and assembled at that city. He found himself presently at the head of a brigade. Shortly afterwards, in imitation of Sherman s bold departure from Atlanta, for the sea, Hood swung around, and crossed the Tennessee river en route to the North ; whereupon Colonel Harrison with his brigade was transferred to Nashville. There he was assigned to Cruft s division of Steadman s command, then holding the left of the defenses of the city. As an attack by Hood was imminent, the Colonel proceeded without loss of time to prepare for it. He erected a breastwork cover ing the entire front of his line. It became neces sary, in course of the work, to cut across the yard of Judge Trimble, just outside that gentleman s kitchen. As the Judge was vacating his house Colonel Harrison waited upon him to express re grets ; but the other took him into his library, and, opening a drawer, pulled out a very hand some bunting flag. "Have you a garrison flag?" he asked. The Colonel replied that he had not. " Then let me present you with this one. I have never been without the American flag in my house." And proceeding, he added, " Colonel, if it is necessary for the defense of Nashville, take the bottom brick in my house." Of that speech the Colonel remarked to the writer enthusias- 15 226 BENJAMIN HARRISON. tically, " Well, I fought like a tiger for that man s land." The days following were stirring enough. For, amongst other peculiarities, Steadman was never satisfied unless the enemy were stirred up every morning, and everything within eyesight sounded to know what it was. While thus occupied, Harrison had an excellent opportunity to observe the colored troops. On one occasion Colonel T. J. Morgan, now living at Providence, Rhode Island, took his brigade com posed entirely of negroes, deployed them as skirmishers, and, pushing them forward, drove the rebels out of their pits ; by bugle call he brought them back with many prisoners. Their skill and courage made the affair a perfect demonstration. General Cruft used to tell a story of them. A colored soldier one day brought in a white prisoner, and being interrogated, he told the story of the capture. He said : " I just cum up on him, and brought down my gun arter this like, and he knowed what it meant ; he say, " Say, now, I can t surrender to a nigger. Dad would kill me when I go home ; but you go back to de camp, and git a white sojer, and bring him out hyar, and I ll surrender to him. " No/ I says, scuse me; Fse in a dre ful hurry ; jess come long/ And thar he is " (point ing to the prisoner) ; " I fetched him/ THE SOLDIER. 227 While the enemy was before the city, the very morning- Thomas was to have moved out to attack him, a storm of snow and sleet came on. The earth turned to a sheet of ice, and remained so fo some days. The suffering of the soldiery was intense ; some of them actually died on the picket lines, and a great many were so bitten with frost that they never recovered. It is of this bitter spell that Mr. Richard M. Smock, of Indianapolis, tells his story. " We were encamped near Nashville, and as all who were there at the time remember, it was one of the coldest winters on record. I remember that during one of the cold nights I was on picket, and I saw a man approaching from the direction of the officers quarters. I halted him, and when he gave the countersign and advanced, I saw it was General (then Colonel) Harrison. He had a large can filled with hot coffee, and when I asked him what he was doing, he said he was afraid that some of the pickets would freeze to death, and he knew some hot coffee would help the men to keep alive. He was the most welcome visitor I ever met, for I really believe I would have frozen be fore morning had not the coffee been brought. After leaving me, the General passed on to all the other pickets to cheer them up with the beverage. His act was one of kindness. The men on duty were nearly all from his regiment, and his personal friendship for them induced him to get up out of 228 BENJAMIN HARRISON. his comfortable quarters at dead of night, prepare that coffee and bring it to us." General Grant in the East did not seem to ap preciate the condition. To move artillery and cavalry was simply impossible. Instantly that the weather moderated, however, General Thomas put his army in motion. Harrison was in reserve, and as the battle was a splendid success from the beginning, he was but little engaged. After the fight the reserves were sent in pursuit. With a view to reaching- the Tennessee river o before Hood, and cutting his pontoons and other wise intercepting his retreat, Colonel Harrison was ordered to march to Murfreesboro, and there take trains and push forward with the utmost speed. He entered upon the duty with alacrity. From Murfreesboro southward the Confederates had burned all the wood piles and destroyed the water tanks. The delay thus caused was serious. An idea of the difficulties encountered maybe formed from the resorts to which the pursuers were driven. Details of ax-men chopped up rails to feed the engine; at the creeks buckets were used to fill the tanks with water. Huntsville was at last reached. Then to gain the Tennessee river where boats were in waiting to ferry the column over it was necessary to tajce to the roads, which were often bottomless with mud. The streams had all to be crossed by wading. At the river the other side was found in possession of the rebels. THE SOLDIER. 22Q The crossing was effected in face of a hostile bat tery, after which the pursuit was continued to Decatur, and as far down as Courtland, Alabama. The cavalry below the former place succeeded in striking Hpod s pontoon bridge and the rear of his army ; but the infantry never caught sight of him. Thus furnishing another example of the futility of sending footmen to overtake horsemen. Upon the recall of the pursuing column Colonel Harrison was ordered to report to General Sher man at Savannah. And while en route to New York he was taken down with scarlet fever. After several weeks of dangerous illness, over the objections of his physicians he took steamer for Savannah. In the meantime Sherman had proceeded on his way and was up in the Carolinas when Harri son reached Hilton Head. At Pocotaligo the latter was put in command of a brigade with which he soon joined Sherman at Goldsboro. There he resumed command of his old brigade of the 3d Division of the 2Oth Army Corps. There also he heard of the assassination of Presi dent Lincoln. Intelligence of the disclaimer of Sherman s negotiations with Johnston threw the army into yet greater excitement, and before Grant arrived at Goldsboro the truce agreed upon with Johnston having expired, Sherman started to attack him. With that object he made one day s march. Fortunately Grant effected a new arrange- 230 BENJAMIN HARRISON. ment with Johnston and the contemplated battle was not fought. The army was then directed upon Washington. At Richmond it was halted for sev eral days and preparations made for a review by General Hancock. Sherman, however, came up and declared the ceremony off. So that, as the corps went through Richmond they marched with arms at a right shoulder shift, without saluting anything but the American flag and the statue of George Washington. At Washington Colonel Harrison and his com mand were put in camp near Bladensburg, whence they took part in the grand review which is the final reminiscence of the great rebellion. Meantime Colonel Harrison received a pro motion. The rank of Brigadier-General by brevet was conferred upon him. The commission is signed by Abraham Lincoln and countersigned by E. W. Stanton, Secretary of War. It is dated March 22, 1865, and states that it was given "for ability and manifest energy and gallantry in com mand of the brigade," and also that he was to rank as such Brevet Brigadier-General from the 23d day of January of the year mentioned. The certificate of discharge shows a muster out of the service of " Benjamin Harrison, Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General, 7oth Regiment of In diana Infantry Volunteers; that he was enrolled on the yth day of August, 1862, to serve three years or during the war, and discharged on the THE SOLDIER. 23! 8th day of June, 1865, at Washington, D. C., by reason of General Order 77, Adjutant-General s office, 1865, and instructions, Adjutant-General s office, May 20, 1865." Throughout the foregoing narrative of General Harrison s military services the writer has pur posely refrained from expressions of opinion re specting them ; it was greatly preferable, he thought, to present the circumstances, and leave the reader to draw his own conclusions from them. Probably no people in the world know better than Americans the qualities that enter into the com position of a soldier; none admire more such characteristics as courage, enterprise, persistence and judgment, without which, by universal agree ment, there can be no perfect officer. But as every distinguished military man, like every dis tinguished citizen, has a personality, it is thought the following anecdotes may be as useful as they are interesting. Each of them, it will be observed, is referable to a person of known respectability ; under them all lie glimpses of that part of a man not possible of clearer definition than his moral qualities. Under a rough exterior there may be a tender soul ; on the other hand, mildness of manner is often a disguise. How shall we know our nearest neighbor except by what he does ? Mr. Richard M. Smock, from whom we have the instance already related of Harrison s carrying coffee to his men on picket, says further: "I re- 232 BENJAMIN HARRISON. member that on the i4th of May, the day before the battle of Resaca, our regiment was ordered to advance through a strip of woodland which ended at the foot of a hill. On the brow of an opposite hill were the rebels, and the position we were ordered to take put us in direct range of their guns. We were subjected to a terrific fire, and as we could see no reason why we should occupy such an exposed position, many of us wanted to fall back. General Harrison was with us, on foot, at the head of the column, and he said we would obey orders and stay there, if we died. Our ranks were thinned by the bullets of the enemy, but we held our position, and General Harrison never left his advanced post." Ex-County-Clerk M. G. McLain, a well-known soldier who lost his right arm at Resaca while following General Harrison s lead, says of him : " No man was dearer to the boys in the line than General Harrison, and it rose from one single element in the man s character his determination to take the leading part in whatever he asked his men to do. I shall never forget the sicrht I had o o of him waving his sword and shouting in that shrill voice for which he was noted : * Come on, boys ! Continuing, he said : " One scene has always lived in my memory. Our old Chaplain, Allen, a man who was beloved by all the boys, and for whom almost every man in the regiment would have lost his life, conducted services on THE SOLDIER. 233 Sunday, with General Harrison, then Colonel, and Lieutenant-Colonel Sam Merrill assisting. I have often heard General Harrison offer up the prayer for the boys welfare and protection down there on those Southern fields, so far away from home, and many times have heard him address the boys in place of the chaplain. Never to my knowl edge, in all the trying times of war, did I see one thing from him unbecoming a Christian. I think the battle-field and the camp bring out what there is in a man about as well as anything can, and I have seen General Harrison tested in every way. As a soldier, courageous, sympathetic and endur ing, the army had no better." Being asked about him as a disciplinarian Mr. McLain added : " Going out as he did, a civilian, and without any military training whatever, he became one of the closest students of the science and art of war there was in the army. As he does in everything else, he threw his whole heart into the work of making himself a proficient officer and his regiment a well-disciplined body of men. And he succeeded in an eminent degree in both instances. He was a very sympathetic man. Whenever a soldier was hurt in the discharge of his duty none was readier to offer sympathy than he. And as a result of this trait of his character, he always looked after the welfare of his regiment with scrupulous care. He never went to bed at night without knowing that the boys were going 234 BENJAMIN HARRISON. to have as good a breakfast as could be secured in the morning. You may rest assured that these were favors that were appreciated." William H. Cooper, of Minor & Cooper, grain dealers, Indianapolis, telling of General Harrison at Peach Tree Creek, says: "On the Atlanta campaign Harrison s regiment one day crossed a small bridge over a sluggish stream and advanced through an open field toward a neighboring crest. While they were in the field the pickets just over the hill came flying back, being driven in by the advance of the rebels in force. Harrison s regi ment, and the others making up the brigade, pressed rapidly up toward the crest, and when they reached the top they met the enemy face to face. It was a fierce struggle to see who could hold the commanding position, and the fight be came fierce and bloody, a hand-to-hand encounter in which soldiers on each side thrust bayonets and clubbed each other with muskets. In the midst of this I was sent back by the captain of my com pany to bring up a load of ammunition, the wagons being five or six hundred feet back towards the bridge. With me was Charley Jenkins, who now resides here. We went back, secured the ammu nition, and were slowly toiling toward the front with the heavy load. Just at that time the rebels captured a battery on the Union right, and turned the guns on our men. It looked like disaster, in deed, and doubly so because the mule trains, close THE SOLDIER. 235 in the rear of the troops, were filling tip the road and clogging the bridge in a way that made a stampede imminent. Just then I saw General Harrison riding up and down right in front of the line, waving his sword and calling on the boys to stand their ground. Nothing but such an ex ample on the part of the commander could have held the troops. They retook their battery, and prevented what looked at one time to be disaster and complete ruin." Mr. Cooper also states that "While sick in the hqspital at Gallatin, Term., General Harrison came and called on me, and in a few days, to my surprise, secured me a furlough and had me sent home. This was only one of many acts of kindness he was constantly doing for his men. No officer in the service was more thoughtful o and considerate of his troops than General Har rison." Captain P. S. Carson, of Southport, Ind., who commanded Company G, of the yoth Indiana Regiment, in the battle of Resaca, relates an inci dent of that fearful day : " The battle had closed, leaving Company G in possession of a captured battery, taken in the charge which the 7oth led, and the report had gone back to headquarters that of the five killed in the company I was one, and of the twenty-two wounded that Dan Rans- dell and Mose McLain were among- the number. o These men were personal friends of General Har- 236 BENJAMIN HARRISON. rison, and he was greatly moved when the sad news came to him. Later in the evening he learned that I was unhurt, and he sent to me to come to headquarters. I went, and was met by General Harrison, who, with tears in his eyes, shook my hand and congratulated me on my escape, and tenderly inquired after the individual men in my company who were wounded. In every way possible he showed the deepest interest in the welfare of my soldiers. Hence I have always regarded him as a very sympathetic man. As a commander he was a strict disciplinarian, but he was always just ; and this trait of character, together with his great bravery, made him a great favorite with all under him." General John Coburn, of whom mention has been repeatedly made, speaking of General Har rison at Peach Tree Creek, says : " Line after line of rebels came over the ridge toward us. On the left of my brigade they met with, no resist ance until I rode to Colonel Woods and asked him to advance, which he did, losing very heavily and filling up the gap towards the 4th Corps. About this time Harrison and his men on our riofht rose o up, and charged up hill with terrific power. My brigade was not slow to get up and rush forward. The rebels came down hill into and through our ranks pell-mell, dropping their arms and surren dering. Woods continued his advance on the left, and soon the ridge was ours. Harrison was THE SOLDIER. 237 the personification of fiery valor, with voice and gesture urging on the furious charge. We could see the divisions on our right and left giving way in apparent confusion ; a regiment was surprised on the right with their arms in the stack ; a bat tery was captured, and, on the left, a host of fugitives scattered toward the rear. But our ad vance seemed to give them encouragement they rallied and retook their lines. Our soldiers all got a supply of new Enfield rifles on the field ; the gun-straps were not soiled. I never saw on any battle-field dead and wounded in such num bers and so close together. It was a complete surprise to us all. Hood had just that day taken command with orders to fight, and fight at once and all the time. Johnston, by his caution, had made us careless. We were not looking for such a mad rush. No man in the army that night stood higher than Harrison for heroism. Had he been a West Pointer his promotion would have been ordered by telegraph." Mr. Daniel Watts, of Oregon City, was in the same brigade with General Harrison, and says of him: "You want to know about Harrison s career as a soldier? Well, I belonged to Company A of the 1 29th Illinois, under Colonel Case, and our regiment was stationed in the spring of 1864 near Chattanooga, and with the iO5th and the iO2d Illinois, the 7Qth Ohio, and the yoth" Indiana, con stituted the ist Brigade of the 3d Division of the 238 BENJAMIN HARRISON. 20th Army Corps, with General Ward, of Ken tucky, as brigade commander. Harrison was colonel of the 7oth Indiana, and Fighting Joe Hooker had command of the Corps. In May we were encamped in a broken and hilly country. On Saturday the 4th Corps attacked a battery commanding the line of march that Sherman wished to make to Atlanta, and was repulsed. The following day the ist Brigade, to which I be longed, was moved around into Snake Run gap to the side of a mountain, where we unslung knapsacks. On the mountain was the masked battery of four guns, before which, in intrench- ments, lay the enemy in force, completely pro tected by their fortifications. General Ward gave the order to fix bayonets and charge. As we marched up, five regiments strong, with fixed bayonets, the balls were so thick that I can com pare them to nothing but a swarm of bees when they dive at you. Straight up hill we rushed with an Indian war-whoop, over the works and up to the guns without firing a shot. As the foremost man reached the battery one of the gunners was on the point of touching the match to a gun when he was run through with a bayonet by a soldier of the iO2d Illinois and forced to the ground. So thick were we hemmed in by the gap that the discharge of that gun would probably have killed 500 of our men. This shows the cool bravery of those engaged on both sides. When we went THE SOLDIER. 239 into the fort Colonel Harrison and Colonel Case of my own regiment went into the works with us. In taking the gap the brigade had pushed ahead of the body of the troops, and the Johnnies were enabled to surround the fort and hem us in, and they tried for hours to retake the battery. When Hooker saw the troops in that advanced position he said : * There s a brigade gone to hell ! but from two o clock in the afternoon till after mid night the colonels, in charge of the regiments and fighting with the soldiers, held the works against repeated desperate charges by the rebels. At 2 A. M. the Union line was advanced far enough to drive the enemy back, and in the morning the rebels were gone. Whilst in the fort we had to hug the fortifications mighty close, I tell you, for the bullets were as thick as hail. And when the Johnnies got too close, we would rise and give them a volley which would repulse them, then we would drop behind the breastwork. When the rebels saw they could not drive us from our position they fired the woods through which we had forced our way, and where the dead and wounded of both forces lay, burning over the field of battle where" lay so many suffering men. My companion was shot from my side, and as he dropped I turned to him, but he said, Go on; don t stop for me, and I passed along. The next day I found him with the clothes all burned off and the flesh of one side all roasted, and in places 240 BENJAMIN HARRISON. crisp to the bone. It was a terrible sight, you may be sure. We were left to bury the dead of both sides. " On the 2Oth, at Peach Tree Creek, we had been manoeuvring about in the valley during the forenoon, without knowing the object of our move ments. At noon we stacked our arms, put out a skirmish line, and were busy at dinner, when we heard firing on the skirmish line, and their shouts for us to come on. Looking up, we saw them waving their caps for us to hasten. Springing to our arms, we rushed to their assistance, getting ready as we ran. I did not get my belt buckled till we were into the fight. The skirmish line joined our ranks, though not obliged to do so, and up the side of the hill we went. As we swung into an advanced position, through an opening in the trees we could see the rebs lying thick behind a rail-fence. Our regiment charged on their line and cleaned it out, but we lost 250 men in half an hour, so you may know we had hot work. In this fight Harrison, still a colonel, took the lead. As he swung himself into line not six feet from me he said: Come on, boys; we ve never been licked yet, and we won t begin now. We haven t much ammunition, but if necessary we can give them the cold steel, and before we get licked we will club them down ; so, come on/ And we went, glad to fight by the side of Little Ben, who shirked nothing, and took just the same chance THE SOLDIER. 24! of getting a bullet through the heart as we did. Not a soldier but liked Ben Harrison. Well, we won the day after a hard fight. For his bravery on that day Harrison was promoted at the special recommendation of General Hooker. But his promotion made no difference in the man. He was always the same." The foregoing is ex tracted from the Oregon City Enterprise. Fred Hummel, who is a resident of Deca- tur, Ala., and formerly a soldier of the 79th Ohio, which was of General Harrison s brigade, writing of his old commander, says : " I believe it was twenty-four years ago that Dr. Jones and myself found him alone taking care of the poor wounded boys of his regiment that suf fered so severely that day. With his coat off, and sleeves rolled up, he worked far after mid night, until every wounded man was attended to. This humane act of his will perhaps never be written in history, but it made a lifelong impres sion on my mind of his superior goodness and humanity, seldom found in men of his position and rank. God bless him." The following, from the Boston Transcript, is from Rev. Edmund Muse, a Southern loyalist who was in the army with Harrison, though not in his command : " Harrison was celebrated among the officers of Sherman s army for his earnest relig ious nature. He had prayers in his tent at night and was a sincere Christian man. * 16 242 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Colonel Samuel Merrill, of Indianapolis, Lieu tenant-Colonel of the yoth Regiment, now living in Indianapolis, says of him : " In the march he was merciful, protesting against unnecessary haste. Frequently he would take the guns and accoutre ments of some poor worn-out fellows and carry them before him on the saddle. Often I have seen him dismount and walk, while a sick soldier occupied his place on the horse. Those who were ill in the field hospital testify that they were not forgotten by their kind commander, but that he was deeply interested in their recovery, constantly making inquiries as to their welfare and sugges tions for their comfort. He protected the private soldier from imposition by those in authority, as a father would his own children. Once when we had been cut off from our supplies for a long time the men became so ragged that it was piti ful to see them. At last a partial stock was re ceived by the quartermaster. Some of the offi cers appropriated the pantaloons to their own use. As soon as this was known General Harrison compelled these lordly fellows to strip and turn the clothing over to the rightful owners. If at any time he felt that he had wronged one, his sense of justice gave him no rest until he had re paired the injury. He did not have a code of morals to be observed at home and neglected abroad, but there was the same purity of conduct and conversation while a soldier in the field as THE SOLDIER. 243 when a citizen going through the daily round of duties." Captain H. A. Ford, according to the Detroit Tribune, says of Harrison : " I came to know him well. Indeed, I was indebted to his kind offices for the most interesting military association I had as adjutant and chief of staff to the celebrated Irish refugee, General Thomas Francis Meagher. Harrison was a thoroughly kind and good man, very popular with his command and a very large army acquaintance. He was an able and cour ageous officer, and I have no doubt that his prompt, well-directed action saved the day at Peach Tree Creek at a critical moment of the At lanta campaign. But for him I think our army on that field would have been cut in two, and at least one wing of it rolled up and badly shattered. The first onset fell where Harrison was, and he, divining at once the character of the attack and the need of immediate resistance, came dashing down the hill on his splendid charger, riding down bodily a partly barred gate as he flew, and, with out an instant s hesitancy for orders, moved his brigade to the top of a short but sharp slope, at whose foot it had been halted, and forward until the enemy was met, as he was almost at once. Other troops connected speedily on the right and left, and here the impetuous rebel advance was stayed once for all. But I have always felt that if it had had the advantage of a charge down 244 BENJAMIN HARRISON. that slope upon our unprepared lines they would have been driven in hopeless disorder into and across the deep stream in our rear, and the battle would, in all probability, have been lost. Harri son was the hero of Peach Tree Creek, which made him a brigadier. He was the senior field officer in the brigade at the previous battle of Resaca, bore himself gallantly in one of the most desperate and deadly charges of history, that which captured the redoubt and four guns, and took command of the forces after General Ward had been wounded and retired from the field." Mr. Arthur Deeter, of Terre Haute, carries in his body several buckshot received from a Con federate gun. The Express of that city furnishes the subjoined statement from Mr. Deeter: "He (Deeter) met General Harrison immediately after the battle of Nashville. He was lying in a fence corner, having been pierced by a ball from the enemy. An officer came along, and, seeing his condition, gave him a blanket to make him as comfortable as possible. He asked him how badly he was hurt and Deeter told him. The officer said: Then you will be sent to the hos pital ; you will need some money; here are twenty dollars, and handed over the money. Who are you ? inquired Deeter. I am Ben Harrison/ The wounded man was taken to the hospital and recovered. Afterwards he participated in the At lanta campaign, and was again wounded. He THE SOLDIER. 245 * never forgot Harrison s kindness. He was in Indianapolis a few years ago, and went into Sena tor Harrison s office, and handed him over twenty dollars, and said : I owe you twenty dollars. And he proceeded to narrate the circumstance that occurred at Nashville. Harrison recalled the incident, and warmly greeted him. You don t owe me a cent ; you keep the money. I will not have it. I did you a kindness, and I have been repaid amply by seeing you still alive, said the Senator. The conversation was at once changed to war reminiscences." Of a similar character is the following narra tion from Andrew A. Buchanan, formerly a ser geant of Company A, 7oth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: "Seeing the report of Com rade Deeter in the Journal of the i6th instant, stating that General Harrison had found him on the field of battle a total stranger, but a seriously wounded, suffering comrade, and said to him, after inquiring about his wounds, and finding he must go to the hospital, You will need money; here are twenty dollars, reminds me of his treat ment of my brother, James M. Buchanan, who was Captain of Company D, 79th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, who was wounded in the battle of Chickamauga. I was notified by General Harri son (then Colonel Harrison) of my brother s con dition, and ordered to report at his head-quarters. On my arrival, while only a sergeant, yet I found 246 BENJAMIN HARRISON. he had one of his own horses saddled and bridled, that I might go to my brother at once. As I rode away, he said : Tell the captain I wont be long behind you/ I had only reached my brother s bedside when Colonel Harrison and Captain Harry Scott, our captain, arrived. Colonel Har rison came to my brother s cot, and after an earnest, cordial and sympathetic greeting he said: Captain, you are badly wounded, and must get home. You have been at the front, and, of course, have no money. Here are a hundred dollars; take it and get home. This money enabled my brother to reach home and comfort. And yet there are men who say that General Harrison is cold and unsympathetic. But, thank God, we who served under him in the army, and witnessed his indomitable courage in battle, and his constant, considerate self-sacrificing care for his men, know that a baser falsehood was never uttered." Other testimony to the same effect might be of fered in abundance. But it is thought those here furnished are amply sufficient to satisfy any reasonable disinterested gentleman as to the points they severally and collectively cover. With them we pass from the military portion of General Harrison s career. CHAPTER V. THE POLITICIAN, THE best evidence of genuine popular liberty is the existence of political parties. They are in fact the organized expression of opinion permis sible only in a state of freedom. Some years ago the Sultan of Turkey called to Constantinople a kind of States-General. He made elaborate preparations for the sessions. Representative of nobody, the members met by his irade or decree. Within ten days they began to talk ; in the third week differences of opinion were developed ; about the end of the first month he sent them all home. It did not consist with his government that a subject should think aloud. He was more than the majority in the empire. He could afford to tolerate but one speaker and one party him self. English history long ago established that, though the utmost freedom may prevail, a political party cannot be manufactured, like a barrel, a loom or a boat. American history confirms the experience, and more we now know that such a party can not succeed upon a question of morals purely and singly. The party must be a necessity of (247) 248 BENJAMIN HARRISON. politics, which are as distinguishable from morals as the first letter of the alphabet is distinguisha ble from the last. This is not saying that there should not be good morals ii politics ; it is say ing that political parties are the natural output of political conditions. All the great parties known to American his tory prove this the Federal, the Democratic, the Whig, the Republican, all prove it. In their days almost numberless organizations in opposition to them singly and collectively have been attempted ; such, amongst others, were the Anti-Whiskey party, that culminated in the administration of Washington, the Anti-Federation party, which fell to pieces in the Hartford Convention, the Anti- Masonic party, the American party, the Know* Nothing party. Each died, and died early, in in stances because there was but the beveled edge of a plank for them to live upon ; more plainly, because there was no necessity for them. Probably the very finest illustration of the phi losophy of the origin of political parties in the United States is furnished by the Republican party. The idea is very common that it was a graft upon the stalk of the Whig party. Few things are more untrue. Let us see. o On the 8th day of August, 1846, one David Wilmot, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, moved a proviso to a pending bill, affirming it "an express and fundamental condition to the THE POLITICIAN. 249 acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist therein." This was the entering wedge between the North and the South. Both the Democratic and Whig parties opposed it in their national conven tions, and of that opposition the Whig party died effectually and forever. The Democratic party survived because both parties in the South united against the proviso. The " Solid South " of to-day is absolutely referable to that union. On the other hand, the North divided upon the issue. There the slavery question became the sole ques tion. Should the Territories be Free or Slave ? Such was its form. Men opposed to the exten sion of slavery Barnburners, Anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, Abolitionists refused to trust the Whig leaders longer. General Taylor was elected ; but his tomb is the tomb of his party. His inaugural recommendation that California be admitted with her free Constitution had not enough of saving grace in it. The South grew more solid than ever. Compromises only inten sified the dispute. In 1852 out of a total of 296 electors General Scott, the Whig candidate for the Presidency, received but 42. The triumph of the Democracy meant the extension of slavery. There was but one resort to stop the consum mation of the crime a New Party and straight way all differences were smothered. A fusion 250 BENJAMIN HARRISON. took place, out of which out of the necessity of the hour, the necessity of saving the Territories to Freedom the Republican party was born. It is fair to observe next that, contrary to a growing idea, the Republican party did not pro pose the abolition of slavery, in the sense of inter ference with it in the States of which it was then an existing institution. With a just appreciation of the necessity calling them to organize, the del egates of the first nominating convention, held at Philadelphia June 17, 1856, Colonel Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, presiding, resolved, " that, as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Con stitution against all attempts to violate it, for the purpose of establishing slavery in any Territory of the United States, by positive legislation, pro hibiting its existence and extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territo rial Legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained." They also resolved, " That the Constitution con fers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their govern ment; and that, in the exercise of this power, it THE POLITICIAN. 251 is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism Polygamy and Slavery." That Abolitionists took part in the Philadelphia convention is undeniable, but that the party then and there representatively assembled was an Abolition party is equally untrue. Its design was the prevention of Slavery in the Territories, not its abolition in the States already Slave. The Second National Republican Convention for nomination assembled at Chicago, 111., May 1 6, 1860. The party had by that time advanced from its experimental condition, wherefore the first clause of its platform "That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has fully established the propriety and necessity of the or ganization and perpetuation of the Republican party; and that the causes which called it into exist ence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph." In those four years a new necessity for the Republican party had arisen. The Democratic party hastened in 1846 to maintain the Southern assertion that the Territories belonged to all the States, and that by virtue of that right owners of slaves from the slave States had a constitutional right to remove with their slaves to the Terri tories, and be protected in the enjoyment of their property therein. This declaration of principle 252 BENJAMIN HARRISON. by the leading Democratic Convention of 1860 (held at the Maryland Institute, Baltimore, June 28th), perfected the joinder of issue between the Republican party and the Democratic party. The Popular Sovereignty doctrine of Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, had been already done to death by the passage in the Senate of the United States of the famous resolution "That neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature, whether by direct legislation or legislation of an indirect and unfriendly character, possesses power to an nul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave property into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition remains." The resolution derived effect from its passage by a majority of thirty-five yeas to twenty-one nays, all the Democratic senators present voting for it but one. The new necessity for the Republican party is presented in the third clause of the platform adopted at the Chicago Convention : " 3. That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented increase in population, its surpris ing development of material resources, its rapid augmentation in wealth, its happiness at home, and its honor abroad ; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for Disunion, come from whatever source they may." THE POLITICIAN. 253 The result was that, as early as 1860, the eighth year of its existence as an organization, the Re publican party was the champion of the Union as against all comers whatsoever. On the flag it bore in the canvass of 1860 was the double inscription FREE TERRITORIES AND THE UNION. And Abraham Lincoln was chosen President to execute those principles, then distinctively Re publican. Be it remembered also that as prin ciples, they had one chief opponent the Demo cratic party. And, in the way of special application, be it further remembered that, in common with the National soldiery, constituting the noblest army the world ever saw, in arms the most capable, to principle the most devoted, the mili tary services of Benjamin Harrison which we have tried to describe were rendered. Continuing the history Secession followed the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency then a distinctive Southern government then war. And the Union would certainly have been destroyed but for Mr. Lincoln and the Republican party. It may not be said that the armies that fought for the Union were all Republican. There were thousands of Democrats, with whom love of country was more potent than party affiliations on the one hand, or party prejudices on the other thousands of them to range themselves under the old flag and share its triumphs and defeats. 254 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Nevertheless the responsibility of the struggle was upon the Republicans ; a Republican Presi dent undertook the enforcement of the laws ; the ways and means to assist him were discovered by Republicans ; financial affairs during the period were administered by Republican officials, and money voted by a Republican majority in Con gress to feed, clothe and pay the soldiers. When a Democratic National Convention solemnly re solved the war a failure, the Republicans answered by re-electing Mr. Lincoln. At last the end came, and there was great glory, and the historian of the future, having to pronounce upon the subject, will give it all to the Republican party. The reconstruction consequent upon the return of peace was complicated by questions of infinite gravity. What, under the Constitution, was the status of the States which had gone into secession? What treatment should be accorded those who had been captured arms in hand ? What the policy to be pursued toward the millions of slaves who had been the innocent cause of the struggle? The debt accumulated had to be provided for but how ? The maimed and disabled living soldier and his family, and the orphans and widows of the dead impoverished and helpless called for the most tender care. Many of these questions were settled, some by generous laws, others by consti tutional amendments. The burthen of this set tlement fell upon Republican representatives. THE POLITICIAN. 255 Whether the policy pursued by them was wise or unwise, it was founded in justice, and upon a rec ognition of the rights of men. That not a drop of blood was shed in expiation of a treason of such magnitude and cost in blood and treasure, is an example of Christian charity the like of which is unknown in the history of governments. During the pendency of the issues of reconstruction, Gen eral Harrison, as a citizen, made many speeches, all in harmony with the settlement as it was finally ar ranged. It is not possible to recall or quote a sentence or a word from any one of them which is in the least vindictive. Treating of the Con federate soldier, he was respectful and forgiving. The manumitted negroes were with him objects of compassion and sympathy, who were to be led up out of the depths of slavery by the hand gently, kindly, patiently, as prisoners long unused to light are led out of rough and darkened cells. There were a few questions upon which the Republican party took side in its earliest plat forms which remained unsettled through the war, and are yet bones of party contention. Such were the sale of the public lands to actual settlers, and a proper policy for providing revenue for the support of the general government by duties upon imports. Besides that, some of the issues supposed to have been finally and forever settled in course of the reconstruction, have arisen in new forms to 256 BENJAMIN HARRISON. vex statesmen of the present. These pertain largely to civil rights and pensions. Others exist that are entirely new, such as limi tations to immigration, education, adjustments between capital and labor, coast defenses, the rehabilitation of the navy, the forfeiture to the general government of lands donated in aid of railroads, the distribution of the surplus accumu lated in the national treasury, the currency, the gross disfranchisement of colored voters in certain of the Southern States, the admission of Terri tories into the Union, etc. Upon most, if not all, these questions General Harrison has had occa sion in the course of his political life to define his position ; and a biography of him would be inex cusably imperfect if it failed to give the reader a view of his opinions in the. connection. Before taking them up, however, a narrative of his political life is logically due. General Harrison began as a stump speaker under circumstances that were not very exciting. His first essay was in nowise distinguishable from the first essays of young men generally. Un known as he was he could hardly expect great audiences. In 1855 his law partner, Mr. William Wallace, being a candidate for clerk of Marion county, he took to the stump to help him. The first meeting he addressed was at Acton, on the line of the Big Four Road, better known as the road from Cincinnati to Indianapolis. The depot THE POLITICIAN. 257 building, with the narrow platform such as were common in those days, was made available for the purpose. He stood on the railroad track between the rails, while his audience fifteen or twenty persons in all occupied the platform. Neither does it appear that he complained of want of at tention, or of want of preparation for his own accommodation or that of his hearers ; and as to that, the " crowd/ in point of numbers, was quite satisfactory to him. His -efforts brought him reputation, for in the same year a gentleman by the name of Campbell, then a Republican candidate for clerk in Shelby county, invited him to go down and do some stumping for him. It is reported that he had a good many good meetings there. And not long afterwards, in the same county, he had a joint dis cussion with Mr. Martin M. Ray, who was on the other side of politics, and subsequently acquired considerable reputation as a debater and orator. In 1856 the Fremont campaign came on. There was much political excitement. The election of a President of the United States furnished a broader theme to an ambitious speaker than the election of a county clerk. The news having reached In dianapolis of the nomination of the great " Path finder," the Republicans of the city turned out spontaneously to ratify it. There was no pro gramme for the affair. The speakers were such as could be reached upon the spur of the moment. 17 258 BENJAMIN HARRISON. General Harrison was one of those impressed into service for the occasion. He was in his law office at night after supper, doing some work, when W. W. Roberts, a druggist of the city, and some other gentlemen, came in and said that they were having a ratification meeting at the old Bee Hive corner, and that he must come and make a speech. He said he would not go ; he did not know what to say, it was all so sudden. But they insisted, and finally picked him up he was not very heavy in those days put their arms- about him, bore him down-stairs, and kept on with him, his feet never touching the ground, until they put him on a store box that had been rolled out into the street at the corner. Upon readjusting him self after the unceremonious shaking up, he found himself surrounded by a crowd of three or four hundred people. There was no way out of the affair but to speak ; accepting the situation, he proceeded and did his best. That the speech was a success, and brought him reputation and friends, may be inferred from the fact that in the same campaign he was first in demand in the school- houses through the country. Indeed, as a speaker, he was from that time a general favorite. As we have seen in the chapter relating to him as a lawyer, General Harrison was in 1860 nomi nated for Reporter of the Supreme Court. There upon, of course, he was inducted into a broader field and entered upon a canvass of the State. THE POLITICIAN. 250 With Colonel Cyrus M. Allen, of Vincennes, , nominee for Congress, he worked what is known as the "Pocket " district thoroughly. The political feeling was intense, and it is said that in some of the Democratic counties the question whether Republican meetings should be allowed at all was quite serious. His stumping in company with Mr. Fletcher, Republican candidate for Super intendent of Public Instruction, has also been mentioned; while his joint meeting with Mr. Hendricks at Rockville has been described with particularity. So, too, the reader will remember General Harrison s renomination for Reporter of the Supreme Court and his re-election in 1864. Three years afterwards, however, finding that he would either have to abandon his profession or the office which he was holding, he declined a renomination. He took part nevertheless in the campaigns of 1868 and 1872, familiarly known as the Grant campaigns, in both those years as a speaker he travelled all over the State address ing large audiences. The election of 1876 was inaugurated in In diana under peculiar circumstances. Many in fluential Republicans in the State insisted per sonally and by letter that General Harrison should allow his name to go on the ticket for Governor; but to all such overtures he gave one answer, positively declining the honor. His 26O BENJAMIN HARRISON. private affairs were such that he did not consider it advisable to take the candidacy. The Hon. Godlove S. Orth was nominated, and some opposition having developed itself that gentle man withdrew from the race pending the canvass, leaving the Republican ticket without a head. General Harrison, supposing the matter set tled, went away for a rest. He betook himself to the north shore of Lake Superior, and there, beyond the reach of mail or telegraphic com munication, engaged in the pleasanter occupation of fishing for trout. He knew nothing of what was going on in politics at home until, on his re turn, he reached Mackinaw. There in a Chicago paper several days old he read of Mr. Orth s withdrawal. Upon getting to Fort Wayne he was apprised by telegraph that the Central Com mittee had substituted him in Mr. Orth s place. A large delegation met him at Muncie to urge acceptance upon him. In Indianapolis a still larger crowd was assembled at the depot to re ceive him and escort him to his house. Governor Porter made a speech on the steps of his house, pressing upon him that if he declined, and the Committee had to resort to another substitution, the canvass which was then on would be utterly demoralized ; on the other hand it was thought he might be able to save the State for Hayes, the Republican candidate for the Presidency. Alto gether, seeing no way to refuse the solicitation of the party, he acceded to it. THE POLITICIAN. 26 1 After a few days of preparation he made the opening speech at Danville on the i8th of August, and then gave his whole time to the campaign. The State elections, it will be remembered, were held in October. Having gotten so late a start he had no time to give attention to the matter of organization. The work on the stump occupied him exclusively. The meetings at which he was received were extraordinary in number and zeal. The displays and demonstrations, not to speak of the intelligence of the people who took part in them, have never been surpassed in the State. There was one at Rockville, the county town in which he held his debate with Mr. Hendricks some years before, which was particularly inter esting. Senator Hale was his associate speaker. The people met them at the depot with a four- horse barouche, and drove them to the court house. Across one of the streets a rope had been stretched with a little girl in a basket sus pended from it, and as they passed she was lowered and filled the carriage bed with flowers. Mr. Hale was delighted with the ovation, and taking the meeting as a fair illustration of the popular feeling he had no doubt that the State would go Republican. A short time before the election, however, a horde of Baltimore plug- uglies were distributed through the districts, and Mr. Barnum began his wholesale purchase of mules. The effect was disastrous. 262 BENJAMIN HARRISON. This was the contest well remembered in In diana between General Harrison and the Hon. James D. Williams, of Knox county. It was out of a comparison of the two in the matter of per sonal appearance that the former had fixed upon him the reputation for blue blood and kid gloves which in certain quarters still serves as a rallying cry against him. He was not then, is not now, and had really never been extreme in his ideas of dress. On the contrary he was habitually somewhat negligent in that respect. It is true he affected clean shirts when he could get them, not so much for the sake of appearance as for comfort. He was addicted to the use of a broad- brimmed slouch hat, and he did not stay at home because his boots were not blacked. His clothes were of good material, but plainly cut and made. He wore no jewelry on finger or shirt front. He combed his hair at least once a day, and thought he violated no canon of propriety by brushing his teeth in the morning. If his shoulders became dusty it did not mortify him. In short he was in attire, appearance and manners what is accepted by the world as a genuine, hearty, unaffected gen tleman. The force of the comparison alluded to would be utterly lost without a description of his oppo nent. The reader is asked to imagine a gentle man of probably sixty years of age, who in gen eral outward appearance bore a striking resem- THE POLITICIAN. 263 blance to Abraham Lincoln. He probably exceeded Mr. Lincoln in height, but like him was large handed, with feet in proportion, and ungainly and awkward, but with a pleasant voice and a look of infinite good nature. He wore during the canvass a " stove-pipe" hat, very tall, and so worn that there was no trace of silk left on it. Mud, wind and weather had stained it the color of tobacco juice. His shirt collar, through the sweat of the labor he had undergone, was dis posed to crawl down and hide beneath the old- fashioned stock, which was itself frayed around the edges and otherwise much the worse of the wear. Out of the stock projected a neck very long, very red and marked with an unusually protuberant "Adam s apple." In token of the confidence the people of his county reposed in his integrity he had represented them in the Legislature for a great many years ; and during the time appeared invariably in a suit of home-made or domestic jeans such as is popular to this day amongst the mountaineers of Kentucky. But as Mr. Lincoln could never find a merchant tailor artistic enough to fit him, neither could " Uncle Jimmy Williams." Sitting or standing his tout-ensemble was that of a lay figure or wooden man. His shoes were of the coarsest, and when he sat his foot down the number of superficial inches it covered was ex traordinary. His occupation was that of a farmer ; and it is said that in plowing he could always do 264 BENJAMIN HARRISON. a better job and made a neater furrow if bare footed. It is very doubtful if ever in his life he covered his large honest hands with anything more graceful than a mitten. It must not be understood that we are speaking derisively; indeed, it would be very unjust from the description given to infer that Governor Williams was wanting in ability. He possessed a rare stock of good, sound, practical, common sense, which served him well in lieu of a college education. Like Mr. Lincoln, he had the knack of knowing men. Conscious of a lack of grace in his physique, instead of allowing it to make him misanthropic and sour, he accepted it, in good part, and actually converted it to his advantage. With out pretension of any sort, his walk was such that, though political enemies sneered at him as " Blue Jeans" Williams, not one of them ever dared deny that he was a good man, honest and faithful in all his relations. His flower of life, as he saw it, was his primitive, Jacksonian Democracy. Such a man could not help being popular. In the contest to which we have adverted he made his good sense manifest by avoiding joint discussions. Throughout the canvass it was his custom to be present promptly at the hour ap pointed for the meeting, wherever that might be. Knowing his inability to speak, he occupied the attention of the audience but a few minutes, con cluding with a smile, and the declaration, " Now, THE POLITICIAN. 265 I will give place to a more abler man." Where upon the Hon. Daniel W. Voorhees would arise, and deliver the speech of the occasion. From these attempts at description, the reader can readily discern how General Harrison might become known as "the man in kid gloves/ although there was nothing in his habits of life to justify the epithet. The result of the election was unfavorable to him; but, in saying this, it is to be remembered that he ran very handsomely ahead of the rest of his ticket. The following, taken from the New York Sun, shows the comparative vote received by the Republican candidates in the year 1876, and sufficiently explains his defeat, without im puting it to fine clothes in the one case or back woods apparel in the other: This was the vote on the Republican side : Harrison, for Governor, . . ^ 208,080 Robertson, for Lieutenant-Governor 206,641 Watts, for Secretary of State, . 206,774 Herriott, for Treasurer, >;,;.- . . 206,197 Hess, for Auditor, . . . ;_ 206,774 Smith, for School Inspector, . 205,322 It would seem from this that in 1 876 General Harri son, despite the disadvantages under which he ran, was in that year about two thousand votes stronger than the rest of his colleagues on the ticket. Thirteen Congress men were voted for on the same day that the Governor was elected, and the combined vote of these on the Re- 266 BENJAMIN HARRISON. publican side was 204,419, so that from this comparison it would seem clear that General Harrison was from three to four thousand votes stronger than the Republican or ganization in the State at that time. His own county Marion which includes the city of Indianapolis, gave him a majority of 1600. He carried Vanderburg county, which includes the city of Evansville, and Tippecanoe county, which includes the city of Lafayette. He was beaten by a plurality of 5084, in a total vote of 434,457. There was that year a Greenback vote of 13,000, most of it drawn from Republican ranks. In the opinion of the writer the perfect solution of General Harrison s defeat is exposed in the last sentence of the extract quoted ; and it is but just to add that during the entire campaign he never alluded to his opponent, and was not in any way responsible for the "Blue Jeans" talk of the day. It has been said that the defeat was followed by loss of prestige with his party. Far from that, two years later he was called upon to preside over the State Convention, and in 1880 we find him in the National Convention at Chicago, chairman of the delegation from Indiana. In the latter assemblage, after some thirty bal- lotings, it became apparent that Mr. Elaine, who had been steadily receiving the support of the In diana representatives, could not succeed. About that time a well-known Wisconsin delegate came to General Harrison and asked what he could rely upon if the Washburne vote were turned over to General Garfield. A hurried canvass was THE POLITICIAN. 267 had, and assurances given that Indiana would back the change ; whereupon it was effected. Wiscon sin cast her eighteen votes for Garfield, and on the next roll call Indiana gave him twenty-seven of her thirty votes, two going to Elaine, and one to Grant. Next ballot, Indiana gave Garfield twenty- nine votes, and he was nominated. In that early period there were delegates to the Convention who insisted on using General Harrison s name for the first nomination, but he resolutely declined. In 1884 he again represented his State as delegate-at-large, and he was again discussed in connection with the nomination for the first place on the National ticket. Jn the Garfield campaign, it is to be added, that he was invited to accompany that gentleman in his trip to New York. Accepting the invita tion, he assisted in the speech-making at the several stations along the route. In further evi dence of the esteem in which he was held by President Garfield, he was offered a place in the Cabinet, but the honor was declined on the ground that he was quite unfamiliar with public affairs at Washington ; that he had just been elected to the United States Senate, which was a place where he could learn by listening before he was compelled to incur responsibility in any way. Mr. Garfield concluded his argument on the oc casion by saying, somewhat sadly: "That, back 268 BENJAMIN HARRISON. in the days of Clay and Webster, no public man hesitated to leave the Senate or the House for a seat in the Cabinet, but now it was the reverse. He feared the change was attributable to the fact that the business of the government had grown so much that Cabinet positions had become slavish offices." General Harrison participated actively in the campaign of 1880, and distinguished himself particularly by a speech in answer to one by Mr. Hendricks, in which the latter gentleman had at tacked President Garfield for going on the Elec toral Commission after having, as Mr. Hendricks charged, previously expressed an opinion on the question. The accusation was more partisan than wise, because every member of the Commission of both parties, except the Judges, who helcj the balance of power, was supposed to have given an expression of opinion in the course of the de bates upon the subject. When the election was over, and the Republi cans had a majority on joint ballot, General Har rison became a candidate for the United States Senate, and was unanimously chosen. He held the place the six years to the perfect satisfaction of his party, and would have been re-elected but for the Democratic revolution inaugurated in the State Senate by Mr. Green Smith. The particu lars of that shameful affair have been given in the remarks explanatory of the speech in the Lieu- THE POLITICIAN. 26Q tenant-Governor s case. With the respect of his political enemies, and the unabated confidence of his party, General Harrison retired to his law office and engaged once more in his profession. While there he was called to the higher honor of his present candidacy, The National Republican Convention assembled in Chicago, 111., on the iQth day of June, 1888. The preparations to house it in the Exposition building were extremely elaborate and successful. Nothing of the kind, more magnificent and yet tasteful, had been seen on the continent. One so fortunate as to have been admitted to the vast interior during a day session will never forget the impression wrought upon him, while the scene at night, under the. flood of brilliance that filled it, is simply defiant of description. To say that the city distinguished itself in the arrangements, the finish and the decorations, is saying much in little. Her matchless audacity of enterprise was prob ably never better illustrated. The Convention is too recent of occurrence to require a detailed account of its proceedings, even if the space permissible in this volume would allow it. Hon. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, was chosen temporary chairman, and Hon. M. M. Estee, of California, permanent chairman. The candidates for the Presidential nomination were numerous, all amongst the foremost men of 27 BENJAMIN HARRISON. the party in the nation. Upon their individual merits it would have been impossible to have gone amiss. There was, in fact, no room for difference in choice, except upon the ground of expediency. There were in all eight ballots taken by the Convention for the Presidential nomination, of which the first is given to show chiefly a list of the gentlemen voted for and the vote in tabulation by which General Harrison was nominated. FIRST BALLOT. Russel A. Alger 84 William B. Allison . . , ~. 72 Chauncey M. Depew . . " 99 Edwin Fitler . . , -, 24 Walter Q. Gresham . . . . . ill Benjamin Harrison .... 83 Joseph R, Hawley . , . . 13 John J. Ingalls 25 W.W. Phelps 25 Jeremiah Rusk . . . . . 25 John Sherman . . , . , . 225 James G. Elaine . . .< ,-,.- 35 Robert Lincoln . . \. . ^ . . 3 William McKinley, Jr. . . . \ 2 As the balloting proceeded other names were added to the list: On the third ballot Warner Miller received 2 votes. On the fourth, Fred Douglas and Governor Foraker each received i vote. On the sixth, Fred Grant received i vote. THE POLITICIAN. 271 On the seventh, Creed Haymond received i vote. So, in course of the balloting, certain of the candidates withdrew or were withdrawn by au thority: of the former was Mr. Depew; of the latter were Mr. Elaine, Mr. Allison and Mr. Rusk. The eighth and decisive ballot was as follows: McKinley 4 votes. Sherman Il8 Gresham . . . . . ... 59 Elaine . . . . . . 5 Alger 100 Harrison 544 The nomination was of course made unani mous. The balloting for a Vice-Presidential candidate was entered upon immediately that order was re stored and the nominations were made. There was but one ballot: William Walter Phelps . . . .119 votes. B. K. Bruce n " Wm. O. Bradley 103 " Thomas i " Levi P. Morton 591 " William R. Moore was put in nomination, but withdrew his name before the roll was called. Pursuant to the time-honored custom, a Com mittee of one from each State was appointed to 2 7^ BENJAMIN HARRISON. intorm General Harrison and Mr. Morton of their nominations. The Committee waited upon the General at his residence in Indianapolis on the 4th of July. There were present of that body as follows: The Chairman, Mr. Estee, of California; Colo nel George Denny, of Kentucky; ex-Governor Charles Foster, of Ohio; H. C. Payne, of Wis consin; H. L. Alden, of Kansas; General Reeder, of Pennsylvania; D. C. Pearson, North Carolina; C. H. Terrell, Texas; Governor P. C. Cheney, New Hampshire; General Barin, Oregon; Colo nel S. H. Allen, Maine; Hon. William Marine, Maryland; R. A. Norval, Nebraska; A. H. Hen- drick, Alabama; Captain John C. Daugherty, Tennessee; Logan H. Root, Arkansas; W. W. Brown, Georgia; Thomas Scott, Illinois; W. McPherson, Michigan; R. B. Langdon, Minne sota; James N. Huston, Indiana. To the very appropriate and happily worded speech of Mr. Estee, Chairman of the Committee, General Harrison replied: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: The official notice which you have brought of the nomi nation conferred upon me by the Republican National Convention, recently in session in Chicago, excites emo tions of a profound, though of a somewhat conflicting character. That after full deliberation and free consulta tion, the representatives of the Republican party of the United States should have concluded that the great prin ciples enunciated in the platform adopted by the THE POLITICIAN. vention could be in some measure safely confided to my care, is an honor of which I am deeply sensible and for which I am very grateful. I do not assume or believe that this choice implies that the Convention found in me any pre-eminent fitness, or exceptional fidelity to the principles of government to which we are mutually pledged. My satisfaction with the result would be alto gether spoiled if that result had been reached by any unworthy methods, or by a disparagement of the more eminent men who divided with me the suffrages of the Convention. I accept the nomination with so deep a sense of the dignity of the office and of the gravity of its duties and responsibilities as altogether to exclude any feeling of exultation or pride. The principles of government and the practices in administration upon which issues are now fortunately so clearly made, are so important in their relations to the national and individual prosperity that we may expect an unusual popular inter est in the campaign. Relying wholly upon the consider ate judgment of our fellow-citizens and the gracious favor of God, we will confidently submit our cause to the arbitrament of a free ballot The day you have chosen for this visit suggests no thoughts that are not in harmony with the occasion. The Republican party has walked in the light of the Declaration of Independence. It has lifted the shaft of patriotism upon the foundation laid at Bunker Hill. It has made the more perfect Union secure by making all men free. ^ Washington and Lincoln, Yorktown and Appomattox, the Declaration of Independence and the Proclamation of Emancipation, are naturally and wor thily associated with our thoughts to-day. As soon as may be possible, I shall, by letter, com municate to your Chairman a more formal acceptance of the nomination, but it may be proper for me to say now that I have already examined the platform with some care, and that its declarations, to some of which your Chairman has alluded, are in harmony with my views. It gives me pleasure, gentlemen, to receive you in my 18 2/4 BENJAMIN HARRISON. home and to thank you for the cordial manner in which you have conveyed the official message. Needless to say here that General Harrison s speech has been received with great satisfaction by the party throughout the country. We have seen General Harrison as Student, as Lawyer, and as Soldier ; we are also informed of his political career down to the present ; but now the interest in him is not merely of concern to his fellow-citizens of Indiana ; now the people of the whole country demand to know, in the first place, if he has a record upon the living issues of the day ; and, secondly, what that record is. Such we assume is the great difference between being a candidate for the Governorship of a State, and a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. General Harrison has a record upon nearly, if not quite, every topic that may be raised in the canvass now upon the American public. It con sists mostly of remarks made in speeches at dif ferent times and places, and, admitting that the curiosity in the connection is natural and reason able, we do not know how better to meet and satisfy it than by giving extracts from his sayings as they are to be found in reports of addresses delivered by him and published before his nomi nation. And to this task we will now proceed, pre mising only that, for economy of space, not to speak of clearer understanding on the reader s THE POLITICIAN. 2 75 part, the extracts submitted are grouped together In classes, each under a heading significant of the subject to which it belongs. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. I want to assure you to-night that I am an advocate of Civil Service Reform. My brief experience at Wash ington has led me often to utter the wish, with an em^ phasis I do not often use, that I might be forever relieved of any connection with the distribution of public patron age. I covet for myself the free and unpurchased sup port of my fellow-citizens and long to be able to give my time and energy solely to the public affairs that legiti mately relate to the honorable trust which you have com mitted to me. It is easy for theorists to make suggestions upon this subject which in their opinion would cure all existing evils. I assure you it is more difficult to frame a law that shall be safe and practical in its application. I know that several Republican senators gave much thought and study to this question during the last session. I believe the next session will witness the enactment of a law, which, if it does not consummate, will at least auspiciously begin this reform. That there are sincere advocates of this reform in the Democratic party as in our own I do not deny. But that this reform would be introduced by that party if they were to come now in the control of the Federal patronage, I do not think any sen sible man believes. In some of the States, and in the Senate of the United States, the Democratic party to-day controls the patronage. Need I say that in the appoint ments made there we find no suggestion of Civil Service Reform? [Speech at Indianapolis, Aug. 30, 1882.] No Democratic candidate for the Presidency could rally his party if he were to proclaim as the rule of his admin istration, that public office should not be a reward of party zeal. The fate of this reform is in our hands. Democrats have masqueraded as civil service reformers 276 BENJAMIN HARRISON. in their conventions, but they drop the mask now that their hands are extended to clutch the booty. The only hope for the permanency of this reform is that it shall in the future go under the friendly hands and nurture of a Republican administration until it has become a rooted and substantial thing. We may then expect that the Democratic party will again praise its comeliness. [Iowa State Register, Oct. 22, 1883.] CIVIL RIGHTS. The occasion for the extract following was a c> meeting of colored citizens called to protest against the abrogation of the civil rights act. Mr. Chairman and Fellow -citiz ens ^ Ladies and Gentle men : It has not been true during all the period of my residence in Indiana that you have been my fellow-citi zens. It is true, however, to-night. When, in 1854, I came to Indiana to reside the constitution then in force in this State and the laws of the United States, as ex plained in the Dred Scott decision, did not recognize you as citizens. I stand to-night and look into the face of no man who is not my fellow-citizen, endowed under the law and the constitution, with every right that I pos sess. I do not think there has been any revolution in history more notable or significant than the revolution which has taken place in this country since 1860, as affecting the status of the colored men and women of America. When we look back to that time before the war we see 4,000,000 of Africans who were slaves absolutely deprived of all natural and political rights; in the eyes of the law mere things, not differing in any essential, so far as the law describes them, from a horse or a mule chattels, to be sold upon the auction block, to be transferred by bills of sale, to be passed by testa mentary expressions of those who owned them to the children that came after them. I talked to one here to- THE POLITICIAN. 277 night who has been the subject of those bills of sale. That was the status of the colored men in the slave States. What was it in many of the free States and here in Indiana? We had the old thirteenth article of our State Constitution, adopted in 1850, which absolutely made it illegal for a colored man to come into Indiana, which made it illegal for any man to hire a colored man who had come into the State, though he might be starving, and have a willing head to work and earn the bread he and his children needed, under the penalty of going to jail for hiring him. I recollect when that was your status here in Indiana, and there were convictions in this State against white men for hiring black men to work for them. What was your status then with reference to our public schools ? You know when your children were first admitted to the schools. I doubt if there is a person here so young that they do not recollect it. You have left the infants at home to-night the very young ones. What is your present relation to that great agency which, more than State laws or constitutional laws, is to be the agency of the elevation of the black race the free schools ? Why, all that is said in this letter that has just been read from Austin H. Brown is true as to the present condition of the schools in Indiana. You have magnificently constructed and equipped school-houses built out of the public taxes of the State of Indiana, in which your children may from day to day acquire the elements of an education which shall fit them for the right exercise of that citizenship with which they are now endowed ; and in those schools you have colored men who, by their own intelligence and industry, have made themselves fit to preside over them, and dispense the discipline and instruction which pertains to them with a degree of skill and satisfaction that is a credit to your race. I noticed to-day as I walked down from my house in the morning young colored children, with their books under their arms, going to the high school, entering there with the children of the white men, rich and poor, of Indianapolis, upon equal terms, to acquire the higher branches of education. When we recall the legal re- 278 BENJAMIN HARRISON. straints which less than twenty-five years ago were upon you, and the weight of prejudice which kept you down and separated you from your white fellow-citizens, we look with wonder upon the condition of things to-day, and I am here to rejoice with you in it. There has never been a proposition looking to the striking off of a shackle from the black man s wrist, or from his mind or from his personal freedom which has not received my hearty endorsement and my personal help not one. I am glad to know that you are not wholly indebted to those distinguished pioneers, those intrepid men who faced this wall of prejudice in your behalf for what has been achieved, but that you yourselves have had an honorable part in breaking down those walls of opposi tion. It was most appropriate that the freedom of the blacks should not come until the blood of the black man had been shed on the battle-field to procure it. I have seen myself in the South a brigade of black men face the rebels. I have seen them turn up their dusky faces to the sun as their souls were freed by death upon the battle-field in order that they might win freedom for their race. [Speech at Indianapolis, Oct. 23, 1883.] FINANCES. The Surplus in the Treasury. As Fred Grant said, " A surplus is easier to handle than a deficit ; " but I do not deny that in connection with this surplus of about one hundred millions a year there is danger ; there are dangers of profligacy of ex penditure, and others that require us to address ourselves promptly and intelligently to the question of a reduction of our revenue. I have said before, as your resolutions say, I would like to have that work done by the Repub licans because I would like to have it done with refer ence to some great questions connected with the use of revenue, about which I cannot trust my Democratic /riends. I would like ta have our coast defences made THE POLITICIAN. 279 secure ; I would like to have our navy made respectable, so that an American naval officer, as he trod the deck of the ship bearing the starry banner at its head in any port throughout the world, and looked about upon her equipment and ornament, might feel that she was a match for the proudest ship that, walked the sea under any other flag. I would like to feel that no third-rate power, aye, no first-rate power, could sail into our defenceless harbors and lay our great cities under tribute. I would like to feel that the just claim of the survivors of the Union army of the war were made secure and safe. [Speech at Indianapolis, Dec. 20, 1887.] Value of a Stable Currency. A stable currency one that has a fixed value that is worth the same to-day and to-morrow is the best currency for men, in all conditions of life, and is the only one with which men in all conditions will be satisfied ; and if there is any class of men in the world who have a deeper interest than others in having- currency which is the same from month to month and from year to year, it is the poor man, the laboring man the men who are most liable to be deceived by those who have better opportunities of information in regard to matters of finance. The man who sits on some financial eminence can see beforehand the fluctuations in the money market and save himself from loss, but the man who cannot is the man down in the valley to whom information of these changes financial changes come tardily. Where you have a fluctuating currency, when it goes up labor is the last thing to feel the rise, and when it goes down labor is the first thing to feel the depression. Then, if there is one class more than another that has a deep interest in a permanent, stable currency, it is the poor man, who has not the ability to watch its fluctuations and arrange his finances with reference to them. Our greenback cur rency, with this quality added to it, is a currency with which I believe the people will never consent to part. -^[Speech delivered at Danville, Ind., Aug. 18, 1876.] 2 SO BENJAMIN HARRISON. The Financial Question The financiarquestion is unfortunately still in the arena of politics. It will be a happy day for the country when we can be sure of one full year unvexed by financial tinkering. The most serious drawback to a National currency is that if disturbed by unwise legislation, or threatened by the clamor of demagogues, the mischief is as wide as the country. A certain and stable standard by which values may be measured is the first necessity of commerce. So long as possible legislation by the next Congress affecting the value of our currency must be considered by every lender and borrower, by every buyer and seller, we cannot look for settled times and old-fashioned prosperity. Commerce hears the threats of the canvass, and contemplated enterprises are aban doned. The capitalist hordes his money. The manu facturer limps along on half time. The laborer suffers, and everybody stands in an attitude of waiting. Silver has been remonetized. Upon this question we had much heated controversy. The West and South, without dis tinction of party, antagonized the East, and won. The silver dollar of 412^ grains a full legal tender is a hard fact. Let the controversy end. . . . Whatever our views on the question were when it was an open question, in the interest of financial tranquillity let us take the law as it is, and say stare decisis. [Speech delivered at Rich mond, Ind., Aug. 9, 1 878.] Fiat Heresy. In what I have said thus far, I have been speaking to those who hold that a specie basis for our currency is desirable. But we have a new candidate for popular favor in what is called the " fiat " dollar It (fiat dollar) is not a greenback, unless light is darkness. I have always been an advocate and friend of the greenback currency. As a soldier, I hailed it in common with all my comrades as an ally of freedom, a friend of the flag, u reinforcement that made victory possible, and valor and POLITICIAN. 28 1 daring fruitful. It had but one infirmity it was not a par dollar it was depreciated. The promise it bore on its face was not kept. From this infirmity every true friend of that currency desired that it might be recovered. We differed as to what tonics should be used, as to when the invalid should leave his couch. . . . But let us trace a little more particularly the differences between the "fiat" dollar and the greenback. The greenback, in common with every bank note any of you have ever seen, contains a promise to pay dollars. It reads, the United States will pay to bearer one dollar on demand. None of you would take bank paper or the paper of an individual that did not contain a promise to pay. % And its value is measured by your faith and your neighbor s faith, that the promise will be kept. The " fiat " dollar is to contain no promise to pay, but in its stead we are to have a " fiat," or proclamation. It would run in its sim plest form thus :" " This is a dollar," or if that formula is too brief, some decoration might be added, thus : " Hail Columbia ! This is a dollar," or " E Pluribus Unum ! This is ten dollars." Or for the pious it might read : " In God we trust to make this a dollar," and the holder would mentally add : " For He only can." For it is cer tain that nothing short of the " fiat " of Him who made the world from nothing can make such a bit of paper worth one hundred cents. The greenback is a child of promise. The " fiat "would be a waif, a stray, a nobody s child. But, say these men who claim for our Congress creative power, we will pass a law making these " fiat " dollars legal tender for all debts, public and private. If you did your law would need, as between individuals, the sanction of judicial approval. If the courts held your legal tender fiat act unconstitutional, as they cer tainly would, it would hardly pay the rag picker to gather from the defrauded poor your fiat dollars. Congress has power by the Constitution to coin money, but this is not coined. It has power to borrow money, but that implies a promise to pay, while neither in the law creating it nor in the fiat paper itself will you admit any promise to pay. . . . But if the legal tender qualities could be given 282 BENJAMIN HARRISON. to this new species of money (the fiat dollar) that would not make it a par dollar, or a dollar of any fixed value. It would enable every corporation and manufacturing company in the land, every person employing labor, to buy up this cheap money and pay it out at par to their employees for the last month s wages. But when those laborers shall go to the merchant with their cheap fiat money to buy bread or meat for their families where is the law that can force that merchant to give as much flour for a fiat dollar as for a greenback or gold dollar ? He will only give the value of the dollar offered, and if that value is uncertain or fluctuating, he will probably give less than its present value, out of a fear that it may further depreciate on his hands. Labor is always sold on credit. Flour and meat and shoes may be, and are, to the poor, sold for cash. But labor cannot be sold in that way. Labor is a matter of hours, of days, of weeks ; pay comes at the end of the day or week or month. It has been estimated by competent persons that on any given day there are owing $120,000,000 to laboring men and women for wages. Do these want to be paid in " cheap money ? " And yet that is the base use to which such money is always first put. These wages have been earned on a gold basis. Working men and women, do you agree that wages shall be paid in cheap fiat dollars ? I affirm it to be clear to any man who will think, that the money of the laboring man ought to be real money not spook money not " materialized demand," as one of the ablest advocates of fiat money has described it, but a promise that it will on demand materialize into shining gold and silver dollars. The dollar he contracts for at the beginning of the month when his wages are named ought to be the dollar he receives at the end of the month. Money must be very cheap before it can be picked up in the streets, so cheap that it will hardly be worth stooping for. Short of that you can get it only by giving something for it, labor or property. If you get in exchange full value in cheap money you have more nominal money, but are you any richer than if you had got full value in good money ? The probability s THE POLITICIANo 2 "3 that the next day you will be poorer for the tendency of cheap money is to cheapen. It is undoubtedly true that the legal tender quality and the quality of being re ceivable for customs and internal taxes would give some value to anything, however worthless in itself, but not a certain or fixed value. The quality of being legal tender, aided by the promise on its face to pay, could not keep the greenback at par. Nothing but convertibility into coin can do that for any paper money." [Speech deliv ered at Richmond, Ind, Aug. 9, 1878.] THE TARIFF. The next national Democratic platform will not declare for a tariff for revenue only. Indiana is not the only State where such a declaration would be prejudicial to Democratic success. In the South, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee are already awakening to the benefits of diversified industries. No longer content to raise cotton for Massachusetts, they are spinning it in sight of the fields where it grew, and are successfully competing with the East in the markets of the West. The vast beds of coal and iron in their mountains have been opened. Alabama already has her Birmingham, and boasts of her ability to make iron cheaper than Pennsylvania. The industrial question threatens to dom inate the race question, and that bodes no good to the Democratic party in the South. The Western States are no longer purely agricultural States, exchanging their wheat for New England goods. When the Cobden Club makes its old appeal to the West in behalf of British goods, it does not speak as formerly to a section having but one great industry. The furnace, the rolling-mill, the machine-shop, the woollen and cotton-mill have come West to grow up with the country. la 1850 Ohio had only $29,000,000 invested in manufacturing; in 1880 she had $189,000,000. Then Indiana had less than $8,000,000; in 1880 she had over $65,000,000. Then Illinois had $6,000,000; in 1880 she had over $140,000,000, 284 BENJAMIN HARRISON Iowa then had $1,200,000; in 18-80 she had $33,^78,000. The total value of the products of manufacture of these four States in 1850 was only $101,000,000; for 1880 it was $982,207,000. The power of Cobden Club tracts over the mind of a farmer diminishes in proportion to his nearness to a manufacturing- centre. For in that propor tion he realizes the benefit of a home market. One that not only takes the staple products of his farm, but its more perishable products that cannot reach a distant market. Let us not forget that the tariff question, as we have it in American politics, is not in its ultimate state ment a question as to what duty shall be levied on this or that article of import. The broader question must be settled first whether we may and should in fixing these duties so adjust them as to protect American industries. Whether we should do that of a deliberate purpose, or should leave these industries to the accidents or " inci dents " of a tariff only designed for revenue. Mr. Voor- hees is reported in the newspapers to have said that the tariff plank in the Indiana State platform of last year de clared " For a revenue tariff, with incidental protection, designed to foster our industries." There is a vast deal of undesigned incidental nonsense in such a declaration. A leading Democratic paper aptly described this sort of thing "As a tariff for revenue only, with a protection attachment to catch votes." The tariff plank in the Ohio platform, to which I have already alluded, and which has been accepted in a good many other States as the correct " form," is only another example of a platform trick in tended to conceal and not to declare the purposes of the party. As I have said, it did not reach Iowa in time, and you blundered into an honest expression of Democratic doctrine "A tariff for revenue only." The Democrats of Iowa have courage. I think this virtue is the fruit of adversity. They have never found it necessary to stop and consider whether this or that declaration of princi ple might lose the State. It was lost before the platform was reported. You want a tariff for revenue only. You would have Congress gradually but persistently reduce duties till every vestige of protection to our home Indus- THE POLITICIAN. 285 tries is eliminated. You would give our persecuted in dustries no rest. The only concession you will make to them is that they shall be led down an easy incline to death. You will advise a slow poison. Your platform does not hold out any delusive hope of " incidental pro tection." It boldly says, we will have no regard what ever to the necessities of any American industry or to the wages of the American laborer. Our sole object will be revenue ; and if we can get more revenue out of a given article by making a rate that will close every American mill producing it, and give our entire market to the British manufacturer, that shall be the rate. This doctrine takes no account of workmen and workwomen. If our mills are kept running these must accept the lower wages of European operatives. I do not stop to furnish statistics of the comparative wages of labor here and in Europe. They are abundant and well authenticated. I want no other evidence that wages and all the other conditions of labor are better here than in Europe than this : the laboring men and women of Europe are coming this way, and they come to stay. Millions of earnings have gone back to the old countries to pay the passage money of friends hither, but the steerage of the returning vessel is empty. The Irish man, German, and Scotchman know a land that has light and life in it for a laborer as well as the bird knows the land of summer. I do not say that labor has its full reward here. I do not deny that the avarice of the mill- owner too often clips the edge of comfort from the wages of his operative. I regret that the legislator has so little power to soften the rigors of avarice or to save the laborer from disastrous competition in the labor market. But in spite of all this, I do affirm that there is more comfort and more hope for a laboring man or woman in this country than in any other. Will it help the laborer to bring our tariff duties to a "revenue only" basis? On which side is his interest? Every honest and intelligent advocate of free trade must admit that if we abandon our system of protective duties the wages of labor must be reduced. The trade unions BENJAMIN HARRISON. frequently concede a reduction of wages when the product of their labor declines in price. Now these tariff reformers tell us that the price of all competing American products is enhanced by the full amount of the duty laid on the foreign article. A reduction of duty then involves a corresponding reduction of the price of the product of our mills. The laborer in the mill must accept less wages. But it is said that the reduction in wages, which some of these gentlemen state at twenty-five per cent, is to be made up to the workmen by the cheaper rate at which he will obtain the necessaries of life. The loss of one-fourth of his wages is a very hard fact. The laborer knows what extra pinching that means. The compensating advantage held out to him in the way of a reduced cost of the necessaries of life is a school man s theory. The great bulk of his living, three-fifths, in fact his meat, and bread, and house-rent have no relation to tariff duties. The laborer is asked to render at least one-fourth of his wages that he may possibly save two dollars on his coat. A tariff " for revenue only" means less work and lower wages. Let every workingman take that fact home with him. This is not only a question for the worker in mills, but on the farm and on the street. One of the most significant things said in the Senate during the debate on the tariff bill was this by Senator Morgan, of Alabama : " There is Bir mingham, which is growing up in great prosperity; but whether it is going to add a dollar to the wealth of Ala bama is a problem. If Birmingham is to raise the price of farm labor all over the State twenty-five cents a day, or something like that, the farmers will have to give up cotton planting, and will have to stop, or else it will have to be planted entirely on the hills by the few white peo ple who are scattered among them ; or, if Birmingham or any other industry in Alabama is to draw the labor from the plantations, I do not see how we are to conduct our great agricultural enterprises. I shall begin to believe after a while that it is more of a curse than a blessing tc have these great bastowments of coal and iron in the bosom of our State." THE POLITICIAN. 287 It will be noticed that this distinguished Senator doubts whether Birmingham, the great centre -of the iron in dustry in his State, will be a benefit to Alabama. The higher price paid for skilled labor there will have a ten dency to raise common labor the black man in the cotton-field may demand higher wages for his day s toil and so the Senator fears that agriculture may suffer from the proximity of these busy centres of the arts. It is a short-sighted view. The manufacturing industries build up our cities, and the cities cannot wall in the influences which enhance the value of property. They are not free cities, but must pay tribute to the outlying fields and to the farmer who tills them. Every prosperous city in Iowa sends out from it an influence that enhances the value of the farm and the products of the farm. It brings to a circle of these farms a market which may be reached by the wagon and delivers the farmer from the tribute of the common car rier. We need not have any fear that wages will any where be too high. We have a common interest that a margin for comfort may be added to the necessaries of life. I am sure that none of us are so anxious for cheap goods that we would be willing to admit " the spoils of the poor " into our houses. It seems strange that we should find a party among us opposing the protective principle when even the provinces of Great Britain are adopting it and finding increased prosperity. France and Germany still embody this idea in their legislation. There may be fair ground for debate as to the rate which particular articles of import should bear, or as to whether this or that article should not be on the free list. Republicans differ upon such questions, but that our legislation should discriminate in favor of our own country, her industries and laboring people, ought not to be questioned. I shall not stop to tire you with statistics as to the effect of tariff duties upon the cost of our domestic products. The pretext that these are en hanced in price to the consumer by the amount of the tariff duty laid upon similar products has been too often exposed. If you will take any market report from one 288 BENJAMIN HARRISON. of your newspapers and examine the quotations on any manufacture of cotton, woolen or iron and thn look at the tariff duty imposed on these articles you will expose for yourselves the falsity of this pretense. The effect of American competition has almost invariably been to re duce prices. It is this competition only that emancipates us from the power of the foreign manufacturer to dictate prices in our midst. Doubtless you are unaware of the fearful burdens under which you rest until some Demo cratic orator explains them to you. Things seem to you to be cheap enough and the exchanges which you are able to make of your labor for foreign products seem to be made on favorable terms. Certainly they are more favorable than they used to be. About a year ago I happened in one of our Indiana towns and had the pleasure of conversing with one of the old citizens who had been a clerk in a dry-goods store in a very early day in the history of our State, when the surplus product of our lands all went to the New Orleans market by flat- boat. He told me that he recalled well the time when the first Lowell print calicoes came to the store. Before that everything had been British or French. He re called the price at which these things were sold. Calico was thirty-seven and a half cents per yard, and chickens were thirty-seven and a half cents per dozen. It took eight dozen chickens to buy a calico dress, and the pat tern was scanter then than it is now. If we look at the price-list of steel rails or of other manufactures of iron ?r of tile, or fabrics of woolen, one shall find that we are able now to make exchanges of our farm products for these at more satisfactory rates than formerly. But, some one says, I can buy the same article of British manufacture cheaper abroad. Well, if that is true now, has the fact that our American mills have occupied so largely our home market nothing to do with it? Are you absolutely sure that the price would remain the same if these mills were closed ? Are you sure it would not reach higher figures than the price of our domestic products now? I hnve said that there was no unity of thought or pur- THE POLITICIAN. 28q pose or principle in the Democratic party on this ques tion. There was no consistency of action on the subject in Congress. With very few exceptions Democratic Senators voted for high protective duties upon every article in the production of which their several States were interested. I will prove this by the evidence of Democratic Senators. On February 1 4th, Senator Gor man, of Maryland, said : " There is not a Democrat on this floor who has not voted for the highest possible protection within the revenue standard for the interest of his State, and the lowest possible duty upon every article that his people consume and do not either raise or manufacture." What an interesting picture of Democrats by a Demo crat each voting high protective duties upon articles of import that come into competition with products of his own State, and "the lowest possible duties" upon all articles not produced in his State. General Hancock was right. The tariff is a "local question " to Democratic statesmen. In the same speech Senator Gorman fur ther says on the same subject : " The policy exists all the way through from Texas to Maine. You will find my friend from Texas voting for a duty upon cattle to prevent them from coming in from Mexico in compe tition with the cattle of Texas. He would not put them on, the free list, the very staff of life. He would not put on the free list wheat, corn, or cattle, and my friend from Alabama would join him in that vote. My distinguished friend from North Carolina (Mr. Vance), who has fought nearly every section in this bill, and has become as near a free trader as any gentleman I ever listened to, is in favor of taxing rice, and is in favor of keeping a tax upon turpentine. He himself proposed to take from the free list the wooden pipe the poor man smokes and place it on the taxable list." Let me call another Democratic witness. On the 1 5th February Mr. Voorhees said: " Rice is a product of one or two States in this coun try. I am not unfavorable to any protection which the Senators from those States desire to have upon it. The value of rice imported into this country in the last year 290 BENJAMIN HARRISON. was $1,417,437.84. The duty collected on that rice was $1,581,338.05-, being a larger amount of money paid for the privilege of importing rice into this country than the value of the rice itself. Yet the gentlemen, with the exception of perhaps one or two from the States that raise rice, have stood here for nearly one solid month arraigning every interest that was affected by the whole tariff bill from one schedule to another from end to end. The rate of duty for the importation of rice is ill ^4 per cent. Yet I have heard men talk here by the hour about glass, about iron, and about coal, as if the very horrors of the Inquisition were upon them, and I find them meek anc} mild and gentle as sucking doves when it comes to the question of duty on rice and glad to stay away from the debate glad to stay out of it and do not say a single word. Glad to let others besides themselves settle the protection on their rice." It only remains to add that sixteen Democratic Sen ators, out of twenty-six voting, voted against a reduction of the duty on rice, and that Senator Vance was one of them. And now let me give you a specimen of the views of two leading Democrats of Indiana. In one of his last speeches in the Senate, February 15, 1 88 1, Joseph E. McDonald said : 41 The Democratic party has always taken this view of the powers of the Federal Government, and has opposed the so-called protection policy as unconstitutional as well as unwise, and especially in its platform of 1876, de manded that all custom house taxation should be only for revenue. The reassertion of this principle in the platform of 1880 it is true has been denounced in this chamber as a remarkable blunder, and it has been charged here and elsewhere that the assertion of it had caused the defeat of the Democratic party in the last Presidential election. . . . Mr. President, the Democratic party was not defeated because it advocated a constitu tional tariff and opposed the doctrine of protection, and I trust on this subject it will * take no step backward. " Mr. Voorhees, in his letter to Bayless Hanna, October 20, 1 88 1, said: THE POLITICIAN. 29! "The platform of 1880 was a violent departure on the subject of the tariff and has no precedent in the history of Democratic platforms adopted in National conventions. Have examined them all. The declaration of a tariff for revenue only was never before made in a National Democratic convention, and is a burlesque on common sense. . . . " We lost Indiana in the last three weeks of the cam paign of 1880 on the absurd issue made by our platform on this subject." And again in his debate with Senator Vance (Cong. Record, February 17, 1883, p. 17) he said: "I stand here declaring that I am a protectionist for every interest which I am sent here by my constituents to protect." Now, my Democratic friends, is not somebody cheated when these two views of the tariff are blended in one platform ? Mr. Hendricks in his speech at Council Bluffs read the Iowa and Ohio platforms of this year, and the Indiana platform of last year, and said : " I have referred to the recent declarations of these States as entitled to great weight and consideration. Their popu lation aggregates more than six million, and in the pur suit of agriculture and the mechanic arts their production can hardly be enumerated. The Democracy of Virginia are in harmony with these States." Now, if the Virginia Democracy are in harmony with these three platform declarations on the subject of the tariff, it must be that the platforms are harmonious with each other. Mr, Hendricks meant to convey that impression. And yet no one knows better than Mr. Hendricks that the Iowa platform which declares for a " tariff for revenue only, by a gradual but persistent reduction," would have been impossible in Ohio and Indiana. He knew that the Ohio platform which demands a tariff so adjusted as, among other things, to encourage productive industries at home and afford just compensation to labor, is no more a " tariff for revenue only " than his talk was that of - a candid man. The Indiana platform of last year quite as distinctly admitted the idea that a tariff was not to be " for revenue only," but was to be so adjusted as to " pro- BENJAMIN HARRISON. mote the industries of the country and the interests of labor." When Mr. Hendricks says these three platforms mean the same thing he delivers a heavy blow at the intelligence of Mr. Voorhees, who says that the Iowa platform is an absurdity, and that the Indiana platform is the work of his own hand. Mr. Voorhees claims that the Indiana platform allows a Democrat to say as he said in the Senate, without inconsistency, 4< I am a protectionist for every interest that I am sent here by my constituents to protect," and to vote for the highest duties on glass and rice. But Mr. Voorhees is not for the " old ticket," and this may account for Mr. Hendricks indifference to his feelings. A great many leading Democrats talk about "inci dental protection," as if that sort of protection was a very good thing. They are careful to say that they would give our industries the full benefit of the beneficent ac cident. Now, if they really rejoice in this chance benefit, why not give the benefit of a purpose by design and get some credit for good intentions ? I can see no reason in them unless it be held with Mr. McDonald, that it is unconstitutional to consider the protective effects of a duty in advance, or that it is a good thing but must come, like the whiskey to Lincoln s temperance man, " unbeknownst to him." I would not have a tariff for revenue only nor for protection only. I would not have either the revenue or the protection " incidental." [Speech reported in Iowa State Register, Oct. 22, Free Trade and Workingmen. I believe that tariff duties should have regard not only to the revenue to be raised, but to the interest of our American producers, and especially of our American \vorkmen. It is clear to my mind that free trade, or a tariff for revenue, or for revenue only and these last are essentially the same thing involves necessarily a sudden and severe cut in the wages of the working men and women in this country. I know it is said that his dimin- THE POLITICIAN. 293 ished wages will have an enlarged purchasing power that after he has submitted to a cut of from 15 to 30 per cent, in his wages, what he has left will still buy as much as before. But all this is speculation ; the workman has no indemnifying bond, only a philosopher s forecast. The question must be settled by the intelligent workingmen of the country. If they do not want protective duties, then they will go. If they believe that it is good policy for them that an increased amount of the work necessary to supply the American market should be done in foreign shops, by foreign workmen, then it will come to pass. Many of them have thought upon the question and have reached a conclusion. During last winter I received petitions from a large number of the Knights of Labor assemblies of this State, protesting against the passage of the " free ship" bill. They said that in their opinion our ships should be built in American shops by American workmen, and not on the Clyde by British workmen ; and when I said in response that I agreed with them, several of the assemblies sent me a vote of thanks. All that I have said relates only to the question whether, in framing a tariff bill, we shall think of nothing but the revenue to result, as the Democratic party contends, or whether we shall also consider the effect of particular duties upon the prosperity of our American industries ; whether protection shall be intelligent, of design, or for tuitous and accidental. I stand with my party for the former. But in saying this I am not committed to specific rates, or to the existing law in all its details. I am ready to consider any necessary changes reforms, if you please to call them such but it will be in the light of the gen eral principles I have announced. [Speech, Indianapolis, Sept. 15, 1886.] Republican Vieiv of a Tariff. The Republican party, on the other hand, holds to the doctrine that in fixing tariff rates the effect of the rate proposed upon American industries and upon the wages of American workmen should be carefully and kindly 294 BENJAMIN HARRISON. considered. We do not think that the shutting up of shops or the extinguishment of industries is a pleasant work. We have not reached the plane of that cold phi losophy which refuses to recognize a closer relationship and a higher duty to the American workman and his family than to the English. The foundations of our na tional security and life are not of stone the good will and good conscience of our voting population support the stately fabric. Contentment is a condition of good will, and has an important relation to a good conscience. Good wages promote contentment. The cry of the free trader is for a cheaper coat, an English coat, and he docs not seem to care that this involves a cheapening of the men and women who spin, and weave, and cut, and stitch. He may even deny this. But let one of these gentlemen whose lives have been so favored that they have never had any * personal contact with business " go into any great manufacturing establishment and tell the grimy workmen that the product of their work is to be reduced 25 per cent, in the market. He will see that the men who have had a very rough "personal contact with business" at once understand that the hope of better wages is gone, and that lower wages are -imminent. It is no answer to say that the manufacturer ought to stand the reduction himself. Perhaps in some cases he ought. In other cases he could not without producing his goods at a loss. I may admit that selfishness is the genius that presides in the mill office, but even this evil genius can be made to serve the workman when the product of the mill is in demand at good prices. I do not say that our American workman gets all the benefit he ought to enjoy from a protective tariff, but I do believe that his condition and that of his family is vastly better than it would be under a free-trade or tariff-for-revenue-only policy. It is notice able that even the McDonald school of Democrats take great comfort in what they call the " incidental protec tion," which a tariff for revenue will afford to our indus tries and to our workmen. They admit the benefit of protection, but insist that it must be an accident. As I said once before, we, on the other hand, prefer that the THE POLITICIAN. 2Q5 good shall be designed, and so intelligent. [Speech, Indianapolis, Aug. 23, 1884.] Democratic Revision of Tariff. I suspect I am a poor political economist. But when I hear men talking, now, like ex-Senator McDonald, of the great benefit that is to come to our people when Demo crats revise the tariff, especially in the shape of a cheap coat, I fail to find myself completely in sympathy with him. I think I saw, the other day, in one of our Indian apolis papers, a good overcoat advertised for $1.87, and it must be a pretty mean man that wants to get one for a dollar. The simple fact is, gentlemen, many things are made and sold now too cheap, for I hold it to be true that when ever the market price is so low that the man or the woman who makes an article cannot get a fair living out of the making of it, it is too low. [Speech, Indianapolis, Dec. 20, 1887.] THE LABOR QUESTION. Protection of American Labor. I believe that a large majority of our people not themselves wage-workers sympathize with and will give their aid to every reform calculated to make the burdens of labor lighter, and its rewards more adequate. These, added to the vast army of wage-workers, can and will bring on in orderly procession those well-digested reforms which experience and study have suggested, and will yet suggest. A contented and thrifty working class is the surest evidence of national health and the best pledge of public security. The men who fought the war for the Union were its working people. It was true of the army as of the kingdom of Heaven not many rich. The reforms suggested have relation, first, to the health and comfort of the workman. I believe the law 296 BENJAMIN HARRISON. should vigorously, and under severe penalties, compel all employers of labor to reduce the risk to health and limb to the lowest practicable limit. Overcrowding, ill ventilation, tmheaithful surroundings should be made unlawful and unprofitable. The life of man or woman should not be woven into a fabric. Every appliance for safety should be exacted. I believe that the wages of the laborer should be given such preference as will secure him against loss. As long ago as 1878, in a public speech, I said upon this subject: " If any railroad or other business enterprise cannot earn enough to pay the labor that operates it and the interest on its bonds, no right-minded man can hesitate to say which ought to be paid first. The men who have invested money in the enterprise or loaned money on its securities ought to have the right to stop the business when net earnings fail, but they cannot fairly appropriate the earnings of the engineer, or brakeman or laborer." I believe the law should require the prompt payment of wages in money. I believe that the number of working hours can, in most of our industries, be reduced without a serious loss to production, and with great gain to the health, comfort and contentment of our working classes. I advocated and voted for the law of Congress prohibiting the importation of laborers under contracts made abroad, and believe that such legislation is just and wise. But I cannot extend this discussion further. The recent State platform of our party, in its declarations on this subject, meets my entire approval. The labor reform needs only to trust to reason and fair argument to secure success. Its two worst enemies are anarchy and the demagogue. If it escapes these it will succeed. The masses of our people are disposed to be kind, just and liberal hospitable to reason and reform. But the majority in favor of law and public order is overwhelming. Nothing can succeed upon the line of lawlessness. It is the most hopeful sign that attends this great movement that the great body of its promoters have not failed to see this truth, and have united with their fellow-citizens in denouncing the fierce and destructive doctrines of the THE POLITICIAN. 297 anarchist and his bloody work. [Speech, Indianapolis, Sept. 15, 1886.] The Republican Party and the Laboring Man. The Republican party has given to the laboring man a free homestead on the public lands. It has emancipated four millions of laborers from slavery, and brought by the same charter free labor itself to an honor it could not attain while companioned with slavery. In our State platform several other reforms within the scope of State legislation are proposed, to all of which I give my hearty approval. Among them is a homestead law, which shall secure against sale or execution for debt the home of the distressed debtor, and preserve to his family a roof-tree when the storm of adversity breaks upon them. Another direction in which practical relief may be given to large classes of laboring men is in the laws securing and enforcing the prompt payment of wages. In the case of debts owing by railroad corporations, the courts have, in the exercise of their equity power, with out legislation, given a preference over mortgage bonds to labor claims accrued within six months before the appointment of a receiver. The equity of a laborer where wages have been unjustly withheld for seven months is certainly not weakened by his added month of waiting. There seems to be no good reason why there should not be given, by proper legislation, to the employes of all corporations and manufacturing companies, a first lien for wages due. Such a law might not be operative to the full against existing mortgages, but it would be as to all future liens. Holders of mortgage securities would then have an interest to see that wages were paid, while they could protect themselves against the mismanagement of those who controlled the enterprise by making the non-payment of these labor liens a cause of forfeiture in the mortgage, entitling the mortgagee to foreclose. If any railroad or other business enterprise cannot earn enough to pay the labor that operates it and the interest on its bonds, no right-minded man can hesitate to say 298 BENJAMIN HARRISON. which ought to be paid first. The men who have invested money in the enterprise, or loaned money on its securi ties, ought to have the right to stop the business when net earnings fail, but they cannot honestly appropriate the earnings of the engineer, or brakeman or laborer. When a court, on the motion of the bondholders, seizes a railroad and operates it by a receiver, the chancellor will yield nothing for interest on the bonds till he has paid the men who operate the road. \Vhy should there be another rule for a railroad president? But not only should payment be made secure, but promptness should be enforced. Great wrong is often done by delay though ultimate payment may be certain. The laborer is forced to buy on credit at enhanced prices, or to sell his claim at a heavy discount. This, I believe, could be remedied by legislation prohibiting, under proper penal ties, the diversion of earnings to other purposes until the labor roll is receipted. To such reforms and these specifications do not ^at all exhaust the list the Repub lican party is pledged. The practical knowledge the laboring man has of the evils under which he suffers should be reinforced by the wisest thought of those who are learned in political economy and the law. Every aid which public sentiment and the law can give without trenching upon constitutional restrictions or the rights of others waits only for a kindly call. But it will not answer to the summons of hate and violence. It seems to me, and to this I ask the serious thought of all classes, that the pressing wants of the times are : First, that lawlessness, communism in all its forms, threats, and class hatreds shall be put away forever. If the need of this is more urgent to one class than another it is to the honest laboring man who is out of work. Threats and fears can drive money out of active employ ment into double-barred safes and into four per cent, bonds only security and confidence can call it back to its natural partnership and labor. Second, that we put our currency on an honest basis where those who buy and sell and those who work know when they contract what the dollar of payment is to be. Third, that we lift THE POLITICIAN. 299 up our eyes towards the hills, and recognize the faint but sure signs of morning. [Speech at Richmond, Intl., Aug. 9, 1878.] The Laboring Man and Anarchy. Nothing is more fatal to the interest of labor than anarchy. A condition of society in which law is supreme is for the poor man the only tolerable one. The law re inforces his weakness and makes him the peer of the strongest. It is his tower. If he forsakes or destroys it his folly or his fury delivers him a prey to the strong. In this land of universal suffrage, if he will be wise and moderate, no right legislation can tarry long. That which is just will not be denied. But fury and threats and force will not persuade. They provoke their like, and in this clash and strife all must suffer. One of the most distressing and alarming features of our time is the growing hostility between capital and labor. Those who should be friends have been drawing apart and glaring fiercely at each other. There is no real or necessary antagonism. Capital and labor must unite in every enterprise; the partnership ought. to be a fair one, and the partners friendly. The demagogue is a potent factor of evil in the settlement of the labor question. His object is to use the laborer to advance a political ambi tion. He flatters him with professions of ardent friend ship; beguiles him into turning the stone for his axe grinding, and when the edge is on sends him away with out wages. If laboring men would appoint committees to inquire into the personal history of these self-appointed champions they would not unlikely find that the noisiest of them do not pay their tailor or shoemaker. Their mission is to array one class against another to foment strife, and to live themselves without work. They talk largely of the producers, but never produce anything themselves except a riot, and then they are not at the front. Their doctrine is that every man who hires labor is an oppressor and a tyrant. That the first duty of every man who works is to hate the man who gives him 3<X> BENJAMIN HARRISON. work. The fruit of this sort of teaching is unrest and fear The true workingmen should shake off these vipers into the fire ; place themselves and all their protective organizations on the platform of the law, and while demanding their legal rights to the full pro claim their equal deference to the rights of others. From this platform their cry for help and sympathy will find the public ear. Let them think and work toward specific and legitimate reforms, for within the limits of constitu tional restriction there is no legislation that will be denied them. [Speech at Richmond, Ind., Aug. 9, 1878.] Contract Labor. Mr. Elaine stands to-night square .with his party upon the proposition embodied in our platform at Chicago, that we do not want in this country imported contract labor. I believe in letting any man who wants to be come a citizen come here, if he comes of his own im pulse. But I do not believe, nor does he believe, nor does the Republican party believe in imported gang labor. Contracts made in foreign lands are made at foreign prices, and the competition is unfair. Labor contracts should be individual. [Ratification speech at Indianapolis, June 7, 1884.] PENSIONS. Hundreds of letters from Indiana soldiers, some from sick-beds, some written in the shadow of the poor-house, full of the simple pathos of truth and suffering, have come to me since I have been in the Senate, and the appeal of each was, " Can t you hurry up the settlement of my pension claim?" A Republican Congress rc- sponded to that appeal. We doubled the force in the pension office 800 additional clerks there and gave a corresponding increase in the adjutant and surveyor- generals offices. If claims were to be settled faster THE POLITICIAN. 3OI more money would be needed this year to pay the claims allowed. Who will call this waste or extravagance? [Speech at Indianapolis, Aug. 30, 1882.] Mr. Cleveland has one great eminence I will not say fame by his extraordinary exercise of the veto power. He has vetoed more bills than all of his predecessors, from. Washington down. I must defer to another time a discussion of this feature of his administration. But as we have been challenged to examine his vetoes of private pension bills I will refer to one. Sally Ann Bradley was the widow of Thomas J. Bradley, who served as a private in Company B, 24th Regiment Ohio Volunteers, from June 13, 1861, to October 9, 1865. He was pensioned on account of a shell wound in the back, received at Murfreesboro, Tenn., January 2, 1862, and died October 21, 1882. The commissioner of pensions decided that his death was not entirely attributable to his military service, and that his "widow could not secure a pension under existing law. She was seventy years of age, as helpless as an infant, without means of support, or friends able to assist her. Four of her sons followed their father to the war. Two of them were killed upon the battle-field, and the other two returned, one with the loss of an eye, the other of an arm. The bill gave her a widow s pension, $12 a month. In his veto of this bill Mr. Cleveland said : " No cause is given of the soldier s death, but it is not claimed that it resulted .from his military service, her pension being asked for entirely because of her needs and the faithful service of her husband and sons. This presents the question whether a gift, in such cases, is a proper disposition of money appropriated for the purpose of pay ing pensions. The passage of this law would, in my opinion, establish a precedent so far reaching, and open the door to such a vast multitude of claims not on prin ciple within our present pension laws, that I am con strained to disapprove the bill under consideration." Does this case need any comment? Would the ques tion have been raised in any other mind, whether what the President is please to call a gift was proper in such a 3O2 BENJAMIN HARRISON. case? A gift of $12 a month, and in exchange for what? What gift has she made to her country? Two sons that she had nourished at her breast lying in unknown graves upon distant battle-fields. Two more, her only ones, came back from the war maimed in limb and crip pled in their ability to maintain the mother who bore them. A husband upon whom she had leaned for sup port returned to her no longer the stalwart helper and defender he had been and is called before her to the grave. She is alone. Cannot a great, rich government like ours take care of this patriotic woman ? Must she go to the poor-house or die of want? May not a nation do out of its great resources what an individual, not lost to a sense of justice, would do under like circumstances? Our President seems to think that only a policeman s club or a fire engine stands related to the public safety and the substantial welfare of the people. Those finer spiritual influences, patriotism, courage, heroism, he would probably call sentimental and not substantial. Patriotism saved this country from a revolt that the policeman s club could not quell it extinguished in blood a flame that water could not quench and the nation can afford to honor it, and relieve the burdens it brought upon its heroes and their families. [Speech at Indianapolis, Sept. 15, 1886.] Fellow- Citizens : There are some things connected with this administration of special interest to soldiers, and I will ask their attention while I state them. I know the power of the soldier vote is diminishing; the column is moving on, and from its head the aged arid infirm are dropping into the grave. I know there are not so many Union soldiers to vote now as there were in 1865, and yet, my comrades, there is still a large body of the sur- viving veterans of that war, and if they are as faithful to themselves as they were to the country, they have the power to rebuke those who now show a disposition to forget the liberal promises with which they sent the boys to the field in 1861. Some of you went out Democrats and came back Democrats. But politics cannot break the bond of comradeship. I honor you as 1 honor any THE POLITICIAN. 303 other soldier. I give you increased honor, because in many cases you went to the war in spite of the beguile- ments of those to whom you had been accustomed to look for political advice. What liberal promises were made, my comrades, in 1861 and 1862! Ah! when the stress of war was on, when the old ship was in the storm, how profuse were the promises made to the boys ! Shall they be forgotten now? Shall our people in these times, when increasing years and infirmities are bringing to many of the old soldiers needs they never felt before, for get them ? I pledge myself, and I am sure I can pledge the Republican party, to be faithful, generous, and liberal to the soldiers that survive, to care for them and to honor them until tlje last veteran sleeps his last sleep. But I come now to consider the President s attitude toward the soldiers. President Cleveland will be known as the great veto President. All of our Presidents prior to President Cleveland vetoed altogether 1 10 bills passed by Congress, and President Cleveland vetoed in the eight months session of the last Congress 114. He is four ahead of all his predecessors. [Speech at Indianapolis, October, 1886.] FOREIGN POLICY. Some timid people fear that Mr. Blaine will involve the country in war. Some over-cautious business men affect to believe that the even current of their money- getting will be disturbed by the aggressive foreign policy which they suppose he would inaugurate. My fellow- citizens, no one has ever accused Blaine of being a fool. He has some ideas upon foreign affairs, and I am glad of it ; they are rare. He had begun to organize them into a system when he laid down the portfolio of State. Now, what sort of a foreign policy did his dispatches foreshadow ? One in which this country shall play the bully ? One in which we shall, without cause, insult or deny just rights to any foreign government ? Not at all. 304 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Do we not all desire that we shall have a manly foreign policy one that shall not be characterized by such timidity as not to lift a manly protest when any wrong is done in any foreign country to the humblest American citizen ? What was it Mr. Blame proposed to do? Briefly and chiefly, he proposed to call a congress for consultation as to the mutual interests of the nations of the continent; a meeting of our sister republics, not for the purpose of aggression. Far from it. It was that we might exercise our friendly offices in the interests of peace and stable government among these people where government has been so unstable, where the existing regimes are so fre quently overturned as to bring prostration and desola tion to all private enterprises. It was that we might ex tend a kindly hand to these people, to help them on to a higher civilization, and that we might in return enjoy some of that great commerce which Great Britain monop olizes to-day. We are living near these people ; they are striving to imitate us in the experiment of free govern ment, yet we are without access or influence. When a distinguished citizen of this State was, by President James A. Garfield, appointed charge d affaires at Montevideo, in Uruguay, in order to get to his post of duty he had to take a British steamer from New York to Liverpool, and another British steamer from Liverpool to Montevideo. Notwithstanding we are here on the same general coast, there was no direct communication between this country and that. It has been a standing shame that our rela tions to these South American governments have been such that neither we nor they have enjoyed any of the benefits of good neighborhood. Mr. Blaine proposed to remedy this confessed omission in our foreign policy. A congress of these nations was the leading feature of his brief administration of the State Department. There was nothing to disturb business in that policy, but much promise of a new market for our surplus. Nobody wants war ; it is a last resort. But every self-respecting Amer ican does believe in maintaining the proper dignity, honor, and influence of this great nation.. THE POLITICIAN. 305 My countrymen, I have digressed a little in this talk about Mr. Elaine s foreign policy. Neither he nor we propose any policy that shall imperil the quiet of this country unless, having exhausted every peaceful measure, there should remain no other recourse but war. But when that issue comes, the patriotic, brave hearts of his countrymen will respond that the dignity and the honor of the country and the safety of her citizens must be maintained, even if the money-getters suffer temporary interruption. [Ratification speech at Indianapolis, June 7, 1884.] RESTORATION OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. I am in favor of putting upon the sea enough Ameri can ships, armed with the most improved ordnance, to enforce the just rights of our people against any foreign aggressor. It is a good thing in the interests of peace and commerce to show the flag of our navy in the ports where the flag of commerce is unfurled. It opens the way to traffic and gives security to our citizens dwelling in those remote lands. [Ratification speech at Indian apolis, June 7, 1884.] Is it not humiliating beyond expression that a promi nent Democratic representative should thus declare the inability of the government to obtain redress from an in ferior power for outrages upon an American citizen, and that his party associates should -at the same time be vot ing to withhold the necessary appropriation to arm the four vessels we are building and against adding another to their number ? It is not proposed by the Republican party to put afloat a navy which, assembled in one squadron, could do successful battle with the fleets of some of the great European powers, but we do propose, and such was the view of the naval advisory board, to build at once a sufficient number of fast-sailing steel cruisers to constitute a bond for good behavior and fair treatment on the part of the other maritime nations of the world, and to construct for coast and harbor defenses 20 306 BENJAMIN HARRISON. such armored ships and torpedo boats as will protect our great commercial cities on the seaboard. The occasional visit to foreign ports of a modern and well-equipped ship, bearing the flag of our nation, challenges respect and gives a sense of security to our citizens dwelling abroad. [Speech at Indianapolis, Aug. 23, 1884.] MISCELLANEOUS POLITICS. Remedies for Crimes Against the Ballot. There is vast power in a protest. Public opinion is the most potent monarch this world knows to-day. Czars tremble in its presence; and we may bring to bear upon this question a public sentiment, by bold and fearless denunciation of it, that will do a great deal toward cor recting it. Why, my countrymen, we meet now and then with these Irish-Americans and lift our voice in de nunciation of the wrongs which England is perpetrating upon Ireland. We do not elect any members of Parlia ment, but the voice of free America, protesting against these centuries of wrongs, has had a most potent influ ence in creating, stimulating and sustaining the liberal policy of William E. Gladstone and his associates. Can not we do as much for oppressed Americans? Can we not make our appeal to these Irish-American citizens who appeal to us in behalf of their oppressed fellow- countrymen, to rally with us in this crusade against elec tion frauds and intimidation in the country that they- have made their own? There may be legislative remedies in sight when we can once again possess both branches of the national Congress and have an executive at Washington who has not been created by these crimes against the ballot. Whatever they are, we will seek them out and put them into force, not in a spirit of enmity against the men who fought against us forgetting the war, but only insisting that now, nearly a quarter of a century after it is over, a free ballot shall not be denied to the Republicans in THE POLITICIAN. 307 those States where rebels have been rehabilitated with a full citizenship. Every question waits the settlement of this. The tariff question would be settled already if the 6,000,000 black laborers in the South had their due representation in the House of Representatives. [De troit speech, Feb. 22, 1888.] The South, and Suppression of the Republican Vote. But some timid soul is alarmed at the suggestion. He says we are endeavoring to rake over the coals of an extinct conflict to see if we may not find some ember in which there is yet sufficient vitality to rekindle the strife. Some man says you are actuated by unfriendly feelings toward the South, you want to fight the war over again, you are flaunting the bloody shirt. My countrymen, those epithets and that talk never have any terrors for me. I do not want to fight the war over again, and I am sure no Northern soldier and there must be many here of those gallant Michigan regiments, some of which I had the pleasure during the war of see ing in action, not one of these that wishes to renew that strife or fight the war over again. Not one of this great assemblage of Republicans who listens to me wishes ill to the South. If it were left to us here to-night the streams of her prosperity would be full. We would gladly hear of her reviving and stimulated industry. We gladly hear of increasing wealth in the States of the South. We wish them to share in the onward and up ward movement of a great people. It is not a question of the war, it is not a question of what was done be tween 6 1 and 65 at all that I am talking about to-night. It is what they have done since 65. It is what they did in 84 when a President was to be chosen for this country. Our controversy is not one of the past, it is of the present. It has relation to that which will be done next November, when our people are again called to choose a President. W 7 hat is it we ask ? Simply that the South live up to the terms of the surrender at Appomattox. When that great chieftain received the surrender of the 308 BENJAMIN HARRISON Army of Northern Virginia, when those who had for four years confronted us in battle, stacked arms in sur render, the terms were simply these: You shall go to youi homes, and shall be there unmolested so long as you obey the laws in force where you reside. That is the sum of our demand. We ask nothing more of the South to-night than that they shall cease to use this re covered citizenship, which they had forfeited by rebellion, to oppress and disfranchise those who equally with them selves under the Constitution are entitled to vote that and nothing more. I do not need to enter into details. The truth to-day is that the colored Republican vote of the South, and with it and by consequence the white Republican vote of the South, is deprived of ail effective influence in the administration of this government. The additional power given by the colored population of the South in the Electoral College, and in Congress, was more than enough to turn the last election for President, and more than enough to reverse, yes, largely more than reverse, the present Democratic majority of the House of Repre sentatives. Have we the spirit to insist that everywhere, North and South, in this country of ours no man shall be deprived of his ballot by reason of his politics? There is not in all this land a place where any rebel soldier is sub ject to any restraint, or is denied the fullest exercise of the elective franchise. Shall we not insist that what is true of those who fought to destroy the country shall be true of every man who fought for it, or loved it, like the black man of the South did, that to belong to Abraham Lin coln s party shall be respectable and reputable every where in America. [Detroit speech, Feb. 22, 1888.] Control by the Majority. My countrymen, this government is that which I love to think of as my country, for not acres, or railroads, or farm products, or bulk meats, or Wall street, or all com bined, are the country that I love. It is the institution, the form of government, the frame of civil society, for THE POLITICIAN. 309 which that flag stands, and which we love. It is what Mr. Lincoln so tersely, yet so felicitously, described as the government of the people, by the people and for the people; a government of the people, because they insti tuted it the Constitution reads, " We, the people, have ordained;" by the people, because it is in all its depart ments controlled by them; for the people, because it states as its object of supreme attainment the happiness, security and peace of the people that dwell under it. The bottom principle sometimes it is called the cor ner-stone, sometimes the foundation of our structure of government is the principle of control by the majority. It is more than the corner-stone or foundation. This structure is a monolith, one from foundation to apex, and that monolith stands for and is this principle of gov ernment by majorities, legally ascertained by constitu tional methods. Everything else about our government is appendage, is ornamentation. This is the monolithic column that was reared by Washington and his asso ciates. For this the war of the revolution was /ought; for this and its more perfect security the Constitution was formed; for this the war of the rebellion was fought, and when this principle perishes the structure which Washington and his compatriots reared lies dishonored in the dust. The equality of the ballot demands that our apportionments in the States for legislative and con gressional purposes shall be so adjusted that there shall be equality in the influence and the power ot every elector, so that it shall not be true anywhere that one man counts two or one and a half, and some other man counts only one-half. But some one says that is fundamental. All men ac cept this truth. Not quite. My countrymen, we are confronted by this condition of things in America to day, a government by the majority, expressed by an equal and a free balFot, is not only threatened, but it has been overturned. Why is it to-day that we have legisla tion threatening the industries of this country? why is it that the paralyzing shadow of free trade falls upon the manufactures and upon the homes of our laboring 3IO BENJAMIN HARRISON. classes? It is because the laboring vote in the Southern States is suppressed. There would be no question about the security of these principles so long established by law, so eloquently set forth by my friend from Connecti cut, but for the fact that the workingmen of the South have been deprived of their influence in choosing repre sentatives at Washington. [Detroit speech, Feb. 22, 1888.] Public Lands. There was a time in our history when we thought our public domain was inexhaustible. There was a time when our Pacific slope lay separated by weeks of travel from us, over sandy plains, in slow coaches. There was a sentiment that we might well aid in the construction of some railroads to the coast. But that work has been done, and we stand, as he stands to-day, in the defence of the principle enunciated at Chicago, that the land not fairly earned by these companies should be returned to the public domain, and that what is left of the public domain suitable for agricultural uses shall be saved for the actual settler, in small tracts. The public mind has been aroused by the fact that foreign capitalists, lords and nobles of the old country, have come here and acquired vast tracts of our public domain ; public indig nation and interest have been excited, and we have said it must stop. I would not dispose of an acre of the Eublic land otherwise than under the homestead laws. Ratification speech at Indianapolis, June 7, 1884.] The Skip Canal across the Isthmus. In this dispatch Mr. Blaine boldly, yet without blus ter, assumed the position for his government that in the present condition of this country, having States upon the Pacific, Atlantic and the Gulf, we had a peculiar interest in any ship canal across the Isthmus. He pointed out that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by reason of the greater naval strength of Great Britain, which our policy did not allow us to compete with, surrendered THE POLITICIAN. 31 I the control of the canal practically to Great Britain in case of war between the two nations, by refusing to us the benefit of our greater strength upon the land. The narrow barrier which obstructs the passage of ships from the Gulf to the Pacific ocean will not much longer force commerce around the Horn. When a canal is completed it will be practically a part of our coast line, and the control of it by any foreign power would put us at tremendous disadvantage in time of war, by allowing the enemy to mass her squadrons on either of our coasts at her pleasure. Only the law of superior force could compel us to submit to this disad vantage. [Speech, Indianapolis, Aug. 23, 1884.] Trusts and" Combines" Now I clo not propose here to discuss the tariff ques tion. I believe the principle of the protection of Amer ican industry is well established and well defended by the principles of political economy and by the duties of patriotism. There are one or two things that in some respects are working against it, and one is this abomina ble and un-American system which is recently devel oped, called trusts I do not refer to the gas trust at Indianapolis; that is firstrate ; it is the only trust of that sort that I know of that is really in the interests of the people but this sort of thing has come about: The men making steel rails form an association, and they say, " We must not make too many steel rails, the price will go down." And so they say to a steel-mill over in St. Louis, " Now don t you make any rails this year at all; you let your fires go out ; you can discharge all of your workmen, and we will pay you out of the pool enough to make you a good dividend on your stock or your capital." And the mill shuts down, turns out the workmen that should be there, and gets out of the pool a good interest on its investment. \Ve had a whisky pool I don t know that anybody would object that they limit the production, but it will do just as well for illus- 312 BENJAMIN HARRISON. tration. They work it the same way. They say to this distillery, "Your capacity is a hundred barrels; you make fifty." And to another, " Your capacity is two hundred ; you make a hundred." And to another, " Don t you run at all, and we will pay you." And they pool it all up and fix prices this way. Now this thing is running too far. It is un-American ; it is unpatriotic in my judgment, and you will notice that those who are attacking our tariff system take their position behind these facts and use them as the ground of their assault. We must find some way to stop such combinations. There has recently been an attempt in Pennsylvania, as reported, in the great anthracite coal regions upon which the cities of Philadelphia, Boston, New York and the people of the seaboard depend, as well as of the West, for much of their winter fuel, to combine together, the railroad and mine-owners, and say ; " We will only pro duce so much coal, and we will force the price up." I believe these things should be made unlawful, prohibited and punished as conspiracies against the people. [Speech, Danville, Ind., Aug. 26, 1886.] The Anarchists. My countrymen, I believe that the question of enforcing the laws is assuming an importance now that it has never had before in our country. We have been careless, thoughtless, as we saw violations of law going on from day to day, but the nation has been startled into a reali zation of the fact that its only safety, the only anchor it has out on the side of social order and domestic peace, is the enforcement of the law. What was it that cul minated at Chicago less than two years ago, on that day when the guardians of the law were butchered ? Where did this red flower find its seed? It was, as I believe, in that defiant, persistent violation of law upon which we have so long looked indifferently. The nation is waking up. THE POLITICIAN. 313 Prohibition. I want to say this further : There may have been a time in the past when the Republican party of Indiana had dalliance with the liquor interests ; but I beg to say to all who hear me to-day that when the platform of the last State Convention was read and received with cheers by the great masses who heard it, any dalliance between the Republican party and the liquor league was severed once and forever. When the resolution fell from the lips of my friend who sits yonder, Mr. Halford, of the J&urndt^ as chairman of the committee on resolutions, a trumpet was sounded that will never call retreat. Why ? Simply for the reason I have already given ; the liquor league is an organization framed to defy the law, and, therefore, we are against it and it is against us. And yet, notwith standing this, and notwithstanding the fact that whenever you open the -robe in which the Democratic party mas querades, you see some liquor league boodle sticking out, there are those who, like my friend, the Methodist bishop South, have got " past temperance," and are third-party men who make the welkin ring with the cry, "Smash the Republican party." Well, that is not a cry likely to draw Republicans into your party. Before me to-day is a great body of Republicans, young and old, full of pride in the old party ; who believe that it has, under God, wrought out the best things that were ever achieved by any political organization ; who believe that it has in it yet high capacities, and who are not amiably disposed when anybody says, " Smash the Republican party." If you want to persuade us, you will have to change that cry. And what next ? Why do you want to smash the Republican party ? Does the shield it carries cover the liquor league? No, my countrymen ; now, henceforth, if not before, the shield it carries fronts the liquor league, and the point of its spear is toward that enemy of law and order. Why is it that we do not hear from our Prohibition friends the cry, " Smash the Democratic party ? " Why is it, when the campaign is on, that the Democratic party newspaper becomes at the 314 BENJAMIN HARRISON. same time a liquor league and a third-party organ? Simply because they hope thus to withdraw from the Republican party, by this third-party movement, enough votes to continue the liquor league and the Democratic party in power; they will have the spoils of office, and their shield will faithfully cover these violators of the law. I have said before, and I say now, that among this band of zealous third-party workers for prohibition there are devoted, faithful, earnest men and women. But, my friends, is it not a little hard, when the Republican party has sounded this note of defiance, and boldly confronts this organized traffic that you affect so much to repro bate, and the Democratic party allied with it, that we should hear the hoarse cry of the liquor league in our front, " Smash the Republican party," and from the rear should come also the piping cry of the third-party Pro hibitionists, answering like an echo to the hoarse cry in our front, " Smash the Republican party ? " A voice They won t smash it worth a cent. Senator Harrison No, they won t! [Applause.] Be cause, for one reason, the great body of that great pioneer church of the West, that paved the way for civilization and God in our woods, are unlike the bishop down South, and have not " got past temperance." Now, what are we going to do about it ? Well, let us see. We said in our State platform that we were in favor of clothing local communities with power to act upon this question. There I stand for one to-day. I do not believe in State prohi bition as the best method of dealing with this question. If you do, there is no reason why we should part to-day. There is good work that we can do together. The Re publican party in the House of Representatives, so far as it could, kept the pledge of the platform. If you had helped us, my prohibition friends, to make the Senate Republican, that law would have been on the statute book to-day. I believe it is true, and can be demonstrated to be true, that if you had thrown your votes with us in the last campaign such a result could have been accom plished. Is it not worth while to work together? I be lieve that much depends upon the wise and thoughtful THE POLITICIAN. 315 reconsideration of all these questions by the temperance people of Indiana, and if they shall wisely think upon them and wisely give their vote and influence to the party that has started boldly in the direction of temperance reform, we shall certainly carry Indiana next year, and greatly advance the good cause of temperance reform. The Soldiers Friend. 1 have no disposition to revive any unpleasant mem ories, but this resolution admonishes us, fellow-soldiers, that we must be on the alert, or some Democratic con vention will put Lee into Grant s place and Stonewall Jackson into Sheridan s. God forbid that the soldiers of Indiana, of whatever political faith, should ever allow any other test of friendship than that of sympathy and co operation in the cause for which they fought. What personal sacrifice is there to any of us in Congress when we vote pension money to the soldier? The man who lived through the war of the rebellion and did not make some sacrifice for the success of the Union armies who did not say one brave word, or do one brave thing when, with bare and bleeding breasts, our soldiers looked into the face of hell for their country can never be enshrined as the soldiers friend. [Speech at Indianapolis, Aug. 30, 1882.] Subsidies for American Steamships. Well, again, I want to see enough revenue saved to help put some American steamship lines on the sea. Every important nation of the old world subsidizes some of the great steamship lines that ply between its ports and the ports of foreign countries, either directly or by liberal pay for carrying the mail. Why I saw to-day in the Journal that for years the Argentine Republic, in South America, has been offering out of its treasury an annual bonus of $100,000 to any company that would establish a regular steamship line between Buenos Ayres and New York city. That poor govcrnnient has been 31 6 BENJAMIN HARRISON. willing to do so much. It would develop for us a great trade and give an outlet for surplus manufactured prod ucts. Congress once placed in the control of the Post master-General a large sum of money that might have been so spent, but he refused to expend it ; and so we stand to-day. Separated by so much shorter distance from these South American ports, our near neighbors, who ought to buy our goods and send theirs here, are in fact by reason of these steamship lines more near to Eng land than to us, and she enjoys their trade. You all know Bayless Hanna. [Laughter and cries of " We do."] Well, Bayless was chosen to represent us, I believe, at the court of the Argentine Republic, the very nation I have been speaking of, and he wanted to get there, and in order to get there down our own coast he had to go to Liverpool to get a ship to carry him there. Is it not a shame that an American ambassador cannot find an American ship out from any of our great ports to these ports of the South American States, but must cross the ocean eastward and put himself under the British flag in order to find the port where he is to set up over his house the American flag ? Now, before we reduce the revenue too much, we want to get an administration that will respond to the demand of the people and of Congress that American ships shall have suitable encouragement to ply between these ports of South America and our own ports, to develop the great trade that we ought to have with them. [Speech, Danville, Ind., Aug. 26, 1886.] Ireland and Irishmen. At a meeting- held in Indianapolis on the 8th of April, 1887, General Harrison said : " It may be suggested that we are engaged to-night in an act that savors somewhat of impertinence that the question of the pending legislation relating to Ireland, which is the subject of discussion in the British Parlia ment, is not a proper subject of discussion in an American town meeting. But the man who makes that suggestion THE POLITICIAN. 3 I J does not understand the scope and powers of an Ameri can town meeting. We all understand that an American newspaper is free to discuss every question. There is no limit upon its jurisdiction. Now, the American town meeting has just as broad a jurisdiction. We have no official representations to make to the British govern ment. It can take notice or not of what we do and say here, but all the same we will exercise the liberty of saying it. There was a time when communication with Kurope was so tardy and difficult that America was separated in its sympathy, but that time has passed. The electric current has been put into service not only upon the land but under the seas. Nations have by this rapid intercommunication been tied together. The bonds of sympathy have been strengthened, mutual in terests have been enlarged, and the time will soon come when the whole earth will be one commonwealth in sympathy and thought. Nothing involving the lives or liberties of men can happen now anywhere in the world, whether in the frozen north or in South Africa, that does not evoke interest and sympathy here. I am not here to discuss particular measures of relief for Ireland. I am not here to suggest that legislation should take this or that precise form, but all here will at least agree that it should be progressive in the direction of a more liberal government for Ireland than she now has. We are not here to suggest to Great Britain that she shall concede Irish independence. The disintegration of nations is seldom by parliamentary enactment. When that comes it comes as the fruit and result of successful revolution. We are here simply to say that, in our opinion as American citizens, what Ireland needs is not coercion, is not the constable, is not the soldier with musket and bayonet; but liberal laws, tending to eman cipate her people from the results of long centuries of ill government, and that whe-n this British Ministry starts in the direction of coercion, and postpones suggestions for reform until a coercion bill has been enacted, it is traveling in the wrong direction. It is not possible, in this age of the world, to govern a people as numerous 318 BENJAMIN HARRISON. and inhabiting a country of such extent as Ireland by coercion. The period in the world s history when men might be governed by force their inclinations coerced, their aspirations for participation in government sup pressed is passed away forever. More and more the American idea that government rests upon the consent of the governed is making its way in the world. If it be true that the British government finds difficulty in Ire land in impaneling juries that will convict for offences there against the landlord, it is because it is deeply settled in the convictions of those people that the laws are egregiously wrong in principle and hurtful in their application. Such a conviction cannot be removed by coercion ; by finding another jurisdiction and venue in which to try those offenses, and the government becomes a failure when that becomes a necessity. We were not without experience in that in our own country at the close of the war. I unite with you as an American citi zen in the expression of the hope that we shall soon witness the adoption of such measures as will win the Irish heart and give to the helpless and poverty-stricken in the land of their fathers contentment and prosperity. General Harrison responded to the toast, "Washington as a Republican," at the banquet of the Michigan Club, Detroit, on the 22(1 of February. In the course of his remarks he made the following reference to the Irish question, in arguing for an equal ballot and equal represen tation in the Southern States : There is vast power in a protest. Public opinion is the most potent monarch this world knows to-day. Czars tremble in its presence ; and we may bring to bear upon this evil a public sentiment, by bold and fearless denunciation of it, that will do a great deal toward cor recting it. Why, my countrymen, we meet now and then, with our Irish-American friends and lift our voices THE POLITICIAN. 5IQ in denunciation of the wrongs which England is inflict ing upon Ireland. We clo not elect any members of Parliament, but the voice of free America, protesting; against these centuries of wrong, has had .a most potent influence in creating, stimulating and sustaining the liberal policy of William E. Gladstone and his associates. Cannot we do as much for oppressed Americans? Can we not make our appeal to these Irish-American citizens who appeal to us in behalf of their oppressed fellow- countrymen to rally with us in this crusade against elec tion frauds and intimidation in the country that they have made their own ? On the 5th of December, 1887, the citizens of Indianapolis ave a reception to Hons. Esmonde and O Connor. At the close of the meeting, the report says : General Harrison was loudly called for by the au dience. He said: "The hour was already so late that he would detain the audience but a moment. He was glad to have the opportunity to hear the distinguished guests of the evening; men who in the British Parlia ment stand for home rule in Ireland. They have given me much fuller information than Iliad before of the oppressive character of the coercion acts. I was glad also to learn that the Irish people have shown such a steady and self-contained adherence to their rights, and such steadfastness in the assertion of them by lawful methods. We know that Irishmen have many a time in the struggle of their native land, and in our fight in America for constitutional government, thrown them selves upon the bayonet of the enemies of liberty with reckless courage. It is gratifying to know that they can also make a quiet but unyielding resistance to oppression by parliamentary methods. I would rather be William O Brien in Tullamore jail, a martyr to free speech, than the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin Castle." BENJAMIN HARRISON. The Sisters of Charity. A fair for the benefit of a new St. Vincent s Hospital was opened in Indianapolis on the even ing of nth June last. The preparations were tasteful, and the ceremonies appropriate. A report of the proceedings appeared in the papers of the city next morning, from which an extract is presented. Attention is called to the graceful remarks of General Harrison, including the purport of his tribute to the Sisters of Charity. During the evening short addresses were heard from General Harrison, Governor Gray and ex- Governor Porter, who had accepted an invitation to be present. These gentlemen, along with Rev. Father O Donaghue and other prominent repre sentatives of the Catholic Church, took seats upon the stage shortly before 9 o clock, in front of a large banner of red, white and blue, which con cealed from the audience the dressing-room. Father O Donaghue introduced the speakers with a few happy words. General Harrison, on being introduced, said that when the committee had called upon him and asked him to make an address on the opening evening of the fair he was at first inclined to say that he had no time to make suitable preparation. But after a moment s reflection he considered that would not be a gracious thing to do, for the occa sion was not intended to be one of personal dis- THE POLITICIAN. 321 play, but one in which a great public charity was interested. He felt that as a citizen of Indian apolis he should lend what encouragement he could to the magnificent enterprise there inaugu rated. It was one in which every public-spirited citizen should be concerned, for if it were carried out according to the outlined plan it would be a credit to the State and city, to say nothing of the great good.it would accomplish. Referring to the philanthropic nature of the enterprise he said it called to his mind two lines from Whittier: I love my fellow-men The worst I know I would do good to. He closed by paying a beautiful tribute to the deeds of the Sisters of Charity during the late war. "There was no battle-field so perilous, or sur geon s table so bloody that these sweet-faced women were not there offering such aid and such benefactions as only a woman s hand could minister." General Harrison and the Labor Strike of 1877. It may be desirable to furnish the reader some thing which will enable him to form an idea of General Harrison in his distinctive character of citizen. Nothing is of such universal admission in the United States as that there are obligations o peculiar to citizenship. One of them stands out in bold relief every man shall hold himself ready 21 322 BENJAMIN HARRISON. to respond promptly to a call by the constituted authorities to maintain peace and order, and .defend life and property from threatened vio lence. In lands where the government rests upon regular armies this obligation is of less force than in ours where there is no guaranty of order except in the body of the people. As General Harrison s disposition in this respect is well shown in his relations to the great railroad strike of 1877 in Indianapolis, a brief narrative of that affair may be considered of pertinency. The movement to which we refer began in the East. It had its origin in the belief of railroad employes that they were not receiving a sufficient compensation for their labor, and to right their wrongs generally they conceived the idea of tak ing possession of the property of the companies, and holding it until the companies acceded to their demands. There is little doubt that their complaints were in many instances founded in right. In that day the diversion of the earnings of roads to objects other than the support of the lines, and keeping them in good state, was more common than at present. Under that policy the employe in a subordinate capacity, the laborer as distinguished from the official, did unquestionably suffer, sometimes from insufficiency of pay, some times from absolute denial of wages actually due. The truth of the statement is confirmed by legisla tion since had looking to the enforcement of liens THE POLITICIAN. 323 for labor, and the ready recognition of such liens in the courts. Spreading rapidly from the East the " strike," as the movement is more familiarly called, reached Pittsburg, and resulted there in serious loss of life and destruction of property. The public became alarmed. Some pretentious railroad towns were seized with fear approaching panic. The unrest, to speak mildly, that fell upon Indianapolis when, on the 23cl July, the Union depot of the city was taken possession of by " strikers," may be imag ined. The feeling was intensified by the arbitrary stoppage and detention of freight trains, and the consequent suspension of commerce. The only medium left for communication with the world outside was the telegraph, and that told of mobs in the streets of Chicago and Louisville and else- o where. How lon<r was the condition of sie<^e to o o last? Nobody could answer. There was a universal cry that something should be done, and done immediately. The cry, it is to be remarked, was not against the body of the strikers, most of whom were known as residents of the city, interested in its safety orderly men, heads of families but against the lawless element who -saw nameless opportunities in the disturbance. The very presence of this latter class was a menace to life and property. Hon. John Caven was mayor of the city, a 324 BENJAMIN HARRISON. careful, prudent man, not easily alarmed. On the 24th he issued a proclamation for a meeting of citizens to consult as to measures for public safety. The object, it was expressly stated in the call, was to adopt "measures for the protection of life and property." Further, in his address to the mass meeting that responded, he said he had no fears from the strikers proper; but "there was a vicious element of population that was ready to do any act of violence for the purpose of plunder, and there was danger that such might take advantage of the strike to carry out their schemes." He concluded by suggesting the appointment of a Committee of Safety, and that companies be formed for military duty, if the exigency should require such a resort. The meeting was irrespective of parties, and when a committee of twenty-five was chosen it was composed of Democrats and Republicans; there was in fact no thought of politics in the affair. And that the object in the military organization was not the levying of arms against the strikers, with intent to march upon them and shoot them down, is well proven by a motion of Hon. Franklin Landers, a distinguished Demo crat, that a committee of ten of the most prudent that could be selected be appointed, "to confer with the committee of the strikers in a friendly spirit," and ascertain what their demands were, and endeavor to arbitrate between them and the THE POLITICIAN. 325 railroad companies. General Harrison was chosen one of this latter committee. Next day the two committees, one on the part of the citizens, the other for the strikers, met in the city council chamber. In the course of the conference, as the newspapers reported, "Gen eral Harrison made an eloquent and logical speech of some length. He counselled obedience to the law, but at the same time expressed the opinion that the wages stated were too low, and desired very much that they should be raised. He was willing to use his influence with those in authority in favor of this desired increase." Another meeting of citizens was held on the 26th of July, and, like the first one, it was irre spective of party. An Executive Committee was appointed. Judge. W. Q. Gresham, Senator Jo seph McDonald, General Harrison, and others of like character, were placed upon it. On the same day the State authorities took action. The following proclamation was issued by Governor James D. Williams: THE STATE OF INDIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. A PROCLAMATION by the Governor relative to certain disturbances of the peace by striking employes of railroad companies To the People of Indiana : Many disaffected employes of railroad companies doing business in this Stale have renounced their employments because of alleged grievances, and have nonspired to enforce their demands by detaining trains of thfii Jate employers, seizing and controlling their property, intimidating their managers, prohibiting by violence their attempts to conduct their business, 326 BENJAMIN HARRISON. and driving away passengers and freight offered for transportation. The peace of the community is seriously disturbed by these lawless acts. Every class of society is made to suffer. The comfort and happiness of many families not parties to the grievances are sacrificed. A controversy which belongs to our courts, or to the province of peaceful arbitration or negotiation is made the excuse for an obstruction of trade and travel over the chartered commercial highways of our State. The commerce of the entire country is interfered with and the reputation of our community is threatened with dishonor among our neighbors. This disregard of law and the rights and privileges of our citizens and those of sister States can not be tolerated. The machinery provided by law for the adjustment of private grievances must be used as the only resort against debtors, indi vidual or corporate. The process of the courts is deemed sufficient for the enforcement of civil remedies, as well as the penalties of the criminal code, and must be executed equally in each case. To the end that the existing combination be dissolved and destroyed in its lawless form, I invoke the aid of all the law-abiding citizens of our State. I ask that they denounce and condemn this infraction f public order, and endeavor to dissuade these offenders against the peace and dignity of our State from further acts of lawlessness. To the Judiciary : I appeal for the prompt and rigid administration of justice in proceedings of this nature. To the Sheriffs of the Several Counties : I commend a careful study of the duties imposed upon them by statute, which they have sworn to dis charge. I admonish each to use the full power of his county in the pres ervation of order and the suppression of breaches of the peace, assuring them of my hearty co-operation with the power of the State at my com mand, when satisfied that occasion requires its exercise. To those who have arrayed themselves against government and are sub verting law and order and the best interests of society by the waste and destruction of property, the derangement of trains and the ruin of all classes of labor, I appeal for an immediate abandonment of their unwise and unlawful confederation. I convey to them the voice of the law, which they cannot afford to disregard. I trust that its admonition may be so promptly heeded that a resort to extreme measures will be unnecessary, and that the authority of the law v and the dignity of the State, against which they have so grievously offended, may be restored and duly respected hereafter. Given at Indianapolis this 26th day of July, 1877. Witness the seal of the State and the signature of the Governor. JAMES D. WILLIAMS. THE POLITICIAN. 327 This calmly worded proclamation was issued on the third day of the suspension of railway ser vice in Indianapolis. The strike meantime had extended to Terre Haute. In other words, it was no longer a local affair. There was danger that it would involve the State. With this view of it, Governor Williams took immediate steps to make his official warning respected. He resolved to provide a military force. The State was full of experienced soldiers, but appreciating the need of a chief officer who had something more than experience, who was in nature prudent, judicious, conservative, he addressed a note to General Harrison, which we give as undoubtedly the highest personal tribute he ever received, coming as it did not merely from one differing from him in politics, but from the very man who had de feated him in the preceding gubernatorial race : STATE or INDIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, INDIANAPOLIS, July 26, 1877. Dear Sir : I have to request that yo-u will assume command of all the military forces organized and to be organized at the capital for ihe preser vation of order and the protection of life and property during the existing emergency. JAMES D. WILLIAMS, Governor. To Gen. BENJAMIN HARRISON. Proceeding 1 as it did from the Executive of the o State, the letter must be construed as evidence that the " strike " had passed beyond the control of the civil authorities. Indeed, the Governor 328 BENJAMIN HARRISON. expressly affirmed this fact in a succeeding paper of the same date. General Harrison declined the commission with due acknowledgments, and upon -the ground that he was then captain of a military company organ ized, under call of the Committee of Safety, for the protection of life and property. He also recom mended the appointment of General Daniel Ma- cauley to command the militia. The Governor acted upon the suggestion, and issued a com mission as follows : THE STATE OF INDIANA. To All Who shall See these Presents Greeting : Whereas, I have been officially informed of the existence in Marion and adjoining counties of an unlawful combination of disaffected employes of railroad companies whose lines centre at the capital, which threatens the property and lives of the community, and is beyond the power of the civil authorities to control, and may require the use of the mili ia; Therefore, Know ye that in the name and by ihe authority of the State aforesaid, I do hereby appoint and commission Daniel Macauley, of Marion county, a Brigadier-General of the Indiana Legion, to command the or ganized militia, to serve as such Irom the 26th diy of July, 1877, and until the emergency requiring this appointment shall have passed. In witness whereof, 1 have hereunto set my hand, and caused to be affixed the seal of the State, at the city of Indianapolis, this 26th day of July, in the year of Lord 1877, the sixty-first of the State; and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and second. JAMES D. WILLIAMS. The motive of the declination by General Har rison was past doubt that, while his connection with the military sufficiently identified him with the law and order party, he did not want to an tagonize the good men amongst the strikers to a degree putting out of his power to assist all he THE POLITICIAN. 329 could in a peaceable settlement of the trouble. With this latter object he continued a member of the committee appointed, as has been seen, to confer with the committee of the strikers. General Macauley called out several militia companies, and the drilling went on industriously. To support him, in case of need, a company of United States regulars marched into the city, in compliance with a request from Governor Wil liams. While these serious preparations were in progress, conferences with the strikers were unremitted. In one of them, on the 2yth of July, a report was presented offering a basis of arrangement. After insisting that all unlawful means for redress must be first abandoned, the conference committee of citizens pledged them selves to exert their whole power and influence to obtain satisfaction for the strikers, and espe cially the increase of wages sought. This offer was accepted, and the Union depot given up. Traffic was resumed. On the 29th of July the Committee of Safety published an address stating that order was re stored, and congratulating the public that it had been done without bloodshed. The committee -declared also that the " strikers" were not the dangerous element which they feared. They thereupon dissolved their organization. That the committee was constituted of good men, irrespective of party of Democrats and 33 BENJAMIN HARRISON. Republicans of men who wanted order and abhorred bloodshed, the signatures of the address amply established. Here they are: T. A. Mor ris, Benjamin Harrison, John Love, Joseph E. McDonald, Walter O. Gresham, Conrad Baker, and A. W. Hendricks. These gentlemen were all equally energetic in bringing the peaceable solution about. While General Harrison did not shirk duty in connec tion with the military, it cannot be said that he at any time counselled violence or was the enemy of the strikers. On the contrary, he was tireless in efforts to secure peace without fighting while the strike was on, and redress for the strikers when all was over. As has been said, he was at the same time a firm supporter of the govern ment and a true and efficient friend of the men engaged in the movement. His feelings towards the railroaders may be fairly inferred from a circumstance shortly suc ceeding the strike. It happened that some of the railways involved were at the time in charge of the United States Court through receivers. Judge Drummond had a number of the men, supposed to be leaders, brought before him for contempt. General Har rison appeared for them voluntarily. He argued that they were all good men ; that their claims were founded in justice; that they erred simply in the course taken to recover their dues. He THE POLITICIAN. 331 begged that they be not punished. The Judge viewed his plea favorably, and discharged them from arrest They went to the General then, and thanked him for the part he had taken in their behalf. During the session of the Committee of Safety there were hotheaded people who wanted the militia sent against the strikers. This General o Harrison opposed vehemently. He urged that a peaceable settlement was possible, and declared, " I don t propose to go out and shoot down my neighbors when there is no necessity for it." In confirmation of the above statements, we have certain accounts derived from Senator Joseph E. McDonald. That gentleman says : I was associated with General Harrison in conferences with the strikers, and throughout he advised a peaceful settlement of the trouble. I have no recollection of his using any bloodthirsty language or insulting any repre sentatives of the strikers during our conferences. Mr. McDonald also says of this matter: I don t think that will cut much of a figure as an issue in this campaign. The situation was threatening in Indianapolis then, and a committee on public safety was organized. There was a sub-committee appointed to endeavor to arrange a peaceful settlement of the diffi culty, if possible, and to take what measures might be necessary to protect the public interests. Ben Harrison, ex-Governor Porter, ex-Governor Baker, Franklin Lan ders (afterward Democratic candidate for governor), and myself were that committee. We met a committee of the strikers in the Council chamber in a public confer- 332 BENJAMIN HARRISON. ence. I talked to them, and told them that we sympa thized with them and recognized their right to quit work if they were not satisfied with their wages or their em ployers ; but that they had no right to prevent other men from working, and that when they attempted to do so they became law-breakers. General Harrison and the others also talked to them in the same strain. As late as the 29th of June last, Mr. McDonald supplements the foregoing: The organization of that committee was for the pur pose of providing protection for the city and property, if an emergency should arise to make such action neces sary. It was not anticipated that any riot would be pre cipitated by the strikers, but beyond them, for which they were in nowise responsible, was a danger that had to be guarded against. It was on that account, and that alone, that the committee was organized. From its members a sub-committee of five, consisting of General Harrison, Albert G. Porter, Franklin Landers, ex-Gover nor Baker and myself, was chosen to consult with the strikers in order to bring about a peaceable solution of the difficulty. All of us on that committee were in accord, and our relations with the strikers were pleasant. Every member of the committee was in favor of peace, and there was no divergence of opinion. The conduct of General Harrison in his capa city of citizen given above is in thorough keeping .with his action in behalf of laboring men during his United States Senatorial term. In this latter, he lost no opportunity of manifesting interest in their behalf. The following synopsis will sustain the assertion : March 8, 1886. Mr. Harrison said: " I present a re- THE POLITICIAN. 333 solution adopted by the Fair-play Assembly of Knights of Labor, of Goshen, Ind., not formally addressed to the Senate, but evidently intended for its consideration, in re lation to Chinese immigration and other bills pending in Congress affecting the laboring classes. I ask that the paper be received and referred to the committee on for eign relations." [Rec., p. 2168.] March 31, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor of Wabash, Ind., remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill, which was re ferred to the committee on commerce. [Rec., p. 2900.] April I, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor of Andrews, Ind., remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill, which was referred to the committee on commerce, and said: "I present certain resolutions, certified by the recording secretary and under the seal of the assembly of Wabash Assembly, No. 2281, of the Knights of Labor, of Terre Haute, Ind., praying Congress to pass a law prohibiting aliens or their agents from securing vast tracts of the public domain. I believe this subject is under consideration by the committee on public lands at this time, and I will ask the reference of the resolutions to that committee." Mr. Dolph. A bill on the subject has been reported. Mr. Harrison. I am advised by the Senator from Ore gon that the bill has been reported. I ask leave to say at this time that I know of few measures of greater im portance than this. I noticed recently in one of the Chicago papers the results of some inquiry upon this subject, and it seemed to indicate that vast tracts of our domain, not simply the public domain on the frontier, but in some of our newer States, are passing into the hands of wealthy foreigners. It seems that the land reforms in Ireland, and the movement in England in favor of the reduction of large estates and the distribution of the lands among persons who will cultivate them for their own use, are disturbing the investments of some Englisli- inen, and that some of them are looking to this country for the acquisition of vast tracts of land which may be held by them and let out to tenants, out of the rents of 334 LENJAMIN HARRISON. which they may live abroad. I think this evil requires early attention, and that Congress should, by law, restrain the acquisition of such tracts of land by aliens. Our policy should be small farms, worked^ by the men who own them. As the bill has been reported, I move that the resolutions lie on the table. [Rec., p. 2982.] April 6, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented memorials of Knights of Labor, of Elkhart, Jeffersonville, and Carbon, in the State of Indiana, remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill, which were referred to the committee on commerce. He also presented a petition of Knights of Labor of Jeffersonville, Ind., praying that liberal appropriations be made for works of internal improvement, and especially for the construction of the Hennepin Canal, which was referred to the committee on commerce. He also presented a petition of Knights of Labor of Carbon, Ind., praying that liberal appropriations be made for public works, and especially for the construction of a harbor of refuge at Sandy bay, Rockport, Mass., which was referred to the committee on commerce. He also presented a memorial of Knights of Labor at Carbon, Ind. [Rec., p. 3136.] April 7, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented memorials of Knights of Labor of Frankfort and South Bend, in the State of Indiana, remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill, which were referred to the committee on commerce. [Rec., p. 3175.] April 10, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor of Cardonia, Ind., remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill, which was re ferred to the committee on commerce. He said : " I pre sent also the petition of C. H. Buthenbender and ten other officers and members of the three local assemblies of Knights of Labor at Fort Wayne, Ind., praying for the speedy passage of the bill providing for the arbitration of all labor disputes. The House bill on this subject, I understand, has been reported favorably by our commit tee on education and labor and is neny upon the calendar. The petition will, therefore, under the rules, lie upon the table. THE POLITICIAN. 335 Mr. Cullom. There is another bill on the same subject which was referred to the select committee on interstate commerce, and has not yet been reported ; but probably the petition may as well lie on the table. Mr. Harrison. As the petition relates especially to the House bill I have referred to, I suggest that it lie upon the table. I do not desire to anticipate the discussion of that measure, which will soon come before the Senate, but the startling occurrences of which we have accounts from day to day in the newspapers are turning the atten tion of all lovers of good order and of the prosperity of the country to the necessity of providing some method of harmonizing the interests of the working classes and of the employers of labor. Arbitration is the only method that seems to be open for the peaceful, and speedy, and just settlement of such disputes. Arbitration, of course, must precede strikes. It implies calmness, and that is not to be found when the contest is once inaugurated and passions are aroused. I think so far as we can contribute by any congressional legislation to securing the just set tlement by arbitration of all labor troubles we shall con tribute greatly to the peace and happiness of the coun try. [Rec., p. 3349.] April 19, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor of Snoddy s Mill, Ind., remonstrat ing against the passage of the free-ship bill ; which was referred to the committee on commerce. He also presented a memorial of the Knights of Labor of South Bend, Ind., remonstrating against the employ ment of convict labor on public works; which was re ferred to the committee on education and labor. [Rec., P- 3598.] April 21, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor, of Elkhart, Ind., remonstrating against the passage of the free-ship bill; which was le- ferred to the committee on commerce. He also presented a memorial of Knights of Labor, of Elkhart, Ind., remonstrating against the employment of convict labor on public works ; which was referred to the committee on education and labor. [Rec., p. 3 3 6 BENJAMIN HARRISON. April 22, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor, of Logansport, Ind., remonstrat ing against the passage of the free-ship bill ; which wa3 referred to the committee on commerce. Rec., p. 3/I3-] April 30, 1886. Mr. Harrison presented a memorial of Knights of Labor, of Indianapolis, Ind., remonstrat ing against the employment on public works of prison- contract labor ; which was referred to the committee on education and labor. [Rec., p. 3999.] In acknowledging the receipt of the memorial from the Knights of Labor assemblies, Senator Harrison took occasion to express his concur rence in the opinion expressed in the memorials, that American ships should be built by American workmen, as appears in the above record ; and in response received from some of the assemblies a resolution of thanks. He also supported the bill, now become a law, prohibiting the importa tion of foreign laborers under contracts made abroad to render service in this country. This measure was one that attracted the widest inter est among the labor organizations in this country. The Chinese Question. In the winter of 1868 San Francisco was agi tated by a startling rumor. It was reported that a Chinese delegation, of the most Mandarin sort, was preparing to visit the United States, with Anson Burlingame at its head. The object was to draw the two governments into closer com mercial relations. The Occidental imagination is THE POLITICIAN. 337 proverbially quick at building upon suggestions. The illustrious child of the Sun, the August Sover eign of the mighty Ta-Tsing Empire, had at last been beguiled into throwing open the gates of his flowery land ; the almond-eyed folk had fallen in love with the Americans, and would now come to see them, bringing presents in the shape of ex clusive advantages, out of which wealth would pour in vaster tide than had flooded the English in the golden days of the East India Company. The same rich imagination wove scarfs and ^ar- > O ments of cloth of gold, and wrapped them about the form of the hero who, having gone forth a plain minister of the United States to Imperial China, was now returning a stately Prince of Princes, to whose diplomatic address and honey sweetness generally the marvellous seduction was to be altogether attributed. Great was the silk- clad child of the Ta-Tsing! Great was Anson Burlingame ! The rumors at length became facts. On the 28th of April, 1868, a banquet was given at the Lick House in San Francisco in honor of the Hon. Anson Burlingame, which is yet a tradi tional splendor of the "sun-down" city. If the reader will let his eyes drop through the follow ing partial list of guests in attendance on the occa sion referred to he will understand what we would convey without requiring us to exhaust our poor vocabulary. 22 33^ BENJAMIN HARRISON. Governor Haight, Hon. Anson Burlingame, His Excellency Chih Tajen, Minister of the Second Rank; j. McLeary Brown, First -Secre tary of Legation; His Excellency Sun Tajen, Minister of the Second Rank ; E. de Champs, Second Secretary of Legation ; Frank McCoppin, Mayor of San Francisco ; S. F. Butterworth ; Henry Barroilhet, Consul of Peru ; Don Jose A. Godoy, Consul of Mexico ; G. C. Johnson, Consul of Norway and Sweden ; William L. Booker, Consul of the British Empire; Henry W. Hal- leek, General commanding the Division of the Pacific ; H. K. Thatcher, Admiral commanding the American Squadron on this coast; Ogden Hoffman, Judge of the District Court of the United States ; Delos Lake, District Atorney of the United States ; General McCook, United States Minister to the Sandwich Islands ; Francis Berton, Consul of Switzerland ; C. F. Mebius, Consul of Bavaria ; James de Fremery, Consul of Belgium ; R. B. Swain, Superintendent of the Mint; R. G. Sneath, President of the Chamber of Commerce ; Thomas H. Selby, President of the Merchants Exchange ; Oliver Eldridge, Alvinza Hayward, James P. Pierce, Eugene L, Sullivan, Judge J. S. Hager, Edward Tompkins, Brigadier-General Leonard, Major-General W. S. Rosecrans, Charles Meinecke, Consul of the Republic of Bremen ; Charles E. Hitchcock, Con sul of the Hawaiian Islands; Major-General John THE POLITICIAN, 339 F. Miller, Collector of the Port ; ex-Governor F. F. Low, Judge Sawyer, of the Supreme Court; Judge Currey, Senators Tubbs and Rose, W. C. Ralston, ex-Congressman William A. Howard, of Michigan ; A. Stanford, Paymaster Doran, Philip W. Stanford, Major-General Ord, Alpheus Bull, and others. And there were nuts, wines, fruits and flowers, the skimming of the vineyards and orchards of the Pacific slope ; and of what worth are nuts, wines, fruits and flowers .at a banquet without speeches ? So there were speeches. The reader should not pass the annexed extracts from the few of the many deliverances that went to make that banquet a joy in memory forever. General Halleck : " Not many years ago these Asiatic nations were excluded from the pale of European international jurisprudence. It was held by European statesmen, and the doctrine was advocated by John Quincy Adams, of Massachu setts, that Christian powers had a right to compel these un-Christian powers to trade with them in such articles and on such terms as they might see fit to dictate. ... I regard this as the death of this idea, as one of the most important movements of recent times. It has broken down the barriers of Oriental and Occidental prejudice, and it will eventually lead to the harmony and civilization of the world. ... If that civilization, which has so long moved westward with the star.of empire, 34 BENJAMIN HARRISON. is now purified by the principles of true Christian ity ... San Francisco must be made the abut ment, from which is to be sprung forward the great international law which is to bridge across the Pacific Ocean." Governor Haight : "A vast commerce is to be developed between China and the other nations of the earth; and California was to be especially benefited by it." Minister Burlingame: "The fraternal feeling of 400,000,000 of people has commenced to flow through the land of Washington to the older o o nations of the West, and it will flow on forever. Who is there that would check it ? Who is there that would say to China : We wish to have no other relations with you than such as we establish on our partial, and mean, and cruel interests at the cannon s mouth ? I trust there are none such as these. I believe rather that this generous nation is a better exponent of the wishes of the West. I believe it represents more truly that large and generous spirit which is not too proud to learn and which is not afraid to teach ; that great spirit which, while it would exchange goods with China, would also exchange thoughts with China, that would inquire carefully into the cause of that sobriety and industry of which you have made mention, that would learn something of the long experience of that people." If we have indulged somewhat in badinage it is THE POLITICIAN. 341 because Californians with their great generous hearts are not easily affronted. He who is to-day a part of that marvellous success of the XIX. century, California, cannot only bear to be smiled at in a good-natured way, but can endure to be told, as we now tell him, that if his countrymen east of the Mississippi have been slow to realize the magnitude of the Chinese curse, his own lights, political and commercial, are primarily responsi ble for it. They were masters of ceremony at its introduction into all the Americas. They were the first to see a man and brother in the coolie. With this gentle reminder the badinage may be dropped. Mr. Burlingame, as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of China, supported by Chih-Kang and Sun Chia-Ku, " of the second Chinese rank," brought with him a new treaty of -sundry articles, from which two passages are extracted : "Article V. The United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and alle giance, and also the mutual advantage of the free migra tion and emigration of their citizens and subjects, re spectively, from the one country to the other, for pur poses of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents! . . "Article VI - And, reciprocally, Chinese sub jects, visiting or residing in the United States, shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in respect to travel or residence , as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nations" [See Laws of the U. S., 69-71, p. 392.] 342 BENJAMIN HARRISON. The special mission of Envoy Burlingame was to have that treaty signed by the Un ted States, and he succeeded. William H. Sevvard was sig natory on the one part, and Anson Burlingame and his associate high envoys served the other party in like manner. At length the people of the Pacific States awoke from the delusion which prevailed, as we have seen, at the Lick House banquet of April, 1868. The Chinese were not lovely at all ; they were abominable, and it was resolved to get rid of them. A bill for the purpose was introduced into Congress, and finally passed. The first section contains these words : " That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is, hereby, sus pended." The act is known as the Chinese restriction law of May 6, 1882. At the time of its intro duction and all through its pendency, General Harrison was a Senator from Indiana. The Con gressional Record shows that he was opposed to it. It is true that on the 9th of March, when it was on passage, he, with Senators Hampton, of South Carolina, and Sewell, of New Jersey, was engaged in an investigation at the Soldiers Home, and consequently absent when the final vote was taken; yet it is also true that on the 5th of April following, President Arthur having vetoed the THE POLITICIAN. 343 bill, on a motion to pass it over the veto. Senator Harrison voted nay. The reason of his opposition in that instance was simple, yet powerful. To understand its force, the reader must first compare the section of the act quoted with Articles V. and VI. of the Bur- lingame Treaty. The V. article recognizes and recites in the strongest language that the right of migration and emigration is one of the inalienable rights of men. Its effect was to extend the great American doctrine to the Chinese. The VI. article invested that people with the right of residence in the Republic upon an equal footing with citizens and subjects of the most favored nations. By virtue of the treaty, therefore, they could come and go or stay at pleasure, on the same footing, for instance, as Germans or French men. It was against this broad extension of privilege that the people of the Pacific States arose in protest, especially those of California, Recognizing, nevertheless, the sanctity of the treaty, steps were at length taken by the United States to have it modified. A new one was the result; viz., that of 1881. The chief amendment therein (Article I.) provides that, " Whenever in the opinion of the government of the United States, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States, or their residence therein, affects or threatens to affect the interests of that country, or to endanger the good order of the said country 344 BENJAMIN HARRISON. or any locality within the territory thereof, the government of China agrees that the government of the United States may regulate, limit or sus pend such coming or residence, but may not ab solutely prohibit it. The limitation or suspension shall be reasonable, and shall apply only to Chi nese who may go to the United States as laborer s, other classes not being included in the limita tion." The amendment thus secured paved the way for the restrictive act of 1882, which President Arthur promptly vetoed. Senator Harrison participated in the debate re lating to the President s veto. In the course of his remarks, which were very few, we are informed of the reason of his opposition to the bill. The Congressional Record shows him replying to Sen ator Grover, of Oregon, who was urging that section fifteen of the act, by proper interpretation, included skilled artisans, to which the Chinese Commissioners had objected. Mr. Harrison I only want to make a suggestion. In the treaty the word " laborers " is used. I take it that it is not in the power of Congress to enlarge the meaning of the word. Whatever it meant in the treaty it would mean the same thing as used in the law ; we cannot make it mean more than that. Therefore why not let it stand in the law as in the treaty, and let the use of that word include what it will ? And again : Mr. Harrison It is possible that the Senator is right in saying that the word may be construed differently; THE FOUTICIAN. 345 but can we enlarge the meaning of it as it is used in the treaty ? And again : Mr. Harrison He (Senator Grover) reads an extract from a paper to the effect that the word " laborers," as used in the treaty, or as used in the law, may be limited by a meaning applied to those who are unskilled. If the courts should so decide, giving that meaning to the word " laborers," as used in the treaty, would the Senator from Oregon be in favor of going beyond what we are author ized to do by treaty ? \Cong. Rec., Pt. 4, p. 3359.] From these extracts it is apparent that Senator Harrison objected to the bill, not upon the ground of the restriction it sought to cover, but because, admitting the correctness of Senator Grover s claim, it appeared to him as fatally attempting to change the effect of the treaty. Lest the objection be thought trivial, it may be as well to see what the Supreme Court of the United States has said as to the controlling force of a treaty over the action of Congress : "A treaty is, in .its nature, a contract between two na tions, not a legislative act. It does not generally effect, of itself, the object to be accomplished, especially so far as its operation is intra-territorial ; but is carried into execution by the sovereign power of the respective par ties to the instrument. In the United States a different principle is established. Our Constitution declares a treaty to be the law of the land. It is, consequently, to be regarded in courts of justice as equivalent to an act of the legislature, whenever it operates of itself without the aid of legislative provision. But when the terms of the stipulation import a contract, when either of the parties engages to perform a particular act, the treaty addresses 346 EEXJAMIN HARRISON. itself to the political, not the judicial department; and the legislature must execute the contract before it can become a rule for the court." [Chief-Justice Marshall, in Foster vs. Neilson, Sup. C Decisions, 8th Curtis, 121.] So, too, Justice Miller, in 112 U. S. Reports, p. 598: "A treaty is primarily a compact between independent na tions. It depends for the enforcement of its provisions on the interest and the honor of the governments which are parties to it. If these fail, its infraction becomes the subject of international negotiations and reclamations, so far as the injured party chooses to seek redress, which may in the end be enforced by war." General Harrison was wanting neither more nor less than that the honor of the government should be cared for in the legislation designed to carry the treaty of 1881 into execution. In the course of the proceedings a motion was made to strike out section 15, which provides that the words " Chinese laborers " shall be construed to include both skilled and unskilled laborers, and Chinese employed in mining; in other words, that the restriction should be applied without dis tinction of any kind. Senator Harrison voted Aye. On the same day, April 28, 1882, Senator Ed munds offered an amendment that nothing in the act should be construed as changing the natural ization laws so as to admit Chinese to citizenship. Senator Harrison voted in favor of the amend ment. We think it clearly established by the foregoing references that General Harrison s opposition to MRS. BKNJ. HARRISON. THE POLITICIAN. 347 the act of 1882 was not because of the restriction proposed per se, but because of the interpreta tion sought to be attached to the word "laborers." To give greater significancy to the interpretation, President Arthur had declared in his veto mes sage that the American commissioners inserted in their draft cf the treaty a provision that the words " Chinese laborers " meant all immigration other than that for " teaching, travel, study, and curiosity," to which the Chinese objected. The conflict, he thought, could be avoided by simple use of the word in a law as it was used in the treaty. That this was General Harrison s view is further and absolutely confirmed by his action in connection with the subsequent act (now a law) of 1886. As a historical fact, the bill had been drafted by Senator Fair, of California, and the three Federal judges of the Pacific coast who were principally charged with the administration of the law in reference to Chinese immigration. There can be no question that it represented the sentiment of the great Pacific section. When introduced, it was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which Senator Harrison was a member. It was re ported back on the 26th of May, with recom mendation of passage. The Record shows Sen ator Harrison absent and not voting when it was finally considered. But we are not left in doubt as. to his position concerning it. Senator Slier- BENJAMIN HARRISON. man, in reporting it to the Senate, stated clearly and distinctly that the bill had received the unani mous support of the committee meaning the entire committee. This, it will be seen, could not have been if Senator Harrison had not concurred with all his colleagues. In conclusion, we think it has been fairly proved beyond any doubt that General Harrison is not so far friendly to the Chinese as to be inimical to the desire of his fellow-citizens of the Pacific coast to restrict the coming of the former to the United States. General Harrison is now in the prime of life, clear in mind, vigorous of body. His character, both public and private, is absolutely stainless. He loves his family, his fellow-men, his country, and his God. Such a man cannot be inflated by success or embittered by disappointment. By acceptance of the nomination of his party he has signified that he holds himself subject to the pop ular will. Whether he is chosen or set aside by the people, his future will be in perfect harmony with his past. In other words, the writer who finishes this biography, beginning where we leave off, will find his subject exactly what it has been to us too pleasant to be accounted a task. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. OCT 6 AUGi I960 fiEC DLD FEB 263760 702 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY